Stikyhooves
commented
1 year ago Thank you for wading through my blathering. Brush size may be the key here rather than sensitivity, I am just not sure how the feature performs its actions.
Open Stikyhooves opened 1 year ago
Stikyhooves
commented
1 year ago Thank you for wading through my blathering. Brush size may be the key here rather than sensitivity, I am just not sure how the feature performs its actions.
I should note that this request was based of Alpha 3, Alpha 4 seems to have greatly improved automatic organic supports for miniatures. That said, for making support tweaks, I think this feature would still be useful.
Is your feature request related to a problem? Please describe. Not related to a problem, just an opportunity for improvement of a new feature.
Describe the solution you'd like I suppose this is two fold, but related. I would like to see a sensitivity slider for the 'Automatic Painting' feature. As it is, it is very over-eager primarily when used in combination with organic supports. In printing gaming miniatures, I find this feature helpful to ensure I am not missing spots, but I have to go back and erase most of what it adds or the supports will be too much. I think it may also be helpful to have a 'mark absolute overhang' feature, which may simply be related to a sensitivity slider. When I am going back and erasing and touching up my supports, it is easy to miss a tiny overhang, it would be nice if the slicer could spot and dot these, rather than paint a full area. In other words, if the slicer spots an absolutely unsupported in the air area, mark it with a radius of paint that the user could specify. For example, any fully unsupported (hanging in the air) layer would have a dot of support paint on it. (as if I had done it, but without missing a spot. :P)
Describe how it would work Though I described a bit above, This could work by having a slider under 'automatic painting' so that you could adjust the sensitivity of the paint. There also could be a checkbox that says something like 'Mark Unsupported with Brush'. The brush size is already a setting we can adjust so the automatic painting could pull from that. For example, If I set the sensitivity of automatic painting to max (meaning the most conservative), it might paint nothing at all, but if I set it to max and check 'Mark Unsupported with Brush', then it would mark only the absolute overhangs with a dot based on my brush size. This could be done by running a check on the size of an unsupported layer, if the unsupported layer is large and flat (larger than the brush size... then the whole area might be painted because each area (based on brush size) would qualify as unsupported. I think of this as similar to the empty layer check.
Describe alternatives you've considered I think maybe the main consideration is how to better catch and support unsupported downward 'spikes'. By this I mean, the new 'automatic painting' captures these well, but puts paint on them like all they have is a roller brush to do fingernails. The result is just too much. Conversely, using the paint overhangs only and setting an angle, does not do well for these situations either as there is often very little 'overhang' other than the fully unsupported downward wedge/spike bit. In other words, paint on overhangs only could also be tweaked to be have an option 'paint all overhangs with minimum brush size.', so that the paint extends out from the overhang part, but this would not logically fit the part where the tool states 'paint on overhangs only'.
A simpler alternative might just be to have the brush size affect the paint size of automatic painting. On looking at my image again (after posting) it seems to me that it is just automatically painting with a large brush. For example, it looks like you can see overpainting on the model's side from the brush used to support under the arm.
Additional context I really do enjoy this new automatic painting feature as it helps mark areas for me to adjust. Right now it is more useful as a spot check than it is as a 'push button and go' feature. Though, I respect that miniature printing is complicated and I do not ever expect a one and done button. lol. - Also, alternatively, this feature out of box probably shines best with rectilinear supports. It does not currently seem to suit the organic supports. I also attached an image to show you the kind of models I am talking about. I do edit these models quite a bit to reduce overhangs, but there will always be small downward points in some miniature models.
I have attached three images to make sense of my request:
01_AutomaticPainting_Default - Simply illustrates how overzealous default automatic painting is.
02_OverhangPaint_ProblemAreas - Illustrates how overhang painting does not help spot or capture supports for small downward model features.
03_Tweaked - Shows a quick freehand I did flipping between Automatic painting and overhang painting to manually touch up areas to ensure good enough support without throwing too much paint on it.