Symmetry without screwing up UV's

[Wegg]

I think that this Symmetry issue is less about the UV's and more about how symmetry is handled in Wings. Personally I'd prefer not to have to split my model in half every time I want to model symmetrically, this gets to be a pain when modelling with multi object structures, like ships, vehicles and buildings.

YES! Thank you.

[Mashery]

I think that this Symmetry issue is less about the UV's and more about how symmetry is handled in Wings.

[Geta-Ve]

This sounds like wise words from a wise man!

[orbiter]

I am very new to this modelling game so I may be talking out of my rear end here.
I use Wings to make models for a space sim "orbiter" which in turn has its own format for models. To this end a wiser man than me has written a plugin which converts abc.wings to abc.msh. This MeSH file is a form of text file and from there I can see the numeric values of all the vertices / edges and such.
Surely wings must store this same information, all be it in a different format.

Would it not then be possible to copy something from 1 2 3 to 1 -2 3 ie. from X Y Z to mirror it at X -Y Z

I know I am a very little boy talking to the clever men but it would be most useful

[Ran13]

orbiter...
Wings' existing Virtual Mirror does that already, but takes it one step further... it does so across any arbitrary plane, not just a global axis.

et al...
Having had all sorts of nightmarish problems with "Symmetry" in Silo, having to revert back to the old style mirror method closely resembling Wings, I don't have a lot of faith in such systems, especially when the plane of symmetry is not a global axis. Blender's (global axis-based) symmetrical modeling/sculpting works pretty well these days, though, so I guess it's possible if you don't need an arbitrary symmetry plane.

Not to mention that you guys make it sound like the 2 or 3 mouse-clicks and a half dozen or so key presses it takes to get from whole mesh to VM to whole mesh takes hours and not seconds.

That said, I don't have a horse in the race as I seldom edit UV mapped meshes in Wings. My meshes start in Wings, get perhaps a elementary stab at UV mapping, then the "heavy lifting" is done elsewhere.

[Geta-Ve]

@Ran13:

I do most of my UVing in Headus, but there are times that I need to edit the model due to client requests and such, and having my UV's destroyed because I need a unified change is frustrating.

There ARE workarounds definitely, but it would be nice not to have to implement such things.

[Age of Armour]

First let me say thank you for Wings3d. I absolutely love it.

The default mirroring works great when I am initially modeling and I find it helpful to ensure my UVs are symmetrical. As stated by others, there can be problems later on when making changes.

For my work the biggest setback of the current mirror system is that it appears to change the vert order so I can't use it to make symmetrical morphs. The same issue appears if I separate a multi-mesh object, for easier selection and manipulation, then recombine.

Because of these issues I usually create morphs in another application. I would definitely prefer to work exclusively in Wings though.

If a new, world axis based symmetry could be added I would definitely welcome it but please don't remove the current mirroring in the process.

Thanks again for the great modeler!

[Wegg]

Glad others are on board. Less Yafaray. . . more symmetry! :-)

[oort]

Wegg,
It doesn't work that way... What gets worked on depends on who is doing the work. dgud is the AutoUV expert and I am just hacking the old yafray plugin to make it work for YafaRay....

oort

[Wegg]

There is nothing wrong with AutoUV. . . it's actually quite good. We are just asking for an imaginary line to be drawn down one axis of the world and what you do on one side happen on the other without having to slice your model in half with a virtual mirror. I know there would be WAY more too it than that but. . . it doesn't involve how UVs work at all.