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[Steve]

I'm updating Point Edit mode fairly drastically. It's long overdue. This is a big job and I think it's reached a point where it's better than before. Please bear with me on during the transition. The major changes are:

Simultaneous editing of Points, Edges and Faces: You can enable any or all of these together.

Dynamic Highlighting: With Fast Select enabled the Point, Edge or Face currently under the mouse is highlighted in red. This makes it easier to see what will happen when you click the mouse. There is a top menu button to toggle Fast Select, hot key <Ctrl-T>. I'm not 100% happy with the red color so let me know what you think.

Thick Edges: An option in the File->ConfigureUI dialog uses thicker lines to draw edges. Try this together with antialiased workspaces for a great look, especially on larger screens.

Consistent of Mouse Buttons: I've changed the use of the mouse buttons to be more consistent.  For example, previously for Arrow Select the left mouse button (LMB) selected one item and deselected the precious ones, the MMB deselected only that one thing, and the RMB added to the selection. For Move the LMB moved things in the plain of the screen, the MMB in the direction of the normals, and the RMB into the screen. The new behavior makes everything act like Arrow Select. Now you can press the <Ctrl> key to move in the direction of the normal.

Space Bar Deslelects: now the <Space> bar deselects everything as it does in the rest of Anim8or.

Smart Selection: You can select only what you can see. In wireframe Points have priority over Edges, over Faces. This allows you to select points and edges in the back part of something. (Of course you can still disable front and  backside components with the [Front] and [Back] buttons.) In solid views the closest thing to the view is selected so you don't accidentally select a hidden edge, etc. If edges or points aren't drawn (are disabled in the UI settings dialog) then the aren't selected by the mouse.

Rotate and Scale tools: I haven't changed these yet except in the way things are selected. My original "pivot" idea simply doesn't work. So in the coming days I'm changing them to be more intuitive. Stay tuned...

Hot key T: toggles through point, edge, face select modes. I intended to have a 4th state that enabled all 3 but forgot to add it for this build.

OK, give the new Point Editor a try and let me know what you think!

[kreator]

Hmm can no longer close a quad to create a face in Point edit mode..... why??? or am I missing something !! 

This is critical to modelling with anim8or.

[Raxx]

Erk, yeah I have this problem as well. That is, the add edge tool doesn't snap to other points anymore.

Also, disabling thick lines doesn't save between sessions.

[captaindrewi]

looks very sexy....whats the f box symbol for?

[MvGulik]

There is a top menu button to toggle Fast Select, hot key <Ctrl-T>

[captaindrewi]

I like the red highlight.

[Steve]

Hmm can no longer close a quad to create a face in Point edit mode. Yes, I'll fix this and post it tomorrow. Ate too much turkey today to do it just now!

disabling thick lines doesn't save between sessions. I have this fixed, too - I used slightly different names to save and restore the setting in the registry.

[headwax]

looks like anim8or is jumping ahead in leaps and bounds congrats Steve

[nemyax]

Moving in Z doesn't work.

[Steve]

Moving in Z doesn't work. Yes, that's a consequence of making the mouse usage more consistent:

"For Move the LMB moved things in the plain of the screen, the MMB in the direction of the normals, and the RMB into the screen. The new behavior makes everything act like Arrow Select."

I'm still experimenting with ways to support Z axis movement.

[nemyax]

I'm still experimenting with ways to support Z axis movement.

Have you considered introducing 4 toggle-while-held hotkeys (ideally, in a row on the keyboard) for All, X, Y, Z? This method doesn't have to interfere with the click-to-toggle action of the XYZ graphical buttons and can be independent.
F5–F8 perhaps?

[Steve]

I posted build 1138 with these issues fixed.

nemyax: As for moving in the Z direction, I have a temporary solution to get you going again. When only the Z axis is enabled the point-edit move tool moves along the Z axis. You can use the "T" hot key to rotate through the enables in this order: PEF->P->E->F->PEF.

headwax: You have some nice work on your blog. Some days I feel like it's  "The Year I went Rusty" for myself!

[nemyax]

Steve
Thanks.
What was your pivot idea that didn't work out? Or do you mean the way things stand now?

[Steve]

nemyax: Yes, the way things stand now. Rotating and scaling is currently done around the Pivot, the zero coordinate point of the mesh. You can move it and rotate it in Pivot Edit mode, but it's rather difficult to know how to position it so that point move in a predictable way.

I think it's much more intuitive to edit work in the current view, based on what you've selected, or in world coordinates. So stay tuned and be sure to let me know what you think about the changes!

[nemyax]

I think it's much more intuitive to edit work in the current view, based on what you've selected

Absolutely. Also, each uninterrupted piece of selection should rotate and scale about its own centre. That's a very intelligent default, but not all modelling software has latched on. It took Blender until last year to get support for that option.
Interestingly, that would make the Rotate Faces and Scale Faces tools redundant, because those would just be regular transforms.