Pipe/Cable features/questions

Hello, I am finally getting a chance to dive into the new Dash. There are a lot of cool new features! I'm making an "updated" version from a favorite level in Deus Ex: Human Revolution, and trying to work with the cable and pipe tools to create some computer cables to plug into an outlet with a plug. Am I correct in my assumption (after looking everywhere), that you cannot use a custom cable mesh? I have a lot of cable meshes for spline cables, and it would be great to be able to use these. I also would love it if the cable tool could take static meshes into consideration like the way the spline can project onto static meshes, so you could use it for something like a computer cable on a desk. If I am wrong and you can already do this, I would appreciate knowing how. The spline tool is still way better than anything else I've used, but as you can imagine, trying to get it to correctly recognize where it should go in three dimensions (as opposed to just projecting onto something like a landscape) is really hard. I can't imagine that can easily be made less hard, just because of the screen to world problem. Also with the cable tool, does it begin from the pivot of the object?
8 Replies
Booth💡
Booth💡9mo ago
☝️yes, please and thank you
Adnan Chaumette
Adnan Chaumette9mo ago
@Balu Handing this one to you 😁 I think we should definitely give this tool some more love as well, and Siuan's suggestions are great! @siuan right now custom meshes aren't supported, but it's something I've also wanted for a long time 🤞
siuan
siuan9mo ago
oh good, glad i'm not the only one! there is something else too, i dunno how easy/hard it would be. it would be very cool to add a looped bundle in the middle of a cable like you would on a desk to shorten it and keep everything neat. it looks more realistic too than having the two ends connect to the plug and the device. okay new problem: i finished doing the cables right before i went to sleep last night and i didn't convert them to static meshes, they seemed to persist until i restarted the engine. now i have opened up the map and apparently the hard work i did last night has been lost. the actors remain but they seem not to have any visible component anymore. is converting to static mesh a necessary part of the process? or have i missed something about the "to pipe" set of functions?
DanielFreden
DanielFreden9mo ago
Hey! @siuan Sorry to hear that! What tool are you referring to? To pipe/quick pipe or the cable tool? Or more like this, what exactly is it that you did last night that now is not visible anymore?
siuan
siuan9mo ago
hi it was the to pipe/quick pipe tool. and the procedural mesh had vanished from the actors, there was no longer any procedural mesh component in the outliner, nor any cables that i'd made with the spline system. i redid it and converted them all to static meshes, instead. but i wasn't aware that the procedural mesh was a transient solution. also i have noticed that where i used the cable tool and converted those to static meshes, every time i open the level, a new cable is spawned in one of those locations, for reasons i don't really understand.
DanielFreden
DanielFreden9mo ago
You should not need to convert them, I just used the quick pipe tool on a spline and it was fine after restart of UE, so not sure what happened for you 😦 What version of Dash are you on? It says the number in the main Dash menu 🙂 If you experience it again, before re-doing it, can you try "show tools" and see if the Quick pipe tool is still there, and how it looks when you open it? I will try the other issue now and see if I can replicate it! tried your second issue, after a restart I just had the same static mesh cables there, nothing new was added 🤔
siuan
siuan9mo ago
i'm on dash 1.5.2. one thing about the first issue: i did delete the splines because i assumed they weren't necessary anymore, and doing so did not cause the output meshes to be deleted. and as for the second issue, it's very similar to another issue i had that i didn't report (sorry) in the last render i did, which was that i had deleted a scattering instance that i changed my mind about, and every time i re-opened or restarted the map, it would be respawned.
DanielFreden
DanielFreden9mo ago
Ahh now I understand. Yes right now you either need to keep the splines, in order to keep the outputmesh and tool connected, or you have to convert to static for it to remain after restart. We will fix so that it auto convert to static if you delete the spline though👍 Sorry about the lost work! ye about your old problem, I think I experienced that as well, but it should be fixed. Could you record a video of it happening with the cable tool and doing the conversion and then restarting?
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