Duplicate Linear in Edit mode
Similar to Blender Spin Duplicate tool in edit mode it would be awesome to have a tool for linear duplication. Say: Pillars or spokes on a ladder etc:
It would behave very similar to the Array modifier with an added Empty in style just that it it supposed to be faster, and doesn't require any additional object or modifier setup.
Additionally it should have the option to not only duplicate beyond an offset object but also a given number inbetween the duplicate. And Yes - it would be destructive in nature. But like the rotation duplicate it's supposed to be like that - fast without setup or leaving edit.
Example recorded from Modo.
3 Comments
Seems like the sort of thing that can be more easily accomplished with geometry nodes, which would also open up much more flexibility. Having a basic built in geometry node setup to do array operations would be awesome. Perhaps being able to access a geometry node array "GN_Array" as custom modifiers might be worth considering? It would mean tools can be really easily built and shared as well. Sorry if this goes well beyond the scope of your suggestion, but it got me thinking.
Not really, no. Not every design task should be geometry nodes just because we can, now. I mean - it could be if the nodes were created in the background but in case of destructive modeling I am not sure this is always possible or desired. In this case it would mean that you duplicate geometry in edit mode, on the fly. So it would be just as destructive like any other mesh editing operation. It would be cool if a node Setup like you proposed operated in object mode, though. It could behave similar to how radial duplicate works in edit mode right now but be a separate tool. It would then create the node setup in the background while interactively editing in the viewport. I think they need to coexist and not cancel each other out. Otherwise we gravitate more towards Houdini, which is super awesome parametric but not really a good modeler.
One is strictly mesh editing and modeling the other one is the parametric workflow. I think this is the route the Blender developers want to go right now, anyways.
As a former Modo user I really miss this feature, upvote from me