Multipoly vs. Combine
LordEntrails
Traveler
Is anyone willing to say a few words on the differences, benefits, and drawbacks of using Multipoly (mpoly2) versus the Combine (cmb) commands?
From what I can tell, mpoly2 joins different types of elements into a single poly, while cmb only joins Paths into a single poly. I had been using Path to Poly with CMB to get polys for filling, but I'm thinking MPOLY2 might be a better tool?
From what I can tell, mpoly2 joins different types of elements into a single poly, while cmb only joins Paths into a single poly. I had been using Path to Poly with CMB to get polys for filling, but I'm thinking MPOLY2 might be a better tool?
Comments
Combine is really a path tool that lets you join paths together, and is most useful if you are using the hand drawing tool to draw things on your map, and decide that two lines in particular really need to be just the one line.
Path to poly is also a separate thing in its own right - used mainly to create a polygon from a hand drawn line - most usually one drawn using the freehand drawing tool. I use it 99% of the time instead of the other more fancy drawing tools, just because that's how I work. I draw stuff freehand, then make polys out of my lines.
It really does depend on what you want to achieve, and in most cases there are a number of different ways to achieve the same visual effect. For example, with the multipoly tool you could just as easily draw the roof intact, add a Colour Key Sheet effect and effectively subtract the holes from the rooftop by drawing them as polygons in the Colour Key colour.
So what I have been using these tools for is something simple; like where I want a shape that has two straight lines connected by a fractalized or spline type entity. (Such as the Curtain of Blackness in the other thread). So I draw for or more entities of different types (lines, paths, etc) and then want to join then so I can use a fill on them.
I've used both, and they both seem to work, but didn't know what best practice is.
I tend to use Colour Key effects rather than multipolys because multipolys are dead awkward to edit (you have to explode them, edit the parts, then re-multipoly them). Some people who like to move things around a lot more than I do may prefer them, however, because its not so easy to move a roof with holes in it if each of those holes is a separate poly to the roof top - as it would be if you used a Colour Key effect.
Here are some exmaples.
For some cases (especially when you want a shape with holes in it), CMB doesn't cut it, and then I resort to multipolies.
What is best for each situation comes with experience though. Just use the one you feel gives you the result you need.
I've been using CMB because that what the TUM taught me. But then I was mousing over the various tools and remembered MPoly from v6 and started to wonder...
You can also check out the relevant command of the week articles, there is one for each.
Thanks for the link, my forum search didn't give me those so I assu-me-d their wasn't one on those commands.
https://i.imgur.com/GbtJ7bV.png
The rooms I created first, then I used the passage tool to create connections. Unfortunately now I can't figure out how to "merge" them all into one object.
Can someone point me to a youtube vid or something that explains how to do this?
What I did was make the line width the same as the wall depth. Then changed it from a color fill to the bitmap fill of the same thing.
Hiding everything but the walls, using trim helps to. I make odd-shaped rooms, some stranger than the map I posted before, by using the Add room shape in the lower right of the room tool. Polygon room I think it is. But sometimes I mess it up, then I do trims, break, etc. to fix it to what I wanted, then show all to see if I fixed it. Sometimes it takes me a few tries to get it corect.
Sorry for the simple explanation, but I am sitting in a hotel room in Rome right now.
Wasn't there a way before where you could merge multiple polys into one? Or am I just mixing up my tools?
I guess you have the option of just using a drawing tool and using the trace feature of these tools to trace the combined outline of the polygons too, and join them that way.