Some basic Wings Questions

#1

Can I use symmetry in Wings to help me model. So I can model half a model?

And how do you bring reference images in to wings as, well, references.

Thanks in advance.

#2

If you mean symmetry like in lightwave, kinda
What you need to do is split your model in the middel then select the face and virtual mirror.
as for image plane. rightclick on the viewport and and click on image plane…
I wish it had a symmetry selection like in lightwave that would be awsome. you dont have to have a edge loop dont the center of my models. like for when modeling airplanes or non organic stuff. :hmm:

#3

What crgowo said really, start half your model, select a plane of symmetry ( the normal of whatever poly you select) then tools > virtual miror > create. This can only be one polygon though.

( Check you flattened the poly along its normal or whatever axis you need first. )

Virtual mirror rocks, it’s the first thing that really made me like Wings…

If you want to then fix this, virtual mirror > freeze, seems obvious I know, but until you freeze you can’t weld the two halves and the yafray render plugin seems to ignore the unfrozen half, also some ( all?) export options don’t recognize the mirrored half until you freeze them.

Alternatively you could make half then select it and “flip”, bridge / weld the two halves.

Sorry if this is too obvious or doesn’t make too much sense, but it’s late here…

Never used reference plane, sorry.

Steve

#4

Thanks, guys.

It will probably make sense once I dive into it. I’m using Cinema 4D right now. Just exploring other modelers. And Wings getting high marks from users, it being a Mac app, and of course, free, I figured I’d check it out.

#5

I have used GMax,MayaPLE,XSI|Exp,C4D and a few more free,shares etc since 1999 and guess what?I have never found a mirror/symmetry matching that of wings3d altough take note that I haven’t tried our master Mirai nor Lightwave but I’m pretty sure that I can assume they don’t have all it’s advantages :wink:

Once you get comfortable with the Winged-Edge workflow you will find it tremendously useful to have such a Virtual Mirror.

It has a unique feature that let’s you actually Tweak/Edit elements from both sides of the mirror at all times which adds to the speed along with the Tweak mode and it’s magnet.Note that it also keeps the Mid-Vertice along the mirror’s X axis at all time so you can use the Powerful new and traditionnal Magnet options without affecting any of those points except for their Y and Z axis.

Try this,

Make a cube,select one of it’s sides and go Tools/VirtualMirror/Create,

Go Tools/Tweak mode,press “E” for edge Tweak,

Select an edge that flows horizontally through the VM and Tweak move it towards the mirror…

See how it scales and the vertex stays centered :slight_smile:

Hope my english is understandable to you.

Later

#6

how does one go about locking an image plain from selection, it keeps on getting in the way.
i tried lock selection but it dosent give me what i want.

#7

orion, from the Window menu you will find the Geometry Graph where you can lock and hide selected objects using the icons on the right.

Hope this is what you meant.

#8

sorted it out. thanx for the reply though, i havent used the outliner graph properly yet, so i’ll have a look at that.

#9

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