Flipping polies

[noise]

I have some nfs4 cars (Toca conversions by Krystoff) who suffer from flipped polies.

In carcad there's a triangle editor where you can flip the poly, but selecting the correct poly is very hard.

So I tried Zmod, but I can't select the correct polies either. The 'wrong' polies are in various areas of the body.

Any hints are welcome.

[Zalcus20]

A simple technique that works for me is using the Hide/Unhide function in Zmodeler 1.07. Go to faces mode and keep hiding polies until you reach the problematic ones. You may have to switch from different views (front/left/top/bottom/right) to prevent hiding of the problematic polies. If you hide one of them by accident, simply undo.

Don't forget to 'unhide all' when you are done.

This may take some time. 

[Jaguara]

I would try importing the model in Blender and recalculate the normals outside. It should automatically orient the poligons the right way.
There's even an import filter for Zmod files for Blender.

[pete9516]

I have some nfs4 cars (Toca conversions by Krystoff) who suffer from flipped polies.

In carcad there's a triangle editor where you can flip the poly, but selecting the correct poly is very hard.

So I tried Zmod, but I can't select the correct polies either. The 'wrong' polies are in various areas of the body.

Any hints are welcome.

I select the smallest most unattainable polygons all the time with ZModeler 1.05. Tell me if you want me to make a video of it

[noise]

I use Zmod 1.07b.

[pete9516]

I use Zmod 1.07b.

Oh, i'm sorry, i mixed it up completely. Yes i use that version, too. But i'd suggest to use that "Hide/Unhide" function Zalcus mentioned. It might be very helpful. I didn't know it before

[noise]

Thnx all,

@Zalcus20: Simple technique that may take a while🤨🙂,Yes lets try hide.

@Jaguara: Not familiar with blender. You mention recalculating normals and poly-orientation. They have something to do wîh each other don't they?

The polies of those Toca cars got flipped after I opened the car.fce in FCEfinish. This tool often mess up the normals.

@Pete9516: "mixed up completely" 😄

I didn't mention any releases of carcad or Zmod in my initial post, so it's okay.

[Butch]

In your case, In Zmodeler, I use to select each polygone using quad select on the red little spot in the middle of each triangle.

[noise]

I selected the problematic poly. Than I go to Surface/mapping/ Flip UV and left-click on the face but no result.

Than I try Surface/normals/flip, also no result.

b.t.w: The floatbar for objects is on my left top corner, how can I move it to another place, it makes my side/top/back/frontviews smaller.

[Zalcus20]

Have you tried the modify/reorient function while in faces level?

To move the object bar, hold and drag on that very fine line just above it. Tbh, moving the object bar should have been easier than this. Don't know why it was programmed this way, or maybe I'm missing something. :/

[Butch]

Sometime, I confess I forget to check the SEL button to modify selected polygones.
And yes there are two flip in Zmodeler. One for the normals and one for the faces.

[noise]

@Zalcus: I worked in faces level.

@Butch: hmmm..SEL button, no not this time.Need to try that.

I always avoid Zmod because I have a hard time figuring things out. But I'm glad I get some help now.

[noise]

Here you see HB part with leftside hidden. I try to flip the still visible faces, but no result.

[Jaguara]

I use Blender 2.78c here, I couldn't get used to the newer versions.
The problem will be how would you import your model. I exported my model from Zmod in 3ds format (which messes up the normals, and should redo them again).
You can try that in Blender 2.80+ with the pkg import/export filter for Midtown Madness 2 and then reimport in Zmod (which crashes it sometimes).
So I press Tab to go into edit mode, then press A to select all (verts, faces) press ctrl+n and it reorients all the faces to outside, I don't need to select them seperately.



If you want, you can try to edit the models normals by selecting them with the right mouse button and click y (same as Zmod detach, but you don't have to reunite after that).

[Butch]

In ZModeler.

1- you select the polygones, they turn in red.
2- you check the SEL button
3- you check on the side menu Modify - Reorient
4- you click somewhere near the car