Survival Guide
Seamless3d is one of the easiest 3d modellers for a beginner to get started and make something however Seamless3d is still in development so it can be critical how you use it. Not every thing works as you might expect but if you follow the tutorials written for Seamless3d III, Seamless should be easy and reliable to use. If something does not work from following a tutorial, first check you are using the latest version of Seamless3d before posting on the forum. So long as you specify which tutorial and where in the tutorial the problem arises, I will make it a priority to fix it. You can of cause experiment outside of the tutorials but the more you work outside of what is documented, the less you can expect things to work.
If Seamless Wont Open any More
If seamless wont open anymore but use to, go to the folder:
Documents\Seamless3d\Application Data For Seamless3d
and delete the settings.smls file.
Back Up Your Work
I can not stress enough the importance of frequently backing up your work so that if you spoil something or if seamless does something to make a file that can no longer be opened, you can go back to where you last backed up. Every time you save with Seamless3d, the previous file is automatically renamed before the file is saved so that you will create a backup every time you save. You will probably want to delete many of these backup files from time to time to reduce clutter but make sure the last file you saved can open before deleting anything as it is possible for a file to behave fine while it is open but not be able to open again after closing seamless.
When using seamless for tasks that are well tested like modelling a face, I trust seamless will be able to open the file after saving it but after performing more complex tasks that are less well tested, like importing patches and stitching them to an existing model, I like to verify seamless's internal logic has not got corrupted by saving the file, closing seamless down and then reopening the file. If seamless can open the file I trust it is good.
Don't rely on the undo feature to back up your work as this feature is not as reliable as backing up by saving your file.
Crashes and Undo/Redo
You can Undo
and Redo
using the buttons from the tool bar but do not rely on this without backing up your
work. If Seamless crashes unexpectedly you can usually retrieve your
work. Go to the folder:
Documents\Seamless3d\Application Data For Seamless3d\Recover
In here there will be all the smls files that get backed up after each command.
The incremental numbers for the filenames and the date of the file can help to figure which file was what.
Asking Questions on the Forum
Help is always on hand at the forum. Seamless3d specific questions are much valued but please use the forum rather than posting emails directly to me if possible because I get a lot of email spam and so can easilly miss it and others may benifit from your questions when posted on the forum.
Things to Avoid
1/ Saving files with a combination of stitched patches and build nodes that have not yet been converted to patches. I am not sure if this is still a problem but until this has been more well tested, always convert Build nodes to patches before saving a file or adding a new build node.
The following issues are perhaps best ignored if you are a beginner as they require an advanced understanding of seamless and should not occur from following tutorials written for beginners.
2/ Joining triangles from different parts. When modelling a face for example make sure all of the face uses patches that reference the same part where the triangles in the patches are expected to join. For something like the eyeballs for example where none of the triangles will join onto the face or any other part of the model, it does not matter if they use a different part node.
3/ Deleting nodes by right clicking on them in the scene tree window and selecting delete from the menu. I can usually get away with deleting nodes this way if I do a “save as” (never do a “save”) after deleting and then close down seamless and then reopen it but if I continue to delete nodes this way without closing seamless down, seamless is likely to crash.
4/ Opening more than one instance of Seamless3d at a time. I often break this rule but because currently Seamless3d's undo feature does not handle this scenario correctly, I have to advise against doing this.
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