Alias Reference Book

Autodesk Alias 2011

Tools, Menus, and ControlPanels in Alias

March 2010

2010 Autodesk, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Except as otherwise permitted by Autodesk, Inc., this publication, or parts thereof, may not bereproduced in any form, by any method, for any purpose. Certain materials included in this publication are reprinted with the permission of the copyright holder. TrademarksThe following are registered trademarks or trademarks of Autodesk, Inc., and/or its subsidiaries and/or affiliates in the USA and other countries:3DEC (design/logo), 3December, 3December.com, 3ds Max, Algor, Alias, Alias (swirl design/logo), AliasStudio, Alias|Wavefront (design/logo),ATC, AUGI, AutoCAD, AutoCAD Learning Assistance, AutoCAD LT, AutoCAD Simulator, AutoCAD SQL Extension, AutoCAD SQL Interface,Autodesk, Autodesk Envision, Autodesk Intent, Autodesk Inventor, Autodesk Map, Autodesk MapGuide, Autodesk Streamline, AutoLISP, AutoSnap,AutoSketch, AutoTrack, Backburner, Backdraft, Built with ObjectARX (logo), Burn, Buzzsaw, CAiCE, Civil 3D, Cleaner, Cleaner Central, ClearScale,Colour Warper, Combustion, Communication Specification, Constructware, Content Explorer, Dancing Baby (image), DesignCenter, DesignDoctor, Designer's Toolkit, DesignKids, DesignProf, DesignServer, DesignStudio, Design Web Format, Discreet, DWF, DWG, DWG (logo), DWGExtreme, DWG TrueConvert, DWG TrueView, DXF, Ecotect, Exposure, Extending the Design Team, Face Robot, FBX, Fempro, Fire, Flame, Flare,Flint, FMDesktop, Freewheel, GDX Driver, Green Building Studio, Heads-up Design, Heidi, HumanIK, IDEA Server, i-drop, ImageModeler, iMOUT,Incinerator, Inferno, Inventor, Inventor LT, Kaydara, Kaydara (design/logo), Kynapse, Kynogon, LandXplorer, Lustre, MatchMover, Maya,Mechanical Desktop, Moldflow, Moonbox, MotionBuilder, Movimento, MPA, MPA (design/logo), Moldflow Plastics Advisers, MPI, MoldflowPlastics Insight, MPX, MPX (design/logo), Moldflow Plastics Xpert, Mudbox, Multi-Master Editing, Navisworks, ObjectARX, ObjectDBX, OpenReality, Opticore, Opticore Opus, Pipeplus, PolarSnap, PortfolioWall, Powered with Autodesk Technology, Productstream, ProjectPoint, ProMaterials,RasterDWG, RealDWG, Real-time Roto, Recognize, Render Queue, Retimer,Reveal, Revit, Showcase, ShowMotion, SketchBook, Smoke, Softimage,Softimage|XSI (design/logo), Sparks, SteeringWheels, Stitcher, Stone, StudioTools, ToolClip, Topobase, Toxik, TrustedDWG, ViewCube, Visual,Visual LISP, Volo, Vtour, Wire, Wiretap, WiretapCentral, XSI, and XSI (design/logo). All other brand names, product names or trademarks belong to their respective holders. DisclaimerTHIS PUBLICATION AND THE INFORMATION CONTAINED HEREIN IS MADE AVAILABLE BY AUTODESK, INC. "AS IS." AUTODESK, INC. DISCLAIMSALL WARRANTIES, EITHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO ANY IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY ORFITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE REGARDING THESE MATERIALS. Published by:Autodesk, Inc.111 McInnis ParkwaySan Rafael, CA 94903, USA

Contents

Tool Palettes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

Chapter 1 Pick palette . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3Pick > Nothing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3Pick > Object . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3Pick > Component . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4Pick > Template . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5Pick > Pick Reference . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5Pick > Edit Point . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6Pick > Point Types > CV . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6Pick > Point Types > Hull . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7Pick > Point Types > Blend Point . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7Pick > Object Types > Curve on Surface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8Pick > Object Types > Cloud . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8Pick > Object Types > Image Plane . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8Pick > Object Types > All Objects/Lights . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9Pick > Object Types > Pick by Shader . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9Pick > Locator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9Pick > Pick Visible . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

Chapter 2 Transform palette . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11Transform > Move . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11Transform > Rotate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

iii

Transform > Scale . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13Transform > Non-p Scale . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15Transform > Modify > Proportional Mod . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15Transform > Modify > Move CV Normal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17Transform > Modify > Rotational Scale . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18Transform > Local > Set Pivot . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18Transform > Local > Center Pivot . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19Transform > Local > Set Local Axes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20Transform > Zero Transforms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20Transform > Object Placement > Duplicate Place Toolbox . . . . . . . . 21Transform > Object Placement > Place . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25

Chapter 3 Paint palette . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27Paint > Pencil . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27Paint > Marker . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30Paint > Airbrush . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33Paint > Pastel Soft . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37Paint > Solid Brush . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40Paint > Eraser . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44Paint > Eraser > Clear Canvas Layer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47Paint > Effect Brush > Sharpen Brush . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47Paint > Effect Brush > Blur Brush . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50Paint > Effect Brush > Smear Brush . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53Paint > Effect Brush > Clone Brush . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56Paint > Effect Brush > Dodge Brush . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58Paint > Effect Brush > Burn Brush . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61Paint > Flood Fill . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65Paint > Pick Layer by Color . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65Paint > Select > Magic Wand . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66Paint > Select > Marquee . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67Paint > Select > Toggle Marquee . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67Paint > Select > Invert Marquee . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67Paint > Select > Clear Marquee . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68Paint > Select > Transform Marquee . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68Paint > Shape > Make Image Shape . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68Paint > Shape > Make Mask Shape . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69Paint > Shape > Make Invisibility Mask Shape . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70Paint > Text Image . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71Paint > PaintSymmetry > Modify Canvas Brush Symmetry . . . . . . . 73Paint > PaintSymmetry > Toggle Canvas Brush Symmetry . . . . . . . . 74Paint > Color Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74

Chapter 4 Paint Edit palette . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77Paint Edit > Modify Layer > Transform Layer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77Paint Edit > Modify Layer > Horizontal Flip . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79

iv | Contents

Paint Edit > Modify Layer > Vertical Flip . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79Paint Edit > Deform Layer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79Paint Edit > Make Warp Shape . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80Paint Edit > Color Correction > Color Manipulation . . . . . . . . . . . 81Paint Edit > Color Correction > Brightness & Contrast . . . . . . . . . . 87Paint Edit > Color Correction > Saturation & Value . . . . . . . . . . . 89Paint Edit > Color Correction > Dodge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90Paint Edit > Color Correction > Burn . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91Paint Edit > Color Correction > Color Balance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93Paint Edit > Color Correction > Color Replace (HSV) . . . . . . . . . . 93Paint Edit > Color Correction > Color Replace (HSL) . . . . . . . . . . . 95Paint Edit > Layer Effect > Sharpen Layer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96Paint Edit > Layer Effect > Blur Layer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96Paint Edit > Layer Operation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97Paint Edit > Layer Operation > New Image Layer . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97Paint Edit > Layer Operation > New Mask Layer . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98Paint Edit > Layer Operation > New Invisibility Mask Layer . . . . . . . 98Paint Edit > Layer Operation > New Layer Folder . . . . . . . . . . . . 98Paint Edit > Layer Operation > Duplicate Layer . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98Paint Edit > Layer Operation > Merge Below . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98Paint Edit > Layer Operation > Merge Visible Layers . . . . . . . . . . . 98Paint Edit > Layer Operation > Merge All Layers . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99

Chapter 5 Curves palette . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101Curves > Primitives > Circle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101Curves > Primitives > Sweeps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102Curves > New Curves > New CV Curve . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103Curves > New Curves > New Edit Point Curve . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103Curves > New Curves > New Sketch Curve . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104Curves > Blend Curve Toolbox . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105BlendCrv Tools > Blend Curve Create . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105BlendCrv Tools > Blend Curve Add Points . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106BlendCrv Tools > Blend Curve Edit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107BlendCrv Tools > Blend Curve Planarize . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108BlendCrv Tools > Blend Constraint Dissociate . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108BlendCrv Tools > Blend Pt Make Master . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109BlendCrv Tools > Constraint Interpolation Direction . . . . . . . . . . 109BlendCrv Tools > Constraint Direction Type . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109BlendCrv Tools > Constraint Continuity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110BlendCrv Tools > Constraint Curvature Type . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110BlendCrv Tools > Curve Degree . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111BlendCrv Tools > Curve Knot Spacing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111Curves > Keypoint Curve Toolbox . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112Keypoint Curve Tools > Circular Arc . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112Keypoint Curve Tools > Ellipse . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113Keypoint Curve Tools > Rectangle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115

Contents | v

Keypoint Curve Tools > Arcs > Arc (Three Point) . . . . . . . . . . . . 115Keypoint Curve Tools > Arcs > Arc (Two Point) . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117Keypoint Curve Tools > Arcs > Arc Tangent to Curve . . . . . . . . . . 118Keypoint Curve Tools > Arcs > Concentric Arc . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120Keypoint Curve Tools > Lines > Line . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121Keypoint Curve Tools > Lines > Polyline . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122Keypoint Curve Tools > Lines > Parallel Line . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123Keypoint Curve Tools > Lines > Line at Angle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124Keypoint Curve Tools > Line Tangent & Perp > Line Tangent to

Curve . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126Keypoint Curve Tools > Line Tangent & Perp > Line Tangent from/to

Curve . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126Keypoint Curve Tools > Line Tangent & Perp > Line

Perpendicular . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127Keypoint Curve Tools > Line-arc . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128Keypoint Curve Tools > Break & Join > Break Curve at Keypoint . . . . 131Keypoint Curve Tools > Break & Join > Join Curves . . . . . . . . . . . 131Keypoint Curve Tools > Drag Keypoints . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131Curves > New Curve-on-surface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132Curves > Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133

Chapter 6 Curve Edit palette . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135Curve Edit > Create > Duplicate Curve . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135Curve Edit > Create > Combine Curves . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136Curve Edit > Create > Fillet Curves . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137Curve Edit > Modify > Add Points . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142Curve Edit > Modify > Transform Curve . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142Curve Edit > Modify > Stretch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146Curve Edit > Cut > Break Curve at Inflections . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148Curve Edit > Rebuild Curve . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148Curve Edit > Project Tangent . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151Curve Edit > Curve Planarize . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153Curve Edit > Curve Section . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153Curve Edit > Fit Curve . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155Curve Edit > Sort Sections . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156Curve Edit > Reverse Curve . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157

Chapter 7 Object Edit palette . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159Object Edit > Attach > Attach . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159Object Edit > Attach > Detach . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161Object Edit > Insert . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161Object Edit > Extend . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 162Object Edit > Symmetric Modeling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 164Object Edit > Align > Align . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166Object Edit > Align > Align 2008 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 181

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Object Edit > Align > Symmetry Plane Align . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 187Object Edit > Offset . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 187Object Edit > Dynamic Shape Modeling > Transformer Rig . . . . . . . 190Object Edit > Dynamic Shape Modeling > Lattice Rig . . . . . . . . . . 203Object Edit > Dynamic Shape Modeling > Twist Rig . . . . . . . . . . 213Object Edit > Dynamic Shape Modeling > Bend Rig . . . . . . . . . . 219Object Edit > Dynamic Shape Modeling > Conform Rig . . . . . . . . 227Object Edit > Object Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 237Object Edit > Close . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 237Object Edit > Edit Comment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 238Object Edit > Patch Precision . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 238Object Edit > Query Edit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 238

Chapter 8 Surfaces palette . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 241Surfaces > Primitives > Sphere . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 241Surfaces > Primitives > Torus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 242Surfaces > Primitives > Cylinder . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 243Surfaces > Primitives > Cone . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 243Surfaces > Primitives > Cube . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 244Surfaces > Primitives > Plane . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 244Surfaces > Planar Surfaces > Set Planar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 245Surfaces > Planar surfaces > Bevel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 245Surfaces > Revolve . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 246Surfaces > Skin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 247Surfaces > Swept Surfaces > Rail Surface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 248Surfaces > Swept Surfaces > Extrude . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 268Surfaces > Swept Surfaces > Anim Sweep . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 272Surfaces > Boundary Surfaces > Square . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 275Surfaces > Boundary Surfaces > N-sided . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 284Surfaces > Surface Fillet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 289Surfaces > Multi-Surface Blend > Freeform Blend . . . . . . . . . . . . 296Surfaces > Multi-Surface Blend > Profile Blend . . . . . . . . . . . . . 300Surfaces > Rolled Edge > Fillet Flange . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 302Surfaces > Rolled Edge > Tube Flange . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 309Surfaces > Rolled Edge > Tubular Offset . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 316Surfaces > Round . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 319Surfaces > Draft Surfaces > Multi-Surface Draft . . . . . . . . . . . . . 322Surfaces > Draft Surfaces > Draft/Flange . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 327Surfaces > Curve Networks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 329CrvNet Tools > Pick Network . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 330CrvNet Tools > New Network . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 330CrvNet Tools > Continuity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 330CrvNet Tools > Add/Subtract Curves > Add Curve to Network . . . . . 330CrvNet Tools > Add/Subtract Curves > Remove Curve from

Network . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 330CrvNet Tools > Analyze Network . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 330

Contents | vii

CrvNet Tools > Reset Sculpt Curves Mapping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 331CrvNet Tools > Add/Delete Sculpt > Add Sculpt Curve . . . . . . . . . 331CrvNet Tools > Add/Delete Sculpt > Delete Sculpt Curve . . . . . . . . 331CrvNet Tools > Pin Edge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 331CrvNet Tools > Influence Weights > Multi Weight . . . . . . . . . . . 331CrvNet Tools > Influence Weights > Unit Weight . . . . . . . . . . . . 332CrvNet Tools > Lock Intersection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 332CrvNet Tools > Region of Influence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 332Surfaces > Combine Surfaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 332Surfaces > Ball Corner . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 335Surfaces > Tube Surface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 337

Chapter 9 Surface Edit palette . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 339Surface Edit > Create CurvesOnSurface > Project . . . . . . . . . . . . 339Surface Edit > Create CurvesOnSurface > Intersect . . . . . . . . . . . 340Surface Edit > Create CurvesOnSurface > Geometry Mapping . . . . . 341Surface Edit > Trim > Trim Surface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 342Surface Edit > Trim > Untrim . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 344Surface Edit > Trim > Trim Convert . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 344Surface Edit > Stitch > Shell Stitch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 347Surface Edit > Stitch > Shell Unstitch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 348Surface Edit > Shells > Shell Subtract . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 348Surface Edit > Shells > Shell Intersect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 348Surface Edit > Shells > Shell Union . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 349Surface Edit > Planarize Hull . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 349Surface Edit > Rebuild Surface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 351Surface Edit > Claymate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 354Surface Edit > Fit Scan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 359Surface Edit > Orientation > Set Surface Orientation . . . . . . . . . . 360Surface Edit > Orientation > Unify Surface Orientation . . . . . . . . . 361Surface Edit > Orientation > Reverse Surface Orientation . . . . . . . . 363Surface Edit > Reverse Surface UV . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 364

Chapter 10 Mesh palette . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 365Mesh > Mesh Tessellation > Nurbs to Mesh . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 365Mesh > Mesh Tessellation > Cloud to Mesh . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 366Mesh > Mesh Tessellation > Displacement Map to Mesh . . . . . . . . 367Mesh > Mesh Partitioning > Mesh Subset . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 368Mesh > Mesh Partitioning > Mesh Merge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 369Mesh > Mesh Partitioning > Mesh Cut . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 369Mesh > Mesh Curves > Mesh Project Curve . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 369Mesh > Mesh Curves > Mesh Project Normal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 369Mesh > Mesh Curves > Mesh Intersect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 370Mesh > Mesh Curves > Mesh Extract Theoretical Intersection . . . . . 370Mesh > Mesh Curves > Mesh Boundaries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 371

viii | Contents

Mesh > Mesh Cleanup > Mesh Smooth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 371Mesh > Mesh Cleanup > Mesh Reduce . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 374Mesh > Mesh Cleanup > Mesh Hole Fill . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 376Mesh > Mesh Cleanup > Mesh Bridge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 377Mesh > Mesh Cleanup > Mesh Weld Vertices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 377Mesh > Mesh Repair . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 377Mesh > Mesh Collar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 380Mesh > Mesh Offset . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 382Mesh > Mesh Stitch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 382Mesh > Reverse Mesh Orientation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 382Mesh > Mesh Positioning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 383Mesh > Mesh Edge Reconstruct . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 385Mesh > Mesh Patch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 386

Chapter 11 View palette . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 387View > World Move Camera > Tumble . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 387View > World Move Camera > Track . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 388View > World Move Camera > Dolly . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 389View > World Move Camera > Track/Dolly/Tumble . . . . . . . . . . . 390View > Local Move Camera > Twist . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 391View > Local Move Camera > Azimuth/Elevation . . . . . . . . . . . . 392View > Local Move Camera > Yaw/Pitch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 394View > Zoom . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 396View > Look At . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 397View > Set Non Proportional View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 398View > Toggle Non Proportional View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 399View > Previous View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 399View > Reset View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 399View > Toggle Stereo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 400View > New Camera . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 400View > Adjust Clipping Plane . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 400View > View 1:1 > Calibrate 1:1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 402View > View 1:1 > Toggle 1:1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 403

Chapter 12 Construction palette . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 405Construction > Point . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 405Construction > Vector . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 405Construction > Plane . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 406Construction > Set Construction Plane . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 409Construction > Toggle Construction Plane . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 409Construction > Grid Preset . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 410

Chapter 13 Locators palette . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 413Locators > Move Locator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 413

Contents | ix

Locators > Annotate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 413Locators > Measure > Distance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 414Locators > Measure > Angle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 414Locators > Measure > Radius . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 414Locators > Measure > Diameter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 415Locators > Measure > Arc Length . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 415Locators > Deviation > Closest Point . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 415Locators > Deviation > Deviation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 416Locators > Deviation > Curve to Curve . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 416Locators > Deviation > Surface to Surface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 416Locators > Deviation > Curve to Surface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 417Locators > Deviation > Mesh to Surface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 417Locators > Deviation > Cloud to Surface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 418Locators > Curve Curvature . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 418

Chapter 14 Evaluate palette . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 421Evaluate > Continuity > Surface Continuity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 421Evaluate > Continuity > Curve Continuity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 422Evaluate > Surface Evaluate > Highlights . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 424Evaluate > Surface Evaluate > Curvature . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 426Evaluate > Surface Evaluate > Contour . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 427Evaluate > Surface Evaluate > Horizon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 429Evaluate > Dynamic Section . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 431Evaluate > IsoAngle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 433Evaluate > Parting Line . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 433Evaluate > Min/Max Curvature . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 436Evaluate > Mass Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 436Evaluate > Check Model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 437Evaluate > Deviation Map . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 441Evaluate > Contact Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 442Evaluate > Dynamic Measurement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 444Evaluate > Pedestrian Protection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 444

Chapter 15 Point Clouds palette . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 447Point Clouds > Subset . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 447Point Clouds > Project Curve . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 447Point Clouds > Surfaces > Gridded . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 448Point Clouds > Surfaces > Detailed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 449Point Clouds > Surfaces > Corners . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 450Point Clouds > Merge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 450

Menus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 451

Chapter 16 File menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 453

x | Contents

File > New . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 453File > Open . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 453File > Open Recent > Clear History . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 454File > Open Stage Set . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 454File > Save . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 454File > Save As . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 455File > Save Stageset As . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 455File > Checkpoint . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 455File > Import > File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 456File > Import > Cloud . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 457File > Import > Anim . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 457File > Import > Image Plane . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 460File > Import > Canvas Image . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 462File > Import > Alias Paint Canvas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 463Import options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 464

Wire import options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 464IGES import options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 464VDAIS import options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 465JAMAIS import options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 466C4 import options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 467VDAFS import options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 467UGS NX import options (Windows only) . . . . . . . . . . . . . 468DES import options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 468STEP import options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 469Autodesk Inventor import options (Windows only) . . . . . . . 469CATIA V4 import options (Windows only) . . . . . . . . . . . . 469CATIA V5 import options (Windows only) . . . . . . . . . . . . 470CAI import options (Windows only) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 471OBJ import options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 471Encapsulated Postscript import options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 472Illustrator import options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 472Pro/E Render import options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 472OpenInventor import options (Windows only) . . . . . . . . . . 474STL import options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 475JT import options (Windows only) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 475

File > Export > Active As . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 475File > Export > SDL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 476File > Export > Anim . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 477File > Export > SLC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 479File > Export > Rapid Prototype . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 480File > Export > Screen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 481File > Export > Current Window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 481File > Export > Canvas Image/Mask Layer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 483File > Export > Make Canvas Picture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 483File > Export > Polygons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 484File > Export > VRML 2.0 (Windows only) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 484

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Export options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 489UGS-NX export options (Windows only) . . . . . . . . . . . . . 489DBVIEW export options (Windows only) . . . . . . . . . . . . . 489CAI export options (Windows only) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 490CATIA V5 export options (Windows only) . . . . . . . . . . . . 490STEP export options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 491PTC Granite export options (Windows only) . . . . . . . . . . . 493OBJ export options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 493DWF export options (Windows only) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 493DWG export options (Windows only) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 494DXF export options (Windows only) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 494DES export options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 494VDAFS export options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 495C4 export options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 496JAMA-IS export options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 498VDAIS export options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 499IGES export options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 502WIRE export options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 507

File > Reference Manager . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 507File > Print Setup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 511File > Print . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 517File > Show Image . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 522File > Image References > Image References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 523File > Image References > Extract Image References . . . . . . . . . . . 523File > Exit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 523

Chapter 17 Edit menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 525Edit > Undo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 525Edit > Redo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 526Edit > Reinvoke Last . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 526Edit > Cut . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 526Edit > Copy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 526Edit > Paste . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 526Edit > Cut Image . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 527Edit > Copy Image . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 528Edit > Paste Image . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 528Edit > Duplicate > Object . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 529Edit > Duplicate > Mirror . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 531Edit > Ungroup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 532Edit > Group . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 534Edit > Expand Instances . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 535

Chapter 18 Delete menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 537Delete > Delete Active . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 537Delete > Delete Construction History . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 537

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Delete > Delete Locators . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 537Delete > Delete Guidelines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 538Delete > Delete Model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 538Delete > Painting > Delete Canvases from Construction Plane . . . . . 539Delete > Painting > Delete Canvases . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 539Delete > Painting > Delete Active Image Layer . . . . . . . . . . . . . 540Delete > Painting > Delete All Mask Layers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 540Delete > Painting > Delete Sketch Projection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 540Delete > Delete Image Planes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 541Delete > Delete Projective Textures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 541Delete > Animation > Delete Selection Handles . . . . . . . . . . . . . 541Delete > Animation > Delete Channels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 542Delete > Animation > Delete Static Actions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 543Delete > Animation > Delete Constraints . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 544Delete > Delete Windows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 545Delete > Delete Null Nodes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 545

Chapter 19 Layouts menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 547Layouts > All Windows > All Windows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 547Layouts > Perspective . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 548Layouts > Front . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 548Layouts > Back . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 549Layouts > Right . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 549Layouts > Left . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 549Layouts > Top . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 549Layouts > Bottom . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 549Layouts > Paint . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 549Layouts > New Window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 550Layouts > Full Screen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 551Layouts > User Windows > Save Current Layout . . . . . . . . . . . . 551Layouts > User Windows > Retrieve Layout . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 552

Chapter 20 Object Display menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 553ObjectDisplay > Control . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 553ObjectDisplay > Visible . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 554ObjectDisplay > Invisible . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 554ObjectDisplay > Hide Unselected . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 555ObjectDisplay > Toggle Visibility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 555ObjectDisplay > Template . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 555ObjectDisplay > Bounding Box . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 556ObjectDisplay > Draw Precision . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 556ObjectDisplay > Draw Style . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 556ObjectDisplay > Diagnostic Shading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 558

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Chapter 21 WindowDisplay menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 567WindowDisplay > Window Title Bar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 567WindowDisplay > Window Sync . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 567WindowDisplay > Hardware Shade . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 567WindowDisplay > Hidden Line . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 575WindowDisplay > Anti-Alias > Wireframe Anti-Alias . . . . . . . . . . 575WindowDisplay > Anti-Alias > Shaded Anti-Alias . . . . . . . . . . . . 576WindowDisplay > Transparency . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 577WindowDisplay > Xray Controls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 578WindowDisplay > Show . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 579WindowDisplay > Toggles > Model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 581WindowDisplay > Toggles > Pivots . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 582WindowDisplay > Toggles > Grid . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 583WindowDisplay > Toggles > Guidelines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 583WindowDisplay > Toggles > Locators . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 583WindowDisplay > Toggles > Construction Objects . . . . . . . . . . . 584WindowDisplay > Toggles > Canvas Planes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 584WindowDisplay > Toggles > Lights . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 584WindowDisplay > Toggles > Textures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 585WindowDisplay > Toggles > Cameras . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 585WindowDisplay > Toggles > Image Planes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 586WindowDisplay > Toggles > Clouds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 586

Chapter 22 Layers menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 587Layers > New . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 587Layers > Select > Objects on Selected Layers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 588Layers > Select > Layers by Picked Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 588Layers > Select > All Layers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 588Layers > Select > Layer Range . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 588Layers > Set State > Pickable . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 588Layers > Set State > Reference . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 589Layers > Set State > Inactive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 589Layers > Delete > Selected Layers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 589Layers > Delete > Unused Layers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 589Layers > Delete > Merge Duplicate Layers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 589Layers > Visibility > Visible . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 589Layers > Visibility > Invisible . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 590Layers > Symmetry > On . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 590Layers > Symmetry > Off . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 590Layers > Symmetry > Set Plane . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 590Layers > Symmetry > Create Geometry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 590Layers > Undo Assign . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 590Layers > Toggle Layers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 591Layers > Toggle Layer Bar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 591Layers > Toggle Unused layers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 591

xiv | Contents

Chapter 23 Canvas menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 593Canvas > New Canvas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 593Canvas > New Canvas on Construction Plane . . . . . . . . . . . . . 595Canvas > New Overlay Canvas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 596Canvas > Resize Canvas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 598Canvas > Crop to Marquee . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 601Canvas > Project Sketch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 602

Chapter 24 Render menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 605Render > Globals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 605Render > Multi-lister > Multi-list Edit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 622Render > Editors > Render Stats . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 622Render > Editors > Light links . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 626Render > Direct Render . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 629Render > Render . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 631Render > Render to QuickTimeVR . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 632Render > Convert Frames to Movie . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 637Render > Apply Shaders . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 639Render > Ambient Occlusion > Compute . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 640Render > Ambient Occlusion > Delete . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 643Render > Ambient Occlusion > Toggle Display . . . . . . . . . . . . . 643Render > Create Lights > Point . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 643Render > Create Lights > Spot . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 648Render > Create Lights > Directional . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 655Render > Create Lights > Ambient . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 659Render > Create Lights > Area . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 662Render > Create Lights > Volume . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 667Render > Create Lights > Linear . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 673Render > Create Lights > Create Defaults . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 678Render > Create Texture Projections . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 678Render > Place Projection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 680

Chapter 25 Render > Multi-lister . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 683Multi-lister interface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 686Environment parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 720Shader parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 730Textures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 747Environment texture parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 753Ball texture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 753Chrome Texture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 755Cube textures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 757Sky textures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 758Sphere texture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 765Bulge texture parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 769

Contents | xv

Checker texture parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 769Cloth texture parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 770File Texture Parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 772Fractal texture parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 774Grid texture parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 775Mountain texture parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 776Noise texture parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 778Ramp texture parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 779Stencil texture parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 782Water texture parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 784Snow texture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 796sCloud texture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 797sFractal texture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 799sMarble texture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 800sRock texture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 802Leather texture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 803Granite texture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 804sWood texture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 806Volume texture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 809Point Light Parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 826Spot Light Parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 827Area Light Parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 831Volume Light Parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 831Linear Light Parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 834

Chapter 26 Animation menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 837Animation > Keyframe > Set Keyframe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 837Animation > Keyframe > Auto Keyframe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 841Animation > Keyframe > Cut Keyframe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 841Animation > Keyframe > Copy Keyframe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 843Animation > Keyframe > Paste Keyframe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 844Animation > Pick > Joint . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 846Animation > Pick > IK Handle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 846Animation > Pick > Selection Handle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 847Animation > Pick > Pick Cluster . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 848Animation > IK > New Skeleton . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 848Animation > IK > Add IK Handle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 848Animation > IK > Set Rest Pose . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 854Animation > IK > Assume Rest Pose . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 855Animation > IK > Run IK . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 856Animation > IK > IK Handles On/Off . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 860Animation > Create > New Selection Handle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 861Animation > Create > New Cluster . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 861Animation > Create > New Set . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 862Animation > Create > New Time Warp . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 862Animation > Create > New Cycles Warp . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 864

xvi | Contents

Animation > Create > New Scale Warp . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 865Animation > Edit > Duplicate Animation Channels . . . . . . . . . . 866Animation > Edit > Overlay Skeleton . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 868Animation > Edit > Constraints On/Off . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 869Animation > Editors > Action Window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 871Animation > Editors > Playback Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 921Animation > Editors > Param Control . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 928Animation > Editors > Deformation Control . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 934Animation > Editors > Expression Control . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 934Animation > Editors > Skeletons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 934Animation > Editors > Clusters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 946Animation > Editors > Set Lister . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 946Animation > Editors > Edit Set . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 948Animation > Editors > Animation Stats . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 948Animation > Editors > Scene Info . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 951Animation > Tools > Set Motion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 951Animation > Tools > Set Key Shape . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 961Animation > Tools > Pose animation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 972Animation > Tools > Autofly . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 974Animation > Tools > Constrain To . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 978Animation > Tools > Create Constraint . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 980Animation > Tools > Edit UV Constraint . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 981Animation > Tools > Jack . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 981Animation > Tools > Move Selection Handle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 981Animation > Tools > Bone Style . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 982Animation > Show > View Frame . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 983Animation > Show > Playback . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 984Animation > Show > Toggle Time Slider . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 985Animation > Show > Skeletons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 989Animation > Show > Selection Handles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 989Animation > Show > IK Handles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 990Animation > Show > Constraints . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 990Animation > Show > FCheck . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 991Animation > Turntable . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 991

Chapter 27 Windows menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 993Windows > Palette . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 993Windows > Shelves . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 993Windows > Control Panel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 993Windows > Information > Information Window . . . . . . . . . . . . 994Windows > Information > Layer Stats . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 995Windows > Information > Layer Categories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 996Windows > Information > Deviation Table . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 999Windows > Information > History View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 999Windows > Editors > Construction Plane Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . 1001Windows > Editors > Canvas Layer Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1006

Contents | xvii

Windows > Editors > Shape Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1019Windows > Editors > Stages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1023Windows > Editors > Cameras . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1032Windows > Editors > Cross Section Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1051Windows > Object Lister . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1058Windows > Bookmark Lister . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1065

Chapter 28 Preferences menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1071Preferences > Workflows > Default . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1071Preferences > Workflows > Paint . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1071Preferences > Workflows > Modeling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1072Preferences > Workflows > Visualize . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1072Preferences > Menus > Short Menus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1073Preferences > Menus > Long Menus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1073Preferences > Interface > Hotkeys/Menu Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . 1073Preferences > Interface > Marking Menus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1073Preferences > Interface > Toggle Single Hotkeys . . . . . . . . . . . . 1074Preferences > Interface > Palette/Shelves Layout . . . . . . . . . . . . 1074Preferences > Interface > Shelf Extras . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1075Preferences > Interface > User Colors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1075Preferences > General Preferences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1076Preferences > Selection Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1084Preferences > Performance Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1086Preferences > Construction Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1088Preferences > User Options > Retrieve Options . . . . . . . . . . . . 1093Preferences > User Options > Save Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1094Preferences > User Preferences > Load Preference Set . . . . . . . . . 1095Preferences > User Preferences > Save Preference Set . . . . . . . . . . 1095

Chapter 29 Utilities menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1097Utilities > Plug-in Manager . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1097Utilities > SBD > Open SBD Window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1098Utilities > SBD > Compress SBD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1100Utilities > SBD > Expand SBD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1100Utilities > Command Stepper . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1101Utilities > Licensing Information > Borrow License . . . . . . . . . . 1101Utilities > Licensing Information > Return License Early . . . . . . . 1101Utilities > Licensing Information > Product License Information . . . 1102Utilities > System Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1102Utilities > Errlog . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1104

Chapter 30 Help menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1105Help > Alias Help . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1105Help > Modifier Keys, Marking Menu Keys, and Hotkeys . . . . . . . 1107

xviii | Contents

Help > Why Alias Design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1115Help > Learning Movies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1115Help > Tutorials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1115Help > Whats New . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1115Help > Support Center . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1115Help > Alias Design Community . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1116Help > Sample Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1116Help > Customer Involvement Program . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1116Help > Report a Problem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1118Help > Suggest a Feature . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1118Help > Autodesk DirectConnect Help . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1118Help > Autodesk Online Store . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1118Help > Tool Locator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1119Help > Whats This? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1119Help > About Alias . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1119

Control Panels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1121

Chapter 31 Modeling control panel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1123Control Panel > Move CV . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1149Control Panel > Show deviations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1151Control Panel > Curvature . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1152

Chapter 32 Paint control panel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1155Control Panel > New Canvas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1170Control Panel > Canvas Layer Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1170Control Panel > Pan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1171Control Panel > Zoom . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1171

Chapter 33 Visualization control panel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1173Control Panel > Hardware Shade . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1180Control Panel > Toggle model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1180Control Panel > MultiLister: List All . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1181Control Panel > Delete Unused Shaders . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1182

Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1183

Contents | xix

Tool Palettes

Describes the purpose and options of all tools in the palette.

1

Pick palette

Tools on this palette are used to select different types of objects or parts of objects.

Pick > Nothing

Unpicks all objects.

Click Pick > Nothing to ensure that no objects or parts of objects in the sceneare selected. Pick > Nothing is a momentary tool, so your tool choice willrevert to the tool or menu item used immediately before Pick > Nothing afterthe action is complete.

See also:

Pick or unpick all objects

Center the view on specific objects

Pick > Object

Picks or unpicks one or more objects.

Pick Object Options

Pick according to layers If this option is ON (indicated by a check mark),objects in inactive or reference layers are not picked when they are groupedbelow the selected object(s) in the DAG hierarchy.

If any descendants of a node are on an unpickable layer, the system de-selectsthe original node(s) and selects all the pickable nodes on the level below. It

1

3

continues the process until all pickable descendants of all selected nodes arefound.

By default, Pick according to layers is OFF, and Pick > Object ignoreslayer state attributes. This example shows how results can differ dependingon this option.

NOTE Pick according to layers affects only modeling windows. In the SBDwindow, components are picked whether a layer is inactive layer or not.

See also:

Pick section data

Pick or unpick objects

Work with camera objects

Pick > Component

Picks or unpicks individual components from a group of objects.

Pick Component Options

All Click the On or Off options to turn all the checkboxes on or off.

Curves/ConstructionObjects/Surfaces/Shells/Meshes/Lights/Sections/Others Types of objectsthat can be picked.

Construction Objects include Points, Vectors, Construction Planes, andCanvases.

Others include the camera and solid textures.

Choosing Pick > Component reveals the following section to the left of thePrompt line:

These icons enable you to set the type of objects (the pick mask) that can bepicked without opening the option box. If the button is white, that type ofobject can be picked. If it is the same color as the menu bar, that type of object

4 | Chapter 1 Pick palette

cannot be picked. Change the status of what can be picked by clicking theicon.

See also:

Pick section data

Pick or unpick objects

Pick special object types

Group and ungroup objects

Pick > Template

Allows you to pick templated objects.

You can use the ObjectDisplay > Template on page 555 command to templatepicked objects. When an object is templated, it is visible but cannot be pickedwith the normal pick tools or snapped to.

Templating lets you get objects out of the way when you are working on otherobjects in the same area.

The Pick > Template on page 5 tool lets you pick templated objects so youcan work on them, or untemplate them.

See also:

Use objects as templates


Pick > Pick Reference

Picks and unpicks individual objects, alternatives, or layers of a reference file, or thewhole reference file, in the view window.

Pick Reference Options

Pick Level Specifies at what level your are picking within the reference file.Choose between: Component, Layer, File, or Alternative.

Pick > Template | 5

Curves/Surfaces/Shells/Meshes If Pick Level is set to Component, youcan further refine what type of objects can be picked by checking orunchecking these options.

By default, they are all checked.

See also:

File > Reference Manager on page 507

Pick > Edit Point

Picks and unpicks edit points on curves.

Pick Edit Point Options

Use Lasso Dragging the mouse draws a lasso around the edit points you wantto pick, instead of a box.

See also:

Make curves intersect

Pick or unpick control points

Add to an existing curve

Pick > Point Types > CV

Picks and unpicks CVs.

Pick CV Options

Use Lasso Dragging the mouse draws a lasso around the CVs you want topick, instead of a box.

See also:

Create clusters

Edit the timing curve of a motion path

Snap to curves, points, or the grid


Pick section data

Move CVs in world (XYZ) space

Move CVs relative to their curve or surface

Move multiple CVs toward or away from a point


Add to an existing curve

Pick > Point Types > Hull

Allows you to pick an entire line of CVs by clicking the hull connecting them.

When you turn on the display of hulls (using ObjectDisplay > Control onpage 553 or the Display section of the control panel), hull lines are drawnconnecting the CVs on curves, and the rows and columns of CVs on a surface.

To pick the CVs connected by a hull, choose Pick > Point Types > Hull onpage 7 and click the hull.

See also:


Pick > Point Types > Blend Point

Picks a blend curve constraint.

See also:

Blend curves

Edit or reshape a blend curve

Attach or detach blend points


Pick > Point Types > Hull | 7

Pick > Object Types > Curve on Surface

Allows you to pick curves-on-surface.

Curves-on-surface are special curves that exist on surfaces. They are used tomark out which parts of a surface to trim.

Usually, you create curves-on-surface by intersecting or projecting othergeometry onto a surface. You do not usually need to edit curves-on-surfaceby hand.

To pick a curve-on-surface, choose Pick > Object Types > Curve on Surfaceand click the curve-on-surface.

See also:


Pick > Object Types > Cloud

Allows you to pick point clouds.

The Pick > Object Types > Cloud tool picks the entire point cloud objectwhen you click one of its constituent points.

See also:

Edit point clouds

Pick > Object Types > Image Plane

Allows you to pick an image plane.

To pick one or more image planes, import an image plane of a drawing anduse it as a guide for modeling.

See also:

Image planes

Pick or unpick an image plane


Pick > Object Types > All Objects/Lights

Picks all objects in the scene.

To pick all objects in the scene, choose Pick > Object Types > AllObjects/Lights .

See also:

Pick or unpick all objects

Pick > Object Types > Pick by Shader

Selects all surfaces in a scene that have the same shader assigned to them.

See also:

Pick all surfaces using the same shader

Pick > Locator

Selects the locators for curves.

Everything created as a Locator (including annotations, deviations, andmeasurements) is pickable as a locator. You can assign the locators to layers.

After you have selected locators, you can delete them by using Delete > DeleteActive on page 537 .

Pick Locator Options

Measurement Picks locators created by the Locators > Measure tools.

Deviation Picks locators created by the Locators > Deviation tools.

Others Picks locators created by the Locators > Measure > Arc Length on page415 and Locators > Curve Curvature on page 418 tools.

See also:

Pick locators

Pick > Object Types > All Objects/Lights | 9

Pick > Pick Visible

Selects / deselects surfaces and meshes that are visible in a given view, when the modelis hardware shaded.

See also:

Pick or unpick visible objects


Transform palette

Transform > Move

Moves picked items in the scene.

NOTE The type of item that can be moved depends on which Pick tool is selected.For example, if Pick > Point Types > CV on page 6 is selected, Transform > Movemoves only CVs. You can change the shape of an object by moving its CVs.

Move Options

Global Move objects in the global X, Y, Z coordinate system.

Local Move each picked object along its own local axes (displayed at the objectspivot point).

Mouse buttons in Local mode

For Local mode:

To...Drag

Move along local X axis of the objectleft mouse button

Move along local Y axis of the objectmiddle mouse button

Move along local Z axis of the objectright mouse button

2

11

See also:

Snap to curves, points, or the grid

Work with the construction plane

Move CVs in world (XYZ) space

Move CVs relative to their curve or surface

Move CVs along an arbitrary vector or plane

Move multiple CVs toward or away from a point

Attach or detach blend points

Move items

Make curves intersect

Use local instead of global axes

Scale a canvas plane

Move, scale, or rotate an image layer

2D best practices

Transform > Rotate

Rotates picked items in the scene around a pivot point.

NOTE The default local axes for an object are the same as the global axes. Tochange the orientation of an objects local axes, use Transform > Local > Set LocalAxes on page 20 .

TIP To permanently display the local axes of all picked objects, chooseWindowDisplay > Toggles > Pivots on page 582 and turn on Local AxesDisplay.

Rotate Options

Global Rotate objects by incrementing their Euler rotation angles.

This means that the rotation is done first to Z, then Y, then X. Consequently,the X rotational axis depends on the Y and Z rotations already done.

12 | Chapter 2 Transform palette

Rotations done on DAG nodes above the current node also affect the rotationalaxis.

Local Rotate each picked object around its local X, Y, and Z axes (displayedat each objects pivot point).

Universe Rotate objects around the world X, Y, and Z axes.

Mouse buttons in Local and Universe modes

To...Drag

Rotate around the X axisleft mouse button

Rotate around the Y axismiddle mouse button

Rotate around the Z axisright mouse button

See also:

Create clusters

Create a constraint on an object

Constrain one object to another object

Add IK handles to your skeleton

Rotate objects

Use local instead of global axes


Transform > Scale

Allows you to scale the picked objects uniformly along all axes.

Scaling changes the size of objects by changing their scale proportionally inall three dimensions. You can also apply scaling to an image planes twodimensions. You can type a value that applies to all dimensions equally oruse different mouse buttons to apply to different dimensions.

Transform > Scale | 13

TIP To scale in different amounts for different dimensions, use non-proportionalscaling by selecting Transform > Non-p Scale on page 15 .

NOTE You cannot scale curve-on-surface elements, as they are projections ontoa surface.

NOTE If you are transforming an image plane, a manipulator displays. See Move,scale, or rotate an image layer. For information on scale pivot points, see Changean objects pivot point.

The effect of a scale operation depends the location of the scale pivot pointof the object and the addressing mode, relative, or absolute.

For information about using absolute and relative addressing, see Absoluteand relative addressing.

By default, all geometry has an initial scale factor of 1, meaning 100% of itssize.

Relative scaling is based on the current original size of the object. Forexample, if you scale to 1.5 and then scale again to 2.0, the object is nowthree times as big as when you started.

Absolute scaling is based on the original size of the object. For example,if you scale to 1.5 and then scale again to 2.0, the object is now twice asbig as when you started.

See also:

Scale animation timing with a time warp

Create clusters

Change the form of original object in an animation

Create clusters with properties for deformation

Scale objects proportionally

How to change the size of an image plane

Resize an object on a canvas


Edit a shape

14 | Chapter 2 Transform palette

Transform > Non-p Scale

Allows you to scale the picked objects by different amounts along each axis.

Changes the size of objects by scaling non-proportionally. That is, it changesthe dimensions of objects or image planes by different scale factors in differentdirections. You can use non-proportional scaling in any dimension.

This tool is like Transform > Scale on page 13 , except that you type adifferent scale factor for each scale dimension. If you type in only onevalue, it is used for the first dimension.For information on scale pivot points, see Change an objects pivot point.

The effect of Non-p Scale is based on the location of the scale pivot pointof the object.

By default, all geometry has an initial scale factor of 1 in all threedimensions, so a value of 1 makes no change.See Absolute and relative addressing.

For either direction, you can scale to an absolute size or relative to thecurrent size (scale factor) of the object in any dimension.

NOTE You cannot scale a curve-on-surface element, since it is a projection.

Transform > Modify > Proportional Mod

Moves, rotates, or scales CVs relative to their proximity to a center master CV.

Proportional Mod Control

Operations Choose whether to move, rotate, smooth, or non-proportionallyscale the CVs.

Smooth Interpolates the amount of change based on the Falloff valuesfor averaging the CVs in the region of effect.

When Smooth is on, you select only the primary CV and the region of effect.

Move Mode Choose XYZ to move CVs in world space.

Choose NUV to move CVs relative to their curve or surface.

Transform > Non-p Scale | 15

NURBS Surface Options

Falloff Specifies the degree of effect in the U and V parametric directions. Therange for these fields is from -5.00 to 5.00.

The current Falloff value and the distance of each CV from its neighbordetermines the amount by which the CVs before and after the selected onesare affected in relation to the primary CV. A Falloff value of 0 applies thetransformation equally over the affected region.

If the Falloff value is positive, the effect of the transformation is decreasedfor CVs that are further away from the primary CV: the greater the value,the greater this damping effect. The greater the number of CVs betweenthe primary CV and the boundary of the defined region, the less effect thetransformation has on each CV. The higher the number, the less effectmovement has on the surrounding CVs.

If the Falloff value is negative, the effect of the transformation is increasedfor CVs that are further away from the primary CV. The greater the numberof CVs between the primary CV and the boundary of the defined region,the greater the effect of the transformation on each CV. Surrounding CVsmove farther, because the effect is multiplied, but in the opposite direction.

Preceding # Specifies the number of CVs before the primary CV that youwant to include in the region definition along the U and V parametricdirections.

The CVs that are affected by the operation range from 0 (the default) to N,where N is the maximum possible number of CVs in that direction for theobject. Hence, to select all CVs in a direction, simply drag the slider all theway to the right.

Succeeding # Specifies the number of CVs after the primary CV that you wantto include in the region definition along the U and V parametric directions.

The CVs that are affected by the operation r

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