Cerbera

We'd need the scene file to be sure what was causing it, but it'll be something geo/ phong / normal-related. CBR

That's an interesting nodal method, but I am not sure that blue noise is quite matching the reference pattern there, although if it can be made to do so via the settings then that is indeed a very simple way to get a fast, topologically sound, satisfyingly spherical result, and doubly helpful in that we also neatly avoid all the pitfalls and traps inherent if we get SDS involved ! (pinching / non-spherical perfection) AND can easily get the holes to have sharp enough edges... The actual pickleball pattern is best visualised thusly... As we can see, it is divided into the polar caps, which contain 4 (characteristically unevenly distributed and meant to be extensions of, and line up with the founder's centre 'X' logo) holes apiece and we have 4 bands of 8 offset rows of holes between them. We can also note that there are 2 different dimensions of holes in a single model, so that is probably helpful too. So, were I to have to recreate this nicely using trad modelling techniques, which is I suspect is what you're after, and accepting presumably that you are happy with a slower but more accurate approach, then I would let the pattern dictate the patches I would prepare for spherical layout. Whereas things like golf balls are based on a tesselating hexa-triangular patches, this notably isn't. It's 2 poles and a band, so we should do that too. So I would prepare the polar patches flat, based on an orthographic TD view of the ball. When finished with those I would use offset Wrap deformer to 'polarise them'. Then I would make each row, or perhaps all 4 of the centre bands at once as a flat strip, possibly using mograph's honeycomb array distribution to save me a few manual steps, which I would then also wrap deform into a general spherical band between the 2 poles, being careful to make my holes narrower than default (different amounts per row), so that they become as near round as possible when later deformed / stretched. As a side tip, best to UV it while it is still flat as well if you need a UV, which we probably don't if we're honest. And here a little modelling skill and XP is required, because you'd have to make the radial edge count of your polar patch sections match the edge count of the top and bottom sections of your centre strip for this plan to be successful without remeshing. Having done that however, it then would come down to combining the 3 (or more) meshes into a single model, and then subdividing and spherizing the result, after which I'd be adding procedural thickness with Thicken, or manually extruding with caps to finish it off. I am fairly rammed with work at the moment, but will post my result if I get time to try it later. So that would be the SDS way, but unusually for me, and in a world where increasingly faster is better, we might get a speedier and less brain-taxing result if we combine the 2 approaches suggested so far. For that reason I would be tempted to use the boolean / remesh method but instead of a blue noise nodal distribution, merely accurately recreate the pattern of cylinders using the info above and several radial cloners, for arguably the best of both worlds ! CBR

You may be forgetting that with Loft objects the resolution is not derived from source splines but from the object itself. Massively increase U segments in Loft Object... I don't like this method for doing this sort of thing because it is quite difficult to get (and verify) identical segmentation on each side unless you symmetrize later. Also note distribution of edges, which is kinda arbitrary and not that great if we're honest. By the time you have sorted that out for regular spacing and whatnot, you may as well have modelled it from polygons with symmetry and got a more usable base going forward ! If we definitely want to use splines, then Extrude is the better generator because that does take its interpolation and point counts from the spline, and it is trivially easy to add the little ridge bit on one end later... Of course if you need splines for further modelling tasks you can still use the ones you have, or generate them anew from your evenly divided model using Edge to Spline... CBR

Unfortunately Q behaviour has regressed elsewhere 😞 They really gotta stop making that affect any other generator except SDS, and ESPECIALLY not do symmetry... I've had to work around that with a script or I would find it borderline unusable for modelling. Excellent use of it in nodes tho ! 🙂 CBR

I wonder if there's an OSL shader that does that or something very similar - did you check on GitHub ? CBR

STEP import improves with every recent release - it is already leagues better than it used to be, and will continue to improve further as time goes on, but for now it is not perfect. Geo tends to come in just fine and fully controllably via the import controls (max edge length / angle etc) but materials are less robust currently - at the moment we are lucky to get material tags / selections assigned different colours, and that is about the best we can hope for IME. Generally, you need to redo the textures in Cinema / PS etc... CBR

A little faith is good for the soul... CBR

The answer wouldn't be no if you were using Cinema ! VAMP can do that, and indeed just got a new algorithm for it so we can do it even better than before ! CBR

Then I am afraid the phrase 'shit out of luck' might apply here, at least as far as out of the box tools go ! There will invariably be scripted or Xpresso ways to achieve it but those are a bit outside my wheelhouse so I am not best person to advise on those... I agree there should be a way to easily do that though, and don't think I am missing any existing ways (geo axis node no good either for same reason) and you'd think it could be relatively simply achieved with the addition of a 'leave' checkbox or 3 in the main Axis Centre dialogue, the selection of which greys out the slider, a bit like we do in Set Point Value at the moment. I'll suggest that on your behalf if you like... CBR

Very odd. I have not come across that myself, so far. Is it reproduceable at all ? ie can you provide a scene file that reliably demonstrates the behaviour or is it just something that randomly happens sometimes ? CBR

For instances where you need to change only 1 axis and are not centring it on the model, then Axis Mode and co-ordinates manager makes more sense than Axis centre dialogue. As you say, that evaluates all axes, which is not what you want here. CBR

I can sort of understand why that might happen, but it's not helpful behaviour; if the segments are the same in both cylinders they should align regardless of segmentation being even or not. That's what everyone'll expect to happen. Also a regression, as this doesn't happen in 2023.x.x.. anyway - I reported it, and thanks for sharing. CBR

No no, we shouldn't have to effectively disable phong (angle =>180) to avoid those issues, or resort to alternative phong modes for that matter... The reason they appear initially might be to do with using boolean operations / single object in the creation of the union between the 2 shapes, or because there are no loops along the lengths of the cylinders to clearly tell the phong tag what to do. But optimizing the mesh after collapsing a boole, and bevelling the intersections with a fair amount of segments should negate that and result in perfect smoothness everywhere with what I would describe as 'regular phong settings', thusly... So in summary, a few ways to get this done with no SDS. 1. Boole Union, then optimize and bevel intersection edges. 2. 45 degree cuts (line cut / angle snap) from centreline 3. Volume Builder Union using curve options to negate bevels 4. Any of the above + remesher stage (X + Y symmetry, hard edge selection etc) CBR

Technique is exactly the same as doing it with SDS except you need very high polycounts and bevels instead of control loops. CBR

Still there, albeit renamed and in slightly different place... CBR

Yep, neither of those can have additional windows. I guess it was thought that only Attributes and OM really needed that ability. I can't honestly say I have ever needed more than those 2 to have additional managers myself. CBR

Generated polys, as opposed to physical ones, such as the ones added by for example SDS, or sweeps / lathes / extrudes etc etc... CBR

The problem isn't motion blur not appearing - it's that it breaks the physics of the bullet simulation about half way through the cached animation, where half the cubes suddenly start flying in a straight line and not reacting to gravity. CBR

I can submit it for you if I can replicate the issue on my system. Quite a busy day for me today so wont' get to it til later, but will certainly have a look and try and recreate the issue when I get a minute... CBR

That is very odd behaviour, and especially curious that a) it only started a few days ago, and b) that it happens 70% of the time you undo. I can't imagine what could be going wrong there - if this was a problem intrinsic to 2024.2.0 we would have heard about thousands of cases of it it by now, and I'm pretty sure I haven't come across this before... Either way, it is going to be almost impossible to investigate unless we have a scene file that demonstrates the problem. Can you upload one, and more importantly have you done a support ticket to Maxon about this and sent them a problem scene ? - it is them who really need to see that happen... CBR

Well that's very odd. I don't know why that is, but concur it is the case, and I don't think I have seen it before, so have reported it. Have you done a support ticket yet ? CBR

Interesting. Does Houdini have a quad remesher that does also transfer UVs ?

Nope. But there is VAMP which can be used to transfer UVs between meshes of radically different points counts and orders. 2024.x.x includes a new evaluation method, Nearest Polygon, which is pretty effective. CBR

Yep, came here to say that, by which I also mean no 🙂 It has been discussed over the years. As I recall, about half the people want it like it is, and the other half are like you, wanting layouts saved with scene ! And the people who don't want it have good reasons - a lot of artists want to work with their own toolsets and layouts regardless of the job, although of course they could switch straight back with no effort. For example, say you send me a scene with your perfect viewport setup in it - well that's all very nice, but where the hell are the tools and plugin shortcuts I need to do the job ? Back in my custom / startup layout - that's where ! Perhaps there could be an option in prefs at some point in the future, to offer the choice and make everyone happy ! But at the moment, all layouts call from the layouts folder of the destination machine, so until that changes even if you include an .l4d in the file the user will have to manually put it in the correct place under user data. CBR

I get more than my fair share of crashes as I am usually working with betas, but that kinda makes my experience not typical. But I get occasional display crashes regardless of which version I use, which I mostly blame Windows / Nvidia for. In recent versions if the display driver falls over I usually get a chance to save the file, so that takes the curse off it somewhat... Last best, most stable, crash-free version for me was probably 2023.1.2, before everything got moved to the new core in 2024, and if I have to model something very quickly, where my space mouse isn't buggy, that's where I go back to for a largely crash free time and my fastest modellings... I guess that might be a reason why there are more crashes since the core shift - it was a fairly major change. All crash reports are valuable and looked at, and if you'd like a response you can always follow them up with a support ticket, where they may be able to offer more information / insight into what may be the problem. Do your crashes happen when you do a particular thing, or are they just general random weird ones ? And are they just display freezes, where menus still work, or does the whole app go down ? CBR