CAD view

I've done a lot of CAD work before in my school, and I found it unwieldy making objects in SL because there wasn't any option to put it in the usual CAD format (Front/Side/Bottom/Isometric), I would like to propose a more exact way of building objects in SL by making a separate object designing menu that would make it easier to build for advanced users.

hey, if no one is going to respond either positively or negatively then I'm just gonna push it for a vote. I didn't realize I would get the low brow because this is my first post or something, I'm just trying to suggest something that I've thought about long and hard and see if it would be useful for anyone else or just for me.

Right now, the way we build things in second life is great for beginners, but lacks basic design tools like being able to align objects togeather accurately without spaces between objects, and being able to see all sides of a object without having to rotate all the time.

can I get some reaction please?

Lewis, I'll reply!

Sometimes peeps are in favor of something but they don't reply—they just lurk on here, and it's true the ??? might be a little disconcerting if you don't hear anything back.

Keep posting... discussing... be persistent...

I never used CAD programs much but I can understand the benefits of being able to split the screen up into several pieces. It'd be very handy too to be able to show a mirror-image view like in There, where you keep walking and... o, that points to another thing, FIXED CAMERA ANGLES.

Currently in SL, if you adjust the cam and then walk forwards, it flings back to neutral position. I'd like some sort of camlock for that!

Cheerio!

Try using the shift-drag to align when you are editting an item.

This is an important function which needs to be advertised more in some way.

Also, try using copy when you build stuff. This automatically puts things up adjacent to each other.

As for rotate, note sure what that does. People have told me it does something, but I've never gotten it to work.

I attached an image of what i'm talking about, if you could click on an object and be able to go in the "advanced" building editor, you could much more easily see how objects line up without hassling about rotating your view around the object in second life or fooling with mathematical operations.

Also, if LL develops an advanced editor, think of all the designers that would have a much easier environment to work in to create more amazing products with better ease of use.

I would certainly agree that a multi-window, multi-camera 'Advanced Editing Mode' would be a very valuable building tool. I designed a fairly simple hot tub spa recently, and I swear half the building time was spent moving the camera to different angles, to ensure things aligned right and to select and texture individual surfaces.

Incidentally, the top, side and front views need to be non-orthographic cameras - no perspective! The far corners of a cube, viewed in the side view, should align exactly with the respective front corners.

I'd like to add one option: In addition to the standard 'CAD Views' as stated by the originator of the thread, allow an option to change any of the four windows to a movable camera that you can orbit and zoom with. That way you could easily zoom in on and work on a particular detail, while seeing in the other views how they are affected.

thats curious i havent any of these problems ^^

well what might help you is to check with a scripter for a fixed camera box

you can lock the camera in a certain position by sitting on a special scripted object

More ways to warp the "lens" would be welcome too... Ctrl-8 and Ctrl-0 are FANTASTIQUE!

Essentially, I want this to be like sushi: light, yet filling, and functional.

Unfortunately, those really encourage high prim structures, which aren't really desireable in SL.

oh most definitely, all these windows should be able to change from non-orthographic (isometric) to perspective and X/Y/Z/Corner view, but this can wait for the future, I just want to suggest the basics for now and hope that someone in LL will work on it.

I just hope it isn't too complicated already for them to even think about looking into.



far from it, accually this brings up another idea to add on to this, how about something that can detect how long it takes to load and render and object to warn a builder that it is too intricate and even say if there are duplicates of prims inside other prims. An inspector like this would be excellent as something that could show stats of a object before you buy it to add to it's worth if it doesn't take forever to load and too complex to render.

I 100% support this

I'm an XSI user and I prefer the multi window way of modelling stuff. It saves loads of time making sure everything lines up on all sides and seeing it from a distance at the same time.

I'm not sure it would improve my models much though, I'm still holding out for being able to boolean two objects together.

Blatant post of the evening #2:

Working on it.

Power's dead at my home because of Wilma. Release schedule is shot as a result.


But it'll happen within the next month. Hopefully. I was about 50% done before the thing blew over my home.

wow, that looks really cool but how do you import objects from blender? I though SL was all self contained except images/animation/sound?

Just got power back. Yay!

Well. In a nutshell, prims are the only thing you can really automate when it comes to outside connections. You can basically jerryrig an XMLRPC connection into Second Life, then have it create and modify prims to the given specification.


Such will be the case here. The tricky part being emulating prims out of Second Life.

wow, well all I can say is linden labs better get their building act togeather or else they're gonna have 3rd party software on their hands... unless thats what they want which is completely fine with the rest of us.