sometimes I need to find a parts lookvector in the studio so I can model properly.
normally I would just look through the surfaces property and click the front face which gets highlighted.
but recently roblox decided to start hiding the surface property.
this means I have to go through the trouble of changing a surface on my part just so I can access the surface property again.
is there an easier way of finding a lookvector, and if not is there a way to stop the surface property from being hidden?
i think it’s because hinges are getting removed.
you can re-enable the surface property by changing the surface type to any other surface type than smooth (including smooth no outline):
(model tab → surface → apply a surface type to the part)
it’ll show the surface type property for any part duplicated from the original part as well
yea, ive been doing that since the change, but I found it annoying to go through all that trouble just to find out were a parts forward face is.
correct me if im wrong, but I thought I remember there being a little blue L around a part when selected to indicate the lookvector, is this still a thing or was it removed?
Hey since I got linked here, I’d like to know more about your “surface identifying” use cases.
First of all, yes a plugin (or previous suggestions) will work best for now, and a more elegant solution is being worked in.
Anyways, what were the reasons you needed to check which surface is which for your parts? Both of you mentioned doing it frequently, and that it’s become annoying.
Is it just to make sure seats or spawn points are facing the right way? Or what else?
Sorry, didn’t realize linking your post would tag you.
What will the new solution look like?
I don’t use it often.
Only time I’d use it is if I was setting something’s CFrame to a parts CFrame or finding which way a seat is facing like you said.
Thanks, yea the seat one makes sense. Because of it’s shape, you know the correct one is one of two options, and there isn’t an easy way to know by selecting it.
As for setting something’s CFrame to a parts CFrame, where does viewing the surfaces come into play?
currently at this time Im making custom character rigs, and ive often made the mistake of having the humanoidrootpart facing backwards. being able to quickly check the lookvector of the root part is more preferable than having to insert a decal or change a surface just to make sure things are oriented right.
other times I needed to check the lookvector is with projectiles. sometimes I have projectiles that are full models and its important for me to check and make sure the primary part is facing the right way so that a bodymover like bodyvelocity can move it forward.
something I mentioned above, I thought I remember seeing a small little blue L next to a part when its selected to indicate the lookvector. not sure if this was just a feature request or a removed feature as I don’t remember the details. perhaps this could be a good idea for a future solution?
There’s a plugin I use that lets you resize multiple parts at once and resizing can be a pain if they’re facing different directions.
In this video: https://streamable.com/b78tuh I’d want to resize two parts. The way I’d want to resize is the example on the right, but I can’t get that result if the two parts are facing different directions like they are on the left.
The bird is the front surface by the way.
With scripting I might change the camera’s CFrame to a part’s CFrame, teleport the player to a part so they’re facing a certain direction, or cframe a model to a part’s cframe to ‘spawn it in’
Also, some people like to use parts create paths.
For example, if you wanted to have a train follow a certain path, you could create a bunch of parts numbered “1, 2, 3, … N” and tween the train’s cframe to that each part’s cframe so it looks like it’s following a path.
