Recently, Roblox removed surface types since they were a very legacy feature, and which this was a good decision, there is now no easy way to check which face is which in a part.
The only way I can check which face is which is by inserting a decal into the part and then using the Face property of the decal to see which face is what.
Use cases include:
-When creating a model such as a gun, there may be some parts that describe which way things will move. For example, using the front surface to point towards the front of the gun, a muzzle for shooting, and a part for bullet ejection.
Basically, using the front surface was very useful for orientating things.
(I’m sure there are other use cases for this, I cannot think of all the possible uses)
My solution is a checkbox in a part’s properties, with a green arrow going up from the middle of the part to show the upVector, a red arrow going forward to show the lookVector and a blue arrow going rightwards to show the rightVector.
Sometimes being able to see the vectors while editing is useful
I encourage people to add their use cases.
There is another way to check which face of the part is which. Simply enable the move tool (cntrl + 2). The arrows should display. The arrows for the right/left direction are red, up/down are green, and front/back are blue. Remember the order “right up front” (which is a fairly common phrase we say). In that order, the colors are “red green blue”, refer to RGB. So, remember RGB and “right up front”.
If you want to get the exact face instead of just the entire direction, you can use the view selector:
Align your camera to the face of the part, and whatever face name is displayed is the part that is facing you. For example, the face you’re looking at right now is “Front” as it says at the top right. Of course, you can navigate to faces quickly by clicking on various parts of the Gizmos (if the part orientation isn’t changed).
This is why I feel that this is not property-worthy. I’m glad those 6 properties got removed, because they always made the scrolling frame bigger than needed.
QQ: Does the view selecter tool work regardless of part orientation? E.g if I want to look at the front face, does the view selector align with the front face? Even if the part has a roation like 45,45,45
Atleast there’s a solution I guess, just sad to see it go.
I guess its better to have less clutter in a way.
