Wish 1: Extra functionality for extrusion with the Gumball. I noticed that when I wand to extrude a curve with the Gumball, it will only allow me to do so in one of the axis directions. When I try to extrude the curve diagonally (along XY, XZ or YZ) with the tiny plane handle while holding the Shift key, Rhino will actually scale the curve 1D along one horizontal axis (exactly what the tiny square handle does) instead of extruding it. This is quite disturbing, because the Gumball already has a dedicated square handle for scaling, and the latter is also capable of scaling 3D by holding the Shift key, so I see no reason why the tiny plane has the same function since it’s more natural to make it work as an extrusion handle with the Shift key held.
Hello - don’t forget the ExtrudeCrv command with Direction option.
-Pascal
Hi Pascal, I use ExtrudeCrv with the direction option, but I find Gumball very helpful in many situations and only if it had the ability to extrude to a 2d plane (as I described in my original post) it would become much more usable. Gumball saves time as the user can focus on the part itself for direct modeling that otherwise require dealing with multiple icons for running the same commands.
Wish 2: Add a new command called “Extrude by view” that makes it possible to extrude a curve (or surface edge) by the current camera view. At the moment this operation requires to use “Set Cplane to view”, but not only it adds another Cplane, going back to the previous Cplane later also takes extra mouse clicks and time.
Wish 3: “Project curves from point”. I can’t find a way to accurately project a curve on surface by view in Perspective mode with 3d scaling of the projected curve so that the latter properly follows the original curve (basically a project from the camera’s origin point). Currently, the “Project” command with the “view” option will project the curve in a parallel direction (which is also helpful), highly deviated from what the user sees on the screen. Here is an example:
Hi Bobi -
You can extrude in plane by
Shift down and drag the plane (scales in 2d) then before you’re done, hold down Ctrl to force the scale to make a surface.
-Pascal
I just tried this. Works by first dragging the curve with the tiny plane handle, then holding down the Ctrl key. Holding the Ctrl key before dragging the plane handle will reposition the Gumball in a weird way (not possible to reposition the Gumball’s center point). Holding down the Shift key, dragging the plane handle and then holding Ctrl key does nothing. Simultaneously holding the Shift+Ctrl keys and dragging will scale the square handle for scaling (this lacks a more precise control over the new length of the square handle).
However, seems like there is no option to lock the extrusion direction to 45 degrees, nor in steps by 5 degrees. It would be helpful to have that extra functionality for the Gumball implemented in a future update, though. It was a smart move to set the rotation with the Gumball in steps by 5 degrees when the Grid snap is turned on (from the Status bar or with the F9 key), so I think that the same principle could be added for the extrusion with Gumball, too (like what I described in Wish 1 in my original post).
having the ortho steps in 45 degrees you can hold ctrl, rotate the gumball just those 45 degrees and then extrude with the gumbal procedure using the arrows. also you can make an alias for quick repositioning the gumball at every orientation you want.
“also you can make an alias for quick repositioning the gumball at every orientation you want.”
Can you help with some guide? Thanks
something like this ( v6)
in v5 it is backwars but mainly the same
the osnap Enter is because I have them normally disabled.
“_GumballRelocate” works as you mentioned, however, it will not allow me to have simultaneously the follwing advantages:
- Free variable extrusion direction (when the Grid snap is turned OFF with F9).
- Extrusion direction locked at 45 degrees (while holding the Shift key).
- Extrusion direction divided in steps by 5 degrees (when the Grid snap is turned ON with F9).
“_GumballRelocate” also requires several extra mouse clicks and writing numbers with the keyboard, it offers just one locked direction for extrusion (unless the Gumball is being relocated again, which takes even more time), and sometimes may lead to changing of the camera view to reposition the Gumball.
This is how I would handle those extrusions with the gumball regardless of the grid snap
I don’t think they are that many clicks but who knows.
With the functionality that I proposed, the user could change the angle at every given moment after the extrusion have been started (check my previous post with the 3 different ways for doing it). This is a game changer, at least for those who want a full control over the extrusion with editing on the go.