Retopology with Guides and Constraints

[benjamin4MQAH]

Could we add some tools for guiding and/or constraining the retopology result? I often get edge loops that spiral making unwrapping and texturing difficult. I propose adding some guides (a la mudbox's hard/soft guides) and also constraints/biases like "Favor Verticals/Horizontals" or "Preserve Corners". This is especially needed for organic models/sculpts without UVs or Smoothing Groups.

[RGhost77]

Do you try use hard edges as guides? For me spiting mesh to additional smoothing groups using hard edges do good result.

[Kranos_Orphydian]

this is the next major step 

[Kranos_Orphydian]

@RGhost77 For me spiting mesh to additional smoothing groups using hard edges do good result.

Pls. elaborate!

[RGhost77]

@Kranos_Orphydian 

Take a look at screenshot. Hard edges guide how Reform create topology on flat surface. (Auto Edge and Smoothing Groups should be enabled in Retopology modifier to get this result.)

[Kranos_Orphydian]

oh it was about the flat surfaces. Still not very obvious thing and don't know why the algorithm doesn't handle better flat surfaces that are also regular like a cylinder base.

[benjamin4MQAH]

RGhost77, The spiraling issues arise when running the retopology tool on an organic or sculpted models where it's not possible to define smoothing groups in a meaningful way. 

I think most users understand that smoothing groups can guide the result and that you can manipulate the edge flow this way. But that's not an option when  dealing with arbitrary meshes.

I'm thinking something along the lines of surface/area weighted normals where we define an edge by the surrounding geo. But most importantly the tool should prioritize complete loops over spirals or at least have some options for it.