Contents

• Camera
• Mouse Modes
• Selecting
• Creating
• Modifying
  • Vertices
  • Edges
  • Faces
  • Splines
  • Meshes

Camera

Shortcuts:

• z - Zoom in/out
• x - Pan the camera parallel to the current view
• c - orbit the camera about 0, 0, 0

Index

Mouse Modes

Mouse Modes and Short Cuts

• Select - Clicking and dragging the mouse will draw a rectangle over the view. When the mouse button is released, the objects within the rectangle will be selected.
• Rotate - Clicking and dragging the mouse will rotate the selected objects.
• Move - Clicking and dragging the mouse will move the selected objects.
• Scale Free - Clicking and draggin the mouse will scale the selected objects.
• Scale Uniform - Clicking and dragging the mouse will uniformly scale the selected objects.

Index

Selecting

Adding to a selection
Hold done the CTRL key and select currently unselected objects.

Removing from a selection
Hold done the CTRL key and reselect objects in the selection.

Selecting Order Quite a few modifying operations, such as skinning, creating edges, etc, rely on specific ordering in their algorithms. This means that the order that the objects are selected in will affect the outcome of the operation. A specific order is attained by first selecting a base object, and then adding to the selection, one element at a time. Multi select mode doesn't work well for this, as it doesn't guarantee any order. Some examples:
To Revolve - First select the axis spline, then add the profile spline to the selection. Then use the revolve tool.
To Create Edges - Select the beginning vertex, then add successive vertices to the selection following the path you wish edges to be created along. Then use the Edge tool.

Index

Creating

Meshes, Surfaces, Bones
Select the appropriate type from the Create menu, and click in the scene where you wish to insert the object. After inserting the object, the mode will automatically be switched to the appropriate modify mode.

Splines, Primitives
Select the appropriate type from the Create menu. Begin specifying points by clicking in a view. Each successive click will add a vertex/control point to the object. The object will be 'finished' when you press the space bar, or switch to a Modify mode. Pressing space bar will automatically change the mode to the appropriate Modify mode.

Custom
Adding a custom object (such as meshes, or surfaces) allows you to have more control over the parameters used to create the object. (Such as subdivision.). Choose your options from the dialog, and click in a View to insert the object.

Index

Modifying

Modifying tools are available via the right mouse button menu. To use a tool, select something, and right click in the view. A menu will popup with the available options, as well as some shortcuts to other things, (mouse mode, modify mode, etc.)

Index

Vertices

• Snap - Snaps the selected vertices together.
• Gridsnap - Snaps the selected vertices to the closest grid point.
• Weld - Fuses the selected vertices together into a single vertex.
• Connect - Creates edges between the vertices. This is dependent on the ordering of the vertices. Edges are created as : V1->V2, V2->V3, V3->V4, etc.
• Loop - Same as connect, only it tries to create a final edge from the last to the first vertex.
• Bevel - Bevels the corner containing the selected vertex.
• Extrude - Extrudes the vertex along it's normal.
• New Face - Creates a new face from the selected vertices. The winding of the face corresponds to the selecting order of the vertices.
• Delete - Deletes the vertex and all faces/edges attached to it.

Index

Edges

• Divide - Divide the edge in half
• Connect - Creates edges between the midpoints of the selected edges. This is dependent on the ordering of the edges. Edges are created as : E1->E2, E2->E3, E3->E4, etc.
• Loop - Same as connect, only it tries to create a final edge from the last to the first Edge..
• Delete - Deletes all the vertices and faces that are contained in the edge.
• Bevel - Bevels the edge.
• Extrude - Extrudes the edge along it's normal.
• Toggle Hardness - Toggles the edge as hard or soft for smoothing. Not used yet.
• Delete - Deletes the vertex and all faces/edges attached to it.

Index

Faces

• Bevel - Bevels the face
• Extrude - Extrudes the face.
• Triangulate - Triangulates polygon faces/
• Reverse - Reverses the normal of the face.
• Delete - Deletes the face.
• Texture Mapping - See texture mapping

Index

Splines
For most spline operations, if all selected splines are NurbsCurves, then the result will be a NurbsSurface, otherwise it will be a mesh.

• Reverse - Reverses the direction of the spline
• Revolve - Revolves the second selected spline, using the first segment of the first spline as an axis.
• Sweep - Creates surface or mesh by sweeping the first selected spline along the second. Best results are obtained if the profile spline is roughly orthogonal to the first segment of the path.
• Skin - Creates skin around the selected splines. The Skin is created in the order of the selected splines, and depends on the ordering of the ctrl pts in each spline. Best results are obtained if the ordering of the ctrl pts are roughly aligned.

Index

Meshes

• Merge - Merges the selected meshes into a single mesh.
• Explode - Divides the mesh into many meshes, one for each face.
• Triangulate - Converts all faces in the mesh into triangles.
• Subdivide - Subdivides each face in the mesh.
• Smooth - Subdivies all faces in the mesh, then adjusts all the vertices to give it a smoother appearance. Uses the Catmull-Clark subdivision algorithm.
• Tighten - Adjusts the vertices in the mesh by replacing each vertex's position with the average of it's neighbors.
• Reverse - Reverses all the faces in the mesh.
• Mirror - Mirrors the mesh along an axis.

Index