Normals based selection and quadrify

[clintonman]

Two sets of tools, one for expanding a face selection to all faces that point in the same direction. The other is a quadrify tool also based on face normals. It can be used to convert a triangulated mesh into quads.

The triangles to quads method isn't perfect and may require a few runs to get a clean mesh.

TriangulatedMesh.jpg (44.76 KiB) Viewed 2877 times

NormalBasedQuads.jpg (40 KiB) Viewed 2877 times

These images show a before and after. The final quads came after 3 runs of the tool while increasing the tolerance setting between each run.

http://clintons3d.com/plugins/truespace ... tools.html

[clintonman]

I was finally able to test the quadrify on a real model.
7000 triangles, not all that big.
This thing is really slow. So I guess an update will be coming soon.

[clintonman]

I updated the quadrify by normals tool so it is only slow now. Instead of totally useless slow. I added another option that quadrify without calculating the normals of the triangles. This runs much faster and gives a good result.
The new technique takes the current face selection and merges it into 1 face, then optimizes the triangulation and finally quadrify it. The results are instantaneous. You just can't use it on the entire mesh at once and still get a good result.
The old way of using normals is still an option because during testing the new way gave a mediocre result on one selection and the old way was better. Most of the time the new way final quads are just as good as the old slow way.

[trueBlue]

Using - Select Face Loops works pretty good with your Quadrify by Normals tool

Face Loops.png (72.64 KiB) Viewed 2848 times

Question?
Does this tool really remove the triangles?

[clintonman]

Using - Select Face Loops works pretty good with your Quadrify by Normals tool
Face Loops.png
Question?
Does this tool really remove the triangles?

It basically converts the selection to one large face then runs quadrify on it.

[trueBlue]

If you check Show triangles in the Mesh Editor Settings, you will still see triangles.

[clintonman]

Nothing will ever remove the triangles. trueSpace is all triangles with edge visibility set to give the appearance of polygons.

[trueBlue]

Okay thanks!
As Trump would say, "Removes FAKE triangles".
Kidding of course! These are great tools!
Adding these to the UU(s)
One thing I notice though with your defaults, Grow Normals selection does not do anything with Select Connected checked.
Is there a reason for having the Select Connected default set to checked?

[clintonman]

...
One thing I notice though with your defaults, Grow Normals selection does not do anything with Select Connected checked.
Is there a reason for having the Select Connected default set to checked?
Defaults.png

Try increasing your angle tolerance. The reason for the default checked is because it's the most likely outcome desired. There are probably uses for unchecking but that would be a less common usage.

notconnected.jpg (48.23 KiB) Viewed 2814 times

Here's a sample of what you can get if it's not checked. If checked I just get the top faces when clicking on a top face.

[clintonman]

QuadrifyByNormal node attached