Hey There,
Currently Zbrush is by far my main tool, working in the miniature production industry. It gets everything right, until it is time to prep models for plastic injection molding. I know that this stage in the process covers all the manufacturing toy industries.
It would be fantastic to include a plugin or a feature set that dealt specifically with drafting undercuts for parts to be casted in injection moulding. The main features that it would need to require would be:
-Dynamic feedback of pull direction for part (In manufacturing, two metal plates have to be able to seperate, releasing the cated parts. This means there needs to be a slight tapered angle to effectively release.)
-Projection for back faces to a curve. (Essentially, not all mould lines on platic parts are flat. they dip in and out of the parts. Using the dynamic feedback for the pull direction, a curve could be established by using that feedback to create polygroupsm then creating curves based on the polygroups; then, the undercuts would be projected back to the curve.)
A way that has been used by others to achieve this is a roundabout way is to make a split two tone material and keep checking back for a certain view to the undercuts. Another is to used polygroup front. These are ok as dealing with it, but are more tedious than having live feedback.
A possible solution would be to integrate dynamics lighting that followed the model as the user rotated around the model. That way the feature could be used for other purposes. Another would to have dynamic materials that would also rotate with the model.
-Project undercuts based on pull directino alone. (by unmasking certain areas to on the mesh, the undercuts would be projected back as a certain angle until they reach the edge of the masek, based on pull directions.)
A possible solution is to create a curve based on polygrouping and create a plane that can be projected to.
Adding these feature would literally take our industry by storm. These tool do exist in another software called Freeform. The downside, is the model must be exported out of Zbrush to be processed in another one, interupting the entire process. The other downside, is the mandatory usage of the proprietary hardware used with freeform. The haptiv feedback devices they market. They are nonintuitive, jittery, and painful to use for extended periods of time. I am 100% positive Pixologic would benefit as well as many costumers by adding these tools. I only hope this post is taken seriously into consideration.
I have added images aiding in my descriptions.
Cheers,
Brandon