Even Edges

by Alternate Realms in Addons


What is it?


What does this add-on do?  It takes sequences of edges and treats them as splines. Then it re-distributes the input vertices along that spline in an even way.  It has options for how even you would like the vertices to be and also you can scale the spacing and move them up and down the spline. You also have options on exactly how the spline is created.  You can smooth the spline out, like relaxing it.  So it’s great for smoothing and evening out already created geometry.  Each sequence of edges are treated as separate entities.  They are not loops in the traditional sense.  Regular loops are topology based and can easily be broken when they hit non-quad areas of geometry.  These sequences are computed using vertex connection.  So triangles or N-Gons won’t stop them.  If they look like loops, they will work like loops.  That makes this tool much more useful than regular loop tools.

How does it work?


Find the operator in the mesh right click context menu.  It will appear towards the bottom of the list, but its position will depend on what other add-ons you have installed.

The operator will appear only when in edge mode.  It would be possible to select edges via verts or faces, it’s important to be able to exactly pick sensible sequences of edges.   



Interpolation

This is how the edge sequence is treated for interpolation.  The options are:

Linear - input edges are treated as straight lines.

Bezier - input verts are made into a smooth Bezier spline

Bezier Sweep - a single arc is built using the start and end verts and the directions will flow to the next/previous vertices in the sequence.

Bezier 3 Point - A bit like Bezier sweep but a point in the centre of the edge sequence is also added.  So you end up with 3 points along the edge sequence.

Evenness

How even the vert will be.  1.0, the verts will be evenly distributed. 0.0, the verts will maintain the original distances along the spline.

The verts are stored a percentages along the spline in the range 0.0 to 1.0 (the t value).  It is this t value that is evenly distributed.  In extreme cases it may be that the result distribution appears not exactly even. This is natural with standard Bezier interpolation


Pinch

This will squish the verts together or spread them out.

Bias

This moves the result vertices up and down the spline.

Regardless of the values for pinch and bias, vertices will not extend beyond the end points of the input sequence.  They won’t fall off the end.


Smoothing iterations

When the interpolation is set to either linear or Bezier then you have the option to smooth the input edge sequence.  This is done via an iterative relax method.  This controls how many iterations are performed.

Curvature

When the interpolation is set to Bezier sweep, this controls how the spline control handles are created.  When the curvature is 0.0, you will get a straight line.  You can then vary the value between 1.0 and -1.0 to curve the arc up and down.


Here’s a quick visual on how those interpolation types look.  The grey line is the verts of the input edges.  The dotted line is the interpolated virtual spline. The sequence’s verts will be distributed along these virtual splines.  Depending on the input edges any one of these interpolation types may give you the result you want to see.


Examples


A noisy mesh that is evened out and smoothed



Simple mesh that doesn’t use quads.  Simply evened out using bezier interpolation.


A very wibbly mesh that is evened out and then pinched together.


An example of the various controls on a simple mesh.

Using bezier sweep as the interpolation method.



Version History

1.0 Initial release




$8

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Details
Sales 20+
Published 19 days ago
Software Version 4.3, 4.2, 4.1, 4.0, 3.6
Extension Type Add-on
License GPL
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