MESH EXTRACT addon - dyntopo subtool operator

http://www.pasteall.org/blend/24603

extracts a mesh from your dyntopo sculpt so you can arbitrary modify diff parts of the model without having too much of the “lag” from current dyntopo limitations.

i dont code (“not anymore and certainly not phyton”). this code is “vultured” from diff parts of py commands i happen to recognize.

current limitations:

creates a ghost when no mask is on.
some errors in dyntopo
“DO NOT SCULPT ON THE SEPARATION LINE”

i posted it here so others may improve on this.

1 Like

oh better do this on normal sculpt, mask an area and extract, to weld back choose the two separated and push weld.

I haven’t tried this yet but it sounds like something that should be included in sculpt mode by default. Thanks for the addon :slight_smile:

wtf is it for? :slight_smile:


primarily for dyntopo, mask an area and hit extract. better do all functions in normal sculpt, got errors doing it in dyntopo. useful when reaching 200k+ vert when dyntopo “lag” starts to set in, mainly the undo situation. so you extract a part, say a hand and sculpt to your hearts content without being affected with the vert count of the rest of the model. after that disable dyntopo and choose the two separated mesh and hit weld.

planned carefully, extracting early on i managed to reach 500k vert on my present dyntopo work without the usual hiccups.

do not sculpt on the separation line and do not hit symmetrize while in separation, roberto roch and i were talking about protecting that with code but after careful thought and some experiments masking the junction i came to a conclusion that maybe protection is not the necessary function needed but “repair”.

new version up. works in dyntopo now. gonna work for speedup on welding hi res stuff.

still have to detect that mask.

I was sceptical at first, expecting some lag or long calculation periods, but this is brilliant. Awesome job

hey! I’ve made a few changes to the addon to suit my needs. Now it makes a copy of your object, deletes the non-masked area and applies a solidify modifier.

Here’s the file: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/2105283/sculptstartup/mesh_extract_1.py

And here you can see it in action:

new version up

mesh extract addon enhancements

some new stuff like edge mask protection
extract new and solidify (by Roberto Roch Diago)
offset masked faces (bevel masked faces in or out)

Excelent stuff here, my favorite is the automatic edge mask with extract. My suggestion would be to use the mask ‘opacity’ for ‘Offset masked’ Thickness multiplier if possible (it would make gradual offsets possible).

ah, that would be for experienced coders :), good idea though, this is really some basic coding to present some ideas Roch and i have in store for sculpt mask, we still need someone to look at the code, remove redundancy, make it more efficient.

be careful with this, UNDO support still sucks and i will be tackling that next. been testing it out on sculpts and its great. just save often. :slight_smile:

@iceking
thanks very usefull addons

  • there is a bug the generate mesh appear in wireframe in edit mode solid shaded display

its hidden line, i put it there since hidden line in edit mode kinda speeds up the viewport, dont know if it works in code though.

Thank you, guys!
The addon is very useful!
Can you add a choice between Extract-Separate and Extract-Solidify?
If there will be settings for solidify it will be perfect.
Sometimes separation is what I need. Sometimes I need to make “clothes” then Solidify is great.
Thanks anyway! I hope this initiative will be picked up by Devs and this will become a part of sculpting tools.

The current version in the first post should have the separate tools.

Next update by iceking has all those things, separate tools, settings in the UI, and more. I think he said he would release it on Sunday.

keep working on it… meshmixer has a similar tool,
would be nice to have this in blender.
nice for making bracelets, clothes, armor, etc.

Oh, yeah! Thank you! :slight_smile: I’ve didn’t noticed it first ))
Maybe a good idea for Weld can be using Remove Doubles with Threshold (with option) value. It will help to avoid “bugs” if edges were touched.
Is it expected that Undo isn’t fully working yet?

P.S. I’m not sure but something can leak memory. Maybe it’s not this script.

Perhaps it would be possible to specify the thickness in a panel from the solidified

Yep, you’ll be able to. Let’s see if this link to a video works(it should be public): https://www.facebook.com/thisroomthatikeep/posts/635470579830650

Hey guys! Iceking has sent me the updated addon to share it here with you.
Here you go: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/2105283/sculptstartup/mesh_extract.py