Screw the Doom & Gloom - LW Still Rulez In My Arsenal, and Will for Years to Come

[jwiede]

Welcome John! The Fluent tool is very similar to BoxCutter. It has quite a different UI and flow to it but if you have the HOps and BC already there's not a huge benefit.

I basically use Fluent Power Trip's features like Pipe, Wire (including Coils, Springs, Multiwires with Twists) and Grid, those tools are great!

Basically allows you to click on a surface for a start point and a second click on the end point - Wire or Pipe is done. It then lets you modify its parameters (like Twist, Rings, Position, Tension etc).

So if you get Fluent, make sure to purchase (the slightly higher priced) Fluent : Power Trip, in my opinion it's worth it.

Yeah, I definitely liked those aspects of Fluent most of all, I'll definitely get the Power Trip if I get Fluent. I might just wait till I have a need for those tools specifically, though, as I didn't really see much else that wasn't already covered by other tools I've purchased. Thanks for the info!!

[Wickedpup]

I haven´t found a replacement or solution for the AW bezier bridge tool though, and yes..tried that curve bridge tool for blender, but it´s not the same.

Not sure why you emphasize that tool so much, do you model a lot of cup handles? Have barely used the bezier bridge in all the time i have been modelling. But if you need a Blender solution you have this.... Blender Bezier Bridge

[Ma3rk]

Yes combining DAZ with another 3D package makes sense. However LightWave is one of the few applications that doesn't have a DAZ Bridge which makes everything a magnitude easier. And LW can be a pain working with FBX and characters compared to other apps from my experience.

Mmmm, well, Daz's "Bridge" is really more of a one-way, Indiana Jones rope bridge frankly, at least into Blender. It'll ONLY do humanoid figures, so no quadrupeds, etc. or even sets. I'm sure that'll improve in time.

And yes there are issues as you mention. Still trying to figure out IK implementation. IKBooster was a no go.

Part of the problem is that on the Daz end, you've a nice, logically named hierarchy, but with their implementation of FBX export, EVERYTHING gets renamed and/or re-parented. Instead of Left, Right, the prefixes get changed to just l and r. Try using the mirroring tools with that! You end up with stuff like rcorrar instead of rcollar. Sensei has some new tools that I'm planning to get that addresses that.

I have done some limited but successful conversions to RHiggit however. Problem there was losing the original weight maps, but might have a way around that now. Just need an uninterrupted block of experiment time.

[erikals]

Problem there was losing the original weight maps,

not sure, but didn't Daz FBX export also export intact weight maps ?

[Ma3rk]

not sure, but didn't Daz FBX export also export intact weight maps ?

Into the mesh but not the fur as it's exported as a prop. I think. There's just so much with the Cabal of Daz that's simply unknowable to the masses.

Interestingly though, the original fur objs that the LAMH editor spits out, imports into Modeler as separate layers that are associated to the corresponding bone, but yet have no weighting. So, don't know if they were there at some point & got stripped out or what. I've been using to split the fur up into manageable & somewhat logical layers based on bend points.

That's not the case with the fur objects from the FBX in that they're just one layer. With weight mapping, that can balloon up the object size where layout can't cope. It can't handle one object over 1 Gb, but it's fine with 3 that are over 600M each.

[prometheus]

Not sure why you emphasize that tool so much, do you model a lot of cup handles? Have barely used the bezier bridge in all the time i have been modelling. But if you need a Blender solution you have this.... Blender Bezier Bridge

That is because you have no idea of what I want to model, and no not a lo of cup handles, it´s only logical you barely used bezier tool ..since you do not have the same imagination as I do, especially if cups is the best case you can assert is the only thing it would be good for?

And no..there is no blender bezier tool, not like this.

I will record it and put it up on some link, someday.

Not sure why you think because you do not use it...no one would find it useful..and that it´s not something that should emphasized? Is it hurting that blender simply cant do that operation?

[erikals]

Into the mesh but not the fur as it's exported as a prop. I think.

ah, yeah, might be.

[Wickedpup]

That is because you have no idea of what I want to model, and no not a lo of cup handles, it´s only logical you barely used bezier tool ..since you do not have the same imagination as I do, especially if cups is the best case you can assert is the only thing it would be good for?

And no..there is no blender bezier tool, not like this.

I will record it and put it up on some link, someday.

Not sure why you think because you do not use it...no one would find it useful..and that it´s not something that should emphasized? Is it hurting that blender simply cant do that operation?

You sure did let this imagination of yours run wild with my post and put a lot off words in my mouth. Cup handles are the most OBVIOUS thing you could use it for, and that was the only thing I was saying. Did I say it wasn´t useful? No. But it is a "one trick pony" tool which you can easily work around if it isn´t available in an app and the occasions I have needed it are rare. And it is NOT the "make or brake" tool that you make it sound like it is. Bevel, now that is an example of such a tool, missing that in a software would make me choose something else. Bezier Bridge? Nah. If missing that is a dealbreaker for you, I can only quote Forrest Gump and say "Stupid is as stupid does"

[Ma3rk]

ah, yeah, might be.

Their dForce hair/fur is an odd thing to export but think I've figured a way around. If you export via FBX, it has vertices but no polys. If I convert (they're set up as a Figure, i.e. has a rig) into a Prop first, then export that as OBJ, I can then import that back in with the Character & the geom is there.

Hmmm, well limitedly. They're more like guides than hair. Will test more later.

[TheLexx]

For those talking Daz hair, bear in mind there is also Carrara hair, and one of their users made the HairConvertor plugin to export as geometry, so I guess it's another string for anyone interested and able to test with Lightwave..

[prometheus]

You sure did let this imagination of yours run wild with my post and put a lot off words in my mouth. Cup handles are the most OBVIOUS thing you could use it for, and that was the only thing I was saying. Did I say it wasn´t useful? No. But it is a "one trick pony" tool which you can easily work around if it isn´t available in an app and the occasions I have needed it are rare. And it is NOT the "make or brake" tool that you make it sound like it is. Bevel, now that is an example of such a tool, missing that in a software would make me choose something else. Bezier Bridge? Nah. If missing that is a dealbreaker for you, I can only quote Forrest Gump and say "Stupid is as stupid does"

Look wickedpup...

It´s the way you forwarded your"Question"
Had you asked me what I use it for, rather than
a quite unecessary starting of the sentence, "do you do
a lot of cup´s and handles" that would have sounded much less presumtionly...with more respect
towards Anyones task or ideas, unless you really thought in all sincerity that I was a cup maker or the sorts.


Obviously you are not me and I am not you..so projecting your ideas on to
that the use of the bezier bridge is limited in such way on to a modeling tool, which you really should know could
be used in other ways,that notio nis quite prejudiced..from a point of view that you should know better. just like a knife in prison or in the forrest..depending
on situation you can use it in various ways...right, or do we really have to Quote Forrest Gump?

Either you lack the imagination, or can not seperate imaginative modeling tasks from what you yourself actually have
the need for to complete a modelling task.

"Cup handle is the most obvious thing you can think of" No..that is not the most obvious thing you can think of..especially not if you used it already for other things...not for me and probably not for many others for that matter, and really...as I said, it´s unecessary presumptions..you recognized it yourself in your response that it has more uses, and thus your intent wasn´t really about questioning what else it was good for, rather to put it out a bit provocatively.

I never said it was a make or break deal, I said.."I really miss the Aw bezier tool" which you somehow translated/transformed to a make or deal break, it´s you that is inflating my sentence to sound like that.

Forrest Gump Quotes? Yes...In the right context they can be quite brilliant and fitting, in the wrong context however..they tend
to fulfill themself on the spot.

[erikals]

Prometheus, it is never anything positive from the Wickedpup, so i sat a certain setting to "ignore".

[Wickedpup]

yadayadaya

yadayada

yadayadayada

yadayadayada

I never said it was a make or break deal, I said.."I really miss the Aw bezier tool" which you somehow translated/transformed to a make or deal break, it´s you that is inflating my sentence to sound like that.

yadayadayada.

When I say "you make it sound like...." it alredy implies that it is my "interpretation" of what you are saying. So why try to make some point out of it? Of course, what isn´t obvious is that my "interpretation" stems from reading you harp on about that Bezier Bridge for years (here and on other forums) and yet no one has bothered to implement it in Blender? Not even sure if is it in Modo as I haven´t really missed it. C4d? Houdini? Maya? Max? No clue. For such a vital and important tool that is odd. It being a "one trick pony" with limited use could of course be an explanation.

[erikals]

Did I read the previous message?
Nope.
Do i know what it says?
Pretty Much.
Ahh... Silence.

[prometheus]

When I say "you make it sound like...." it alredy implies that it is my "interpretation" of what you are saying. So why try to make some point out of it? Of course, what isn´t obvious is that my "interpretation" stems from reading you harp on about that Bezier Bridge for years (here and on other forums) and yet no one has bothered to implement it in Blender? Not even sure if is it in Modo as I haven´t really missed it. C4d? Houdini? Maya? Max? No clue. For such a vital and important tool that is odd. It being a "one trick pony" with limited use could of course be an explanation.

Sigh..
you are bringing op false statements to this, if you consider my Rantings on that tool in the blender forums since january 23? something as going on for years..How do you invoke that as realistic?



O well..it really boggles my mind that so many have the urge to put on the shining armour for a Blender & Lightwave battle
, instead just lookin at what it does or don´t do.
I suppose we could put up a poll in the blender forum, with video record of what it does, and simply ask them, would you like to have this tool or not? and see how many that would refuse an offer they cant refuse.

For the rest of your analyze of me ranting of Bezier Bridge for years, and no one yet has bothered to implement it in blender, that´s just nonsense..it´s like blender would by that definition carrying all the tools it already needs, that it is perfect..that is of course just nonsense.

No one has managed to do that tool yet, and not many hard core blender users have ever tried this AW bezier tool..so they don´t know what to think about it, cause they do not use Lightwave..logical right? except for those minor users considering the vast blender only users.
Work arounds is another story..

What is close is this tool curve..in the thread I started January 23, which is quite nice and cool and useful, and in someways more powerful under certain sitations, but it doesn´t fuse the poly as in true bridging and you have to remesh the whole mesh...which you do not have to do with the AW bezier tool, there are differences of course, such as none destructive ...but only before the need of remeshing, unless the scene In context is good enough without the remeshing, it will then not have a smooth transition between the meshes.
if you use the more standard bridge tools, you would have to edit the bridged segments after you have bridged it all, the Aw bezier tool adapts to a nice curve bend depending on poly normal direction and it´s divisions, and handles, and you can add node point controls and delete them, not possible in blender..so that is a secondary adjustment.

Can´t show all that in one image, and I am not gonna spend more time on that to proove to you or anyone else...when I have to record it for it to be of good explanatory use.



The Thread...
https://blenderartists.org/t/bezier-...e-this/1203093


The tool that comes close...
https://www.blendernation.com/2020/0...-curves-addon/

But There´s not a single tool in the blender arsenal of modeling tools that would make me make this brain connection faster than I can do with the Aw bezier curve bridge, some seconds, even if you use the curves addon in blender, it will take me or anyone else longer time, and you would have to remesh it after clean up geometry, endangering texture and uvs.

What is true is that the tool itself is bringing on more functionality than any of the standard bridging tools in blender, that is the fact..if you care less to take advantage of it..who cares?

We are not two brains connecting here..that is obvious...