WINGS3D USER MANUAL
Section 5.2 6The Context Sensitive Menus
VERTEX MENU | EXTRUDE Can be performed on one or more vertices. During the extrusion process you can use the plus and minus (+ -) keys to change the size of the extruded spike's base. Normal – a "spike" type feature is extruded from each selected vertex along the vertex normals, thus creating new faces. Free – the "spikes" are created in the direction of mouse movement. X – the "spikes" are created along the X axis. Y – the "spikes" are created along the Y axis. Z – the "spikes" are created along the Z axis.
VERTEX MENU | FLATTEN Requires two or more vertices to have any effect. X – Flattens the selected vertices by averaging their position in the X direction. This has the effect of aligning selected vertices in the X plane. Y – Flattens the selected vertices by averaging their position in the Y direction. Z – Flattens the selected vertices by averaging their position in the Z direction.
VERTEX MENU | CONNECT (C) Connects selected vertices with edges if they have a common face, or if the faces between vertices is contiguous. More than one set of connects can be performed at a time. Some applications require triangles, rather than quads on import. You can convert your Wings quads to triangles very simply by selecting the Body, then pressing V to switch to vertex mode. All vertices on the model will then be selected. Then just do a Connect, and all the quads will be turned into triangles.
VERTEX MENU | TIGHTEN Tighten deserves a bit of explanation as it is not immediately obvious just what it does. Tighten looks at each vertex and works out the direction they need to move in so as to create the most tension-free surface. It then allows you to interactively move those vertices along that direction by dragging the mouse left and right. DRAFT 1.6
Another way to think of it is as a tool to get all the edges as similar in length as possible. It will eventually smooth out your model into an amorphous blob. You can use it to gently smooth out regions where you've made changes in the surface too harsh, by tightening select areas by small amounts. You can get your model into a more UVfriendly paintable state by tightening a lot, thus avoiding areas where there's overhang or creases. Alternatively, you can tighten in the opposite direction (un-tighten) by small amounts where your surface is too smooth. It will make differences in edge length more extreme. If you find a model is coming out too gooey when smoothed, un-tighten it a bit before smoothing, it might help. Tighten may work slightly differently from Nendo®. Wings calculates all directions once, before the drag is started. Nendo® might recalculate all directions after every mouse move. (It would probably make a difference if adjacent vertices are selected, which they usually are.)
VERTEX MENU | BEVEL Bevels corners at selected vertices, thus creating new faces. It has no effect on isolated vertices where two edges fail to intersect with any other (a single edge cut in two). Such vertices should be eliminated, by the way, via the Collapse tool.
VERTEX MENU | COLLAPSE (Bksp) Removes the vertex, adjusting the faces and edges associated with it accordingly and leaves you in Face Selection Mode.
VERTEX MENU | DISSOLVE Removes the vertex. Unlike Collapse, Dissolve leaves you in Vertex Selection Mode so that you can continue to select and eliminate vertices without having to switch back from Face Mode.
73