Component snapping is broken

[Somian]

Hi,

I've noticed that recently, vertex snapping has broken and rarely works. I'm on 7.4.1

What happens is that when I try to drag a vertex to another vertex it'll snap to some other place, just not to the vertex that nearest to the mouse cursor.

I attached a video of the issue. In the video, I would like to snap the center of the object I created to the center of the wheel (that clearly has a vertex). However, It just won't do it and I don't know why. Over the course of the video, vertex snapping is enabled, except for a brief moment at 0:05 where I move it without snapping.

 

[frank beckmann]

I use component snapping all the time - can´t recreate it so far. Maybe upload the file to see if there is something in there like a keyframe for instance.

Cheers
Frank

 

[Somian]

I think the problem is that it still takes into account meshes that are set to invisible if they're set to invisible by a folder that is invisible (it works correctly when the object are individually set to invisible).

It happens to me all the time because I have folders with a lot of objects that I just toggle invisible by turning the folder on and off (and not the objects inside)

You can reproduce it using the project attached. Try to snap the object named cantSnapThis to the object snapToMyCenter in the left view. It's basically impossible because it keeps snapping to the vertices of the invisible capsules.

 

[frank beckmann]

Yes - you´re right. As far as I can tell this is an already known misbehaviour I already mentioned a long time ago already during the v6 dev cycle. Only available workaround is to make objects invisible instead of the group container (select everything and toggle "Visible in editor " icon to exclude/include all at once).

Cheers
Frank

 

[Somian]

Hm…does anyone know a faster way to work around this problem?

My problem is… If I have 100 folders with meshes inside that could either be on or off, I need to go through each of the folders, open them, and then turn things off if they aren't off already. I know it's possible to select multiple objects and then select the eye-icon to toggle the visibility, but that indeed toggles it, so if 60 meshes were on before and 50 off, then 50 will be on and 60 of but I still have the same problem and I can't turn everything off.

This is why the folders are handy to turn things off, because no matter if things inside the folders are off, the folder will always turn them off if turned off (while retaining the actual visibility state inside the folder).

But because of this bug, the folders aren't that useful, because when I use this approach, the snapping breaks.

I'm working with files with hundreds of separate meshes and folders and going through them one by one is not feasible. This stuff is sometimes exported from a large CAD project and I need it as reference for lowpoly modeling.

EDIT: I found a workaround but it hurts What I do is that when I'm not working on a mesh that I turned invisuble I just copy-paste it into another Cheetah 3D window and then delete it from the one where I need snapping to work. When I need it again I'll copy-paste it back.

 

[frank beckmann]

I wonder if you can make good use of the Layer system?

Cheers
Frank

 

[Helmut]

* Turning off E visibility in the layers does not seem to stop users to select invisible polys which are elements of the folder.
* What seems to work is the tool command Selection / Hide Selection and related commands applied to objects. Seems like they can be keyframed, but I have not tested that properly.

* This may be still fairly laborious, as the command can´t be applied to folders. It still may be simpler than migrating the meshes to a temporary #2.jas + copying them back to the source document.
* Component snapping to an external mesh #3 seems to function, even if object 1 is entrely inside a (temporarily)) invisble object 2.
* Good luck.

 

[frank beckmann]

* Turning off E visibility in the layers does not seem to stop users to select invisible polys which are elements of the folder.

Honestly - this will only happen when you select the content first - which doesn´t make real sense. Why should I select hidden objects stored on invisible folders?

Cheers
Frank

 

[Helmut]

* You don´t, but C3D selects them when snapping. You just note that C3D is snapping to invisible points of an invisible object.

 

[frank beckmann]

Yeah - wasn´t talking about snapping but modelling and what should I say: I´m right again - unfortunately this time.