Using Wings

The first thing when using Wings for more than im– & export is probably configuring it to make you feel more at home when navigating the 3D Geometry view.

1. Open the Preferences via the menu, Edit→Preferences.
2. Go to the Camera tab.
3. Set the Camera Mode to the application you’re most comfortable with. The available choices are:
   • Maya
   • Mirai
   • Nendo
   • Blender
   • Motionbuilder
4. Confirm the dialog *with Ok.

If you want to edit your model in Wings, it is probably worth learning a little bit about this application. While this goes beyond the scope of this tutorial, playing around gets you quite far already. Wings is context-sensitive and only ever shows commands that are applicable to the selection at hand. Just play.

As brief as possible:

• The selection mode is switched via the icons at the top of the Geometry window. The keyboard shortcuts are:
  • ‘V’ for vertices
  • ‘E’ for edges
  • ‘F’ for faces
  • ‘B’ for objects (think of ‘body’ as a mnemonic)
• Selections are kept and will be converted when switching selection types.
• Any component (vertex, face, edge, object) can be selected by left-clicking.
• No modfier keys are needed to add to a selection.
• Drag-selecting (selection paint) is also supported.
• Selections are undoable.
• They can be dropped instantly using the ‘Space’ key.
• Right-click at any time with a selection to see all command applicable to it.

Some Tips & Tricks

Since Wings puts a ‘hole’ material on all faces that are non-manifold, one can quickly select them and check each before exporting again. To select the ‘hole’ material, we first need to get an Outliner window. Wings Outliner is a lot like Maya’s Outliner, it displays all objects in a Wings scene, including materials.

1. Open the Outliner via the menu, Window→Outliner.
2. Move & resize the main Geometry window using its title bar and bottom right corner to make room for the Outliner.
3. Move the Outliner next to it so that both windows do not overlap.
4. Middle-click the Outliner’s title bar to make it use all available space not taken by the Geometry window.
5. Middle-click the Geometry window’s title bar to make it use all available space left.

Now we’re ready to inspect some marked geometry. You might already be able to spot bits since the default color of the ‘hole’ material is blue, making those parts of the model stand out from the default gray.

1. Right-click on the _hole_ material in the Outliner.
2. In the pop-up menu that opens choose Select.
3. Now all faces marked as ‘holes’ have been selected. Press ‘A’ or use the menu, View→Aim to set your camera’s aimpoint to the center of this selection.
4. Now you can comfortably orbit around the model and inspect it for problems that Wings marked.

Note that all real holes in your model will have the _hole_ material assigned as well. Just ignore these, watch out for faces that you do not expect to be holes.