ForestIvy - surface reset xform

[RealViz]

Hello,
After testing ForestIvy, I thought it would be good to be able to internally save the surface directly in ForestIvy (as well as the leaves). Because if I try to draw an Ivy on a surface that is rotated and/or enlarged or mirrored the ForestIvy generation is very inaccurate to unrealistic. The only option is to correct the surface via Reset XForm. Unfortunately for classic archViz this is rather awkward. Usually, e.g. columns, walls, etc. of building are instances that is rotated or mirrored.
Could it not be possible to have a button in ForesIvy in the sense of "Save Surface Internaly"? Then have the "Update" button.
Thanks

[RealViz]

Maybe even for the FPs themselves it would be useful and you would eliminate a lot of questions here on the forum.

[iToo]

Hi,

As you pointed out, mirrored or transformed surfaces are a problem, usually because inverted normals.
I tried to replicate an internal process similar to 'Reset XForm', but until now i could not get an acceptable result.

I guess that embedded surfaces is an overkill workaround, just to solve this issue.
Not only because the difficulty to implement it, but also would cause problems when applied to huge surfaces.
Instead, embedded geometry for leaves is more controllable (we assume anyone is going to create leaves with 1 mill. faces), and also it's very handy to store items in the library.

A solution would be to include a 'Proxy Cache' feature, similar to RailClone.
In this way, you would Reset XForm the surfaces, generate the Ivy, store result internally, and then revert surfaces to their original state, or even delete them.
In fact, this feature is already in our roadmap because it solves other issues. But i doubt we can include it for the initial release.

If you cannot modify the surface objects, by now the only workaround may be to create a copy of the surface objects (just for ForestIvy), apply XForm, and keep these objects hidden in the scene.

[RealViz]

As long as "Proxy Cache" is on the roudmap I'm perfectly happy :-) I understand that this is the first version. It was just an idea. And "Proxy Cache" vs "internal mesh" for me is practically the same. Not for you of course :-)

[RealViz]

I remembered that I usually solve this problem via Shell modifier, when I set e.g. 0,05cm and then draw on the surface. Not just with FP Ivy, but generally when normals are inverted and I can't use the Xform reset. Again, it's a crutch, but it might work for FP Ivy. Just an idea, of course.