Trenchbroom: Rotating groups of selected vertices?

[Razumen]

It would be great if it was possible to rotate groups of vertices together, or even selected faces as well. I often find myself forced to do it a vertex at a time which can really mess up their overall arrangement, which is a big problem for large groups of brushes. Obviously there would be a limit to this to preserve brush convexity(sp?).

[kduske]

I don‘t understand. What do you mean by rotating? About what axis? Can you give an example?

[eGax]

@Razumen I had the same thought last night! I think it's the same.

@kduske if his idea is like mine it would work kind of how it is in Blender and probably many(3dMax?) modelling programs rotates and scales, but I'm currently unable to demonstrate that in Blender. Basically, I think he wants to be able to in TB select a group vertexes or faces, enable the rotate tool and it would behave as it already does, grab one of the 3 handles (x,y,z) and rotate those along the selected axis handle, but only affecting those selected vertexes or faces and I guess in turn altering the brush(s) connect to those vertexes up to the next closest vertexes, edges or faces in the brush.

I can show one screenshot of me in Blender with the top face selected and I am rotating along the z axis.

Just imagine it with the TB rotation widget. Not sure what fresh hell this would introduce, but the idea might have merit. I or anyone can demonstrate this in a video, but I am currently on the job. I can later if you would like.

Scaling would work the same way. Say for instance start with the default brush, select the top corner vertexes or face, enable scale tool and be able to scale the in or out along which one of the XYZ axis you like. Blender is even a bit smart about it if I select a top face of a brush it would scale along the X & Y only not the Z. As of right now, you need to select one corner vertex at a time and move them one after the other to either scale or rotate their pattern/shape.

I would think it would speed up workflow a lot. Is it worth hassle coding into TB? Would it actually be a hassle? I have no idea myself.

Is any of this helping? Does it make more sense now? I can make a video at least demonstrating in Blender further if needed.

[kduske]

I don't think this is a very useful addition. It is a lot of effort for a very special purpose, and I'm more in favor of adding more powerful functions that can be combined easily. In this case, you can already achieve the same result with the existing tools: Create the bottom cube (which is not rotated) and create a cube sitting on at the height where the rotated face is. Rotate the upper cube, select its bottom face and the top face of the bottom cube, then create the convex hull.

[Razumen]

I agree that the above example is very simple and can be achieved easily through other methods, but in the case of having several brushes selected together, where you need to be able to move and rotate their vertices together, that solution just isn't possible or practical-though I understand this is a bit more of a niche feature.