Blender Settings for Axis Snapping in Industry Compatible Workflow

Industry Standard Blender Axis Snapping

Blender

Now that Blender has an option for a more Maya like mouse manipulation workflow, and I am back looking at it once again, I noticed one thing I missed from the default Blender mappings…

In the default Blender mouse set up you can use the Middle Mouse and the ALT key to perform Axis Snapping and get a quick way to view Left Right Top Front etc. Orthogonal Views.

When I switched over to Maya like I thought I had lost this function, as it uses ALT as the main key for manipulations. I did a little nosing around in the Preferences and it turns out it is Mapped to the Alt key, as before, but obviously it needs a little extra step to be useful.

To get Axis Snapping then you use the ALT Left mouse to orbit the camera and then you release and repress the ALT key whilst keeping the Left Mouse button pressed. Now you can orbit to a near side view and it will snap the axis as expected.

This is a really nice little addition to the pure Maya workflow as it saves time hitting Number Pads to get an Ortho View.

Vertex Normal to Hard Edge

Modo: Vertex Normals to Hard Edge

General, Modelling, Modo

In Modo importing CAD files that have been converted to a Polygon format such as LWO FBX or OBJ often contain a Vertex Normal Map. Exporting from Moi3d as LWO works well for example until you change anything on the imported mesh.

I got a nice tip today from @funk on the Modo slack group it basically replaces the Vertex Normal map with a Standard (as of 13) Hard edge workflow.

To convert open the Game Tab in Modo and click on the Convert to Hard Edges, set both options to true if you want to remove the existing Vertex map, which is the the whole point here so you do.

Next you need to Change the Smoothing setting in the Modo Material Properties to: clear Crease by Smoothing Angle and Set Weight by Polygon Area and Weight by Polygon Angle.

Pretty nice and quick way to set up hard edges for smoothing in Modo if the imported mesh already has vertex normals

Function Key Toggle Apple Keyboard.

General

For Windows using the Apple USB keyboard without Bootcamp Control Panel software i.e. you aren’t using a Mac but still want to use the APPLE SUB Keyboard. Open the Registry and search for the following Key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\KeyMagic

Find the entry

OSXFnBehavior

Change the value from 01 to 00

00 is Function Keys

01 is Media Keys

Unplug the keyboard or restart the computer to reload the new value.

 

Shortcuts for Modo (Windows)

Modo

Default Modo Shortcuts

1. General/System  
   
F1 Help
Ctrl+N New scene
Ctrl+O Open saved scene
Ctrl+I Open saved image
Ctrl+W Close current scene
Ctrl+Shift+W Close all open scenes
Ctrl+S Save current scene
Ctrl+Shift+S Save scene as
Ctrl+Q Quit Modo
Alt+F12 Config file save
Shift+F5 Run script
Ctrl+Z Undo
Ctrl+Shift+Z Redo
Ctrl+X Cut
Ctrl+C Copy
Ctrl+V Paste
Delete Delete (not available in Items mode)
Ctrl+R Brings up the last tool used
Alt+R Brings up the last tool used, ignoring UI interactions and selections
Ctrl+Tab Layout switcher, organized by most recent

Continue reading Shortcuts for Modo (Windows) →

Logitech Gaming Software – Mouse not Detected

Technology,

After installing Karabiner Elements for MacOS I found that the Logitech Gaming Software (LGS) was no longer detecting the mouse and was showing the move mouse to wake dialog.

It took a while to figure out that the cause was the recently installed Karabiner Software, exiting the software allowed immediate recognition of the mouse. Not sure what the cause is and the mouse was functional though not under the LGS command.

A useful tool but not if you are using LGS it would appear.

Modo Slowdown after crashes

Modo

If a program appears to crash to often Windows may apply a control Shim to monitor the app, this can cause slow operations in Modo such as UV edits.

To check if windows is applying a shim:
1. Press start and in the search type “regedit.exe” and hit enter
2. Go to this folder: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\FTH\State

If modo is listed in there, then a shim is being applied.

To remove the shim
1. Press start and in the search type “cmd.exe“, right click on cmd.exe and choose “run as administrator“, then press yes
2. In the command prompt type: Rundll32.exe fthsvc.dll,FthSysprepSpecialize
3. Log out of windows and back in to see the changes.

Thanks to @funk for this information.