Inversion

[Icetray]

I'm having a major problem with almost every tool in lightwave. Everything is inverted. Up is down left is right and vice-versa. I can't accomplish anything. Please tell me there is a setting to change this.

I'm running lightwave 7.5 demo.

[Surrealist.]

You'll have to be more specific. There is no way to change it but there are some things that might make it easyer to uderstand.

As an example the bevel tool is designed so that you are beveling up.

Move the mouse up and the bevel moves (shifts) up. Move the mouse right and left and the bevel expands or contracts (insets).

Completely logical until you want to bevel down or sideways.

It will be easier to understand when you have an idea of how the tool is designed. So just give some specifics and that will help.

Also some tools such as taper, will alow you to pick a direction. You can do that in the numeric panel. Press n.

[Knight Chat X]

I know what you mean if you're talking about viewport navigation while dragging.

You'd think the invert mouse option would be on the Preferences window like in most video games.

[Icetray]

The bevel tool was the one I was having problem with mostly. Moving the mouse up moves the bevel down. Also I read a tutorial about installing plug-ins that come with lightwave (something about scanning the lightwave directory) and that seemed to fix it I have no idea why though.

[gjjackson]

It may also depend on what viewport you're in.

[Icetray]

No I tried different viewports. Any idea why the plug-ins would fix it?

[Matt]

To be honest I agree with Icetray here, most tools don't work as you'd expect in the viewports, bend, bevel are prime examples.

[MonroePoteet]

I think it's just a matter of knowing the tool. Bevel works in the direction of the polygon normal. If you select the polygon(s) to be beveled, there's a yellow dotted line pointing in the direction of the normal, and that's where the bevel is going to go for an upward mouse movement. If the polygon is upside down, bevel will seem "opposite" to what you expect, until you get to know the tool. Mouse left is inset, mouse right is "outset" (if there's such a word). Very regularly, it's good to ONLY move the mouse right/left or up/down to gauge the effect of the independent motions.

Regarding bend (and a variety of others, taper, etc.), there are guides you can use to tell how the tool will effect the geometry. The guides are enabled and modified using right-drag and appear as a blue shape on top of the geometry.

Try this as a demo of taper, for example:

1) Create a box with a sizeable number of vertical sections
2) Press the Modify=>Taper tool button
3) BEFORE dragging with the left mouse, right-drag out a blue guide from top-to bottom. Specifically, position the mouse at the top of the box in the side or front view, hold the right mouse button down, and drag to the bottom. You'll see a blue guide shape appear as a triangle with the small end at the top. This indicates how much effect the taper (or bend or whatever) is going to have.
4) Press the right, left, up, and down keypad arrows, and watch what the guide shape does. Left/Right inverts it, Up/Down changes its shape. There are four different shapes for the effect that taper can have, so be sure to press the arrow keys multiple times to see their effect on the guide.
5) Now go to the Top view, and left-drag to apply the taper. The amount of taper at each place in your mesh will be scaled according to the guide you've created.

Be sure to try angled guides as well and see the variations available with the arrow keys. The basic trick is to create the guides in the direction you want the tool to effect, and then use an "orthogonal" window to apply the tool. In other words, if you form the guide in the top window, use the side or front window to apply the tool. If you want to start a new guide, right click in some portion of the menubar without a button on it.

Hope this helps...the tools in modeler are really extremely versatile once you get used to them.

Good luck, and have fun!
mTp

[Surrealist.]

Bevel works in the direction of the polygon normal

Funny I was just going to say that. After closer examination.

What a great explanation of the tools mTp! Good little tutorial. I have always found those guides a pain but you have inspired me to use them more often now. :)

[MonroePoteet]

Thanks, Surrealist. I use the guides all the time. My only wish is that there was an option to have the guides show up immediately upon invoking the tool to know what the default LW behavior is going to be.

mTp

[Knight Chat X]

Matt that user interface looks very good, it's clean and simple, nothing wrong with the standard lightwave look and feel either, but I see focus on core elements for structured simplicity, which eliminates the need for deep searching and don't need to look in reference manual.

The tab based interface positions are pretty solid, it has a common and familiar look and feel to it, and provides some summerized descriptions to common features, which is normally left out, the " what this feature really does."

Normally I try not to get lost as I navigate, lol.

Is Lightwave 8.3 supported?