Snap to edge/corner Feature

[OnePercent]

has it been discussed to death, Is it inevitable or is the developer not going to implement it? what are the reasons why? etc.

 

ITT pictures that trigger you:

[LordMaddog]

never seen it brought up before BUT defiantly needed!

 

As a builder I have encountered this problem multiple times but it only happens if you have scaled your mesh otherwise the scale step system makes it easy to match every joint.

 

So the better fix might be to fix the scaling making incorrect steps

[OnePercent]

never seen it brought up before BUT defiantly needed!

 

As a builder I have encountered this problem multiple times but it only happens if you have scaled your mesh otherwise the scale step system makes it easy to match every joint.

 

So the better fix might be to fix the scaling making incorrect steps

 

Even if you perfectly remain on 0.05 the entire build you still eventually encounter this, where they don't line up, because of the nature of curves do not follow the grid system, basically, Shapes lengths and widths correctly follow the scaling system and remain flush, but once you try and implement differing angles (which are used in curves) the blocks then start to unalign with each other.

[LordMaddog]

O I all ways thought it was because I scaled it lol

 

[MrVorgra]

I happens irregardless of the shape your intending to build, you are able to essentially push a block into another object, its hard to explain but I notice it ALL the time in so many situations that I have been unable to narrow down the reason, The only and entirely valid solution is to simply look at each block you place, don't expect them to work the way you want.

[oreganor]

A few comments:

 

- Ships are designed as blocks linked together. Meaning that a "match to corner" would never be able to be implemented easily because can't be described easily by a primitive shape plus 3 scaling factors. In theory, we can have curved primitives that later are scaled (In the same way that we have triangular, etc) but the problem will still remain as blocks are attached primarily with a single surface.

 

- Currently the game allows for blocks attached to different normals to overlap to a very generous extent. This can be used to blend them in a nicer way FOR A GIVEN CURRENT OVERALL SCALE. If you scale the model, the attachment points move and, unless your scaling operations are strictly symertical (using the Q key), all "manual blending" will be displaced. This "feature" (That can be exploited to "create" extra volume on ships) may or may not stay... The procedural generation uses it plenty, so there is a high chance that stays on the final version.

 

- When creating "curves", that can be scaled "nicely", it's safer to use pairs of triangular sections rotated so they create "curved struts" and attach them at the extremes to regular surfaces... You should never try to attach curved struts between themselves or to perpendicular structures in the "middle", if you have scaling in mind.

[Brigadon]

What I want to know is how they made the 'angled cubes' on shipyards, and if we are ever going to get a slanting-cube tool :)

[Ohm is Futile]

You know you have a match shape checkbox? You also know you have a scroll menu that allows you to change snapping to "block middle" right?

 

The example in the OP is the result of not being aware of techniques that help with this. That said, there does seem to be a problem with the grids. The larger a ship gets, the more chance that you'll get weird offsets that may not even be multiples of the scaling/grid steps you are using. Very weird.

 

Quick tip in case you didn't know, use a scaling level 2x your grid steps. Helps a lot. or even 4x allows more fiddling with different scales when you get to finer details.

 

What I want to know is how they made the 'angled cubes' on shipyards, and if we are ever going to get a slanting-cube tool :)

You use edges back to back. It's not perfect, but you can make shapes like this one using this technique:

 

In case it's not clear, imagine you are looking at the parallelogram at the front in this picture. Takes its top left corner and imagine you are drawing a line straight down. That tells you how to place your edge. You can do the same using the bottom right corner by drawing a line straight up. Does that make sense?

[Fox]

What I want to know is how they made the 'angled cubes' on shipyards, and if we are ever going to get a slanting-cube tool :)

Like this you mean?

[OnePercent]

What I want to know is how they made the 'angled cubes' on shipyards, and if we are ever going to get a slanting-cube tool :)

 

put triangles back to back

[Warrax]

One effect i often use is the "centre block" - Not quite what you're after, but often useful in a tight spot.

 

I also use templates - which i will delete after.

[Splutty]

When you're messing with angles, calculate your sides and put them in manually, instead of relying on the 0.05 size/grid.

 

http://www.mathwarehouse.com/triangle-calculator/online.php

 

 

[Wilponderoci]

forgive me splutty...

 

but how the hell do you use that calculator

 

from where to where and what to what are the calculations youre discussing?

 

Am I to assume that you count the number of snaps to grid (game feedback) and perform some sort of arbitrary calculation based on ships entire size?

 

im sorry for being so obtuse but as much logical/practical spatial awareness I may posses IRL this method confuses me.

 

Apologies to the OP as well as I think this is getting mildy ot

 

[Splutty]

Heh. Trigonometry. That's how I built my sphere ships, and you get sides of 1.08, 2.83, etc.

 

The side of a triangle with a 90 degrees corner and 2 45 degrees corners are 2,2,2.83 respectively.

 

If you know side and angles, you can calculate the other sides, and determine what the measurements for blocks should be that are interacting with those triangles.

[MetalX]

When I saw this thread title I thought they were going to be asking for a feature that allows for precise snapping of one block that is smaller to the end or edge of another block that is larger or longer.

 

The best way I have figured out to overcome the lack of that feature is to build a block the same size of the block I am trying to place, in a "match block" fashion onto the end of the block I am trying to build on.  Then I take a block the same size as the block I am trying to place and place it on top of the new block i just made.  I then take the block I want to build and build it onto the second block.  Then to finish it off I delete the additional 2 blocks I used to achieve the "joint".  This leaves me with exactly the two blocks joined together I wanted, one at the end of another, with no over or underlap.

 

Giving us a snap to edge feature would shorten that process down to dragging the block tot he edge then picking whether you want the inside of the edge or the outside of the, like the way we can pick which block to use for snapping when copy and pasting a set of blocks.

 

This would not be a fundamental change however, it would merely be a quality of life change, as, clearly, we can already work around it.

And if you don't know what I am talking about here, well, you just aren't "there" yet.

 

The screenshot in the original post is clearly user error.  And not the result of a lack of edge snapping at all.  What the original poster is trying to do in that screenshot is actually quite simple and easy to do.

 

I feel kind of insulted that I am here because of a misleading title.

 

Now, if you find a shape you want to make, then make it.  This build engine is practically limitless.  I have yet to find a shape I wanted to make and then not be able to somehow make it.  The ship I am working on right now has taken me over 2 weeks to build and is well over 20,000 blocks now.  I am using practically every geometric shape one can think of on this ship.  And quite frankly, the only issues I am having now is that the game keeps crashing in build mode for various reasons, including two very scary bluescreen crashes.  I even had to stop using mirror mode because the game cannot handle mirroring thousands of blocks.  The time it takes the game to place the second block in mirror mode is now almost 3 seconds.  I just gave up and am now finishing it in no mirror mode.  I estimate that when completely finished the ship is going to consist of over 30,000 blocks.

 

And to be real here, I would not be using blocks as large the ones in that screenshot above, I would have manually created each of those big blocks out of smaller blocks, and instead of being filled with air, I would fill them with generators or thrusters or anything but blank blocks.