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Wings3D, Help thread (NL)

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I have noticed that a couple of people have started to use Wings3D to create 3ds object for their NL coasters, and here is a thread dedicated to discuss the program and get help with it.

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Wings3D is a free multi-platform 3d modeling software, that can be a bit tricky to learn, but when you get the hang of it then you will be able to create great stuff.

Links:
Home page: Wings3D homepage (main page with links and downloads)
Tutorials : PuzzledPaul's tutorials (good tutorials showing both basic and advanced stuff)
Developers Forum: Wings3D developer forum (a good place for asking questions and searching for answers)

Mouse:
RMB (Right Mouse Button): selection
MMB (Middle Mouse Button): start camera (change view)
LMB (Left Mouse Button): brings up menus, changes depending on selections, etc.
Scroll Wheel: Zoom

Interface:
When running the program this is the interface that greets you (more or less):
wings.jpg

Click for big image.

Main Window:
Top Left:
Menu bar.
Open, Save, Undo and Redo buttons.
A row with useful information: positions, distance, edge length, area, amount of selected objects (etc.), distance moved, etc...

Top Center:
Way of selection: Node, Edge, Face or Whole object.

Top Right:
Preferences, Workmode, Orthographic view, Ground Plane and Axis buttons.

Bottom Left:
View Orientation

Bottom Row:
Shows what each button of the mouse do at a given time, L = LMB, M = MMB, R = RMB.
etc.

On the Right there is 2 windows that is found under the "Window" option on the Menu bar.

Geometry Graph:
Here you see all objects in your project.
Options from left to right:
Selection, shows is if any part of the object is selected (LMB select/deselect whole object, RMB select/deselect all objects).
Object Name, RMB brings up a menu.
Viewable, shows if the object can be seen (LMB view on/off, RMB view on/off all objects).
Locked, locks an object to make it unchangeable (LMB lock on/off, RMB lock on/off all objects).
Wireframe, makes an object into a wireframe (see through) (LMB wireframe on/off, RMB wireframe on/off all objects).

Outliner:
Shows all objects, imported images, materials, etc.

Useful keys:
Ctrl+z = undo/redo last
Ctrl+Alt+z = undo
Crtl+Shift+z = redo
a = aim to selection
x,y,z = view along axis (positive)
Shift+ x,y,z = view along axis (negative)
i = select similar
l = select loop
Space = deselect everything
d = redo last command (move, etc.)
tab = numeric entry
c = connect 2 or more nodes
1,2,3,...,0 cut selected edge in pressed pieces (0 = 10)

Ctrl, Alt, Shift becomes constraints when moving, scaling, extruding, etc (ex. pressing Shift while moving = move in steps of 1 unit length at a time), see/change values under Preferences > Constraints.

Pressing Alt while giving a command starts the magnet option (see more HERE)

To define new keys, highlight what you want with the pointer > press insert > press key (could screw up other keys).

Tips/Notes:
* Use advance menus (preferences > advanced), gives you more stuff, but could be tricky to use, but worth it.
* Use Orthographic view, easier to see stuff (same as NL).
* Use the latest build (development) as much as possible.
* You are able to change the camera mode under Preferences > Camera to make the camera work like in (some) other programs, that you might be used to (note the tutorials use the Wings3D/Mirai camera mode (me to)).
* Lock or make objects invisible to speed up the program/make it easier to construct.
* The best tip would probably to use the old NL Terraformer (found on NLDC) and export the track to a 3ds object and then import it to Wings3D so you can easily create stuff that fits around the track.
* Wings will suffer major slow downs when you start having very large/complex models, so you might want to fork them if that happens.

Guides:
Tutorial showing basic features (good place to start) (PP)
Colours / Materials
Textures
Textures (Take 2)

Feel free to ask/answer questions, and come with useful suggestion.
 
Textures on objects:
Important the first object (top in Geometry Graph) must be visible to be able to scale the image (since Wings3D scales the image to that object).

1: Create your object/objects
2: File > Import Image (this imports the image, do this with every texture you want to use on the object).
3: Tools > Snap Image (choose which image to add to the surface).
4: Select and align the Face you want your image to be located on.
5: If needed scale and/or stretch the image, by using the RMB menu.
6: RMB > Snap image, then continue to add textures or RMB > exit and you're done!!

The program is still a beta so "Snap image" isn't all that stable sometimes, just restart and try again.


Colours on Objects
1. In Face selection "view", RMB > Materials...
2. Name that material
3. Edit material, colour, opacity, etc.
4. Select faces, where you want the colour
5. RMB > .Materials. > select material you want to add, and you're Done!
 
I've got one question quickly:

How do you create a tunnel through a building?

I'll read all of the posts later on...
 
For a straight tunnel, make a square (or what ever shape you want your tunnel) on the wall where the entrance and the exit will be, in "Face" mode select the entrance and exit and open the RMB menu > Bridge.
Twisted or in other way deformed tunnels are more complex to do.

More about Bridging here: http://www.geocities.com/paulthepuzzles ... eweld.html

Bridge is a function that I use a lot so I have bound it to to my b key.

Note that the faces you want to bridge must have the same amount of edges.
 
^There's a lot of information there. It may take me a while to read through it but I will do it soon. Thanks for the link.

I'm sure I'll be back!
 
Before I download and use this, how different is it to Studio Max? I'm on a mac now and the version I have is for windows. I've been trained to use 3DS Max so it'l feel weird learning new things. So I got a few questions.

Can you texture bake/create maps?
Can you Boulean?
Can you loft along a path?
 
^^^ Thanks!

^^ You can change the camera movement so that it the same as 3dS Max.

But for the rest (since I haven't used 3DS Max):
If you mean to create texture maps like the car textures on NL, then yes. I did my first project with wings that way.
After some searching, not really. But there are other ways of doing the same thing and there is plugins developing for it, and this program is still a beta, so you never know what they do before 1.0.
Loft? what does it do. There are some discussion on the Wings3D forum about it though.

^ Hope it helps you.
 
Yer thats fab thanks!

Lofting - This is a technique used on max where you create a path and an object wire, hit the loft button and the object will stretch the length of the path. This is handy when making rails and things.
 
Ok, then I think I know what you mean.
On Wings you can create a vector that you want to extrude/move along, but to get to that functions, you would need to hold down Alt + click with the RMB (or something along the lines of that) to get to those features, so it's a bit tricky (but that's when using advance menus).

But for making handrails (or other stuff) then I usually make a long straight section and then bend/move/rotate along vectors to get the shapes I want.


(Now to cook some meatballs (100+ or so :lol: ))
 
^The same way you cook 10, just in a much larger pan.

This Wings stuff is hard to pick up. I'm slowly getting to grips with the interface and features.

I'm lost for anything to make though!
 
Even though I don't have No-limits me and my friend downloaded it last night and decided to have a mess around. After making random blobs and peices we made this. :shock: (bear in mind that it's not finished and we only got the program last night, and went on it for the first time this afternoon).

Ship1.jpg


Ship2.jpg


We're both extremely pleased with how it's turning out so far and are going to go into smaller detail other the next few weeks.
The program is incredibly easy to get used to. Don't bother using tutorials, just mess around with all the options and you'll pick it up really quickly.
:D

I may even open a shop where I can make things for people if they want. :p
 
Looking cool, but I see that you have used Extrude, instead of Extrude Region on some parts. So you get some double vertrices, (on the wings).
 
If your on about the wings at the back then they were designed to be that way as we were basing the ship on a model from 'Sins of a Solar Empire'. Just a quick question though. Is there a way to get textures in, instead of using the paint thing. For example if your making a house you can save a picture of bricks and use it on the panel that you want to be the wall.
 
As you may tell i'm into making spaceships at the moment. :p
Heres an X-Wing style craft that I made in around half an hour this morning before college.
X-wing.jpg
 
Uhh, when I try to snap image to object, I import image, snap image, then I right click. Here's where I get PO'd. I right click to snap image to object and guess what? NO SNAP IMAGE BUTTON!!!!!!![/code]
 
^ Have you selected the area where you want the image to be snapped on to?
Oops. I forgot to add that in my tutorial, well it fixed now, thanks for the help to finde that problem. :oops:
 
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