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Ten years ago, this kind of option would have been considered an optional, of marginal use or a fancy tool that is better tackled by scripts. However, it pretty became basic nowadays and most of the software out there has more than decent built-in solutions for these kinds of tasks. One cannot grasp the utility and versatility of such tools until it starts to use them and realizes how much has missed it all this time. This is useful when, for example, when you want to cut out perfect circles on any surface, when you want to build structures that jut out of existing shapes etc. One can use circularize with other modeling operations to model shapes quickly. For video examples for traditional polygon modeling, it's enough to hint at older or more recent Arrimus 3D tutorials with both Blender and 3ds Max (link1, link2). For Modo here is a quick video from Pixel Fondue (link)
Now, that 3ds Max team has come up with some fast and versatile solutions for direct modeling like the Interactive Smart Extrude functionality and the much quicker Working Pivot alignment, a competitive solution to rearrange selections into circular arrays (and N-sided shapes) will only exponentially advance the possibilities of the new workflows introduced with these tools. Lesser need for Boolean operations, lesser need of using cut operations and cleaning work (with traditional Quad modeling this is even more critical), lesser need of creating extra primitives within smart extrude etc. The quick designs made up with Smart Extrude will look less blocky and more interesting much faster. All these tools combined along with a future updated Multi Cut tool (that “slices and dices”) will pretty much make 3ds Max the king of direct, straightforward polygon modeling.
There are at least 3 methods to (kind of) rearrange selections into circles in 3ds Max natively. For example, one can use the Spherify Modifier, which is nice because you can also morph, or one can use the Geopoly in the Ribbon Tools. And ofc there is the old Loop Tools Circle Command (from Ribbon). But none of these is convenient enough to use and each of them fails in many cases. Therefore, they are not good alternatives to scripts that already do this conveniently and work in more cases like RapidTools fastEdgeLoopRegularizer (link). Loop Tools Circle Command is buggy, slow and doesn’t work in many cases, at least not without workarounds. For ex, as some of you have already noticed, Loop Tools Circle Command can only circle edges where there's an inset around them.
3ds Max doesn’t need 3 unsatisfying ways of doing the same thing, it only needs a fast, versatile, up-to-date, refined, competitive and well-integrated tool. Furthermore, built in solutions for tools that pretty became basic nowadays are always common sense. Autodesk should go beyond fixing and updated it by taking the lead at least on this low-level polygon modeling functionalities and make it super versatile.
And ofc, there is The Competition. Maya 2018 (if one can considered it as competition) also received an awesome Circularize Components function (link) with bunch of neat options. It’s ridiculous how polished and versatile is that tool in Maya, a software that isn’t, by any means, focused on modeling. It seems they have thought of everything. Cinema 4D which used to have a limited amount of modeling tools came with a slew of improvements with S26, one of them being a quite competitive Fit Circle tool with lot of control after the software used to relied on scripts to do that (link). Blender has its default addon LoopTools with a Circle functionality (link) that works surprisingly well. And last but not least, there is the Modo’s Radial Align tool (link) introduced by the milestone 901 update was inspired by a largely used popular script and this is showing because the result is just brilliant. Apart from the obvious circle arrangements, this tool also supports N-sided shapes defined by user which results in triangles, pentagons, hexagons etc. dispositions. It also has a unique option (Rotate) to reconnect the proper edges when the results get twisted (check this video around 0:30 link).
This new tool should reside in the Command Panel not in the archaic Ribbon Submenus (as part of the badly integrated Graphite Modeling tools) and by default accessible from Quad Menu (or a future updated modern context menu but that’s another story). Consistent Hotkeys are also needed. Its Options should be added to a 3ds Max Caddy Controls.
The most obvious and common-sense place where Autodesk should get the concept and maybe the tech for a new tool in this area is the Circularize Components of Maya. But, it should definitely get the N-sided mode and Rotate reconnect features of Modo or the Influence and Radius from Blender, as well as a couple ones I came up with inspired by other tools (like Randomize, Semicircle mode etc.). When comes to the name of the tool, considering all of these, it can be diffiicult to properly choose one to accurate depic the function of this tool. In essence it rearranges your selections in regular or N-gons or put it differently in radial patterns. Therefore, Radial Regularizer or Radial Align would fit the best, but, for the sake of consistency between Autodesk software, Circularize should also do the work.
MODE
Controls the alignment procedure:
- Circle - adjusts the selected positions to align along a circle specified by the Radius value and the calculated center position.
- N-Sided - aligns positions along a polygon specified by the Side and Rotate values. If the number of selected positions is less than the number of sides, it interpolates the remaining points between the corner points of the polygon.
- Semicircle - aligns positions along a semicircle
While rearranging your selections into perfect circles would be the most used mode, triangles are always nice-to-have details in scifi designs and having the ability to define a shape with the number of sides of your choice ofers way more flexibility. This will alleviate the need to use the cut tools and reduce the post cleaning work. In Architecture and furniture design arches or semicircles are even more common shapes so I think this mode can be tackled inside the same tool even if this doesn’t enter in the same field of radial dispositions.
TYPES OF SUBOBJECTS
The tool should support all subobjects (vertices, edges, polygons). For it to work:
- For vertices: You must select at least three vertices. The number of selected vertices will determine the shape of the circularized area (i.e., three creates a triangle, four creates a square, five creates a pentagon, etc.).
- For edges: Circularize is performed on each closed edge loop.
- For polygons: Circularize is performed on each set of polygons that share at least one common edge.
For the other N-sided mode, in Modo, if the number of selected positions is less than the number of sides, the program interpolates the remaining points between the corner points of the polygon.
TYPES OF SELECTIONS
Like it's Maya countepart at least, (and to a certain degree, by what I've been testing so far, in Blender as well) it should work on selections whether being previously insetted or not (unlike the LoopTools>Circle) on single or multiple groups of selections (identical or different in count and size), on multiple groups being planar or not, if they consist in multiple cross-section loops, simultaneously on both internal and external border selections (even if not aligned or different shape or count) etc.
TYPES OF SURFACES
It should work on Planar or Non Planar surfaces, on Corners areas, with Cross-Section selections, Surfaces with Curvature etc. All this use cases are illustrated below and you can also watch this YouTube video of a comprehensive review of Maya 2018 from 14:32 to 17:48 (link)
OPTIONS
The Tool should provide at least these options found in Maya, Modo and Blender:
- Radial Offset: Adjusts the initial radius of the circle. If interior components are also selected, then they will scale along with the offset as well.
- Twist: Determines how much rotation is applied to the components around the center of the circle.
- Evenly Distribute: Specifies whether or not circularized vertices are evenly distributed along the circle's circumference.
- Relax Interior: Adjusts the spacing between components so that they stay within the circle while remaining evenly spaced. Lower values will enforce the components' original spacing.
- Rotate Reconnect: Changes which edges get connected if the initial result geometry gets twisted (check this video around 0:30 link)
- Normal Offset: Adjust Normal Offset to move the circularized components (and interior component, if selected) along the average normal.
- Influence: The force of the tool. Zero percent influence means no changes will be made to the mesh. 100% influence means that the input will be fully transformed into a circle.
- Radius: This overrides the radius calculated by the tool. Useful if you wish to create several circles of the same size, or if you need more precision.
- Normal Orientation: Determines which set of components normals (face or edge loops) are averaged to orient the circle.
- Random Radial/Normal Offset: Having a Random Range Value for at least Radial and Normal Offset is a quick and handy way to get instant diversity within your groups of selections. Ofc with radial offset this is only needed when the groups themselves have the same count or size because otherwise they already have differences after being circularized.
- Add Divisions: Adds additional vertices to the current selection, which results in smoother circles.
- Supporting Edges: Add supporting edges to the added divisions to avoid n-gons; choose whether to apply them to the inside, outside or both sides of the circle.
- Alignment: Use Alignment to define whether or not the circle conforms to the original object. With Automatic the circularized components are rotated based on the average normal direction of selected components. With Surface they conform to the surface of the original shape using individual vertex normals or the normal average.
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MY OTHER IDEAS
MODELING
- [Smart Cut, Multi-Cut tool] Unify, enhance and speed up different cut operations similar to Maya's M...
- [Inset Tool] A full-fledged tool comparable to competition: Offset Even, Edge Rail, Quad Corners, Au...
- [Custom Pivot] Versatile on-the-go interactive pivot manipulation (Align, Pos, Orient, Aim) similar ...
- [UI & Modeling - Command Pannel] Unify ribbon\graphite modeling tools with Editable\Edit poly tools ...
- Extra Primitives: Mechanical, Pipe Joints, Jewelry, Abstract (Illustrated Idea) - Autodesk Community
- Data/Normal Transfer modifier to fix normals (booleans or shrinkwrap cases ) - Autodesk Community
- View image plane/easily add reference images like in Maya
- [Spacing tool] Correct Z align when distributing copies along a spline - Autodesk Community
- [Brush Tools - Public Roadmap] Support for Dynamic Tessellation, Sculpt layers, Ptex, Retopology, Ra...
- Build End and Build Corner to work with Edit Poly not only in Editable Poly - Autodesk Community
- [Hinge from Edge tool] Hinge from Center, Hinge from Vertex, Quad corners, Width segments and other ...
- [Smart Extrude] Follow Taper, Edge Constraints support, Rotate Tool support and other improvements -...
- [Splines] Improved creation/editing capabilities and precision - Autodesk Community
- [Splines] Improved procedural handling through both updated and new modifiers - Autodesk Community
- [Splines] Flat shape and Curve controls within Renderable Spline Modifier - Autodesk Community
- [Splines] Scale, Rotate, Twist along Shape within Sweep Modifier - Autodesk Community
UI AND VIEWPORT
- [Viewport] Default Sub-Object selection related colors to use Max brand UI colors like Turquoise, Ye...
- [Viewport] Wireframe fade effect behind model (Houdini Wireframe Ghost alike)
- [Viewport] Vertex and Edge auto-scale display size based on distance from view
- [UI UV Editor] A more clean, tidy and fresh UI like the new Maya one - Autodesk Community
- [UI] Update all UI with the style of new modifiers and the new previewed updates
- [UI Track View] A more clean, tidy and fresh UI like the new Maya Graph Editors
- [UI Footer] Improve layout, style, functionality, customization and use of space
- [UI Icons] Complete the update of the many remaining legacy icons
- [UI Icons] Add the many missing icons and replace the placeholder ones
- [UI Quad Menu] An updated modern style inspired by new 3ds Max QT menus, Caddy Controls and Maya's M...
- [UI Scene Explorers] Design and functionality improvements ideas - Autodesk Community
- [UI Scene Explorer] Include Crease, Material Explorer etc. into its modes
- [UI Scene Explorer] Thumbnails display option for the Materials instead names
- [UI Light Explorer] Merge Light Lister into it and improve upon ideas - Autodesk Community
- [UI & Modeling - Command Pannel] Unify ribbon\graphite modeling tools with Editable\Edit poly tools ...
- [UI Command Panel] Double-width layout better space detection and usage + bug fixes - Autodesk Commu...
- [UI Command Panel] Content should adapt to resize and expand as well + bug fixes
- [UI Command Panel] Modifier Sets Buttons Expandable + faster Commands for sets and buttons - Autodes...
OTHERS
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