Mesh Maker - The Modeling & Editing Collection

Hi neutrino353, unfortunately there doesn't seem to be any way to copy or modify the blendshapes of a skinned mesh. There is a feature request and some talk about this on the webpage here at http://answers.unity3d.com/questions/574745/is-it-possible-to-combine-skinnedmeshes-without-lo.html

If I can find a way to copy, paste or modify the blendshapes I will certainly put out updates with this feature. Being able to create new blendshapes in Unity would be great so I'm hoping to find a way.

 

@MediaGiant

I bought your mesh maker bundle. Should I be able to fix a model that is oriented in the wrong direction with say the mesh tools?

Also, seems that a lot of the videos are set to private for some reason.

Thanks

 

Hi Baraff, I would recommend using Mesh Editor to change the orientation and pivot point of the model. It is newer and easier to use. I will be going through the older programs and updating them to the newer code early in the new year.

I checked with the video manager on the Mesh Maker channel and believe they are all set to public (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCPOv7f7XLBzjzKUUbZ7jOCw). Only one is set to private since it is now outdated and has been replaced by a new video. Perhaps you ran into an old link to that one.

 

For those who have been wondering, I have been working on a new program for the collection for the past month. It is going well and I hope to have it ready for its first release within a couple of weeks.

I'd like to post some screenshots and information about it, but as this is a competitive market I'll have to leave that for when it is closer to the release date. I'm sure the wait will be worth it

 

I'll take a look at Mesh Editor for the job.

Also, the video I ran into was on your sale page here https://www.assetstore.unity3d.com/en/#!/content/15503

Also the support site tut pages do seem to do anything. I know the pdf's come with the package, so really just for your information.

Thanks.

 

A big thanks for letting us know about those missing tutorials. I've updated the website with the new pdf links (http://meshmaker.com/tutorials/) and yes, the link to the video on the Mesh Tools page was also outdated, so I will need to update that to the new video.

Cheers.

 

Hi All,

The latest addition to the collection has now been submitted. It should be available for download with Mesh Maker within a couple of days and the standalone version should be available early next week.

​

The new program is called Construction and it has been designed with ease of use in mind. Using a grid layout makes placing the walls, floors, tiles, roofs, stairs and other features of the building a simple task. By combining these features you can quickly create new custom houses, apartments, factories and other structures for your projects.​

​

To see what the program can do you can check out the following videos…

Construction Speed Build


Video Tutorial
​

The PDF tutorial is also available for download...

​

Thanks for checking out the new program and I look forward to seeing the new constructions.​

Alan

​

 

I tried a few walls, seems to work. Could you give some dungeon-making hints please? Like how to make a doorway
with a header, and how to make stairs to the next floor.

 

Hi hike1, the program is more of a house creation tool rather than a world building tool. The workflow is designed around creating individual house prefabs which you can then reuse multiple times to populate large levels.

In time I will be optimizing everything to make it faster, but as it stands there is too much recreation of whole floors when editing to be a comfortable experience using the program to create a large level.

Stairs are easy, just select the stairs mode and drag out a long enough rectangle (about 4-5 squares) and adjust the slider to create the slope you want. In the video I show stairs for a foundation wall but the same is true for normal wall heights.

For doors you can use the arched wall and I will be adding more general types of doorways. Another trick would be to use a feature to cut the hole for the doorway and then delete the feature just before clicking on the Build button. This leaves the hole in the wall without a feature in it.

Yesterday I updated the program to output an optimized mesh with the minimum number of materials so that should be ready to download if a couple of days. With this update you can use features from the project window, the hierarchy window and even primitive shapes added to the scene as features.

 

Whenever I try to use Boolean Ops it crashes.

 

The problems with getting constructive solid geometry to work well on any meshes became apparent very early, which is why I released it for free on the Asset Store. This gives people a chance to try out the program before looking at the full collection.

A couple of suggestions for using Boolean Ops, try starting with a new project and working with simple cubes to see if that works for you. Also try performing the operations on meshes that are located at or close to the origin of the world as this does help with the floating point math.

The program is certainly due for a rewrite and I'm trying to balance creating the new version with work on the Construction program. The coming new year will be spent cleaning up many of the early programs as well as adding a few large new projects to the collection.

 

Hi, I just purchased and downloaded the Mesh Maker and three windows/apps are just showing up blank. The first is the first; 3D brush, the second is Geom and the third ( which also crashes the program ) is Sculptor. I'm using a macbook Air laptop but also tried to open the same windows on my iMac with the same results.
I've looked at the tutorial and it seems that all three windows should have content when first opening them up ( at the very least I'm sure they shouldn't have crashed the program ).
Is there a preferences tweak I can make? What would you recommend?

 

Hi eccoecco, there seems to have been a change to the asset store policy for empty folders. In a few cases the empty folders used in the package, like UndoRedo, are not being imported correctly. Could you please create a new empty folder in the MeshMaker folder called UndoRedo.

This should fix the problem for Geom and 3D Brush, and Sculptor may be missing a Meshes or Prefabs folder which is causing the program to crash.

I've added new code to check and create these folders if they are missing which I will roll out in a quick update soon. Sorry for any problems this has caused and I will post a notice about this if it seems to be happening on a large scale.

Alan

 

Alan,
Thanks for the quick reply.
I added a UndoRedo folder in the MeshMaker folder and that seems to have 3D brush and Geom working ( at least the windows are open ). However I don't know where to add the folders "Meshes" or "Prefabs" as there's no folder designated Sculptor.

Also, when it comes to playing with the UVs in the Mesh Tools/ transform textures nothing happens. Also, Mesh Painter doesn't seem to be doing anything either.
I'm still introducing myself to your program so I like to think I'm doing something wrong ( since I keep running into issues ). I'll keep exploring and let you know.

 

The "Meshes" and "Prefabs" folders may already be there but if not they are supposed to be located in the same MeshMaker folder.

With Mesh Painter this is most likely a hotkey issue. By default it is set to Left Ctrl but on the Mac it will need to be changed to some other key. If you could change it to the Command key that should work but you can try others like the Tab key for example.

Regarding the texture transform tool in Mesh Tools, it is probably a hotkey issue too, but I would recommend using Mesh Editor to do the transforms as it is easier to use and more reliable.

Since the collection is made up of 13 different programs there may seem to be more issues. In reality a lot of work has been done trying to keep up with the arbitrary changes that Unity introduces with their frequent updates, the missing empty folders just being the latest of these.

As you may have read above, the new year will be spent cleaning up many of the early programs, as well as adding a few new projects to the collection, so before long we hope to get the whole lot sorted and polished up.

 

I have models that get imported with front facing -Y and with a variety of named groups corresponding to different parts I'd like to manipulate together in script. MeshMaker is not proving helpful, as I can hardly care about the pivot of the GameObjects that have Meshes on them -- the important GameObjects whose pivots I'd like to alter are these Meshless parent GameObjects that group the Mesh GOs together.

For instance:

"GunTurret" (logical GO that script wants to position and yaw back and forth)
--> child 1 "Object 1" (a mesh that is part of the geometry of the gunhouse)
--> child 2 "Object 2" (another mesh that is part of the geometry of the gunhouse)
...
--> child N "Object N" (another mesh that is part of the geometry of the gunhouse)
-->Left Gun (logical GO of a gun within the turret that must elevate around its trunnion)
-->--> child 1 "Object 1" (a mesh that is part of the geometry of the left gun)
-->--> child 2 "Object 2" (another mesh that is part of the geometry of the left gun)
-->Right Gun (logical GO of a second gun within the turret that must elevate around its trunnion)
-->--> child 1 "Object 1" (a mesh that is part of the geometry of the right gun)
-->--> child 2 "Object 2" (another mesh that is part of the geometry of the right gun)

Within this simplified example, the names of the mesh-laden GOs have unpredictable names and the position and orientation of their pivots matters not at all, as they are positioned and oriented correctly relative to their parent and exist only because some export/import art path decided they should. The pivots that DO matter are those of GunTurret, LeftGun and RightGun, and MeshMaker does not operate on such GameObjects. I'd like to position and direct these (the work to be done would seem to be altering the GO's actual transforms and applying an inverse transform to the pivots of all children GOs of any type... or similar).

Can this be addressed?

 

Hi Tony, I believe you are referring to Mesh Editor when you say it is not proving helpful and you say you would like to alter the pivot point of a game object that doesn't have a mesh.

If you would like to change the position or rotation of the parent objects, the logical game object without a mesh, without changing the position of the child objects, the easiest way to do this is by selecting the child objects in the hierarchy and then changing the values for their transform in the inspector, to the opposite direction/rotation you wanted for the parent object, and then you change the parents transform and everything should line up.

If however you would like to "hard code" this into the child objects geometry then you can certainly do this by using Mesh Editor on each of the child objects, the ones with meshes. The reason for this is because the mesh doesn't actually have a pivot point component. It is implied by the positions of its vertices relative to the origin in local space.

I hope this helps explain why trying to change the pivot point on a game object without a mesh component won't work. If you have any further questions please let me know here or by writing to me at support@meshmaker.com.

 

Hi,

I just imported MeshMaker. First thing i did was pressing on the 3d Brush Menubutton.
What happend right after that is this endless errormessage:
DirectoryNotFoundException: Directory 'D:\......\Assets\MeshMaker\UndoRedo' not found.
System.IO.Directory.GetFileSystemEntries (System.String path, System.String searchPattern, FileAttributes mask, FileAttributes attrs) (at /Users/builduser/buildslave/mono-runtime-and-classlibs/build/mcs/class/corlib/System.IO/Directory.cs:514)
System.IO.Directory.GetFiles (System.String path, System.String searchPattern) (at /Users/builduser/buildslave/mono-runtime-and-classlibs/build/mcs/class/corlib/System.IO/Directory.cs:308)
System.IO.DirectoryInfo.GetFiles (System.String searchPattern) (at /Users/builduser/buildslave/mono-runtime-and-classlibs/build/mcs/class/corlib/System.IO/DirectoryInfo.cs:165)
MeshMakerNamespace.Brush3DWindow.DeleteUndoFiles ()
MeshMakerNamespace.Brush3DWindow.Initialize ()
MeshMakerNamespace.Brush3DWindow.OnGUI ()
System.Reflection.MonoMethod.Invoke (System.Object obj, BindingFlags invokeAttr, System.Reflection.Binder binder, System.Object[] parameters, System.Globalization.CultureInfo culture) (at /Users/builduser/buildslave/mono-runtime-and-classlibs/build/mcs/class/corlib/System.Reflection/MonoMethod.cs:222)

and can't stop the error from repeating endlessly,
the blank window - 3d Brush is on the left corner, which i can't close or interact with.
what should i don now?

Thanks for help.

 

Hello Hormic,

The Asset Store recently changed how the importer handles empty folders. It now doesn't create the folders within the package that are empty and this is causing the problem. If you could create an new empty folder within the MeshMaker folder called UndoRedo then this should fix the problem.

I have added new code to check and automatically create these empty folders where needed and this will be rolled out with the next update.

 

Thank you very much, this solved the problem, now i'm ready to go along.
I want to create a level - (like doom), so which tool is the right one to do this?
I will try with constructor first, or is the Mesh Editor, or Geom the way to go?

edit:Folder Designs was also missing

 

That's good to hear, only 3D Brush and Geom use this folder so it shouldn't affect the other programs.

The best tool to use for creating a level would be Construction. But think of it as a house building tool which creates prefabs of buildings that are fast to load and reuse the same assets. So if you were to create a dozen or so buildings you would have the basis for a nice open world scene with buildings that you could enter and interact with.

 

Thank you but i have still problems, don't get construction to work.
Don't know if the error is on my side, cause i can't build foundations like you did it in the tutorial video.

But i have another errormessage:
UnityException: You can generate UVs only for meshes with vertices inited.
UnityEditor.Unwrapping.GeneratePerTriangleUV (UnityEngine.Mesh src, UnwrapParam settings) (at C:/buildslave/unity/build/artifacts/generated/common/editor/InternalUtilityBindings.gen.cs:3955)
UnityEditor.Unwrapping.GeneratePerTriangleUV (UnityEngine.Mesh src) (at C:/buildslave/unity/build/artifacts/generated/common/editor/InternalUtilityBindings.gen.cs:3948)
UnityEditor.Unwrapping.GenerateSecondaryUVSet (UnityEngine.Mesh src) (at C:/buildslave/unity/build/artifacts/generated/common/editor/InternalUtilityBindings.gen.cs:3966)
MeshMakerNamespace.Construction.SaveAssets (System.String meshName, UnityEngine.GameObject theObject)
MeshMakerNamespace.Construction.ConstructionGUI ()
MeshMakerNamespace.Construction.OnGUI ()
System.Reflection.MonoMethod.Invoke (System.Object obj, BindingFlags invokeAttr, System.Reflection.Binder binder, System.Object[] parameters, System.Globalization.CultureInfo culture) (at /Users/builduser/buildslave/mono-runtime-and-classlibs/build/mcs/class/corlib/System.Reflection/MonoMethod.cs:222)

 

Hmm, it has worked now and i was able to build a foundation, but i don't know what happend.
now i can't construct further, i'm in the normal unity transform cursor mode and not in the construction mode.
how can i switch between the construction mode and the standard unity mode?

edit: ok, maybe i should watch the tutorial more carefully, it works with the control key.
But the Construction tool is really great, when i get used to it i think it is the fastest way to prototype a leveldesign (and to build regular houses of course within unity.

edit 2: another errormessages:
Serialization depth limit exceeded at 'ceometric.ComputationalGeometry::MeshEdge'. There may be an object composition cycle in one or more of your serialized classes.

Some objects were not cleaned up when closing the scene. (Did you spawn new GameObjects from OnDestroy?)

 

Glad it is working for you, and yes, when the Construction window is open you are able to build by holding down the control key.

The Serialization error message is a known one which doesn't affect the program usage. It only shows up once when you first start using Mesh Maker and is due to a third party plugin that I cannot edit. As per Unity policy it wasn't reported at all before Unity 4.5, but was added afterwards. You can read about the whole story here at http://forum.unity3d.com/threads/4-5-serialization-depth.248321/

The other message about the objects not being cleaned up is common warning that you will find with extensions that generate meshes and/or textures within the editor. It just means that the assets haven't been saved or deleted yet, since the program is still using them, and Unity is letting us know about them.

When I have some spare time from working on a large project I will go through and clean up the programs to remove these warnings. In the meantime these messages are nothing to worry about.

 

Thank you very much.

What i find a bit annoying is, that the mesh maker menu is flashing up and down all the time.
Is this the normal behavior?
For instance every time i klick on an asset in the project view the menu pops up and it flashes yellow every few clicks.

and i have another errormessage, which makes my project unaccessable again:
MissingReferenceException: The object of type 'GameObject' has been destroyed but you are still trying to access it.
Your script should either check if it is null or you should not destroy the object.
MeshMakerNamespace.Construction.ConstructionOnSceneGUI (UnityEditor.SceneView sceneView)
MeshMakerNamespace.Construction.OnSceneGUI (UnityEditor.SceneView sceneView)
UnityEditor.SceneView.CallOnSceneGUI () (at C:/buildslave/unity/build/Editor/Mono/SceneView/SceneView.cs:2068)
UnityEditor.SceneView.HandleSelectionAndOnSceneGUI () (at C:/buildslave/unity/build/Editor/Mono/SceneView/SceneView.cs:1405)
UnityEditor.SceneView.OnGUI () (at C:/buildslave/unity/build/Editor/Mono/SceneView/SceneView.cs:1242)
System.Reflection.MonoMethod.Invoke (System.Object obj, BindingFlags invokeAttr, System.Reflection.Binder binder, System.Object[] parameters, System.Globalization.CultureInfo culture) (at /Users/builduser/buildslave/mono-runtime-and-classlibs/build/mcs/class/corlib/System.Reflection/MonoMethod.cs:222)

Maybe i have deleted an object unrecognized, but to be honest, the possibilitys and functionality what your Asset has to offer is fantastic, but i'm scared to brake my project with one unintentional (and perhaps wrong from my side) move in the editor.

 

Hello again Hormic,

At the bottom of the settings window (Window/Mesh Maker/Settings) are values you can set to change the frequency or color of the flashing. You can also turn off the flashing altogether by unchecking the check box.

What you are doing is changing assets or scripts in the project window, not just clicking on an asset. This forces Unity to reload its assemblies, which in turn causes the program to recompile and the menu to flash.

Many of the programs create a working object in the scene hierarchy. Geom will create one called "Geom Framework" and Construction will create one called "Construction". If you delete this working object or start a new scene then the program will report a missing reference exception.

Thousands of people have brought and used this tool set and they haven't had a problem with the working objects. Even well known assets like ProBuilder create special objects in the hierarchy with names like "pb-Cube" or something similar. If you were to delete these objects or change to a new scene I'm sure you would find that the program appears broken too.

I strongly recommend that you read the tutorials for all of the other programs and if you really want help while learning by trial and error why not write to me at support@meshmaker.com?

Best regards,
Alan

 

yes thank you very much, i don't want to spam this thread anymore. i will send you emails in the future.

 

Dear MediaGiant,.........
Message deleted after seeing support email >_<
-Raven

 

When I first lock in and save a mesh to edit with Mesh Editor the saved mesh has 3894 verts whereas the original only had 874 verts. This is without editing it at all. The model's tris also became very evident and the model looks lower poly/pooer quality even tho the verts have quadrupled... Anything I'm missing?

 

Hi christougher,

I can't say I've seen this before. The program creates a copy of the original mesh and uses the original number of verts in the loop code so it should be impossible to increase the vertex count at this stage. The most likely reason may be that some other action is causing the program to remove all shared vertices and create unique vertices, but this will only happen if you are editing the textures and the program will prompt you before doing so.

Is it a skinned mesh or in any way different than a standard mesh? If you can provide any other info about this that will surely help.

 

Version 2.0.2 of Mesh Maker has been out for about a week now which includes a few fixes. The missing empty folder problem should be a thing of the past and the program now contains an internal list of keys for selecting a hotkey. You can still edit the keys.txt file if you need to add new keys to the selector, but if the file is missing after importing at least it won't throw an error.

You may still see a error or two such as "System.Reflection.TargetInvocationException" or "Serialization Depth Limit Exceeded" which aren't critical and don't affect the functionality of the programs. They are related to a third party plugin that I cannot edit so please disregard them should they show up.

I know many of you have been waiting for the next update of Mesh Editor and I thank you for your patience while I worked to get Construction released. I also took some time off to relax after a busy year, so now I'm ready to get busy on the update which will include the following new features and changes:

Edge splitting
Edge bridging
Hole filling
Individual UV handling
Handles to move and rotate the pivot point
Feature to smooth or facet edges
Fix for unique vertices to keep existing normals
Improved GUI to accommodate the new features

I look forward to bringing you the next update as soon as possible. If you have any feature requests please let us know by writing to support@meshmaker.com

 

Yes this is very bizarre, I've used Mesh Editor in the past with no such issues. The mesh seems to be as normal as any other. It uses a normal mesh renderer. It's using the standard shader with typical settings...

I tried something different just now and it seems to be working better... Instead of dragging in prefabs into the scene to edit I dragged in the original fbx. There was no bizarre quadrupling the vert count when I started editing immediately...

ooops never mind a few moments later at some point the vert count goes up and the file size of the new mesh goes up as well. The Tri count however stays the same. The only thing I've done at this point is lock it in, save it and select some faces...

Thx for your reply and looking forward to the new changes as I was just barely wishing for some edge bridging/hole filling goodness. Also, are you still planning on a poly reduce asset? That would be awesome.

 

There may be a difference after importing the fbx model. I've read many posts about discrepancies between what is being reported by the modeling app and Unity after the import. For example:
http://forum.unity3d.com/threads/vertices-being-doubled-on-import.15732/
http://gamedev.stackexchange.com/questions/66401/how-does-unity3d-lower-an-imported-obj-vertex-count

An increased vertex count doesn't affect performance though. To the graphics card even shared vertices are considered unique when fed into the pipeline, so unless you are hitting the 65k limit it won't make any difference to the rendering speed.

The work is progressing on the update, a bit slower than normal due to the heat and humidity here, but it coming along nicely. I wrote a LOD program a few months ago but it wasn't optimal and lost important details so I will certainly be returning to the subject again in the future.

 

So...when you adding bone rigging? LOL!

my faith in your abilities are apparently endless....

may I add there is a dramatic shortage (read:none) of unity editor tools that address this to my knowledge... =p

 

Thanks RavenMikal, with such faith how can I say no? I've been reading a lot about the UMA project, it's specific to Unity, looks good and a lot of work has already gone into it so it's lining up as my preferred choice for character creation. I'd love to put out a few tools to make the whole job easier, faster and fun, however I'm always open to suggestions

 

Hello !, I'm trying to make an athletic track and I can not bend a flat track and make it curve .... not all the tools which can do this...
Please help!

My model:
http://www.turboimagehost.com/p/25448314/Athletic_track.png.html

Create curves like this:
http://www.turboimagehost.com/p/25448282/PistaAtletismo.png.html

Thanks for help!
Ariel Tapia.

 

Hi Ariel, I'm sure what you are asking for is doable but it would take a very specialized tool to do it. There isn't a tool within the Mesh Maker collection that could do this.

There are tools on the asset store that can morph a mesh but may not be up to creating perfect curves from straight lines, given how textures would need to be perfect too.

 

Hi @Arieltm ,

I suppose you could try using meshcutter to split a circle and weld it to some straights but like @MediaGiant said it's the textures that will be a problem.

Another options is this - https://www.assetstore.unity3d.com/en/#!/content/51123.

I bought this and the wild west pack for my game and they are really nice. The stadium is a much smaller pack but really nice and the adverts boards etc are left blank so textures can be added. I have no affiliation with them but they are good developer.

doc

 

sweet....using that asset and the meshtool, you could make yourself a track kit, Just split up the tracks curbs into two quarter circle segments, flip one to be able to turn it in the opposite direction if you'd like, and your straight

Ha! suck on that, wonderpets!!! Now who's about teamwork??!!! =p!

 

<=== short video showing a couple of models I've been turning into pilotable mechs for an upcoming game I'm working on for Android/Ios/Win with the help of meshCutter/MeshTools and MeshEditor. Totally why I fell in love with this toy ^_^

 

Thanks I'll try those options and consider the use of some asset as recommended would save a lot of time!

Ariel Tapia...

 

It's a great job! .... I will start using these recommendations, we're with friends doing this project.

Thanks for the help!

 

Is there any option to do UV mapping to a skinned mesh renderer. We've got some characters we want to create a better texture. We did some combinations to reduce drawcalls and now the auto created atlas has very bad quality.

 

I'm trying out your texture atlas maker, shouldn't the normal maps be part of the texture atlas? They're not showing up,
maybe a new texture atlas?
Right now the 1 mesh has 12 materials, how do I get make a material using your texture atlas?

 

Looking good RavenMikal! Today I was cutting the tail off of a monkey to demonstrate the program to a customer. Here are the results and a sneak preview of the new Mesh Editor window.



The garment was also single sided so I used the Double Sided Triangles feature to fix that too.



Thanks for sharing your work, it's great to see what people are building.

 

Sorry for the late reply, I've been a bit distracted lately. Mesh Editor currently has the ability to move, rotate and scale textures but you probably will need finer control over the selection and movement of the UV coordinates which is why I'm working on this feature for the next release. I can't give a definite date but hopefully not too far away.

 

Hello hike1, again I apologize for the late reply. The normal maps are generated from the original normal maps and a new normal map atlas is produced alongside the texture atlas.

In the material list the normal maps are shown as belonging to the original materials.



In the atlas preview window only the textures are shown. The normal map atlas will mirror the positions and sizes as laid out here.



You will find the new normal map atlas in the folder where you saved the combined prefab. In the inspector you can see the new texture atlas and normal map atlas have been applied to the new material.



The same is true for the Standard Shader and the final set of atlases will depend on the properties of the initial materials. I hope that helps, I will put out a new video for the next release of Prefab Maker and discuss this in more detail.

Regards,
Alan

 

Hey... I'm trying to use Mesh Editor's texture mode to move textures around accurately on each face of a cube, but dragging the manipulators around it is impossible to be accurate. Is there any shortcut key I'm missing that would allow me to enter number values for scaling and moving the textures?

 

Hi WarpBubble, the handles allow for a fairly smooth movement and are suitable for a standard texture resolution. If the texture is small or atlased then the movement may be too coarse. At the moment the handles are the only way to adjust the texture scale and position but these can be used in conjunction with the tiling and offset values in the inspector window for greater flexibility. The next version allows for the manipulation of individual or groups of UV coordinates which makes scaling a lot easier.

To those that have been waiting, the update is very close to release and I'd like to thank everyone for their patience while I dealt with some personal issues this year.

 

No problem. Life is hard at times. Most normal people understand that so don't worry about it.

doc