Jason Posted July 12, 2002 Share Posted July 12, 2002 Hi all, I have been mulling over modeling using the Construction Plane - to take advantage of this unique tool in Houdini. I see a lot of potential with mastering the Plane - does anyone else here have special ways to manipulate the Construction Plane? So I made a quick movie of what I thought was a single good use for the Plane during modeling - drawing and editing aligned to arbitrary faces. Imagine my sphere in the video was a spaceship and I had to model portholes.. here it'd be very handy... Please look at my movie.. HERE! (No audio: In the movie I am hitting "c" to start orientation picking of the Plane.) Cheers, Jason. PS. I wish I could use a better format, but Peter is right - Realplayer is the only thing to run on all platforms. Unless every agrees to use ASF or WMV? What do you all think? Which one is best value for badwidth? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jason Posted July 12, 2002 Author Share Posted July 12, 2002 To experiment, I made a WMV file which ended up clearer and MUCH smaller. Take your pick! WMV file here.. WMV has a special codec for screen grabs, apparently. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
betty Posted July 12, 2002 Share Posted July 12, 2002 Well that was fast!!!! and you're right, WMV is clearer and a few times faster for downloading. As for the lack of audio I think doing things where all your moves are pretty much visible in the viewport is fine, people get the idea. Pop-up menus also help. Hopefully the first of many videos to find their way to this site. Betty btw, of course you got me thinking about the construction plane, i'll be getting onto it asap. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
betty Posted July 15, 2002 Share Posted July 15, 2002 Jason Still have a bit of a problem with the constuction plane. How 'bout being able to draw on a surface, that way you don't need to pick another orientation for your plane as you had to when wanting to draw that arrow-like shape and having to get the construction plane aligned onto the other primitive? What do you think? Betty Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jason Posted July 15, 2002 Author Share Posted July 15, 2002 You actually can draw on a face, using "Snap" and under Options, set it to Primitive. You can draw directly on surfaces, although I think a bug in Houdini 5.0 made it hard to draw on polygonal faces. This works juuuust fine in 5.5 So you're right, this functionality makes my example a little redundant. Perhap the CPlane can be used more for lining up transforms to arbitrary axies? I know that Maya has a neat thing with its handles where you can snap in one axis only: .i.e snap to bounding extents in one of the orthographic views at the hold of a button. Do you know what feature I'm talking about? Or should I give an example? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheUsualAlex Posted July 15, 2002 Share Posted July 15, 2002 You can draw directly on surfaces, although I think a bug in Houdini 5.0 made it hard to draw on polygonal faces. This works juuuust fine in 5.5 Whohooo! I was wondering about that a few months back. Complete forgotten to try this in 5.5. Sweet to hear it works in 5.5. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
betty Posted July 16, 2002 Share Posted July 16, 2002 Jason Good to hear that drawing on a poly object is supported. Please note, a lot of my comments are about the construction plane as a tool for poly modeling. I'm sure it does well in other areas ( areas which i haven't gone yet in Houdini. ) Yeah, i've used those snapping tools in Maya and they are pretty cool. I'll give the construction plane a good work out in the next week. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jason Posted July 17, 2002 Author Share Posted July 17, 2002 Yep - it's great now that it's working so well. I think it still works fine for Houdini 5.0 with parametric surfaces. I like to hear some of your experiences with the CPlane when you get around to it. It's one of those things where I am sure it can be invaluable but I can't think of quite how. Sunny days, J Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jim c Posted July 23, 2009 Share Posted July 23, 2009 Hi, I just found this, and it looks really useful however the video is gone. Is there anymore info on modeling with the construction plane? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marc Posted September 9, 2009 Share Posted September 9, 2009 Hey Jim 7 years too late . You're lucky I don't throw anything away. So from the archives I present, Houdini 5.5 construction plane modeling : construction_plane.wmv Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Swann Posted September 9, 2009 Share Posted September 9, 2009 I don't get this. Propably something has changed from H5.5 but even with help I can't get it to work. Hm. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marc Posted September 9, 2009 Share Posted September 9, 2009 I don't get this. Propably something has changed from H5.5 but even with help I can't get it to work. Hm. haha.. I suspect something may have changed . I just put it up for old times' sake, I'm sure things have changed drastically since then. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
peterr Posted September 16, 2009 Share Posted September 16, 2009 Yes, unfortunately the construction plane as it is configured now is pretty much useless as a modelling tool. I wish it weren't so, but gaining control of the construction plane to move it around and snap to surfaces and such is extremely awkward. I would certainly like to have a good, intuitive construction plane to use. I'm old fashion, but the construction plane in the model sop was way better and I used it alot. haha.. I suspect something may have changed . I just put it up for old times' sake, I'm sure things have changed drastically since then. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jim c Posted September 29, 2009 Share Posted September 29, 2009 Hey Jim 7 years too late . You're lucky I don't throw anything away. So from the archives I present, Houdini 5.5 construction plane modeling : construction_plane.wmv Thanks (and apologies for taking so long to respond)! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bw5013 Posted September 3, 2010 Share Posted September 3, 2010 (edited) So the construction plane is gimped? Edited September 3, 2010 by bw5013 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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