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2001 Riverside Drive Product Information & Support TEL: (614) 488-8838Columbus, Ohio 43221 (614) 488-9777 FAX:(614) 488-0848

User's ManualEighteenth EDITION

JUNE 2012

COPYRIGHT: © AutoDesSys, Inc., 2012. All rights reserved.

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, transcribed, transmitted, or translated into any language in any form by any means without the written permission of AutoDesSys.

This document was created electronically using Adobe InDesign® on an Apple Macintosh® computer.

TRADEMARKS: form•Z®, RenderZone®, and bonzai3d are trademarks of AutoDesSys, Inc.

Apple, Macintosh, and OS X logos are registered trademarks or trademarks of Apple Computer, Inc. Microsoft, all variations of Windows, and the Windows logo are registered trademarks or trademarks of

Microsoft Corporation.All other products mentioned in this document are registered trademarks or trademarks of

their respective owners.

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2001 Riverside Drive Product Information & Support TEL: (614) 488-8838Columbus, Ohio 43221 (614) 488-9777 FAX:(614) 488-0848

ContentsComponents 66Prior versions draft files 68

Key Shortcuts 69 Quick Keys 71

Preferences 73 System: General 73 System: Language 74 System: Interface 75 System: Scratch Disk 78 System: Recent Files 79

System: OpenGL 80 System: Updates 80

Project: General 81 Project: Files 82

Project: Auto Save 83 Project: Fonts 84 Project: File Search Paths 85 Project: Undo 86 Project: Modeling 87

Layers 89 Interacting with Google Earth 92 Fetching Views 92 Exporting to Google Earth 94 Cone of vision 95 Tool Manager and Favorites

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Extensions 102 Extensions Manager 103

Run Utility 103Run Recent Utility 104Use Script Debugger 104

Faceting schemes 108

Display methods 111 Wire Frame 112 Shaded Work 115 Shaded Full 118 Hidden Line 119 Doodle 121 Project Level render options 127

Setting the image parameters 130Line Styles and Line Weights 132

Lights and Shadows 136 Point Light 137

Cone Light 137Distant Light 137Projector Light 138Custom Light 138

Layout and Interface 1

View navigation and control 3 View menu and tools 3 Navigation tools 3 Walkthrough 5

Turntable 6 Navigation using mouse buttons 7 Navigation using key shortcuts 7 3Dconnexion space ball 7 View Parameters palette 8 Matching views to pictures 9

Match View 9

Prompts and numeric input 10

Action palette 10 Input palette 11 Reference planes 13 Underlays 15 Clipping planes 17 Context menus 20 Snapping 22 Grid snaps 22 Guide Snaps 22 Object Snaps 24 Key Points 25 Taps 26

Menus 28 File 28 Edit 32 Window 35 View 36 Display 38 Palettes 45 Workspace 47 Extensions 48 Help 49 Project Settings 50 Layout and Printing 54 Layout Tools 56 Place Frame 56

Editing Frames 60 Place Multi-Frame 61 Place Image 62 Place Image Fit 63

Layout Palettes 64Layout Printing 65

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Area Light 139Line Light 138The Lights Palette 139Intensity tab 140Location tab 144Shadows tab 144

Drawing guides/points 149 Draw Guide 149

Draw Point 149

Drawing objects 150 Rectangle 150 Polygon 150 Circle 150 Ellipse 150 Vector Line 150 Spline 150 Arc 150 Options of the Draw tools 151

Options of the Polygon tool 154 Appending to open wires 155 Modifying results 155

Picking 156 Pick and Area Pick 156 Prepicking and postpicking 156 Previewing the picks 156 Picking parts of object 157

Moving and copying with pick 158 Pick parade 158 Picking multiple entities 158 Picking sets 159 Area picking 160 Changing attributes and params with the Pick tool 161

Modifying objects while they are generated or edited 162 On screen controls 163 Constrained controls 164 Free moveable point controls 164

Selecting by Criteria 165Selection Sets 168

Generating primitives 169 Cube 169 Cone 170 Cylinder 171 Sphere 171 Torus 171 Paraboloid 172 Single Hyperboloid 172 Double Hyperboloid 173 Hyperbolic Paraboloid 173

Spherical Object 174 Star 174

Billboard 175

Surface analysis 176

Transforming objects 180

Move 180 Rotate 180 Independent Scale 180 Uniform Scale 180 Mirror 181

Mirror About 181Repeat Last Transformation 183

Tform 183 Transformation Macros 184 Extend 185 Replace 186 Align / Distribute 187 Place Along Path 189 Place On 191

Reshaping, offsetting, and imprinting 192

Reshape 192 Offset Outline 193 Offset Segment 193 Imprint 194

Deformations 195 Radial Bend 195 Bulge 197 Taper 198 Twist 199

Bending, morphing, and draft angles 200

Bend Along Path 200 Morph 201 Draft Angle 202

Derivative objects 203 Derive Point Cloud 204 Derive Segment 204 Derive Face 204 2D Wall 204 3D Extrusion 205 3D Extrusion to Point 205 3D Wall 206 Frame 206 Unfold 207

Projection 209

More derivative objects 210 Revolve 210 Helix 211

Contents (continued)

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Wire Helix 212 Axial Sweep 213 Two Source Sweep 215 Two Path Sweep 216 Boundary Sweep 217

Draft Sweep 218 Offset Surface 221 Thicken 221 Smooth Skin 222 Cross Skin 223

Rounding objects 224 Round 224 Controlled Round 225 Round Between Faces 226 Cap 230 Cover Wire 231 Uncover Wire 231 Project Curve 232 Imprint Curve 232

Lofting 233 Ruled Loft 234 Tangent Loft 234 Guided Loft 236 Perpendicular Loft 237 Path Loft 238 Branched Loft 239

Specialty tools 240 Stairs from Path 240

Switchback Stairs 243 Spiral Stairs 244 Roof 246

Contour Doctor 248 Terrain Model 249

Gears 251Gear 251Screws and bolts 253Screw/Bolt 254Detailed screw/Bolt 255

Meshing, displacing, and triangulating 257 Mesh 257

3D mesh 258 Polygon Mesh 259

Unmesh 260Reduce Mesh 260

Polygonize 261Displacement 262

Triangulate 266 Editing lines and splines 267 Break 267

Break with Line 267

Contents (continued)

Close 267 Trim 268

Extend Segment 268Extend To 268Connect Ends 269Connect Lines/Wires 269

Join Lines 269 Fit Fillet/Bevel 270 Remove Point 271 Insert Point 271

Insert Segment 271Draw Tangent 272Draw Perpendicular 272

NURBS curves 273 Curve Create 273

Curve Convert 273Curve by Formula 274

Curve Reconstruct 275Curve Attach 275

Curve Blend 276 Curve Merge 277 Curve Extend 277 Curve Split 278 Curve Knot Insert 278 Curve Edit 279 Curve Blend to Point 280

Curve To Arcs 280

NURBS surfaces 281 NURBS by Lofting 281

NURBS by Boundary Curves 282 NURBS by U/V Curves 282

NURBS Convert 283NURBS by Cross Sections 283

NURBS Formula Surfaces 284 NURBS Reconstruct 285 NURBS Curve Extract 285 NURBS Surface Attach 286

NURBS Surface Blend 287 NURBS Surface Merge 288 NURBS Surface Extend 289 NURBS Surface Split 289 NURBS Surface Edit 290 NURBS Surface Untrim 291 NURBS Insert Knot 291

Placing and editing text 292 Place Text 292 Place Text Along Path 293 Place Parallel Text 294

Place Text Between 2 Paths 295 Edit Text 296 Search Text 296

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Creating/placing components 297 Component Manager palette 297 Place Component 301 Create Component 302

Explode Component 303Replace Component 303Make Individual Component 303

Place Window/Door 303 Create Window/Door 304

Reposition Window/Door 305 Editing component through Pick palette 305

Modifying objects 306 Union 306 Intersection 307 Difference 308 Boolean Split 308 Surface Split 309 Slice 309 Line of Intersection 310 Stitch 310 Unstitch 310 Trim/Stitch 311

Section 313 Contours 315

Separating, grouping, and ungrouping 316

Separate 316Join Volumes 316Reference Object 316

Group 317 Ungroup 318 Extract from Group 318 Add to Group 318

Measuring 319 Measure Distance 319 Measure Angle 319

Measure Between 319Measure Quantities 320Mass Properties 320

Object Doctor 321 Project Doctor 323 Print Preparation 323

Model management 324 Edit Axes 324 Set 1st Point 325 Reverse Direction 325 Extract Controls 325 Convert Object Type 326

Attributes 327 Paint 327

Ghost 327 Unghost 327 Copy Attributes 328

Set Layer 328

Deleting 329 Delete 329

Delete Geometry 329

Assigning and editing textures 330 Map Texture 331 Edit Texture 333 Useful hints 336

Creating/editing materials 338Choosing a predefined material 338Defining your own predefined materials 339Textures 339

Dimensions 340 Linear dimension 340

Multi dimension 343 Angular dimension 344 Radial/Diameter dimension 344 Leader line 345 Text note 345

Explode Dimension 345 Dimension styles 346 Picking/editing dimensions 348 Associativity 349

Hatches 350Hatch 350Edit Hatch 351

Transferring project data 352

Importing and exporting object file formats 355

Common object import options 355Common object export options 359

3dm/Rhino 3633DS 364Artlantis 365

Collada 367 DXF 368 DWG 371 FACT 373 Google Earth 376 LightWave 377

OBJ 379 PLY 380 SAT and ACIS data 381

STEP 382 STL 384

Trimble SketchUp 388

Contents (continued)

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ZPR 389

Importing and exporting image file formats 392Common image import options 392

Common image export options 393 BMP 394 DXF 394 DWG 394 EPS 395

HGPL 397 Illustrator 398 JPEG 399

Piranese 402 PNG 403 QuickTime™ Image 403 TARGA 404 TIFF 404

Windows Metafile 405 Network rendering 406

The Network Settings dialog 409 The Browse For Server dialog 410

The Server Settings dialog 411The Job Information dialog 413

The form.Z Render Server and its window 415

The Client Information dialog 417 The User Settings dialog 418 The Server Configuration dialog 418 The form.Z Render Client and its window 420 The Client Settings dialog 421 The Server Settings dialog 423 The Browse For Server dialog 423

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Layout and interfaceThe form•Z interface is composed of form•Z project windows supported by a set of menus, tool bars, and palettes. The project window is the focus of the interface. This is where a 3D model is created, edited, and displayed.

By default the window shows a perspective view into the modeling space. The Cartesian axes are shown to indicate orientation and a grid is displayed to indicate the reference plane and scale. The appearance of the project window, the working units, scale, and other parameters are set in the Project Settings dialog, invoked from the File menu.

The tools used to perform modeling operations are located in the Model-ing tool palette to the left of the project window. Each row in the model-ing tool palette contains a suite of functionally related tools, whose label appears vertically to the left of the icon. When the cursor is positioned over the icon, the complete tool suite pops-up to the right of the icon. Clicking on an icon in the tool suite makes it the active tool and its icon is displayed in the modeling tool palette. The tool suite can be torn-off by clicking and dragging in its title bar.

There is always one active tool. The active tool is indicated by a red out-line around the tool’s icon. Clicking on a tool makes it the active tool. The icon and name of the active tool are shown in the Action palette located at the top of the screen. Most tools have a variety of options that control the functionality of the tool. These options are found in the Tool Options palette located to the right of the project window.

The form•Z screen layout.

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The active tool determines the action that is applied when clicking in the project window. The basic form•Z workflow is as follows:

1. Select the desired tool. 2. Choose the desired options from the tool options palette.3. Click in the modeling window as needed to perform the action. The

action palette indicates what each click will do. The Input palette can be used to enter values numerically for many tools.

4. Review the results. Most tools have the ability to make changes to the result without having to re-execute the tool. These tools show their results in orange in the project window. Tool options can be changed and are immediately reflected in the result object. Some tools provide graphic editing of the result through on screen con-trols.

5. Continue to the next operation.

The remaining tool palettes offer additional functionality used to support the modeling functionality. At the bottom of the screen are the Reference Plane tool and Snap tool palettes. At the top of the screen are the Dis-play tool and Navigation tool palettes. These tool palettes are discussed in more detail later in this document.

The Common tools palette is a collection of commonly used items from the File and Edit menus. This includes New Project, Open, Close, Save, Save As, Undo, Redo, Cut, Copy, and Paste.

The Materials, Objects, Layers, Lights, Views, Scenes, Custom Ref-erence Planes, and Clipping Planes palettes are all used to manage information of a project.

The Display Options, Material Parameters, Reference Plane Param-eters, View Parameters, and Components palettes control the options for the current display, active material, reference plane, view, and com-ponents, respectively. These palettes are closed by default but can be opened by selecting the palette’s name from the Palettes menu.

The palettes on the right of the screen reside inside a palette dock. A dock is essentially a palette that holds other palettes. When the dock is moved, all of the palettes in the dock move with it. When a dock is closed, all the palettes in the dock are no longer visible. A palette can be moved out of the dock and positioned anywhere on the screen. The dock on its right side has a scroll bar to allow scrolling of the palettes when the area required by the palettes is larger than the screen.

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View navigation and control

There are a variety of ways to control the current view (navigate) in a form•Z modeling window. These include items in the View menu, the Navigation tool bar, key shortcuts, a 3Dconnexion space ball, and the View Parameters palette.

View menu and tools

The View menu contains items for changing the view type between Ax-onometric, Isometric, Oblique, 3 and 2 Point Perspective. It also con-tains items for changing to a projection view (Top, Bottom, Right, Left, Front, Back) or back to a 3D View. The Cone Of Vision item invokes a special multi-view environment that allows for precise graphic control over the view parameters with an interactive preview.

Navigation toolsThe Navigation tool palette contains the following viewing icons, as found in the View menu. Note that these tools are sensitive to picked entities. When they exist they are placed at the center of the view.

3D View, Top, Bottom, Right,

Left, Front, Back

The Navigation tool palette also contains the following additional tools:

Look at Reference Plane: When this is selected, the view is changed to look straight down onto the current reference plane.

Look at Face: This tool changes the view to look straight down onto a specific face of the model. When selected, faces will highlight as the cursor rolls over them. When the desired face is highlighted, click to look at the face. The tool remains active for additional iterations.

Set View: This tool interactively orbits the view as the cursor is clicked and dragged in the project window. When the tool is selected the cursor changes to spinning arrows. Press the mouse at a starting location and keep the button down to interactively spin the view. Release the but-ton when the desired result is achieved. If any object is picked or high-lighted in the result color, the view spins around the center of that object. Otherwise, it spins around the centroid of the complete scene. The tool remains active for additional iterations. The default shortcut command/ctrl + : selects this tool.

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Swivel: This tool interactively rotates the view about the click point.

Walkthrough: This tool allows you to browse a model by mov-ing the observer through the scene, as common video games do. It is discussed in more detail in the next section.

Turn Table: See respective section later in this document.

Hand: This tool interactively pans the view as the cursor is clicked and dragged in the project window. When the tool is selected the cursor changes to a hand. Press the mouse at a starting location and keep the button down to interactively drag the view. Release the button when the desired result is achieved. The tool remains active for additional iterations.

Zoom: This tool zooms the view in (closer) or out (further) centered on the cursor location. When the tool is selected the cursor changes to a magnifying glass. Clicking the mouse at the desired cur-sor location performs the zoom. By default the tool zooms in. Pressing the command/ctrl key zooms out. Pressing the shift key when clicking invokes a selection rectangle to select an area to be zoomed on.

Zoom In By Frame: This tool allows you to click and drag to draw a rectangle which delineates the area to be zoomed in, by default. Press-ing the command/ctrl key it zooms out.

Zoom In Incrementally: Each selection of this tool zooms the view in (closer) around the current view center. The shortcut of this ac-tion is command/ctrl + [.

Zoom Out Incrementally: Each selection of this tool zooms the view out (farther). The shortcut of this action is command/ctrl + ].

Fit All: This tool zooms the view such that all visible objects in the project fill the window. When the scene contains picked objects, then these become the basis for the fitting and all unpicked objects are ignored. The default shortcut of this action is command/ctrl + F.

Match View: See “Matching views to pictures” later in this document.

Multi View: This tool toggles the project window between a single view and multiple views. This is the same at the Multi View menu item in the Windows menu.

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Walkthrough

The walkthrough tool ( ) is a way to browse a model by moving the eye point (observer) through the scene as in common video games. The eye point is moved parallel to the ground plane (XY plane) as the mouse is moved. When the tool is active, a marquee is drawn in the center of the window as a navigation guide. To start moving, click the mouse and move in the desired direction of travel. Moving the mouse up and down moves the observer in and out of the scene. Moving the mouse right and left turns the observer in the respective direction. Note that it is common to click in the marquee as it is at the center of the scene, however, any location will work as well.

Additional keys can be pressed to change the movement direction. When the shift key is pressed (and held), the motion changes to moving up/down or left/ right (i.e. panning). Moving the mouse up and down moves the observer vertically (increases and decreases the height above the ground plane). Moving the mouse left and right moves the observer in the corresponding direction (instead of rotating).

Pressing (and holding) the option key (Macintosh) or alt key (Windows) allows for control of the head tilt (the angle of the line of site with the ground plane). When the key is pressed, moving the mouse up and down changes the view to the scene by looking higher or lower (i.e. to the sky or to the ground). Note that horizontal movement of the mouse still rotates the observer left/right.

The speed of the movement is controlled by how far the mouse is moved from the click point. The farther it is moved, the faster the observer will traverse the scene. The options for the Walkthrough tool allow for control over the maximum speed of the observer. This is the speed that is achieved when the mouse is moved near the edge of the window. The current speed is displayed in the palette as well.

Movement will stop when the observer approaches and collides with any part of an object in the scene. When this occurs, the marquee also changes to the current highlight color (red by default) to indicate that a collision has occurred. Deselecting the Avoid Collisions option disables collision detection and the observer will not stop when colliding with an object. Note that this will frequently place the observer inside of a solid object. When this happens the “backside” of the objects’ surfaces are not visible, however the outline of the object remains.

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Note that, when collision detection is enabled, it is important to con-sider the height of the observer. The default height is that of an average person. This simulates the effect of the full length of a person’s body as he/she walks through the scene. Smaller objects in the scene, such as furniture will stop the observer, even though they may be difficult to see. If it is desirable to walkthrough the scene without such objects interfering, the Observer Height should be reduced (or made 0).

The command key (Macintosh) or ctrl key (Windows) can be used to change the state of the collision detection. Pressing and holding the key disables the collision detection if it is on. This is an easy way to get mov-ing again, should the observer become stuck. Tapping the command/ctrl key toggles the state of collision detection.

The current eye height is shown in the Tool Options palette; this is the height of the eye point off of the ground plane. This number can be changed and the entire line of site is adjusted accordingly. The Look Straight Ahead button is a convenient way to reset the line of sight to be parallel to the ground plane.

Turn Table

This viewing tool causes a scene to continuously rotate about an axis, which is selected from the tool’s pal-ette. When the tool is activated, its Options palette is invoked, which, at the top, contains controls for play-ing and stopping the rotation. The right pointing arrow rotates to the right and the left arrow to the left. The square button stops the motion.

The Speed sliding bar controls the speed of the rotation and the Rota-tion Axis list provides a set of axes that can be used for the rotation.

The Turn Table Tool Options palette.

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Navigation using mouse buttons

There are a number of default shortcuts using the mouse buttons:

Scroll wheel/ball: Zooms the current view in or out at the cursor location as the wheel/ball is moved.

Double click middle button (scroll wheel/ ball): Fits all the visible objects of the project in the window.

Command/ctrl key + double click middle button (scroll wheel/ ball): Fits all the picked entities of the project in the window.

Click and drag middle button (scroll wheel/ ball): Interactively pans (drags) the view following the position of the cursor on the screen.

Command/ctrl key + right button: Interactively spins the view fol-lowing the position of the cursor on the screen.

Navigation using key shortcuts

A number of default key shortcuts affect views:

Right arrow: Pan right.Left arrow: Pan left.Up arrow: Pan up.Down arrow: Pan down.

Shift + up arrow: Move in.Shift + down arrow: Move out.

Command/ctrl key + right arrow: Look to the right.Command/ctrl key + left arrow: Look to the left.Command/ctrl key + up arrow: Look up.Command/ctrl key + down arrow: Look down.

3Dconnexion space ball

This is also available for navigating through your scenes and works in the standard manner for this device. For more information refer to the related documentation included in the plugins folder.

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View Parameters palette

The View Parameters palette contains numeric information of the current view parameters. As the view is changed, the updated pa-rameters are shown in the palette. The palette can also be used at any time to change the view by typing a new value in any of the numeric fields. The view type can also be changed from this palette. Selecting the View Parameters item from the View or Palettes menus opens the palette.

The View Parameters palette.

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Matching views to pictures

It is frequently required to place a model to some background, which may be a photograph or a previously rendered image. This is especially useful when modeling some new structure that needs to be visualized within the context of the environment within which it will be built. In form•Z, this matching of the view of a model with that of an existing image can be done with the Match View tool, found in the Navigation tool palette located in the upper right end of the screen.

Match ViewTo use this tool, you first need the image to whose 3 point perspective view a model will be matched. This image is brought into a form•Z proj-ect as a background image, as follows:

From the Display menu, select Display Options.... This invokes the Display Options palette that contains the Background menu. From it select Flat Image, which brings in a default image and places it as a background. To import another image, click on the Options... button (next to the Background menu) and in the dialog that is invoked click Load.... This will invoke the Open dialog from where you can select the image you want.

Next, create a model or open a form•Z model previously saved. This is the model you would like to place in the context of the image.

Make sure you have a perspective view. If not, select 3 Point Perspec-tive from the View menu.

Next, with the Match View tool active, you will select points on the 3D model and link them to points on the 2D background image. We shall be referring to the former as 3D bullets and to the latter as 2D cross marks. As you select pairs of 3D bullets and 2D cross marks, dotted con-necting lines are rubber banded and drawn between them. To get a good result, you need to select at least 3 pairs of points, but preferably 4 or more.

To be able to reach the points you wish to link, you will use available view tools and/or key shortcuts to position the 3D model in such a way that both the image points and the model points appear unobstructed. Note that the model should be positioned by changing the view only. Do not use the Move tool to actually change the position of the model in 3D space.

To facilitate viewing and snapping to the points you wish to link, a magni-fication window is displayed at the lower right portion of the screen (lower

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Prompts and numeric input

At the top left of the screen are the Action and Input palettes. They are designed to guide the user though the execution of a tool by giving short instructions of what to do next, presenting essential options, giving numeric feedback, and allowing the user to type numeric input values in place of graphic input through the mouse.

Action palette

The Action palette shows the active tool’s icon on its left side. Next to it, at the top of the text area is the title of the tool followed by a brief description of what the tool does. For example:

Reshape: Reshapes an object by moving faces.

Below this description are instructions for what happens next. Depending on what state the execution of the tool is in the instructions may change. All tools require mouse clicks for their execution. Therefore the first instruction below the title is “Click” followed by a description of what happens with the next mouse click in the project window. For example, for the Reshape tool:

Click: Select planar (flat) face to reshape.

Additional instructions may be presented below the click instruction. Those are usually options that can be used by holding down the shift, control, or command key while clicking. Again, for the Reshape tool this is:

Shift + Click: Select multiple entities.

If all of the options do not fit in the palette, the text at the bottom of the palette will parade through all of the options available. The small dots under the active tool indicate how many “pages” of information there are.

Once a tool is executing and an interactive operation is performed, the instructions may change. For example, with the Reshape tool, after the face is picked, the extrusion of the face is dynamically updated between the first and second mouse clicks. During that time, the click has a new meaning and new options apply. Those are now shown in the palette:

Click: New face location.Tap Shift: Toggles Keep Edges option.Tap Command: Toggles Perpendicular option.

Note, that “Tap” means hitting and quickly releasing the key, not pressing the key and holding it down. In contrast, “Shift + Click” means holding the key down while clicking.

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Input palette

The Input palette contains two areas with numeric input fields. The first area, on the left, shows the x, y, and z values of the cursor position as it is mapped from the screen onto the current reference plane or to a snapped point. The x, y, and z values may be read out in four different ways, which is determined by the menu to the right of the three fields:

3D: x, y, and z are shown as absolute values in the 3D world space. That is, they are shown relative to the origin of the world coordinate system.

3D Delta: This option is only available if a point has been clicked during drawing. The x, y, and z values are shown as values relative to the previously clicked point and are expressed as 3D world coordinates. This allows the user to see, for example, how far from the last point a line was drawn.

Plane: x, y, and z are shown as values relative to the coordinate system of the currently active reference plane. This plane may be the XY plane, the YZ, or ZX orthogonal plane or an arbitrarily oriented custom plane. The X axis is displayed in red, the Y axis in green, and the Z axis in blue. The values shown in the Input palette are measured along these axes.

Plane Delta: As for 3D Delta, this option is only available if a point has already been drawn. It shows the x, y, and z values relative to the previously clicked (drawn) point in the coordinate system of the current reference plane. Plane and Plane Delta are useful options for example, when inserting a window into a wall. First, you define a reference plane on a vertical face (the wall), with the plane’s origin at the lower corner of the wall. Then, you use the Insert option of the Rectangle tool. Then, you choose Plane. As the mouse is moved over the face, the coordinate readout shows the x and y distance of the cursor relative to the lower corner of the wall. Now an opening can be drawn precisely at a desired offset from the wall corner. While the rectangle is interactively drawn, switch to Plane Delta. Now the x, y, and z values of the current point are shown relative to the first clicked point of the rectangle. Note, that the rectangle Length and Width are also shown in the Input palette, as described in more detail below.

The second area of the Input palette displays numeric fields that are specific to the current operation. For example, drawing a rectangle shows two fields, Length and Width. Extruding a shape shows one field, Height. Tools that do resort to graphic input during their execution will not display any fields in this area. The behavior of the numeric input fields in this area is slightly different from the x, y, and z input fields. If

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the user types a value and hits the tab key, this value is locked until the return key is hit, or the mouse is clicked.

For example, start drawing a rectangle by clicking on the reference plane. While the second point is interactively drawn, the Length and Width fields show the current dimensions of the rectangle. Now, type a value in the Length field and hit the tab key. This advances the focus of the text input to the Width field and locks the length of the rectangle to the type value. Notice that the width of the rectangle is still determined by the mouse value, while the length stays the same. Now, type a value in the Width field and hit tab. Now, both length and width are defined and locked and the rectangles shape will not change anymore. Hit return or click with the mouse to finish the input.

Note that just hitting the tab key without typing a value in the text fields will not lock the values. Anytime the return key is hit during interactive input, it is interpreted as a mouse click, accepting the values in the Input palette instead of the cursor’s mapped 3D location.

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Reference planes

Graphic interaction with form•Z is interpreted relative to the active reference plane. A reference plane is a plane in 3D space used as the workspace for drawing and the basis for other interactive actions. The initial reference plane is the XY plane (or ground plane). The reference plane may be one of the three Cartesian planes (XY, YZ, ZX), or it may be a custom plane. A custom plane can be positioned anywhere in 3D space and is defined from faces of an object or is derived from one of the Cartesian reference planes. A special type of custom plane is the face reference plane, which is created automatically when using a tool for drawing objects and the mouse is positioned on a face of an existing object.

By default, reference planes are shown with a grid and axes. The X axis is displayed red, the Y green, and the Z blue. The color of the grid and axes is controlled by settings in the Appearance tab of the Project Settings dialog (accessed from the File menu). The display of the grid and axes can be disabled with tools in the Display tool palette.

The Reference Plane tool palette is located at the bottom left edge of the screen. It contains tools that can be used to switch between the reference planes, define and edit planes.

XY Plane, YZ Plane, ZX Plane: Make the XY, YZ, or ZX reference plane active, respectively.

The Reference Plane Parameters palette that can be invoked from the Palettes menu, contains the parameters of the current plane. This includes a control for the plane’s underlay. The underlay is an image that can be displayed on the plane. This is useful for referencing or tracing images.

Custom Plane: Makes active the custom reference plane that is active in the Custom Reference Planes palette. This palette can be invoked from the Palettes menu and contains a list of all the custom planes that have been defined. It can be used to manage the custom planes, including the selection of the active custom plane.

Module and Divisions: A grid may be drawn depicting the reference plane, depending on whether Show Grid is selected in the Display menu. The density of the grid is specified by the values in these two fields. The module value specifies the interval at which a heavy line is drawn. The divisions value specifies the number of subdivisions in each module. These subdivisions are drawn in lighter lines.

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Define Reference Plane: This tool allows you to define custom reference planes from a face, three points, or a segment and a point of an object. To do so, with the tool active, click on the respective entities.

Edit Reference Plane: This tool allows you to manipulate a reference plane grid and to derive a custom plane from it. There are seven buttons in its tool options palette:

Center On Scene changes the origin of the plane to the center of the scene extents. Center On Selection changes the origin to the center of the selected entities. Extents Of Scene changes the extents of the plane to the scene extents. Extents Of Selection changes the extents of the plane to the extents of the selected entities. Plane YZ and Plane XZ change the plane to the YZ or XZ plane of the current reference plane. Align With View changes the plane to coincide with the picture plane of the current view, with Z aligned to the line of sight, X to the horizontal and Y to the vertical axes of the screen.

Activation of this tool also displays certain controls on the reference plane grid, which can be used to graphically reshape the plane. By picking and dragging the border arrows that appear on the four border lines you can expand or shrink the respective side of the reference grid. By rotating the circular dials that are centered at the origin of the plane you can rotate the plane grid in three directions. You can also move the grid by moving the bullet at its origin.

Lock Reference Plane: This is a switch. When it is on, the reference plane is locked and does not automatically change when using one of the drawing tools. When this switch is off and you place the mouse cursor on the surface of an object, while a drawing tool is active, drawing will occur on the surface of the object. This tool can also be accessed by its key shortcut (F5) which is useful when the mouse is positioned on a face of an object and the icon cannot be used.

The XY reference plane grid with its controls displayed.

The Edit Reference Plane Tool Options palette.

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Reference Plane Param-eters palette with the Un-derlay checkbox active.

UnderlaysThis is an image that can be imported and displayed on any active reference plane, use-ful for referencing or tracing. An underlay can be any of the available image formats (except Illustrator). These image files can be created in form•Z or by an external source such as another application or an image scanner.

• To place an underlay on the active refer-ence plane, from the Palettes menu, invoke the Reference Plane Parameters palette. In it, turn on Underlay.

The image shown in the Underlay box of the dialog appears mapped on the active reference plane immediately. By default, this is an image with the AutoDesSys logo.

To place a different underlay, in the Refer-ence Plane Parameters palette, click on the Open icon ( ), found next to the Underlay box, to invoke the Underlay dialog. In it, click on the Load... button. This invokes the standard Open File dialog from where you can choose an image file. As soon as you click OK, the image appears in the Under-lay dialog. As soon as you close this dialog (by clicking on its OK button) the image ap-pears in the Reference Plane Parameters palette and on your active reference plane.

The Underlay dialog with a loaded image.

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The loaded image as an underlay in form•Z.

The underlay image remains visible as long as the reference plane re-mains active. If you make another plane active, the image will disappear, but you can assign an underlay image to that plane as well. In general, there can be as many underlays as reference planes, but only one is displayed (that of the active plane) at any given time.

At the lower portion of the Reference Plane Parameters palette, there are more options:

The Transparency sliding bar controls how transparent the underlay image may be. At the far left, the image is completely opaque. At the far right, it is invisible. Between the two ends different degrees of transpar-ency can be set.

There are two methods for placing an underlay image: Fit To Plane Ex-tents sizes the image to exactly fit the reference plane. Custom Place-ment allows you to enter specific placement and orientation parameters.

The X and Y values of Origin position the origin of the underlay image and the angle value in the Rotation field orients it. Then the exact size of the image may be set by one of two methods: By Scale allows you to define a scale for the image using one of three formats: inches, ratio, or scale percentage. These are correlated and changing one automatically updates the other two. By Dimensions allows you to set the size of the underlay image be explicitly entering its X and Y dimensions. Note that the two can be locked to be the same if a square shape is desired.

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Underlays on custom planes

In addition to the Cartesian reference planes (XY, YZ, and ZX), underlays can also be placed on any custom plane. Recall that these can be gen-erated using the Define Reference Plane tool ( ) or the Edit Refer-ence Plane tool ( ), both located at the lower end of the form•Z window. Also, recall that these are listed in the Custom Reference Planes palette, from where they can be activated. Once active, an underlay can be assigned to them as for the Carte-sian planes. Note, however, that for custom planes generated from faces of objects, use of some degree of Transparency is advisable to make sure they are visible.

A custom plane created on the face of an object.

The Custom Reference Planes palette with its context menu

invoked.

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Clipping planesClipping planes are a useful way to see the inside of a model by cut-ting away part of the model to reveal the interior and the structure of its mass. The Section tool, discussed later, can be used to accomplish this, however, it actually cuts the model. While this might be desirable in some cases it is often desirable to have a way to visualize sections of the model without affecting the model itself. A clipping plane is used for just such visualization. A clipping plane cuts the scene at a desired loca-tion. Multiple clipping planes can be maintained in the Clipping Planes palette making it easy to switch to different cut-away views with a single click.

To create a clipping plane, first open the Clipping Plane palette (located at the bottom of the palette dock). Click on the New (+) icon at the top of the palette. A new clipping plane is added to the palette and it becomes the active clipping plane. The plane is positioned by default in the middle of the visible objects and ori-ented parallel to the XY, YZ, or XZ plane depend-ing on which plane best faces the current viewing position.

You can create a clipping plane that is positioned relative to the current view. That is, a plane that is perpendicular to the current line of sight. To do so, select the New Clipping Plane From View item from the con-text menu, accessed from the Checkmark icon () in the upper right of the Clipping Planes palette.

Clipping plane parallel to XY and positioned in the middle of the visible objects.

Clipping plane perpendicular to the line of sight.

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When a new clipping plane is created, it is made active and the plane is shown graphically on the screen. The graphics include a number of on screen controls that are used to graphically edit the position and orienta-tion of the plane. There are 5 arrow controls that point in the direction of the cutaway mass and can be used to reposition the clipping plane along its primary axis (perpendicular to the plane). The blue dot at the center of the plane can also be used to move the plane along the axis; however, it works differently than the arrows. When using the blue dot, the model is not sectioned live as the clipping plane is moved. This allows for the plane to be positioned accurately by snapping to parts of the model. Note that you may first need to move the clipping plane once to reveal the part of the model you desire to snap to and then move it to its final position.

The green and red dots can be used to rotate the clipping plane. Note that, when the plane is rotated, the graphics are updated so they are big enough to enclose the entire visible model (if the clip-ping plane was positioned at the widest portion relative its axis).

The clipped cross sections can be painted with different colors or have hatch patterns assigned to them. This is done through the cross section attribute that is assigned to all objects. You can access the parameters of this at-tribute through the Pick Tool Op-tions palette. With the Pick tool select the object to invoke its tool options palette, then select Attri-butes, and, from the popup menu on the top, select Cross Section. The options displayed contain parameters for the Section Color, the Line Color and Weight, and Hatch. Any change you make to any of these parameters will be reflected to the display of the cross section on the screen.

Cross sections painted differently.

Cross Section options in Attributes tab of Pick Tool Options palette.

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Right clicking on any of the editable controls invokes a context menu with three items. When the 2D option is selected, only the 2D intersection with the clipping plane is shown. The Flip item reverses the direction of the active clipping plane. That is, it toggles which side of the model is visible and which is cut away. The Make Permanent (Cut Section) item actu-ally cuts the model at the clipping plane. This is equivalent to using the Section tool on the visible objects along the clipping plane.

When a clipping plane is active the plane affects the entire working environment. You cannot pick objects or parts of objects that are not vis-ible. Likewise snapping does not work on the portions that are cut away. The clipping plane does not affect guides and other on screen graphics and controls. The faces of solid objects created by the clipping plane are shown with a dark gray color by default. The color can be changed in the Appearance tab of the Project Settings dialog, by using a custom style.

The Clipping Planes palette is used to manage the clipping planes. The first column of the palette shows whether the plane is active, which is in-dicated by a red dot ( ). Click in the column to make the corresponding plane active or inactive. Multiple planes can be active at the same time. The second column controls the visibility of the on screen controls. By default, the controls are visible but they can be hidden using this column. The name of the plane is found in the third column and can be edited in the standard fashion.

At the top of the palette are some additional controls. These are enabled when a plane is highlighted in the palette by clicking on the name of the plane. The Flip ( ) icon reverses the direction of the active clipping plane. That is, it toggles which side of the model is visible and which is cut away. The Play icon ( ) animates the plane along the primary axis. The Stop icon ( ) stops the animation at the current location.

The palette’s context menu can be accessed by right clicking in the pal-ette or from the standard context menu icon at the top right of the palette. As with all palettes, this menu offers easy access to actions that can be performed in the palette.

Clipping planes are included in Scenes by default. This allows for a quick way to link a clipping plane with a specific view. That is, by saving a Scene with a specific view and clipping plane, you can easily recall them both together. Clipping planes can be excluded from the scene by un-checking the Clipping Plane item in the Scene Options dialog.

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Context menusContext menus can be invoked by clicking the right button of the mouse. Depending on where the mouse is when right-clicking, a different context menu will pop up (on OSX control + click can be used when no right mouse button is present). They generally contain items that affect the program feature on which the click occurred. For example, right-clicking on a palette invokes a menu with items relating to that palette. Regarding the tool icons, there are three types of context menus:

Icon menu: Right-clicking on any tool icon invokes this menu, which contains three items:

Set Shortcut...: Selecting this item invokes the Key Shortcut dialog when a key command can be defined for the respective tool.

Manual: Selecting this invokes the form•Z manual.

View Video: Selecting this invokes the form•Z video tutorials.

The Icon context menu.

Pick menu: When the Pick tool or another tool that picks is active and you right-click anywhere in the project window, the menu pops up. It contains three groups of items.

Attributes, Info, Parameters, Show Controls: All these are options also available in the Pick tool options palette and are repeated here for convenience.

The Pick context menu.Select All On Same Layer, Select All With Same Material, Select

All Faces With Same Material On Same Object: Selecting one of these items picks a group of objects that meet the specifications in the respective items.

Group, Ungroup, Edit Group, Edit Group Complete, Make Individual Component: These are items found in the Edit menu and are repeated here for convenience.

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Reference Plane menu: When a tool that draws or uses the reference plane is active and you right-click, the menu pops up.

The Reference Plane context menu.

Lock Reference Plane: This accesses the Lock Reference Plane function discussed in the previous section.

Look at Reference Plane: When this is selected the view is changed to look straight into the current reference plane.

Save As Custom Reference Plane: The current reference plane is added to the Custom Planes palette and the active reference plane is switched to the new custom plane.

Reference Plane Parameters: When selected, the Reference Plane Properties palette is displayed. This palette contains numeric fields for all of the parameters of the active reference plane.

Isolate Object, Reveal Object, Paste: These again are items found in the Edit menu and are repeated here for convenience.

Cut, Copy, Paste, Delete: As the above items, these are commands found in the Edit menu and are repeated here for convenience.

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SnappingThere are three kinds of snaps, which can be turned on and off separately: grid snaps, guide snaps, and object snaps.

Grid snaps

Grid Snap: This tool, found on bottom of the screen, is a switch. When on, grid snapping is on; when off, it is off. Next to it there are two fields: one for linear distances and one for angles. All linear input that defines points in space or linear distances is affected by the linear grid snap. It applies equally to X, Y, and Z directions. A few input mechanisms define angles, such as drawing arcs or rotating objects. They are affected by the angle grid snap. For convenience, the grid snap values can be accessed directly in the text fields next to the Grid icon. To invoke the Grid Options dialog, keep the mouse a few seconds over the Grid icon.

Guide SnapsGuides are auxiliary lines that extend to infinity. Their purpose is to lock on to certain points along a meaningful direction. Guides are generated in one of three ways:

(1) Permanent guides are generated by the user with the Draw Guide tool ( ), found in the Guides suite of tools (1st row, right column). They are always drawn with black dashed lines. They can be picked, moved, rotated, and deleted. Permanent guides are located on the layer that is active when they are drawn. If that layer is turned off, the guides will also disappear. Permanent guides are saved with the project.

(2) Temporary guides can be generated by the user anytime object snaps are active. The cursor must snap to one of the object snaps, such as a point, interval, or segment. When this happens the user may press the cmd+space bar on OSX or ctrl+space bar on Windows to create a series of guide lines through the snapped entity, according to the following rules:

• When snapping to a point, guide lines are generated parallel to the X,Y, and Z directions of the current reference plane.

• When snapping to a segment or segment interval, guide lines tangent and perpendicular to the segment at the snap point are generated, in addition to the X,Y, and Z directions, whenever they are different from the X,Y, and Z directions.

• When snapping to a segment or segment interval and shift+space bar are pressed, the X, Y, Z, tangent, and perpendicular guides are not

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generated at the snap point, but at the closest end point of the segment.

At most three such sets of temporary guide lines can be active. If a fourth set is created, the oldest set is removed. Temporary guides remain associated with the object where the snap occurred. If the object is edited and changed, the temporary guides for that object are removed.

(3) Automatic guide lines are created during dynamic input, such as when drawing, transforming, extruding, etc. Depending on the type of input, guide lines that are parallel to the X and Y directions of the reference plane, tangent, and perpendicular to a drawn segment and/or perpendicular to the reference plane are created. After the input is completed, they are automatically deleted. They only exist during the execution of the tool.

If temporary and automatic guides are drawn, they are color coded: parallel to X is red, to Y is green, and to Z is blue. Tangent, perpendicular, or other directions are magenta. Angle snaps are lilac.

Guide Snap: This switch, located at the bottom of the project window, allows the user to turn guide snapping on and off. If on, and the cursor is close to a guide line, it snaps to that line. If the cursor is close to the intersection of two guide lines, it snaps to it too.

Angle Snap: When on, snapable guides set at a specified angle appear to the left and right of the last point drawn. The angle is set in the field next to the Angle icon.

Intersection Snap: When this switch is on, the cursor also snaps to the intersection of a guide with a segment. When the cursor snaps to a guide line and the shift key is held down, the snapped point remains on that guide line, no matter where the cursor is moved. In that case, the cursor point is always projected perpendicular on the guide line. When snapping to a guide, or the intersection of two guides, a solid line in the color of the type of guide is drawn from the snapped point on the guide to the guide line’s origin.

It is possible to delete individual lines of a snap guide. While the cursor is snapping to a guide line, hit the cmd+space bar (OSX) or ctrl+space (Windows) key and that line is removed. This may be useful if too many guide lines populate the screen. For example, only the tangent direction of a snap guide may be desired. Initially the X, Y, Z, perpendicular, and tangent direction are generated as guide lines. Snapping to the X, Y, Z, and perpendicular line and hitting the cmd+space bar (OSX) or ctrl+space (Windows) key removes them one at a time.

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All temporary and automatic snap guides can be deleted by hitting the shift+cmd+space bar (OSX) or shift+ctrl+space bar (Windows) keys at any time.

Object Snaps

The Snap tool palette at the bottom of the project window contains tools that allow you to snap to parts of objects.

Object Snap: When this switch is on, snapping to parts of objects is enabled and the snap tools next to it further determine which object parts can be snapped to. They are:

Snap to Point

Snap to Interval

Snap to Key Points

Snap to Segment Snap to Intersection

Snap to Perpendicular

Snap to Tangent

Snap to Center

Snap to Face

All of the above are self-explanatory except the Key points, which are discussed in the next section.

As with the Grid Snap Options dialog, keep the mouse a few seconds over one of the object snap icons to invoke the Object Snap Options dialog. One or more of the object snap icons can be active at the same time. The cursor will automatically snap to the object part that is closest. In addition, when the cursor is located over a segment, a preview of the possible snap choices is drawn. For example, if point, segment, and interval snaps are active and the cursor is located over a segment, small red circles are drawn for the two end points of the segment and green circles for the interval points. If the cursor is not close to any of these entities, it is snapped to the segment. If it is close to one of these points, it is snapped to it. A larger green point is drawn where the cursor is snapped to an object part. The small preview points for snap

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choices along a segments are color coded: segment end points are red, segment interval points are green, and intersection points of segments with other segments and guides are blue. Points tangent or perpendicular from the current point while drawing are magenta.

Key points

Key points are points of an object that are critical to the shape or the controls of the shape. Examples of key points are the centers of circles and the control points of spline or nurbs objects. The key points avail-able per type of object are listed on the right. Key points can be shown when objects are displayed in Wire Frame or Shaded Work modes and the Show Key Points option is on in the respective Options dialog.

Selecting the Snap To Key Point icon causes the cursor to snap to the key points of an object.

Examples of key points on (a) a par-tial primitive and (b) a nurbs object.

Object Type Key Points

Cube Center of each side faceCone Center of bottom and

apex or center of top, if the cone is truncated

Cylinder Centers of bottom and top faces

Sphere CenterTorus Center. Start and end

points of the torus arc, if the torus is partial

Spherical Object CenterComposite Curve Key points of component

curves, plus corner points of any straight line segments

Spline Control pointsArc Start point of arc, center

of arc, end point of arcCircle CenterEllipse Center2D Enclosure Key points of base shapeExtrusion Key points of base shapeConvergence Key points of base shape3D Enclosure Key points of base shapeRevolved Object Key points of source

objectHelix Key points of source

object Wire Helix Helix Key points of path

objectSpiral Stair Axis point at top and bot-

tom of stairStair From Path Key points of path objectSweep Key points of source and

path objects Nurbs Curve Control pointsNurbs Object Control pointsText Placement point for Text

At Point

The key points of different types of objects.

a

b

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Taps Taps may be thought of as a special type of key shortcuts that can be conveniently used to switch the action of a tool. They involve quickly hitting (tapping) a key while a certain tool is active, to toggle between alternative effects. They are preset by the system and cannot be pro-grammed by a user. They involve the shift, command (Macintosh) or control (Windows), and option (Macintosh) or alt (Windows) keys, whose effect per tool is as follows:

Tool Key ActionPick command/control

shift

option/alt

While dragging an entity, toggles between move perpendicular and move parallel to reference plane.

While dragging an entity, toggles between allow and disallow snapping to original.

While dragging to transform an entity, toggles between most recently selected copy mode and self.

Area Pick command/control Toggles select and deselect option. Rectangle 3-Point RectangleCircle 1Circle 2Circle 3Ellipse 1Ellipse 2

shift Toggles insert option on/off.

Vector LineStream Line

command/control

shift

While drawing, toggles between draw perpen-dicular and parallel to reference plane.

Toggles Insert option on/off.

Bezier SplineSpline Through PointsSpline

command/control

shift

option/alt

While drawing, toggles between draw perpen-dicular and parallel to reference plane.

Toggles insert option on/off.

Spline tools only: toggles end/smooth spline point. Arc 1Arc 2Arc 3

command/control

shift

While drawing, changes arc direction.

Toggles insert option on/off.

Arc 4 shift Toggles insert option on/off.

Reshape command/control

shift

While pushing/pulling a face, toggles between perpendicular to reference plane and perpen-dicular to surface.

Toggles keep edges option on/off.

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Tool Key ActionOffset Outline shift Toggles insert option on/off.

Offset Segment command/control

shift

Toggles extend to boundary option.

Toggles insert option on/off.

ExtrusionPoint Extrude3D Wall

command/control While extruding, toggles between perpendicu-lar to reference plane and perpendicualr to surface.

Move command/control

shift

option/alt

Toggles between move perpendicular and parallel to reference plane.

Toggles between allow and disallow snapping to original.

Toggles between most recently selected copy mode and self.

Rotate Uniform ScaleIndependent ScaleMirror

shift

option/alt

Toggles between allow and disallow snapping to original.

Toggles between most recently selected copy mode and self.

Measure Distance command/control Toggles measure perpendicular on/off. Measure Arc command/control While defining arc, toggles angle direction.

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Menus

At the top of the screen is a menu bar that consists of seven standard menus. This section contains an overview of the items in these menus. Since most of them are standard and similar to those found in other ap-plications the discussion does not go into unnecessary details.

File menu

This menu consists of six sections, as shown. The first contains commands that open projects, including layout projects, where presentation drawings may be composed. Layouts are discussed in detail in the section after the next. All the work in form•Z is organized in projects. You can have any number of projects opened simultaneously but only one can be active at a time. Each project may have any number of windows open.

The second group contains standard items for closing and saving.

The third section contains the item Project Settings… which is discussed in detail in a separate section. The Project Info… com-mand invokes a dialog containing information about the project. This information is organized in 3 tabs: The Modeling tab contains numeric summary information about the topologies of all the objects in the project, the Project File Info tab contains information about the project, and

The File menu.

the Linked Files tab contains information about linked files, if any. More specifically, the Linked Files tab shows a list of linked files used in the project, which are currently textures that may be used in renderings or component files. The list consists of three columns, as follows:

File Name: This column shows the file name of the linked files.

Path: This column shows the path on disk of the linked files. If the file is missing, it will read Not Found.

Status: This column shows the status of the linked files. If the file is missing, an exclamation point inside a yellow triangle will be displayed. If

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the linked file is in good shape, a green checkmark is displayed.

The list of linked files if complemented by a number of commands and options at the lower end of the dialog, as follows:

Relink…: This button is used to fix a missing file or to link to a different file.

Show: This menu determines the types of linked files to show in the list. For example, if there are two or more renderers installed that use linked texture maps, they will each be shown here. By default, all linked file types are shown.

Show Missing Only: When this option is on, only missing linked files will be shown in the list. By default, all linked files are shown.

File Usage: This information field shows how the currently selected linked file is used in form•Z.

Size: This information field shows the file size of selected linked file.

Created: This information field shows the date and time that the cur-rently selected linked file was created.

Modified: This information field shows the date and time that the cur-rently selected linked file was last modified.

The fourth section handles importing and exporting. The formats avail-able in form•Z are discussed in a separate section.

The fifth and sixth sections contain standard file viewing and printing commands.

The Linked Files tab of the Project Info dialog.

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The form•Z Plot/ Print Setup dialog.

Prints produced by form•Z are based on what is displayed in the active modeling window. The contents of the active window are printed in their current view and according to their current type of display, which may be a line drawing or a shaded rendering.

The print command invokes the Plot/Print Setup dialog where print parameters are set and the contents of the active modeling window can be sent to a printer. The left portion of the dialog contains a preview of a sheet to be printed. See dialog below.

The right side of the dialog contains options for controlling the printing.

Printer: This menu contains the list of printers that are available on the computer. The printer selected from the menu is the active printer and the destination for printing.

Orientation: The icons control the orientation of the page Portrait or Landscape.

Scale to Fit Media: When selected the sheet is scaled to fit on the page.

Scale: When selected the sheet is scaled to the specified scale. If the scale causes the sheet to exceed the size of a single page, it will be

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printed on multiple pages. In this case the preview shows lines on the sheet to indicate how the sheet will be split into multiple pages.

Plot/Print Type: This section controls whether form•Z prints what is in the file, or what is in the current modeling window.

Extents: When this option is selected, all the objects or elements in the project are printed regardless of what is visible in the window.

Window Contents: When selected, only the objects or elements that are visible in the window are printed. This option prints the window in a “what you see is what you get” fashion.

Image Options: This section controls whether form•Z prints the content that is in the modeling file, or what is in the current modeling window.

Plot Grid, Plot Axis: These options control whether the reference grid and/or the Cartesian axes will be included in the print. Note that whether or not these are printed is independent from whether they are currently displayed in the window.

Plot Axis: When selected, only the objects or elements that are vis-ible in the window are printed. This option prints the window in a “what you see is what you get” fashion.

Include Background: When this option is selected, the background of the plotted/printed image is filled with the background color. This option is most useful when using color printers. It is off by default.

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The Edit menu.

The last item in this group is Clear Ghosted Operands. There are two ways in which objects can be ghosted in form•Z. The first is as a result of an operation applied to them. The second is by using the Ghost tool and explicitly ghosting an object. This command will clear (delete) only the ghosted objects that resulted from operations.

The Object Duplication Offset dialog.

Edit menu

This menu consists of nine groups of mostly standard commands. The first group contains undo and redo commands which are affected by settings in the Preferences dialog, Proj-ect: Undo section. The undos are unlimited by default and may or may not be saved with projects. They are not saved by default. By default they are also reset every time a project is saved, but this is optional.

The second group contains the standard Cut, Copy, Paste, and Duplicate* commands. If you select the latter while pressing the option key, the Object Duplication Offset dialog is invoked, where X, Y, and Z offset values can entered. The same dialog can be invoked directly with the Duplication Offset... com-mand, found at the end of this group.

The third group contains commands for select-ing and deselecting and for global deletions (clearing). Recall that form•Z objects can be active or ghosted and there are separate com-mands for dealing with each category.

The fourth group contains items that control the status of objects, after operations are ap-plied to them. You can instruct the program to Ghost, Delete, or Keep the operand objects of an operation. Also in this group is Apply To All Operands, which applies when parts of objects are used in an operation. For example, a new extrusion is generated from the face of an object. By default, the object on which the face is excluded from the above options and it is kept as it is (it is neither ghosted nor deleted). However, if Apply To All Operands is on, the Ghost, Delete, or Keep options will apply to this object as well.

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The fifth group contains commands that relate to picking. When Click And Drag is checked, you can execute a move by simply clicking and dragging rather than using the Move tool.

When 2 Click Face/Outline Selection is checked, faces and outlines are picked with two clicks. When Selection Preview is checked, entities are highlighted when the mouse cursor is placed on them, indicating that they will be picked when the mouse is clicked.

The sixth group contains two commands: Unlock Groups and Unlock Components. When these are on the members (objects) of the groups or components and their parts (faces, segments, points, etc.) can be picked by a Pick tool or by any other tool that may post pick them to execute an operation. In such a case groups can still be post picked as groups by tools that expect a group. When these items are off, which is the default, groups or components can only be picked as groups or components.

When making changes to a component, one of three options may apply: Update Component, Make New Component, or Ask, which is selected from the Component Manager palette. When Ask is on, every time you make a change to a component the Component Changed prompt is issued, offering the above options.

The seventh group contains commands relating to grouping and compo-nents. The Group and Ungroup items function the same as the Group and Ungroup tools, when used with the prepick selection method.

Once objects are grouped they can only be manipulated as a group and the individual objects cannot be accessed. The Edit Group/Component command provides for a way to edit the objects and the composition of a group or component. When selected, all of the objects in the model that are not a part of the group become temporarily ghosted. The Objects palette only shows the objects that are in the group. The bounding box of the group is shown with a dashed line. Objects in the group can now be selected, modified and deleted. Any new objects that are drawn become a part of the group. Selecting the Edit Group Complete command termi-nates the editing of the group. The rest of the model is revealed (ung-hosted) and the Objects palette again displays the entire model.

Part of the Component Manager palette.

The Component Changed warning dialog.

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Recall that grouping is hierarchical. That is, when two groups are them-selves grouped, the hierarchy is retained forming nested groups (or groups within groups). Group editing functions on nested groups. That is, while editing a group, Edit Group/Component can be selected again on a nested group to edit its contents. When editing nested groups, Edit Group Complete must be selected to terminate editing for each level of nesting.

When the group that is edited is a component group, all of the instances of the component are updated when the editing is completed. The in-stances remain visible for reference and they are shown with a dashed bounding box. Additional on screen controls are displayed that represent the origin and coordinate system of the content definition.

Note that the project cannot be saved or closed while group editing is in progress. During group editing, the Undo command cannot undo beyond the point where group editing began. Once group editing is complete, a single undo will undo all of the editing performed while editing the group.

Make Individual Component is the last item in the seventh group. There are times when it is desirable to edit placed component without changing all of the instances placed in the project. Make Individual Component makes the selected component unique by creating a new component definition in the project for the selected instances. That is, the definition of the component is duplicated and the selected instances are adjusted to use the new component definition.

The eighth group contains the Isolate Objects and Reveal Objects commands.

When working on a complex model there are times when it is desirable to isolate a small set of objects for working on a detail of the model. The Isolate Object menu item isolates the currently selected objects by temporarily ghosting the remaining objects in the scene. This can be applied repeatedly to further reduce the number of visible objects. The Reveal Object menu item unghosts all of the objects that were previ-ously ghosted by the Isolate command.

Note that the project cannot be saved or closed while objects are isolat-ed. Also note that although Isolate can be used multiple times to reduce the number of workable objects, Reveal only needs to be used once to display all of the objects.

The ninth group contains the Key Shortcuts… and Preferences… com-mands. Each of these is discussed in a separate section.

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Window menu

It consists of six groups, the last of which is simply a list of the names of the currently open windows.

The first group has a single command for open-ing a new window for the currently active project.

The second group contains commands for clos-ing windows, one at a time or all at once.

The Window menu.

The third group allows you to switch to a multi-window setup. That is, the screen is subdivided in four quadrants containing XY, YZ, and ZX projec-tions and a 3D view, simultaneously, as shown. You make any one of these active by clicking on it. As you may work on each of these quad-rants, you may change their scale or pan. When this happens you can use the Synchronize command to again line them all up.

The Multi View setup.

The fourth group contains a single command that turns on/off Auto Scroll.

The fifth group contains Extended Cursor* and Extended Cursor Op-tions.... The former causes the extended cursor to appear/disappear. The latter invokes the Extended Cursor dialog, where the position and size of the extended cursor can be set.

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View menu

This menu consists of six groups of commands. The first contains five preset 3D views and Custom View Angles..., which invokes a dialog where customized viewing angles can be set. The second group contains different types of 3D views. See illustrations.

The View menu.

Form•Z view types: (a) axonometric, (b) isometric, (c) oblique, (d) 3 point perspective,

and (e) 2 point perspective.

The View Parameters palette.

The third group contains different views, namely a 3D view and six orthographic projections. All these are also available in the Navigation tool palette on the top of the screen. The fourth group contains View Parameters, which invokes the View Parameters palette, as shown. The same palette can also be invoked from the Palettes menu. It both reflects methods available in the menu and offers additional methods for specifying views.

View Type: This popup menu contains the 3D types also found in the menu.

Eye Point and Center Of Interest: The coordinate values entered in these fields specify the position of the two key points of a line of sight.

XYZ and Polar: These two items select-able from the popup menu specify the type of coordinates used.

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Clip Hither/Yon: The hither and yon are two planes perpendicular to the line of sight that can be used to clip a scene for viewing purposes, as shown in the example. The clipping does not affect the models involved in the scene permanently but is only applied temporarily for viewing purposes. When this option is on, clipping is ap-plied and the position of the clipping are specified by the values entered in the Hither and Yon numeric fields.

Perspective Parameters: This group of three numeric fields specifies values that define a perspective view numerically.

The fifth group contains a single command, namely, Edit Cone of Vi-sion. The cone of vision is discussed in a separate section. The sixth group contains four menu items, as follows:

Home and Set Home

The home view is a view that is frequently used or a good place to view the entire model. The home view by default is the initial view that a project is created with. When the Home menu item is selected, the view is reset to the home view. To change the home view, use any of the view tools to navigate to the desired home view and then select the Set Home item from the View menu. Note that, when opening bonzai3d projects prior to v. 2.0 or any form•Z project, the current view becomes the home view.

Previous and Next

The Previous item changes the view to the last view. That is, to the view prior to the most recent navigation or other command that changed the view. You can recall previous views all the way back to the point at which the project was opened or created. Once you have selected a previous view, you can return to the view prior to the selection of Previous by se-lecting Next. Previous and Next can be used to roll through the range of recently used views. Note that as soon as the view is changed, the Next item is dimmed.

A clipped view.

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The Display menu with the RenderZone plugin con-

nected.

Display menu

This menu consists of commands that con-trol the display on the screen. Most of these commands are also available as tool icons in the Display tool palette, at the top of the screen. When the RenderZone plugin is installed, additional commands appear in the menu, as shown to the right.

The two commands in the first group allow you to turn on/off the display of the reference plane grid and axes.

The second, third, and fourth groups contain rendering methods. So does the fifth, when the RenderZone plugin is installed. All these commands have an asterisk (*) at their end, which signifies that if you press option (Macintosh) or alt (Windows) when you click on them, a dialog with options affecting them will be invoked.

The next group contains commands that relate to network rendering, which is dis-cussed in a separate section.

The last three groups contain commands that invoke palettes or dialogs.

Display Options invokes the Display Options palette, which can also be invoked from the Palettes menu.

Project Rendering Options… invokes the Project Rendering Options dialog.

Generate Cylindrical Panorama

This option will generate a panoramic rendering that essentially wraps the inside of an imaginary cylinder with a single image of your entire scene. These renderings can be used as environment maps for render-ing other scenes or viewed in other 3rd party viewers.

The Cylindrical Panorama Export Options dialog is shown at the top of the next page.

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Project Name: Here you can name your panoramic image file.

Display Type: this setting deter-mines what render type will be used when the image is gener-ated.

Format: this setting determines what file format will be used when the image file is saved.

Image Resolution: this setting determines the actual size of the image, in pixels.

The Cylindrical Panorama Export Options.

View Parameters: this invokes the View Parameters dialog that is used for generating the Cylindrical Panorama. It is the same as the standard View Parameters described under the View Menu entry. It defaults to using the Origin for the Eye Point, but can be moved as needed using this dialog. The view type setting in this dialog can only be set to Pan-oramic.

Destination: this setting determines where the image file is saved after it has finished rendering. You can save it to the same folder the project is in or specify an alternate save location using Set Destination Folder.

Location: this displays the path that will be used when saving the image file after it has been rendered.

Generate Cylindrical Panorama: this button executes the process of rendering and saving the image.

An Example of a Cylindrical Panorama.

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Cubic Panorama

This option will generate a set of files that make up an interac-tive Cubic Panorama. This is a type of image that is conctruct-ed of six indiviual square images that are displayed as the insides of a cube. The Eye Point for the Cubic Panorama is by default located at the file's origin. When viewed in a HTML 5 compatible viewer, the image can be moved around the cen-ter in real time by clicking and dragging in the display window.

The options in the Cubic Panorama Export share some of those from the Cylindrical Panorama Export Options, discussed in the previous sec-tion. Options specific to Cubic

The Cubic Panorama Export Options.Panoramas are described below.

Export As: this setting determines the final format of the exported Cubic Pan-orama.

HTML 5: creates all of the files needed to view the Cubic Panorama in Safari or another capable browser.

Render Mobile Image: makes a file that can be viewed on handheld de-vices.

6 Individual Images: makes the same images it would for the HTML 5 ver-sion, however it does not create a file that can be directly viewed. This option is intended to allow the user to create images to import into a 3rd party application for assembly and creating an interactive file.

Eye Point: this determines the vantage point for the Cubic Panorama. The file's origin used by default. If another location is desired, the X,Y, and Z values can be typed in using the file's units. The Center of Scene button is useful when your scene is not centered around the origin. This will automatically move the Eye Point to a location that is the centroid of the bounds of your scene. The Current button is useful when you want to use the Eye Point of the active view.

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Generate Object 360

This option generates an Object 360 file. This is a file that has the objects for viewing located at the origin of the file, and dragging the cursor in the window will rotate the object in any direction. This allows a client or customer to examine a model from any angle in order to evaluate a design.

Some of the options found in the Object 360 Export Options dialog are shared with the Cylin-drical Panorama Export Op-tions dialog. The ones specific to Object 360 are discussed below.

Export as: this setting determines the type of output for the Object 360 file.

The Object 360 Export Options.

HTML 5: creates a set of files that will allow viewing in Safari or an-other capable browser.

Images: this creates a series of images but does not assemble them automatially and make a viewing file. These images are inteneded to be imported into a thrid party application for creating 360 degree interactive movies.

An interactive Cubic Panorama as viewed in Safari.

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Move lights with view: When this option is on, all lights are rotated with the eye point around the center of the scene. When the object movie is played back, this gives the impression of the ob-jects moving, while the lights stay fixed. In other words, the hotspots on curved and shiny objects move across the objects. When this option is off, the hotspots stay at the same positions.

The Object 360 View Parameters dialog.

View Parameters: Clicking on this button invokes the View Parameters dialog shown to the right. It contains the parameters that affect the gen-eration of an object movie.

An object movie consists of individual images rendered by looking at the scene from a sphere around the scene. To generate the images the view is rotated a number of times horizontally around the sphere’s verti-cal axis. This is called panning. After the horizontal rotations, the view is rotated vertically about the sphere’s horizontal axis, which is referred to

as tilting. A new set of panned images is then taken from the new tilted position. This is repeated until all rotations are completed. In order to render a complete movie of a scene, the view starts at the north pole of the sphere, looking straight down the vertical axis. After each set of horizontal rotations covering 360 degrees, the vertical tilt rotates the view a number of steps for a total of 180 degrees, until the last set of images is taken from the south pole looking straight up the vertical axis. This process is illustrated below.

# Of Pan Steps: This sets how many times the view is rotated around the vertical axis.

The Pan and Tilt angles.Object movie with (a) 8 x 8 sphere;

(b) the images, and (c) exploded view.

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# Of Tilt Steps: This sets how many times the view is rotated around the horizontal axis.

Center Of Interest: The coordinates in these X, Y, and Z fields indicate the center of interest for each image of the object movie.Center of Scene: Clicking on this button causes the coordinate values of the center of the scene's bounding box to be entered in the Center Of Interest fields.

Current: Clicking on this button causes the values of the center of inter-est of the current view in the active window to be entered in the Center Of Interest fields.

Rotate Relative To: The vertical and horizontal axes of the sphere are set relative to the selected reference plane, as follows: XY Plane: the vertical axis is the world Z axis and the horizontal axis is the world Y axis. YZ Plane: the vertical axis is the world X axis and the horizontal axis is the world Z axis. ZX plane: the vertical axis is the world Y axis and the horizontal axis is the world X axis.

Active Plane: vertical axis is the Z axis and horizontal axis is the Y axis of the active reference plane, which may be an arbitrary plane or one of the Cartesian (XY, YZ or ZX) planes.

Use Complete Field Of View: When this option is selected, the object movie is generated with a 360 degree pan angle and a 180 degree tilt angle, covering the entire scene.

Custom Field Of View: When this option is selected, start and end angles can be entered for pan and tilt. Note that the pan angle is mea-sured relative to the axis which is perpendicular to the horizontal axis of the sphere, whereas the tilt angle is measured relative to the equator of the sphere.

Zoom To Fit Scene: When this option is selected, the view for all ren-derings is adjusted so that all objects in the scene will be visible in all images.

Use Current Zoom: When this option is selected, the zoom factor of the current view in the active window is used for all renderings.

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Play Animation

This option will allow you to play and view form•Z fan file animations.

Image Options… invokes the Image Options dialog. The content of these are discussed in other sections of this manual.

For a more detailed discussion of the display modes, the rendering options, image parameters, and generating panoramas, see sections Display methods, Project level rendering options, and Setting image parameters later in this manual.

An interactive Object 360 file as viewed in Safari.

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The Palettes menu.

Palettes menuThis menu consists of four groups with com-mands that mostly invoke and hide palettes and dialogs. Most of the palettes are open by default, when form•Z is launched. When they are, a check mark is displayed in front of their names. Clicking on an item with a check mark causes the check mark to disap-pear and the respective palette to hide. The same can be done by clicking on the close button (upper left corner) of the palette.

The first group contains commands that invoke/hide the eight tool palettes of form•Z. The position of these palettes is shown in the introductory section (Layout and Inter-face) of this manual.

The second group contains the palettes of different form•Z features that open either in the dock on the right side of the screen or somewhere else in the project window. In the tool dock open by default (top to bottom):

Workspace palette: shows the active Work-space.

Material palette: Displays icons of the ma-terials, allows you to select an active mate-rial, and to invoke the Material Parameters palette for a specific material. This is done by double-clicking on the icon of a material. The Material Parameter palette for the ac-tive material is also invoked by the Material Parameters command in this menu. Materi-als are discussed in the “Creating and edit-ing materials” section of this manual.

Tool Options palette: This is context sensitive and its content depends on which modeling tool is active. It contains options that affect the active tool and these options are discussed with the respective tool.

Objects, Layers, Lights, Selection Sets, Views, Scenes, Custom Reference Planes, Clipping Planes, Line Styles, and Line Weights palettes: These are more specifically called list palettes as they contain lists of items and displays of their attributes. These palettes are divided

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into columns containing attributes such as Name, Selection, Visibility, Snapability, etc. Placing the mouse cursor on the title bar invokes a hint that tells you what the column is.

Objects and groups are listed automatically as they are generated. Similarly for the reference planes. Entries in the palette are generated as custom reference planes are created. For all the above palettes, new entries can be generated by right-clicking in the palette to invoke its context menu and then selecting New. Other commands can also be selected from the context menu, when relevant. The context menu can also be invoked by clicking on the green Options ( ) button on the right of the palette’s title bar. New entries can also be generated by clicking on the green New ( ) button located next to the Options button.

Three of the list palettes, Scenes, Views, and Sheets, have back ( ) and forward ( ) arrows that allow for convenient cycling through the items in the list. You can quickly move from saved view to saved view, for example, without selecting each one individually from the list.

In addition to the above palettes that are open by default, there are four more palettes that can also be invoked from other parts of the program and are discussed in the respective sections, as follows:

Display Options: Also invoked from the Display menu and discussed in that section.

Material Parameters: Also invoked from individual materials and dis-cussed in the materials section.

Reference Plane Parameters: Discussed in the “Reference Planes” section.

View Parameters: Also invoked from the Views menu and discussed in that section.

The third group contains two commands:

Tool Dock: turns on/off the dock with the tool palettes on the top of the screen.

Palette Dock: turns on/off the dock with the palettes on the right of the screen.

The fourth group contains the single command Hide Palettes that turns on/off all the palettes of form•Z.

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Workspace menuThis menu consists of three groups with commands that relate to workspaces. A workspace is a group of related operations that can be isolated from the remaining operations. It typically includes a tool palette from where the operation can be executed.

The first group contains commands with which preset workspaces can be activated. These are Modeling, Drafting, Rendering/Animation, and bonzai3d. You can set up your own workspaces and when you do they are listed in the second group, such as Workspace 1 on the right. The Workspace menu.

The second group contains items for handling workspaces. New Work-space... invokes the New Workspace dialog where you can type a name for your new workshop. Clicking OK lists the custom workshop in the menu. This workshop is initially a copy of the active workshop, but you can make the desired changes through the Workshop Manager dialog.

If you change your mind about chang-es you have made to the active work-space, you can undo them by clicking the Reset Workspace command, which invokes the Reset Workspace dialog for confirming your intention. Likewise, if you want to undo all the changes you made to all of the work-spaces, you can click on Reset All Workspaces....

The New Workspace dialog.

The Reset All Workspaces dialog.

The Reset Workspace dialog.

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You use the Work-space Manager... command to make changes to the workspaces. When you select it, the Workspace Manager dialog appears. On its left, it contains a list of workspaces. Under the list there are Add and Delete buttons. Note that the preset workspaces cannot be deleted (locked).

The Extensions menu.

The Workspace Manager dialog.

When you generate a new workspace you enter its name in the Work-space Name field, in the upper right. When Save Between Sessions is checked the new workspace will be preserved for your next session.

From the Starting Workspace popup menu, on the lower left, you select which workspace will be active when the program starts.

The last group of the Workspaces menu contains a single item: Tool Manager, which can be used to customize your tool palettes. It is dis-cussed in a separate section later in this manual.

Extensions menuThis menu contains 4 items in the top group. They are discussed in complete detail in the Extensions section.

The remainder of the menu may contain additional items or hierarchical menus cre-ated by extensions. Selecting one of these items performs the corresponding extension defined action.

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Help menu

This menu consists of five groups.

The first group contains commands that take you directly to the form•Z web page, and to the form•Z forum, or they set you up for sending an e-mail to the AutoDesSys technical support group.

The second group contains com-mands that invoke the Getting Start-ed... dialog and other resources like tutorial videos and the manuals.

The third group of the Help menu contains commands for updating and registering your license.

The fourth group will allow you to manually check for updates or deter-mine the number of licenses in use if you are using a network installation of form•Z.

The Help menu.

The fifth and final group contains the single command About form•Z. When selected the introductory splash screen of the program is dis-played.

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Project settingsThe Project Settings... command in the File menu invokes the Project Settings dialog through which a number of settings can be chosen and/or changed. This dialog contains eight tabs, as follows:

Appearance: Through this tab you can select one of four preset settings or compose your own. When you select Custom Style 1 or any new entry you may generate by clicking on (New), the Display Colors list is in-voked. You can set the default colors individually by clicking on any color box. This will invoke the standard Colors dialog of your operating system, where colors can be selected. You can also use the Copy Colors From pop up menu to start by copying the colors from a preset environment and then change whatever colors you wish. When you exit the Project Settings dialog, your project's appearance will be according to the active settings.

The Appearance tab of the Project Settings dialog:(a) for selecting preset environments and (b) for customizing your own.

a

b

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Working Units: This tab offers options to set up the scale of your defaults through the Data Scale pop up menu, to select type of units of measure-ment (English or Metric), the accuracy, and the format in which numbers and angles are displayed.

Working Units tab in Project Settings dialog:(a) Numeric Options and (b) Angle Options.

a

b

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Objects tab in Project Settings dialog.

Lights: This tab offers options for whether or not the color of a light will be shown in the Lights palette and whether picked lights will be highlighted in the palette. It also allows you to define the default names used in the palette for new lights and groups.

Layers: This tab contains options analogous to those of the Lights tab and one unique ones: Paste On Active Layer.

Objects: This tab contains, in addition to the options found in the Lights tab, the Default Edge Color pair of options that determine the color in which the edges of objects are shown. The default color can be changed using the color box. If the Use Material Average is selected, the edges will be shown as an average of the colors used in the material assigned to the object.

Layers tab in Project Settings dialog.

Lights tab in Project Settings dialog.

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Faceting Schemes: This tab contains the options for faceting smooth objects and they are discussed in the respective sec-tion.

Dimensions: This tab contains the options for setting dimension styles to be used when constructing dimension objects. The content of this tab is identical with that of the Dimensions dialog and is discussed in the respective section.

Project Files: This tab contains the options that affect the form•Z files. They are the same options that can also be set up in the Preferences dia-log and they are discussed in the Preferences: Project: Files section.

Faceting Schemes tab in Project Settings dialog.

Part of Dimensions tab in Project Settings dialog.

Project Files tab in Project Settings dialog.

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LayoutLayout is an environment within form•Z that is used for the prepara-tion of drafted documents of projects based on sheets. In layout mode, the graphics environment is 2D and the working surface is the sheet. The drawing is created by placing views of a 3D model at specific scales and specific locations on the sheet. These graphic representations are linked to the original model so that, as the model evolves, the layout can be auto-matically updated.

Additional graphic elements can be added in the layout including line work, shapes, dimensions, hatches and images. The graphic images of the model can be edited to make any required 2D changes to the drawing. Form•Z layout projects are stored in a project file with an .fml extension.

The New Layout dialog.

Selecting the New Layout Project item from the File menu creates a lay-out project. This invokes the New Layout dialog that is used to define the parameters of a layout. The Name of the layout project is the name that will be used when the project is saved. The Units are defaulted to Inches or Centimeters depending on your computer's settings.

Layouts are based on a specific paper size. All sheets in the layout use the same paper size. The Standard Paper Size menu lists a number of commonly used paper sizes. The Landscape option orients the paper horizontally and is on by default. The Custom Paper Size options are available so that you may use a sheet size that does not appear in the Standard Paper Size menu.

The Margin settings define the border around the physical edge of the paper in which nothing is printed. The margin settings can be used to limit the printing for aesthetic reasons, but also it is important to note that most printers cannot print to the edge of the paper. So you should select a margin that reflects the printer's characteristics.

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The Border option causes a border line of the desired Weight to be drawn around each sheet, just inside the margin.

The Title Block option allows for the selection of another .fml file to be used as a drawing title block. The Open ( ) button is used to select the desired title block file. The Placement options determine where on the sheet the title block is placed.

When the options are complete, the new project is created with a single sheet as a starting point. The graphic window shows a display of the sheet. The form•Z workspace is transformed into an environment that offers the tools and palettes that are useful for layout tasks. A number of menu items and standard tools will appear dimmed, as they are not avail-able in the layout workspace.

The Layout options can be changed, after the project is created, in the Project Settings dialog, invoked from the File menu. The Layout tab contains all of the same options as the New Layout dialog. Note that changing the paper size after a drawing has been created can cause the drawing to be disturbed if the paper size changes cause elements in the drawing to collide or be arranged on different pages.

A layout with two sheets.

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Layout ToolsThe Layout tool palette contains a subset of the form•Z tools. These are the tools that are appropriate for creating documents in the layout envi-ronment. Note that some tools have options that are not appropriate for the layout environment. For example, the Move tool and all the transfor-mation tools do not have the options for parallel or perpendicular to refer-ence plane motions, as in layout the working plane is always the sheet.

There are four tools that are unique to the layout workspace. They are in the layout tool suite, in the third row of tools, in the layout workspace.

Place Frame

A frame is a graphic reference to a 3D form•Z model (or bonzai3d model). That is, it displays a 3D model with a defined view and scale using specific characteristics to create drawings of the model. The frame retains the link to the model so that, as the model evolves, the drawing can be updated.

The Frame Parameters dialog.

This tool has an emp-ty Tool Options pal-ette, but invokes the Frame Parameters dialog, as soon as a rectangle represent-ing the location and size of the frame is drawn. The first click defines one corner of the frame. As the mouse is moved, the opposite corner of the rectangle is defined by the cursor's loca-tion. A second click completes the opera-tion. From the Frame Parameters dialog invoked you select a 3D model and other parameters.

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The File section specifies the model file. The image is selected by click-ing on the Open icon ( ) and then selecting the desired image file from the File Open dialog. A preview of the model is shown to the left of the Open icon. The Name and Path for the model file are shown below the icon, once a file is selected.

When Define Parameters is selected, the characteristics (View, Layers, Clipping Planes, etc.) of the frame display can be configured as follows:

View: This menu determines the view of the model used in the frame display. This menu contains three groups: plan and section, standard pro-jection views, and project views, whenever they have been saved with the project. Note that each item selected from the View menu is supported with its own set of options.

When Floor Plan is selected, the display is generated as a traditional top down floor plan. The plan is generated as a section through the model looking down at the specified Elevation. By default objects that are below the plane elevation are displayed as well unless the Plan Only option is selected. When this option is enabled, only the objects that intersect the elevation plane are shown. See example below.

Two Frames: (a) without Plan Only and (b) with Plan Only

a b

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When Section is selected, the display is generated as a section of the model. The section is generated looking directly at a clipping plane defined in the model. The Section Plane menu lists all of the clipping planes in the model. If there are no clipping planes in the model, then the Section option is dimmed in the menu. By default objects that are beyond the clipping plane are displayed as well unless the Section Only option is selected. When this option is enabled, only the objects that intersect the elevation plane are shown. See example below.

a

bTwo Frames: (a) without Section Only and (b) with Section Only

The standard projection views group offers options for the standard Top, Bottom, Right, Left, Back and Front views. The project views group is at the bottom of the menu and lists all of the views saved in the project (if any).

The Layers tab is used to control what layers are on in the frame display. The lists show all of the layers in the project. The first column shows an eye graphic ( ) to indicate that the specified layer is enabled. When the layer is enabled, objects on the layer are included in the display and they are excluded when the layer is not enabled (i.e. no eye graphic). By default, the layer is enabled, if it was enabled when the model was added to the project the first time.

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The Clipping Planes tab is used to control what (if any) clipping planes are enabled for the display. Clipping planes are explicitly used for sec-tion views, however they can also be useful in 3D views. The first col-umn shows a red dot ( ) to indicate that the specified clipping plane is enabled. By default, no clipping planes are enabled.

The All On and All Off buttons can be used to turn all the layers or clip-ping planes on or off respectively

Use Project Scene: When selected, the characteristics (view, layers, clipping planes, etc.) of the frame display are determined by a scene stored in the project. The Scenes menu displays a list of the scenes from the Scenes palette of the model file. The selected scene will be used for the frame display.

Origin: This is the X and Y coordinates of the lower left corner of the frame on the sheet.

Dimensions: This is the Width and Height of the frame on the sheet.

Scale: When selected these options determine the scale that is used to display the model in the frame. That is, the scale that is applied to the model to display it on the sheet. For convenience there are three meth-ods of specifying the scale: Drawing Scale, Ratio and simple Scale %. These methods all represent the same internal scale factor and when any one is changed, the others are updated in kind. Depending on the scale, the view and the model itself, the image of the model may exceed the drawn frame. In this case the image is clipped by the edges of the frame.

When Fit is on, the model is fit to the frames extents. That is, the model is scaled to fit inside of the frame instead of following a specific scale.

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Editing Frames

Frames can be graphically edited by enabling the controls on the frame. This is done by selecting Show Controls in the context menu, which is invoked by selecting the frame with the Pick tool and then right clicking. Frames have nine controls that represent the corresponding corners, edges and frame center. Moving the center control moves the entire frame. Moving the corners and edges changes the cropping (clipping) of the frame, keeping the placement consistent. See example above.

Pressing the command key (Macintosh) or ctrl key (Windows), changes the editing from cropping to re-centering the display in the frame of the image in the corresponding direction. Pressing the shift key keeps the changes proportional to the current size of the image.

A frame being edited with it's controls (a)uncropped, and (b) cropped.

a b

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Place Multi-Frame

This tool creates a layout of multiple frames at once. This is like using the Frame tool multiple times. It automatically creates multiple frames from the same model file in a single step. A rectangle representing the loca-tion and size of the multiple frames is drawn first, with two mouse clicks. Next the Multiple Frame Parameters dialog is invoked for the selection of the layout of the frames and 3D model and other parameters for each frame in the layout.

The left side of the dialog contains a graphic preview of how the frames will be divided and sized and indications of the view and scale for each frame. Clicking inside a frame highlights it making it the active frame and its parameters are shown in the options to the right.

There are two Flip buttons ( ) on the right and bottom of the frame. The one on the right flips the frame layout vertically. The one on the bottom flips the frames horizontally.

The Layout menu contains a list of the available configurations named by the number of frames horizontally and the number of frames vertically.

The Multi-Frame Parameters Dialog.

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The Place Image tool options.

Margin: This parameter represents the space left between the frames.

Most of the parameters on the right are the same as those found in the Frame Parameters dialog. The Layers and Clipping Planes are initially unavailable, but they become available and can be modified by editing the frames after they have been created.

The file that is selected is used for all of the frames. The rest of the parameters reflect the values for the active frame on the left side. The Apply To All Frames option applies the selected scale to all frames that are placed by scale. This option makes it easy to have the same scale for all frames. This is on by default.

Once the layout and the parameters are set to the desired values, click OK to create the frames in the previously drawn rectangle.

Place Image

This tool is used for placing an image from an external file into the drawing. This is useful for placing a rendered image or any graphic elements like logos etc. The image and its size are displayed in the Tool Options palette. The image can be se-lected by clicking on the Open icon ( ) and then selecting the desired image file from the File Open dialog.

As soon as you activate the Place Image tool, an image appears at the position of the cursor and moves as the cursor moves. The alignment of the image with the cursor is determined by the Cursor Position option selected in the Tool Options palette. The nine radio buttons represent the corresponding location on the image boarder and center respectively. Clicking places the image at the location of the mouse click.

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The size of the image is controlled by the By Dimensions or By Scale options. With the former option the size of the image in the drawing is specified. With the latter option, the scale factor is specified. This is useful when an image is provided with specific scale information that is impor-tant for the drawing.

Once created, an image object behaves as a regular object; it can be moved, rotated, scaled, copied, deleted, etc.

Once placed, image objects can be graphically edited by enabling the controls on the object in the standard manner. Image objects have nine controls that represent the corresponding image corners, image edges and image center. Moving the center control moves the entire image. Moving the corners and edges changes the cropping (clipping) of the im-age, keeping the scale of the image consistent. Pressing the command key (Macintosh) or ctrl key (Windows), changes the editing from crop-ping to stretching of the image in the corresponding direction. Pressing the shift key keeps the changes proportional to the current size of the image.

Image objects retain the link to the original image file. When the image file is changed, the linked file is reloaded in the project to display the updated image. The image file link can be managed through the linked files section of the Project Information dialog, accessible from the Help menu.

Place Image Fit

This tool also creates image objects from an external file. With this tool the image is fit into a rectangle. The image and its size are displayed in the tool’s options palette. The image can be selected by clicking on the Open icon ( ) and then selecting the desired image file from the File Open dialog.

To place the image, the first click defines one corner of the image. As the mouse is moved, the image is stretched as it follows the cursor. A second click completes the operation.

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Layout palettesThe Sheets palette is used to manage the sheets in the project. This is a standard list palette that lists the sheets in the project by name. One sheet in the project is referred to as the active sheet. The active sheet is indicated by a red dot in the first column of the palette (to the left of the sheet name). Clicking in this column makes the corresponding sheet the active sheet. The graphics window is updated so that the ac-tive sheet fills the window.

The Sheets palette.

A new sheet is created by clicking on the Add ( ) icon at the top of the palette or by selecting New Sheet from the palette's menu. When a new sheet is created, it is placed at the end of the list and automatically be-comes the active sheet. Sheets can be reordered by dragging the sheet name to the desired location in the list using the standard click and drag method. Clicking on the (previous sheet) and (next sheet) icons at the top of the palette changes the active sheet to the previous or next sheet respectively.

Double clicking on a sheet name invokes the Sheet Parameters dialog that can be used to change the name of the sheet. This dialog also offers options to suppress the border and the title block for the sheet. These can be desirable, for example, when making a cove page where the boarder and title block may not be desired.

Sheets can be deleted by right clicking on the sheet and selecting Delete from the context menu. Note that, when a sheet is deleted, the contents of the sheet are deleted as well.

In addition to the other standard management items, the context menu also contains the item New Multi Frame Sheet. This creates a new sheet and fills it with multiple frames. This functions the same as the Multi Frame tool, except that the frame fills the sheet instead of a drawn rectangle.

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Layout PrintingThe print command invokes the Plot/Print Setup dialog where print param-eters are set and the sheets of the document can be sent to a printer, plot-ter or PDF file. The left portion of the dialog contains a preview of a sheet to be printed. The sheet text field and previous and next sheet arrows at the bottom of the preview control the sheet that is shown in the preview.

The Plot/Print Setup dialog.

The right side of the dialog contains options for controlling the printing.

Printer: This menu contains the list of printers that are available on the computer. The printer selected from the menu is the active printer and the destination for printing.

Orientation: The icons control the orientation of the page Portrait or Landscape.

Scale to Fit Media: When selected the sheet is scaled to fit on the page.

Scale: When selected the sheet is scaled to the specified scale. If the scale causes the sheet to exceed the size of a single page, it will be printed on multiple pages. In this case the preview shows lines on the sheet to indicate how the sheet will be split into multiple pages.

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Sheets: This section controls what sheets will be printed. All prints all sheets in the project. The From and To options control the range of sheets to print.

Margin: Defines the border around the physical edge of the paper in which nothing is printed. The margin setting can be used to limit the print-ing for aesthetic reasons but also it is important to note that most printers cannot print to the edge of the paper so you should select a margin that reflects the printer's characteristics. This is the same parameter available for the layout and is provided here as well for convenience.

Print Settings: This button invokes the system specific print settings dialog where a number of printer specific parameters can be set. If the printer supports different paper sizes, the desired paper is selected in this dialog.

Print: This button invokes the system specific print interface to send the document to the printer or PDF file.

Components

Components can be placed in a layout using the Place Component tool as with the modeling environment. A common use of components is to add detail or information to a drawing (e.g. fixtures, furniture, etc.) from a library of commonly used parts. When a component is placed into a frame in a drawing, it is automatically scaled to the frame’s scale. This avoids the necessity of creating components for each desired drawing scale or changing the component when the drawing scale is changed.

A couch component placed in two frames with different scales.

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It is also useful to have components for graphic symbols that are de-signed to be placed on a sheet such as a North arrow, electrical sym-bols, etc. These are components that are created at layout paper scale (i.e. 1:1). These components are not scaled by a frame scale regardless of where they are placed in the drawing. Layout components are listed in the components palette in the Layout tab. When the layout tab is select-ed, the palette displays a set of component libraries for layout placement. Layout components are stored in .fml file in the components’ library folder on disk.

The Layout tab of the Component Manager palette.

A North arrow placed from a Layout library placed in two frames with different scales.

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form•Z draft files from versions prior to 7

Traditional form•Z draft files created with versions prior to version 7 are converted into form•Z 7 files (.fmz). The original drafting elements are converted into form•Z objects. Drafting layouts are converted to layout files with a single sheet (.fml). Drafting panes are converted into frames.

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Key shortcuts The list on the left, labeled Category, lists the categories of form•Z ac-tions. The specific content of each category is listed in the second list, labeled Entry. The content of the latter changes when the selection in the Category column changes.

What each action does is summarized in the fields in the upper-right of the dialog and an indication of the type of action (menu item, tool, etc.) is also included. If a key shortcut is assigned to the action, that shortcut is displayed in the Shortcuts field.

New shortcuts can be defined through the Key Shortcut dialog, invoked from the Add... button. Existing shortcuts can be changed again through the Key Shortcut dialog, invoked from the Edit... button. Or they can be completely eliminated using the Delete button.

Clear... clears all the currently loaded shortcuts, Save... saves the current shortcuts into a file, and Load... loads shortcuts from a previously saved file.

The Key Shortcuts Manager dialog.

The Key Shortcut dialog.

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Load Defaults... invokes the Load Defaults dialog from where differ-ent sets of defaults can be selected, through three buttons: Default is the form•Z defaults; Preset 1 is defaults according to Rhino and Preset 2 is defaults according to SketchUp. When one of these buttons is selected, the items of the Orbit/Spin and Pan pull down menus also change to reflect the respective default. However, these actions can also be set independently.

The Load Defaults dialog.

The Shortcuts List dialog.

Pressing List Shortcuts... in the Key Shortcuts Manager dialog in-vokes the Shortcuts List dialog shown. It contains four columns labeled Category, Key, Command, and Description and it is essentially a list of all the key shortcuts and what commands they correspond to. It can be sorted in two different ways.

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Quick keys This palette is invoked from the Palettes menu and lists all the "hidden" shortcuts, under three tabs: Navigation, Nudge, and Drawing. The same key commands are also listed in the Key Shortcuts Manager dialog, but are listed here again separately to make them more acces-sible. They can all be edited, by clicking on the pencil icon next to them, and other keys may be assigned to them. As a matter of fact the Nudge commands have no default assignments and these will have to be made by the user.

The Quick Keys palette tabs: (a) Navigation, (b) Nudge, and (c) Drawing(Macintosh version).

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The Quick Keys palette tabs: (a) Navigation, (b) Nudge, and (c) Drawing(Windows version).

In addition to the list of commands, there are a few options that require mention. At the top of the Navigation tab, the Sensitivity sliding bar controls the magnitude of the motion of the transformation commands. When Disable Scroll Wheel In Project Window is checked, the mouse scroll wheel will have no effect. The Nudge tab contains numeric param-eters that control the nudge distances.

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PreferencesWhen Preferences... is selected from the Edit menu the Preferences dialog is invoked. This dialog is structured hierarchically and displays a list of categories on its left side. Clicking on an item displays the options that affect that item.

GeneralThis category specifies which preference file to use and what action to perform at start-up.

Preferences File: This group determines what preference settings will be applied when form•Z is launched. When the selected option is changed, you have the opportunity to change preferences immediately or at the next launch.

Use Defaults: The standard defaults are applied.

Use Previous Session Settings: Whatever the state of the param-eters were at the closing of the most recent session will be applied.

Use Preference File: The parameters stored in the file whose name appears in the field of this option will be applied.

Startup Command: Determines what command is performed when form•Z is launched. The options are: New Project (creates a new proj-ect), Open (opens an existing file that the user chooses) and None (does nothing).

The Preferences dialog with the General options displayed.

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Language

This category offers the ability to switch between different languages. Note that the language defaults are determined by the operating system settings. On OS X they are found in the International System Prefer-ences. On Windows they are in the Regional and Language Options in the control panel.

Language: This menu determines what language is used through-out the form•Z interface. It contains a list of all languages installed. The default language is determined from the operating system’s language. If the default system language was not installed by the form•Z Installer, English is used as the default language. Note that changes to this set-ting take effect the next time form•Z is launched.

Field Separator: This character is used to delimit lists of numbers. OS Default: With this option the default is determined by the settings on your computer. The default is the comma (,) for localization settings where a period (.) is used as the decimal separator. The default is a semi colon (;) for settings where a comma (,) is used as the decimal separator.

Custom: With this option the character entered in its text field is used as the field separator.

Default Units: This group determines the default work units. There are three options: OS Default (default is determined by the operating system), English and Metric.

The Preferences dialog with the Language options displayed.

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InterfaceThere are some general Interface options as well as options in two sub-sections labeled Dialogs and Palettes.

Show Tips: When this option is on an explanatory tip is displayed when placing the mouse cursor on a form•Z item or icon. The value entered in the Delay field determines how soon after the cursor is placed the infor-mation will be displayed.

Colors Used In Lists: These options specify the colors used for the back-ground of lists in palettes and dialogs. These colors are intended to make lists easier to read. They are: Title Row Color, Even Row Color, and Odd Row Color. Each is associated with a color box whose color can be changed.

Icon Display: These options control the Saturation level, the Tint, the Color, and the Intensity of the form•Z icons. A display of a sample of icons allows you to observe the effects of different option settings.

Preferences: Interface options.

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Interface: DialogsFonts: Font Name controls which font and Font Size the text size used in the dialogs. The Reset To Defaults button resets the font and size to the system defaults. Note that the changes in the font settings are not visible until the next dialog is opened. The default font settings vary depending on the language and operating system.

Order Of Buttons: These options determine the order of the standard OK, Cancel, and Reset buttons at the bottom of the dialog. Reset, Cancel, OK is the default for OS X and OK, Cancel, Reset is the default for Windows.

Use Sheet Dialogs For Alerts: Applying to OS X only, when on, alert messages are displayed in sheets that slide out from the top of the active window rather than in an independent alert window.

Preferences: Interface: Dialogs options.

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Preferences: Interface: Palettes options.

Interface: PalettesList Palettes: This group of options control certain variations that can be applied to the layout of palettes, including ways that were available in earlier versions of form•Z, but have been revised by version 7.

Click In Empty Space For New Item: When on, clicking in the empty area at the bottom of any of the list type palettes, creates a new item in the list (as in versions of form•Z before v. 7). This is the same as clicking on the green + button.

form•Z Classic Layout: When on, the columns in the list type of palettes are ordered as in the form•Z versions before v. 7.

Keep Lists Tightly Spaced: When on, the list palettes are displayed with less space between the rows, which allows more rows to be displayed.

Animate Palette Transitions: With this option on, when invoking a palette, it will show up gradually, rather than instantaneously.

Pop-up Tool Palettes On Hover: When on, just placing the mouse cursor on an tool icon will expand its tool palette. When off, a click is required to produce the same result.

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Scratch DiskThese options provide control over the location of the temporary (or scratch) files of form•Z. These files contain information such as the undo and redo records and are hidden so that they are not accidentally deleted while the program is running. The default scratch location is the system default temporary directory, but you are allowed to specify a different location.

Use System Temporary Folder: With this on, the scratch files are stored in the systems temporary directory, the location of which varies, depending on the operating system. Consult your operating system’s documentation for the exact location.

Custom: With this option a user defined location for the scratch files can be specified. When you click on the Choose Location... button, the Standard Folder Selection dialog appears, where you select the folder where the scratch files will be saved, and click on the Choose button. This dialog also contains a New Folder button, which can be used to set up a new folder. A scratch disk on RAM can be selected through this option. Note, however, that such a scratch disk should first be set at the operating system level before running form•Z.Location: This information field shows the full path of the location where the scratch files will be saved. Because the scratch files are already open when the application is running, their location will change only when form•Z is launched again.

Current Location: This information field shows the current location of the scratch disk. This is useful since the new setting entered in the Lo-cation field does not take effect until form•Z is relaunched.

The Preferences dialog with the Scratch Disk options displayed.

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Recent FilesThese options affect the Open Recent item of the File menu.

Maximum Number Of Files: This text field determines the maximum number of files that are remembered and shown in the Open Recent list. When this maximum is reached, the oldest file is “forgotten” so that a newer file can be remembered. "Old" and "new" refers to when the file was last opened or saved within form•Z, not when the file was created. The default is 10, the minimum is 1, and the maximum is 100.

Show Full Path In Menus: With this option, which is the default, the full path for accessing the file is shown in the menu. The full path is the com-plete hierarchy of the file system directory necessary to access the file. When this option is off, only the file name is shown. This option is useful for distinguishing files with the same name but different locations. If the path is too long to fit in the menu, the middle of the path is truncated.

Sort Menu By Name: When this option is on, the Open Recent list is sorted in alphabetic order by the file name. When off, the list is sorted by order of use, with the most recent file at the top of the menu and the “oldest” at the bottom.

Clear Open Recent Menu, Clear Import Recent Menu, Clear View Re-cent Menu: Clicking on one of these buttons clears the respective Open Recent files list. These buttons are dimmed and inactive if the respec-tive files list is empty.

The Preferences dialog with the Recent Files options displayed.

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OpenGLThis section of the Preferences dialog contains information about the OpenGL Version and Vendor.

The Preferences dialog with the Updates options displayed.

Updates

The updates manager is designed to keep users informed of new updates and versions of form•Z. It checks with the AutoDesSys server to see if there are any patches available for form•Z. If yes, it will download the patch, the Patcher application, and the corrections log file. It will then up-date form•Z and create a backup copy of the current version. The options in this group specify how frequently checks for updates will be made.

Check For Updates At Startup: With this option, form•Z checks for up-dates at the time it is launched.

Check For Updates: This pop up menu is only available when Check For Updates At Startup is on and contains three items: Daily, Weekly, and Monthly. Selection of one of them determines how frequently form•Z will check for updates when it starts up.

You can check for updates manually at any time by choosing "Check for Update" from the Help menu.

The Preferences dialog with the OpenGL information displayed.

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Project: General

This category of options affects new projects.

New Projects: The options in this group determine where the initial val-ues of new projects will be coming from.

Use Defaults: With this option, the form•Z project defaults are used for all new projects. All of the defaults are fixed, except for the default working units.

Default Working Units...: Clicking on this button invokes the Default Working Units dialog. The content of this dialog is the same as that of the Working Units tab of the Project Settings dialog, invoked from the File menu.

Use Template Project: With this option, the contents of a form•Z template file are used as defaults for all new projects. A template file is simply a previously saved .fmz file that contains your preferred starting environment. The text field of this option shows the path and name of the current template file.

Choose Template File...: Clicking on this button invokes the standard Open dialog for selecting the desired template file.

Ask For Each Project: With this option on, the New Projects dialog is invoked each time a new project is created. This dialog contains the same options as the New Projects group (see above in this section).

Project File Options: Keep Backup: With this option, a backup file is made each time you Save or Save As with the same name. The name of the backup file is made from the name of the original file and the suffix “.fzb.”

The Preferences dialog with the Project: General options displayed.

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Project: Files

This category of options affects how a project's files are treated.

Keep Backup: When on, a backup of the project is kept and continu-ously updated when changes are made.

Save Undo Information: When on, all the undo information is saved, when a project is saved, and becomes available when the project is opened again.

Keep Ghosted Tool Operands In File: Ghosted objects are created in form•Z in one of two ways: (a) By using the Ghost tool to explicitly ghost an object. (b) By being an operand in an operation that ghosts the origi-nal object after the operation is completed. Ghosted objects of type (a) are always saved when a project is saved. Ghosted objects of type (b) are only save d when this option is checked.

The Preferences dialog with the Project: Files options displayed.

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Project: Auto Save

With these options you can turn auto-saving on/off and specify how it will be applied. Note that the project needs to be saved at least once after it has been created in order for auto-saving to take place. If the project still carries the Untitled label, auto-saving can not take place.

Enable Auto Save: With this option on, the active project is auto-saved as further specified. This option is off by default.

Every n Minutes: When on, auto-saving occurs every n minutes.

Every n Operations: If on, auto-saving is every n operations.

Save To Project File: When this option is on, the automatic save writes the data directly to the project file.

Save As Copy: This option creates a copy and leaves the previously saved project as is. The files are saved using the project’s name with “.sav” as the file extension. Additional options specify where the copy is saved: Use Project Folder, Use Application Folder, Use Scratch Disk, and Custom. Use Scratch Disk directs the auto-save files to the same location as the scratch disk. Note that Macintosh operating systems will delete the contents of the temporary folder at restart or log-out. If the scratch disk preferences are set to use the temporary folder, using this option for auto-save files may not be desirable.

When Custom is on, the Set Location... button can be used to select an existing folder for the auto-save location, or to create a new folder. The selected file name is displayed in the Location field below the button.

Incremental File Names: With this option, each auto-save writes a new file. Each new file’s name is created by appending the current date and time to the project’s name. File names may be concatenated, depending on the maximum file name length allowed by the system.

The Preferences dialog with the Project: Auto Save options displayed.

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Project: FontsThese options allow you to specify when text fonts are loaded, as well as the locations where they can be found.

Load Fonts At Launch: When on, all the font information is loaded at startup. When off, the information is loaded the first time text is used.

Default Font: This is a pop up menu from which a default font may be selected. The default font is used when a font that is not available on the computer is used and when placing text for the first time; that is, the default font appears selected in the Text Editor dialog. Stick Font File Paths...: This area contains a list of folders/directo-ries that will be searched when loading Stick fonts.

(Add...): This button is used to add a folder/directory to the list. Clicking on it invokes the Select Postscript Location dialog, which is similar to the standard Open dialog. After selecting the desired loca-tion, click on the Use Current button to add it to the list.

(Remove): Clicking on this button removes the highlighted item from the list. If no item is selected or the list is empty, this button is dimmed and inactive.

Absolute Path, Relative To Application: Selecting one of these radio buttons applies the respective type to the highlighted path.

Search Nested Folders: When this option is on, the file search extends to all the folders inside the listed folder and all the folders inside them, until the desired file is found. When this option is off, the file search takes place only at the level of the folder listed in the selected search path.

The Preferences dialog with the Project: Fonts options displayed.

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Project: File Search PathsThese options are used to specify the search paths (list of directories), when looking to locate an image file that cannot be found in the expected location, which is where it was at the time it was applied. By default six preset search paths initially appear, new paths can be added, and the attributes of paths can be changed using button commands and options available in the dialog. File search paths can be either absolute or relative. An absolute path is a complete description of the location of the directory from the top of a volume to its location. A relative path is a location based on another location. For example, if a search path is set to be relative to entity A, the search is applied to the folders contained in the folder that contains A. At its top, the File Search Paths area displays a list of the search paths. A check mark in the column on the left indicates that a path is active. Clicking in this column toggles the path between active and inactive. Inactive paths are not searched, but they remain in the list for future use. Search paths can be highlight-ed by clicking on them. When highlighted they can be removed or changed from absolute to relative or vice versa. Search paths also can be repositioned in the list by dragging them. Their order in the list is significant speed-wise, as the search always starts at the bottom of the list and moves upward. (Add...): Clicking on this button invokes the standard folder dialog for selecting a folder. The new directory is then added to the list. (Remove): This button removes the highlighted path from the list. Absolute Path, Relative Application, Relative To Project File: These radio buttons apply the respective type to the highlighted path. Search Nested Folders: When this option is off, the file search takes place only at the level of the folder listed in the selected search path. When on, the file search extends to all the folders inside the listed folder, and all the folders inside them, until the desired file is found.

The Preferences dialog showing the Project: File Search Paths options.

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Project: UndoThese options allow you to specify the depth of the undo records, which applies to all projects, not just the active project.

Use Undos: When on, which is the default, undo records will be kept and undos will be available. When off, undos will not be used.

Unlimited Undos: When on, which is the default, form•Z does not limit the number of undos that are available since the project was started.

Last n Operations: When on, only the specified number of opera-tions are available to be undone. Operations that were executed before that number of operations cannot be undone anymore.

At Most n KB Disk Space: This option allows you to limit the undo records to the specified amount of disk space. Once the limit is reached, earlier operations are overwritten and cannot be undone.

Last n Minutes: When on, form•Z limits the undos to operations that are not older than the specified number of minutes. Operations executed before n minutes cannot be undone.

Save Undos in Project: With this option on, the undo records are saved with the project file. When opening the project file again, the un-dos are available and operations executed in the previous session may be undone. Note, however, that undo records are not cross-platform and they are only available when the project is opened in the same platform (Macintosh or Windows) in which the undos were saved. The time limit for the undos applies to the accumulated time that the project was open. Note that, when undos are saved to the project file, form•Z cannot clean up obsolete data that may have accumulated during the session. Therefore, when this option is on, project files may grow quite a bit. Exactly how much also depends on the undo options that affect the depth of the records.

Reset After Saving Project: When on, form•Z resets the Undo records every time a project is saved.

The Preferences dialog with the Project: Undo options displayed.

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Project: ModelingThe options in this group affect a variety of modeling features.

The Preferences dialog with the Project: Modeling options displayed.

Execute Operations Between Smooth And Facetted Objects: When the operands are both of the same type, the resulting object is also of the same type. However, when they are of a different type we need to specify what the result will be, which is done by the options in this group, which affect the insertions, booleans, sections, trim, and split operations. Always Smooth: The result is a smooth object. This is the default.

Always Facetted: The result is a facetted object.

Facetted If Objects Have More Than n Faces: The result is facet-ted if it has more than n faces. It is smooth otherwise.

Warn Before Clearing Control Parameters: Certain operations trans-form the type of an object, which may cause it to lose the parameters it had for the original type. When this occurs and this option is on a warn-ing is issued.

Beep When Deselecting: With this option on, a beep sounds when objects are deselected.

Use Shift Key For Multiple Pick: With this option on, which is the default, selection of more than one entity requires pressing the shift key. When off, multiple objects can be freely picked by simply clicking on them.

Auto Select New Elements: With this option on, all new objects, lights, etc. remain selected after they have been created.

Return To Pick Tool: When on, the program returns to the Pick tool after the execution of the other tools.

Disable Scroll Wheel In Project Window: When on, zooming using the scroll wheel of a mouse is disabled.

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The Preferences dialog with the Project: Modeling: Animation option.

Use Tap Keys: This item controls the Tap key shortcuts. This item is on by default.

Project: Modeling: Animation

There is a single option in this group that allows you to Enable Anima-tion or disable it. It is enabled by default.

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Layers Layers essentially are a method for organizing and grouping entities within a project. Objects are automatically placed onto layers when they are generated, and then can be moved from one layer to another through the Layers palette located, by default, within the Palette dock to the right of the project window. It is through this palette or its contextual menu (right-click) that layers are created, managed, and deleted.

The Layers palette

Layers context menu.

The first row of the Layers palette (underneath the title bar) is a hori-zontal headers bar that contains five columns. They are (from left) Ac-tive Layer, Visibility, Selectability, Snapability, and Name. Each of these columns are as follows:

Active Layer: The red dot ( ) indicates the active layer. To make an inactive layer active, simply click in the column of the desired layer. Only one layer is active at any given time. The active layer is where new objects are placed when you generate them.

The second, third, and fourth columns control three layer attributes. These can be applied indi-vidually, or simultaneously to all layers with one click in the header bar. The attributes of the lay-ers apply equally to all the layers independently of whether they are active or not.

Visibility: Clicking within this column toggles the respective layer (and its objects) between three states—visible ( ), ghosted ( ), and invisible ( ).

Selectability: Clicking within this column locks ( ) or unlocks ( ) the respective layer. If the layer is locked, objects within the layer cannot be selected (picked).

Snapability: Clicking in this column determines whether the system will snap to the entities of the respective layer, when one of the object snaps is active. It has two states: snapable ( ) and not snapable ( ).

At the end of the horizontal header bar are the New Layer and Options buttons, as follows:

New Layer: This button ( ) creates a new layer with a single click.

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Options: Clicking on this button ( ) invokes the palette’s contextual menu that is also accessible by right-clicking anywhere inside the palette.

A new project contains a single active layer which bears the default name “Layer 1.” It is visible, unlocked, and snapable by default. Layers cre-ated thereafter sequentially follow the same naming convention (Layer 2, Layer 3, etc.), however, the user is able to name them in the Layers palette as they are created.

As stated previously, objects are automatically placed onto the active lay-ers from the time they are generated, and furthermore, can be moved from layer to layer in a variety of ways. One way is to drag the layer name (from the Layers palette) onto the object itself. If for example, we have a cube that is created on Layer 1 and we want it on Layer 2, all that is required is dragging the Layer 2 name onto the cube in the project window.

Another method is through the Attributes tab in the Pick Tool Options palette. With the Pick tool click on an object. This invokes the Pick Tool Options, which includes information about the object. One piece of information displayed in the Attributes tab is what layer the object is on. This is shown in a pull-down menu that contains all the currently existing layers. Selecting another layer name moves the object to that layer.

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Layers palette with (a) both groups folded, and (b) both groups unfolded.

Layer GroupingLayers can function indepen-dently, or as part of a group. Choosing New Group from the Layers palette context menu (right-click in the palette or the ( ) button) creates a layer group. When the new group is created, it is empty (contains no layers). Clicking and dragging an existing layer onto the group name will move the layer into the group. The contained layers, or children, can be hidden or exposed depending on the di-rection of the triangle appearing to the left of the group name, or parent. Clicking on the triangle toggles this option. Layers can be removed from the group by dragging them outside of the group.

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Layer Attributes dialog

Double-clicking on a layer name or selecting Edit... from the context menu (right-click) invokes the Layer Attributes dialog for that layer. Here, the layer name can be changed along with other attributes includ-ing those discussed previously (Visibility, Selectability, and Snapability).

Override Attributes: In this category, you are able to override object level attributes. This is accomplished by selecting the check box in front of the attribute name. For example, if the Material attribute is turned on, all objects on the layer will be displayed with the material shown to the right, regardless of the object material. Other attributes include the ability to override whether objects on that layer will cast shadows, receive shadows, are rendered in wireframe or as a shaded surface, or if smooth shading is applied. Clicking the All button at the bottom of the category selects all these attributes simultaneously.

The Layer Attributes dialog.

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Interacting with Google EarthImporting images from Google Earth into form•Z

It is sometimes convenient to save an aerial image from the Google Earth application and to map it onto a flat polygon in form•Z. Here is how the complete process works:

• Run Google Earth and select the desired view. Press the U key shortcut to make sure that it is a top view (and the camera is vertical).

• Choose Save: Save Image from the File menu and save the file.

• From the Tools menu, select Ruler and measure the horizontal and vertical dimensions of the screen.

• In form•Z, draw a rectangle that matches this size by clicking any-where to start drawing and entering the dimensions in the Input palette at the top of the screen. Press enter or return to complete the rectangle.

Google Earth Ruler.

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• Edit the current material, set the Color to Texture, and load the im-age you saved from Google Earth.

• Get the Edit Texture tool (from the Attributes suite of tools), click on the rectangle, uncheck the Lock Size option, move the corner of the tex-ture map to the bottom left corner of the rectangle, and move the diagonal arrow to the upper right corner of the rectangle.

• Double-check your work by measuring a known (large) part of the site. If necessary, scale the rectangle by the appropriate factor (known size / measured size).

With the desired image loaded, the 2D flat surface it is mapped onto can be manipulated just like any other piece of geometry. You are able to cre-ate objects right on top of it, as well as cut and carve the geometry based on the image displayed on the surface.

Edit Texture Map.

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Exporting to Google Earth

A completed model can be exported and viewed in Google Earth.

• From the form•Z File menu, select Export, KMZ. You can save the .kmz file to any name you choose.

Inside the Modeling Export Op-tions: KMZ dialog, form•Z automati-cally sets the Latitude and Longi-tude of the site based on the aerial image that was imported from Google Earth. Note that you may also need to manually type the desired coordi-nates of your model into these fields.

The Latitude and Longitude fields of the Modeling Export Options:

KMZ dialog.

Inside Google Earth, select File, Open and locate the .kmz file you just saved and it is imported to the program. Note that, although you're now able to view your model inside Google Earth once the .kmz file is loaded, it is not made public (i.e. on a another computer). In order for someone on another computer to see your model inside Google Earth, you have two choices:

• send the .kmz file along with the image maps, • or you can upload the .kmz file to Google's 3D Warehouse.

A model in form•Z, exported as a .kmz file, and opened in Google Earth.

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Cone of visionThe Cone Of Vision command at the end of the View menu opens the Cone of Vision window, through which views can be set. This is a special type of a graphics window that is subdivided in four areas, each occupying one quarter of the screen. Three of these areas function as associated windows and display orthographic projections: top view in the upper left portion, front view in the lower left, and right view in the lower right. These views display the modeling scene as well as the cone of vision with its controls, which can be moved in any of the three ortho-graphic projections. The upper right area displays the 3D view, referred to as the preview area.

The Cone of Vision window works like a dialog; it remains the only ac-tive window until it is closed. When it is first opened, the upper left projec-tion is active. Any other projection may be activated by clicking on it. The active area is marked by a red frame. The Cone of Vision window has most of the features of a common window, but it can not be resized or moved. It has a close box and clicking on it closes the Cone of Vision window, and returns control to the graphics window that was active at the time the Cone of Vision window was opened. The view shown in the preview area becomes the current view in the active window.

The Cone of Vision window for a perspective view.

Most of the general menu bar commands remain available and can be used while the Cone of Vision window is active. They mostly affect the preview area. Also, navigation operations executable with mouse buttons are available to the projection areas.

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A number of palettes are useful in the Cone of Vision. These palettes are found in a special dock that is present to the right of the Cone of Vision window. The Layers, Lights, Views, and View Parameters pal-ettes are in this dock. As the cone is graphically edited, the parameters are updated real-time in the View Parameters palette.

When hitting the Zoom Fit button at the bottom of the View Parameters palette, the view is changed so that all objects in the scene are shown in the view and the cone of vision is adjusted accordingly.

All the parts of the cone of vision act as controls and can be moved in the active projection. Moving controls of the cone causes one or more of the viewing parameters to change. To move a control, click and drag it with the mouse. This rubber bands the affected portions of the cone and the image in the preview area is constantly updated, allowing you to visually inspect the result of the movement. When you are satisfied with the new view, one more click of the mouse freezes the view at its current state. The process of editing the view may continue by picking the same or an-other control of the cone of vision, in the same or another area. Picking a control in another area first activates that area, then picks the intended control and begins to move it. The controls are as follows, where the indi-ces are also marked on the illustration:

(a) The viewer position is the small bullet that represents the eye of the viewer. It is connected to the center of interest and the two together define the line of sight (see below). When the viewer position is moved, the line of sight is anchored at the center of interest. The viewer position may be moved along the length of the line of sight or it may be rotated around the center of interest, which affects the direction of the line of sight. The complete cone of vision follows the motion. The line of sight is always the central axis of the cone of vision and perpendicular to it are the yon and hither planes.

Controls of the cone of vision for (1) perspective and (2) axonometric: (a) viewer position, (b) center of interest, (c) line of sight, (d) view angle, (e)

hither plane, (f) yon plane, and (g) view spin.

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(b) The center of interest is picked by clicking the mouse on the small arrow at the end of the line of sight. When it is moved, the line of vision remains anchored at the viewer position. It may move along the direction of the line of sight or it may rotate about the viewer position. Its move-ment affects the complete cone of vision in the same fashion as the movement of the viewer position.

(c) The line of sight is the line connecting the viewer position and the center of interest. It is selected by clicking the mouse on or close to it. When the line of sight is moved, both the viewer position and the center of interest move together. Thus the line of sight is always moved in direc-tions parallel to its original position. Again, the motions of the line of sight affect the complete cone of vision.

The top view window for the cone of vision: (a) viewer position, (b) viewer

position circle guide, and (c) line of sight guide.

The movement of the viewer position (a), or center of interest (b) can be con-strained to move along the line of sight by snapping it to the linear guide which ap-pears as soon as the control is dragged.

In the top view window the viewer position (a) may also be constrained to a circle around the center of inter-est (b) by snapping it to the circular guide. This gives the effect of the view moving around the center of interest at the exact same distance at a constant height.

(d) The view extent or view angle is picked by clicking the mouse on one of the arrows at the bottom of the cone and behaves differently for each type of cone. In the cone for axonometric, isometric, and oblique, all four edges move parallel. This motion increases or decreases the view extent. Reducing the view extent results in a larger image and increasing it results in a smaller image. In the perspective cone, all four edges move together symmetrically, following the motion of the selected line. This motion increas-es or decreases the view angle. Reducing the view angle results in a larger image and increasing it results in a smaller image.

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(e) The hither plane is picked by clicking the mouse on the cross mark at the top face of the cone, which represents the position of the hither plane. The hither plane moves only along the direction of the line of sight and cannot be moved beyond the current position of the yon plane or beyond the eye position. The hither plane represents the nearest visible point along the line of sight. When the Clip Hither/Yon option is selected, the rendered and hidden line images are clipped to this plane. Objects or por-tions of objects that are in front of this plane are invisible when clipped.

(f) Similarly, the yon plane is picked by clicking the mouse on the cross mark at the bottom face of the cone, which represents the position of the yon plane. The yon plane moves only along the direction of the line of sight and cannot be moved closer to the viewer position than the hither plane. The yon plane represents the farthest visible point along the line of sight. When the Clip Hither/Yon option is selected the rendered and hidden line images are clipped to this plane. Objects or portions of ob-jects that are behind this plane are invisible when clipped.

(g) The view spin is changed by clicking the mouse on the bullet at the bottom of the cone. When picked, the cone is dynamically rotated around the line of sight. This has the effect of tilting the viewer’s head and look-ing at the modeling environment sideways. The bullet is connected with a straight line to the center of the yon plane. This line represents the “up” direction of the view. It is parallel to the vertical sides of the image.

As already mentioned, many of the menu bar commands remain avail-able to the Cone of Vision environment and can be used, with their action being frequently adjusted to the semantics of the Cone of Vision. For example, the Undo and Redo items affect the view manipulations that have occurred within the cone of vision environment. All the display and the view type setting commands affect the 3D preview area only and none of the three projection areas. The Synchronize command can be used to align and scale the views of the cone of vision three projection areas.

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Tool Manager and Favorites paletteSelecting the Tool Manager command at the bottom of the Workspaces menu invokes the Tool Manager palette, which can be used to customize your tool palettes, create new palettes, and organize your favorite tools.

At the top of the palette there are two boxes labeled Categories and Tools. The former contains a list of labels corresponding to categories of tools. Clicking on a label highlights it and makes it the active category. The content of the active category is displayed in the box labeled Tools. You can drag icons from the active category to an existing tool palette or you can create a new palette. You can do this by clicking on the New Tool Palette... button, which invokes the New Tool Palette dialog, where you can set the Tool Palette Name, the Tool Icon Size, and tell the program whether it should Show Tool Names or not.

Where you place the icons you drag determines the shape of the tool palette, as shown to the right. Note that Show Tool Names was on for this palette.

The upper part of the Tool Manager palette.

The New Tool Palette dialog.

Custom tool palette containing a row of navigation and a row of

object creation tools .

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Placing the mouse cursor on a tool palette and right clicking invokes the context menu shown to the right. It contains a number of actions that allow you to manipulate the tool palette and its content. Settings... invokes the Tool Palette Settings dialog whose content is identical with the New Tool Palette dialog discussed earlier in this section. Restore Defaults... returns a palette to the way it was before you made changes.

Context menu popping up from tool palettes.

Delete Palette..., Swap Rows And Columns, Collapse To Single Row, and Collapse To Single Column execute the respective acts.

Pressing a key command invokes the Favorites palette, centered at the location of the mouse cursor. By default, the key command is the space bar, but you can assign any key of your choice. The Favorites palette has two sections: On its upper part are tools you assign to it, which are typically the ones you use most frequently. On its lower part are the four most recently used tools that the program places automatically. You click on a tool to activate it and the palette disappears.

While the Favorites palette is still displayed, you can press any single key or combination of keys to invoke a list of tools whose name starts with the key(s) you pressed. Then you can click on one of the tools displayed to activate it and the list disappears. See examples to the right.

The Favorites palette.

Tool list invoked after entering H.

Tool list invoked after entering DP.

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The lower part of the Tool Manager palette.

The lower part of the Tool Manager palette is labeled Favorite Tools and this where the content and shape of the Favorites palette can be set. Note that the palette also displays instructions on how the different operations can be applied.

You add more tools to the Favorites palette by dragging them from their regular tool palette or the upper part of the Tool Manager palette. You remove an already placed tool icon by simply dragging it off the palette area, or activating it and pressing the delete key, or by right clicking to invoke a context menu and choose Delete from it.

For the arrangement of the icons, you can choose from two shapes of arrangements: Grid or Radial. You may or may not Show Grid and Snap To Grid. You can control the size of the icons using the Grid Size sliding bar. Once settings have been changed, pressing Autoarrange will adjust the appearance of the Favorites palette to the new conditions. Default will return you to the original default appearance.

At the very low end of the palette there are means for reassigning the Shortcut key and for adjusting the Transparency and Color of the Background of the Favorites palette.

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ExtensionsThe items in the Extensions menu are used for controlling which plugins and scripts are enabled and where they are located on your computer’s hard disk.

An initial set of plugins and scripts is created during form•Z installation. Additional plugins and scripts may be installed as needed.

A plugin is an extension to form•Z that is contained in a form•Z plugin file (.fzp). form•Z plugin files are binary executable libraries that perform specific tasks. Like the form•Z application, form•Z plugin files are compiled for specific operating systems and processors, and can not be moved between operating systems. Because they are optimized in this fashion, plugins execute significantly faster than scripts. Plugins also have more access to the internal workings of form•Z, hence they often offer features that can not be created with a script. A single form•Z plugin file may actually contain a number of plugins. Plugins may also use a number of support files such as form•Z resource files (.fzr). These support files are installed in the same directory as the form•Z plugin file and must be kept in this location.

The following types of plugins are some of those currently supported:

File translator: Imports/exports data to/from file formats. Image file translator: Imports/exports image data to/from image formats. Tool: Adds a new operation to form•Z, including a new tool icon to run it from. Utility: Code that supports a task, which is not a complete tool. Digitizer: Interfaces to hardware digitizers.

A script is an extension to form•Z that is contained in a form•Z script language file (.fsl) or the form•Z script binary file (.fsb). The form•Z script language file is a text file which contains the script instructions in the form•Z script language (.fsl). The form•Z script binary file is a binary version of the script that is generated from the text file and allows for more efficient processing of the script. The script files are not platform specific and can be interchanged between different platforms. Scripts are interpreted rather than compiled for a specific system so they do not execute as fast as a plugin. As for the plugins, different types of scripts will be supported.

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The Extensions menu.

The Extensions menu, shown on the right, contains 4 items in the top group. The remainder of the menu may contain additional items or hierarchical menus created by extensions. Selecting one of these items performs the corresponding extension defined action.

Extensions Manager...

This item invokes the Extensions dialog, shown below. It is composed of two main sections: the plugins and scripts list which occupies the upper portion of the window, and a number of menus and buttons in the lower portion.

Run Utility... This item is used to run utility extensions. Utility extensions are designed to execute a task which is either less frequently used or it is not desired to have a menu item for the task appear in the form•Z interface. Utility plugins are best used on tasks that are linear in nature (like batch processing). Utility plugins are not loaded by form•Z at startup and are not listed in the Extensions dialog. When the Run Utility... item is selected, a standard file open dialog is invoked to select the extension file to run. A utility can be a plugin file (.fzp) or a script file (.fsl/.fsb). Once the file is selected, the utility is executed.

The Extensions dialog.

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Run Recent UtilityThis pop-out menu lists the most recent utilities that were executed using the Run Utility... command. Selecting the utility file name from the menu immediately executes the utility.

Use Script DebuggerThis item enables and disables the script debugger. For details on debugging scripts, see the SDK Documentation.

The Extensions dialog displays information about each plugin and script that form•Z has knowledge of. Each row of the list represents a single plugin or script. The list contains 6 columns, as follows:

• On: This determines if the plugin or script is enabled or disabled. Enabled plugins and scripts will be loaded the next time form•Z starts. Disabled plugins and scripts will not be loaded. A check (√) in this column indicates that it is enabled (no mark is shown if it is disabled). The title for this column has a small menu next to it. This menu can be used to turn on or off all the plugins and scripts in the list. Changes to the enabled plugins do not take effect until you restart form•Z. If you have changed the “enable” state of any of the plugins or scripts when you exit the dialog with the OK button, you will be given the option to quit form•Z.

• Name: This is the name of the plugin or script. Note that this is not the name of the plugin file, but rather the name that the developer of the plugin or script has chosen.

• Type: This is the type of the plugin or script as described above.

• Kind: This indicates whether the item is a plugin or a script.

• Version: This is the version of the plugin.

• Vendor: This is the name of the vendor who developed or distributed the plugin or script. Contact that vendor for updates to the plugin or script and for technical support.

Clicking in any column except the first column in the list invokes the Plugin Details or Script Details dialog. These dialogs contain detailed informa-tion about the plugin or script as follows:

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The Plugin Details dialog (see above) displays the following information:Name: The name of the plugin (not the plugin file).ID: A numeric ID assigned by the plugin developer.Version: The version of the plugin (assigned by the plugin developer).File Name: The name of the plugin file (.fzp) containing the plugin.Path: The full path to the folder containing the plugin file.Type: The type of the plugin as described above.Type ID: A numeric ID which identifies the plugin type.Type Version: The version of the plugin type.API Version: The version of the plugin API used to create the plugin.Vendor: The name of the vendor who developed or distributed the plugin.Vendor URL: The URL to the plugin vendor’s web site.Status: Whether or not the plugin is loaded.Description: If the plugin developer wished to provide additional information, it will be contained in this field. If no description is provided by the plugin developer, this field will not be displayed.

The Plugin Details dialog.

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The Script Details dialog (see above) displays the following information:

Name: The name of the script (not the script file).

ID: A numeric ID assigned by the script developer.

Version: The version of the script (assigned by the script developer).

Executable File Name: The name of the executable script file (.fsb) containing the script.

Executable Path: The full path to the folder containing the executable script file.

Type: The type of the script as described above.

Status: Whether or not the script is loaded. Clicking on the column title in the plugins and scripts list (at the top of a column) sorts the list alphabetically using this column. Pressing the option key on the Macintosh or ctrl+shift on Windows when clicking in the column title will sort the list in descending order rather than the default ascending order.At the lower part of the Extensions dialog, there are a few menu items and buttons, as follows:Selected Sets: This group of options allows you to define new sets of plugins and/or scripts or to delete existing sets. A selected set is a number of items picked from the plugins and scripts list, to which a name is assigned, to be able to identify them as a set of selections. Any number of such sets can be defined and show up in the Selected Set menu.

The Script Details dialog.

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The File Search Paths dialog.

Selected Set: This menu allows for the selection of previously defined sets of enabled plugins. When an item from this menu is selected, the enabled state of all the plugins and scripts is restored to the state at the time the selection set was saved. The default selection set is named Default Set and can not be removed. New…: This button saves the enabled states of the plugins and scripts shown in the Plugins And Scripts list to a named selection set. When selected, you are prompted to enter a name for the set. This name will show up in the Selection Set menu. Selecting that name in the Selection Set menu will set the enabled states of the plugins and scripts to the states they were in at the time the selection set was saved. Delete…: Clicking on this button will remove the named selection set currently shown in the Selection Set menu.New Plugins, New Scripts: These menus set how plugins and scripts, which are new to form•Z, are handled. The menus contain three items: Load: Simply load all new plugins or scripts. Don’t Load: Don’t load any plugins or scripts. Ask Before Loading: Prompt before loading each new plugin or script.Search Paths...: This button brings up the File Search Paths dialog, shown below, which can be used to add and remove folders where form•Z should look for plugins and scripts. This dialog functions as the same dialog invoked from the Preferences. When form•Z is installed, two folders are added, by default: “Plugins” and “Scripts.” They are relative to the form•Z installation folder.

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Faceting schemesSmooth objects, in addition to their smooth surface representations, also carry faceted approximations, also known as polygonal representations. A facet is a planar polygon that is typically triangular or rectangular. A set of such facets is used to approximate the complete surface of a smooth object. The facets may be visible when the wire frame method is used to display the object (see next section) and becomes the sole representation of an object when it is converted from smooth to faceted.

The faceting of a smooth object may be at different levels of resolution and may be generated on the basis of different faceting criteria. A user can select unique parameters when a faceting is generated or may use one of the existing faceting schemes. A faceting scheme is a set of parameter values that have been preset for the faceting algorithm.

A smooth object is faceted at the time it is created, using the faceting parameters found in the Display Resolution section of its Tool Options palette. The Tool Options palettes of all the tools that generate smooth objects contain such a section. The faceting parameters may be set before an object is generated and they can be further adjusted after the object is generated and while it is in the result buffer. The facets of a smooth object can also be changed at a later time by selecting it with the Pick tool and then activating the Attributes tab in the Pick Tool Options palette, which contains a Display Resolution section.

The Display Resolution section of the Tool Options palettes offers two methods for setting the faceting resolution of an object: Simple and Scheme.

Simple is a sliding bar ranging from 0 to 100%, representing a preset lowest and highest resolution. You can slide the bar or type a new numeric value in its field. If an object is displayed in wire frame and is in the result buffer or selected with the Pick tool, when you apply these changes, you can observe the changes shown graphically.

Scheme is a popup menu that contains the names of a number of preset schemes. Selecting one of them applies the respective resolution scheme to the object, whose change you can again observe graphically. At the bottom of the popup list is the Faceting Schemes... item. Clicking on it invokes the Faceting Schemes dialog where you can define your own schemes.

The Display Resolution section.

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The Faceting Schemes dialog.

The Faceting Schemes dialog contains a list of predefined schemes on its left side. There are 8 schemes provided by form•Z. The user can add any number of custom defined schemes. To do so you click on the New Scheme (+) button under the list. The program generates a name, which you can change. You can then proceed and set the parameters you desire on the right side of the dialog. You can also delete a scheme by selecting it and then clicking the Delete Scheme button.

When you select the name of a scheme, its parameters are displayed on the right side, where you can inspect them and also change them. They are as follows:

The Polygon Type popup menu contains 4 items that determine the structure of the faceting: All Triangles generates a quad-tree mesh with triangulated face boundaries and triangulated interior quads. Triangles On Fringe Only is a quad-tree mesh with the boundaries triangulated. No triangles, Full Grid is a single grid with no subdivisions and no triangles. No Triangles, Quad-Tree is a quad-tree mesh, all subdivided quads and no triangles.

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The Surface Tolerances group of options sets certain conditions that need to be satisfied when a faceting scheme is generated.

Normal Angle Tolerance sets the maximum angle allowed between surface normals at adjacent points on the facet mesh.

Point Tolerance is the maximum distance between a point on the original surface and a mesh segment. It can be defined through one of two methods: Fraction Of Bounding Box defines the distance as a decimal fraction of the length of the diagonal of the object’s bounding box. Thus, with this option, the size of the object affects the point tolerance. In contrast, with Distance the tolerance is given as an absolute distance, which makes it independent of the size of the object.

The Edge Tolerances group of options specify conditions for the edges.

Fraction Of Surface Tolerances is a ratio of edge to surface faceting tolerances. For example, suppose it is set to 0.5 and the surface Normal Angle Tolerance is set to 10 degrees. Then the edge faceting will have an angle tolerance of 10 x 0.5 = 5 degrees.

Edge Angle Tolerance and Edge Point Tolerance as for the surface tolerances, above.

The remaining options offer choices that affect different details of the faceting scheme:

No Grid On Planar Faces: When on, planar faces of objects are not subdivided, regardless of the other parameter settings. Only non-planar faces will be subdivided.

No Triangles On Conic Faces: When on, all conic faces of an object will be faceted with quads, regardless of other settings.

No Fringe On Single Face: By default, face boundaries are triangulated. With this option on, the boundary of an object with a single face will not be triangulated.

Maximum Aspect Ratio: When on, it specifies the intended maximum aspect ratio of a quad facet in 3D space.

Maximum Edge Length: Specifies the maximum length of a facet edge.

Minimum Grid Lines U, Minimum Grid Lines V: Specify the minimum numbers of constant U and constant V grid lines per face.

Maximum Grid Lines: Specify the maximum grid lines in U or V.

Merge Coplanar Triangles: When on, coplanar triangles are merged, where the planarity level is set in the Coplanar Tolerance field.

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Display methodsform•Z offers five methods for displaying the images of 3D models, accessed through the Display pull down menu or the Display Tools palette ( ). More methods may become available through extensions (plugins).

The first three—Wire Frame, Shaded Work, and Shaded Full—are grouped together because they function in real time, designed to perform interactively as you model. The Hidden Line and Doodle dis-play methods are listed separately because they provide static renderings, intended more for visualization.

When one of the display methods is selected, it becomes the active display method and the graphics window is redrawn using the selected method. Generally, the speed and the quality of a display mode are inversely analogous.

These five methods are affected by optional parameters set through the Display Options palette. Options inside the palette vary depending on the currently active display mode. Two other methods for accessing these options are as follows:

• hovering the cursor over the display mode icon, • or clicking on its (Display) menu item while pressing option (Macin-tosh) or ctrl+shift (Windows).

Optionally, photorealistic rendering can be supported by installing the RenderZone plugin, or other rendering plugins as they may become available. When RenderZone is installed, additional items appear in the Display menu, from which the plugin can be run. Its workings are discussed in a separate manual.

form•Z display methods as they're grouped in the Dis-

play pull down menu.

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The Wire Frame Options palette.

Wire Frame

This mode displays a wire frame line drawing in the active win-dow. A wire frame shows all the lines or edges of objects and is the fastest display method.

Show Back Faces: When on, the back facing faces of objects are plotted or rendered. They are not if this option is off.

Show Color: When on, all objects are shown with the color assigned to them. Faces that may have been assigned dif-ferent colors are also shown in the color assigned at the object level. When off, all objects are plotted in black when the back-ground color is light, or in white when the background is dark. The default is on.

Antialias: When on (default), the wireframe lines are antialiased.

Show Line Styles: When on (default) all lines are drawn with their assigned style. When off, all lines are drawn solid. When Accurate is also selected, the lines are drawn using a method that generates more accurate patterns at the expense of speed. When this option is off, a hardware technique is used, which is faster but less accurate.

Show Line Weights: When on (default), lines are drawn with their as-signed weights. When off, all lines are drawn as a single pixel.

Line Scale: This pop-up menu contains two options: Screen and Print. When Screen is selected (default), line styles and weights appear the same regardless of the level of zooming applied to an image. In con-trast, when Print is selected, line styles and weights are adjusted to the scale of an image. Note that in display modes that offer the option, when Accurate is off, screen display is used always, to take advantage of the hardware acceleration.

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Show Hatches: When on (default), any hatches assigned to objects are also displayed. When off, the hatches are hidden.

Hide Ghosted: When this option is on, ghosted entities are not shown. They are shown in the project’s ghost color (grey by default), when this option is off. This option can be applied to either Objects or Layers or both, depending on the selection from the two options under it.

Smooth Objects: The two options in this group control whether the facets, the wires, or both are displayed for smooth objects.

Facets: When this option is on, facets are also shown for smooth objects, in addition to their iso lines. When shown, the color intensity of facets can be set using the slide bar next to this option. By default, the intensity of facets is lighter than that of the iso lines.

Iso Lines: This slider bar is used to set the intensity of the color of the iso lines. Note that, while Facets can be turned on/off, the Iso lines are always on. However, their color intensity can be set low enough to make them virtually invisible.

Component Display: This pop-up menu contains three items that affect how components are displayed: Normal, Bounding Box, Dashed Box.

The options in the Interactive group determine whether some of the characteristics of objects are explicitly shown: Show Points: When this option is on, the points (vertices) of the dis-played objects will be marked with a diamond.

Show Key Points: When this option is on, the key points for the object curve are shown as small dots on the screen. Show Face Normals: The normals are vectors perpendicular to a surface. When this option is on, the normal vectors of all faces are also displayed. This option is off by default.

Note that, when objects have dense faces, the normals may be hard to read. In such cases displaying the objects with their back faces elimi-nated improves their readability. Another method for improving the read-ability of the normal vectors is to select individual faces. When faces are selected, their normals are also highlighted, which makes it easier to see which normal corresponds to the selected face.

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Show Object Axes: When this option is on, the axes of each object in the modeling scene are displayed. When they are displayed, point snap-ping to the axis origin is also available.

Show View/Camera Cones: When this option is on, the camera view cones are displayed.

Show Light Color: When this option is selected, each light is drawn in the light’s color. If this option is off, which is the default, the lights are drawn in black.

2D Surface Objects: These two options control whether certain structural details (first point and direction) will also be marked when surface objects are plotted.

Show First Point: When this option is selected, the first points of sur-face objects are marked with a diamond shape when plotted.

Show Direction: When selected, the directions of surface objects are shown by displaying arrows placed at the middle of each segment. With consecutive small segments, arrows are placed at intervals. These op-tions are quite useful for operations that are sensitive to directions.

All Windows: When this option is selected, the current Wire Frame options are applied to all the windows of the project. This option is off by default.

Automatic: With this option checked, after every change you make in the Display Options palette, the display is refreshed to reflect the changes. If this option is off, you need to press Update any time you wish to see your changes applied to the display. Automatic is on by default for the interactive display modes (Wire Frame, Shaded Work, and Shaded Full). It is off by default for the other display modes.

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Shaded Work

As the default display mode in form•Z, Shaded Work displays an OpenGL based shaded render-ing in the active window. It is designed for working with unified lighting. A single light source is used from the vantage point of the viewer. This "head-mounted" light allows for the model to be worked on regardless of how the model is viewed. The lights listed in the Lights palette are not used in this display method.

The Shaded Work Options pal-ette contains these options:

Edges Of Solids/Surfaces: When this option is on, the edges of the faces are also visible.

Iso Lines: When on the iso lines of smooth objects are displayed.

Silhouette Edges, Wire Objects, Antialias, Show Line Styles, Ac-curate, Show Line Weights, and Line Scale as for Wire Frame.

Use Object Edge Color: This option is available only when the edges are shown. When on, the edges are assigned the color of the object. Otherwise they are black on a light background and white on a dark background.

The Shaded Work Options palette.

An example with the Auto Xray option on.

Auto Xray: When on, this option allows you to see through existing objects as you draw behind them. In the example above, faces of the ex-isting cube (the larger one) are momentarily transparent while a second smaller cube is being created behind it. Once the background object is complete, the foreground object returns to its normal, solid appearance.

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An example with the Fake Space option on.

Fake Space: When on, this option allows you to see on-screen graphics that would otherwise be obscured by depth. The Fake Space example shown illustrates this option. Although the polygon is positioned behind the cube, the temporary reference plane is visible in its entirety while drawing on the obscured face.

Ignore Specular: As the Shaded Work mode uses a single light source positioned at the viewer's location (a.k.a. head lamp), the specular effect, when looking straight at an object, causes the color to be washed out. When this option is on, the objects are displayed without the specular component. When Projection Views Only is on, the suppression of specular will occur only in projection views, where it is most noticeable.

Hide Ghosted: As for Wire Frame.

Show Extents Of Groups, Show Extents Of Components: When on, a dashed bounding box is displayed containing the members of a group or component.

Component Display: As for Wire Frame, except that the pop-up menu here contains an additional item: Transparent Box.

Textures: When this option is on, Shaded Work displays the textures for objects that have been assigned image based or procedural textures. The texture is determined by the color component of the material. If the material contains a texture in its transparency component, this texture will be included if the above Transparencies option is selected.

Image Textures n Pixels: This menu determines the maximum desired size for texture maps. If the maximum dimension of a texture (used by a material's color map or transparency map) exceeds this size the texture is reduced to the specified dimension. This option prevents large textures from consuming significant memory on the graphics card. Smaller numbers perform better, but will look less desirable.

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Background: Through this pop up menu, you are able to establish a background for the scene. It contains five items; the latter three of which set the background through an image file and specify how it will be mapped. Background pop up menu.

None: When this item is selected, which is the default, the background is set to a uniform color. This color can be changed through the Appear-ance tab of the Project Settings dialog (File menu).

Horizon: When this item is selected, a basic horizon is added to the scene. The background color is the ground or Earth, while another color represents the sky. This color can be changed by clicking in the color box that appears once Horizon is selected from the Background pop up menu.

Flat Image: When this item is selected, a flat image is mapped onto the background. This image remains static, regardless of the current view. A thumbnail of the current image is shown. To select a different background, click on the ( ) icon to invoke the Flat Image dialog. This dialog presents more information about the image. Clicking the Load... button invokes the standard Open File dialog from where you can choose an image file.

Fit in Window: This option sizes the background image to fit the size of the window. If this option is off and the image is smaller than the win-dow, the image will be tiled. If larger, the image will be clipped.

Spheric Image: When this item is selected, the currently loaded background image is mapped onto an imaginary sphere that surrounds the scene. The image is wrapped around the sphere in such a way that the horizontal direction of the image runs parallel to the equator of the sphere. The background image is selected and displayed as with Flat Image discussed previously.

Cubic Image: When this item is selected, the background image is mapped onto an imaginary cube that surrounds the scene. The loaded background image is selected and displayed as with Flat Image dis-cussed previously.

The options in the Interactive group of options are as for Wire Frame.

Project Rendering Options...: This button invokes the Project Render-ing Options dialog discussed in the following section.

All Windows: As for Wire Frame.

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The Shaded Full Options palette.

Shaded Full This OpenGL based display method of-fers additional features, such as shad-ows. While less interactive, it provides a more accurate representation of the model. Unlike Shaded Work, it uses the lights from the Lights palette for its illumination. Nearly all the options for this mode are as for Shaded Work, except for the following:

Shadows: When this option is on, ob-jects whose shadow attribute is on cast shadows from the light sources whose shadow option is on, onto objects whose shadow receiving attribute is on. Recall that the shadow casting and receiving attributes of objects are on by default when objects are created. The shadow option of lights also is on by default.

Accurate: When this option is off (default), all shadows are shown with a constant intensity based on the ambient light. When on, the shadows are displayed with accurate intensities. That is, the shadows from each light source are affected by other lights in the scene. This option is slower but yields a more accurate result.

Illuminate Back Side Of Surfaces: When this option is on (default), faces of surface objects that face away from light sources are illuminated as if they were facing the light (i.e. reversed). Thus the face directions of surface objects do not affect the rendered image.

Transparencies: When this option is selected, objects to which trans-parent materials are assigned are rendered transparent. The degree of transparency is as set in the respective material. Recall that 0% and 100% transparencies result in opaque and invisible objects, respectively.

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Hidden Line

This display method generates a hidden line image in the active win-dow. The hidden line elimination method produces displays where only the visible lines of a scene are shown. The hidden line method resolves the intersections of surfaces, eliminates all back facing surfaces, and displays only the portions of the visible edges that are not obscured by other visible surfaces. The removal of hidden lines is a computationally intensive process that makes the hidden line method substantially slower than wire frame. Its options are as follows:

The Hidden Line Options palette.

Hide Edges With Angle (a) off and (b) on. a b

This option is useful for line illustrations of curved objects, when the edges of smooth surfaces are not wanted. The angle can be any number between 0° and 180°.

Show Object Color: When select-ed, the colors assigned to an object are shown. When deselected, all lines are shown in black (default).

Interior Edges n Pixels and Silhou-ette Edges n Pixels: The line widths of interior and silhouette edges can be increased or decreased through these respective pop up menus.

Hide Edges With Angle Greater Than: When this option is selected and a hidden line plot is derived, edges whose adjacent faces form an angle greater than the value entered in the field to the right are hidden, except when they are on the object’s silhouette.

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Show Facets Of Smooth Objects: When this option is selected, the respective render-ing is generated using the facets of the model rather than the edges of the smooth faces. This option is off by default.

All Windows: As for Wire Frame.Show Facets Of Smooth Objects (a) off and (b) on.

Include Open Shapes: When selected, the shapes that are open and do not define a surface are plotted. Such shapes cannot hide other solid objects, but may be (partially or completely) hidden by them. When de-selected (the default), open shapes are skipped, and not plotted.Show Transparent Objects: When this option is on, objects that have been assigned transparent materials will be displayed according to the following selection. When off, transparent objects are treated as invisible and are not displayed. A transparent material is one where the trans-parency parameter in the Material Parameters palette shows a value greater than zero.

As Solid/Surface: When this option is selected, transparent objects are treated as common opaque objects and are displayed accordingly.

As Wire Frame: When this option is on, transparent objects are dis-played as wire frames.

Show Intersections: This option is not selectable unless the As Wire Frame option is on. When on, intersections of transparent objects are displayed.

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Doodle Selecting this item generates a “doodled” drawing in the ac-tive window. This style of display simulates many hand-drawn drawing styles. It is designed to produce an image with a softer or more natural quality. Options within the Doodle Options palette are as follows:

Base Rendering: This section determines the rendering type that is used as the starting point. A doodle style is applied to each line from the base rendering to create the doodle rendering.

Wire Frame: When on, the base rendering is a wire frame render-ing. Note that only a small subset of the original wire frame options are useful to doodle renderings.

Show Back Faces, Show Color: As for Wire Frame. The Doodle Options palette.

Show Facets Of Smooth Objects: When on, the facets of smooth objects are shown. When off, which is the default, the iso lines of the smooth objects are shown. For doodle renderings the iso lines are shown at half of the intensity of the facets.

Hidden Line: When selected, the base rendering is a hidden line. This rendering is the same as the rendering produced by the Hidden Line* menu command. The Options... button invokes the Hidden Line Options.

Doodle Styles: This section contains the available styles that can be used for doodle renderings. Each style is shown as a small preview of a cube rendered with the respective style. One of the styles in the list is the current style. The current style is shown with a heavy black border. Click-ing on a style makes it the current style. The current style is the one that is used for rendering in the project window. The parameters of the current style can be edited by setting options in the Style Parameters section.

New: Clicking on this button creates a new empty style and makes it the current style.

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Copy: Clicking on this button creates a new style by copying the cur-rent style and makes it the current style.

Delete: Clicking on this button deletes the current style, which is a permanent deletion. Deleted styles will not show up even after restarting form•Z. The style adjacent to the deleted style becomes the current style.

Defaults...: Clicking on this button restores all default doodle styles to their original default parameters. If any additional doodle styles have been cre-ated (with the New or Copy buttons) they can be optionally kept or deleted.

Style Parameters: This section is used to edit the parameters of the current style. A style is composed of a set of effects. Each effect has its own parameters. The order of the effects is significant as the effects are applied sequentially and the result of one effect is the base for the next effect. When the order of the effects is changed, the resulting style is almost always different. In the example shown, the Extend and Jagged effects are used in both images. In (b) the order is Extend and then Jagged, while in (c) the order is Jagged and then Extend.

Effects ordering: (a) Wire frame cube (b) Extend and then Jagged, (c) Jag-

ged and then Extend.

Some effects create multiple lines (Break, Curl, Multi, Jagged, Bleed), while others only modify the source line (Extend, Skew). If an effect that creates multiple lines is applied, the next effect operates on each of the lines that resulted from the effect. A satisfying style can usually be created with just a few ef-fects. A large number of effects for a single style tends to affect perfor-mance and to produce a confusing result.

Name: This is the name of the style. It must be unique.

Effects: This list shows the effects of the current style and the order in which they are applied (top to bottom). One of the effects in the list is highlighted to indicate that it is the current effect. Clicking on the name of an effect in the list makes it the current effect. Effects in the list can be reordered by clicking and dragging the current effect to the desired loca-tion in the list.

Effects Library: This list shows the library of effects that can be used in a style. One of the effects in the list is highlighted to indicate that it is the current library effect. Clicking on the name of an effect in the list makes it the current library effect.

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Add: Clicking on this button adds the current library effect to the end of the Effects list and makes it the current effect.

Replace: Clicking on this button replaces the current effect with the current library effect.

Delete: Clicking on this button deletes the current effect from the Ef-fects list.

Delete All: Clicking on this button deletes all the effects from the Ef-fects list.

Preview: This image is a preview of the style. It is updated when the Effects list or a parameter of an effect is changed.

Effect Parameters

Under the lists and buttons is a section that displays the parameters of the current effect selected in the Effects list. Both the title and the content of this section change as a new current effect is selected. The non regular results of the doodle rendering are achieved by randomiza-tion of the parameter values. This is controlled by setting the minimum and maximum values for each parameter in the style. More variance will appear in the image when the minimum and maximum values are farther apart. Less variance will appear in the image when the minimum and maximum values are closer. The parameter values are specified as a percentage of the width of the image. This allows the doodle image to look the same regardless of the image resolution.

All effects use the following common parameters:

Minimum: This slider controls the minimum value for the parameter. The text field to the right specifies the percent of the image for the mini-mum value. The second text field indicates the number of pixels that this percentage yields for the active window.

Maximum: This slider controls the maximum value for the parameter. The text field to the right specifies the percent of the image for the maxi-mum value. The second text field indicates the number of pixels that this percentage yields for the active window.

Lock: This check box locks the minimum and maximum values to each other which yields no variance of the parameter. When this is enabled, the minimum and maximum values change together.

Following are the parameters for each effect:

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Extend Parameters

This effect lengthens or shortens each line. It has one parameter.

Length: The amount to lengthen (positive) or shorten (negative) each line.

Break Parameters

This effect breaks up each line into several colinear line seg-ments for a dashed appearance.

Segment Length: The length of the solid part of each line segment.

Gap Distance: The distance of the gap between solid parts.

Curl Parameters

This effect curls each line, giv-ing it a few or several curves. It actually creates several small straight segments. Thus, when combined with another effect, the other effect will operate on all of the small segments, which may yield unexpected results.

Distance: It controls the dis-tance to a bend/curve of the line. Higher numbers yield smoother curves. Smaller numbers yield noisier and bumpier lines.

Amplitude: This controls how high the waves of the curves reach.

Maintain End Points: If this is on, each line’s end points are not moved from their original position. This allows an object to maintain its cohesive form by being connected at the corners.

Extend effect: Length of (a) -3%, (b) 3% and (c) 10%.

Curl effect with Distance and Amplitude of (a) 14.5%, 1.3%; (b) 2.2%, 0.2%; and

(c) 2.2%, 2.8%.

Break effect with Segment Length and Gap Distance of (a) 0.8%, 1.3%; (b)

1.8%, 6.0%; and (c) 6.5%, 1.5%.

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Bleed effect with Length of (a) 1.1%, (b) 5%, and (c) 9%.

Multi effect with Lines and Distance of (a) 2, 0.6%; (b) 3, 1.4%; and (c) 5, 2%.

Bleed Parameters

This effect creates thicker lines at the end points of each line for a “bleeding pen” effect.

Length: The length of the bleed lines at each end of a line.

Multi Parameters

This effect creates multiple lines for each original line and offsets them some distance from the original, as shown.

Lines: This is the number of new lines.

Distance: This is the distance by which the lines are offset from each other.

Jagged Parameters

This effect creates a jagged or zigzag line from each original line, as shown.

Distance: This is the distance between “jags” (changes in di-rection). It is calculated along the original input line. Higher values yield less and smaller yield more jagged lines.

Amplitude: This parameter controls the height of the jaggi-ness.

Maintain End Points: If this option is on, the end points of the lines are not moved from their original position. This allows an object to maintain its cohesive form by being connected at the corners.

Jagged effect with Distance and Ampli-tude of (a) 0.8%, 1.4%; (b) 2.2%, 0.2%;

and (c) 8.7%, 1.4%.

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Skew

This effect twists or offsets each line by moving the end points or rotating the line.

By Distance: When this op-tion is on, the values in its fields specify the distance to which the end points of each line are moved.

By Angle: When this option is on, the values in its fields deter-mine the angle by which each line is rotated.

Perspective Depth: This option is only enabled when the current window contains a perspective view. When enabled, the pa-rameters of the current style are adjusted relative to the depth of the lines in the scene. That is, the style parameters for each line are scaled down proportion-ally to the depth of the lines in the scene. The slider to the right determines the scale factor that is applied. The default is 50%. A value of 100% indicates no scal-ing and a value of 0% indicates the most scaling. An example of perspective depth is shown to the right. In this example the fuzzy style was used with the parameters locked which re-moves the randomness from the style and makes it easier to see the perspective depth effect.

All Windows: This option func-tions as with all other renderers with the same option.

Skew effect with Distance of (a) 1.4%, (b) 3%, and (c) Angle of 12%.

Perspective Depth: (a) off, (b) 50%, and (c) 0%.

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Project level rendering optionsThe Shaded Work and Shaded Full options palettes include a button labeled Project Rendering Options.... This item is also available in the Display menu. The Project Rendering Options offers condensed rendering parameters, stored on a per project basis.

The Project Rendering Options dialog consists of two tabs as follows:

Smooth Shading tab

Facetted Objects: The options in this group deter-mine whether or not facet-ted objects will be smooth shaded when rendered.

None: When this op-tion is selected, facetted objects do not get smooth shaded.

Edges With Angle Greater Than: When this option is selected, facet-ted objects are smooth shaded, where the angle between two faces (across an edge) is larger than the angle entered in the text field.

Smooth Objects: The options in this group determine how smooth ob-jects are terated when rendered.

Use Facetted Objects Setting: When this option is selected, smooth objects are rendered with the option selected for facetted objects (None or Edges With Angle Greater Than).

Per Renderer: This option allows each rendering type to render smooth objects as best as it can.

Allow Object And Layer Override: When this option is on, objects that have their own Smooth Shading attribute, will override the settings of the Project Rendering Options. The same is true, if a layer uses a Smooth Shading override attribute. If this option is off, only the Project Rendering Options apply. For example, if a scene needs to be rendered completely flat shaded, the Facetted Objects option should be set to None, the Smooth Objects option set to Use Facetted Objects Setting and the Allow Object And Layer Override should be turned off.

The Project Rendering Options dialog with the Smooth Shading tab open.

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Default Texture Map Control

When an object is created it often has a natural texture map control (i.e. sphere, cylinder, etc.). For those that do not, the default texture map control is used.

Origin: The values entered in the X, Y and Z fields represent the position of the origin of the texture coordinate system.

Rotation: The values entered in the X, Y and Z fields are in degrees and represent the angles the texture coordinate system will be rotated relative to its axes. These rotations are al-ways executed in Z, Y, X order.

Reset : When this button is pressed, all three angles are reset to 0 degrees.

The fields in the Wrapped Textures section determine the mapping type and size of wrapped (2D) textures. Since a wrapped texture is two dimensional in nature, but is rendered on a three dimensional object, it must be projected (mapped) from 2D to 3D. This is done via a mapping type and a size specification.

Mapping Type: One of four basic mapping types can be selected from this menu : Flat, Cubic, Cylindrical and Spherical.

Flip: When this option is selected, the vertical and horizontal directions of the 2D texture are reversed.

Horizonal/Vertical Tiling Size: The size of the each dimension of the texture is specified in these fields. For Flat and Cubic mapping the size is expressed as a linear distance. For Cylindrical mapping, the horizon-tal direction is an angular value and the vertical size is linear. For Spheri-cal mapping both values are angular.

Center: When this option is selected, the texture tile is centered in the horizontal and/or vertical direction, relative to its origin. When off, the lower left point of the texture is placed on the origin of the texture coordi-nate system.

The Project Rendering Options dialog with the Default Texture Map Control

tab open.

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Mirror: With this option, the texture is mirrored in the horizontal and/or vertical direction.

Parametric Mapping For Parametrics: When this option is on and the object rendered is a parametric object, the Parametric mapping type with the Tiling parameters below this option are applied. Parametric objects which are affected by this option are: analytic primitves (cylinder, cone, sphere, torus), nurbs objects and c-meshes. When this option is off, the mapping type selected in the Mapping Type menu above is ap-plied to a parametric object.

Lock Size To: When None is chosen from this menu, the Horizonal/Ver-tical tile sizes can be set independently. If Square is selected, typing a new value for the horizontal size automatically sets the vertical value to be the same, and vice versa. When Current Proportions is selected, the ratio of the horizontal to vertical size is maintained when entering a new value.

Solid Textures Size: The value entered in this field determines at what size solid (3D) textures are rendered.

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Setting image parameters

The Image Options dialog.

Use Window Size: Selection of this option sets the image size to the dimensions of the project window. Upon selection of this option, the Width and Height items are updated to display the window dimensions. This option is the default.

Use Custom Size: This option allows customized specification of the image size. One of two methods may be selected.

By Number Of Pixels: When this option is selected, one of thirteen preset image siz-es may be selected from the pop up menu, or the desired size may be entered directly in the Width and Height text fields. These dimensions are expressed in pixels. The largest numbers that can be used for width and height of windows are 32,767 pixels.

By Size and Resolution: When this op-tion is selected, the desired size, in inches, and the desired resolution, in pixels per inch, is entered in the appropriate Width, Height, and Resolution fields. The By Number of Pixels Pop

up menu.Maintain Proportions: When this option is selected, the proportions

of the project window are maintained in the rendered image. When selected, if the Width or Height dimension is changed, the other is automatically adjusted to maintain the existing proportions. This option is dimmed and inactive when the Use Custom Size option is not selected.

Image Options...

Selecting this item invokes the Im-age Options dialog. This dialog contains options controlling the size and color depth of rendered images.

Image Size: One of two options to define the size of the rendered image may be selected from this section. The image size can be specified by using the size of the graphics window where the image is rendered (default), or by using a custom size.

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Use Screen Size: Clicking on this button sets the values in the Width and Height fields to the monitor’s screen size.

When the Use Custom Size option is selected, in most cases, the window will be automatically resized when you exit the Image Options dialog, as follows. In addition:

• The proportions of the window are always adjusted to the proportions of the image.

• If the image size is less than the screen size, the window is resized to the image’s size.

• If the image size is greater than the screen, only the proportions of the window will be adjusted. If the Maximize Window In Screen option is also selected (see below), then the largest possible window size that fits in the screen will be used.

• Resizing the window using its resize box only allows you to decrease the window size from its indicated size.

Maximize Window In Screen: This option is active when Use Custom Size is on. When selected and the size of the image is greater than the size of the screen, the window takes the largest possible size that fits in the screen.

Image Color Depth: One of three op-tions may be selected from this pop up menu to define the color depth of the rendered image. These three options reflect the possible color depths of the monitor. The current color depth of the monitor is selected by default, and is set through the standard Monitor control panel or system preferences (see your operating system’s manual for details).

The Image Color Depth pop up menu.

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Line Styles and Line WeightsLines used to delineate surface and solid objects can be of different styles and weights. These are assigned when objects are created, using the active weight and style from the Line Style and Line Weight palettes. Line styles and weights can be changed through the Attributes tab of the Pick tool options palette, as for other attributes, or they can be dragged and dropped from their palettes onto objects. Layer override for line weights and styles is also available.

Display of the line styles and weights is controlled by checkboxes in the Display Options palettes for Wire Frame, Shaded Work, Shaded Full, and Hidden line, as follows:

Show Line Styles: When on, lines are drawn with their assigned style (default). When off, all lines are drawn solid. When the Accurate option is also selected, the lines are drawn using a method that generates a more accurate pattern at the expense of performance. When this option is Accurate is off, a hardware technique is used that results in faster, but less accurate display. This option is not available for Hidden Line.

Show Line Weights: When on, lines are drawn with their assigned weight (default). When off, all lines are drawn as a single pixel.

Line Scale: This popup menu contains two items: Screen and Print. They determine if the displays of the lines follow screen or printing units. With Screen (default), the line styles and weights appear the same regardless of the level of zooming applied to the image. When Print is selected, the line patterns and weights scale as you zoom in and out of the image, which allows to preview how they will print. Note that in rendering modes that offer the Accurate option, when it is off, screen display is used because of the hardware acceleration.

The Line Styles palette.

An object displayed with Show Line Styles and Weights on.

The Line Weights palette.

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The Line Styles and Line Weights palettes have the usual palette controls, including the menu that pops up from the arrow button at their upper right. This menu contains the usual items that allow you to add a new, delete, or edit an entry, etc.

Clicking on the New Line Style... or Edit... item of the Line Styles menu invokes the Line Style Editor dialog. It offers the tools for defining the pa-rameters of a new line style, or for editing those of a previously defined style, through either graphic or numeric input. The dialog also contains a preview showing the currently defined style.

New Line Style...DeleteEdit...Duplicate

Active

View By Name ListView Graphically

SortPurge

Manual...

A line style has a Name, entered at the top of the dialog. There are two types of lines: Solid, which is a continuous line, and Dashed Line. They are selected from this dialog.

Dashed lines consist of two types of components: solid pieces and gaps. These can be of the same or different lengths and can be ar-ranged in any order. Dashed line styles are defined through a pattern or module, which is repeated to produce the complete line. A style pat-tern may be of any length appropriate for the description of its composi-tion. A style pattern must start with a dash and end with a gap. If the design entered does not satisfy this condition, an adjustment is made.

The Line Styles menu.

The Line Style Editor dialog.

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In form•Z, a dashed line pattern may consists of at most 32 parts (dash-es and gaps). In the EPS and Illustrator formats there is a limit of 11, and in DXF there is a limit of 12. form•Z line styles exceeding these limits default to a solid line, when exported to EPS, Illustrator, or DXF. Thus, it is advisable to limit the number of parts used in a dashed style definition to 10, when it is to be exported to EPS, Illustrator, or DXF.

Pattern Length specifies the size of the pattern or module that will be used to define the line style. It is complemented by the Unit pop up menu. When this value is changed, a message is posted warning that this change will affect the line style. Clicking OK on the warning dialog will scale the parts of the pattern proportionally to the new pattern length.

Line style patterns can be defined graphically using the pattern ruler, or numerically by entering values in the Start, Length, or End fields, located under the ruler, or by a combination of these two methods. The ruler is subdivided according to the selected unit. To define a pattern in the ruler you use vertical sliding markers, which you extract from its right end. The Start markers are shorter than the End markers. They all have diamonds at the top. You click in a diamond and drag it to reposition the marker. Between the Start and End markers there is a horizontal line that represents a dash of the pattern. Clicking on this line selects it and highlights it. Clicking on a diamond while pressing the shift key allows you to move the whole dash group together

Each time you select a dash bar or one of its parts, the number in the Start, Length, and End fields are updated to reflect the values corresponding to the selected dash bar. Any of these values can be changed, resulting in a move which is executed through numeric input. The graphics in the pattern ruler are updated as soon as you click in another text field.

When you Edit... a previously defined line style, the pattern of that style is displayed in the pattern ruler, when the Line Style Editor dialog is invoked. When you use the New... button, Solid is selected and a solid line is displayed by default. To define a dashed line, first select the Dashed Line option, then slide markers to specify the patterns you wish. When Snap To Ruler is selected (default) the markers will snap to the ruler subdivisions.

The value entered in the Screen Display field determines the number of pixels that will be used to construct and display on the screen the pattern defined in the pattern ruler. That is, if pattern length is 1 inch, and 100 pix-els are entered in this field, the line style will be displayed using 100 pixels per module. If 200 is entered then each module will be 200 pixels, result-ing in a larger dash line pattern. That is, the second time the dash pattern will appear scaled by 200%. Note again that this option affects only the screen display and has absolutely no effect on how line styles are printed.

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As for the styles, the arrow button on the upper right of the Line Weights palette pops up a Line Weights menu, with all the typical palette com-mands. Clicking on the New Line Weight... or Edit... item of the Line Weights menu invokes the Line Weight Editor dialog. It offers options for defining line weights.

The Name field displays the name of the line weight that is being edited. For new line weights, a name is initially defaulted by the system and can be changed by the user.

New Line Weight...DeleteEdit...Duplicate

Active

View By Name ListView Graphically

SortPurge

Manual...

The Line Weights menu. The value in the Print Width, which is interpreted according to the selection from the Unit menu next to it, determines the width of a line, when it is printed or plotted on paper. This parameter has no effect on how lines are displayed on the screen.

The value entered in the Screen Width field is in always pixels and determines the width of a line when displayed on the screen. It has no effect on how lines are printed or plotted.

The Line Weight Editor dialog.

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Lights and ShadowsIn form•Z, light sources can be defined as one of eight available types: distant, point, cone, projector (gel), area, custom, line, and envi-ronment. These are in addition to the ambient light that illuminates all surfaces equally. Light color and intensity of the ambient light are set in the Lights palette. They appear in wire frame and shaded display types when they are marked as visible in the Lights palette. At start-up, form•Z automatically creates one distant light, representing the sun. In addition, a scene always contains one ambient light. Distant, point, cone, projector, area, custom, environment, and line lights and their names are displayed in the Lights palette. Lights can be defined and existing lights can be deleted or edited through the Lights dia-log. The parameters and the positions of lights can be set in the Light Parameters dialog. Their positions can also be manipulated using the geometric transformation tools of form•Z. The ability to cast or not cast shadows at different quality levels is also available. The specific light functions are discussed in the remainder of this section Lights may have different sets of parameters depending on the render-ing mode used. RenderZone is a rendering plugin available for form•Z that allows for more realistic rendering of still images and animations complete with Global Illumination effects. It is installed with form•Z by default as a watermarked version for evaluation, even if it is not initially purchased. As a result, the RenderZone mode light parameters will be avaialable under the Light Parameters tab even if you have not yet purchased the RenderZone rendering plug-in.

There are six tools in the Animation Workspace that allow you to quickly and easily define light sources.

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Point Light

Point lights emit rays from a given point outward in all directions. The intensity of these lights may or may not de-crease as the distance from the source increases, depending on the setting. An example of a point light is a candle.

With this tool active, each click in the modeling window places a new point light whose center is at the click point. After a point light is placed, an arrow widget is diplayed. Adjusting this arrow changes the radius of the light, which is a spherical surface visible in wire frame and shaded modes that defines where the intensity of a light matches the value set in the Brightness box in the Intensity tab.

Placing a Point Light.

Cone Light

Cone lights emit rays from a given point in the direction defined by their conic shape. The intensity of these lights may or may not decrease as the distance from the source increases, depending on the setings. The intensity of these lights also decreases at the perimeter

Placing a Cone Light.

of the cone. This area of decreased intensity is defined by a second cone inside the outer cone. Car headlights are an example of cone lights.

Distant (Direct) Light

Distant (or direct) light emits paral-lel rays from an infinitely distant light source, such as the sun. The intensity of this light remains constant through-out a scene. Atmospheric light, which simulates light from the sky and which is non uniform in direction can be added under the Parameters tab. Placing a Distant Light.

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Projector Light

Projector lights emit rays from a given point in the direction defined by a pyramid that is associated with them. The intensity of these lights may or may not decrease as the distance from the source increases, depending on the setting. The rays emitted by such lights are also filtered through an image map, Placing a Projector Light.

projecting that image onto a scene. An example of a projector light would be a slide projector.

Custom Light

Custom lights represent variable intensities in different directions about a light source. For example, a point light, which is used to represent a bulb hanging in a room is assumed to emit rays of equal intensity in all directions. However, light sources do not work this way in reality. A bulb has a higher Placing a Custom Light.

intensity in the direction of the socket, and its intensity falls off toward the socket, and it is zero directly behind the socket. Custom lights take into consideration these real world “irregularities.” The intensity of these lights may or may not decrease as the distance from the source increases. IES stands for Illuminating Engineering Society. The IES file format was created for the transfer and use of photometric data over the web. An IES file is basically the measurement of distribution of light (intensity) stored in ASCII format. You can think of it as a digital profile of a real world light. In form•Z it can be used for creating lights with shapes and physically ac-curate light casting attributes. IES light files are created by many major lighting manufacturers and can be downloaded from their sites.

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Area Light

Area lights are associated with physi-cal objects whose surfaces are emit-ting light. For example, it is possible to create a plane or other flat polygon and turn the resulting object into an area light. The intensity of these lights may or may not decrease as the distance from the source increases.

Line Light

Line lights are derived from and are associated with open or closed surface objects in the same way area lights are derived from surface or solid objects. However, the object of a line light is not rendered in the same way it is for an area light. Light rays are emitted from the segments of an object rather than the object as a whole. The intensity of a line light may or may not decrease as the distance from the source increases,

Creating an Area Light from a flat plane.

depending on the settings.

The Lights palette and dialogsLights can be defined and existing lights can be deleted or edited through the Lights palette. The parameters and the positions of lights can be set in the Light Parameters dialog. Their posi-tions can also be manipulated using the geometric transformation tools. The ability to cast or not cast shadows at different quality levels is also available. The specific light functions are dis-cussed in the remainder of this section.All currently defined light sources are displayed in the Lights palette shown at right. If not open, this palette can be

Creating an Line Light from an open wire.

The Lights Palette.

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invoked from the Palettes menu in the usual manner.Different icons are used to display the different light types, which are as follows: ambient, distant, point, cone, projector, area, custom, line, and environment. The default type when new lights are created is

The Light Parameters Dialog.

distant. Double clicking on a light name in the Lights palette invokes the Light Parameters dialog, which allows you to change the attributes of a light. The Light Parameters dialog looks different when the RenderZone mode is selected. On the upper right is a list with rendering modes. One is active and shows those light parameters that are relevant for that ren-dering mode. For example, if RenderZone is selected, the more complex parameters applying to it are shown, as opposed to the simpler param-eters shown when Shaded Full is selected. To accommodate additional parameters, the dialog is organized in four tabs: Intensity, Location, Shadows, and Parameters. The Light Pa-rameters dialog contains four tabs, discussed next. Note that the exact content of each tab depends on the type of light that is currently selected. Intensity tab

This group of options allows you to set up the intensity of lights and their falloff through more or less detailed methods, depending on the type of light. Falloff: This menu allows you to select how the intensity of the light will decrease as the distance of the light from an illuminated surface in-creases. Five options are available, all of which use different formulas to compute the light intensity of a surface pixel when illuminated by a light source. When the Simple intensity option is chosen, the radius parameter (point, custom, area, line lights) or the distance from the light’s origin to the light’s center of interest (cone, projector lights) is taken into account for the intensity calculation. This distance will be identified as r in the de-scription below.

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Constant: The light intensity of a surface pixel is the same anywhere in the scene. Linear Clamped: The light intensity of a surface pixel is the same as the value entered in the Simple field, if the surface pixel is at a distance of r from the light source. If the pixel is further away, the intensity decreases linearly. For example, if the Simple intensity is set to 100% and the pixel is twice as far as r, the intensity is 50% (100 % / 2). If the pixel is eight times as far way as r, the intensity is 12.5% (100 % / 8) If the pixel is closer than r, the intensity increases approximately linearly, but will not exceed a maximum value. For example, if the pixel is half as far away as r, the intensity is about 200% (100 % / 0.5). However, as the pixel gets closer to the light source, the intensity does not increase linearly anymore and is clamped against a maximum value. This will guarantees, that a pixel very close to the light source will not get an unreasonably high illumination and avoids unexpected overexposure in a scene. Square Clamped: The light intensity of a surface pixel is the same as the value entered in the Simple field, if the surface pixel is at a dis-tance of r from the light source. If the pixel is further away, the intensity decreases with the square of the distance. For example, if the Simple intensity is set to 100% and the pixel is twice as far as r, the intensity is 25% (100 % / (2 * 2)). If the pixel is eight times as far way as r, the intensity is 1.5625% (100 % / (8 * 8)). If the pixel is closer than r , the intensity increases approximately with the square of the distance, but will not exceed a maximum value. For example, if the pixel is half as far away as r, the intensity is about 400% (100 % / (0.5 * 0.5)). However, as the pixel gets closer to the light source, the intensity does not increase with the square anymore and is clamped against a maximum value. This will guarantees, that a pixel very close to the light source will not get an unreasonably high illumination and avoids unexpected overexposure in a scene. Square falloff is a physically accurate representation of a light’s il-lumination as long as the pixel intensity is not clamped at a closed range, as described above. Linear Unclamped: This is the same as the Linear Clamped option, with the exception, that the intensity at pixels which are closer than r away from the light source is not clamped. Therefore these pixels may get overexposed easily. If this is not desirable the Linear Clamped op-tion should be used. Square Unclamped: This is the same as the Square Clamped option, with the exception, that the intensity at pixels which are closer than r away from the light source is not clamped. Therefore these pixels may get overexposed easily. If this is not desirable the Square Clamped

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option should be used. Square Unclamped falloff is the physically most accurate representation of a light’s illumination.

When the Accurate intensity option is chosen, the radius or distance parameters of a light are not used to determine the intensity. The Photo-metric or Radiometric intensity in the Accurate Intensity option serves as the basis for the illumination calculation. When rendered, the com-puter screen serves as the photo film in a camera which is exposed by the light source. The film’s sensitivity is set in such a way, that an interior scene with a number of average brightness light bulbs is well exposed. Under and over exposed images can be corrected with the Exposure Correction option. Note, that the Falloff menu is available for both, Simple and Accurate intensity. For a physically accurate exposure, it is necessary to choose the Square Unclamped falloff option. However, to generate visually pleasing images physically accurate illumination is of-ten times not desirable and therefore the Accurate intensity option may very well be combined with different falloff methods.Simple: When this option is selected, the value entered in the Brightness field determines the intensity of the light, expressed as a percentage. While this parameter is entered in the same way for all types of lights, its application to the different types varies, as follows:

Ambient, Distant, Environment: These lights always have a constant intensity and the intensity value is applied uniformly. Point, Custom: When Constant is selected for this light from the Falloff menu, its intensity remains uniform throughout. If a Linear or Square falloff is selected, the value entered in the Simple field is applied to the points of the spherical surface defined by the Location of the origin of the light and the value entered for Radius. The light intensity increases between the spheric surface and the origin of the light. It decreases as it moves away from the spheric surface (at distances from the light origin greater than the Radius). The degree at which the light intensity increas-es or decreases depends on whether Linear or Square falloff has been selected. The distribution for point light is uniform in all directions, while the intensity distribution of a custom light is dependent on the parameters defined in the Intensity Distribution dialog. Cone, Projector: When Constant falloff is selected for these lights, their intensity remains uniform throughout. If Linear or Square is selected, the value entered for Simple is applied at the Center Of Interest. The inten-sity increases between the light’s origin and the center of interest, and decreases beyond the center of interest at a rate dependent on whether Linear or Square falloff has been selected.

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Area, Line: When Constant is selected for these lights from the Falloff pop up menu, their intensity remains uniform throughout. If a Linear or Square falloff is selected, the value entered in the Simple field is applied to all shaded points that have the same distance as the Radius. The light intensity increases between these points and the light source. It decreas-es as it moves away from these points (at distances from the light source greater than Radius). How the light intensity increases or decreases depends on whether Linear or Square falloff is on. Note that when a sur-face is in the area where the intensity of a light increases, there is always a risk of overexposure. If such an effect is not desirable, then a Constant intensity should be used.

Accurate...: When this option is selected, the intensity of the light is described through physically accurate units. The Accurate Intensity parameters are shown in the area below the option. They vary between the different light types. The Accurate Intensity parameters for distant lights are unique. The other seven types of light share similar param-eters. However, the Brightness parameter for cone and point lights can be defined using either lumens or candelas. Only lumens can be used to set the brightness of area, line, environment, and custom lights. Achiev-ing accurate intensity for the different types of lights is discussed in more detail in subsequent sections.

Location tab

This group of options contain the Origin and Center Of Interest of a light. You can also use the dropdown menu to choose light direction By Site, Date, and Time, or by Altitude and Azimuth. These alternate methods of determining light direction allow for solar studies and evalu-ating the shadows cast by an object at cetrtain times of day at different locations on the Earth. There is also a Sun Animation extension under the Extensions menu. The controls for this extension are similar to the Sun settings under the Location tab of a light's dialog. Shadows tab

This group of options specifies if the light casts a shadow and what type of shadow it casts. Shadows are cast when the Shadows box is checked, but additional options in other dialogs need to be set as well, as dis-cussed in detail below. The type of shadow is set in the menu below the Shadows check box:Type: Soft (Mapped), Hard (Raytraced), Hard (Accelerated): When one of these items is selected, shadows are created through shadow maps, raytracing, and a combination of raytracing and shadow maps,

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respectively. In the latter case, shadow maps are used to accelerate the generation of raytraced shadows, which has additional memory require-ments. Transparent: This option is only available when raytraced shadows are generated. When on, a light generates transparent shadows when shin-ing through transparent surfaces. Such shadows take longer to render, even if there are no transparent surfaces in a scene. A rendering can be accelerated by turning this option off, if there are no transparent surfaces visible, or if the light does not illuminate any transparent objects. Re-call that if the Per Light item is chosen from the Shadows menu in the RenderZone Options dialog, the Transparency shadow option in each individual light source is considered. If the All Opaque or All Transpar-ent option is chosen from the menu, the Transparency option for each individual light is overwritten.

In RenderZone, objects in a scene can cast shadows when the z-buffer or raytrace display method is used from the Rendering Type menu in the RenderZone Options dialog. For shadows to be cast, the following parameters must be set properly:

• The shadow attribute of an object must be on. It is on by default when a new object is created.• The shining attribute must be turned on for at least one light (other than ambient lights). This attribute is turned on in the Light Parameters dialog and in the Lights palette. • The Shadows option must be selected for this light in the Light Param-eters dialog, and the type of shadow (Soft (Mapped), Hard (Raytraced) or Hard (Accelerated)) must be selected from the Shadows pop up menu. More than one light can cast shadows at the same time, but only those lights whose shining and shadow parameters are on will. • The Shadows option in the RenderZone Options dialog must be turned on when the RenderZone* command is executed. Recall that this dialog can be invoked directly from the RenderZone* menu item before executing the operation.

When the Soft (Mapped) (default) type of shadows is selected from the Type menu, additional options that affect the quality of the shadow can be selected from the Shadows tab. Shadow casting in general adds a significant amount of computation time to the rendering of a scene. When using soft shadows, the higher the quality of the shadow, the longer it will take to complete the rendering. Consequently, it is generally recom-mended that lower qualities of shadows be used initially and the higher quality shadows be used for a final rendering. Each additional light adds to the time required for a rendering and consumes additional memory.

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In general, soft shadows require significant quantities of memory but are faster than hard shadows.

Quality: A Low, Medium, or High quality of shadow can be selected from this pop up menu. Low quality requires less time and less memory, but may show noticeable jaggies at the perimeter of shadows. High qual-ity shows less jaggies, but requires more time and memory. Softness: This sliding bar controls the smoothness of the edges of the shadows. Zero (0) softness produces the hardest shadow edge, while 100 produces the fuzziest edge. Tolerance: This parameter is used to eliminate self-shadowing artifacts. Note that when the Softness parameter is increased, it is possible that a surface casts shadows on itself. This artifact manifests itself as ran-dom patterns of darker pixels on that surface. Increasing the Tolerance parameter reduces these artifacts. Note, however, that high Tolerance values may cause the shrinking of the area of a shadow. In some cases this will create the effect of an object floating above a plane, although the object is placed directly on the plane.

Resolution: Soft shadows for RenderZone* are generated by producing a shadow map for each of the shadow casting light sources before any rendering occurs. These maps are then used during rendering to deter-mine whether a pixel is in a shadow region or not. Shadow maps can be produced at different sizes (levels of resolution).If the n Times Image Size option is selected, the resolution of the shad-ow map depends on the size of the image at the time the rendering is ex-ecuted. If, for example, the image size is 500 x 500 pixels and a value of 2 is entered, the shadow map is generated at a resolution of 1000 x 1000 pixels. Choosing this option guarantees that the quality of the shadows is the same even if the window is resized between individual renderings. If the m by n Pixels option is selected, the shadow map is created at a fixed resolution, defined by the value entered in the text field. This option guarantees that the memory consumption fo r the shadow map is the same for each rendering, regardless of the image size. However, if the image size is increased, the shadow quality may decrease. Limit Map To: One of three available items can be selected from this pop up menu, which determines whether objects outside the view will cast shadows. This selection affects the size of the shadow maps and the quality of the shadows cast in an indirect way.

All Objects: When this option is selected (default), the shadow map is generated for all the objects in the project that cast shadows, even those

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that are completely out of the view.All Completely Visible Faces: When this option is selected, only the faces which are entirely visible in the screen are used to determine the shadow map. All Completely Visible Objects: When this option is selected, only the shadow casting objects that are completely visible in the displayed view will be used to calculate the shadow map. The last two options can increase the crispness and quality of the shadows significantly, but will produce inaccurate shadows whenever objects that are not visible in the window cast shadows on objects that are visible.

Warnings: As already noted, soft shadows are generated by produc-ing a shadow map before any rendering is executed. This shadow map includes all the objects that are set to cast shadows, regardless of whether or not they actually do. For example, a more or less flat ground plane with the sun above it does not produce any shadows, even though it accepts shadows from other objects that may be sitting on it. If such a ground object is significantly larger than the objects that actually cast shadows, a shadow map which is calculated at the size of the screen will only contain a small portion of shadows. If a close up rendering containing only the smaller objects that cast shadows is produced, the shadows will be fuzzy. This is because the small portion of the shadow map that contains the shadows is magnified to (possibly) fill the screen. This causes the edges of the shadows to lose their crispness. To avoid this, when a scene contains objects such as ground planes that do not cast shadows, the shadow attribute of these objects should be turned off. In general, crisp soft shadows are achieved when the size of the shadow map is close to the size of the rendering. For crisper shadows, you should avoid objects which either do not cast shadows or which are outside the view and therefore cast shadows which will not be visible. This will not only produce crisper shadows, but it will also render faster. These considerations should be made in conjunction with the Limit Map To options. If there are objects outside the view that do not cast shadows on visible objects, then the All Completely Visible Faces or All Completely Visible Objects option should be selected. This will result in smaller shadow maps and thus crisper shadows. The shadow maps used for the generation of Soft shadows can be very memory intensive, and should be used conservatively if your machine has a relatively limited amount of memory. For each pixel in a shadow map, 4 bytes of storage is required. For example, a shadow map of 500 x 500 pixels requires 1 Megabyte of memory. Assuming a constant shadow map size, cone and projector lights generate the best shadow quality, compared to the distant, point, and custom lights. Point and custom light

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shadow maps have the highest memory requirements, which is six times more than that required for cone, projector, or distant lights. Given that a separate shadow map needs to be produced for each light, using too many shadow-casting lights increases the risk of running out of memory. Note that area and line lights do not offer the option to use shadow maps. They only cast raytraced shadows.

Hard (Raytraced) shadows do not use shadow maps, but rather ray tracing procedures. Distant, point, custom, cone, and projector lights produce crisp raytraced shadows. Area and line lights create soft raytraced shadows. Their memory requirements are minimal, but they generally require more processing time.

Hard (Accelerated) shadows are raytraced but also use shadow maps to speed up the raytracing procedures. Their memory requirements are the same as soft shadows.

The type of shadow used in a rendering scene depends on the effects a user wishes to achieve. Shadows are attributes of the light, and their type is set independently for each light, which allows you to mix the two

Soft (Mapped) shadows: (a) A scene with a huge ground object. (b) The part that will be rendered. (c) When large ground object casts

shadow, shadow quality is poor. (d) Turning off shadow attribute of large ground object produces crisp shadow

a

c

b

d

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types of shadows within the same rendering scene.

Parameters tab

Lens Flare: This option determines whether the light is able to cause lens flares during the RenderZone postprocess lens flare operation, which is discussed in the corresponding section if the RenderZone manual. Glow: When this option is on, the light displays a glowing volume when rendered in the z-buffer and raytrace rendering modes. It is discussed in more detail in the RenderZone manual.

Glow Options...: This button invokes the Glow Options dialog, this is iscussed in detail in the RenderZone manual.

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Drawing guides and pointsThe Guides suite of tools (top row, right column) contains two tools intended to support snap139ping.

Draw Guide

You use this tool to generate a permanent guide, as has already been mentioned in the Snapping section. With the tool active, you click on the reference plane. A black dashed line is rubber banded and follows the motion of the mouse. A second click completes the generation of the guide, which is placed on the active layer.

Recall that permanent guide lines can be picked, moved, rotated, and deleted. They are also saved with the project.

Draw Point

A point is a special type of an object that is primarily used as a marker and for snapping. Points are displayed as bullets. While they have no physical volume or dimensions, they have all the other characteristics of objects and they can be picked, moved, deleted, etc.

To generate a point, with the tool active, click where you want the point to be created. It appears immediately and is placed on the active layer.

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Drawing ObjectsThere are a number of tools in form•Z that create objects through in-teractive drawing in the project window. These tools are found in the Draw and the Generate suites of tools. While both suites create objects through graphic interaction, they work a bit differently. We discuss the Draw suite here and the Create suite in another section.

The Draw tools create objects by graphically (or numerically) drawing a base shape. From this base shape a variety of object types can be generated, which depends on the object type selected from the Draw tool palette. The shapes drawn can produce independent new objects or they can be used to modify existing objects.

Each Draw tool offers different drawing methods.

, Rectangle, Polygon,

, , Circle, , Ellipse:

All these tools create exclusively closed shapes that are drawn on a single plane. They require a fixed number of clicks to complete the shape.

Vector Line,

, , , Spline,

, , , Arc:

These tools are used to draw either open or closed shapes. With them you draw continuously until a shape is closed or terminated as an open shape. You can close a shape in three different ways: by returning and drawing to the first point, by pressing the character “c” on the keyboard, or by triple-clicking. You can terminate an open shape in two ways: by pressing “e” or by double clicking.

The open shape drawing tools are compatible with each other and they can be changed as you draw. For example, you can start drawing with the Vector Line tool, then switch to the Arc tool, then to a Spline tool, etc. The resulting shape is a composite type. These shapes can also be drawn on different 3D locations (not positioned on the same plane), which makes it possible to create non-planar shapes.

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All the Draw tools create shapes by clicking in the project window. The drawing is relative to the active reference plane, as discussed in the previous section, or relative to an object part to which the cursor may be snapped. Snapping is discussed in a previous section.

When working in a shaded view (Shaded Work or Shaded Full items in the Display menu), drawing can be performed on the visible faces of existing objects. When the cursor is positioned on a face of an object, a temporary reference plane, called a face reference plane, is automati-cally defined from the face of the object. A grid is displayed on the face plane and all drawing occurs on the face reference plane. What is drawn on a face reference plane may become an independent shape or may be inserted to the face.

Options of the Draw tools

The tool options for all of the Draw tools share a common object type section. This contains six icons representing six types:

2D: When this type is selected, the shape remains as it was drawn. That is, the base shape is the final object. If the shape is closed and planar, then a surface object is created. If the shape is non-planar or has open ends, then a wire object is created.

2D Wall: When this type is selected, a double line is created from the base shape. 2D walls are always surface objects. The wall justifica-tion and width are set in the tool options palette.

3D Extrusion: When this type is selected, the base shape is extruded perpendicular to the base shape to form a 3D solid object. Once the base shape is drawn, the height of the extrusion is interactively defined. It follows the motion of the mouse until one more click sets the height and completes the extrusion.

3D Extrusion to Point: This type works as the 3D extrusion ex-cept that the extrusion converges to a point rather than being in a parallel direction.

3D Wall: This type first creates a 2D wall, which it then extrudes, producing a 3D wall.

Opening: This type always affects an existing object as opposed to generating an independent entity. For this type drawing must be done on a face of an existing object.

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Examples of all six types are shown below:

The Insert option in the tool options palette for the Draw tools deter-mines whether an existing object will be modified. When it is on and the drawing occurs on a face of an existing object, the drawn shape is inserted into the original object. When this option is off, a new object is created. If the drawing does not start on a face of an existing object, the Insert option is ignored and a new object is created. The cursor shows if an insertion will occur or not. It displays a plus sign ( ) when the insert option is on and the cursor is positioned on a face.

Examples of insertions are shown below: (a) The original object. (b) With the 2D type on, a single line is drawn and inserted. (c) With 2D on again, a rectangle is drawn and inserted. (d) With 3D Extrusion on, the same rectangle is drawn first and then a height is defined with an additional mouse click. (e) Everything is as in (d) except that the height is now set in a nega-tive direction and the extruded volume is subtracted rather than being added to the original object. (f) With 3D Extrusion on, a rectangle that extends beyond the bounds of the face is drawn and then a negative height is defined. In this exam-ple a rectangle can either be drawn on the top face or the front face, both producing the same result.

As illustrated above, the insertion works in conjunction with the object type. That is, inserting with the 2D type on inserts the new shape into the original face, while inserting with the 3D Extrusion type adds or removes material from the original object. The 3D Extrusion, 3D Extrusion to Point and 3D Wall types all add or remove material from an object. For these types their tool options palettes contain a few options that control if material is added or removed, and whether edges and material assign-ments are kept.

The types of objects that can be generated.

Examples of insertions.

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Cut and Fill: If the 3D object is drawn upward (away from) the base face, material is added to the object. If the object is drawn downward (into) the base face, material is removed (cut out).

Cut: This method always removes (cuts) material from the object regardless of the direction from the base face.

Keep Edges: This option affects what happens to edges of faces that are co-planar with the inserted geometry. By default these edges are removed. This option can be enabled to keep these edges as they may be useful for further modeling steps.

How insertions are affected by insertion options: (a) Original object. Volume is drawn with height (top) up and (bottom:) down.

Using (b) Cut and Fill, (c) Cut, and (d) Fill.

The Keep Edges option:(a) Original object.

Option is (b) on and (c) off.

Fill: This method always adds material to the object regardless of the direction from the base face.

Keep Material: This option determines the material that is applied to the newly created faces. When this option is on, the material of the face being inserted into is used. When this option is off, the active material is used. This option is on by default.

Height: This field may perform two different tasks. When Dynamic is off, the height of a 3D object is preset and takes the value in this field. When Dynamic is on and the height is entered interactively, after it is entered its value is displayed in this field. When preset height is used, a value for the height can also be picked from the pop-up menu next to Height.

Source Object: These parameter fields appear in the tool options palette as soon as the drawing of an object has been completed. They represent the dimensions of the base shape and they can be used to change them while the object is in edit mode.

Insert menu: This is active when Insert is on.

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Options of the Polygon tool

At the top of the Polygon tool options palette are the options common to all the drawing tools. They are followed by more options unique to polygons.

The Polygon Drawing popup menu contains three items that affect how the polygon is drawn: With Center & Radius (default) the first point defines the center and the second the size of its radius. With Diameter both points are on the polygon’s circumference. X, Y. Dimensions is as Diameter except that the X,Y of the second point are inter-preted independently. The Construct Though popup menu contains two items: Point places a point at the sec-ond click. Segment places a segment.

The Edges group offers two methods for setting the resolution of a polygon: By # and By Size Of Segments. For By #, you can type the number of segments in its field or pick one of the icons. For By Size you type the desired segment size in its field. Note that the ultimate size of the segments will de-pend on the size of the polygon.

The Pattern group, when checked, generates a variety of extensions to the sides of a polygon, the exact shape of which depends on the pattern and options selected. A few examples are shown to the right, but the best approach will be to experiment and uncover the different pattern variations that can be generated.

The Polygon Tool Options palette.

A few patterned polygons that can be generated by the Polygon tool.

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Appending to open wires

a b c

(a) A vector line is first drawn. (b) Starting at an end point of the vector line, an arc is drawn, which connects.

(c) Again, starting at an end point of the previous shape a spline is drawn, which also ends at the other end point of the

previous shape. At the end, all three lines have been connected to one closed shape.

When using the 2D method with any of the continuous drawing tools the insert option can be used to append new shapes to existing open wire objects. When the cursor is positioned at the end of an existing open wire object, the cursor includes a plus sign to indicate that the new shape will be appended to the exist-ing shape. See illustration.

Modifying results

When a drawing operation results in a new object (i.e. no insertion oc-curred), the result object is shown in orange and graphic controls be-come visible. This indicates that its parameters can be modified. The on screen controls can be graphically edited at this point to change the shape. Many settings in the tool options can also be changed at this time. Clicking away from the controls will start the drawing for the next object and the recently drawn object will no longer appear in orange and the controls will disappear.

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PickingThere are two pick tools in form•Z:

Pick and Area Pick.

These tools allow you to select objects, object parts, lights, guides, and other graphic entities in a project window. Picking serves two main purposes: (1) Selecting one or more entities so that an operation may be applied to them. (2) Selecting an entity so that its attributes and parameters may be shown and edited.

Prepicking and postpicking

In form•Z, entities can be picked with one of the pick tools or directly with one of the other tools that apply operations to entities. When a pick tool is used to pick one or more entities and then another modeling tool is activated and applied to the picked entities is called the prepick method. When a modeling tool is used directly to both pick an entity and apply an operation is called the postpick method. Which method is preferable depends on the circumstances.

For a prepick example, with the Pick tool select one or more objects. Then activate the Move tool and click once to start moving and one more time to end moving. Notice that, after ending the move, the objects remain highlighted. Alternatively, the postpick method can be used. Activate the Move tool directly and with it click on an object to start the move. Then click again at another location in the project window to end the move. Notice that, in this case, the object is not highlighted after the operation is completed. We discuss a bit later how to postpick more than one object.

Previewing the picks

When form•Z expects a pick, moving the cursor over an entity will draw the entity in a dimmed version of the highlight color (by default pale red). This will give you a preview of what would be picked if you were to click at this point. This is referred to as preview picking. Once clicked, the picked entity is drawn in the full highlight color. When moving the cursor over an already picked entity, the pale preview highlight is drawn as a dashed line on top of the full highlight.

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Pick previews can be done with both pick tools and the other modeling tools. While the pick tools will preview all the pickable entities, each modeling tool is programmed to pick preview only the entities that are acceptable to its particular operation. For example, a roof is only generated from a closed, flat face of an object and cannot be generated from a complete solid. When previewing picks with the Roof tool, it will only highlight the flat faces of objects.

When activating a tool with one or more entities prepicked and some of these entities are not suitable for the operation, the offending entities are automatically removed from the picked set. For example, the Reshape tool only works on planar faces. If you prepick two planar and two spherical faces with the Pick tool and you then activate the Reshape tool, the spherical faces will be unpicked.

Picking complete versus parts of objectForm•Z allows you to pick entire objects or parts of objects and is affected by the Topological Level icons found in its Tool Options palette. The first icon on the far left is Auto Pick.

When the Pick tool and the Auto Pick topological level are active, moving the cursor over an object highlights the entire object and clicking at that point will select the entire object. To select a face, curve, segment, or point of an object you need to move the cursor over the object part you want to pick and press the command key (Macintosh) or ctrl key (Windows). This will change the preview pick from the object to the object part you are pointing to. For example, if the cursor is directly over a segment, that segment will be picked and highlighted. If the cursor is over a face, not close to a segment, the face will be highlighted, etc. Clicking with the command/ctrl key down will pick the highlighted object part.

The seven icons to the right of Auto Pick correspond to Point, Segment, Segment Sequence, Outline, Face, Hole, and Object. Selecting one of these icons tells form•Z exactly what to pick when you place the cursor and click over a respective entity.

It generally takes one click to pick an entity at any topological level. However, faces, outlines and holes can also be optionally picked with two edge clicks. This is controlled by the 2 Click Face/Outline Selection in the Edit menu, which is, by default, off for Shaded rendering and on for Wire Frame. The 2-click method picks faces with both the Auto Pick and Face topological levels. For outlines and holes it only works with the Outline and Hole topological levels, respectively.

Pick Tool Options palette.

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Moving and copying with the Pick tool

The Pick Tool Options palette contains two options that allow you to execute a move and a copy operations with the Pick tool.

Allow Drag: when on, you can click and drag an entity (complete object or part) to move it to another location, without resorting to the Move tool.

Allow Copy: When on and you click and drag an entity while pressing the option (Macintosh) or alt (Windows) key, a copy is dragged and placed at the final position of the mouse.

Pick parade

Frequently, a part of an object may belong to more than one topological level. For example, a hole is also part of a face, which in turn belongs to a complete object. Thus placing the cursor on a point and clicking on it could potentially pick any of the above entities and the program has no way of knowing the intention of the user. In such cases the ability to parade through all the choices while previewing the possible picks is available. When the desired entity is highlighted, clicking selects that entity.

To parade over all the possible picks, place the cursor over the object part, then hit and release the tab key. The next best object part will be highlighted. Hitting the tab key repeatedly will cycle through all the choices available. When you see the entity you want to pick, clicking will select it.

Picking multiple entities

By default, clicking on an entity (with or without the command/ ctrl key pressed) that is not picked, selects just that entity. Other entities, that may have been picked will be deselected. If an entity is already picked and you click on it again, nothing will happen.

If you want to pick more than one entity, hold the shift key down, and click on additional entities that are not already picked. Clicking on an already picked entity, while pressing the shift key, deselects that entity. Whether an object will be added or removed is indicated with a “-” or “+” sign next to the cursor while the shift key is pressed.

Whether the shift key is required or not for multi-picking is controlled by the Use Shift Key For Multiple Pick option in the Project : Modeling : General tab of the Preferences dialog that can be invoked from the form•Z menu (Windows) or the Edit menu (Macintosh). This option is on by default. If turned off, you will be able to multi-pick without having to press shift.

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Picking sets

Many tools can only be applied to single objects. In these cases, using the postpick method, with the tool active, you just click on an object. Many other operations require more than one operands and frequently the number of operands may vary. For example, the loft operation, can generate a lofted object from a minimum of two shapes or it can generate an object from a larger number of shapes. Each tool knows what is the minimum number of objects it requires. When the minimum number is used, the operands can be picked directly. When more than the minimum number are used, they have to be picked as sets. Following is how you pick a set:

• Activate the tool you wish to apply.

• With the shift key pressed, pick objects. The cursor will show the “+” sign next to it, indicating that more objects can be added to the set.

• After the last object of the set is picked, release the shift key, move the cursor away from any pickable object, and click. After shift is released, the cursor shows a red star indicating that the next click will finish the set.

You have just completed picking a set. If the tool needs another object to be picked, if you intend to use the minimum number required, you just click on the object(s). If you intend to use more than the minimum requirement, you have to pick another set, as you did above.

If a tool is activated with one or more objects already picked, they are considered to comprise set one. No more objects can be added to set one, using postpick. Postpicking will proceed for the selection of the objects in set two, as before. That is, with shift pressed, click on the objects of set two, then release shift and click away from any pickable object. The operation will be executed as soon as you click.

Another example of an operation that is often used with just two operands and is often also used with multiple operands is the Boolean Difference. When applied to just two objects, they are picked directly and there is no need to pick sets of objects using shift. In contrast, when a number of objects have to be subtracted from a number of other objects simultaneously, these two groups of objects have to be picked as sets, using the shift key.

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Area picking

The Pick tool can also be used to execute area picking, more specifically called frame picking, as it always uses a rectangle to pick. To frame pick, you click on an empty area of the screen and drag. Which entities are picked depends on the selection from the Frame popup menu.

Off disables the frame picking. Inside Only pick only the entities that are completely contained in the rectangular frame. Crossing Left-Right picks all the entities that are contained and also the entities the frame crosses when it is drawn from left to right. Crossing Right-Left is exactly the opposite for crossing entities. Crossing Always picks all the entities it contains and it crosses regardless of the direction in which it is drawn.

The drawing of the picking frame can also start by clicking on a non-empty area of the screen, if the shift key is pressed.

In addition to area picking using the Pick tool, there is a special tool, the Area Pick tool, which allows you to area pick multiple entities using variable shapes. This tool can pick at any topological level, which is selected from its Tool Options palette.

The area to be picked may be outlined with one of three shapes: Rectangle, Lasso, or Polygon. This is selected from its Options palette. The default is the rectangle.

The Pick Crossing option determines whether the entities to be picked should be completely enclosed by the drawn area shape, or whether it will suffice to be crossed by the shape. By default this option is off, which means that the entities need to be completely enclosed.

The Select/Deselect option determines whether the objects or parts of objects identified by the drawn shape are added to or removed from the entities that are already picked.

Area Pick Tool Options palette.

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Changing attributes and parameters with the Pick tool

The attributes and parameters of the picked entities are displayed in the Tool Options palette, which consists of up to four tabs, as follows:

Selection: This tab contains information about how many entities are currently selected.

Attributes: If one or more objects or faces are selected, this tab shows the value of the object or face attributes. For example, it shows whether an object casts shadows or not in the check box Casts Shadows. Clicking in the check box turns the attribute on or off for all selected objects. If some of the objects selected had this attribute set to on and others off, the check box shows a “-” indicating that the attribute varies among the selected entities. The same principle applies to all attribute values shown in this tab. The tab is further organized in attribute categories, which can be selected from the menu at the top of the tab.

Information: This tab contains more information about the selected objects or faces, such as the object type, the origin, and rotation of the object. If more than one object is selected, the information is cumulative.

Parameters: If only one object is picked and the object is a controlled object, its parameter values are shown in this tab. Changing a value will automatically update the object. If entities other than objects are picked, this tab will not be shown.

When multiple objects of the same type are selected and no objects of any other type are selected, the parameters of the objects are displayed and can be edited. When a parameter is the same among the selected objects, then that value is shown in the normal fashion. When a parameter is changed, it is applied to all of the selected entities.

If a parameter is different between any two objects, then it is displayed differently to indicate that there are multiple values present. Text field parameters (usually numbers) are displayed as “[multiple]”. Check boxes and radio button type parameters are shown with a slash through them.

For example: When two cubes of the same height but different length and width are selected, the length and width appear as “[multiple]”. The height displayed is the height of the two objects as they are the same. Changing the value in the length and width parameters will yield two cubes with the same dimensions.

A Parameters tab is also available when NURBS curves or surfaces are selected with the Pick tool. The tab displays the NURBS degree,

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the number of control points, and the closure status. Entering a higher number in the degree field can raise the degree of the curve. This is standard degree elevation without reconstruction. For the surfaces, the NURBS degrees, the number of control points, and the closure status are displayed for both the U and V directions. Entering a higher number in the corresponding degree field can raise the U or V degree of the surface. This again is standard degree elevation without reconstruction.

Modifying objects while being generated or edited

Most modeling tools offer the user parameters in the Tool Options palette that guide the generation or editing of objects. After such a tool is executed, the new or edited objects are drawn in an orange highlight color. This indicates that the parameters in the Tool Options palette still affect the object. If the user types a new value for one of the parameters, the highlighted objects are regenerated with the new parameter.

For example, activate the Revolve tool and pick a source shape and an axis of revolution. The operation is executed using the current parameters in the Tool Options palette. The new object is now shown in the orange highlight color. If you now type a new value for the Angle Of Revolution parameter, the object is rebuilt immediately to reflect the new angle.

In addition, if the tool creates a parametric object, the object controls are shown right away (see On Screen Controls). The user may graphically edit the object parameters using the on screen controls. Note, however, that controls are only shown when the tool creates a single new object. For example, if you pick several 2D shapes with the Pick tool and you then activate the Extrusion tool and you generate ten new objects, they are all shown in the highlight color and they can be further numerically edited, but no controls are shown.

Objects that were just created or edited and are drawn in the orange highlight color may also be deleted by pressing the delete key.

If the tool is deactivated or executed again, the controls of the object are removed and it is no longer drawn in the highlight color. You may also clear the orange highlights any time by clicking on the Deselect command in the Edit menu, by pressing option + tab (Macintosh) or ctrl + tab (Windows), or by hitting the esc key.

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On screen controlsform•Z makes extensive use of on screen controls to modify objects, textures and other entities.

Many objects, such as spheres, cubes, and extruded shapes maintain their generation parameters. They are called controlled objects. Their control parameters may be shown on the screen through simple graphic controls, which allow the user to edit the shape of the object. For example, an extruded object shows an arrow for the extrusion height. Clicking in the arrow tip interactively changes the height of the extrusion by dragging the cursor along the arrow direction.

Object controls are shown right away when the object is created. For example, drawing a sphere shows its controls after the interactive generation is completed. The user may now refine the shape by using the on screen controls. Leaving the generation tool turns the controls off.

Object controls may be turned on and off with the Pick, Pick Part, or Area Pick tools. For example, after a sphere was drawn, activate the Pick tool. This will remove the sphere’s controls. Now pick the sphere and click on the Show Controls button at the bottom of the Tool Options palette. This will turn the controls on for all selected objects. The controls will stay enabled until they are specifically turned off again by clicking on the Hide Controls button.

Most tools have no use for object controls. For example, after turning object controls on with the Pick tool, you switch to the Boolean Union tool, the controls will be hidden, as they have no meaning for this tool. Switching back to the Pick tool will show the controls again.

There are two types of controls: free moveable point controls and constrained controls, such as arrows. These are manipulated in different ways.

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Constrained controls

After the object controls are enabled with the Pick tool, the user may click in the “hot spot” of the control. This is indicated by the editable part of the control turning to the highlight color (red), when the cursor rolls over the part. For example, the extrusion height control consists of an arrow, starting from a base point, along a line, with a tip at the end. The tip is the hot spot. Clicking in the hot spot starts the interactive editing. In this case the tip is moved along the arrow direction, defining a new height. Clicking a second time ends the interactive editing. This method allows for only one such control to be edited at a time.

Picking such a control also automatically selects the object to which it belongs and the object’s parameters are shown in the Parameters tab of the Tool Options palette. While the control is manipulated, the corresponding parameter in the palette is highlighted and its value is updated. For example, the height value of an extruded object is updated in the Parameters tab, as the height is changed through the control. Typing a value while the control is edited and hitting the tab or return key will end the control editing and use the typed value instead. This allows for a combination of graphic and numeric editing without having to move the mouse into a specific text field to activate it.

Free moveable point controls

Like the constraint controls, these have a hot spot, which highlights when the mouse is moved over it. Clicking on it starts moving the point parallel to the current reference plane. Hitting and releasing the command key (Mac) or ctrl key (Windows) switches the direction to/from the perpendicular direction of the reference plane. A second click ends moving the point, which remains selected. Unlike constraint controls, multiple controls can be picked by holding down the shift key. This is the same method as picking multiple objects, except that shift needs to be pressed even for the first of several points that will be picked. Free moveable points are used primarily as the controls of spline curves and surfaces and end points of lines and arcs.

Free moveable point controls can also be modified with the Move, Rotate, Scale, and Mirror tools, as well as the Delete tool. For example, you may pick several control points of a spline curve with the Pick tool. Then switch to the Move tool. You notice that the controls are still shown. Now move the controls by clicking a start and end point.

As with picking objects, if there are multiple controls on top of each other, they can be toggled by placing the cursor over the controls and then hitting the tab key. With each key stroke, the next control is highlighted. After the desired control is reached, the mouse is clicked to select the control.

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The Geometry tab of the Select By Criteria palette.

Selecting by criteriaYou can select groups of entities by specifying certain criteria for picking them. This is done through the Select By Criteria palette, which you in-voke from the Palettes menu, by clicking on the Select By Criteria item.

The Select By Criteria palette offers methods for selecting groups of model-ing objects that share common characteristics. The palette offers a list of selection Sets, on its left side, and groups of Selection Criteria, on its right side, organized in three tabs: Geometry, Attributes, and Rendering.

The selection sets list, displays one or more sets, which means that mul-tiple selection sets can be defined. These sets are saved with the project. A selection set is a group of selection criteria. One of the selection sets is highlighted and is called the current set. The criteria for the current set are highlighted in the right portion of the dialog. Clicking on a different item in the selection set list, makes it the new current set and the highlighted criteria on the right side of the palette are updated. Changes made to the criteria are applied to the current set. Under the Set list are three buttons: New ( ), Copy ( ), and Delete ( ).

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: New: Clicking on this button creates a new selection set, which is initially empty and becomes the current set. Selecting criteria while the new set is the current set, applies them to the new set.

: Copy: When this button is pressed, a new selection set is created and the criteria of the current set are copied to the new set. The new set becomes the current set.

: Delete: When this button is pressed, the current set is deleted and the next set in the list becomes the current set. When only one selection set remains in the list, the Delete button is disabled.

The Selection Criteria on the right consist of a number of groups of criteria in three tabs. When you select a non-empty set from the Sets list, the criteria it contains will be highlighted on the right and the respective group will be checked. You can add and delete criteria while a set is ac-tive. When the active set is a new set and contains no criteria, you need to define its criteria. To select a criterion in one of the groups, you first need to check the group itself. Then you can click on as many criteria as you wish. When you click on a criterion it will be highlighted and once the selection criteria have been set you can actually execute the selec-tion. Note that the selection sets are independent for each project. Thus changing their content for one project does not affect other projects.

The selection is executed by button commands at the lower end of the Select By Criteria palette, where there are also a few options that complement the process:

Apply To Unghosted, Apply To Ghosted: These options apply the se-lection criteria to all unghosted or ghosted objects, respectively, or both of them, if both are checked.

Clicking on the All button selects all the categories and all the criteria in each category, which will effectively result in a global selection. Clicking on None does the reverse; it clears all the selections, resulting in no pick.

Clear And Pick: Pressing on this button clears all previous selections and picks new objects according to the criteria in the selection set.

Add To Pick: Pressing on this button maintains the already selected objects and adds new ones, as specified by the selection set.

Remove From Pick: This button deselects rather than selecting. When pressed, objects that match the criteria in the selection set are unpicked.

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The groups under the Geometry tab are Topology Types, Object Types, Components, Model Types, and # Of Faces. The latter contains Min and Max fields, which specify a range between which the number of faces of an object must be to be selected.

The Attributes tab contains groups labeled Material, Layer, Name, and Attributes In Use.

When Name is selected, fur-ther clarification is required and one or more of Object, Object Group, Material, Layer, Layer Group, or Component must also be checked. Also, a name may not be a complete name but a partial string of a name and its position within a match-ing name needs to be speci-fied with a selection from the Which popup menu: Contains, Starts With, Ends With, Is, Is Not, or Does Not Contain.

The Rendering tab contains Smooth Shading, Facetted Objects, Smooth Objects, Shadows, Rendering Backdrop, Render As Wire Frame, Render As Surface, Receives Ambient Occlusion, and Causes Ambient Occlusion criteria. They all contain sub options that need to be matched for an object to be picked. For example, for Shadows, it will pick objects that cast or do not cast and objects that receive or do not receive shadows, depending which options are checked for this group.

Attributes tab of the Select By Criteria palette.

Rendering tab of the Select By Criteria palette.

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Selection setsA selection set is an entity that contains information about selected objects. They are handled through the Selection Sets palette, which is initially empty, but gets filled as sets are defined.

a

b

The Selection Sets palette (a) empty and (b) with sets defined

and its context menu displayed.

To define a selection set, first use the Pick tool and select as many objects you wish to be pickable as a set. Then, in the Selection Sets palette, click on the Add ( ) button to generate a set. The program defaults a name, but you can type your own. The information about the picked objects is automatically placed in the newly generated se-lection set. To confirm this, unpick the objects and click in the palette, to the left of the name of the se-lection set. A check mark appears and the objects are selected. Then click on the checkmark again. The check mark disappears and the objects are deselected.

Clicking on the Open ( ) button invokes a context menu, as shown. Its commands are analogous to those found in context manuals of other list palettes. The context menu can be invoked by right clicking anywhere inside the Selection Sets palette.

Selection sets are practically useful when an operation requires the se-lection of many entities. Placing them in a selection set allows you to pick them with a single click, next time you need them. For example, the Ter-rain Model tool requires the selection of many contour lines to be picked before picking the site. Placing the contours in a selection set allows you to execute the operation with two clicks.

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Generating primitivesThe Generate suite contains tools with which you can generate what are known as primitive solid or surface shapes. These are the cube, cylinder, cone, sphere, and torus. Except for the cube, these are smooth objects. This suite also contains tools to generate paraboloids, single and double hyperboloids, hyperbolic paraboloids, a tool to generate a variety of fac-etted spherical objects, a tool to generate 3D stars, and a billboard tool. The spherical objects include the Platonic solids, a soccer ball, a geode-sic sphere, and a revolved sphere

All the objects generated by the tools in this suite, as soon as they are generated they remain in edit mode and their parameters can be further manipulated either interactively or by changing values in the fields dis-played in their tool palette.

CubeThis tool generates a cube using one of three methods that is selected from its tool options palette.

Preset: With this method, one click generates a cube at the click lo-cation. Its dimensions are determined by the values in the Width, Depth, The Cube tool options palette.and Height fields of its tool palette.

Diagonal: This method (default) requires two clicks to draw a rect-angle and one more click to specify the cube's height.

Axial: This method requires four clicks. The first and second clicks draw one side of the base of the cube and the third complete the base rectangle. The fourth specifies its height.

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The Cone tool options palette.

Cone

This tool generates a cone using one of five methods.

Preset: With this method, a cone is generated with one click. Its dimensions are determined by the val-ues in the Radius X, Radius Y, and Height fields of its tool palette.

Radius: This method (default) requires two clicks to draw the ra-dius of a circle and one more click to specify the cone's height.

Diagonal: This method again requires two clicks to draw the diago-nal of a circle. A third click specifies its height.

3 Points: This method requires three clicks to specify three points of a circle and a fourth click to specify the cone's height.

Ellipse: This method uses four clicks. The first click determines a center, the second one of the axes of an ellipse, the third the other axis of the ellipse, and the fourth the height of a cone with an elliptic base.

When Truncated Cone is on, after the basis of the cone is drawn, a cylinder is rubber banded when defining the height, and one more click is required to specify the size of the top face. This size is also reflected in the Top Is field of the tool options palette, where it is expressed as a per-centage of the size of the base. This value can also be entered numeri-cally, when the cone is still in edit mode.

After the initial generation of the cone is complete, the Closure options appear in the tool options palette. The cone can be partial rather than a complete revolution of 360°. This can be done by manipulating the con-trols that appear while it is in edit mode or by typing values in the Start and End fields. If the cone is partial, then the Closure icons determine what type of an object is generated. The first icon ( ) generates a surface object, the second ( ) and third ( ) generate two variations of solids. The former connects the two open edges. The latter connects each open edge to the axis of the cone. The second option is the default.

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The Cylinder tool options palette.

Cylinder

This tool generates a cylinder using one of five methods, which are identi-cal to those for the cone. In general all the options in the Cylinder tool options palette are similar to those for the cone, except that there are no pro-visions for a truncated object, which is unique to the cone.

Sphere

This tool generates spheres and its options are quite similar to those for the cone and cylinder. The first four drawing methods do not require a height specification. The fifth (Ellipse) does. There is also a sixth method called 4 Points, with which a sphere is defined from four points.

Partial spheres can also be generated and they can be partial in either the Horizontal or the Vertical dimension, or both.

Torus

This tool generates toruses and its options are again similar to those for the cone and cylinder. The difference is that, instead for specifying a height, for the torus you specify the radius of the small circle. Partial toruses can also be generated and they can be partial in either the Horizontal or the Vertical dimension, or both.

The Torus tool options palette.

The Sphere tool options palette.

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Paraboloid

This tool generates a paraboloid solid or surface using one of the five standard methods of drawing. After its initial generation, it remains with its controls, which can be used to further manipulate its shape, including trans-forming it to a surface and/or generat-ing a partial paraboloid. Examples are shown below.

The Single Hyperboloid tool options palette.

The Paraboloid tool options palette.

Paraboloids.

Single Hyperboloid

This tool generates a solid or surface single hyperboloid using one of the standard drawing methods. After its initial generation its controls can be used to further manipulate its shape or to generate a partial shape. Examples are shown below.

Single hyperboloids.

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Double Hyperboloid

This tool generates a double hyper-boloid using one of five methods. It can be a solid or surface object. I can consist of two or one volume depend-ing on whether the Half Only option is off or on, respectively. It can be a complete volume or its controls can be used to generate a partial shape. Examples are shown below.

The Double Hyperboloid tool options palette.

The Hyperbolic Paraboloid tool options palette.

Hyperbolic Paraboloid

This tool generates a hyperbolic paraboloid, which is always a surface. It has a rectangular projection, thus its drawing methods are analogous to those for drawing rectangles. Preset: This method generates a shape with a single click, according to the values set in its options palette.

Diagonal: With this method the rect-angular outline is always drawn paral-lel to the axes of the reference plane and is defined by entering two of its corner points.

Three Points: With this method the rectangular outline is drawn with three points, which allows it to be oriented in any direction.

Examples are shown to the right.

Double hyperboloids.

Hyperbolic paraboloids.

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The Spherical tool options palette.

Spherical Object

This tool generates the set of Platonic solids (tetrahedron, hexahedron, octa-hedron, dodecahedron, icosahedron), soccer balls, geodesic spheres, and revolved spheres. These are all facet-ted objects and are generated using exactly the same drawing methods as the Sphere. The type of spheri-cal object to be generated is selected from the Shape pop up menu. See the examples of the different types.

Spherical objects.The geodesic spheres can be of different densities, which is set through the Geodesic group of options in the tool options palette. The density can be specified using either the # Of Subdivisions or the Edge Size method.

Star

This tool generates 3D stars using a Platonic solid as a base, which is selected from the Base Type pop-up menu. The size of the star can be set in a Dynamic mode or by using a Pre-set value. Both can be selected from the tool options palette.

The Star tool options palette.

Stars.

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Billboard

This tool generates a special type of object that is a rectangular surface with an image (texture) mapped on it. It takes its dimensions from the size of the image. This image and its dimensions are displayed in the tool's options palette from where another image can also be selected. To do so, click on the Open Dialog icon ( ) in the options palette, to invoke the Billboard dialog. Click Load and select the image file you wish.

As soon as you activate the Billboard tool, a billboard image appears at the position of the cursor and moves about as the cursor moves. Click-ing on the screen places a billboard. How exactly it is placed depends on whether On Plane, Perpendicular To Plane, or Align With View is selected and the values entered in the param-eter fields of these options.

Which point of the rectangle of the billboard is placed at the click point depends on the Cursor Position option selected in the tool options palette. In the palette, you can also change the dimensions of the billboard object or set a scale for placing it.

Once created, a billboard object behaves as a regular object; it can be moved, rotated, scaled, copied, de-leted, etc. Note that a billboard object can also be constructed by explicitly mapping a texture to a previously generated surface. This tool makes its creation much easier and automatic. Once generated, its most frequent use is as a background image to some modeling scene.

The Billboard tool options palette.

Billboards placed on the (a) XY and (b) ZX reference planes, each with a different scale.

The Billboard dialog.

a b

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Surface analysisSurface analysis comprises techniques that allow you to inspect smooth surfaces and to detect any imperfections or discontinuities that may exist. In form•Z, surface analysis is an attribute that stays with an object and can be displayed during all modeling and editing operations, while the object is displayed using the Shaded Work rendering mode.

To apply a surface analysis to an object, first display it in Shaded Work mode. Then use the Pick tool to select it and in the Pick Tool Options pal-ette open the Attributes tab. From the popup menu at the top of the tab se-lect Analysis and observe the options that are displayed. Check the Analyze Object checkbox. You are now ready to select the analysis type you wish to apply and to set its parameters.

From the Analysis Type popup menu select an analysis method. Note that each method has its own parameters and whatever settings you select are graphically reflected on the screen. These are the available methods:

Zebra Stripes: This is a technique that allows you to visually identify curvature defects on a surface. It is a virtualized version of a real-world analysis method that originated with the auto design industry, where a car body prototype would be examined in a chamber with parallel rows of neon lights mounted above. Discontinuities in the reflected stripes indicate kinks, or G1 discontinuities in the surface, while kinks in the reflected stripes indi-cate curvature, or G2, discontinuities.

The # Of Stripes slider can be used to adjust the density of the stripes or a number can be entered in the field next to it. The two Colors can be set using the Color Picker of your system. The default colors are black and white. Direction of the stripes can be Horizontal or Vertical.

The Attributes tab of the Pick Options palette with

Zebra Stripes selected.

Zebra Stripes applied.

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Environment Map: Also called Reflection Mapping, this method simulates reflection of an environment on a surface, which often helps high-light the object's surface curvature. A default environment map will be used or you can choose another map.

Draft Angle: This color mapping method is used to visualize the angle between the normal to a point of a sur-face and the active reference plane.

The Minimum Angle field specifies an angle below which the display will be blue. The sliding bar can be used to change the value of this angle or a new value can be typed directly. The Maximum Angle field specifies an angle above which the display will be red. Draft angle values between mini-mum and maximum will be colored in a spectrum running from blue to red.The Reset Range button resets the angle range to default values.

Curvature Map: This color mapping method provides a visual display of the principal curvatures of a surface.

The Curvature Type popup menu contains six items that specify how curvature should be displayed: Prin-cipal Min and Principal Max map the principal minimum and maximum curvature, respectively. Radius Min and Radius Max map the radius of curvature in the principal maximum and minimum direction, respectively. Gaussian maps the product of the principal maximum and minimum curvature. Mean maps the average of the principal maximum and minimum curvature.

Environment Map applied.

Draft Angle applied.

Environment Map options.

Draft Angle options.

CurvatureEnvironment Map options.

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The Minimum Radius field specifies a curvature or radius value below which the display will be blue. The Maxi-mum Radius field specifies a curva-ture or radius value above which the display will be red. Curvature values between minimum and maximum will be colored in a spectrum running from blue to red.

Clicking on the Optimal Range button calculates a range suitable for the selected objects.

Normal Map: Surface normal color mapping provides a visual display of normal direction. Each axis X,Y,Z has an associated color red, green, blue. Surface points will be colored accord-ing to the contribution of each axis to the direction of the associated normal.

When the Use Analysis Display Res-olution box is checked, the object's standard faceting will be overridden by faceting specifically designed for sur-face analysis display. This is accom-plished through a special Faceting Scheme that is called Surface Analy-sis. If the object being analyzed does not appear to have enough facets to generate meaningful results, you can increase the density by editing the scheme in the Faceting Schemes section of the Project Settings dialog. Likewise if the object becomes too slow to manipulate because of its in-creased faceting, you can reduce the faceting in the same manner. When Use Analysis Display Resolution is dialed, the object's current faceting is used for the analysis display.

Curvature Map applied.

Normal Map applied.

Normal Map has no options.

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Porcupine Plot: This is a visual cur-vature analysis technique for curves and surfaces which places visual “quills” at points along a curve, an edge, or an iso-curve of a surface. The direction of the quill at a point on a curve is determined by the Frenet frame of the curve, while the relative length of the quill reflects the curva-ture value at that point. The greater the curvature of the curve at the quill point (i.e. the smaller the radius of curvature) the longer the length of the quill. An outer boundary curve is displayed along the tips of the quills.

A Frenet Frame is a set of axes set at each point of a curve that define a coordinate system. As a frame moves along a curve, it rotates in space ac-cording to the direction and curvature of the curve.

Parallel quills at a curve boundary indicate G1 continuity, while parallel quills of equal length (assuming equal display magnitudes on all curves) indicates G2 continuity. Parallel quills with equal length and a smooth outer boundary curve indicates G3 continuity. Unlike the faux color surface analysis methods, which are based on primary curvature values, Porcupine Plot uses curvature data along the U and V directions of surfaces.

Porcupine Plot analysis is affected by the following parameters. When these are changed, the porcupine plot is dynamically updated on the screen, whenever Shaded Work or Wireframe rendering mode is used.

Quill Color and Curve Color specify the display colors of the “quills” and the boundary curve, respectively.

When Edges is checked, porcupine plots will be displayed for all edges of smooth objects. U and V Isolines specify the number of interior U and V iso-curves of each face for which a porcupine plot is displayed.

Quill Resolution specifies the number of quills that will be displayed between each knot of a curve. This value can be changed either through the sliding bar or by typing a value in the field.

Quill Scale specifies the relative display scale for the quills.

When Reverse Quill Direction is on, the quill direction is reversed.

Porcupine Plot applied.

Porcupine Plot options.

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Transforming objects

The Transform suite contains five direct methods for transforming entities, such as objects, object parts, lights, and guides: Move, Rotate, Uniform Scale, independent Scale, and Mirror. Each has its own tool. In the tool options palette, there are options that allow you to transform an entity with or without copying it. Copying only affects objects, lights, and guides, but not parts of objects, such as faces, segments or points. Segments of objects can also be transformed with the Extend tool, which is also contained in the Transform suite.

Move

When entities are prepicked, the first click in the window defines the start point of the move and the second click the end point. Between the two clicks the entities are moved interactively. By default, the two clicks are mapped on the current reference plane or are snapped to object parts or guides. This will allow you to move the entities parallel to the reference plane or from one snapped point to another. To move the entities perpendicular to the plane, select Perpendicular To Reference Plane in the tool options palette. Or hit and release the command key (Macintosh) or ctrl key (Windows), which will constrain the move to the plane’s perpendicular direction. Hitting the command/ctrl key again restores the parallel move direction.

When the Move tool is activated and no entities are prepicked, the first click picks an entity and also starts the move.

Rotate

Independent Scale

Uniform Scale

Unlike the Move tool, when no entities are prepicked, the first click only picks an entity. A second click defines the base point of the transformation (center of rotation, fixed point of the scale, etc). A third and fourth click determine the beginning and the end of the transformation, respectively. No perpendicular option is applicable to these tools.

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As already mentioned, the tool palette for all the transformation tools contain a set of icons for specifying whether to apply the operation to the entity itself or to one or more copies.

Self: When on, it applies the transformation to the entity itself.

The Move tool options palette.

With Self on, the Allow Snap To Original option appears in the tool options palette and may be turned on or off. If on, the cursor snaps to the original object, which allows you to transform an object relative to itself.

One Copy: Makes one copy and transforms the copy.

Continuous Copy: Continues to make a copy at the location of each click of the mouse, until the mouse is double clicked.

Repeat Copy: Continues to make a copy with each click of the mouse by repeating the original transformation. Double clicking terminates the transformation.

Multi Copy: With this option, additional options appear. The number of copies to be made is entered in the # Of Copies field. These can be made by repeating the value applied to the first copy (Even Increment) or by subdividing that value by the number of copies (Divide Distance).

Additional options in the options palette when Multi Copy is on.

When applying the latter option to rotations, there are two complementary angles that may be subdivided. Which one is used depends on whether the Big Angle For Rotation option is on or off. When Self is on and an object part is transformed, it stays with its object. If one of the Copy options is on, a copy of the part is made as a separate object and is transformed, while the original object remains intact.

When one of the copying modes is on, the Make Component and Per Object/Group options appear in the palette. When the former is on, a component is automatically made from the selected entities and the copies become instances of the new component. If more than one entities are picked, they all become a single component, unless Per Object/Group is on in which case each original object becomes a separate component.

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Mirror

This tool dynamically reflects an object about an axis. It operates only on complete objects and not on object parts. With the tool active click on an object to select it, then click twice on the reference plane to define the axis of reflection. The line defined by the two points is the axis itself, if the Drawn Line option is on. If instead the Perpendicular To Drawn Line option is on, the axis is a line perpendicular at the midpoint of the line you draw. See examples on the right.

The Mirror tool can be applied on the object itself or on a copy. When Copy is selected, you can also instruct the program to make a component from the copy.

Mirror About

This tool reflects objects in one step rather than dynamically. With the tool active click on an object then on a surface, a line, or a point, which becomes the entity of reflection. See example on the right.

As with the Mirror tool, the Mirror About tool can be applied to the object itself or to a copy. When the latter is selected, you can also instruct the program to make it a component.

When an object is reflected about a line or a point, it will be reflected relative to the three axes (X, Y, and Z). If Relative To Reference Plane is on then it will be reflected relative to the axes of the reference plane only.

(a) Applying the Mirror tool with the Drawn Line option:

Clicking on 1 selects the object. Then clicking on 2 and 3 defines

the axis of reflection.

The Mirror tool options palette.

The Mirror About tool options palette.

(b) Applying the Mirror tool with Perpendicular To Drawn Line on: Clicking on 1 selects the object. Clicking on 2 and 3 defines an

axis of reflection as a line perpendicular to the line drawn .

Applying the Mirror About tool: Clicking on 1 selects the object. Clicking on 2 selects the surface about which it will be mirrored.

1

2

1

32

1

32a b

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Repeat Last Transformation

This tool repeats the transformation that was applied most recently.

Transform

This tool is a combination of move, rotate, and scale and it can execute any of these. To apply it, select the tool and click on the object you wish to transform. A controller is displayed to be used for transforming the object. The controller consists of a center, three axes, and three concentric circles. When one of the Scaling options is checked in the Transform tool options palette, arrow heads are also displayed at the ends of the axes.

• To move the object, click on the center, drag it, and click again. To restrict the motion to a direction parallel to one of the axes, click on an axis, drag, and click again.

• To rotate the object, click on one of the circles, move the cursor along the circle, and click again. Each circle represents a rotation relative to one of the Cartesian planes.

• To scale the object, click on an arrow head, drag it along the respective axis, and click again. Uniform Scaling and Non Uniform Scaling scale differently.

The Transform tool can be used to transform the object itself or to make a copy. It can Transform Picked Entities or it can Transform Controller, which is selected in the options palette.

Transform tool options palette.

Transformations: (a) original object, (b,c,d) rotations, (e) uniform scale,

and (f,g) non uniform scale.

move

rotate

scale

a b

a b c d

e f g

Transformation controller with scale arrows (a) off and (b) on.

Repeat Last Transformation palette.

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Transformation Macros

This tool allows you to both define and apply transformation macros, which are sets of transformations that are applied as a single operation. When you activate the T-Macros tool, the Transformation Macro tool options palette appears. It contains two lists: Macros and Transformations lists.

The former contains all the macros that are currently defined and can be used to define more macros. To do so, click on the Add button (round green button with a cross label on it) on the title bar of the Macros list. A new macro with a default name appears on the list. You can change this name in the usual manner. The new macro remains active and you can add transformations to it. To make active another macro, click on it. In general the content of the active macro is displayed in the Transformations list.

You can add a new transformation to the active macro by clicking the Add button on the title bar of the Transformations list. When you do, a default transformation appears highlighted. You can choose another transformation from the Type pop up menu and you set its parameters in the numeric fields under it. These vary and depend on the active transformation. You can eliminate a transformation by selecting it and then clicking the Delete button. The sequence in which the transformations appear on the list is significant. You can change that sequence by clicking and dragging names on the list.

To apply the transformation macro that is active in the Macros list, with the tool active, click on an object then on a position where the Base Point will be placed. This is the point relative to which the macro will be applied. Note that different positions of the base point produce different results. The macro is executed immediately after the second click, as many times as indicated in the # Of Copies field, and remains in edit mode. This allows you to make changes to the definition of the macro and see them executed immediately.

The Transformation Macro tool options palette.

Applying transformation macros.

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Extend

This tool is used to extend segments to their point of intersection with a face or to a certain distance. Which variation is executed is set in its tool options palette.

Distance: When this option is on, a segment is extended by the distance typed in its field. To execute the operation with this option, with the tool active, click on a segment. The end of the segment that is closer to the click point is extended by the distance typed in the Tool Options palette.

To Face: When this option is on, a segment is extended until it intersects a face. There are two variations for applying this operation. One extends segments by picking them directly. The other extends all the segments that end at the face you pick. The two methods work as follows:

Extending segments: (1) Original objects and (2) after the extensions.

(a) Extending two segments by prepicking them.

(b) Extending face to a face.

The Extend tool options palette.

1. With the tool active, click on a segment, then on the face to which you wish the segment to be extended. You can also use the prepick method to extend many segments. With the Pick tool active click on the segments you wish extended. Then, with the Extend tool active click on the face to which they should be extended.

2. With the tool active click on a face and then on another face. All the segments that end on the first face are extended to their points of intersection with the second face.

Note that, if a segment is parallel to the face to which it is supposed to be extended, the operation cannot be executed and a warning is issued.

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Replace

This tool is used to replace one object, called target, with another, called source. To apply the operation, with the tool active, click on the target (the object that will be replaced) and then on the source (the object it will be replaced with). In practice, most frequently, a number of objects need to be replaced with the same source. In such cases it is convenient to prepick the targets and then to click on the source, with the Replace tool.

The Replace tool options palette has only two options:

Scale: When this is checked, the source is scaled according to the bounding box of the target, before it replaces it. When off, an exact copy of the source is used to replace the target.

Make Component: When this option is on, the source becomes a component and all its copies used to replace targets are component instances. When off, which is the default, all copies of the source are regular objects.

The Replace tool options palette.

Replacing: (a) target objects, (b) source.

(c) Three left most target objects are replaced with Scale off.

(d) Three right most targets are replaced with Scale on.

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Align / DistributeGiven a number of objects, this tool can be used to either align them or distribute them in each of the X, Y, and Z directions. What action to apply is selected from the Align/Distribute tool options palette.

To apply this tool, you need to select the objects to be aligned and/or distributed as a set, by pressing the shift key when picking them. At least two objects need to be picked. The order in which they are picked is significant and it is used when distributing the objects. Because frequently this operation involves many objects, frame picking them or using Select All from the Edit menu may be convenient. In these cases the order in which the objects were generated is used as the pick order.

The Align / Distribute tool options.

The tool options palette consists of two groups of buttons arranged in three columns for the X, Y, and Z directions. The first group sets alignments and the second distributions. In each column, only one button can be on.

The very top row represents no action. The three rows in the Align group, represent low, center, and high justifications, which are relative to the direction. For example, relative to X, low X is the left most end of an object, center is its mid-X, and high is the right most end. Whichever is selected is used to line up the objects.

The four rows in the Distribute group again represent justifications, used as bases for the distances applied when distributing the objects. The top three rows represent low, center, and high. The fourth row is a mixed one: it uses high from the low object and low from the high object. These justification options are supplemented by the Distribution Type options, which are two for each direction: Between Ends, retains the positions of the lowest and highest objects, divides their distance by the number of remaining objects plus 1, and places the remaining objects in the order they were selected (or assumed to have been selected). At Distance places the lowest object first and then the remaining objects at the given distance from each other. See examples on the next page.

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Aligning and distributing:(a) Seven objects in the shape of numbers are laid out in the

project window. They were created in the numeric order

they indicate and they are also picked in the same order.

Next, the Align/Distribute tool is activated.

No action is yet selected in the tool options palette.

(b) Align along X with center justification is selected.

Observe the result: objects are aligned along their center X; relative to Y and Z they retain their original poitions (no dis-tribution has been applied).

(c) Distribute along Y with lower (minimum Y) justification and Distribution Type for Y set

to Between Ends.The lowest in Y object (0) and

the highest in Y object (6) retain their positions relative to Y.

The distance between them is divided by 6 (the number of the remaining objects plus 1) and

the other objects are positioned in the order they were picked.

(d) As above, except that the Distribution Type for Y is changed to At Distance 2’.

Observe the result.The lowest in Y object (0)

retains its position and all the other objects are placed in the

order they were picked, at a distance of 2’ from the

previous object.

a

b

c

d

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Place Along Path

This tool is used to arrange copies of an object along a path line. To execute the operation, with the tool active, click on the object, then on the path. The placement is executed immediately. How the object is placed on the path line is controlled by settings in the Place Along Path tool options palette, which initially contains two groups of options, and two more groups are added after the operation is applied.

Placement Method: There are two: By # Of Copies places the number of copies indicated in its numeric field from one end of the path to the other, evenly distributed. By Distance places the copies so that the distance between them is exactly what is indicated in its field, starting at the Start, Center, or End of the path. See examples to the right.

Note that, for both methods, when the placement is executed, a controller is also displayed with the first object. It consists of three concentric circles, which can be used to re-orient the placed objects.

The Place Along Path tool options palette.

Place Along Path: (a) By # Of Copies,

(b) By Distance and Justification (1) Start, (2) Center, (3) End.

Place Along Path: A controller is also displayed on first copy and can be used

to re-orient the objects.

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Alignment: There are four options: None Keeps the object as is. Along Path, Stay Upright keeps the object straight up but orients its X axis in the tangent direction of the path. Along Path, No Tilt makes the X axis exactly parallel to the tangents of the path and the Z axis is not straight up anymore. Along Path, With Tilt the placed objects follow completely the flow of the path. See examples on the right.

When Make Component is on, one or more components are made from the placed entities, depending on whether Per Object/Group is on or off.

The next two groups of options appear in the tool options palette after the initial placement has been executed. They offer numeric means for applying the same adjustments you can execute using the controller. When the controller is actually used, then these fields simply reflect the changes applied graphically.

Start-End Distances: The placement may start after the Start of the path and end before its End, which is set by entering values in the respective fields. Alternatively, the end and start bullets displayed on the path can be moved to produce the same result.

Orientation: Rather than using the graphic controls to re-orient the placed objects, entering values in the Origin and Rotation fields produces analogous results.

Place Along Path By # Of Copies: (a) Object and path. Alignment: (b) None, (c) Along Path, Stay

Upright, (d) No Tilt, (e) With Tilt.

Placement that starts after the path’s Start and ends before its End.

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Place On

This tool is used to place copies of an object on another object, which can be a solid, a surface, or a wire. To execute the operation, with the tool active, click on the object to be placed source, then on the object where it will be placed target. The placement is executed immediately. How the source is placed is controlled by settings in the Place On tool options palette.

Place On: The options in this group control where on the target object copies of the source will be placed. There are three possibilities:

Faces’ Centers places a copy of the source on each face of the object, by placing the origin of the source on the center of the face. Note that this option cannot be applied to wires.

Segment Midpoint places a copy of the source on each segment, with the origin of the source coinciding with the midpoint of the segment.

Points places a copy of the source on each point of the target object.

Alignment: these two options control how the source copies are oriented. None preserves the orientation of the original source. Along Normal / Tangent makes the Z axis perpendicular to a face or a tangent.

When Make Component is on, components are also made.

The Place On tool options palette.

Placing a cone on a cube (solid):On (a) Face Centers,

(b) Segment Midpoints, (c) Points.

Placing a cone on (a) the faces of a surface, (b) the midpoints and

(c) the points of wires.

As for the Place Along tool, when the initial placement is executed, a controller appears that can be used to graphically change the orientation of the sources. Or alternatively, the Orientation parameters can be used to achieve similar results

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Reshaping, offsetting, and imprinting

Reshape

The Reshape tool combines an extrusion of a face with a Boolean Union or Difference in an interactive operation. After a face is picked, it is extruded interactively. If the object is a solid and the extrusion direction is outwards from the face, the extruded shape is unioned with the solid. If the extruded direction is inwards from the picked face, the extruded shape is subtracted from the solid.

The Reshape tool options palette.

The extrusion direction may be Perpendicular To Reference Plane or Perpendicular To Surface of the picked face, which is selected from the tool options palette. The option may be toggled while extruding by hitting the command key.

Reshaping a cube with Keep Edges on.

Creating a parapet on a flat roof.

The Keep Edges option determines, whether edges along coplanar faces are kept or removed when moving in the outward direction. Keeping the edges is useful for creating more faces for further reshaping. The Keep Edges option can be toggled during the interactive operation by pressing and releasing the shift key.

Offsetting and reshaping work well together in creating more complex geometry from initially simple shapes. For example, to create the parapet on a flat roof, offset the top face of the roof inward. Next pick the outer split face and reshape it upward by the desired distance. See an example on the right.

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Offset OutlineThis operation produces a new shape that is parallel to the shape of the picked outline. This new shape may be inserted into the original shape or it may become a new independent object. Only one outline can be offset at a time and it must be planar.

(a) A cuboid and (b) offsetting three outlines.

The Offset Outline tool options.

a b

This operation requires two clicks. The first click picks the outline and starts the interactive operation. The second click ends the interactive offsetting and determines the final offset distance. If offsetting is toward the inside of the face, the new shape is automatically inserted into the face, when the Insert option is on. If offsetting is toward the outside or the Insert option is off, a new separate object is created.

The Offset Segment tool options.

Offset SegmentThis tool is similar to offsetting outlines, except that it works on segments. It also requires two clicks. After a segment is selected with the first click, it is offset parallel to its direction in the plane of its adjacent face. The second click ends the interactive offsetting. If the segment is linear, its ends are extended to always meet the boundary of the face in which it is offset and it is inserted into the face. If the segment is an arc or spline, it is offset parallel and its ends are extended along their tangent directions.

If a segment is adjacent to two faces, it is offset on the face over which the cursor is placed. If you wish to offset a segment beyond the bounds of its face and also wish to force it to stay on the plane of the face, keep the shift key down while over the face and then move the cursor outside the face.

By default, segment ends are always extended and are inserted, if possible. This can be changed by deselecting the Extend To Boundary and Insert options in the tool palette.

a b c(a) A cuboid. (b) Offsetting two of

its vertical segments.(c) Offsetting more segments.

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Imprint

This tool is used to insert a 2D shape previously drawn on a face of an object into that face. Or a 2D shape can be inserted into another closed 2D shape. To apply it, with the tool active, click on the shape then on the face or the other 2D shape.

The inserted shape cannot be self-intersecting. If it is a closed shape, it can either be completely contained by the shape where it is inserted or it may be crossing its boundaries. If it is an open shape, it has to cross or touch the boundaries of the shape where it will be inserted. If it does not, it is ignored.

a b

(a) A cuboid and shapes drawn on three of its faces.

(b) Shapes imprinted to faces.

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Deformations

Radial Bend

Clicking on an object with the Radial Bend tool displays the deformation controls. Radial Bend deforms an object by radially bending the defor-mation axis, which is perpendicular to the base reference plane. The radial bend is applied to the selected end of the deformation axis, while the opposite end remains fixed. As the mouse is moved, the shape radi-ally bends in either a clockwise or counterclockwise direction, following a circular bending track that is displayed and is subdivided in degrees. The orientation of the bend may be rotated around the deformation axis. This is done through the rotation handle attached at the bottom of the axis. When this control is activated by clicking on it, an additional rota-tional track is displayed to assist you with the positioning of the rotation.

The bending operation may be executed graphically or numerically. When applied graphically, with the tool active you click on an object and you then manipulate the different controls to produce the desired result. As you do this, the values in the fields of the Tool Options palette are adjusted to reflect the new values that resulted from the manipulation of the controls. Alternatively, you can type new values in the Tool Options fields and then click on the object with the Radial Bend tool. The object is bent immediately according to the values in the Tool Options palette. The two methods (graphic and numeric) can be freely mixed.

The options in the Tool Options pal-ette are as follows:

Bend Angle: This value, which is in degrees, specifies the amount of radial bend to be applied. The angle can be positive or negative (clockwise or counterclockwise direction).

Graphical controls of the Radial Bend tool.

The Radial Bend options.

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Axis Angle: This value, which is in degrees, specifies the orientation of the deformation axis. It can be positive or negative (clockwise or coun-terclockwise).

Position: The three buttons in this group of options specify the portion of the object to be bent.

Top: When this button is selected, which is the default, the top of the object is bent, while the bottom stays fixed.

Center: With this button on, the top and bottom of the object are bent, while the center stays fixed.

Bottom: The bottom of the object is bent, while the top stays fixed.

Base Reference Plane: This option allows you to specify the reference plane that will be used as the base plane. The Active Plane option is the default and uses the reference plane from the active window. The XY, YZ, and ZX options use the corresponding Cartesian reference planes. These options are useful when one wishes to work in a projection view.

Lower, Upper: These two text fields determine the lower and upper lim-its of the deformation box. The value in Lower is the percentage of the height of the object at which the lower limit is initially placed. The value in Upper likewise determines the upper limit of the deformation box. The defaults for these are 0% and 100%, respectively, which contains the en-tire object. A common use of these fields would be to deform just the top half of an object. To do so, you would set the lower limit to 50% and the upper to 100%. The upper and lower limits can also be specified graphi-cally by dragging the arrow controls.

An object being bent.

Show Object: This option deter-mines whether the actual object or the bounding box is displayed during tracking. The default is to display the actual object being deformed. For large, complex objects, displaying the bounding box enhances the perfor-mance.

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Bulge

The Bulge tool deforms an object by moving points toward or away from the deformation axis. The points at the middle of the object are stretched out, while the ends remain fixed. The points in between are moved pro-portionally. This operation can be applied in the X or Y direction, or both. Selection of the upper versus lower edges is not significant, since they react together. As the cursor is moved, the object bulges outward when the cursor moves away from the axis, and inward, when it moves toward the axis. When the Bulge operation is executed graphically, the offset distances in the X and Y directions are also reflected in the respective fields in the Tool Options palette (see Offset X and Offset Y in the Tool Options palette). Alternatively, these values can be changed in the palette and, when you click on an object with the Bulge tool, they are immediately ap-plied to the object.

Bulge Tool Options palette.

Applying the Bulge tool.

The remaining settings in the Bulge Tool Options palette are as for Ra-dial Bend.

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Taper

The Taper tool deforms an object by tapering one of its ends in the X, Y, or both directions simultaneously. The Taper operation works by stretch-ing the points at the selected position, while keeping the points at the op-posite end fixed. The points between the two ends are stretched propor-tionally. When the Center option is selected, the center stays fixed, and both the upper and lower limits are stretched. As the cursor is moved, the selected edges are stretched along a plane parallel to the base plane. Points beyond the lower and upper limits of the deformation box align with the points at the limits. All the options in the Taper Tool Options palette are as for the Bulge Tool Options palette.

Taper Tool Options palette.

Applying the Taper tool.

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Twist

The Twist tool deforms an object by twisting it around the deformation axis, which is perpendicular to the Base Reference Plane. The twist is applied to the selected end, while the opposite end remains fixed. As the mouse is moved around the deformation axis, the shape twists in either a clockwise or counterclockwise direction. Each complete revolution about the deformation axis adds 360° of twist to the object. The dynamic action works much like a rubber band. For example, if the shape is twisted 720° (twice around) clockwise, you have to “unwind” 720° counterclockwise to get back to the original position.

Applying the Twist tool.

Twist Tool Options palette.

The Twist Tool Options palette con-tains one option that is unique to the Twist tool. All the other options are as for the other deformations.

Twist Angle: This option specifies the amount of twist to be applied by an angle in degrees, which can be positive or negative for clockwise and counterclockwise directions. The twist angle can also be speci-fied graphically by dragging the twist angle handle.

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Bending, morphing, and draft angles

Bend Along Path

This tool can be used to bend a solid or surface object along a path. To ap-ply it, with the tool active, click on the source object and then on the path. The path is an open line. The source object works best if it has a linear overall shape. The resulting object may be Facetted or Smooth, which is set in the Bend Along Path tool op-tions palette, which also contains the following options:

Rotation Of Alignment Axis: When a number other than 0° is entered in this field, the source object is also rotated progressively as it is bent along the path.

(a) Source and path. Split Faces At Path Points (b) on and (c) off.

The Bend Along Path tool options.

Bending Along Path: (a) A source and path.

(b) Facetted and (c) Smooth results.

Scaling: This group contains three options. When Natural is checked, the source object is scaled along its longest dimension to fit the length of the path. When Preserve Proportions is checked, the whole object is scaled according to the length of the path. When Preserve Original Size is on, the source object is bent as is and covers as much of the path as is its height. The Start and End slide bars can be used to cause the source to be bent using only a portion of the path. See examples below:

Split Faces At Path Points: With this option on, new edges are inserted to the source object, corresponding to the points of the path. When off, no new edges are inserted and the source is bent only at the existing edges. See example on the right.

Bending Along Path: (a) A source and path. (b) Natural, (c) Preserve Proportions, (d) Preserve Original Size, and (e) Natural and Start / End set to 25° and 75°.

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Morph

This tool can be used to generate an object whose shape is between the shapes of two other objects, called the source and destination. You apply the tool by clicking first on the destina-tion and then on the source. The be-tween object is generated immediately according to the percentage displayed in the Morph Percent field. For example, if the value is 50, the new object is 50% the shape of the source and 50% the shape of the target. After the initial generation, you can slide the marker on the slide bar and watch the object morphing dynamically between the shapes of the source and destina-tion.

There are two Placement options. When At Source is checked, the morphing occurs in the position of the source. When Between Source And Destination is on, the morphing ob-ject is generated between the source and the destination at a distance analogous to the Morph Percent value.

The morphing operation is intended to be applied between objects that have matching topologies (same number of points). When objects with differ-ent numbers of points are picked a warning message issued. If you respond that you still want to proceed, the program will execute the opera-tion, but the results, while frequently interesting, may or may not be usable as solids.

The Morph tool options palette.

Morphing between a and b.Objects with same number of points.

Morphing between a and b.Different number of points.

Morphing between a and b.Different number of points.

Morphing between a and b.Objects with same number of points.

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Draft Angle

This tool can be used to apply an angle, called a draft angle, to certain faces of an object. The angle, which is usually small, is set in the Inclination Angle field, in the tool’s options pal-ette. To what faces the angle is applied to is set in its tool palette. The default is faces parallel to the normal of the reference plane or Faces Within n° Of Plane Normal. The alternative op-tion is Use All Faces, which caused the draft angle to be applied to all the faces of an object.

To generate draft angles, with the tool active click on the object. The draft angles are generated immediately. Controls consisting of three concentric circles are also displayed and can be used to change the orientation of the draft angles, as shown in the figure to the right.

Draft angles are useful when physi-cal objects are fabricated through injection molding. They facilitate the removal of the objects from their mold, which otherwise may be wedged in the concavity of the mold. See ex-ample below.

(a) Original object and (b) after draft angles have been applied.

Draft angles: (a) Original cube. (b) Draft along normal of XY plane.

(c) (d) Drafts in other directions after rotating controls.

The Draft Angle tool options palette.

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Derivative objects

Derive Point Cloud

This tool is used to derive an object consisting of the points of another object. To apply it, with the tool active, click on an object. There are no op-tions for this tool.

Derive Segment

This tool is used to derive objects consisting of one or more segments of another object. To apply it, with the tool active, click on a segment of an object, which will result in a single segment object. If more segments need to be picked, they should be picked as a set. Or, alternatively, the prepick method can be used. That is, with the Pick tool select all the seg-ments you wish to be included in your new object, then activate the Derive Segment tool and click somewhere in the project window. Whether the se-lected segments will become a single object or many objects, one per seg-ment, depends on the option checked in the Derive Segment tool options palette. The two options are: Each Se-lected Segment Separately and Join Selected Segments (default).

After the operation is completed and the new object(s) is created, the origi-nal object is ghosted. It can be ung-hosted using the respective tool.

Examples are shown to the right.

The Derive Segments tool options palette.

(a) A cube, (b) deriving a segment, and (c) deriving four segments.

(a) A geodesic sphere and (b) deriving two sets of segments.

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The 2D Shape Tool Options palette.

Derive Face

This tool is used to derive a surface object from a face of another surface or solid object. To do so, with the tool active, click on a face. The surface is generated immediately and the original object is ghosted. You can pick more than one face to derive 2D surface objects from all of them in one step. In the latter case two options are available in the tool options palette:

The 2D Wall Tool Options palette.

Deriving 2D Surface objects:(a) Original object. (b) Surface

from single face. (c) (d) Surfaces from multiple face picks. With (c) Each Selected Entity Separately and (d) Join Selected Entities on.

Each Selected Entity Separately: With this on, a separate surface object is generated for each selected face.

Join Selected Entities: With this on, all surfaces that touch at a common edge become a single object. With wires, all segments that connect be-come one object.

2D Wall

This tool is used to derive 2D wall This (double line) objects from selected faces, outlines, or segments. It is ex-ecuted as the 2D Surface tool, except that, for this operation, the original object is not ghosted. When multiple entities are selected, a separate ob-ject is always created from each pick. There are two options:

Justification: This can be Left, Cen-ter, or Right.Wall Width: This specifies how far apart the parallel lines of the wall are.

Deriving 2D Wall objects:Justification at (a) Center and

(b) Left. (c) Multiple picks return separate objects always.

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Extruding faces: (a) original and (b) derived. Two objects are derived from the far right cube.

The Extrusion Tool Options palette.

Extrusions to point: (a) original and (b) derived objects.

Negative heights were applied to the wires.Two objects were derived from the far right cube.

The Extrusion to Point Tool Op-tions palette.

3D Extrusion

This tool is used to extrude faces, outlines, or segments of objects. To execute the operation, with the tool active click on an entity, then move the mouse up or down to define a height. The extrusion can be Perpendicular To Reference Plane or To Surface, which is selected from the tool options palette.

3D Extrusion to Point

This tool works as the 3D Extru-sion tool, except that the extrusion it generates converges to a point. Its tool options palette contains the same options as for the 3D Extrusion tool.

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Deriving 3D Walls:(a) Original and (b) derived objects.

The 3D Wall tool options palette.

3D Wall

This tool is a combination of the 2D Wall and the 3D Extrusion tools. That is, it first generates a 2D wall from selected entities, which it then extrudes to derive 3D walls. Conse-quently its tool options palette con-tains the options for the 2D wall and the options for the extrusion.

Frame This tool is used to derive a frame structure from the segments of a fac-etted object, by transforming them to cylindrical rods. The Radius of these rods is set in the Frame tool options palette. To apply the operation, with the tool active, click on the object whose frame is to be derived. See examples below.

The Frame tool options palette.

Frames derived from (a) a meshed cube and (b) a revolved sphere.

A frame from a volumetric struc-ture.

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Unfold

This tool is used to unfold objects, which can be surfaces or solids, facet-ted or smooth, except in the latter case they need to consist of develop-able surfaces or otherwise they can only be unfolded by converting them to facetted. These and other options can be set in the Unfold Tool Op-tions palette.

Unfold Tool Options palette.Generate Connectors: These only apply to facetted objects and when on the program generates extensions at the edges of the unfolded pieces to be used to glue corresponding edges together. There are two types Split an Continuous. They are illustrated to the right. When unfolded edges meet at tight angles, it is possible for connectors to overlap. You can instruct the program to Skip Overlapping Connectors or accept them as they are.

Labels: You can instruct the program to generate numeric labels that mark corresponding edges. For complex objects, the labels help reas-semble to object. You can set the Size of the labels and can choose one of three position from the Placement pop-up menu. See an example below.

Unfolding hexagonal extrusion with (b) Continuous and (c) Split connectors.

Unfolding a cylinder (b) without and (c) with labels.

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Objects With Non Developable Faces: Developable surfaces are surfaces that have been generated by sweeping a straight line, possibly on a curvy path. Surfaces that have multi-directional curvatures are not developable. The surfaces of facetted objects can always be unfolded. Smooth objects can only be unfolded when they consist of developable surfaces. If not, one of three options can be selected from the tool op-tions palette: Skip, Unfold As Facetted, or Unfold Developable Faces Only. Examples are given below.

Unfolding a 3D enclosure (wall ob-ject). No matter how complex it may be, it is always facetted and it will

be unfolded.

Unfolding (a) a paraboloid and (b) a sphere. They both have multi-directional curvatures and are not developable.

They have been unfolded by converting them to facetted

Unfolding an extruded spline. Being curved in one direction it can

be unfolded.

The Unfold tool is applied by clicking with it on the object to be unfolded. When the object is facetted, where you click is significant, as the unfold-ing starts with the segment that is the closest to the pick point. Conse-quently, picking at different points results in different unfolding patterns. When the object is smooth, where you click is insignificant.

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Projection

This tool is used to project objects onto the active reference plane. The two options in its tool options palette represent the two projection types available.

Projection Of View projects the view currently displayed on the screen onto the active reference plane. Ortho-graphic Projection projects the ob-ject itself, as it is currently positioned on the active reference plane. Either solids or surfaces can be projected and both are projected one face at a time, and these faces remain discon-nected. For example, the projection of a cube will consist of the projections of its 6 faces. When a smooth object is projected, it is first converted to a fac-etted object and then projected. See projection examples to the right.

One useful practical application of this tool is to flatten a non-planar surface or wire, which can be achieved by pro-jecting it to the appropriate reference plane. See example on the right.

Projection Tool Options palette.

View projections of a cube and a cone on the XY plane.

Orthographic projections of a cube and a cone on the ZX plane.

A helix and a curve in 3D space are flattened by orthographically projecting them on the XY plane.

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More derivative objectsThe Derive suite contains tools that derive objects from other objects or parts of other objects.

Revolve

This tool is used to derive a revolved or lathed object from a profile (source shape) and an axis. The axis can be another object or an axis of the Cartesian coordinates system. See examples of both.

To revolve a shape, with the Revolve tool active, click on the shape and on the axis. You can also use prepicking to revolve a number of shapes about the same axis in one step. After its generation the revolved object remains in edit mode and its controls can be manipulated to change its shape. Changes can also be made through the settings in its Tool Options pal-ette.

Angle: Expressed in degrees, deter-mines the extent of the revolution. Default is 360°, which is a complete revolution. Partial revolutions are also possible, as shown.

Direction: The revolution can occur Clockwise or Counterclockwise.

Revolve Type: The revolution can be Continuous, producing a smooth ob-ject, or Stepped. When the latter, # Of Steps determines how many steps will be generated, which can be relative to the Total revolution or the given Angle.

Cap: When closed shapes are partially revolved this option determines wheth-er to close (cap) their ends or not.

The Revolve Tool Options palette.

Revolving about (a) another object as axis and (b) a Cartesian axis.

(a) Complete and (b) partial revo-lution.

Cap (a) off and (b) on.

(a) Continuous and (b) stepped.

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Helix

This tool revolves a shape about an axis, like the Revolve tool, but at each step of the revolution it also moves up a certain distance, thus resulting in a helix, which can revolve for more than 360°. It is executed as the Revolve tool. The shape to be revolved can be open or closed. The former produces a surface object while the second a solid, if Cap is also on. See examples.

Model Type: The helix can be Facet-ted or Smooth.

# Of Cycles, Angle: These two parameters are correlated. When one changes the other is also adjusted. They specify how far the source will be revolved.

Length: How long the helix is. Can specify either the Total length or the length of Each Cycle.

Direction: Can be Clockwise or Counterclockwise. See example.

# Of Steps: Used only when Facetted is on and specifies how many steps are in the revolution.

Transformations: The Width and Length of the path of a helix can be scaled according to factors entered in these fields. If the helix is of type Facetted, the source shape can also be scaled. See examples.

Caps: When a closed source shape is revolved, this option determines whether the ends will be capped or not. When they are, a solid object results.

The Helix Tool Options palette.

(a) Surface and (b) solid helix.

(a) Shape and axis. (b) Smooth and (c) facetted clockwise helix.(d) Counterclockwise facetted.

(a) Shape and axis. (b) Smooth. (c) Facetted, path width scaled.

(d) Path length also scaled.(e) Source shape also scaled.

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Wire Helix

A wire helix is generated by click-ing with this tool on an axis or a path shape. The axis can be a Cartesian axis or a segment of an object. Which of the two variations is executed depends on whether About Axis or Along Path is selected in the Wire Helix Tool Options palette.

The Model Type can be Facetted or Smooth.

Radius: This value determines how far from the axis the helix is generated.

The remaining options are as for the Helix tool. Note, however, that Length and Scale Path Length only affect the About Axis type. For the Along Path type, the length is always fixed to the length of the path. See examples for all the variations.

The Wire Helix Tool Options palette.

Wire Helix Along Path: (a) no scaling, (b) scaling width.

Wire Helix Along Path: (a) path and (b) helix.

Wire helix about (a) Z, (b) Y, (c) X and clockwise, and

(d) X and Counterclockwise.

Wire Helix About Axis: scaling (a) none, (b) width, (c) length down,

and (d) length up.

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Axial SweepA sweep is generated from a source shape that is swept along a path shape. Both the source and the path can be open or closed shapes. To execute the operation, with the Sweep tool active click on the source, then on the path. The prepick method can also be used to sweep more than one source shape along the same path. See examples.

Model Type: A sweep can be gener-ated either as a Facetted or as a Smooth object.

Alignment: How the source is placed relative to the path. Either the Origin of the reference plane, or the Cen-troid of the shape, or the First Point of the shape are placed on the path. For these options, the source can be drawn anywhere and is placed by the operation on the first point, per-pendicular to the first segment of the path, before the sweeping proceeds. However, for Origin, it should be drawn close to the origin of the refer-ence plane. The fourth option, As Positioned will sweep the source from where it is currently positioned.

Scale: When this option is selected, the source shape is scaled as it is swept along the selected path. The scaling factors are entered indepen-dently in the X and Y fields and, for open paths, they apply to the last placement of the source shape. Scal-ing factors for placements between the two ends of the sweep are calculated automatically by the system. When the Lock option is selected, the same scaling factor is applied for both the X and the Y directions.

The Axial Sweep Tool Options.

(a) Smooth and (b) facetted sweep.

Alignment: (a) Centroid and (b) As Positioned.

(a) 3 sources and path. (b) After prepicking them, the 3 sources are swept along the same path, using Origin alignment, which

preserves their relative position.

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Sweeping with Perpendicular To Plane (a) off and (b) on.

Sweeping with Rotate (a) off and (b) on and 90°.

Sweeping with Scale option, open path.

When the path of the sweep is a closed shape, and the Scale option is selected, the scaling factors entered in the X and Y fields are applied to the source shape placed half way along the path. For example, if the scaling factors used decrease the size of the source shape, the copy of the source placed on the first point of a closed path will be the largest, and the source placed half way around the path will be the smallest. The calculation that determines the half way point is based on the length of the path.

See examples to the right.

Rotate: When a value (in degrees) is entered in this field, the source shape will also be rotated as it is swept. Note that the specified rotation will be ap-plied to the end of the path.

Perpendicular To Plane: This op-tion causes the source to be placed perpendicular to the reference plane throughout the sweep rather than be-ing placed perpendicular to the path curve. For such placements to make sense the path should not be perpen-dicular to the reference plane.

Caps: This option closes the ends of the sweep, making the result a solid.

Sweeping with Scale option, closed path.

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Two Source SweepThis tool generates a sweep using two sources. The shape of the first source morphs into the shape of the second source, as it is swept along the path. The sources can be both open or closed shapes. To apply this sweep, with the tool active, click on the two sources and then on the path.

All the options that can be set in the Two Source Sweep tool options palette are as for the Axial Sweep tool. After the initial generation of the sweep, the content of the tool options palette is adjusted to contain only the parameters that can still be changed while the controls of the sweep are displayed on the screen. Whatever changes are made are displayed im-mediately for visual inspection.

See examples of two source sweeps below.

The Two Source Sweep tool op-tions palette: (a) before and

(b) after the sweep is generated.

(a) Two sources and a spline path.(b) A two source sweep.

a

b

(a) Two sources and a vector line path. (b) A two source sweep.

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Two Path SweepThis tool generates a sweep from a source shape and two paths, which can be open or closed. The source shape can also be open or closed. To apply this sweep, with the tool active, click on the source and then on the two paths. See examples on the right.

Preserve Height: This is an option unique to this sweep. When checked, the height of the source remains con-stant throughout the sweep. If it is off, the source is scaled according to the distances between the two paths. See examples below.

The Two Path Sweep tool options palette: (a) before and

(b) after the sweep is generated.

a

b

Two path sweeps with open paths.(b) Open and (c) closed source.

Two path sweeps with closed paths. (b) Open and (c) closed source.

Two path sweeps with Preserve Heights (b) off and (c) on.

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Boundary SweepThis sweep requires the source shape to be open, while the path shape may be open or closed. It generates a solid object always, by sweeping the source shape along the path line and then adding faces to close the object. When the path shape is open, it must have at least two segments and it should be possible to draw a line connecting its two ends, without crossing any segment of the path line. When this condition is not satisfied the program cannot generate a boundary sweep and issues an error message.

The boundary sweep is executed as the axial sweep and shares the Model Type and three of the Alignment options. Here again, after the initial generation of a boundary sweep, the content of its tool options palette is adjusted to display only those options that can be reset, while the sweep's controls can also be edited and reset.

Examples of boundary sweeps with open and closed paths are shown below.

Boundary sweeps with (b) closed and (c) open paths.

The Boundary Sweep tool op-tions palette: (a) before and

(b) after the sweep is generated.

a

b

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Draft Sweep This tool constructs a smooth object by offsetting a source shape as it is swept along a path. It always pro-duces smooth objects. Sweeping with draft causes the profile to be ex-panded and contracted as it is swept. A practical use of draft sweep is for molding. As the profile is swept, the ending profile is offset an equal dis-tance, which facilitates removal of an item from a mold. Options for specify-ing offsets can be set in the Tool Op-tions palette. They make it possible to model a variety of mathematical and free form surfaces.

Either the prepick or postpick method can be used. With the postpick method, with the Draft Sweep tool active you click on two entities (ob-jects or parts of objects). The first is the source and can be an open or closed shape. The second is the path and needs to be open always. With the prepick method, any number of pairs of entities can be prese-lected, using the Pick tool, followed by a click anywhere in the graphics window with the Draft Sweep tool. The Draft Sweep tool works best with sources and paths that have G1 continuity.

Draft sweep by angle using (a) positive angle and

(b) negative angle.

At the top of the Draft Sweep Tool Options palette there are three op-tions that control how the source shape will be swept along the path:

By Angle: This is a real number representing the angle with which the swept source will draft. For closed sources a positive angle causes a draft out, while a negative angle causes a draft in. See example.

By Distance: This value speci-fies an offset distance relative to the path of the sweep, rather than a draft angle. The larger the distance, the wider the draft. Zero distance produc-es a sweep parallel to the path.

a

b

Draft Sweep Tool Options palette.

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By Function: A draft function specifies the offset of the profile as it moves along the path. The function may be Predefined or Custom, which means it is provided by the user. Predefined is a popup menu with four items: Sine, Cosine, Half-Sine, and Half-Cosine. The application of these functions is also controlled by a Frequency value (the number of repetitions along the path) and a Amplitude parameter (the maximum distance the profile is offset at any point along the path). See following examples.

a b

c dDraft Sweep by Pre Defined using a 10cm circle and a straight line path.

(a) Cosine with Amplitude = 5cm. (b) Sine with Amplitude = 10cm. (c) Cosine with Amplitude = 2.5cm. (d) Sine with Amplitude = 5cm.

In all cases Frequency = 2.When Custom is se-lected, you type an arithmetic expression in its alpha field, which will be executed in generating a draft sweep. What you type should be syntacti-cally correct or otherwise it can not be executed. The table on the right lists the 5 arithmetic symbols and a number of function notations that will be rec-ognized by form•Z. Using these, expressions can be written in the standard algebraic syntax. See ex-amples on the next page.

+ Add- Subtract* Multiply/ Divide^ Exponentlog Common logarithm ( to he base 10)ln Natural logarithm ( to the base e)abs Absolute functionsin Sine functioncos Cosine functiontan Tangent functioncot Cotangent functionsec Secant functioncsc Cosecant functionsinh Hyperbolic Sine functioncosh Hyperbolic Cosine functiontanh Hyperbolic Tangent functioncoth Hyperbolic Cotangent functionsech Hyperbolic Secant functioncsch Hyperbolic Cosecant functionarcsin Arcsine functionarccos Arccosine functionarctan Arctangent functionarccot Arccotangent functionarcsec Arcsecant functionarccsc Arccosecant functionarcsinh Hyperbolic arcsine functionarccosh Hyperbolic arccosine functionarctanh Hyperbolic arctangent functionarccoth Hyperbolic arccotangent functionarcsech Hyperbolic arcsecant functionarccsch Hyperbolic arccosecant functionArithmetic symbols and function notations.

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Certain functions like “tan(x)” are not continuous and hence can not be used directly for the custom function. However, they can be used in combi-nation with other functions to produce continuous results. For instance “tan (cos (x))” produces a continuous result and is shown in (c) above.

The Rotate, Alignment, Cap Start, and Cap End options work as for the other sweeps.

The Display Resolution options are as for all smooth objects.

Example of Draft Sweep of a circle along an arc using custom functions: (a) (x^2)/1000, (b) 10cos(4sin(x/20)), (c) 10tan(cos(x/10)), and (d) -x/10.

Shown in wireframe and shaded render.

a b c d

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The Offset Surface Tool Options palette.

The Thicken Tool Options palette.

Offsetting different surfaces:(a) original and (b) resulting surfaces.

Note that for the solid (far right) a negative offset distance is used.

Thickening a variety of surfaces: (a) original and (b) resulting surfaces.

Offset Surface

This tool is used to offset a surface or a solid at a given distance, which is the only parameter in its tool options palette.

To execute this operation, with the tool active, click on the surface to be offset. The operation is executed immediately and the original object is ghosted. The prepick method can also be used to offset more that one surfaces in one step. See examples below.

Thicken

This tool is used to offset a surface on both sides and, by closing its edges, it produces a solid. In other words, it adds thickness to a surface with no volume. It is executed as the Offset Surface tool. Its tool palette also includes a Justification option, which determines how the offset surfaces will be positioned relative to the original.

When this tool is applied to a solid object, the solid becomes hollow with a wall thickness of the given value.

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A smooth skin derived from the minimi two sources and two paths.

The Skin tool options palette.

A smooth skin derived from two sources and four paths.

Skin

This tool is used to derive surface or solid objects from a set of source shapes and a set of paths. The results can be either a faceted or a smooth object. The set of source shapes must be all open or all closed, while path shapes must be open.

To specify sources and paths explic-ity, use pick sets. With the Skin tool active, hold down the shift key and select source objects in the order that they should be used. When all sourc-es have been picked, release the shift key and click anywhere in the project window. Next, hold down the shift key and pick the path shapes, also in the desired order. When all path objects have been picked, release the shift key and click anywhere in the project window to execute skinning.

If pick sets are not used, input is automatically sorted into a set of sources and a set of paths. Skinning will proceed as soon as four or more acceptable inputs are detected.

Any pair of path and source shapes should have point pairs, or near-est points that are within a distance specified by the Tolerance value in the Skin tool options palette. If a skin operation cannot be completed with a specified tolerance, increase the toler-ance and try again.

The Caps option will create a surface at each end of the skin for a solid result. A facetted skin derived from two

sources and four paths.

A facetted skin derived from the minimi one source and three paths.

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A cross skin derived from four open sources and one path.

All sources start at path and end at apex point.

Cross Skin tool options palette.

A cross skin derived from the minimum one source and one path,

both closed shapes.

A cross skin derived from one open source

and one closed path.End points of source are on path.

Cross Skin

This tool is used to derive surface or solid objects from a set of source shapes and a single path, which is a closed shape always. The sources can be open or closed and a minimum of one source is required. The sources and path need to be facetted shapes. If they are not, they are automatically converted to facetted before the op-eration is executed. The result is also a facetted or meshed object always. The sources and path are placed in the exact positions where they will be used and should have pairs of coinci-dent points with each other or pairs of points should be within a distance no larger than the Tolerance value set in the Cross Skin tool options palette.

To execute this operation, with the C-Skin tool active, select a source directly or more than one source as a set. Then select the path.

A special requirement for the source shapes used for cross skinning are the one or two apex points. If you imagine a straight line axis perpendicular to and going through roughly the center of the path shape, the apex points lie on this axis. If a source is closed, then there are two apex points, one on each side of the path. If there are more than one sources, their apex points need to coincide. The sources can also be open shapes with their end points on the path and an apex point between them; or they can be open shapes with one end point on the path and the other being the apex.

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Round

This tool rounds or bevels objects or parts of objects. It can be applied to facetted or smooth objects, however, facetted are automatically converted to smooth objects with this operation. Rounding can be applied using either the prepick or postpick selection meth-ods to complete objects or parts of objects. A point can only be rounded when the edges that converge to it are also rounded. If you round a point whose edges are not already rounded, they will be rounded with the point.

There are two types of rounding se-lected from the Cross Section pop-up menu: Circular and Bevel. For both there are two ways for setting their size:

Distance: With this option, the size of the rounding/bevel is specified as the distance from the corner point to the beginning of the rounding/bevel.

Radius: With this method, the round-ing is defined as a radius. Note that for orthogonal corners the two meth-ods are equivalent.

When rounding points, their Setback is controlled by three options:

Examples of rounding. (a) Rounding and (b) beveling a

complete object. Rounding (c) a face and (d) three segments.Rounding three converging seg-ments with Setback At Points at

(e) None and (f) Automatic.

Rounding Tool Options palette.

Rounding objects

None: This option applies no setback and the point rounding ends at the edges of the rounded segments.

Automatic: With this option on, a setback is applied whose size is decided automatically by the program.

Distance: The setback of the point rounding is determined by the value entered in this field.

Bulge: This slider bar controls the level of bulge that is applied to the rounding of a point. It increases from left to right.

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Controlled Round

This tool rounds or bevels sequences of edges (segments) called sets. With control rounding, the objects retain their rounding parameters and you can thus re-edit them at any time after their initial rounding to change the rounding parameters.

To apply controlled rounding, with the C-Round tool active, click on the object you wish to round. When you activate the tool, the Controlled Rounding Tool Options palette only displays the Resolution parameter. As soon as you click on an object, the palette is expanded to include ad-ditional parameters. As you proceed to pick more segments to add them to the current set, the content of the pal-ette is adjusted to reflect the param-eters that are applicable to the type of set you currently have at hand.

Once an object is picked with the C-Round tool, roll the mouse cursor over edges. As with picking, candidate edges are highlighted. Clicking on an edge adds it to the current set, which is the set highlighted in the list located at the bottom of the palette.

By default, one set is shown in the list. More sets can be created using the “+” button at the top-left of the list. A single set is always active, which is the one whose name is highlighted. To make another set active, click on that set. The active set is where newly picked segments are added. Active sets can also be deleted using the delete button, next to the add button.

When a segment is added to a set, it is also rounded using the param-eters currently shown in the tool options palette. It is also displayed accordingly in the project window. Changing a value in the tool options palette adjust the rounding applied and shown. To remove a segment from a rounding set, click on it again.

Controlled Rounding Tool Options palette: (a) before and (b) after

picking an object to round.

a

b

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Edges are added to the rounding by picking them, which can be done in three ways: (1) By clicking on a single edge at a time. (2) By clicking inside a face to select all the edges of that face. (3) Whenever edges are con-nected tangentially, instead of clicking on them one at a time, you may press the command key while clicking on an edge (or rolling over it) and you will select the complete sequence of edges with one click. See examples. The most significant characteristic of a set is that the edges in it share the same parameters. All edges of the current set are drawn in the result col-or. All edges that are part of another set, but not the current set, are drawn in black. All edges that are not part of any set are drawn in the ghost color. There are three types of sets, depend-ing on the structure of the edges in it. Each type takes different parameters. Open Sequence: The edges in this set are all connected in a linear se-quence and have open ends. This type of set is affected by the most param-eters, has a direction, and displays an arrow to show the direction. Clicking on the arrow reverses the direction.

Closed Sequence: As in the open sequence, the edges are connected linearly, but the ends of the sequence connect with each other and the set are closed. While there is not start/end to a closed sequence, there is still direction and left/right. An arrow along the edges is displayed again and directions can be reversed.

Types of rounding sets:(a) Open Sequence,

(b) Closed Sequence, (c) Branched Set, and

(d) Branched with rounded point.

Picking for controlled rounding:(a) command click picks tangen-

tial sequence of segments;(b) pick face to pick its segments.

Branched set: The edges of this set do not form a linear sequence, but branch. Since there is not inherent direction, start/end or left/right param-eters are not available. This is the most restrictive type and the one with the fewest parameters.

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Cross Section: One of three rounding profiles can be selected from this pop up menu. Depending on which is active, different parameters are displayed for its control, as follows:

Circular: When this item is selected, an arc is used as a rounding profile.

Distance: When this option is checked, the value entered in its field determines how far from the edge the circular surface touches the faces that converge to the edge.

Radius: With this option on, the value entered specifies the size of the radius of the rounding arc. Note that if the edge is orthogonal, the Distance and Radius options are equivalent.

Start, End: Entering different values in these fields produces rounding of variable radius along the length of a set, which can only be applied to open sets. These parameters are not available to closed and branched sets.

Weights: When this option is on, the rounding of an edge is not a full arc, but its curvature may be reduced by pulling its sides closer to the straight line. This option is not available to branched sets.

Left, Right: The values in these fields represent the weights at each side of the rounding profile.

Bevel: When this item is selected, a straight line is used as a profile.

Distance: With this option, the bevel line is placed at a distance from the edge determined by the value entered in its field.

Offset From Segment: With this option, the position of the bevel line is set by offsetting its ends a certain distance from the edge.

Left, Right: The values in these fields represent the offset dis-tance at each end of the bevel profile. Note that there can be no distinct offsets for the branch sets, for which these options are not available.

Rounding cross sections: (a) circular, (b) bevel, and (c) elliptical.

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Elliptical: When this item is selected, an elliptical profile is used.

Start, End: Separate values can be applied to the beginning and to the end of a set, provided the set is open. Only uniform values can be used for closed sets. For branched sets, there is no elliptical rounding.

Major Radius, Minor Radius: An ellipse is defined by two radii, which are entered in these fields..

Rotation: An angle in degrees that specifies that the elliptical pro-file will also be rotated, when the value in this field is not 0°.

Rounding points: (a) automatic rounding when edges of point are rounded. After clicking on point with C-Round tool and (b) Automatic is on and

(c) Distance is on and set to 4.0.

The Setback At Selected Point part of the Controlled Rounding

Tool Options palette.

When all the edges that converge to a point are rounded, so is that point, which occurs automatically. If you further click on that point with the C-Round tool, the rounding of the point is affected by parameters found in the Setback At Selected Point section of the Controlled Rounding Tool Op-tions palette, as follows:

Automatic: With this option selected, a setback distance is decided and applied by the program.

Distance: With this option selected, the amount of setback is specified explicitly by the values entered in its field. See examples of these two options on the right.

Bulge: This sliding bar can be used to apply additional curvature to the rounding of a point.

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Round Between Faces

This tool generates a round fillet between two faces that can be on the same object or distinct objects. When-ever they are on different objects the two objects are also merged. The ob-jects can be surface or solid objects. See examples on the right.

To apply this operation, with the tool active, click on the two faces between which you wish to generate a round fil-let. Or the two faces can be prepicked with the Pick tool. The size of the fillet is determined by the value entered in the Fillet Radius field in the Tool Options palette for this tool. If the radius is too small or too large for the conditions at hand, an error message is displayed.

When surfaces are involved in this operation the positive/negative ori-entation of the surface is significant, as the last example below illustrates. Note that, depending on the orienta-tion of the surface, different results are produced.

(a) A solid and a surface picked with Round Between Faces tool.Positive side of surface is (b) up and (c) down.

Round Between Faces Tool Options palette.

Rounding between faces of the same object. Pairs of faces picked

are marked with bullets.

Rounding between the face of a sphere and the top face of a cube.

Rounding between the side face of a cylinder and the face of a cube.

Rounding between three single face surfaces.

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Cap

This tool generates a surface to cover a “hole” in an object. To apply it, the boundaries of the hole are clicked with the tool active. This tool always picks at the segment level. Consequently, if the boundary of a hole consists of more than one segment, these seg-ments need to be picked as a set. Such an example is the rectangular object in the figure to the right. Espe-cially when many segments need to be picked, the prepick method can be used.

The Cap Tool Options palette contains two methods for generating a cap:

Tangent Surface: With this option checked, a curved surface that is tan-gent to the surfaces next to the hole to be capped is generated. Its Bulge is controlled by the sliding bar under this option.

Minimal Surface: With this option checked, a simple surface close to flat is generated to cover the hole. See examples of both methods to the right.

(1a) Rectangular, (2a) cylindrical objects with open ends.

Capped with (b) Tangent Surface and (c) Minimal Surface on.

The Cap Tool Options palette.

A free form object with open top that is (1a) flat and (2a) curved.

Capped with (b) Tangent Surface and (c) Minimal Surface on.

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Cover Wire

Recall that a wire is a shape in 3D space that is not planar. When such a shape is closed, it can be transformed to a surface using this tool. With the tool active, click on the shape. The surface is generated immediately. There are no options for this tool.

An example is shown to the right.

Uncover Wire

This tool is the reverse of Cover Wire. Clicking on a surface, it transforms it to a wire, which is derived from the boundary of the surface.

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Project Curve

This tool is used to project an open or closed shape to a surface. With the tool active, click on the shape then on the surface. There are two Projection Methods that are selected from the Project Curve Tool Options palette.

Perpendicular To Reference Plane: With this option on, the shape is projected perpendicularly to the refer-ence plane and the projection on the surface is derived from its intersec-tion with the projection lines. Caution should be applied that the appropriate reference plane is used or otherwise the program will be unable to derive a projection and will issue an error message.

Using Surface Normals: With this option on, the projection lines are per-pendicular (normal) to the surface.

Examples of both options are shown to the right.

Imprint Curve

This tool can be used to imprint (in-tool can be used to imprint (in-sert) a shape to a surface on which it has been projected. With the tool active, click on the shape and the sur-face. There are no options for this tool.

An example is shown to the right.(a) Shapes projected to surface and (b) imprinted to the surface.(Color was added for visibility.)

Project Curve Tool Options palette.

Projecting shapes to a surface (shown in wire frame and shaded).(a) Perpendicular To Ref. Plane.

(b) Using Surface Normals.

Projecting (a) an open spline and (b) a pentagon to a surface.

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Ruled Loft

This tool generates objects from two or more profiles that can be open or closed shapes and facetted or smooth objects. The profiles are picked in the usual manner. That is, if they are two, with the Ruled Loft tool active you click directly on the two profiles. The object is generated after the second click. If the profiles are more than two, with the tool active and while you press the shift key you click on the profiles, in the order you want them lofted. After the last pick, you release the shift key and click somewhere away from a pickable entity. The ob-ject is generated right after this click.

The resulting objects can be solids or surfaces created by fitting ruled surfac-es between each pair of profiles. Recall that a ruled surface is a surface that is generated by sweeping a straight line. The options in the Ruled Loft Tool Options palette control a few variation of ruled lofts:

Closed: When the profiles are in a circular pattern and this option is checked, a donut like object is gener-ated. When not checked, the object only extends up to the last profile.

Caps: When the picked profiles are closed shapes and the Closed option is not checked, if this option is on, the ends of the resulting object are closed with a face, which results in a solid object. If this option is off, the ends re-main open and the object is a surface.

(a) Two profiles. (b) Ruled loft.

Ruled Loft Tool Options palette.

(a) Three profiles, two facetted and one smooth. (b) Ruled loft,

which is a smooth object.

(a) Two open profiles. (b) Ruled loft, which is a surface.

(a) Four profiles. Ruled loft with Closed option (b) off and (c) on.

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Tangent Loft

This tool generates loft objects from any number of profiles, which can be segments or faces of objects. It can also be applied to profiles that are surface shapes or wires (open pro-files) but in the latter cases it can only produce plain lofting and no tangen-cies can be applied. The first (Start) and last (End) profiles picked have an additional significance as the loft can optionally be tangent to them.

When you activate the tool, the Loft Tool Options palette only displays two standard options: Caps and Resolution. After you use the tool to pick two profiles, a loft object is gener-ated immediately and also the Loft Tool Options palette is expanded to display additional options that can be used to modify the object displayed on the screen. The exact content of the tool options palette depends on the type of profiles that were picked. The one shown to the right is displayed when picking the circular faces of the cylinders in (a) of the figure to the right. The figure illustrates the results produced by selecting different combi-nations of options in the palette:

(a) With the Tangent Loft tool active, you click on the bottom circle of the top cylinder and on the top circle of the lower cylinder.

(b) A loft object is generated that has no tangencies applied to it yet.

(c) Object after Tangent At Start and Tangent At End are turned on.

(d) Object after Tangent Magnitude for both Start and End are set to 2.

(e) Object after Switch Tangent Face for Start is clicked and (f) after Switch for End is clicked. Note that the loft surface can be tangent to either the pro-file face picked or to the surface that ends at the boundary of the picked face, if such a surface exists. If it does not then the tangency can not be switched.

Tangent Loft Tool Options palette (a) before and (b) after

profiles have been picked.

Tangent lofts.

a

b

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The image to the right illustrates ob-jects generated when picking two sur-face objects as profiles. In this case the boundaries of the surfaces are loft-ed. Note that, in this case, no option to apply tangencies is made available. Caps is the only option available and turning it on or off produces a solid or surface object, respectively.

If the same surface objects are used (after they are moved a bit), but only a segment is picked from each object as a profile, different results are produced as shown to the right. The picked seg-ments are lofted and the loft surface can optionally be made tangent to either or both of the surfaces to which the profile segments belong.

Recall that, to pick a segment of an object, you place the mouse cursor on the segment and press the tab key as many times as necessary to get to the segment. When the segment is highlighted, you click and the segment is selected.

Segments of solids can also be picked as profiles for tangent lofts, as il-lustrated to the right. In these cases the segments belong to two different faces, each of which can become the basis for the tangency. As before, the Tangent Magnitude of each profile can also be adjusted. If set to values greater than 1, the curvature will extend further from the respec-tive profile. If set to less than one, the curvature will fall off accordingly.

If the start or end profile is a segment of a wire (open) object, no tangency can be applied.

Tangent lofts generated from surface objects as profiles:

(a) The profiles. Lofts generated with Caps (b) off and (c) on.

Tangent lofts generated from segments of surface objects:

(a) Marked with bullets, the segments picked as profiles. Lofts generated with tangencies

(b) off, (c) on, and (d) tangent magnitudes set to 2.

Tangent lofts generated from segments of solid objects:

(a) Marked with bullets, the segments picked as profiles. Lofts generated with tangencies (b) off, (c) on, (d) switched, and magnitudes set to (e) 2 and (f) 3.

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Guided Loft

This tool generates guided lofts from two or more profiles and one or more guides. Note that the guides should be touching the profiles for this op-eration to work. When the minimi two profiles and one guide are used, you pick the operands by clicking directly on them, first on the two profiles and then on the guide. If more than the minimi operands are used, you select the multiple operands as two sets, us-ing the shift key.

Apply Guides Locally: When this option in the Guide Loft Tool Options palette is checked, the one or more guides selected are applied through-out the profiles, as they are lofted. When not checked (default), the guide is only applied locally at the spot where it is placed. See examples.

Caps: When on, it covers the ends of open lofts. See examples.

The profiles used in a guided loft can be open or closed shapes. The guides too can be open or closed shapes. When the guides are closed, donut like objects are generated and if the profiles are also closed the result is a solid object. See the last example on the right.

Guided Loft Tool Options palette.

Guided lofts: (a) Two profiles and one guide.

Apply Guides Globally (b) off and (c) on. (d) Caps on.

Guided lofts: (a) Three profiles and four guides.

Apply Guides Globally (b) off and (c) on. (d) Caps on.

Guided lofts: (1a) Four profiles and open guide. (2a) Four profiles and closed guide.

Apply Guides Globally (b) off and (c) on.

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Perpendicular Loft

This tool generates a solid or surface loft object from two or more profiles, which should be open or closed 2D planar shapes. It can be applied to facetted or smooth shapes, however, the resulting object is always smooth, but can be converted to facetted with the Convert tool.

(a) Three profiles. Perpendicular lofts generated with (b) First, (c) Last, (d) First and Last, (e) All and Closed selected.

Perpendicular Loft Tool Options palette.

(a) Six profiles. Perpendicular lofts generated with Closed (b) off and (c) on.

If the profiles are open shapes, then a surface is generated. If they are closed shapes and the Caps option in the tool options palette is off (de-fault), a surface is generated. If Caps is checked, a solid is generated.

This object may be generated by positioning the loft surface perpendicu-lar to some or all the profiles, which is determined by the item selected from the Perpendicular To pop-up menu. See examples below.

When the profiles are arranged in a circular manner, the last profile is connected to the first, when Closed is checked. See examples below.

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Path Loft

This tool generates lofted objects from two or more profiles and a single path line. It reassembles the guided loft, but the two differ in a few significant ways. • There can be more than one guide, but only one path.

• The guide(s) have to touch the pro-files, but not the path.

• The guides may or may not be ap-plied globally, the paths are always applied globally.

• The guide lofts can be closed, but not the path lofts.

When picking for the generation of path profiles, if the minimum number of two profiles is used, then they are picked by clicking directly on them, and then on the path. If more than two profiles are used then they have to be picked as a set, before picking the path. As mentioned above, there can be only one path, which is thus picked directly always.

(1a) Two and (2a) three profiles with same path.

(b) Path lofts, and (c) Closed.

Path Loft Tool Options palette.

Path lofts derived from three open profiles:

(a) The profiles and path; (b) the path loft.

Path loft derived from five profiles and a semi-circular path.

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Branched Loft

This tool derives lofts that branch from a number of profiles. How many branches will be generated is set in the # Branches field in the Branched Loft Tool Options palette. As with all lofts, how the profiles are picked to generate a branched loft is significant.

First, the profiles of the trunk are picked as a set. Next, one group of profiles is picked as a set for each branch. The branched loft is gener-ated after the set for the last branch has been picked. An example is shown below. In (a) it shows how the profiles were picked to generate the branched lofts in (b) and (c), where in (c) Caps was also checked. Recall that, to pick a set, the profiles are picked by shift clicking on them in the order they will be lofted. The selection of the set is completed by clicking anywhere with the shift key released.

Perpendicular To: This pop up menu contains four options: First, Last, First and Last, and All (default). They determine whether the loft sur-face will be perpendicular to the surfaces of the respective profiles.

Generating branched lofts: (a) Picking the profiles. Cap (b) off, and (c) on.

Path Loft Tool Options palette.

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Specialty tools

Stairs from Path

Straight stairs can be generated from path shapes that can be open. or closed. They can be generated using either the prepick or postpick mode.

In prepick mode, with the Stairs from Path tool active, click on a path and the stair is generated immediately. However, it is still in edit mode and its parameters can be further manipu-lated either through graphic or nu-meric input. See examples of stairs. In postpick mode, with the Pick tool prepick any number of path shapes and then, with the Stairs tool, click anywhere in the project window.

The parameters of the stairs are set in the Stairs from Path Options palette, which contains four tabs: Options, Tiles/Sides, Railings, and Limits.

Type: There are four stair types and two ramp types, which are selected by selecting the respective icon in the palette. See examples.

Layout: There are three layouts, which are picked through their icons. The first generates continuous steps per segment of the stair. The second generates continuous steps through-out the stair and the third generates landings at each turn of the path line, resulting in all steps being rectangular shapes. See examples.

The Options tab of the Stairs from Path options palette.

Examples of stairs from path.

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Align: The sides of the stair are parallel to the path line and can be centered or aligned to the left or right, which is selected from this pop-up menu.

Width: The value typed in this field is the width of the stair.

Height: The value in this field repre-sents the height of either the whole stair (Total) or each flight (Per Flight), set in the pop-up menu.

# Of Flights: The number of flights.

Beam Height: When a beam stair is generated (2nd icon from left) this value determines the height of the beam.

S&R Thickness: When a steps only or a steps and risers type of stair is generated (3rd and 4th icons from left), this value specifies the thickness of the slabs of the steps and risers, if any.

Ramp Height: Applies only to the beam ramp (icon on the right end) and specifies the height of its beam.

Step Calculation: The height (Riser) and depth (Tread) of the steps are defined by entering values in the respective fields or by typing a value for # Of Steps. These fields are cor-related and are adjusted when values are entered to the other ones.

Landing Extensions: When the 3rd layout is generated (with landings), the landings may extend at their Front, Back, or both. How much depends on the values in the respec-tive fields.

Types of straight stairs: (a) solid, (b) beam, (c) steps only, (d) steps and risers, (e) solid ramp, and (f)

beam ramp.

Layouts of stairs.

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The Limits tab of the Stairs from Path options palette.

The Railings tab of the Stairs from Path options palette.

The Tiles/Sides tab of the Stairs from Path tool options palette.

Triangulate: When on, any non-planar surfaces of the stair are triangulated.Stairs can be generated With Tiles on their steps and/or With Side Beams, which are controlled by options found in the Tiles/Sides tab.

Height, Front, Sides: These values determine the size of the tiles.

Width, Above, Under: These values specify the size of the side beams.

Flat At Landings: When a "with landings" type of layout is generated, at the landings, the side beams may follow the overall slope of the stair or they may be locally horizontal, follow-ing the flat slope of the landings.

Stairs may or may not have railings, which is controlled by settings in the Railings tab.

For both rails and columns, a shape can be selected (wire, square, or round). The wire is intended to offer the ability to sweep any shape of a profile after the stair has been gener-ated.

Height: Sets the height of the rails.

Distance From Edge: Specifies the positions of the columns relative to the edge of the stair.

Flat At Landings: As for side beams.

The Limits tab allows you to request that you be warned when certain limits are exceeded relative to the treads and risers of the steps.

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Switchback Stairs

This tool generates switchback stairs from a rectangle. Note that the direc-tion in which the rectangle is drawn is significant. Options for this type of stairs are selected from its tool options palette and they are generally the same with those available for the stair along path. While the same types, in-cluding ramps are available, there are no Layout options for this type of stair since its switchback layout is always standard. Examples are shown below.

The Switchback Stairs options palette (Options tab).

The six structural types available for the switchback stairs.

(a) Clockwise and (b) counter clockwise switchback stairs.

Multi-flight switchback stair.

Switchback stairs can be generated with or without landings depending on whether Landing in the options pal-ette is on or off. They can be Clock-wise or Counter-Clockwise, which is controlled by the respective option in the options palette.

A switchback stair can be of a single flight (the default) or multiple flights, which is controlled by the # Of Flights field in the options palette.

After the initial generation of a switch-back stair the Rotate button appears at the bottom of the options palette. Clicking on it rotates the layout of the stair.

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Spiral Stairs

Spiral stairs are generated by clicking with the respective tool on the refer-ence plane to enter a point, which is the starting point of an axis that ex-tends along the Z direction. This axis is used to revolve a spiral stair around it, according to parameters set in the Spiral Stairs Options palette.

Step Width: This group of values sets the shape of the stair.

Inside Radius, Outside Radius: They specify the radius closest and farthest to the axis, respectively.

Width: The difference between the inside and outside radii gives the width of the stair. However, the width can also be specified by typing a value in this field, which will cause the outside radius to be adjusted accordingly.

The Options tab of the Spiral Stairs options palette.

Height Control: Once the Total Height is set, either the Riser Height or the # Of Steps option can be selected to specify the steps. These two values are correlated and when one changes the other is adjusted.

Length Control: One of three parameters can be used to determine the length of the stair. Total Angle specifies the total rotation in degrees that will be used to cover the specified height. Step Angle specifies an angle per step. In this case the total angle is obtained by multiplying this value with the number of steps. Step Width specifies the width of the steps measured halfway between the sides of the stair.

# Of Segments Per Step: The spiral stair is a facetted object and this value determines the density of the facets of the sides and underneath surfaces of the stair.

Inside and outside radii of the spiral stairs.

# Of Segments Per Step = (a) X and (b) X.

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Direction: One of two directions can be selected from this pop-up menu: Clockwise and Counterclockwise.

Triangulate: As for the stair from path.

The Spiral Stairs Options palette also has tabs for Tiles And Sides, Railings, and Limits, whose contents are as for the stair from path.

Examples of spiral stairs are shown below, where views of both the upper and the under parts of the stairs are shown, on the left and right, respec-tively.

Examples of spiral stairs.

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Roof

Roofs can be generated from 2D shapes or from faces of 3D objects, as shown.

The Roof tool options.

They can be generated in postpick or prepick mode.

In postpick mode, with the Roof tool active, click on a 2D shape or the face of a 3D object. A roof is generated immediately.

In prepick mode, with the Pick tool se-lect any number of 2D shapes and/or faces of objects. Then with the Roof tool, click anywhere in the project win-dow. This is illustrated in Figure 60, where four roofs are generated with one operation.

The options of the Roof can be set in the Tool Options palette, when the Roof tool is active.

Slope: It can be set either as a % or by entering a pair of values for Rise and Run. The two methods are corre-lated, that is when a value is entered for one the other is automatically adjusted in the options palette.

Type: There are two types: Gable and Hip.

The ridge lines of roofs are always along the longest dimension and this is the only option available when hip roofs are generated. When gable roofs are generated from rectangular shapes, the option Short Ridge On Rectangles is available, which posi-tions the ridge line along the shorted dimension.

Roofs generated from (a) a 2D shape and

(b) the face of a 3D object.

Prepicking the top faces of four objects results in four roofs gen-

erated in one step.

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Types of roofs: (a) Gable and (b) Hip.

Structure: There are two structural types: Shell and Solid. The ends (overhangs) of a shell roof may end in three different ways: vertically, diago-nally, or horizontally, as shown in the options palette.

Facia Height: The value entered in this field determines how thick the shell of a roof is.

Overhang: The value entered in this field determines whether the original shape picked for the generation of a roof will be extended to produce an overhang. A 0 value produces no overhang.

While it typically only makes sense to generate roofs from shapes that lie on a plane parallel to the X-Y orientation, there is no such restriction and roofs can be generated in any direction.

A variety of both simple and more complex roofs are shown below.

Gable roofs with their ridge lines positioned along the

(a) long and (b) short dimensions.

A variety of roofs.

Structures of roofs: (a) Solid and (b) Shell.

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Contour DoctorFor the Terrain Model tool, dis-cussed next, to be able to gener-ate a model from contour lines, they need to satisfy certain condi-tions. They should be continuous (not broken), when open they should cross the site line, they should not intersect themselves or each other, and they should be parallel to the plane of the site. If any of these is not satisfied no ter-rain model will be generated.

Contour Doctor Tool Options palette.

The Contour Doctor tool can be used to check the conditions of the contours, report problems, if any, and even correct their faults, if possible. To apply the tool, you pick the contour lines and the site as for the Terrain Model tool, that is, you pick the contours as a set and then the site.

Which acts will be performed is set in the Tool Options palette, which contains a list of six check boxes labeled for the faults that the program can check for. You can choose to check for one, or more of the faults. Note that for the Ends In Site condition the Tolerance value is signifi-cant and should be adjusted according to the scale of your site.

The Action group of choices instructs the program what to do when faults are uncovered. Add To Selection will highlight the problematic contour lines and will exit the operation. Fix If Possible will try to correct some of the problems. For example, if broken contours are encountered, the program will connect them, provided their broken parts are within the tolerance. Also, self-intersecting contours will be corrected. However, if a contour intersects another contour, the problem cannot be corrected.

If Display Results is also checked, it will present the Contour Doctor Results dialog, which shows how many contours were Found to be faulty and how many were Fixed by category of problems.

Contour Doctor Results dialog.

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Terrain Model

Terrain models can be generated from a set of contour lines and a closed shape that represents the boundary of a site. The contour lines can be vector lines or splines, open or closed, laid out in a manner that makes topographical sense. For example, they cannot intersect. Open contour lines should be crossing the site boundaries. They may have a height value (Z is not 0) or they may all lie flat on the ground, in which case we need to instruct the Terrain Model tool to generate heights for them before they are used for the generation of a terrain model.

To derive a terrain model, with the Terrain Model tool active and while pressing the shift key, click on the contour lines, in the order heights need to be assigned to them. If they already have heights, the order is insignificant. After shift-picking the last contour, release shift and click anywhere in the project window, then, with the Terrain Model tool still active, click on the site. The terrain model is generated immediately.

There are three types of terrain models, which can be selected from the Terrain Model Tool Options palette.

Meshed: The site surface is meshed and then the heights of its points are adjusted according to the heights of the contour lines. The latter is done through interpolation, which may be more or less accurate, depending on the option selected from the Interpola-tion pop-up menu. The density of the mesh depends on the value entered for Mesh Size. Turning on Triangu-late produces a triangulated mesh, which is a variation of the plain mesh.

Stepped: The contour lines are inserted to the site and then extruded according to their heights.

Terrain Model Options palette.Triangulated: The contours are again inserted in the site, but are not extruded. After they are positioned to the appropriate heights, the non-planar surfaces between them are triangulated.

Site (Starting) Height: The value in this field specifies the lowest eleva-tion of the terrain model, which becomes the basis for the other eleva-tions.

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(a) Set of contour lines and site. Terrain model types: (b) meshed, (c) trian-gulated mesh, (d) stepped, and (e) triangulated contours.

Contour Heights: There are two options in this group: Use Existing and Set New. The former is used when the contour lines already have heights. The latter when heights need to be assigned, which is done us-ing the value in the Interval field.

Smooth At Interval: This option applies only when the contours are vector lines, rather than splines, which are already smooth. When on, the vector lines are rounded. This option only impacts the stepped and triangulated terrain types. It has no effect on the meshed models.

Precheck For Intersecting Contours: As already mentioned, the contours being horizontal slices of landforms, generally make no sense to intersect each other. Intersecting contours are not accepted by the stepped and triangulated types, which will fail when the condition is encountered. This option instructs the program to check the contours before any attempt is made to generate a 3D model.

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Gears

The Gear tool creates simple involute tooth gears, the size and shape of which are governed by three parameters: the diametral pitch, the number of teeth, and the pressure angle.

Gear

This tool may be executed in two dif-ferent ways: With a single click, when Preset is checked, or with two or three dynamically entered clicks, when Dynamic is checked. These and other options are selected from its Tool Op-tions palette.

Model Type: Either Facetted or Smooth gears can be generated.

Type: Gears can be either Surface or Solid objects.

The Gear Tool Options palette.

When the Creation Method is Preset, additional parameters need to be set. Width is only used when Solid is selected and represents the distance between the two flat faces of the gear. Number Of Teeth is the tooth count and is used in determining the outer diameter of the gear and the gear ratio of any final gear train. Outer Diameter is a non-editable information field that displays the size of the outer diameter, which is calculated from the number of teeth and the diametral pitch.

When Dynamic is used, the gear is generated through two or three mouse clicks, depending on whether it is a surface or solid object, respectively. The first click sets the center of the base. The second click establishes the diameter (size) of the gear. If it is a solid gear, the third click sets the width (extrusion distance) of the gear.

The remaining options, at the lower end of the Gear Tool Options pal-ette, determine the shape of the teeth of the gear.

Diametral Pitch: This is the ratio between the number of teeth and a unit diameter distance and determines the number of teeth a gear has for a unit of diameter. For example, a diametral pitch of 20 teeth/inch means that a gear with 20 teeth will have a diameter of one inch, measured at the effective point of contact. A larger pitch value will result in a gear

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with more teeth for a given diameter. Consequently, the diameter of the pitch circle (d) is the product of the diametral pitch (pd) and the number of teeth (N): d = (pd)(N). If all other parameters are unchanged, a larger pitch results in a smaller outer diameter.

Pressure Angle: This parameter determines the ‘steepness’ of the gear teeth. Smaller values will produce thinner gears that have less drag but are also weaker. 14.5º and 20º are common standard values. Note that gears that are intended to mesh should have identical values for both the Pressure Angle and Diametral Pitch. See examples below.

Gear teeth with pressure angle at (a) 20°, (b) 14.5° and 26°, and (c) 14.5°.

a b c

Base Fillet Radius: This value is used to create a fillet at the bottom cor-ners of the land between teeth. It is ignored if there is insufficient clear-ance between teeth for the requested value. Generally, large numbers of teeth or large pressure angles will create crowding and require smaller base fillet radius values.

Center Bore Radius: This option will create a central hole in the gear blank. It will be ignored if a value is given that is larger than the outer diameter of the gear.

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Screws and boltsThe screws and bolts are composite heli-cal objects of revolution. They consist of three parts: the body or thread; the neck or grip; and the head. One end of the screw body may have a tip, where the threads are scaled, resulting in a pointed end. The parts of a screw/bolt are shown on the right. All screws/bolts must have a body or they can not be generated. The other parts, namely the neck, the head, and the tip, are optional, and may or may not exist. The same algorithm is used for the construc-tion of the threads for both screws and bolts. Whether a screw or a bolt is gener-ated depends on the shape produced by the parameters selected. Screws typically have a tip and a conic head. Bolts typi-cally have flat ends or very short tips, and round heads. Both can have either slotted or Phillips grooves on their heads. Need-less to say, there are many other varia-tions of screws and bolts.Screws that consist of only a body and its threads are useful for attaching to objects such as bottles or other types of contain-ers, after drilling a hole through them, as illustrated on the right. While there is no direct way to generate nuts, they can be easily constructed by differencing (Bool-ean Difference) the threads of a bolt from an object with the appropriate shape for a nut. Variations of screws, bolts, and nuts are shown on the right. Screws, bolts, and nuts.

Threads attached to a tooth paste container and to its cap.

The parts of a screw/bolt.

tip

body/thread

neck/grip

head

form•Z offers two tools for generating screws and bolts: the Screw/Bolt and the Detailed Screw/Bolt tool. The former generates faceted objects only, while the latter both smooth and facetted objects. The former are generally quicker to execute, while the latter require more time, due to their more refined details.

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Screw/Bolt

Clicking with this tool on an axis gener-ates a screw/bolt. The axis can be one of the coordinate axes or a segment of an object. The direction of the screw/bolt is determined by the direction of the axis. Where you click when selecting the axis is significant as it determines the position of the head.

The parameters for the screws/bolts are selected from the Screw/Bolt Tool Options palette. The three major parts of a screw (Head, Grip, and Thread) require Diameter and Length param-eters to be entered. The palette also contains a non-editable information field labeled Total Length that dis-plays the total length of the screw/bolt, which is the sum of the lengths of the thread, grip, and head. It is updated every time one of the Length values (except for Tip) is changed.

Screw/Bolt Tool Options palette.

The Tip requires only a Length value, which is where a pointed end will be generated. This cannot be greater than the length of the thread.

Under Head there are five icons representing different shapes of heads that can be attached to a screw/bolt: round conic, semi-spherical, round flat with round edges, hexagonal, or square head. Any shape of head can have no Drive or a Slotted or Phillips groove. The Threads are specified using one of two methods. By # Of Cycles specifies the number of cycles. The distance between the threads is de-termined by dividing the length of the body by the number of cycles. By Distance specifies the distance between the threads. The total number of cycles is determined by dividing the length of the body by the distance.Shaft is a percentage and representing the portion of the space between two threads that will be occupied by the shaft. Should be less than 100.Depth specifies the depth of the thread. The Points Per Cycle value represents the resolution of the screw/bolt, that is, the number of revolu-tion steps per cycle (360°).By default screws and bolts are right handed (clockwise). When Left Handed is checked, they become counter-clockwise.

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Detailed Screw/Bolt

Clicking with this tool on an axis of a reference plane or on a line gener-ates a screw or bolt positioned along the selected axis or line. Clicking on a reference plane generates a screw or bolt perpendicular to the reference plane.

The parameters of a detailed screw or bolt are set in the dialog. The dialog contains two tabs: Options and Reso-lution. The latter is as the same tab in other dialogs. The options in the former tab are as follows:

Model Type can be Facetted or

Detailed Screw/Bolt Tool palette.Smooth.

The Dimensions group lists the parts of these screws/bolts (Head, Nominal, Grip, Thread, and Tip), all except one of which have a check box in front of them. Checking the box indicates that this part will be in-cluded. On the right of the list of parts there are two columns labeled Di-ameter and Length. In these fields values for the parts are entered. Next to the Length column there are three radio buttons, which are mutually exclusive and only one can be on, indicating that the respective value will be calculated from the other values.

The Head popup menu contains nine items: Flat, Round, Oval, Cheese, Pan, Button, Hex, Square, and None. The diameter and length of these may is specified independently, except for Round and Oval, whose

Head shapes available for detailed screws/bolts.

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length depends on the diameter. These shapes are illustrated below.

The Drive is a recessed shape in the head that allows some type of a screw driver to be engaged with the head. The popup menu contains four items: Slot, Phillips, Allen, and Square. Entering values for Depth and Width completes their definition. These values are independent of each other, except for Phillips whose width is determined by its depth.

Drive shapes available for detailed screws/bolts.

Shapes of threads: (a) Machine, (b) Acme, and (c) Wood. a b c

See illustrations below.

The size and shape of a Thread are determined by the cross section of the thread profile and the density of the threads along the length of the barrel. The depth of a thread is a function of Density (number of threads per unit length) and Pitch (distance between points on two adjacent threads). These two parameters are reciprocals of each other. Density is typically used for English units of measure and Pitch for metric. Which parameter is shown is determined by the current Working Units.Shape is the cross section of the thread profile. There are three options:Machine is a standard 60° ISO profile, typically used for both English and Metric static fasteners, such as nuts and bolts. Acme is a stron-ger profile, often used to transfer motion with feedscrews or to position fixtures and vises. Wood is a profile covered with a 60° tooth in only 50% of its surface, which is appropriate for smoother materials, such as wood.

See examples of thread shapes below.

Facetted Model Options contains one more option that is unique to the facetted screws/bolts. Points Per Cycle determines the resolution of the thread of a facetted screw/bolt, as for the plain screws/bolts.

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Meshing, displacing, and triangulating

The Mesh Tool Options palette.

(a) Original object, (b) whole object meshed, and

(c) selected faces meshed.

(a) Original object, (b) default mesh direction, and

(c) mesh after rotation.

Mesh

This tool is used to generate a rect-angular mesh to either all or selected faces of an object. To apply it, with the tool active, click on an object, which meshes the whole object. Or, to mesh a face individually, apply the opera-tion as above, but use the tab key to select the face you wish to mesh. See examples of both. The prepick method can also be used to mesh more than one face in one step.

The size of the mesh is determined by X and Y parameters in the Mesh Tool Op-tions palette. When the lock option is on they are constrained to the same value.

When a complete object is meshed, the direction of the mesh is deter-mined by the program. When applied to a single face, after the initial gen-eration of a mesh, the user has the opportunity to move it and to rotate its direction through a circular control that appears as soon as the mesh is gen-erated. The orientation of the mesh can also be set by entering a value in the Angle field. See illustration.

Four options in the tool palette affect the positioning of the mesh. Normal Alignment does no adjustment. Cen-ter On Line places a mesh line at the center of a face and then arranges the mesh on both sides. Center Between Lines places the center of a tile at the center of a face. Fit Increment adjusts the given tile sizes so that only complete tiles are generated.

a b c d

(a) Normal Alignment, (b) Center On Line,

(c) Center Between Lines, and (d) Fit Increment.

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3D Mesh

This tool is used to generate a con-sistant 3d mesh across all faces of an object. To apply it, with the tool active, click on an object. The prepick method can also be used to mesh more than one object in one step. The initial size of the mesh is deter-mined by the X, Y, and Z parameters in the tool options palette. When the Lock option is on they are con-strained to the same value. When an object is meshed, the initial direction of the mesh is determined by the program, but it can also be determined from the initial click point. The mesh direction will run parallel to the edge that is clicked when the tool is applied. After the initial generation of a mesh, the user has the opportunity to move it's origin and to rotate its direction through a 3D controller that appears as soon as the mesh is generated. The values for the mesh's origin and rotation can be also entered numeri-cally in the tool options palette. Three options in the tool palette affect the positioning of the mesh. Center On Line places a mesh line at the center of a face and then arranges the mesh on both sides. Center Between Lines places the center of a tile at the center of a face. Fit Increment adjusts the given tile sizes so that only complete tiles are generated.

The 3D Mesh Tool Options palette.

The 3D Mesh Tool Options palette after clicking on an

object and starting the meshoperation.

(a) Center on Line, (b) centerbetween lines, (c) and fit

increment.

(a) Original Object, (b) mesh direction after clicking on high-

lighted edge, (c) and mesh direc-tion after rotation.

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Polygon Mesh

This tool is used to generate a mesh, which can be triangular or rectangular or a mixture of the two. Which is gen-erated is selected from the Polygon Type pop-up menu in the Polygon Mesh tool options palette. The op-tion are: All Triangles, Triangles On Fringe Only, No Triangles, Full Grid, and No Triangles, Quad Tree. They are illustrated below.

The tool options palette also contains two methods for setting the density (resolution) of the mesh. Simple Op-tions contains a single Resolution setting, which can be changed either graphically, by moving the slide bar, or numerically, by typing a number in its field. See an example to the right. The Expert Options offer you a number of detailed parameters for controlling the resolution.

Types of meshes on (1) a solid and (2) a surface.(a) Original object, (b) All Triangles, (c) Triangles On Fringe Only,

(d) No Triangles, Full Grid, and (e) No Triangles, Quad Tree.

Polygon Mesh tool options palette.

Controlling the resolution of the mesh: (a) original object and

resolution at (b) 10%, and (c) 80%.

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Unmesh

This tool does the opposite of Mesh. It merges coplanar faces that share an edge, which effectively erases a mesh. To apply it, with the tool ac-tive, click on a meshed object or face. The result appears immediately. See example. If applied to a non-meshed object, this operation has no effect. This operation can also be applied by picking two or more faces that have common edges.

Reduce Mesh

This tool can be used to reduce the number of faces of an object, by merging adjacent faces that enclose an angle that is less than a specified threshold. It can also be used to reduce the number of segments in a face by merging adjacent segments. It can be applied at the Object or Face levels using either the postpick or prepick selection method. The following parameters affect this tool and are set in its Options palette.

(a) Original meshed object and (b) after Unmesh tool applied.

Face Angle: This value determines whether two adjacent faces will be merged. If their normals are at an angle smaller or equal to this value, the two faces are merged into a single face.

Edge Angle: This value determines if two adjacent segments will be merged. This option applies to boundary segments only.

Only Merge Faces With The Same Color or Texture Map Control: When one of these options is only, only faces with the same color or that are part of the same texture map control and meet at a small enough angle are merged.

Reduce Mesh tool options palette.

The meshes of a sphere and a paraboloid are reduced.

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Polygonize

This tool creates a vector (polygonal) line from a picked spline. The former is as good an approximation of the latter as the options selected from the tool's options palette allow. These op-tions can be used one at a time or in combination.

Number Of Segments: The number given in this field determines how many segments will be generated for the vector line approximation.

Minimize Tangent Deviation: It mini-mizes the angle between segments of the vector line and the tangents to the curve at the intersection points.

Minimize Point Deviation: Minimize the distance of the points of the vector line from the curve.

Polygonizing a spline:(a) Original spline.

(b) No option applied.(c) Minimize Tangent Deviation.

(d) Minimize Point Deviation.(e) Equal Length Segments.

(f) Equal Angles Between Segments.

Polygonize tool options palette.

a b c

d e f

Equal Length Segments: Creates a vector line where the lengths of the segments vary as little as possible. When this option is used by itself, the lengths of the segments are exactly equal.

Equal Angles Between Segments: Creates a vector line with minimized variations of angles between segments.

Show Points: When this option is on, the points will be shown as soon as they are generated and they are in the result buffer. Points can be shown permanently by turning on the Show Points option in the Display palettes.

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DisplacementThis tool imprints a preferably black-and-white image onto a surface or an object, by meshing the surface and then pulling or pushing the tiles of the mesh according to the color of the image, thus producing 3D surfac-es. To apply the operation, with the tool active, click on the surface or on the object. This tool initially has no tool options, but as soon as an object is picked the Displacement Edit dialog is invoked. It contains a variety of settings that will control the details of the displacement operation and also a Preview area where the current status of the operation and the effects of the different options may be displayed.

a

bc

(a) Displacement Edit dialog. (b) Displacement Map Options dialog.(c) Displacement Map View dialog.

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Under the Preview area are the usual controls for navigating the view and selecting a display mode. Further down there is a view of the cur-rently linked displacement map. Its proportions can be adjusted or a new map can be selected. Clicking in the map preview area invokes the Displacement Map Options dialog (see previous page), which contains a few buttons in addition to the displacement image.

View... invokes the Displacement View dialog, shown on the previ-ous page. It again displays the displacement map in its window in a red boundary frame. Points marked on this frame can be dragged to resize the image. Pressing Load... allows you to load another image. Any bit map based image file can be used as a displacement map.

When Use Alpha Channel is on, the gray scale value in the image's 4th (or alpha) channel is used, rather than that in the red-green-blue chan-nels. When Invert is on, the gray scale information is inverted (black becomes white and vice versa).

Either the Original or the Displaced object can be previewed by select-ing the respective button. When the former is on, you have the option to Draw Tiles and/or turn on Snap. The original object is used to select the one or more faces where displacement will occur and there are two but-tons to Select All Faces or to Deselect All Faces.

When Displaced is on, the shape of the object after displacement has been applied is previewed. The displacement itself is affected by a variety of parameters set on the right side of the dialog. To see the effect of each new setting, after you change a parameter, press Update. You need to do this or otherwise your changes will not be visible.

Origin, Rotation: The values in these fields determine the position and orientation of the displacement coordinate system. Pressing Center places the origin at the center of the object and pressing Reset sets all rotation angles to 0's.

Mapping Type: There are three: Flat, Cylindrical, and Spherical. These are similar to those used for mapping textures onto surfaces.

Horizontal / Vertical Tiling: The options in these groups control the placement of the displacement image (map) relative to the object that will be displaced. Size is the size of the image. When Center is on, the image is centered relative to its origin. Otherwise, its lower-left corner is placed on the displacement origin. When Mirror is on, the image is mirrored in the respective direction. When Infinite is on, as many images as neces-sary to cover the length of the object are placed in the respective direc-tion. Alternatively, numbers may be entered in the Times fields, indicating exactly how many times the image will be repeated. The default is 1.

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Lock Size To: This pop-up menu allows you to set the proportions of the displacement map to a specific value. That is, if the size in one direction is changed, the other is adjusted automatically to maintain proportions according to the selection from this menu. There are five options: None imposes no restrictions and causes no adjustment. Square Tile causes the horizontal and vertical tile sizes to be equal. Current Proportions causes the proportions to be set to the proportions present at the time this menu was last selected. Displacement Map preserves the proportions of the displacement image. Object Extent causes the tile sizes to be auto-matically adjusted to a round number of copies that fit exactly across the object, in its respective direction.

Min, Max: These values represent the displacement applied to each point of the image, which is relative to its gray scale. White indicates the maxi-mum displacement, while black is the minimum. If 0 is entered in Min, all black areas will remain at the level of the original surface. If a negative number is entered, cavities will be created for the black areas.

Smoothness: The value set through this slider bar or entered in its field controls the smoothness relative to the original displacement image. A 0 preserves the smoothness of the image. Larger values apply a blur, which softens sharp areas, resulting in smoother curves and some loss of detail.Adaptive Meshing: This group of options offers additional means for

a

b

Two displacements: (a) displacement maps and (b) displaced objects.

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meshing objects, when the initial meshing appears rough and insufficient. This type of meshing recursively subdivides the original faces as needed to match the details of a displacement. The three available options deter-mine how many times a face will be subdivided.

Max # Of Subdivisions indicates the maximum number of times a face may be subdivided. Decrease the number with caution because even small numbers may generate a large number of faces. Max Segment Length imposes a size limit to the subdivision process. Threshold is a percentage that controls the level of subdivisions in areas where there are significant differences in grayscale tones. To decide whether a tile will be further subdivided, color samples are take at the center and the corners of the tile. If the difference in gray tone is less than this value, no more subdivisions are performed. Thus, lower Threshold values cause more subdivisions. When this value is 0 (the default) it essentially imposes no limits. The level of subdivision is ultimately determined by a combined evaluation of these three parameters.

Triangulate Mesh triangulates the tiles the process generates.

Smooth Mesh only applies to spherical and cylindrical mapping. If on, the meshed object first takes a cylindrical or spherical shape and then the displacement is applied, which results in a smoother mesh. See example on the right.

a b

Spherical displacements with Smooth Mesh (a) off and (b) on.

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The Triangulate tool options palette.

Top: planar. Bottom: non planar. (a) Original objects. Triangulated with (b) Non Planar Faces Only,

and (c) Triangulate All Faces.

Triangulate

This tool is used to triangulate a facet-ted object, which is useful when the object has non planar faces and we wish to recover planarity. To apply it, with the tool active click on an object, or a selected face of an object, if we only wish to triangulate that face. A few variations of the tool are set in its tool options palette.

Non Planar Faces: Causes only non-planar faces to be triangulated.

Strict Planarity Test: This option, when on, applies a stricter mathemati-cal criterion when deciding what is planar. When off, slight deviations from planarity are excused.

Triangulate All Faces: Triangulates all faces regardless of whether they are planar or not.

Triangulation Methods: There are four and their differences are illustrated in the palette. Examples are also given. Examples of the four triangula-

tion methods.

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Editing lines and splinesThe Edit suite contains tools that allow you to change line and spline objects after their initial generation with one of the drawing tools.

BreakThis tool breaks an open or closed vector line or spline shape at the click point. To apply it, with the tool active click where you want to break. The op-eration is executed immediately. See example.

If Opening is on in the options palette, a gap is created at the click position. The size of that opening is determined either By Length or By Offset to the Left and/or Right.

Break with LineThis tool breaks an open or closed vector line or spline at the point where another line/spline intersects it. To apply it, with the tool active click on the line to be broken and then on the line that will break it. The operation is executed immediately and is affected by the same options that apply to the Break tool. See example to the right.

CloseThis tool closes the ends of an open shape with a straight segment. It has no effect when the shape is already closed. To apply it, with the tool active, click on the open shape. The operation is executed immediately. See examples.

Break: (a) Original lines. (b) Click points and (c) results

(after moving some parts).

Close: (a) Original open shapes and (b) the results.

The Break tool options palette.

Break with Line: (a) Original lines and (b) the broken line

after clicking on 1, then 2.

1

2 ba

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TrimThis tool trims two segments at their point of intersection. To apply it, with the tool active click on the lines you wish to trim, close to the ends you want to trim. See examples.

Extend SegmentThis tool extends an open line, spline, or arc at the end that is the closest to the click point. How far it is extended is determined by the value entered in the Distance field of its options palette or the value entered in the Percentage field. See examples.

Extend To

This tool extends an open line, spline, or arc to its point of intersection with another line, spline, or arc. To apply the tool first click on the line to be extended and then on the line that intersects it. See examples.

(a) Original lines, (b) trimmed, and (c) joined. Note that (b) and (c) look the same but in (b) there are two lines while in (c) just one.

Extend Segment options palette.

Extending lines to other lines by clicking on 1, 2, then on 3, 4, and

finally on 5, 6.

Extending a line and a vector line with the click points marked.

1

2

3

4

56

Extending a spline to a circle by clicking on 1 and 2.

1

2

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Connect Ends

This tool connects the ends of two open lines, by generating a new segment that starts and ends at the open ends of the lines. To apply it, with the tool active, click close to the ends you wish to be connected. Different ends may be con-nected by clicking at different points of the lines, as illustrated in the example.

Connect Lines/Wires

This tool connects the ends of one or more lines by generating a segment from the last point of the line picked first to the first point of the line picked second, and so on. To apply it, either prepick the lines you wish connected and then with the Connect Lines tool click anywhere in the graphic window. Alternatively, you can pick the lines you wish connected as a set using the Con-nect Lines tool directly. If you select Close Line Sequence from its Tool Options palette, then the last line will also be connected to the first producing a closed shape.

Join LinesThis tool joins the ends of two or more open lines, whenever they are within the Tolerance distance, which is set in the Tool Options palette. To apply it, with the tool active click on the lines you wish to join. After the operation is complete all lines that were joined become one. See example.

The Join Tool Options palette.

Connecting segments in different ways by clicking

at different spots.

The Connect Lines/Wires Tool Options palette.

Connecting lines with Close Line Sequence (a) off and (b) on.

a

b

Joining lines.

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Fit Fillet / Bevel

This tool is used to generate either circular fillets or straight line bevels on the corner points of a shape, which can be open or closed. These can be applied to the whole shape with a single operation or to individual points, or segments. In the latter case the two points at the ends of the segment are rounded or beveled. To apply this operation, with the tool active click on a shape, or use the command (Macintosh) or control (Windows) key to select a point or a segment. See examples.

Whether a fillet or a bevel is gener-ated is set in the Fit Fillet/Bevel tool palette, where a few more options are available.

The Fit Fillet/Bevel tool options palette.

(a) Original shapes, (b) fillets, and (c) bevels.

Top: applied to complete shape; bottom: applied to some points.

The size of the Circular fillet may be defined as a Radius or as a Distance. The size of the Bevel can be defined as an Offset from the corner point or as a Length of the bevel.

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Remove PointThis tool is used to remove a point from an open or closed vector line shape. There are no options for this tool. To apply the operation, with the tool active, click on the point to be removed. The previous of the picked point is linked to the next, which ef-fectively removes (deleted) the picked point. If the shape is open and one of the end points is removed, the seg-ment adjacent to it is also removed. See examples on the right.

Insert PointThis tool is used to insert a point on an edge of an object, which can be a wire, a surface, or a solid. To apply the operation, with the tool active, click on the position of the segment where you wish a point to be inserted. To make the result visible, you should turn on the Show Points option in the Inter-active tab of the Display Options palette. See examples.

Insert SegmentThis tool allows you to draw a single segment line on a closed surface object or a face of a solid object, which it then inserts to the surface, causing the surface to be split in two. The ends of the line should be on the boundary of the closed surface, either on a point or on a segment. The surface can be either flat or non-planar. This tool can also be used to manually triangulate non-planar surfaces to make them planar.

(a) An open shape and removing (b) point 1, and (c) point 2.

(a) A closed shape and removing (b) point 1, and (c) point 2.

(a) Original lines and (b) after inserting two new points in each.

a b

Inserting segment to (a) a surface and (b) a solid object.

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Draw Tangent

This tool creates common tangent lines between two circles, arcs, or curves. To do so, with the tool active click on the two curves. When there are several common tangents for a pair of curves, the end points of the tangent will be placed closest to the click points. See example, where two different tangents are drawn for the same pair of circles.

Draw Perpendicular

This tool creates a common perpen-dicular line between two circles, arcs, or curves. To do so, with the tool active click on the two curves. When there are several common perpendicular lines possible for the same pair of curves, the one with end points closest to the click points will be drawn. See example, where perpendicular lines between two different types of curves are drawn.

Perpendicular lines drawn for pairs of different types of curves.

Two different tangents drawn between the same pair of circles.

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Examples of curves:(a) original vector lines, (b) NURBS Curves, and

(c) Spline Curves Through Points.

Curve Create tool options palette.

NURBS curves

Curve Create

This tool creates a NURBS Curve or a Spline Curve Through Points from a vector line. The desired type is se-lected from the tool's options palette. To generate a curve, with the tool ac-tive, click on a vector line, which can be either open or closed. The spline curve is generated immediately and appears in edit mode, which means that its control points can still be manipulated. When the vector line is closed and a NURBS is generated the Smooth Closure option determines how its closing point will be treated.

The value in Max Degree, in combi-nation with the number of points in the vector line, determine the degree of the curve. For NURBS, the degree is n-1, where n is the number of points in the vector line, if that number is less than the Max Degree. If it is greater, then n is equal to the Max Degree. For splines, the degree is n+1.

Knot Type is a popup menu contain-ing three items: Uniform, Chord Length, and Centripetal. These produce different shapes when the lengths of the segments in a vector line differ significantly. See examples.

Types of splines:(a) original vector line,

(b) Uniform, (c) Chord Length,and (c) Centripetal.

a c

b d

a

b

c

Curve Convert

This tool converts a spline curve to a NURBS curve. To execute the operation, with the tool active, click on the spline to be converted. Note that the appearance of the curve will not change, but if you use the Pick tool to read information about the new personality of the curve, it will be

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identified as NURBS and will also show you the degree of the curve.

Curve By Formula

This tool creates curves from math-ematical formulas that can be entered by a user in its Options palette or they can be selected from a Library where they are prestored.

To generate a formula curve, click on the reference plane. This will invoke a 2D bounding rectangle or a 3D box, depending on whether the curve is defined in just 2 or 3 dimensions. The bounding shapes are rubber banded and you can dynamically manipulate their size to control the size of the curve. Once the size is set you still have controls, such as magnitude ar-rows displayed, which can be further manipulated to adjust parameters of the curve. In addition, you can make adjustments by numerically changing some part of the formula displayed in the tool options palette.

Clicking on the Library... button, invokes the Preview Display dialog, from where a prestored formula curve can be selected. When you do this the parameters of the curve are displayed in the tool options palette, where you can still change them if so desired.

Curve By Formula Tool Options palette.

Curve By Formula Preview Display dialog.

Two of the curves prestored in the Curve By Formula Library.

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The Curve Reconstruct palette.

The curve can be generated with a click of the mouse. See examples of two prestored curves.

Curve Reconstruct

This tool replaces a curve with a new NURBS curve of different specifica-tions, set in the tool options palette. The new curve is a best approximation of the previous one. To reconstruct a curve, with the Curve Reconstruct tool active, click on the curve. The degree and number of control points of the curve are displayed in the tool options palette, which appears as soon as you click on a curve (and not when you activate the tool).

When a new value is entered into the New Degree or Number Of Control Points or Tangent Deviation fields, the curve is reconstructed according to those new parameters. The deviations from the previous curve are displayed in the Results Analysis section and if Show Devia-tion is on the differences between the two curves are shown graphically.

Curve Attach

This tool attaches a curve to another curve. The attached curve remains in its position if Move is off, or it is moved so that the tangents at the two attached ends match. When it is moved it may retain its original orienta-tion or it may be mirrored, if Flip is on.

When Adapt is on, the initial attach-ment may be further refined either graphically through displayed controls or through the options in the palette.

Continuity is a popup menu contain-ing five items that represent different types of continuity. The Retract End

Curve Attach tool options palette.

Attaching: (a) Original curves. With Move (b) off and (c) on.

Flip (c) off and (d) on.

a b A

B

c d

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slide rule allows you to reposition the ends of the curves along their lengths, which can also be done graphically by moving the control points at the ends of the curves.

Curve Blend

This tool creates a geometrically con-tinuous blend between two input curves.

To create a curve blend, activate the Curve Blend tool and click on two curves near the ends that you wish to blend. You can also select the ends of the same curve, which results in a blend curve that is created between the endpoints of the same curve.

The desired geometric continuity of the blend can be selected for each input curve from the following choices in the drop down menus in the tool options palette:

G0: The position of the endpoints of the blend curve will match the cor-responding endpoints of the input curves. Specifically, the starting point of the blend curve will match the chosen endpoint of the first input curve, while the ending point of the blend curve will match the chosen endpoint of the second input curve.

G1: The position and tangent direction of the blend curve at the end-points will match the position and tangent direction at the corresponding endpoints of the input curves.

G2: The position, tangent direction and radius of curvature at the end-points of the blend curve will match the position, tangent direction and radius of curvature at the corresponding endpoints of the input curves.

G3: The conditions of G2 will be satisfied, and the acceleration of cur-vature (the rate of change of the radius of curvature with respect to the arc-length of the curve) will also be matched.

G4: The conditions of G3 will be satisfied, and the rate of change of cur-vature acceleration (with respect to the arc-length of the curve) will also be matched.

In practical terms, the higher the geometric continuity, the smoother and more natural the blend between curves will appear.

When the blend is created, two direction arrows will appear along the endpoint tangents of the input curves. Adjust the shape of the blend by changing the magnitude of the blend endpoint tangents with these ar-rows. You may also switch on the Flex Point option, which will give you

Curve Blend tool options palette.

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an additional control point that allows much greater control over the shape of the blend.

Curve MergeThis tool combines two curves into one, adding a connecting segment if necessary. To merge curves, with the tool active, click on two curves near the ends that you wish to connect.

The curves do not have to be touching. They will be merged into a single curve in the result buffer, with a new segment of minimal variation con-necting them, if the endpoints do not touch. Yellow, dotted curve guides indicate the extension path. When an end point control is selected, the corresponding guide turns red, highlighting the extension path along which it can move. When the merged curve is created, control points mark the original position of the endpoints of each of the input curves. The portions of the merged curve corresponding to the original curves can be retracted or extended by moving the control points to interactively adjust the shape of the connecting section.

Curve Merge tool options palette.

Curve Extend tool options palette.

A curve can be merged with itself and closed. To do this, select the two end points of the same curve or the curve and one of its end points.

Curve Extend

This tool interactively extends a curve along a path determined by the direction and curvature of the curve at either endpoint.

To extend a curve, activate the Curve Extend tool and click on the curve to be extended. Control points will appear at both ends of the curve. Click on either control point and move the control outwardly to extend the curve on that side, or back along the curve to shorten. A yellow, dotted curve guide indicates the extension path. When an end point control is selected, the corresponding curve guide turns red, highlighting the exten-sion path along which the control can move.

By default, the tool uses the position and curvature at the endpoints to determine an extension path. However, you may choose the Mirror op-tion instead to extend the curve by a mirror image of itself in either direc-tion. If Mirror is checked or unchecked while an extended curve is in the

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results buffer, the extension control points will be reset to the original bounds of the curves.

Curve SplitThis tool allows you to split a curve into two. To execute the operation, with the Curve Split tool, click at the posi-tion where you wish to split the curve. The curve is broken at that point,

Curve Knot Insert options palette.

Curve Split tool options palette.

which can then be moved graphically or numerically.

The distances of the split point from the start and end points are dis-played in the Curve Length 1 and Curve Length 2 fields in the Tool Option palette. The total of these two values is equal to the length of the curve. Typing another value in one of the fields moves the split and the val-ue in the other field is also adjusted.

Curve Knot Insert

This tool is used to add a knot to a NURBS curve, which increases the control points in the area of the knot. This makes it easier to manipulate the shape of the curve in that area. To apply it, with the tool active click on the curve. A new knot appears at the position of the click, which can then be moved.

The position of the knot is echoed in the Knot Value field, in the Tool Op-tions palette, where the value can also be changed to move the new knot numerically. The knot can also be moved graphically.

The Type of knot is also selectable from the palette: Smooth or Kink. The former is also affected by the Multiplicity parameter: the smaller this is the smoother the knot.

When Display Control Points is on, the control points of the curve are displayed, when you click on a curve with this tool. If off, only the knot is shown.

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Curve Edit tool options palette.

Curve EditThis tool allows you to edit a curve so that its shape may be manipulated. With the tool active, you click on the curve, which causes the Curve Edit tool options palette to appear. Also, some of its points are displayed, depending on the options turned on in the palette.

There are two types of points: Control Points and Edit Points. When you click on one of the points of the curve, the palette displays its Type, its Index, its X, Y, Z coordinates, and its Weight. Changing the index picks another point. The index can be changed by either typing another number in the Index field or by using the arrows next to it.

Show Control Points, Show Weights, Show Edit Points determine which points/parameters will be shown graphically. Parameters that are displayed can also be moved. Otherwise, they are protected from mov-ing them. The two options under Move Points determine which way the points can be moved.

When the first and last points of a curve coincide, the curve may be open or closed, which is indicated by the Closed checkbox. When this is checked, Clamped or Wraparound is also checked, depending on how the curve is structured. When clamped, the two end points of a curve co-incide with the first and last controls. Open curves are always clamped. Closed curves may or may not be. When they are not, they are wrap-around, which means that control points at the front of the curve overlap with control points at the end. When Closed, the Hide Smooth Clamped option becomes available. It is dimmed otherwise.

When editing a curve you can also insert both Control Points and Edit Points. To insert a control point, Show Control Points should be on and, while pressing the option (Macintosh) or alt (Windows) key, click on a control line where you want the new point to be inserted. To insert an edit point, Show Edit Points should be on and, while pressing the op-tion (Macintosh) or alt (Windows) key, click on the curve where you want the new point to be inserted.

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The Curve Blend To Point tool options palette.

Curve Blend To PointThis tool interactively extends and blends a curve to a point. With the Curve Blend To Point tool, click on the curve, towards one of its ends. A point appears and an extension curve with an arrow control. You can move the point to another location and/or you can move the arrow to adjust the blend of the extension curve. The position of the blend point is echoed in the Curve Blend To Point tool op-tions palette, where the X,Y,Z values can also be changed numerically to move the point to another position. Activating another tool completes the operation.

The palette also contains the Conti-nuity pop-up menu, from which a G0 through G4 continuity can be se-lected. These are as described for the Curve Blend tool.

Note that the new extended curve is an independent piece of a curve and is not automatically attached to the original curve. To do this you can use the Curve Merge tool.

Curve To Arcs

This tool converts a curve into a set of arcs, which can remain separate or can be connected, if Make Com-posite is on. Maximum Deviation controls the approximation of the conversion. From a practical point of view this conversion is useful for driv-ing CNC devices that only accept arc representations.

Blending a curve to a point: (a) Original curve.

(b) After clicking on it with the Curve Blend To Point tool,

a point, an extension curve, and an arrow are displayed.

(c) Point and arrow are moved.(d) Resulting curve.

Curve To Arcs options palette.

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NURBS surfaces

NURBS by Lofting

There are two types of lofted surfaces: By Loose Lofting and By Tight Loft-ing. The former creates a surface using the control points of selected curves. The latter creates a surface that passes through selected curves. These types are set in the tool options palette. NURBS by Lofting tool options palette.

Examples of NURBS surfaces:(a) original splines,

(b) By Loose Lofting, and (c) By Tight Lofting.

To create a lofted surface in postpick mode, with the tool active, shift+click to select the desired number of curves in the order they should be lofted. Then release shift and click anywhere in the project window. If shift+click is not used in the postpick mode, a surface is created as soon as two curves are selected. In prepick mode, with the Pick tool select the desired curves and then with the NURBS by Lofting tool click anywhere in the window.

The V (depth) degree of the construct-ed surface will be 1 less than the num-ber of curves selected or of degree 3 if more than 4 curves are selected. For example, if 2 curves are selected, the V degree will be 1; if 3 curves are se-lected, it will be 2. If 4 or more curves are selected, the V degree of the surface will be 3. In loose lofting, the U (length) degree of the surface will be 3, unless insufficient control points are available in the selected curves, in which case the U degree will be reduced as necessary. In tight lofting, the U degree will be determined by the source curves.

Automatically Correct Sources: When on, the tool attempts to orient curves correctly.

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NURBS by Boundary Curves

The NURBS by Boundary Curves tool options palette.

NURBS surface by U/V curves with the source lines and

the derived surface superimposed.

Examples of NURBS by boundary curves: derived from (a) 2, (b) 3,

and (c) 4 curves.

The NURBS by U/V Curves Tool Options palette.

This tool creates a surface bounded by 2, 3, or 4 curves that form a closed boundary. It can be applied using either the postpick or prepick method, as for the NURBS by Lofting tool.

When two curves are selected, if these two curves form a closed boundary within a reasonable tolerance (based on the width of the convex hull of the curve), a surface is created. Other-wise, the tool waits for a third curve to be selected. When three curves are selected, if these three curves form a closed boundary within tolerance, a surface is created. Otherwise the tool waits for a fourth curve.

When four curves are selected, the tool uses a relaxing tolerance to at-tempt to create a surface. If the curves do not form a boundary within an appropriate tolerance, no surface is created and a message is posted that the curves do not form a boundary. See examples.

NURBS by U/V Curves

This tool generates NURBS surfaces from curves that form a grid and can be interpreted as U/V curves. It can be executed either in postpick or prepick mode, as for the NURBS by Lofting tool. Source curves do not have to be selected in any particular order. After selection of the curves, an attempt is made to interpret them as a U/V grid. If successful, a surface is created. If unsuccessful, a message is issued that the curves do not form a grid. See example.

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NURBS Convert

This tool takes an object (called source) and creates NURBS represen-tations for its surfaces. It can be executed using either the postpick or prepick mode.

When the source object has more than one face, separate NURBS ob-jects are created for each face. For example, a closed, capped cylinder is converted into three NURBS objects: one for the cylindrical surface and two trimmed NURBS caps. These NURBS objects are not stitched, thus the edges will pull apart if control points are moved.

After the NURBS surfaces are created, the original source object is ghosted.

The NURBS by Cross Sections Tool Options palette.

Examples of NURBS by cross sections, using two different deri-

vation directions: (a) direction axis, (b) source pro-files, (c) cross sections derived,

and (d) derived surface.

NURBS by Cross Sections This tool creates cross section curves from a selected set of profile curves when the Create Cross Sections option is on in the tool options palette. When Create Surface is selected, the cross section curves are also lofted to create a surface. How many cross sections are generated and possibly lofted is determined by the value en-tered in the Number Of Curves field.

The profile curves can be selected in either prepick or postpick mode, as for the NURBS by Lofting tool. If shift+click is not used in postpick mode, the tool will pick three profile curves. After selection of the profile curves, the user must select an axis or straight segment to orient the cross-section curves. See example.

Note that, for this operation to execute properly, the axis should be pointing in the same direction as the profile curves.

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Formula Surfaces

This tool creates NURBS surfaces according to formulas provided by the program or typed in by the user. When activating the tool, its tool op-tions palette appears and the tool is ready to generate a default surface. You do so by clicking on the project window. A rubber banded surface ap-pears on the screen with its bounding box. As you move the mouse, the box and the surface change size and are rotated. When you have the size and orientation you want, you click again. The bounding box disappears and a controller consisting of three axes ap-pears. The axes can be used to further manipulate the size of the surface.

The formula and the parameters of the surface are also displayed in the tool options palette, where they can be changed either numerically or graphically, while you are watching the effects of your manipulations. Picking another tool completes the operation.

In addition to the default surface, a number of other preset surfaces are available in a library from where they can be selected. To invoke a display of the library, click on the Library... button, in the tool options palette. The display shown to the right appears, from where you can select the surface you want and then click OK to close the dialog. Now click on the project window to generate the new surface. You can also type your own formula in the tool options palette to generate your own surface.

The Preview Display dialog.

Three variations of Mobius sur-faces.

The NURBS by Formula palette.

Three variations of wave surfaces.

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NURBS Reconstruct

The NURBS Reconstruct tool op-tions palette.

plays the current values of the parameters of the selected surface. That is, the Degree and number of Control Points of the surface, in both the U (Length) and V (Depth) directions are shown. When a new value is entered into any of the fields, the surface is reconstructed with the new parameters.

NURBS Curve Extract This tool interactively extracts isoline curves from a NURBS surface, in the U (length) and/or V (depth) directions. How many it extracts depends on the values entered in the Length (U) and Depth (V) fields, in the tool options palette.

If 1 is entered, which is the default, a single isoline curve is generated at the click point, in the respective direction. If both U and V are 1, then one in each direction is generated. After their initial generation, these isolines can be moved to other positions interactively, using the mouse. Note that this capability is available only for single isolines.

When values greater than 1 are entered in either or both U/V fields, the respective dimension is subdivided by the given number to derive the positions of the multiple isolines. After their initial extraction the numbers in the U/V fields can be changed and isolines in new positions are gener-ated immediately. Multiple isolines cannot be moved graphically.

The NURBS Curve Extract tool options palette.

The NURBS Reconstruct tool will replace a NURBS surface with a new NURBS surface that approximates the original surface as closely as possible using the parameters specified in the tool options palette.

To reconstruct a surface, with the NURBS Reconstruct tool active, click on the surface. As soon as this is done the NURBS Reconstruct tool options palette is invoked and dis-

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NURBS Attach This tool attaches the edge of a NURBS surface (source) to the edge of another NURBS surface (target). The attached surface remains in its position if Move is off, or it is moved so that the tangents at the two at-tached edges match. NURBS Attach options palette.

Attaching edges of surfaces: (a) Click points 1 and 2. Move (b) off and (c) on.

When Move is on, you can also Flip the attached surface. When Adapt is on, the attached edge is adapted to the target edge, if necessary. When off and the attached edge does not match the target edge, the operation cannot be executed and a message appears. The Adapt group contains additional parameters that further control the attachment.

Continuity is a popup menu containing five items that represent the dif-ferent types of continuity, which are as for blending.

After the attachment is executed and while in the result buffer, an arrow appears at the corner endpoint of the attached surface. It controls the curvature at that isoline. Moving the arrow in or out affects the curvature at that particular location. The change can be observed graphically. At the base of the arrow there is a bullet, which can be dragged along the attach edge to move the arrow to another isoline, where it can again be used to adjust the magnitude of the curvature. To adjust the complete curvature along the attach edge use the T2 Magnitude sliding bar.

Reverse Edge Orientation, when on, switches the direction of the at-tached edge, which is useful when the directions do not match.

Maintain Opposite End Shape and Maintain Opposite End Control Points are mutually exclusive options. The former will maintain the shape of the surface at its non-attached (opposite) end. The latter will maintain the position of the controls, but the shape may change. When the former option is on, the Retract Edge slide rule is available and al-lows you to reposition the ends of the curves along their lengths, which can also be done graphically.

1

2

a b c

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NURBS Surface Blend

This tool creates a geometrically continuous blend between two NURBS surfaces.

To create a surface blend, activate the N-Blend tool and click on the two surface edges to be blended. The desired geometric Continuity of the blend can be selected for each input surface from the choices in the drop down menus in the tool options palette. The options G0 through G4 are as described for the Curve Blend tool.

When the surface blend is created, two direction arrows corresponding to U or V isoline tangents will appear at the corner endpoints of the input surfaces. Adjusting the magnitude arrows will increase or decrease the magnitude of the tangent of the blend surface at the corresponding iso-line, changing the shape of the blend. To adjust the tangent magnitudes at a different isoline, click on the control point at the base of the arrow and slide the control along the connecting edge to the desired position. The two arrows are adjusted independently, unless Synchronize Arrows is on, when they move and are adjusted simultaneously. You may adjust the magnitude of the tangents at all isolines at once by moving the T1 and T2 Magnitude sliders on the tool options palette.

The NURBS Blend tool options palette.

Flip Edge Orientation will adjust the direction of an edge if the orientations of the blended ends do not match and the blend is twisted. Align Boundary Edges applies only when an edge to be blended is a trimmed edge and aligns corresponding edges. The Smooth button, when used, repairs any bumps or other "wrinkles" that may have been left on a surface. It does so using Gaussian noise reduc-tion techniques.

Adjust Seam: This option becomes available when creating blends be-tween two surfaces that are closed in one direction. When on, control points will appear at the top and bottom of the seam of the blend surface. Click on either control point and move it along the edge of the input surface to move the seam of the blend.

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NURBS Surface Merge

This tool combines two NURBS surfaces into one, adding a connecting surface segment if necessary.

To merge surfaces, activate the NURBS Surface Merge tool. You may then click on two surfaces and let the tool decide which edges to merge, or you may hold down the control key to select the edges yourself. The surfaces will be merged into a single surface in the results buffer, with a new section of minimal variation connecting them if the edges did not originally meet. When two edges of the same surface are selected as input, the surface will be merged with itself and closed.

When the merged surface is created, control points will mark the original positions of the endpoints of each of the input surfaces along one edge. The portions of the merged surface corresponding to the original sur-faces can be retracted or extended by moving the control points, to allow interactive adjustment of the shape of the connecting section.

Yellow, dotted curve guides indicate the extension path of the edges of the surfaces to be merged. When an endpoint control is selected, the corresponding curve guide turns red, illuminating the extension path along which the control can be moved. The paired control point on the other side of the edge that is being extended will be adjusted automatically.

Two options in the NURBS Merge tool options palette control how seams are handled:

Auto Adjust Seam And Orientation: When this option is on, the tool will at-tempt to automatically orient the input sources and adjust the seam positions of closed surfaces to achieve the best merge. This option is on by default. When off, the tool will merge surfaces without adjusting the seam positions or orientations. The NURBS Merge tool options

palette.

Flip Edge Orientation: This option is available only when the previ-ous option is off. With this option on, the orientation of the second input source will be reversed.

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NURBS Surface Extend

This tool interactively extends a NURBS surface along a path deter-mined by the direction and curvature of the surface at the edges in the U or V direction.

To extend a NURBS surface, activate the NURBS Surface Extend tool and click on an edge in the direction the surface will be extended. The edge is highlighted and control points appear at the ends of the edge. Yellow, dot-ted curve guides indicate the exten-sion path. Click on either control point and move it outwardly to extend the surface, or inwardly to retract the sur-face. When a control point is selected, the corresponding curve guide turns red, illuminating the extension path along which the control can be moved.

NURBS Surface Split This tool works in two different ways: it may split a surface At Click Point or to a prespecified number of Pieces. These options are set in its tool op-tions palette before the operation is executed.

The NURBS Extend tool options palette.

The NURBS Split options palette.

(a) A NURBS surface.(b) Extended twice in opposite

edges.

When At Click Point, this tool works as the NURBS Extract Curves tool, except that, instead of deriving isolines at the specified positions, it splits the surface at those positions. It again does a single split or two splits depending on whether Length (U) and/or Depth (V) are on. After the split is performed the percentages representing the positions of the splits are displayed in the Length/Depth fields.

When Pieces is on, the numbers in the Length/Depth fields indicate how many equidistant splits will be generated in each direction.

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The NURBS Surface Edit tool op-tions palette.

NURBS Surface Edit

This tool allows you to edit a NURBS surface. To apply it, with the tool ac-tive, click on the surface you wish to edit. Control points are displayed with the surface and the NURBS Edit Sur-face tool options palette appears. It displays information about the surface to be edited. You can move the control points graphically or you can change values in the palette to change the shape of the surface. In general, NURBS Surface Edit resembles Curve Edit, except that the former works in two directions, U and V

When you click on a point, its U and V Index, its X, Y, Z coordinates, and its Weight are displayed in the palette. Changing an Index picks another point. An index can be changed by either typing another number in the Index field or by using the arrows next to it.

When Hide Smooth Clamped is on, control points that must remain colinear with adjacent control points in order to preserve smoothness across a boundary are not displayed and are automatically updated as necessary to maintain smoothness and prevent kinks.

The Swap U/V button flips the U parameters of the surface with the V. The Move Points options determine the direction in which motions will occur Parallel or Perpendicular To Reference Plane).

For both Length(U) and Depth(V), the Closed checkboxes become available if the edges of the surface at minimum and maximum are coincident. Otherwise, these checkboxes are dimmed. When Closed is checked, one of Clamped or Wraparound is also checked, depending on how the curve is structured. When clamped, the end points of a sur-face coincide with the end controls. Open surfaces are always clamped in the direction they are open. Closed curves may or may not be. When they are not, they are wraparound, which means that control points at the two ends of a direction of a surface overlap.

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NURBS Insert Knot

This tool interactively adds knots and control points to a NURBS surface. The knot is inserted where you click and causes additional control points to be also inserted. Its position is re-flected in Knot Value for U and V and can be changed. The Type of a knot may be Smooth or Kink, as for Curve Knot Insert. Display Control Points, when on, shows the control points during the process of knot inserting.

(a) Original and (b) trimmed NURBS surface.

Untrimming trimmed surface:(a) Original trimmed surface.

(b) With topo level at Outline and clicking on outline of square

hole, removes it.(c) With topo level at Object and clicking on surface removes all

holes.(d) With topo level at Outline and

clicking on boundary outline removes it.

NURBS Surface Untrim

A trimmed NURBS surface can be derived by splitting a NURBS sur-face with another surface. The term essentially means a NURBS sur-face with a hole. Untrimming such a surface means deleting the hole. All trims (holes) of a trimmed surface can be removed with one operation or the holes can be removed one at a time.

To remove all the holes, excluding the boundary trim, click on the surface, while topological level is at Object. To remove just one trim, which can be a hole or the boundary trim, set topo-logical level at Outline and click the outline trim you wish to remove. See examples.

NURBS Insert Knot palette.

a b

c d

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(a) Solid Standing text, (b) after increasing its width,(c) after reducing its size, and

(d) after changing it to surface text.

The 3D Text Editor dialog.

Placing and editing text

Place Text

This tool is used to place text. When you activate the tool, its options palette appears. With the tool active, you click on the reference plane or the face of an object, where you want the text to be generated. The Text Editor dialog is invoked, where you type the text you wish to generate and you se-lect a font and other text parameters. You press OK to close the dialog and the text is generated in edit mode, which allows you to further manipu-late its parameters, either graphically, using the controls displayed, or by changing the settings in the tool op-tions palette.

The text can be Facetted or Smooth and it can be a solid or surface.Different options can be selected from the Height Base pop-up menu for the calculation of the height, which is typed in the Height field. Top, Center, or Bottom, which are selected from the pop-up menu, control the justifica-tion of the text along its height.

The Depth value may be relative to Front, Middle, or Back, which is se-lected from the pop-up menu.

The Width of text is relative to its height and varies by character. It is expressed as a percentage, which preserves the width variations. Like-wise, the Leading space is expressed as a percentage.

When Standing (Perpendicular To Plane) is off, the text lies flat on the plane. When on, it is standing on the plane. See example.

The Place Text tool options pal-ette.

Solid text, Standing, as initially generated in edit mode.

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Place Text Along Path This tool is used to place text on a previously drawn line (vector line or spline), which is required to be planar. As with the Place Text tool, activat-ing this tool invokes the Place Text Along Path tool options palette, most of which is identical to the Place Text options palette. At its lower part, con-tains the Path Options group, which are unique to this tool.

To generate this type of text, with the tool active, click on the line (path) on which the text will be generated. The 3D Text Editor dialog is invoked, where you type the text, as before. The text is generated as soon as you press OK. It is in edit mode and can be further revised, either graphically or by changing the settings in the palette.

When Preserve Height & Width is checked, the text retains the sizes specified in the palette and does not try to cover the path from one end to the other. It uses as much of the path as necessary and leaves the remain-ing empty.

When Scale Width Only is checked, the text is scaled width wise so that it covers the path from one end to the other. The height is not affected.

When Scale Height & Width is on, the width of the text is scaled to cover the path and then the same scaling factor is applied to the height, so that the text preserves its original propor-tions. See examples to the right.

The Place Text Along Path tool options palette.

Text Along Path: (a) the path,(b) initial placement with controls,(c) surface Preserve Height & Width,

(d) solid Preserve Height & Width,(e) Scale Width Only, and(f) Scale Width & Height.

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Place Parallel Text

This tool is used to place text between a previously drawn planar line and its parallel, which is automatically calculated by the program. As with the Place Text tool, activating this tool invokes the Place Parallel Text tool options palette, which is almost identi-cal to the Place Text options palette, except that the Standing option does not apply here and it is dimmed.

To generate this type of text, with the tool active, click on the line (path) from which the parallel line will be derived. The 3D Text Editor dialog is invoked, where you type the text, as before. The text is generated between the two parallel lines as soon as you press OK. It is in edit mode and can be further revised, either graphically or by changing the settings in the palette. See examples on the right.

The Place Parallel Text tool options palette.

Parallel Text: (a) the path,(b) initial placement with controls,

(c) surface, and (d) solid text.

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Place Text Between 2 Paths

This tool is used to place text between two previously drawn lines, which may or may not be planar. As with the Place Text tool, activating this tool invokes the Place Text Between 2 Paths tool options palette, which is identical to the Place Parallel Text options palette, except for the Model Type options that do not exist here. This tool generates smooth text only.

To generate this type of text, with the tool active, click on the two lines (paths) between which the text will be generated. The 3D Text Editor dialog is invoked, where you type the text, as before. The text is generated as soon as you press OK. It is in edit mode and can be further revised, either graphically or by changing the settings in the palette.

The Place Text Between 2 Paths tool options palette.

Text Between 2 Paths: (a) two distinct paths, and(b) the placed surface text.

Text Between 2 Paths: (a) two similar paths, and(b) the placed solid text.

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Edit TextThis tool is used to change text that has already been placed. With the Text Edit tool click on placed text. The 3D Text Editor dialog is invoked displaying the parameters of the text being edited. Make the desirable changes in the dialog and press OK. The text is regenerated according to the new specifications.

Search TextThis tool is used for finding a certain text string placed in a project and possibly replacing it with another string. The new string may be as different as another word or group of words or simply a change in some of the text specifications.

With the tool active click in the project window or on a text object. The 3D Text Search And Replace dialog appears. Its upper section contains a window where the search string is typed and other parameters are speci-fied. Pressing Find will find the string in the project text (if it exists) and will display it in the lower window.

If you also wish to replace a text string, select Replacement String (off by default), type the text you want to replace it with, and set its specifications. Press Replace and the replacement is executed immediately. See example.

The 3D Text Search And Replace dialog.

Replacing "text" with "TEXT."

The Text Search And Replace palette.

The Text Search And Replace Tool Options palette contains a single option: Search All Objects. When on, all objects of a project are searched. When off, only the text objects that were picked are searched.

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Creating and placing components Components are predefined models that are provided in libraries and can be placed as instances in projects. Components can also be an ob-ject or group of objects that are created in the project for repetitive use (instances). They are similar in nature to what other applications call sym-bols, parts, or blocks. Windows and Doors are a special type of com-ponent that includes some additional information needed to place them meaningfully into a model. The available components are displayed in the Component Manager palette (accessed from the Palettes menu).

A library is simply a folder or directory containing bonzai3d (.b3d) or form•Z (.fmz) files. Each file/directory defines a single component. When a com-ponent is placed in the project, it is embedded into the project making it unnecessary to transfer the original external files with the project. The links to the original component are maintained so that, if the original (the defini-tion) is changed, the changes can be optionally propagated in the project file and vice versa..

In addition to the component related tools described in this section, compo-nents can be edited in the project using the Edit Group/Component and Edit Group/Component Complete items found in the Edit menu. Make Individual Component (Edit Menu) makes new definitions in the project from a selected instance.

Component Manager paletteThis palette displays the components that are currently available to be used. The Component and Window/Door tabs at the top are used to se-lect between regular components and the specialized window/door compo-nents. The Library popup menu lists libraries (categories) of components. The area below the menu displays thumbnails depicting the components contained in the currently selected library. One of these items is the active component as indicated by a boarder around the image. A larger preview of the active component is displayed to the right of the thumbnails with its name above it. The Library menu consists of three categories of components. Embedded are components stored in the form•Z project file. That is, every component that is placed to the current project is also re-corded in the Embedded library. Project level are component libraries that are loaded for use only by a project. System level are libraries loaded for use by any and all of the projects and include predefined libraries offered by AutoDesSys.

The Library menu.

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The Component Manager palette.

The Component Management section at the bottom of the palette contains tools for managing the components.

The Library section affects libraries:

: Add Component Library...: It first invokes the standard Open File dialog, where you select the library folder you wish to add. A new empty li-brary can be created by selecting New Folder at the bottom of the dialog. It then invokes the Add Component Library dialog, where a few character-istics of the new library are set. You may Add To Current Project Only or Add To All Projects, which is, you add it as a Project or System level library. You may want to Include Subfolders, which are the contents of any folders inside of the selected library folder. Only subfolders that contain form•Z files are added. Finally you select a file search path from the popup menu at the bottom of the dialog. The options are: Absolute Path (default), Relative To Application, Relative To Project File, and Relative To User Docu-ment Folder. These are discussed in the Preferences: Project: File Search Paths section of this manual.

The Add Component Library.

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: Delete Component Library...: Pressing this button deletes the high-lighted library. There are two levels of deletions: Delete Library And All Files deletes the library folder/directory completely. Remove Reference To Library preserves the folder on your computer disc but deletes it from your component libraries list.

: Purge Unused Components From Library...: Pressing this button deletes unused components from the Embedded library. This button is only available when the Embedded library is active.

: Refresh Libraries...: After placed components have been edited, they may differ from the definitions in the original files. Pressing this but-ton brings fresh definitions into a project.

The Component section affects the active component:

: Edit Component...: Opens the component for editing. When this is selected the component file is opened as a separate project. This project becomes the active project where the component definition can be edited. When the file is saved, the component library is updated with the new version.

: Delete Component...: This button deletes the active component. If there are instances of the component in the file, they are automatically ex-ploded (i.e. the objects remain, but they are no longer part of a component).

: Export Component To Library...: Exports the active com-ponent to an external file. This can be used to export an embedded component from the project to an external component file. Pressing this button invokes the Export Component To Library dialog, where you set the Component Name and the Library it is going into. This may be a library already existing at the project or system level, or you can click on the Add Component Library... button to add a library, as with the similar command in the Components Manager palette.

The Export Component To Library dialog.

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When Editing Component Parts there are three options: Update Com-ponent, which updates the current definition of the component; Make New Component, which leaves the original definition as is and creates a new definition of a component; and Ask, which asks the user at the time the component is being edited.

Notify When Components Are Out Of Sync: Components linked to external files are automatically updated in the project when the compo-nent file is updated. That is, the component will be reloaded, when it is found to have changed. When this option is checked, a warning is issued to notify you that a component has changed. Components are reloaded when the project is opened and when the application is activated, after having first been de-activated. Note that components can also be manu-ally updated using the Linked Files tab of the Project Info dialog.

When Editing Components Linked To A Library File: When embed-ded components are edited and get out of sync with the libraries they originally came from, there are three options: Update Library File, which revises the definition in the file; Break Link, which makes the em-bedded component independent of the original definition; and Ask, which asks the user at the time the editing occurs.

Import Component...: This button is used to convert a file into a compo-nent. The standard open file dialog is presented for the selection of the desired file. Any supported file type may be selected (bnz, skp, obj, kmz, etc). The contents of the file becomes an embedded component and is ready to be placed in the project.

Convert Symbols Library...: This button is to be used for converting any “symbol” libraries defined in form•Z versions earlier than 7 to com-ponent libraries. Clicking on it invokes the standard Open File dialog, where you choose the symbol library folder/directory you wish to convert. As soon as you click on the Choose button, the conversion occurs, but may require a little time for large libraries. Once the conversion has been completed you save the new version as a Components Library and the process is completed.

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Place Component

The Place Component tool is used to place an instance of a compo-nent into a modeling project. When the tool is selected, the component manager palette appears (if it is not already visible). Select the desired component item to place or press the space bar to use the currently active component. The component appears with its origin aligned at the mouse cursor and moves with it. Click on the desired location in the modeling window to fix the location. The component is placed perpendicular to the active reference plane or perpendicular to the face of an existing object. The dimensions and orientation of the component can be fixed or set dynamically. The placement method is controlled by options in the Tool Options palette.

The Place Component Tool Op-tions palette.

Placement Options: The options in this group specify how the component is sized and oriented.

Fixed: When this method is on, a single click determines the location. The Size of the component is deter-mined by the Scale and Dimension fields in the tool options. These are linked fields that determine the size in the X, Y and Z directions and allow for specification by a scale factor (multi-plier) or actual desired dimension. The Keep Proportional option synchro-nizes the dimensions so that when one dimension is changed, the other dimensions are changed based on the proportions of the component.

The Rotation can be specified by angle in the provided fields or the component can be aligned to the view. When Align To View is on, the component rotates to face the current view. In cases where the compo-nent is a single face, the face normal is aligned with the current view. In cases where a component is made up of multiple faces, the X axis of the component is aligned with the current view. When Mirror is selected, the component is as a mirrored relative to the viewers position.

Dynamic Rotation: When this method is on, the first click determines the location of the component. The second click determines the orienta-tion. The scale matches the original component file.

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Dynamic Rotation And Scale: With this option on, the first click determines the location of the component. The second click determines the orientation and size.

Place On Active Layer: If this option is off, new layers will be added to the project (if necessary) to match the layers of the original component file. If this option is on, all new component will be placed on the active layer.

Use Current Material: If this option is off, the materials from the origi-nal component file will be transferred and will be added to the project. If the option is on, all component objects will be assigned the active material.

Create ComponentThis tool allows you to convert selected objects to a component. You can preselect the objects and then, with the tool active, click to define the origin and complete the operation. Or you can postpick the objects as a set. The new component can be added to a library you designate by selecting its name and also to the Embedded library, which becomes the active library.

The Tool Options palette has one option: Replace With Component. When selected, the original objects are replaced with the newly created component. More options are set in the Create Component dialog, which is invoked as soon as the final selection click is entered.

The Create Component Tool Options palette.

Component Name: In this field you enter the name of the component.

Save To Library will place the com-ponent in the Library whose name is selected or you may click on Add Component Library... to add a new library at the project or system level. Alternatively, you can click on Embed In Project Only, which will only place the new component in the Embed-ded library and no other library.

The Create Component dialog.

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The Place Window/Door Tool Options palette.

Explode ComponentThis tool decomposes the component you click on to its parts, which become common objects.

Replace ComponentThis tool replaces the component you click on with the active component. You can replace more than one components by prepicking them. You can use this tool to also replace common objects with components.

Make Individual ComponentThis tool makes a new separate component definition for the component you click on.

Place Window/Door

The Place Window/Door tool is similar to the Place Component tool. The main difference is that the Place Window/Door tool has the ability to cut an opening into an object at the time the component is placed. In addition, the Place Window/Door tool does not allow the component to be rotated or scaled at the time it is placed.

Windows and doors become associated with the object that they are inserted into. This allows the windows and doors to behave as follows:• When an object is deleted, all associated windows and doors are de-leted as well.• When an object is transformed, all associated windows and doors are transformed as well.• When a window or door is deleted, the hole (opening) created by the window or door is filled.

The Place Window/Door Tool Options palette only has a single option. Mirror Component is similar to the analogous option for Place Component.

Components intended to be used as windows/doors must have at least two required layers labeled Component Frame and Component Inte-rior Trim. See the Create Window/Door section for more details on the

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specifications of the two required layers.

Create Window/Door

The Create Window/Door tool allows you to save selected objects as a specialized Window/Door component. The newly created component is added to the Project library. The click point defines the origin of the new component group. When Replace With Component is selected, the origi-nal objects are replaced with a component group (instance) and the original objects are deleted. More options are set in the Create Component dialog as discussed in the respec-tive section.

Windows and doors must be created in a certain manner in order for the Place Window/Door tool to be able to place them properly:

• The window or door compo-nent must be created flat on the XY plane, so that it may be properly rotated when placed on a vertical surface.

• The world origin of a component file is used when placing a window or door. The door and window com-ponents provided always have their origins at their lower left corners.

• The objects on layer named Component Frame determine the shape of the opening to be cut into the wall, into which the compo-nent will be placed. The shape is determined by the intersection of

A 3D view of a window.

Front view of a window.

The Create Window/Door Tool Options palette.

the frame and the XY plane. Therefore, the window or door frame object must extend above and under the XY plane. See illustration.

• The objects on layer named Component Interior Trim determine how the component frame is stretched to match the depth of the wall. To work properly, the objects on this layer need to be below the XY plane, as shown.

The example above is of a window component with the Layers palette shown.

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The two images illustrate the requirements of a window/door component.

Reposition Window/Door The Reposition Window/Door tool allows you to move or copy window/door components. This is different from the Move tool, which will move a window/door but leave the hole on the wall behind. To reposition, click on an existing window/door. The plane of the face where the window/door is becomes the active reference plane. Move the window/door to the new location and then click again to complete the operation. This tool

The Reposition Window/Door Tool Options palette.

can also be used with the prepick method to reposition many win-dows/doors.The icons in the Tool Options palette stand for Self and Copy and determine if the original door/window or a copy is repositioned.

Editing components through the Pick paletteSelecting component instances only (and no other type of entity) causes their parameters to appear in the Tool Options palette. If only one component is selected, its parameters appear. If many components are picked, any parameters that are common to all selected components will appear, otherwise “[multiple]” is displayed.

The selected components can be edited by changing information in the

The Pick Tool Options palette when selecting a component.

Tool Options palette. For example, the position can be altered by chang-ing the coordinates under Origin. Similarly, rotation and scale can also be changed by changing the values in the respective fields.

Altering the option selections for Place On Active Layer, Use Cur-rent Material, or Align With View causes the selected component to be updated as though placed using these settings.

Selected Component: This window displays the thumbnails of selected components. A component can be replaced by dragging a thumbnail from the Component Manager

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Modifying objectsThe Modify suite contains tools that allow you to sculpt objects by either adding or subtracting volume or by simply cutting them. The basis of these operations are the Boolean Union, Intersection, and Difference, which are included in this suite.

UnionThis tool merges two intersecting objects together. If the objects do not overlap, the result is the objects them-selves. In its simplest manifestation it involves two objects. To apply it, with the tool active, click on the two ob-jects. The result appears immediately and the original objects are ghosted.

When the objects that are unioned contain coplanar faces, the resulting object also contains coplanar faces and the edges between which may be kept or filtered out. This depends on whether the Keep Edges in the Union tool options palette is on or off.

The Union tool options palette.

(a) Original objects and (b) the objects unioned.

They look the same but the latter is all a single volume.

(a) Original objects and (b) the unioned object.

It is sometimes required to union many objects. While such unions can be executed one at a time, by sequentially picking pairs of objects, they can also be executed all in one step. The objects can be prepicked using either an area pick method, or by picking them individually with the Pick tool while press-ing shift and then, with the Union tool click-ing anywhere in the project window. Or the postpick method can be used by multi-picking the objects sequentially with the Union tool, while pressing shift, then releasing shift and clicking anywhere in the project window. See example.

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(a) Original objects and (b) their intersection.

The Intersection tool options palette.

Intersection

In its simplest manifestation, this tool returns the common volume of two ob-jects, as shown in the example. To ap-ply the operation, with the tool active, click on the two objects. The result is produced immediately and the original objects are ghosted.

When the tool is applied to multiple objects, two options are available and selectable from its tool options palette. When One Set (the default) is on, the operation requires picking one set of objects and returns the common vol-ume of all of them. When the picked objects have no common volume, the result is an empty object (no result appears). When Two Sets is on, the operation requires picking two sets of objects and returns the common vol-ume of any pair of objects, where one object is from the first and the other from the second set. See examples of both.

To execute the One Set variation, with the Intersection tool active and the shift key pressed, click on the objects. Then release the shift key and click anywhere in the project window to complete the operation. To execute the Two Sets variation, pick the first set as above and then continue and repeat the process to pick the second set. The operations is executed as soon as you release the shift key and click in an open area of the project window.

(1) One Set and (2) Two Sets intersections.

(a) Original objects and (b) results.

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DifferenceThis tool subtracts the volume of one object from the volume of another, provided the two objects overlap. To apply the operation, with the tool ac-tive click on the two objects, where the order is significant, as the second object is subtracted from the first.

The operation can also be applied to sets of objects, where the second set is subtracted from the first. The sets are picked as for the Two Sets inter-section. See example.

Boolean SplitThis tool splits one object by another or two objects split each other, pro-vided they overlap. Which variation is applied (One Way or Two Way) is set in the tool options palette. In more formal terms, this operation is a combined difference and intersection. See example.

All the Boolean operations can be applied to solids or to coplanar closed 2D shapes. For the latter, see the shown examples. They cannot be ap-plied to wires or arbitrary surfaces.

(a) Original objects. Difference of (b) 1-2 and (c) 2-1.

Difference of object sets:(a) Original objects. (b) Result.

The Boolean Split tool options palette.

(a) Original objects. (b) One Way and (c) Two Way splits.

In lower row pieces have been moved to be able to see them.

Booleans applied on 2D shapes: (a) original objects, (b) union, (c) intersection, (d) differences, and (e) Boolean splits.

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Surface SplitThis tool is similar to the Boolean Split, except that the latter applies to solids (and coplanar closed shapes), while Surface Split applies to sur-faces. It is executed as the B-Split tool. To produce a result the splitting surface should be cutting all the way through the other surface. In other words, the cut can not terminate inside the boundaries of the surface. This tool also has two variations: One Way and Two Way. A selection is made in its tool options palette. See examples.

SliceThis tool is used to split an object (solid or surface) with a line. The splitting is actually done with a surface gen-erated from the line, by extruding it perpendicular to the reference plane. In its simplest form, one line slices one object and, to execute it, with the Slice tool active click on the object then on the line. The operation is executed immediately. With solid objects, the cut ends of the pieces sliced from the original object may remain open or they may be "capped" or "healed." The latter occurs when Heal is on in the tool's op-tions palette.

This operation can also be used to slice many objects with many lines, as shown. To do this the group of object is picked as a set and so is the group of lines. With Slice active and while pressing shift click on all the objects that need to be sliced, then release shift and click in an open area. Do the same to pick the set of slicing lines.

The Surface Split tool options palette.

Splitting surfaces: (a) original objects, (b) 2 splits 1, (c) 1 splits 2,

and (d) splitting each other.

(a) A cylinder and a line. (b) The cylinder sliced by the line.

(c) Taking the pieces apart.

(a) A cuboid and three lines. (b) Cuboid sliced by lines with

Heal (b) off and (c) on.

(a) A surface and two lines. (b) Slicing the surface and

(c) moving some parts.

The Slice tool options palette.

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Line of Intersection

This operation derives the line of intersection of two intersecting solid objects. If the objects do not overlap, there is no result. To apply it, with the tool active click on the two objects. See example.

Stitch

Stitch is the sequence of edges where faces meet and are linked to form a surface. Sequences of edges of two distinct objects may coincide but not linked as stitches. This tool is used to link such sequences of edges. To apply it, with the tool active click on the two objects that are to be stitched, The result is produced immediately. See example.

Unstitch

This operation is the opposite of stitch-ing. It separates one or more groups of faces from the original object. To apply it, with the Unstitch tool active and while pressing shift, select the faces you wish to separate from the object. Then release shift and click in an open area of the project window. The operation is executed immedi-ately, however, unless you have the Show Directions option on, you will not be able to tell the difference, until you actually move the faces you un-stitched, as we did in the example.

(a) A pyramid and a sphere.(b) Their line of intersection.

(c) The intersection line by itself.

(a) A soccer ball. (b) After selecting seven faces

we applied Unstitch. Then moved the faces that were separated.

(a) Two pyramids with open bases. (b) Open bases placed to touch. (c) Stitching them makes a solid.

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Trim/StitchThis operation is essentially a com-bination of other operations that are available to be executed individually, namely Surface Split, Slice, Stitch, and Round. Which combination is exactly executed is set in its Tool Op-tions palette.

At the top of the palette, you can select Trim or Split. Trimming cuts an object into two and keeps one part of it as a result. Splitting does the same, but keeps both parts as a result. The operation can be applied to First Object only or to Both Objects, in which case the objects split or trim each other. Also, when With Line is selected, the second operand is a line that cuts the first operand with a surface extruded from the line in a direction perpendicular to the active reference plane.

Once the objects are trimmed or split, the pieces can also be stitched together, and once this is done the resulting edges can also be rounded, where the rounding parameters are set in the Tool Options palette.

These operations are similar to the Booleans, except that the Booleans can only be applied to solids and through in/out tests they can auto-matically figure out which pieces of intersecting objects belong to the re-sult. In contrast, with the Trim/Stitch operations the user needs to tell the program which pieces to keep. There are two methods for doing this: Pick Point and Side Of Object, which can be selected from the lower part of the Tool Options palette.

Trim/Split Tool Options palette.

Trim/Split: (a) Original objects. (b) A trimmed with B. (c) B trimmed with A.

(d) A and B trimmed with each other and stitched.

a b

c d

A

B

Trimming With Line: Different results are produced, depending on where the cuboid is picked.

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When Pick Point is on, where you click to select the operands is signifi-cant as it determines the parts of the objects that will be kept. When Side Of Object is on, the pieces to be kept are determined by which side of the cutting surface the pieces are on. That is, each cutting surface has a positive and a negative side. In the palette, you can select whether to keep the piece on the Positive or Negative side, for each of the two operands.

It is also possible to use multiple cut-ters and to cut multiple objects. To do this you need to pick the objects and the cutters as sets. When you have multiple objects and multiple cutters, you can only use Both Objects with the Side Of Object method. When you use the With Line option, you have to be particularly aware of the direction in which the lines are drawn, when you use the Side Of Object method.

Trimming, stitching, rounding a sphere (A) and a cylinder (B).

(a) Original solids. Trimming (b) negative and

(c) positive parts.

a

b

c

A B

a

b

Trimming multiple objects with multiple cutters.

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Section

This tool is used to derive 2D or 3D sections of A dynamic 2D section. objects or multiple objects. What it does is determined by the option selected in its tool options palette. The 2D option generates a planar 2D section. There are three 3D options. They all initially generate the same section but they vary in terms of what they return as a result. 3D Both returns both front and back pieces, 3D Front and 3D Back return the front or back piece only. The section operation can be applied either dynamically or directly. The dynamic operation allows the section plane to be adjusted as needed during the operation, while a direct section allows an arbitrary face or plane to be specified and the operation is excuted immediately. To apply the operation dynamically, with the Pick tool select the objects you wish to section, then, with the Section tool click in the project win-dow. The outline of a cutting plane par-allel to the currently active reference plane appears with its controls and is rubber banded. You can manipulate the controls to move and/or rotate

The Section tool options palette before a dynamic section is

initiated.

A dynamic 2D section.

The Section tool options pal-ette after a section operation has been initiated, with the Cut Section button shown

the cutting plane. As you do this the displayed result of the operation is refreshed and always displays the section at the current position of the cutting plane. The initial section is of the type selected in the tool options palette, which is 2D by default. While in edit mode, you can change your selection in the tool options palette and switch from 2D to 3D and vice versa. Also you can switch between the three variations of the 3D sections. When satis-fied with the result currently displayed, click Cut Section and the section

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operation is completed. The section is returned as a separate object or set of objects. If you exit the section tool by choosing a different tool, you will be asked if you want to complete the cur-rent section operation or cancel it. To apply the operation directly, with the Pick tool select the object to be sectioned, and then click on any selectable face in the project file. If the imaginary extension of this plane in-tersects the picked object, it will create the section at that location and imme-diately return the result. See examples of both dynamic and direct sections to the right and below.

3D section: (a) in edit mode and (b) the result.

(a) Original object, (b) mesh direction after clicking on highlighted edge,(c) and mesh after rotation.

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Contours

This tool is used to derive 2D sec-tions of objects, at equal intervals, called contours. They can be in any orientation. They are initially generated parallel to the reference plane, but they can subsequently be rotated interac-tively, using the controller that appears as soon as they are generated. The resulting contours can be returned as single objects or they can be grouped together.

The Contour Sections tool op-Contour Sections tool op-tions palette.

Deriving contours: (a) original object; (b) horizontal contours; (c) horizontal after they were graphically rotated; (d) vertical contours.

To generate contours, with the tool active, click on an object. The tool can be also applied to multiple objects in one step. To do so, either prepick the desired objects, or postpick them as a set.

The Tool Options palette for this operation contains settings that affect the generation of the contours. There are two methods to determine the density and number of contours: defining Contour Increments or # Of increments. There are five Layout options for the resulting contours: Leave At Elevation leaves the contours at the positions they were gener-ated. On Base Plane, On Top Of Each Other stacks all the contours at the 0 elevation. On Base Plane, Next To Each Other arranges the contours on the active reference plane. On XY Plane, Next To Each Other does the same, but on the XY Plane, regardless of which is the current reference plane. Note that the latter two options are useful when the contour shapes are to be sent to a milling machine. Finally, as already mentioned, when Group Contours is on, all the contours are returned as a single group. They are returned as independent entities, otherwise.

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Separating, joining, grouping, and ungrouping

Separate

Sometimes objects may consist of more than one volume. This may result from an operation in form•Z or such objects may be imported from other applications. This tool can be used to separate the volumes of such an ob-ject and make them independent objects. To execute this operation, with the tool active, click on the object whose volumes ought to be separated. The result is produced immediately. The prepick method can also be used to separate the volumes of a number of objects in one step.

Join Volumes

This tool makes one object out of two or more other objects. Only solids with solids and surfaces with surfaces can be joined. Open lines and wires are refused. The resulting new object replaces the original objects that were joined. The operation can be applied using either the postpick or prepick selection mode.

Reference Object

This tool is similar to and is executed as the Join Volumes tool. It has no restrictions in terms of what type of objects can be picked. However, the resulting object is not a real object and is not accepted by most operations, but can be transformed and it is snapable. Its role is to serve as a refer-ence for other objects.

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The display of groups in the Ob-jects palette.

Group

This tool is used to group objects. To group two objects and/or groups, with the tool active click on the two objects/groups. To group more than two objects/groups, with the tool active, shift-click on the objects/groups you wish to group, then release the shift key and click anywhere in the project window. The group is constructed immediately. The prepick method can also be used to group any number of objects and/or groups.

After their grouping, members of a group look the same as they did when they were independent objects. However, they now pick as a single en-tity and certain operations can be applied to the group, such as moving it around. In addition, the structure of the group is visible in the Objects palette, as shown.

The grouping operation can also be executed interactively through the Ob-jects palette. Click on the cross ( ) icon found on the right of the tittle bar of the Objects palette. This creates an empty group that is listed in the palette. Click and drag the name of an object listed in the palette onto the group name. This makes it a member of the group. More objects and/or groups can be dragged this way to make them members of the group.

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Ungroup

This tool is used to undo groups. With the tool active, click on the group you wish to dismantle. This can occur at only the highest level of the group or the complete group may be dismantled, depending on an option selected from the Ungroup tool options palette.

Extract from Group

With this tool you can extract an object from a group. With the tool active, click on the object you wish to extract. The object is removed from the group immediately.

Add to Group

With this tool you can add an object to a group. With the tool active click on the object, then on the group to which it will be added.

Extract from Group and Add to Group are intended to allow objects that are members of groups to be edited. You first extract the object from the group and make the desired revisions. You then add the object back into the group.

The Ungroup tool options palette.

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Measuring

Measure Distance

This tool measures distances between points. With the tool active click on the first point from which a distance is desired. A line is rubber banded and follows the motion of the mouse. A hint appears that displays the current distance from the first point. A second click completes the operation. If the "Also Measure Perpendicular" option is selected, a second measurement is performed from the first point perpen-dicular to either a segment reference plane or face.

Measure Angle

This tool measures angles. With the tool active, click on the apex point of the angle you want to measure, then on a point at the start of the angle. The current angle is displayed as you move the mouse. You may press the command (Macintosh) or control (Windows) key to display the compli-mentary angle. The next click com-pletes the operation.

Measuring distances.

Measuring angles.

The Measure Distance tool op-tions palette.

Measure Between

This tool is used to measure distances between pairs of entities, such as points, segments, and faces. You apply this tool by clicking on the two entities you wish to measure and the program responds with a dialog that displays the number of the measurement or informs you that the dis-tance you requested is not well defined. For example, no distance can be calculated between two faces that are not parallel, or between two seg-ments that are not parallel, or between a segment and a face that are not parallel, etc. In these cases an error message is presented, rather than a measurement.

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Measure Quantities tool options palette.

Measure Quantities

This tool is used to extract information about an object. With the tool active, click on the object in question. The information is displayed in the Measure Quantities Tool Options palette, which has two sections: Selection and Quantities. If solid objects are selected, the combined center of gravity for all objects is shown by a point in the project window.

Mass Properties

This tool is used to extract the mass properties of an object. With the tool active, click on the object. The Mass Proper-ties Tool Options palette is displayed with the information about the object's masses. It is organized in 3 parts: Mass Properties displays informa-tion about the object's axes. Weight And Volume contains information about the object's density, volume, and weight. Moments Of Inertia contains the respective information. The units of measurement for weight and volume are se-lected from the popup menus next to the respective fields.

Mass Properties tool options palette.

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Object Doctor

This tool allows you to produce diagnostics about faults that an object may have and have them corrected, whenever possible. It is complemented by the Tool Options palette.

The palette contains three tabs: General, Facetted, and Smooth, each of which contains a number of faults applicable to the respective category. You turn on those items for which you wish the tool to check.

At the bottom of the palette is the Action group, which contains two options: Add To Selection and Fix If Possible. Selecting one of these options causes the tool to work ei-ther as a diagnostic mechanism or as a repairer. The option Display Results does just that, when on.

The Object Doctor palette and tabs:(a) General, (b) Facetted, and

(c) Smooth.

a

b

c

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Project Doctor

This tool detects two faulty conditions among selected objects of a project. These conditions are Duplicate Ob-jects and Inside Out Solids and are selected from the Project Doctor tool options palette. Either one of them or both of them may be turned on.

The Project Doctor tool options palette.

The best way to execute this tool is by preselecting with the Pick tool all the objects you wish to check. To prepick all the objects in a project, you can also use the Select All Unghosted command in the Edit menu. After prepicking, with the Project Doctor tool active, click anywhere in the project window.

If Add To Selection is on in the tool options palette, all normal objects are deselected, while all faulty objects remain selected and highlighted. You decide what to do with them. If Fix If Possible is on, then the pro-gram will do its best to correct the detected problem. That is duplicate objects will be deleted and inside out objects will be reversed.

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Print Preparation

This tool detects and highlights poten-tial 3D printing problems. No attempt is made to correct any of the prob-lems, this decision is left to the user.

This tool applies to the whole proj-ect and any prepicked objects are of no significance. When you activate the tool, the Print Prep tool options palette is invoked, where you set the conditions you wish to be checked. Then you click anywhere in the project window. The program highlights those objects that fail the conditions you have set.

With some of the conditions you are required to enter distances in both world and print scale. World units are the ones used in the project. Print units are those derived after the scale set at the top of the options palette is applied. These represent the size of

The Print Preparation tool op-tions palette.

the actual physical model that will be 3D printed.

At the top of the palette there is a pop-out menu for selecting the de-vice to be used for the 3D printing. Different devices may have different requirements. It is followed by the Scale group. There are three methods for scaling: entering a Scale Factor, defining a Fit Box that limits the size of the model, and Scale To Printer that causes the model to be scaled according to the picked printer.

The conditions for which the model can be checked are: Non Solids, Inside Out, Duplicate Surfaces, Small Objects, Thin Objects, and Large Volume. When Thin Objects is checked, you can also instruct the program to Create Cross Sections parallel to the reference plane, which helps to better visualize the problem areas of the object. The Large Vol-ume check is useful for saving material. When an object is found to be too bulky, it can be hollowed to save the material that would have other-wise taken to 3D print it as a solid.

Two buttons at the lower end of the palette, All and None, turn all checks on or off respectively. The Execute button has the same effect as click-ing in the project window to execute this tool.

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Model management

Edit Axes

This tool is used to edit and transform (move or rotate) an object's axes. Recall that an object's axes can be displayed by picking it and then, in the Attributes tab of the Pick tool op-tions palette, turning on Show Axes. Whether the axes are shown or not, when clicking on an object with the Edit Axes tool, a controller is dis-played at the location of the axes. It consists of three concentric circles, their diameters, and a few marked points. It allows you to manipulate the position and orientation of the axes in the usual way.

To move the axes freely, click and drug the center point. To move in one of the orthogonal directions, click and drag the respective diameter. To rotate the axes, click and rotate one of the circles.

The Tool Options palette contains X,Y,Z fields for the Origin and Rota-tion. They reflect the position of the object picked with the Edit Axis tool. They can also be changed to change the position and orientation of the axes.

The Show Axes option in the Pick tool options palette.

Three solids with their axes shown.Controller is also displayed with cone (middle object), after it was clicked with the Edit Axes tool.

Edit Axes tool options palette.

The palette also contains four Reset buttons: Per Object Type positions an object's axis where it is "natural" for the shape of the object (at center of sphere, at center of base for cylinder, etc.). Center Of Gravity posi-tions the axes at the exact center of the object (mass) and aligns them to the active reference plane. Average Of Points places the axes at the average of all the coordinate points of an object. Center Of Bounding Volume the centroid is placed at the midpoint between the minimum and maximum of the bounding volume in each of the three directions (X, Y, Z). The axes are aligned with the active reference plane.

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Set 1st PointThis tool allows you to reposition the first point of closed shapes. With the tool active, click on the point you want to become first point.

Recall that, to see where the first point is, you should turn on the Show First Point option in the Interactive tab of the Display Options palette.

Reverse DirectionThis tool allows you to reverse the di-rections of objects. To execute it, with the tool active, click on the object whose direction should be reversed.

Recall that, to see the direction of a surface object, you need to turn on the Show Directions or Show Normals option in the Display Options pal-ette for Wire Frame or Shaded Work modes. Only the directions of bound-ary segments or segments of wire ob-jects can be displayed. In the example shown, note that, after its directions have been reversed, the cuboid is in-side-out.

Extract ControlsThis tool is used to extract the controls of an object, whenever it is a controlled (parametric) object. To execute the op-eration, with the tool active, click on the object whose controls you wish to extract. If the object has no controls, nothing happens. If it has controls, they appear right away.

Reversing directions of: (a) 2D shape and (b) solid.

Left: original objects.Right: results after reversing.

Extracting controls of objects:Original objects on the top and resulting objects on the bottom:

(a) The torus has no controls.(b) (c) Extracted controls.

Resetting the first point of a rectangle:

(a) original position and (b) where it was moved.

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Convert Object Type

This tool converts one type of an object to another, whenever pos-sible. To execute it, with the tool ac-tive, click on the object to be con-verted. This invokes the Convert Options dialog, which displays the Current Object Type and Model Type at the top. It also contains corresponding pop-up menus from where the new types to which the object will be converted can be se-lected.

The Convert Options dialog.

Converting types of objects: top: original; bottom: converted.(a) A smooth torus converted to facetted. (b) A nurbs converted to a plain

surface. (c) A spline converted to a nurbs curve.

In the examples shown, note that the difference between the smooth and facetted tori is quite visible. This is not true for the surface in the middle (b). We can only distinguish their difference when we display their controls. The converted surface is plain and has no controls. Similarly for the curves on the right (c). We can tell one is a spline through points and the other a nurbs curve, only when we display their controls.

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The Paint Tool Options palette.

Attributes

PaintObjects are assigned the active material when they are generated. That material can be changed using the Paint tool. With the tool active, click on an object or a face. The object or the face receives the material that is currently active in the Materials palette.

The prepick method can also be used to paint multiple objects. The Paint tool options palette has a single option:

Apply Default Texture Size: Placed textures may be edited and their sizes changed. When replaced with other textures, the new textures adjust to the previous sizes, unless this option is on, when the default sizes are used.

Ghost This tool is used to turn an object into a ghost. With the tool active, click on an object. The previously active object is ghosted immediately. The prepick method can also be used: prepick a number of objects using the Pick tool and then, with the Ghost tool active, click anywhere in the project window. All prepicked objects are ghosted.

A ghosted object is a temporarily inactive object that retains all its proper-ties but cannot be picked and be involved in an operation. It can only be picked by the Unghost tool (see next paragraph). While this tool can be used to directly ghost an object, objects may also be ghosted after they are involved in some operation. Ghosted objects may or may not be displayed, which is controlled by the Hide Ghosted option in the Dis-play Options palette for Wire Frame and Shaded Work mode. When displayed, ghosted objects are shown in a different color from the active objects, which, by default, is light grey. This color can be customized from the Project Settings dialog invoked from the File menu.

UnghostThis tool is used to reactivate ghosted objects. With the tool active, click on the ghosted object you wish to unghost. This tool is the only tool capable of picking ghosted objects, when they are displayed.

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Copy AttributesThis tool is used to transfer attributes from one object, called the source, to another object, called the destination. To apply it, with the tool active, click on the source, then on the destination objects. If the same attributes are to be transferred to more than one object, the prepick method can be used. With the Pick tool, preselect the group of desti-nation objects. Then with the Copy At-tributes tool click on the source object. The attributes of the latter are trans-ferred to all the destination objects.

As soon as the Copy Attributes tool is activated, its tool options palette is displayed, where you set exactly which attributes you want to transfer. The palette consists of four columns. The first (left to right) allows you to turn on/off the attributes listed in the second column. When on, a check mark is displayed. Clicking on it turns it off.

The third and fourth columns are only used with optional attributes, which are attributes that may or may not exist. For example, all texture maps are optional attributes. With those attributes the icons displayed in the third and fourth columns indicate what will be done with them. With required attributes no such icons are shown, as the action for them is standard.

One of the attributes is always highlighted to indicate that it is the cur-rent attribute. If the current attribute is an optional attribute, its options are shown in more detail in the Optional Attributes section, where they can also changed according to the options displayed.

The Copy Attributes Tool Options palette.

Set LayerThis tool is used to assign an object to another layer. With the tool active you click on an object and the Active Layer is assigned to it, if that option is on in the tool palette. Or whatever layer is selected from the Layer popup menu.

Set Layer Tool Options palette.

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Deleting

DeleteThis tool is used to delete complete objects or parts of objects. It can also be used to delete lights, guides, views, and controls of spline curves and surfaces. It can be executed in either postpick or prepick mode.

Deleting complete objects or parts of objects.

Shown on the top row of the example to the right are the original objects, and on the lower row, the results. In (a), the whole object was deleted. In (b), the segment marked with a bullet was deleted. In (c), the round face of the cylinder was deleted. In (d), a point of the vector line was deleted, which caused two segments to be deleted and the vector line to be broken in two.

Note that any entity that can be deleted with this tool can also be deleted using the delete key on the keyboard. Use the Pick tool to select any number of entities, then press delete. All selected entities are deleted.

Delete GeometryTechnically, the Delete tool above deletes topology. This tool deletes geometry. When applied at the Object level, both tools produce the same results. However, when applied to parts of objects such as points, segments, and faces, the two tools produce different results as illustrated on the right. For example, when deleting the topology of a point of a polygon, the connections of the point are deleted and the closed shape is transformed to an open shape. In contrast, when deleting the geometry of a point, the point disappears, but the connections are preserved and the shape remains closed. Analogous results are produced when deleting a face from a solid.

Deleting faces:(a) topology and (b) geometry.

Deleting (1) points, (2) segments; (a) topology, (b) geometry.

a b

1a 1b

2a 2b

1

2

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Assigning and editing texturesIn form•Z a material that is assigned to an object or face may contain a texture map, such as the image of a brick wall or wooden boards. The process of texture mapping determines how this inherently 2D texture is projected onto a 3D shape. The following mapping types are used to achieve this:

Flat: The texture is projected onto the object/face along a linear direction. This is not unlike a slide projector putting an image on a screen. If the projection direction is perpendicular to a flat surface, the texture appears undistorted.

Cubic: The texture is projected as in the flat mapping type, except that each surface chooses the closest of 6 directions, corresponding to the 6 sides of a cube that surround the surface.

Cylindrical: The texture is projected from an imaginary cylinder that surrounds an object inward toward the cylinder axis.

Spherical: The texture is projected from an imaginary sphere that surrounds an object inward toward the center of the sphere.

Parametric: The texture is aligned with the direction of a parametric surface. For example, in a nurbs surface, the horizontal direction of the texture will be aligned with the length (U) direction and the vertical direction of the texture will be aligned with the depth (V) direction of the surface.

UV Coordinates: Any of the above mapping types can be converted to UV coordinates mapping. When this occurs, the texture will be frozen at the points of the object. Initially it will look the same as the mapping type it was derived from. However, if the points of the object are moved, the texture sticks to the points and appears to stretch with the moved point.

When an object is first created, the type of mapping that best suits its shape of is automatically assigned to it. For example, nurbs objects receive the parametric mapping type. A cube receives cubic mapping. An extruded wall receives separate flat mapping on each of its vertical faces, so that the texture is projected perpendicular to each face.

The default texture mapping assignments can be changed and edited with two tools. The Map Texture tool allows you to assign a different mapping type to an object or its face. The Edit Texture tool is used to interactively adjust the orientation and size of the texture.

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Map Texture

When an object is created it receives a default texture mapping type. With the Map Texture tool a new mapping type can be assigned to a whole object, or individual faces. This can be done using either the prepick or the postpick method of picking.

With the prepick method, use the Pick tool to select the objects and/or faces whose texture mapping needs to be adjusted. Then, with the Map Texture tool active, select the mapping type and other parameters in the Tool Options palette.

With the postpick method, activate the Map Texture tool and with it first select the objects and/or faces, then the texture mapping and other parameters in the Tool Options palette.

After the selections have been made, click anywhere in the project window and the selected parameters are applied to the objects/faces. If the objects are displayed without a texture map, no visible changes occur. It is therefore best to first apply a material that uses a texture to the object and to also enable the Textures option in the Display Options palette for the Shaded Work and Shaded Full rendering modes.

The Mapping Type menu in the Tool Options palette offers the basic mapping types Flat, Cubic, Cylindrical, and Spherical. They behave as described previously. In addition it offers two more options:

Best Match Per Object: When this menu item is selected, the texture mapping type that bests suits a selected object is used. This is the same mechanism that is applied when an object is first created.

Best Match Per Face: With this menu option, an individual mapping is applied to each face of an object. Planar faces receive a flat mapping type, that keeps the vertical texture direction aligned with the world Z axis (i.e. up) as much as possible. Completely horizontal faces show the horizontal texture direction aligned with the world X axis. Cylindrical

The Map Texture Tool Options palette.

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Brick texture mapped on a wall after the Best Match Per Face option was selected.

faces receive cylindrical mapping and spherical faces spherical mapping. All other face types receive cubic mapping. This mapping type works well on architectural elements, such as walls and roofs as it aligns the texture representing the building material (bricks, shingles) with the natural direction of the surface. An example of a wall with straight and curved components is shown. Note how the texture follows along the wall surfaces.

The Tool Options palette also contains a Wrapped Textures Size parameter. This is the real world dimension that corresponds to one placement of the texture. For example, if a texture map of a brick pattern consists of 5 bricks horizontally and the bricks are 8 inches long, the size parameter should be set to 40” in order for the brick texture to appear accurate. It should be noted that it is not critical that this parameter is set correctly right from the beginning, as the Edit Texture tool allows you to later fine tune the sizes of the textures.

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Edit Texture

With the Edit Texture tool, the location, rotation, and size of a texture can be edited interactively. As with the Map Texture tool, it is best to first assign a material with a texture map to an object and enable the Texture option for the shaded display modes (Shaded Work, Shaded Full). With the Edit Texture tool active, select one face. This causes on-screen controls to be displayed. You can now click on these controls to interactively edit the location, size, and/or rotation of the texture. As you do this, the values of the parameters you are changing are displayed in the Tool Options palette. Alternatively, you can numerically change values of the parameters and these changes will be reflected in the graphic display.

The on-screen editing of the controls can be performed in two different ways, which are determined by options selected from the Tool Options palette.

Edit On Face: When this option is selected, which is the default, the editing of size, location, and rotation of a texture occurs on a flat, cylindrical, or spherical surface, depending on the mapping type. For example, for flat mapping, the controls allow movement of the texture only in the plane of the flat mapping.

Edit In 3D: When this option is on, the origin and rotation of the texture map are edited in 3D space. The on screen controls allow the origin to be moved anywhere in 3D and the circular controls allow rotation around the three orthogonal axes.

The texture editing controls.

The Edit Texture Tool Options palette.

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If a texture was assigned with the Best Match Per Object or Best Match Per Face option, it is usually not necessary to edit the texture in 3D, but simply adjust placement and size with the Edit On Face option.

Depending on which texture mapping type is assigned to a face, the on screen controls of the Edit On Face behave differently.

Flat: Bullet: Changes the location on the plane of the flat map. It can be moved freely in any direction on that plane. Axes: Moves the texture along the direction of the respective axis. Ring: Changes the rotation of the texture on the plane. Arrows: Changes the size of the texture horizontally, vertically, or both.

Cubic: As for Flat mapping. The plane in which the map is edited is one of the three orthogonal directions of the cube. Initially the selected face determines that plane. It can be switched by clicking on the XY, YZ, or ZX option in the Tool Options palette.

Cylindrical: Bullet: Changes the location of the texture on the imaginary cylinder surrounding the face. It can be moved in any direction on the cylindrical surface. Straight Axis: Moves the texture along the axis of the cylinder. Ring: Moves the texture around the cylinder. Arrows: Changes the size of the texture horizontally, vertically, or both.

The Edit In 3D texture editing controls.

The Edit On Face controls for Flat mapping.

The Edit On Face controls for Cubic mapping.

The Edit On Face controls for Cylindrical mapping.

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Spherical: Bullet: Changes the location of the texture on the imaginary sphere surrounding the face. It can be moved freely in any direction on the spherical surface. Rings: Moves the texture along the ring direction. Arrows: Changes the size of the texture horizontally, vertically, or both.

Parametric: Bullet: Changes the location of the texture on parametric surface. It can be moved freely in any direction on the surface. Sliders: Changes the size of the texture in percent.

UV Coordinates: Sliders: Changes the size of the texture in percent.

The Edit On Face controls for UV Coordinates mapping.

The Edit On Face controls for Parametric mapping.

The Edit On Face controls for Spherical mapping.

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Useful hints

While editing the on screen controls, object snapping is enabled. This makes it easy, for example, to align a brick texture exactly with the edges of a wall and to orient the brick direction horizontally.

Clicking on any of the on-screen controls with the right mouse button invokes a Context menu. When using the Edit On Face option, this menu allows you to lock the size of the texture to the current proportions (Lock Size), lock the size to square (Make Square), or lock it to the proportions of any of the textures used by the material on the face (Set To Proportions Of Color Map, Set To Proportions Of Transparency Map). Next time the texture is resized using the diagonal arrow, the proportions of the texture in 3D will be constrained according to the menu choice.

When using the Edit In 3D option, the Context menu provides shortcuts to set all angles to 0 (Reset Angles), to move the center of the texture map to the object center (Move To Object Center), and to align the axes of the texture map with the direction of the face (Align With Face).

The Context menu invoked when right-click-ing on a control, while Edit On Face is used.

The Context menu invoked when right-clicking on a control, while

Edit In 3D is used.

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When using the Best Match Per Face option and you are assigning textures to an object with the Map Texture tool, each individual face receives the appropriate texture mapping type. The Best Match Per Object option applies the same method, unless the object type chooses to use another, more appropriate mapping type. To make editing of textures on an object easier, the sizes of all individual texture maps are linked. That is, when editing the size of a texture map on one face of the object, the size of all other textures on the object change as well.

In the example below, a wall object with straight and curved components is created. A surface style with a brick texture is assigned. Next, the Map Texture tool is applied using the Best Match Per Object option. This creates individual texture mapping on each face, including the curved faces. Now the Edit Texture tool is used on one of the faces. The texture is resized with the diagonal arrow control. Note that the sizes of all faces of the object change, keeping the bricks the same. However, changing the location and rotation of the texture mapping on one face would not have affected the other faces.

(a) A surface style with a brick texture is mapped on the wall, using the Best Match Per Object option. (b) With the Edit Texture tool the texture of

one face is resized, causing the size to be adjusted on all faces.

a

b

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The Material Parameters palette.

Creating and editing materials

Materials are attributes used for rendering an object in form•Z. They are displayed in the Mate-rials palette on the right of the project window. One material is active and is highlighted with a black border. This is assigned to all newly created objects.

A new material is created by clicking in an empty space of the palette. Double clicking on the icon of an existing material opens the Material Parameters palette, as shown. It displays the parameters that allow you to fine tune the appearance of the material when rendered on an object. Clicking on a different icon in the Materials palette will select that material as the active material and display its parameters in the Material Parameters palette. By default, the parameters shown in the palette represent a generic material. The parameters allow you to apply a Color, which can be Plain or a Texture map. You can also set a Reflection and/or Transparency, which can be linear or derived from a transparency map. Using the material param-eters a number of effects can be simulated, such as plastic, glass, or wood.

Default Texture Size: These parameters determine how large a texture will appear on an object, when the material is first applied. For example, if a texture shows a brick pattern with 5 bricks in 8 rows, the size should be set to 40” x 18”, assuming a standard brick size of 8” x 2 ¼”. This guarantees that the texture appears in its real world size on an object by default. The texture size on an object can be customized with the Map Texture and Edit Texture tools.

Choosing a predefined material

In addition to manipulating the parameters of the default material, a spe-cific predefined material can be selected from a list of Material Librar-ies, displayed by expanding the Material Parameters palette, which is done by clicking in the open/close widget at the lower right corner of the palette. An expanded palette is shown.

At the top is the Library pop up menu from which a category of materi-als can be selected. The materials of the selected library are displayed below as icons. The parameters of one of those predefined materials can be applied to the current or other materials, using one of these ways:

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Expanded Material Parameters palette.

1. Click on the Apply ( ) icon at the bottom of the palette. 2. Double click on the graphic icon of a predefined material. 3. Drag the graphic icon of a predefined material on top of the material preview window at the upper right corner of the palette. 4. Drag and drop a predefined material on top of a material icon in the Materials palette to apply its parameters to that material. 5. Drag and drop a predefined material on top of an empty spot in the Materials palette to create a new material.

Defining your own predefined materialsForm•Z comes with a large selection of predefined materials. However, you may also create your own selection of materials so that they can be used in future projects. The standard form•Z materials are stored as files in the form•Z Materials folder, located in the same directory as the form•Z application folder. These materials and libraries cannot be altered. New user defined materials and libraries are saved to a folder also named form•Z Materials in the user’s documents folder.

To create a new user defined material, a new library must be created first by selecting Add Library... from the Library menu, or the default user library “My Library” may be selected. The parameters of the current material, as shown in the top portion of the Material Parameters palette, can be saved as a predefined material in three ways:

1. Click on the Save ( ) icon at the bottom of the palette. 2. Drag/drop the preview window on the predefined materials section.

3.Drag/drop a material icon from the Materials palette on the pre-defined materials section.

A previously created predefined material may be deleted by clicking on the Delete ( ) icon at the bottom of the palette.

TexturesTextures that are used in form•Z are embedded in the project file when it is saved. Therefore it is not necessary to also transfer texture files when moving a form•Z project file from one machine to another.

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DimensionsIn form•Z you may add dimensions and text annotation to a 3d model. There are three kinds of dimensions: Linear, Angular, and Radial, and two kinds of simple text: Leader Lines and Notes. While the three dimensions automatically measure a physical quantity, such as a linear distance, leader lines and notes are used to add textual information to a model. An example of each is shown below.

Examples of the three types of dimensions, leader line, and note.

The tools to generate dimensions and text are located in the Text group of tools.

Linear Dimension

This tool creates a linear dimension from two clicked points or a selected segment. To generate a linear dimension from two points, click the first point in the model window. Make sure not to locate the mouse over a linear segment, as this will create the dimension from the segment (see below). After the first point is clicked, move the mouse to the location of the second point. The dimension value will be shown. Click the second point. Now the dimension text will be offset from the two clicked points. Click a third time to finish. Note, that this method works best when object snapping is on, which will cause the clicked points to be located exactly on a point of an existing object. However, it is not necessary to click on object points. A linear dimension can also be created from imaginary points anywhere on the reference plane.

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To create a linear dimension from a segment, select a straight segment. As soon as the segment is picked, the dimension text is offset as de-scribed above.

While clicking points or selecting the segment, the input plane is auto-matically adjusted to the face over which the mouse is located. This is the same mechanism that occurs when drawing shapes. Dimensions are displayed on a plane and the plane active after selection of the first point or segment will be the one used for the dimension. It is a good practice to move the mouse around until the desired plane is shown, then lock the plane using the f5 key or the context menu. Subsequent clicks will no longer switch the plane. This is illustrated below.

Generating a dimension: (a) Choose and lock the plane. (b) Click two points and extrude the dimension text on the plane.

a b

Linear dimensions can be generated parallel to the clicked points/select-ed segment or parallel to the x or y axis of the current plane, as shown below. When extruding the dimension text, color coded guide lines are shown which indicate these three directions. Moving the mouse close to one of the three guides will change the extrusion to that direction.

Types of linear dimensions: (a) parallel to the points, (b) parallel to the x axis, and (c) parallel to the y axis.

a b c

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After the dimension text has been extruded, the dimension is shown in the result highlight color. It is now possible to edit the parame-ters of the object through the Tool Options palette or by using the on screen controls, as with other objects. The Tool Options palette contains the following parameters:

Style: Select a dimension style from the menu or select Edit Styles... at the bottom of the menu to create new or edit existing styles.

Alignment: Select the desired alignment from the menu. If the dimension style shown in the Style menu above uses the Aligned With Dimension option, five alignments are available (see more details in the Dimension Styles section later on). If the style uses the Horizontal On Screen option, three alignments can be chosen. Examples of the alignments are shown in the figures below.

The Tool Options palette for the Di-mensions.

Alignment options for Aligned With Dimension styles: (a) At Start, (b) Center Inside, (c) Center, (d) Center Outside, and (e) At End.

Alignment options for Horizontal On Screen styles: (a) At Start, (b) Center, and (c) At End.

Custom Text: By default a linear dimension shows the distance between the two dimension points as text. The text can be replaced entirely, or ad-ditional text can be added in front and behind the distance. In the Custom Text field, the <> symbolizes the distance. If you delete these two char-acters and type in new text, it will be displayed instead. If you leave the <> characters and add additional text, it will be shown with the distance. For example, entering "This wall is <> long" will display "This wall is 10'-0 long" on the screen, assuming the two dimension points are 10 feet apart. If you type, "This is a wall", the dimension will show just that text.

Editing dimensions is discussed further in the Picking and Editing section.

a b c d e

a b c

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Multi Dimension

This tool generates groups of dimen-sions that can be of three types: Chain, Stack, and Ordinate. The Dimension Type is selected from the tool's options palette. For all types the tool is applied the same way.

With the tool active, click on the first point of the dimension, then the sec-ond, and so on. When all points have been clicked, double click roughly on the location where you want the di-mension to be generated. The dimen-sion is rubber banded and you can still move it, while you are visually inspect-ing it and deciding where is the best location to generate it. Click one more time at that location and the dimen-sion is generated. See examples on the right.

The Style and Text parameters are as for Linear Dimension.

When you are applying a Stack dimension, the Offset field gives you control of the distances between the stacked individual dimensions.

a

b

c

The Multi Dimension palette.

Multi Dimensions: (a) Chain, (b) Stack, and (c) Ordinate.

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Angular Dimension

This tool creates a dimension that displays the angle defined by three points. As with the linear dimension you can either click points or select a segment. Three clicked points are required or the selection of an arc segment. When clicking points, the first click defines the center of the arc, the second the start point and the third the end point. The plane active when the first point is clicked will be the plane in which the dimension arc is generated. After the third click or the selection of a segment the dimen-sion text is offset parallel to the defined arc. An additional click will finish the input. While offsetting the text, the arc can be reversed to display the complementary angle by tapping the command key (Mac) or control key (Windows). For example, if the arc shows 90 degrees, tapping the key will flip the arc to show 270 degrees.

The parameters for angular dimensions in the Tool Options palette are the same as for linear dimensions.

Radial/Diameter Dimension

This tool creates a dimension that displays the radius or diameter of an arc or circle. It is executed by picking a single arc or circular segment. After the pick, the dimension line is drawn from the click point on the arc to the current mouse position. An additional click will finish the input. The dimension text is preceded by the prefix “R” to indicate that the dimen-sion shows a radius. You may switch the dimension to show the diameter by clicking on the respective radio button in the Tool Options palette. The prefix will now switch over to “Ø”.

As with linear and angular dimensions, radial dimensions use a style that determines how the text is displayed and which terminator is shown at the start of the dimension line. The text alignment can be set to Top, Center, or Bottom, which moves the text block relative to the end of the dimension line.

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Leader Line

This tool creates a line at the end of which a text block is displayed. With the tool active click one or more points in the project. The first point will display the terminator, usually an arrow, pointing the part of the model for which the text description is intended. To end drawing the lines double click. Next a dialog will be displayed, where the text information can be entered. Note that long pieces of text will not automatically wrap when they are displayed in the project window. You will need to break long lines by hitting the return key when entering the text in the dialog. After exiting the text dialog the full leader line is displayed. Note, that the direction of the text block on the dimension plane is along the direction of the last line segment.

As with linear and angular dimensions, leader lines use a style that determines how the text is displayed and which terminator is shown at the start of the first line segment. The text alignment can be set to Top, Center, or Bottom, which moves the text block relative to the last line segment.

Text Note

This tool creates a simple block of text. With the tool active, click a point in the project. A dialog will be displayed, where the text information can be entered. As with leader lines, long text lines need to be broken by hit-ting the return key. After exiting the dialog, the text block will be displayed at the clicked point. The direction of the text is along the x axis of the reference plane, which was active at the time of the clock. The direction of the text can be changed using the on screen controls.

Explode Dimension

This tool can be used to convert a dimension to its line work and text objects. With the tool active, click on a dimension. Nothing changes visually, but the parts of the dimension are now independent objects. A dimension can also be exploded using the Convert tool, but the Explode Dimension tool is more direct.

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Dimension styles

How a dimension or text is displayed is set by the style it uses. All the tools invoke a menu from which a style can be chosen. Initially there is one default style. By selecting Edit Styles..., more styles can be created in the Dimensions dialog. The same dialog can also be invoked from the Dimensions tab of the Project Settings dialog.

On the left side of the dialog a list of available styles is shown. New styles can be created with the Add (+) button and existing styles are deleted with the Remove button. The parameters of the highlighted style in the list are shown on the right side of the dialog.

The Type popup menu has two items: Screen and World. They specify how the values entered in the dialog will be interpreted. Screen values remain the same regardless of the scale of a drawing, while world values are affected by the zoom factor and are scaled accordingly.

The Text group of options specifies the details of the text appearance. Size and Gutter control how big it will be and how much space around it should be left blank. The Font menu offers a choice of fonts currently installed on the system. When Include Units is checked, unit measure-ment indications will also be displayed. The text currently specified is displayed in the Text Sample box.

The Dimensions dialog.

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There are three Placement options that determine if the text will be placed Above, On (default), or Under the dimension line. Text Between Witness Lines controls whether the text will always be placed between the witness lines, even when it needs extra scaling to fit.

The Terminator group specifies whether a terminator symbol will be placed at the Start and/or End of a dimension line. This can be one of a variety of available options or None. See examples below.

Orientation of dimensions: (a) Aligned With Dimension (b) Horizontal On Screen.

The Witness Line group controls whether there will be such lines at Start and/or End and contains options for their specification.

The measured quantities of a dimension are rounded by the values in the Display Accuracy fields. If no rounding is desired, zeroes should be en-tered, in which case the accuracy in the Working Units tab of the Project Settings dialog will be used.

The last two options determine if dimensions and text are dropped from the display, due to that they are viewed at a shallow angle or become very small because of zooming too far. If Hide Dimensions By Screen Size and Hide Dimensions By View Angle are checked, dimensions shorter than the indicated screen size or viewed at an angle less than the one specified are not displayed.

a b

Terminator types: (a) Open Arrow, (b) Filled Arrow, (c) Dot, (d) Slash, and (e)

a b c d e

The two Orientation options determine whether the text is displayed in the plane of the dimension (Aligned With Dimension) or the text is drawn flat on the screen (Horizontal On Screen). See examples below.

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Picking and editing dimensions

Dimensions, leader lines and text notes display graphics according to common drafting standards. Unlike other objects, they do not consist of the typical hierarchy of faces, outlines, segments and points. That is, they can only be picked as objects. However, they are controlled objects and their parameters can be edited in the Tool Options palette the same way as other objects.

The on screen controls allow you to modify the orientation and text offset of dimensions. Clicking in the arrow moves the dimension text in the plane of the dimension. Clicking on a point control moves that point to a new location. Note, that the dimension text updates interactively as the point is moved. The edited point can be snapped to existing object points, if object snapping is on. Note, that it is possible to snap the dimension point to a location that is not on the dimension plane. In this case, the point from which the dimension distance is calculated is first projected perpendicular on the plane. A dashed line from the snapped point to the dimension plane is drawn.

A linear dimension with a point snapped off the plane.

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Associativity

If the points of a dimension were snapped to points of objects when they were created, or when a segment was selected, the dimension stays as-sociated with the object points. If the object point is subsequently moved through a modeling operation, such as the Reshape tool, the dimension is automatically adjusted to follow the moved point. There are a number of modeling operations, which will not be able to maintain the associativ-ity of a dimension with its referenced object. If this occurs, and the object is moved, the dimension will not follow along. However, this condition can easily be fixed with the following steps:

Select the dimension with the pick tool and turn on its controls (hit the f6 key or press the Show Controls button in the Tool Options palette).

Make sure that object snapping is enabled.

Select each dimension point control and move it back on the desired object point, using snapping. Sometimes this may mean snapping it back to the same point it already appeared on. The snapping will recreate the associativity.

Now, if the referenced object points are moved, the dimension will follow along.

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Hatches Hatching is a graphic technique used to create effects on surfaces for illustration proposes. Hatching (also known as cross-hatching) initially used parallel lines at intervals and various angles to create patterns, but has been extended to include a variety of patterns that can be meaning-fully applied to surfaces. Hatching is an attribute that can be added to an object or face of an object. In form•Z, hatches are applied using the Hatch tool and the Hatch palette. The hatch palette contains a set of preset hatches. Additional hatches can be loaded from industry standard .pat files, using the Load .Pat File button at the bottom of the palette. One hatch pattern is always selected in the Hatch palette and is the active hatch. It is indicated by a bold box around it. A hatch can be applied at the Object or Face topological level using either the Hatch tool or the drag and drop method from the hatch palette to the desired object or face.

Hatch The Hatch tool is used to apply the active hatch pattern to an object or face and to control the placement, orientation, and scale of the hatch. It is initially applied at the default scale.

The Hatch palette.

The Hatch Tool Options palette.

The hatch is initially aligned with the selected face or with the first face of an object, when it is applied at the Object level. Hatching can only be applied to planar faces. Rotation and other parameters can be set in its Tool Options dialog: Type: This popup menu contains two items: World and Screen. With Screen the hatch size is specified in points and is displayed the same size on the screen, regardless of the zoom factor. With World the hatch size is subject to the zoom factor of the current view.

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Origin: The defaults for X, Y, and Z are 0's, but you can enter other values to move the origin of a hatch pattern to another location. This is sometimes necessary when you try to align hatches. Scale: Changing the value in this field will change the scale or density of the pattern.

Rotation: Entering a value other than 0 in this field will rotate the hatch pattern, which again may be necessary when trying to align hatches among different faces. Once the hatch is applied, a graphic controller is displayed represent-ing the origin, rotation and scale, of the hatch. The controller is used to interactively change the parameters of the hatch. Selecting a different hatch in the hatch palette while the controller is present changes the hatch pattern. When using the pre-pick method, the hatching is applied with the same parameters to all of the pre-picked entities. This creates a common origin that can be useful when it is desirable to have patterns on different ob-jects be aligned to each other. The tool can be used on entities that have already had hatching applied to change the pattern or any of the place-ment parameters of the hatch. When an object or face is picked, the Hatch can be changed in the Hatch menu of the Attributes tab of the Pick tool options palette. This displays the hatches that are applied to the selected entities (if any). The placement parameters can be changed numerically and a different pattern can be selected by dragging the desired pattern from the hatch palette.

Edit Hatch This tool is used to revise the parameters of a previously applied hatch, either at the Object or Face topological levels. Its tool options palette is identical with that for the Hatch tool.

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Transferring project data Data from one project can be transferred to another project. This can be done by adding (merging) the data from one project to another or by copying and pasting selected data between projects. In either case the desired data is explicitly chosen, however, there is also implicit data that must be transferred as well. For example, when transferring objects, an object’s layer and material must also be transferred. When there is a conflict between these items (for example, both projects have a material with the same name but a different appearance), a dialog is presented offering options for resolving the conflict.

The Project Merge Options dialog.

• The Add To Project checkbox found in the Open dialog, can be used to transfer the contents of one project to another project. In such a case, the Project Merge Options dialog is invoked. This dialog allows for the selection of what type of data is transferred. • The Copy/Paste items in the Edit menu can be used to copy objects, lights, and views from one project and paste them into another project.

When transferring data from one project to another, one of the following cases occurs:

1. The item transferred is unique. That is, the transferred item has a unique name and set of parameters. This being the most common case, the transferred item is simply added to the project.

2. The destination project already contains an item whose name and parameters are identical to those of the transferred item. In such a case, the program does not add the transferred item to the destination project.

3. The destination project contains an item whose parameters are the same as those of the transferred item, but the two items have different names. In such a case, the Project Merge Conflicts dialog is invoked.

4. The destination project contains an item whose name is the same as the name of the transferred item, but the parameters of the two items are different. In such a case, the Project Merge Conflicts dialog is invoked.

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Project Merge Conflicts dialog

The Project Merge Conflicts dialog is invoked when items are transferred from one project to another and a conflict has occurred.Each type of conflict (e.g. Materials) appears in its own tab. In each tab is a list of the items that have a conflict with a description of the conflict and the action that will take place when the OK button is clicked.

There are four columns in each list.

The Project Merge Conflicts dialog.

From “file name”: This column shows the name and an icon of the item that is in conflict with an existing item. If the names are in conflict the name will be drawn in red. In this case, the name can be double clicked to manually edit the name to a non-conflicting name. Clicking on the icon will select the item and draw a green border around the icon. When the item is selected, it will replace the existing item in the list. Clicking the icon again will deselect it, the green border will go away, and the default state of adding the conflicting item to the list will be set.

To “file name”: This column shows the name and an icon of the item that is in conflict with a new item. Clicking on the icon will select the item and draw a green border around the icon. When the item is selected, it will be used instead of the new item. Clicking the icon again will deselect it, the green border will go away, and the default state of adding the conflicting item to the list will be set.

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Conflict: This column contains a description of the conflict. The possible conflicts are: • An item named “from item” exists in both “from file” and “to file” but have different parameters. • “from item” from “from file” has the same parameters as “to item” from “to file.”

Action: This column contains a description of what action will be taken when the OK button is clicked.

The possible actions are:

Add item “from item” to “to file.”Add item “from item” to “to file” and rename.Use item “from item” from “from file” instead of “to item” in “to file.”Use item “to item” from “to file” instead of “from item” in “from file.”

Below the list are three buttons:

Add All New: This is the default action for all conflicts. Clicking this button will set all conflicting items in the visible list to be added to the corresponding list. If the conflict is a name conflict, the From name in the list will be drawn in red. The name will be editable in this case by double-clicking the name. Any items with name conflicts that haven’t been resolved when the OK button is clicked will be automatically resolved by the program. If the transferred item is an attribute assigned to an entity also being copied into the project, the entity will reference the transferred palette item.

All Use “from file name”: Clicking this button will set all conflicting items in the visible list to use the item in the From “file name” column. If the item is an attribute, all the entities to which either the existing or the transferred item was assigned will reference the newly transferred item.

All Use “to file name”: Clicking this button will set all conflicting items in the visible list to use the item in the To “file name” column. If the transferred item is an attribute assigned to an entity also being copied into the project, the entity will reference the existing item with the same parameters as the transferred item.

Below the buttons are instructions on how this dialog works.

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Importing and exporting object file formatsIn addition to its own project files, form•Z can import and export a vari-ety of other formats. These are either object file formats,which transfer descriptions of 2D shapes and 3D objects, or image file formats that con-tain mostly bit mapped descriptions of scanned, captured, or rendered images. The object format files share a number of identical import and export options and therefore their dialogs share a common format. The common options are discussed first, then the options that are unique to each format.

Common object import options

The dialogs invoked when importing object files into form•Z share many common options. They consist of three sections. The top portion con-tains options for controlling the units. The next section is the common options for modeling (Import As Modeling Objects). The third section at the bottom of the dialog contains the options specific to the format (if any). Where an option does not apply to a certain format, it is dimmed.

The common import options.

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a

b

Setting the units of the imported entities

Most of the format files contain no information about the unit of measure-ment in which their numerics are written. For example, a 10 in DXF could be inches, feet, centimeters, meters, etc. For these formats it is neces-sary to tell form•Z what the units are, which is done through the following two pop up menus.

Project Units menu.

Project Units: This pop up menu determines how units will be set in form•Z, when the Add To Project option is not selected in the Import dialog. When on, this menu is dimmed and the units already set in the receiving project are used.

Format Units: The item selected from this pop up menu determines how the units in the imported file will be interpreted. From File is available only when the format of the imported file carries unit infor-mation and it reads the numbers as in the imported file. As In Current Project causes the units to be interpreted as determined by the selection in the Project Units pop up menu, or by the settings in the import project. All the other items specify the unit of measurement to be used.

Format Units menu.

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Importing as modeling objects

Import Grouping: The items in this pop up menu set the hierarchy of the imported file. The first item is the default for all formats.

Import Grouping menu.

Disabled: When this item is on, no grouping information is con-structed. As Groups: For FACT files, when this option is on, their grouping hierarchy is converted into form•Z grouping with each child as a nested group to its parent object. As Layers: For FACT files, when this option is on, the top level of each group in the file is represented as a form•Z layer, and all the chil-dren of the group are placed on the layer. Import Method: This group of options controls the method used for converting imported objects to form•Z objects.

Parametric: To the extent possible, all parametric object data, NURBS data, smooth (ACIS) data will be preserved.

Facetted: All objects will be imported as plain facetted objects.

Display Resolution: This option sets the display resolution of import-ed smooth objects.

Skip Point Objects: Point objects are sometimes not desirable. Se-lecting this option will prevent point objects from being imported.

Skip Text Objects: Some files contain text used for annotation. It may not be desirable to import this text. Selecting this option prevents text objects from being imported.

Replace Unavailable Fonts With: This is a menu that lists the fonts available on the system form•Z is running on. If a file to be imported references a font that is not available, the font selected from this menu will be used as a substitute.

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Constructing solids from closed polylines

Composition: Three dimensional entities imported from other applications are typically collections of polylines which, when taken together, enclose an entity equivalent of a solid. There is typically no information about which polylines belong together. The options in this group tell form•Z how to im-port these entities into its modeling environment in a meaningful manner. Construct 3D Solids: When this option is on, groups of surfaces whose edges touch are compiled and solid objects are constructed from them, provided these sets of surfaces are complete and satisfy the closure require-ment. That is, for form•Z to be fully successful in this task, the imported data should contain all the surfaces that are needed to completely enclose a solid object. Form•Z does not attempt to create faces that may be missing. It will create as many solid objects as possible. Surfaces that fail to incorporate in the representation of a solid are imported as surface objects. Combine Surfaces With Different Materials: When this option is selected, surfaces with differing materials will be combined to make solids. If this option is not selected, only surfaces with the same material will be combined. Combine Surfaces With Different Layers: With this option se-lected, surfaces on differing layers will be combined to make solids. If this option is not selected, only surfaces on the same layer will be combined. Join Adjacent Coplanar Faces: When this option is selected, the system will automatically join all adjacent (sharing an edge) and coplanar faces of the same object into single faces. This option is independent of the Construct 3D Solids option. Make Reference Object: When this option is selected, all imported objects will be joined into one reference object. This is useful when the imported file contains many small separate line objects. Form•Z's object is fairly memory intensive, so combining all the imported geometry into one object saves system memory. All parts of a reference object are snappable so the object can be used for tracing to reconstruct the geom-etry in a more useful form. When Per Layer is also on, a separate reference object will be cre-ated for each layer.

Importing materials and textures

When importing entities through a file format that handles colors, these colors also need to be imported or approximated as closely as possible. Most use an RGB representation for colors, which is consistent with what form•Z uses.

Import Textures: If this option is selected, textures will be imported.

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Common object export options

As with importing, the dia-logs invoked when export-ing modeling object files share many common op-tions, which are displayed at the upper portions of the dialogs. The lower sections contain format specific options. Where one of the common op-tions does not apply to a format, it is dimmed in the respective dialog.

Notation and platform types

When exporting to formats that support both ASCII and binary notations (SAT and STL) options to select one or the other are available.

The common modeling export options.

Units menu.

File Type: This pop up menu contains two items: ASCII and Binary. Either one can be selected. All the export file formats that can be saved as ASCII text, except SAT, support the Platform pop up menu. Most file formats that are exclusively ASCII always have the Platform menu available. For file formats that can be either ASCII or binary the Platform menu is available when ASCII is selected and dimmed when Binary is selected from the File Type menu. The default selection of Platform is initially set according to the platform form•Z is currently running.

Platform menu.

Export units

The following option applies when a format does not contain its own unit specification method.

Units: This pop up menu sets the linear units of the exported data. When the Project Units item is select-ed, the data is exported in the units set in the Working Units tab of the Project Settings dialog. When one of the other items is selected, the respective unit is used to export the data.Note again that the options in this menu only apply to formats that do not have their own unit specification options. The ones that do, such as Lightwave, use their own specifications. For these formats this pop up menu is dimmed and unavailable.

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Grouping method

When exporting a form•Z project, the objects it contains may be struc-tured as a single group or as many groups. These groups can be struc-tured to contain one object each, all the objects of the same color, all the objects on the same layer, or all the objects that belong to the same form•Z group. When exporting to DWG, DXF, FACT, and OBJ, which provide grouping structures, these groups can be exported in a single file, or one file can be constructed per group. When more than one file is exported from a single form•Z project, they are placed in a folder.

Grouping Method: This pull down menu contains five grouping methods.

Single Group: With this method (default), all objects become a single group and one file is exported.

By Object: With this option, each object becomes a separate group. When Separate Files is also on, then each object is placed into a sepa-rate file.

By Material: When this method is selected, all form•Z objects or faces of the same material form a separate group. For file formats that do not carry color or material, this method allows you to reassign uniform colors or materials to groups of objects after they have been imported into other programs.

By Layer: When this grouping method is selected, all form•Z objects that are on the same layer are grouped together, which allows you to pre-serve the layers set up in the form•Z file.

By Group: Selection of this method preserves the form•Z groups and transforms them into the grouping structure of the destination program, if one exists, or exports them as separate files.

Separate Files: When this option is selected, a separate file is con-structed for each of the groups defined by the selection from the Group-ing Method menu. These separate files are all saved into a newly cre-ated folder, which takes its name from the name entered into the name field of the Save dialog. The names of the individual files are construct-ed from the grouping method and an extension that specifies the type of file. For the first part of the name, if the grouping method is By Object, the object name is used; if By Material, the material name; if By Layer, the layer name; and if By Group, the group name is used. This option is dimmed and inactive when Single Group is selected.

Grouping Method pull down menu.

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Export method

This group of options specifies how form•Z objects will be exported.

Parametric: When this option is on, parametric objects and smooth (ACIS) objects will be exported to the extent supported by the file format.

Facetted: When this option is selected, all objects will be exported as plain facetted objects.

Triangulate All Facetted: When this option is selected, all objects will be triangulated.

Visible Layers Only: All the export formats allow you to export only parts of a project by organizing it into layers that may or may not be visible. When this option is on, only the objects on visible layers are exported.

Picked Objects Only: When this option is on, only the objects that ap-pear selected on the screen will be exported.

Exporting materials and textures

In form•Z, different colors may be assigned at the object and face lev-els, as well as rendering parameters relating to the smooth shading of surfaces. Material parameters and texture maps may also be assigned. The ability to export these parameters is available for many of the export formats using the following options.

Attributes: This section contains options that specify how colors, nor-mals, shading, and textures are exported, as follows:

Fix Smooth Shading: Rendering applications apply smooth shad-ing across surfaces that share common edges. When smooth shading between two neighboring surfaces is not desired, these surfaces should be disconnected and represented as independent surfaces. To achieve these effects, a form•Z model can be decomposed into parts using modeling tools available in the program. This option can also be used to determine which faces will be exported as continuous surfaces (and are thus smoothly shaded), and which faces will be exported as independent surfaces. The distinction is made on the basis of the angle at the com-mon edge of two surfaces, which is entered in the Angle field, typically found next to this option in the export dialogs. When this option is se-lected, only the faces whose angle is larger than that shown are exported as continuous surfaces and are smooth shaded by the rendering applica-tion. Neighboring faces with smaller angles are exported as discontinu-ous surfaces.

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Textures: If this option is selected, textures will be exported.

Image File Format: This menu lists the texture image files supported by the file format. Use this menu to select the texture image format.

Options...: This button brings up the image export options dia-log for the selected texture image format. For a description of this dialog, see the Common Image Export Options section later in this manual.

Tips and warnings

The following are some recommendations that will produce the best results, when exporting/importing texture map parameters:

When importing a file without importing its textures, only the file you se-lect is imported. When you import with the Import Texture Maps option on, in addition to the main file, a number of other support files, mostly image maps, also need to be imported. Texture map importing relies heavily on the validity of these support resources. Make sure that all the support files (image maps and material files) required by the main file are present; that they are compatible with the main file; that they are of an image type recognized by form•Z, if they are images; and that they have correct file names. If one or more of the above mentioned conditions are not satisfied, error messages are issued and importing may terminate. Needless to say that when you have an incomplete set of support files, the main file can still be imported by turning off the Import Texture Maps option.

When exporting spherical or cylindrical texture maps applied to relative large surfaces, which are converted to UV coordinates, the exported models may not render accurately in other applications. You may im-prove the rendering quality these applications can produce from such maps by increasing the resolution of the form•Z models, using one of the Mesh tools. When special cases are encountered as you import/ex-port files with texture maps, you are warned at the end of the operation. These cases include file name changes due to file format syntax restric-tions, image map conversions, failure to locate image maps, or exporting files with unsupported image formats.

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3dm (Rhino files)

This translator adds sup-port for importing models from the Rhino .3dm format.

Rhino is a NURBS modeling application by Robert McNeel and As-sociates. The Rhino file format (.3dm is useful for the exchange of NURBS geometry.)

There are no format specific options. Currently import supports geom-etry and layers.

The Modeling Import Options: 3dm dialog.

Additional information will be added in the future as well as support for exporting to 3DM.

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3DS

3DS is a file format used by Autodesk’s 3D Studio® to store modeling and animation information. A 3DS file can have an object section and a keyframe section, which transfers animation parameters. Form•Z reads and writes only the object section of a 3DS file and does not support its animation portion. 3DS is a binary encoded format.

Importing 3DS files

A 3DS file is imported into form•Z in the standard manner and all the options in the Modeling Import Options: 3DS dialog are general type of options. The 3DS lights, cameras, and materials are converted as closely as possible to form•Z lights, views, and materials.

Exporting 3DS files

A form•Z project is exported as a 3DS file in the standard manner and only modeling objects can be exported to 3DS files. All the options in the Modeling Export Options: 3DS dialog are common options.

All the form•Z modeling objects are triangulated when they are exported to 3DS. Also, all the control objects lose their controls, since they are not supported by 3DS. The form•Z lights, views, and surface styles are converted to the closest 3DS lights, cameras, and materials.

How are textures handled

The 3DS file format supports plain color, image maps, ambient, diffuse, and specular reflections, roughness, specular color, and transmission. It also supports transparency maps and bump maps.

When importing a 3DS file, and the file contains references to texture maps, all the image types recognized by form•Z are considered valid texture maps.

The form•Z texture map controls are converted to UV coordinates (or rendering coordinates in 3DS terms) at export and are imported as UV coordinates from the 3DS files.

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Art•lantisThis is a native format of Art•lantis Render, a rendering/animation ap-plication by ABVENT, available on both MacOS and Windows. form•Z supports versions 3.0 and 4.5. This format is comprised of two ASCII files that typically have the same name with different extensions. The first file’s extension is .OPT. It contains information about window sizes, animation paths, cameras, rendering options, and a link to a second file, whose extension is .DB. This contains descriptions of objects such as geometry, shaders attached to faces, and lights.

The Art•lantis file format supports plain color, image maps, diffuse and specular reflections, transmission, refraction, and reflectivity.

Importing Art•lantis files

There is a single format specific option for importing. All the other options are as for the other formats. See dialog below.

The Modeling Import Options: Art•lantis dialog.

Minimum Keyframes Per Bezier Segment: Art•lantis and form•Z rep-resent paths differently. Art•lantis uses end key-frames and a Bezier path stored with the animation. form•Z uses keyframes on a spline path that are not stored explicitly but are reconstructed from the keyframe positions. When importing Art•lantis paths, form•Z is required to generate the necessary keyframes per Art•lantis Bezier segment. How many frames are gener-ated per segment is de-termined by the value en-tered in this field. Default is 3, the minimum number of controls needed for a Bezier segment.

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Exporting Art•lantis files

Two format specific options, in addition to the common, are set when exporting Art•lantis. Also, the Grouping Method has a limited range, because Art•lantis does not support groups. Any group resulting from the method selected is exported as a separate file. That is, groups are simulated by exporting separate files.

Version: This menu specifies in which version of Art•lantis to save. The default is 4.5. Files saved in 3.0 can be read by Art•lantis version 3.0 and newer. However, v. 3.0 imposes stricter limits to the numbers of items that can be exported. If you hit such a limit, you should consider using v. 3.5 or v. 4.5.

In Art•lantis version 4.5, the file extension of that application was changed from .opt to .atl. If the version is changed from 3.x to 4.5 or from 4.5 to 3.x, after a file name has been entered, form•Z will automatically change the file extension.

The Modeling Export Options: Art•lantis dialog.

Export Data File Only (.DB): When this option is on, only the .DB file is exported. When off (default), both files are saved. It is quite typical to preliminarily save an animation without the objects in the scene being completely developed yet. This allows you to check the animation paths, then finalize the details of the models, and then save the .DB file.

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Collada

The Collada file format takes its name from Collaborative Design Activity and its extension is ".dae" that stands for digital asset exchange. This for-mat may be used to transfer object geometry, textures, and other 3D data.

Collada can be used for both importing and exporting.

To import, invoke the Modeling Import Options: Collada dialog, which is a standard import dialog. That is, it only contains general options and has no Collada specific options. In this dialog, the Import Textures op-tion is on by default.

To export invoke the Modeling Export Options: Collada dialog, which is again a standard export dialog. That is, it only contains general type of options and has no Collada specific options.

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DXF

DXF (Drawing Interchange Format) is the format in which AutoCAD® saves and exports its drawings. AutoCAD was initially an exclusively 2D drafting system. It was later extended to include 3D capabilities. However, its internal data structures and its output format retained, to a large extent, the characteristics of the original drafting oriented rep-resentations. The AutoCAD entities which appear as 3D objects when displayed, are in fact groups of separate surfaces. Furthermore, they are surfaces of at most four sides and they cannot contain holes.

DXF files may also contain block definitions and insertions. The blocks (called symbols by other programs) represent the ability to de-fine entities which can then be placed as copies or instances, called insertions. An insertion is not a complete representation of the entity, but rather points to the definition of that entity in some central library of representations, called block definitions. A DXF file may contain block definitions that have been placed (inserted) one or more times, as well as definitions that have not been placed. A placed block definition is called a referenced block. Otherwise, it is called a non-referenced block. Form•Z only imports referenced blocks. Each block becomes a copy of that block transformed to the correct location, scale and orientation.

When exporting facetted data, faces that consist of at most four sides and contain no holes, can be exported directly as they are. However, faces with more than four points or faces with holes have to be decom-posed to the type of surfaces that DXF can handle.

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Importing DXF files

A DXF file is imported into form•Z in the standard manner. In addition to the common options, the Modeling Import Options: DXF dialog contains a num-ber of format specific options:

Form Object By Layer (Polylines, 3D Faces): When this option is on, simple objects are con-structed from all the polylines and 3D faces on a layer. This option is not available when Make Reference Ob-ject is selected.

Import Hatch Patterns: When this option is selected, hatch entities are read as individual lines. This can result in a large number of line objects being generated. If this option is not selected, hatch patterns are not imported.

Make Smooth Objects: When this option is selected, objects which can be represented as smooth objects (e.g. splines, arcs, circles, etc.) will be imported as smooth objects. Selecting this option for a large file can greatly increase the import time. If this option is not selected, all entities except REGION, SOLID3D, and BODY will be imported as facetted.

Import All Objects As Lines: When 2D line data is imported from a DXF file, closed lines are imported as surfaces. This is often undesirable because the fill on the surfaces can obscure other line objects. When this option is selected, the Render As Wireframe attribute is set for all imported objects.

The Modeling Import Options: DXF dialog.

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Exporting DXF files

The content of a form•Z proj-ect is exported as a DXF file in the standard manner.

Export Facetted Objects As ACIS Objects: When this option is selected, facetted objects are written to the DXF file as embedded ACIS enti-ties rather than native DXF entities. Note that not all soft-ware that can read DXF files supports the ability to read the embedded ACIS entities. This option is off by default.

Version: This pop up menu, allows you to indicate which version of AutoCAD the DXF file will be exported to. The default is 2007/2008.

Edge Visibility: This pull down menu contains three options that control the vis-ibility of the edges of the exported 3D faces.

The Modeling Export Options: DXF dialog.

The DXF Export Options.

All Visible: Selecting this option causes all the edges, both the original edges and the edges resulting from the splitting, to be marked as visible.

All Invisible: Selecting this option causes all the edges, both the original edges and the edges resulting from the splitting, to be marked as invisible.

Actual Visible/Split Invisible: This is the default option and causes the split edges to be invisible, while the original edges of the faces re-main visible.

Export Groups As Blocks: When this option is selected, form•Z groups will be exported as blocks. The groups are defined by the Grouping Method in the common options (e.g. if the Grouping Method is set to By Color, objects of the same color will be considered a group and will be exported as a block). To export groups, defined in the object palette as blocks, set the Grouping Method to By Group.

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Importing Exportingentity types: TEXT √ * MTEXT √ √ INSERT √ √ MINSERT √ POLYLINES √ √ 3DFACE √ √ LINE √ √ MLINE √ CIRCLE √ √ ARCS √ √ ELLIPSE √ √ DIMENSION √ √ LEADER √ √ SOLID √ TRACE √ SPLINE √ √ POINT √ √ PROXY √ HATCH √ √

ACIS: REGION √ SOLID3D √ √ BODY √ tables: LAYER √ √ BLOCK √ √ LINE TYPE √ √

LIGHTS √ √ VIEWS √ √ VIEWPORTS * Text entities are exported only when exporting to version 12. Otherwise text enti-ties are not exported.

DWGDWG is the native format of AutoCAD®. While it is more efficient than DXF, the other AutoCAD format, the structure of its entities is quite simi-lar to DXF’s. Consequently, the interface of the DWG translator is very similar to DXF’s and the following discussion makes frequent references to the ways DXF works.

Supported entity typesWhen form•Z exports to DWG, a variety of versions can be selected. When importing, the version information is automatically extracted and placed in a form•Z project file. The following table summarizes the Auto-CAD entity types supported by the form•Z DWG format translator:

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Importing DWG files

The import options are set in the Modeling Import Options: DWG dialog, which in ad-dition to the common options contain format specific options. These are identical to those used when importing DXF files.

The Modeling Import Options: DWG dialog.

Exporting DWG files

The format specific options found in the Modeling Export Op-tions: DWG dialog are again as for exporting DXF files.

The Modeling Export Options: DWG dialog.

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FACTFACT is the file format used by ElectricImage™, a high end rendering and animation program. FACT files describe a model as a collection of poly-gons. Polygons are organized in groups. Once imported, ElectricImage can assign further attributes, such as textures or colors, to groups of polygons. Individual polygons cannot be manipulated. The polygons can be complex polygons or triangles (3-sided) and quadrangles (4-sided).

Importing FACT files

A FACT file is imported into form•Z in the standard manner. The Modeling Import Options: FACT dialog contains one FACT specific option.

Keep Sub Polygons: FACT surfaces may be represented as complex polygons consisting of more than four points or as sub-polygons which consist of at most four points (triangles and quadrangles). Complex po-lygonal faces are typically decomposed to sub-polygons by the ElectricI-mage Transporter utility. In a FACT file, a surface may be represented either as a complex polygon, or as a group of sub-polygons, or both representations may be simultaneously available. When only one of the two types of representation is available for a specific surface, then this representation is imported into form•Z. When both representations are available, only one is imported. If Keep Sub-Polygons is selected, then the sub-polygons of the surfaces will be imported and the complex polygonal representations will be discarded. The reverse happens when this option is not selected.

The FACT specific import options.

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Exporting FACT files

The content of a form•Z project is exported as a FACT file in the standard manner. In addition to the common options, the Modeling Export Op-tions: FACT dialog contains a few FACT specific options, as follows:

Electric Image Version: This menu determines the version of ElectricImage™ with which the written FACT file will be compat-ible. The default is version 2.9.

Include Hierarchy: This option is only available when Grouping Meth-od is set to By Layer or By Group. When this option is on, the grouping hierarchy is included in the FACT file. When forming groups by layer, the hierarchy is a single level deep, with each object as a child of the layer on which it is located. When forming groups by form•Z groups, the FACT hierarchy reflects the nested grouping of the objects in the form•Z project.Include Face Decomposition: When this option is selected, all faces are decomposed into sub-polygons before they are exported. They are not decomposed otherwise. However, the holes, when they are present, are always connected to the outer outline. ElectricImage™ Camera will only render triangles and quadrangles. Thus, faces that are not decomposed when exported will have to be decomposed by the ElectricImage™ Trans-porter utility.

Include Group Centroids: When this option is selected, the group centroids (average X, Y, and Z coordinates) are included in the FACT file. When this option is not selected, the world origin is used as the group reference point.Extended Coordinate Precision: When this option is on, coordinate data is written as 10 byte floating point numbers. When this option is off, it is written as four byte floating point numbers. With Extended Coor-dinate Precision on, files are bigger but more accurate. If you plan to open the FACT file with form•Z or any other modeling application, this option will give you the best results. For rendering applications, the ex-tended accuracy is usually not required.

The FACT specific export options.

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How textures are handled

FACT files support, in addition to plain colors and image maps, rough-ness, specular color, transmission and refraction parameters. These are transferred with the image maps only. The format also supports bump amplitude and bump maps.

When importing a FACT file that contains references to texture maps, all the image types that are recognized by form•Z, on the platform on which it runs, are considered valid texture maps (in particular Targa is supported by both form•Z and ElectricImage™). Texture maps that are in ElectricImage’s Image format have to be converted beforehand using ElectricImage’s Projector utility, and have to be associated manually with the form•Z materials.

The texture map control parameters that are converted are, origin and ro-tation. Convertible mapping types are flat, cubic, cylindrical, and spheri-cal. Any other mapping type defaults to cubic. From the tiling param-eters size, center (except vertical cylindrical), and mirror are converted.

Some other considerations, when converting FACT files with texture maps, are:

• A FACT file may have multiple references of the same texture map. When importing a FACT file, form•Z creates a unique material (containing maps) for every unique combination of an image map name and a bump map name encountered in the FACT file. If this combination of texture maps is referenced again in the FACT file, form•Z reuses the material already created.

• In form•Z the texture maps that are read from the FACT file are ap-plied to the currently accessed FACT group.

• If a FACT texture map includes both an image map and a bump map, form•Z will convert only the controls of the image map; the bump map will share the same controls.

• For exported bump maps to render correctly in ElectricImage™, they must be in the alpha channel of the bump map.

• Specular Color, Roughness, Transmission, and Refraction are only exported with surface styles which contain image maps.

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Google Earth

This file format, which is similar to Collada, can be used for transferring Google Earth models.

The Google Earth files have the extension ".kmz" and can be used for both importing and exporting.

To import invoke the Modeling Import Options: Google Earth dialog, which is a standard import dialog. That is, it only contains general type of options and has no Google Earth specific options. In this dialog, the Import Textures option is on by default.

To export invoke the Modeling Export Options: Google Earth dialog, which is a standard export dialog with two additional Google Earth spe-cific options:

Latitude and Longitude: The values entered in these fields represent the location in Google Earth where the exported model will be placed.

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LightWaveLightWave is a modeling and animation application by NewTek. It is available for both MacOS and Windows. Form•Z reads all versions of LightWave object data, but writes only in Version 6.

A LightWave project consists of a scene file (.lws) and one or more ob-ject files (.lwo). The scene file contains object connections, views/cam-eras, lighting, and animation information. The object files contain object, geometric, and surface texture information. Form•Z can read and write the object files. The scene files are not documented by NewTek, hence form•Z can not read or write these files.

Importing LightWave filesThere is one format specific option for importing LightWave files.

The LightWave import options.

Separate Objects By Volume: Selecting this option separates Light-Wave data into separate form•Z objects based on their volume. This operation is similar to that of the Separate tool. The Separate Objects By Volume option is used to break the volumes of the model into sepa-rate objects so that they can be easily manipulated in form•Z.

In addition to plain color and image maps, also supported are diffuse and specular reflections, transmission, refraction, reflectivity, transpar-ency maps, bump amplitude, and bump maps.

Modeling Limitations• LightWave’s MetaNURBS surfaces can not be imported.

Texture Map Limitations• Procedural, layered, and shader-generated surface styles can not

be imported. However, surfaces generated with the basic parameters of LightWave’s Surface Editor are supported. Surfaces that have textures applied to the color and transparency are supported as well.

• LightWave allows multiple texture controllers to contribute to an object’s material. Form•Z does not support this. When importing, form•Z will look for one applied to the color, transparency, or bump shader (in that order) and use the first one it finds.

• LightWave offers five types of texture controllers. The UV map is fully supported. However, the others are not. Specifically, all non-UV texture controllers have an orientation controlled by the Rotation tab in the LightWave Texture Editor. Rotation values in excess of 60 degrees give unpredictable results. The import of texture maps into form•Z always causes at least one 90-degree rotation. This results in texture controllers that may not export back to LightWave properly.

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• The Falloff tab is not supported.• The use of Reference Objects is not supported.• Non-integer Width Wrap Amount values are not supported for Cy-

lindrical and Spherical controllers.• Non-integer Height Wrap Amount values are not supported for

Spherical texture controllers.• For Cubic texture controllers, LightWave uses three Size values.

Form•Z uses only the first two. • LightWave allows image-processing effects to be applied to images

before they are used as Materials. Form•Z does not support this.• All Major Axis settings are supported, as well as settings for the

Scale and Position tabs.

Guidelines for successfully “round-tripping” (exporting then importing, or vice versa) surface styles:

• Do not use multiple texture controllers on a surface in LightWave.• Do not do texture-image-processing in LightWave.

Exporting LightWave files

The LightWave export options include one format specific option, in addi-tion to the common options.

Make Quads: When this option is selected, all the faces exported to the LightWave format will be quadulated (transformed to 4-sided polygons) while triangular faces remain as they are).

Limitations

• All geometry data is saved as polygons.• Texture controller limitations are as dis-

cussed for the import of LightWave object files.The LightWave export

options.

The supported Shaders for this option are as follows:

• Color: Plain and Image Map.• Reflection: Matte, Chrome, Constant, Metal (Simple), Plastic, and

Glass (Simple).• Transparency: None, Simple, and Transparency Map.• Bump: None, Bump Map.

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OBJOBJ is a data file format originally used by Wavefront, which has been withdrawn from circulation. It contains representations of the geometry and other properties of objects. It supports polygonal objects, controlled curves, and controlled meshes. OBJ files are always ASCII files.

Importing OBJ files

An OBJ file is imported into form•Z in the standard manner. The Model-ing Import Options: OBJ dialog contains one format specific option, Use Absolute Indices. The same option is also found in the Export dialog and is discussed below.

Exporting OBJ files

The content of a form•Z project is exported as an OBJ file in the standard manner. The Modeling Export Options: OBJ dialog contains all common options and one format specific option.

Use Absolute Indices: The OBJ format offers the option to export with either absolute or relative indices. When this option is off, which is the default, data will be exported with relative indices. If on, absolute in-dices will be exported. Note that some programs that import OBJ files only read absolute indices. Data intended for such programs should be exported with this option on.

How textures are handled

The OBJ format supports plain color, image maps, ambient, diffuse, and specular reflections, roughness, specular color, transmission, refraction, transparency maps, and bump maps.When importing a MTL file associated with an OBJ file, and the material file contains references to texture maps, all the image types recognized by form•Z under the active platform are considered valid texture maps. The form•Z texture map controls are converted to U,V coordinates at export and are imported as U,V coordinates from the OBJ files.

The OBJ specific export op-tions.

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PLY

The PLY format was initially created at the Stanford University Computer Graphics Laboratory. It has since become a file format used by 3D scan-ners, most notably Cyberware scanners. The PLY format is a simple polygonal format. It contains vertex locations, and colors and face defini-tions. Faces can have any number of vertices.

Importing PLY files

A PLY file is imported into form•Z in the standard manner. The only op-tions in the Modeling Import Options: PLY dialog are common options.

Exporting PLY files

The contents of a form•Z project are exported to a PLY file in the stan-dard manner. The only options in the Modeling Export Options: PLY dialog are common options.

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SAT and ACIS dataACIS is a 3D solid and surface modeling library, published and marketed by Spatial Technology, Inc. It is used by a number of popular modeling programs as their primary modeling engine. The native file format of ACIS is called SAT and applications that incorporate ACIS can import and export it. ACIS data may also be embedded in DXF or DWG files. This is done by directly importing SAT files or by importing DXF or DWG files that contain ACIS entities.

The form•Z ACIS module is a library that contains the necessary func-tions for supporting smooth modeling and the SAT format.

ACIS supports two types of entities: solids/surfaces and wires. It represents its solids and surfaces by a boundary representation, using parametric surfaces. That is, objects are defined by a set of faces, whose surfaces may be planar, conical, cylindrical, spherical, toroidal, or spline based. Each face is delineated or “trimmed” by one or more curves, the first of which is the outer curve. The other curves are optional and represent holes. The edges which define the trimming curves may be straight lines, elliptical, or spline curves.

The ACIS wires are equivalent to the open or closed shapes (called sur-face objects) in form•Z. That is, they contain no surface information. The edges of wires may be straight lines, elliptical, or spline curves.

Importing SATSAT files are imported into form•Z in the standard manner. The Model-ing Import Options: SAT dialog contains all common options and one format specific option:

Heal Corrupt Geometry: When this option is on, the translator detects and corrects accuracy/tolerance discrepancies that may be encountered in the imported data. This option is on by default.

Exporting ACIS entitiesThe content of a form•Z project is export-ed as an SAT file in the standard manner. The Modeling Export Options: SAT dialog, in addition to the common export options, it contains one format specific option:

Version: This pop up menu allows you to choose which version of ACIS you would like to export as. The Default option will export using the latest ACIS version.

The SAT import options.

The SAT export options.

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STEP

STEP, the Standard for the Exchange of Product Model Data, is a com-prehensive ISO standard (ISO 10303) that describes how to represent and exchange digital product information. It defines a neutral file format for representation of configuration control design data for a product. It was developed by an international community for all engineering data, to cover a products entire life cycle, from design to analysis, manufacture, quality control testing, inspection and product support functions. STEP is built on a language, called EXPRESS, that can formally describe the structure and correctness conditions of any engineering information that needs to be exchanged. STEP is open and extensible. STEP is similar IGES in that it is good at representing parametric surfaces including trimmed surfaces. STEP is only available in the modeling environment.

Importing STEP files

A STEP file is imported by selecting the Import... com-mand from the File menu. This invokes the Import standard file dialog where the desired STEP file is selected. There are two STEP specific options, as follows:

Heal Corrupt Geometry: When this option is on, the translator detects and corrects accuracy/tolerance discrepan-cies that may be encountered in the imported data. This option is on by default

Preserve Assembly Hierarchy: When this option is on, any assemblyhierarchy present in the STEP file will be translated into groups. If this option is off, assemblies read from STEP files will be flattened out. This option is on by default.

Exporting STEP files

The content of a form•Z project is exported as STEP by selecting theSTEP file format form the Export menu from the File menu. This invokes the Export:Step Standard File dialog. Type a name in the name field

The Modeling Import Options: STEP dialog.

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and click the save button. If the Always Open File Format Options Dialog preference is set in the Preferences dialog. There is one option specific to STEP.

Schema: This menu controls which internal STEP format is written. There are two options:

AP203 (Configuration Con-trolled Design) and AP214 (Automotive Design). AP214 is the default. You should choose the appropriate option based on the capabilities of software that the file is intended for.

With both Schema types, objects are exported with the following characteristics:

• Solid objects are exported to STEP as class VI objects using the STEP identifiers MANIFOLD_SOLID_BREP or BREP_WITH_VOIDS depend-ing upon the data.• Surfaces are exported to STEP as class IV manifold surfaces using the STEP identifier SHELL_BASED_SURFACE_MODEL.

• Wire bodies are exported to STEP as class II wires using the STEP identifier GEOMETRIC_SET.

The Modeling Export Options: STEP dialog.

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STL STL is a file format that is used by rapid prototyping machines for produc-ing 3D physical models from computer models. The rapid prototyping process typically consists of two stages. A preprocessing computer is first used that reads the STL file, reconstructs the 3D model, and slices it into horizontal cross sections, at a thickness of approximately 1/1000". Then a manufacturing device is used to physically build each cross sec-tion. These physical “slices” are placed on top of each other in the order they are derived and then glued, resulting in a layered 3D model.

The rapid prototyping process imposes a series of restrictions on the 3D model to be manufactured. The model must be described by one or more closed volumes. Independent surfaces and overlapping volumes are not allowed. STL accepts triangular faces only; consequently, form•Z decomposes all the faces of an object into triangular faces before the object is exported. Each triangular face cannot exceed a given minimum size. The maximum size of the model is also limited by the manufactur-ing apparatus. Sometimes, support structures also need to be added to the model in order to prevent structurally weak parts from bending during the construction process. Once the model is finished, the support struc-tures are usually removed.

Importing STL files

An STL file is imported into form•Z in the standard manner. The Mod-eling Import Options: STL dialog contains one set of format specific parameters.

The STL specific import dialog.

Scale Factor: X, Y, Z: The scale factors entered in these fields are applied to the geometry of the imported model. If no scaling is needed, these values should be kept to 1.0, which are the default values.

Exporting STL files

The content of a form•Z project is exported as an STL file in the standard manner. The desired options are set in the Modeling Export Options: STL dialog, which contains a number of format specific options. Scale: Typically, rapid prototyping machines are limited to building mod-els of a certain size, which may make it necessary to scale the computer model when it is exported. This can be done by selecting the Scale op-tion and entering the appropriate scaling parameters.

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Scale Factor: When this option is selected, the scale factor contained in its field will be uniformly applied in all directions to the model.

Fit Box: When this option is selected, the model is scaled to fit in a bounding box whose size is determined by the numeric values contained in the X, Y, and Z fields. Use Current Reference Plane As Base Plane: Typically, the direction in which STL models are sliced is determined by the actual coordinates of the model. That is, the slices are parallel to the XY plane. This option allows you to manipulate the direction of the slicing. When selected, the model will be exported with its coordinates defined relative to the refer-ence plane (the reference plane becomes the XY plane). This will result in slices parallel to the reference plane. Position In Positive XYZ Octant: When this option is selected, the position of the model is automatically adjusted so that all its coordinates take positive values and no coordinate value is less than that specified in the Min. Coord. Value field. Some rapid prototyping systems require the model data to be located entirely in the positive XYZ octant. That is, they do not accept negative and zero coordinates. Supports Located On Layer: Selection of this option informs form•Z that a support structure will be created and its description (model) is in the layer whose name appears in the field next to the option. All the objects found in the indicated layer are interpreted as support structures and are saved into a separate STL file, which is labeled by adding “sup” to the name used for the model file (for example: mod1.stl becomes mod1sup.stl). If the rapid proto-typing process requires support structures, they need to be saved in a sepa-rate STL file, which is done automatically by form•Z. Note that the model itself should neither be nor have any parts on the layer where the support structures are. If it does, the result will be different from what was intended.

The STL specific export options.

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Export Solids Only: When this option is on, only solid objects are ex-ported to the STL file. This option is on by default. When this option is off, solids, surfaces, and closed wire objects are exported.Note that a properly formatted STL file should describe a solid object. This can be guaranteed by turning this option on. However, some rapid proto-typing and 3D printing systems can, to a certain degree, deal with surfaces and have the ability to fix gaps or stitch surfaces together to produce solids. If this is not the case, the Export Solids Only option should be turned on.Diagnosis: This group of options may be used to instruct the system to check your data before actually producing an STL file. The diagnostic process is applied as soon as you click on the Diagnosis... button. What is checked is determined by the currently selected options, all of which are on by default. The diagnostic results are posted in the STL Diagnosis dialog. In addition to counts of entities that were found in violation of certain STL requirements, this dialog posts error messages in a boxed area, when irregularities are detected in the data.

Minimum Coordinate Values: With this is on, all coordinates are checked against the value in the Minimum Coordinate Values field. If lesser val-ues are found, the smallest is posted in this field.

Minimum Triangle Size: When this option is selected, the lengths of the sides of all the triangles that resulted from the triangulation of the object are calculated. If sides smaller than 1/1000" are found, an error is issued and the smallest side length is posted in the numeric field. These triangle size restrictions are dictated by the current state of technology of the rapid prototyping machines.

Number Of Intersecting Triangles: When this option is selected, all tri-angles that resulted from the triangulation are checked for intersections. If intersections are found, an error message is issued and how many triangles were found to intersect is posted in the numeric field.Preview...: Clicking on this button invokes a preview dialog where a wire frame display of the model is shown. If any of the Scale, Use Current Ref-erence Plane As Base Plane, or Position In Positive XYZ Octant options are selected, the model is shown with the respective transformations ap-plied. The overall dimensions and the minimum and maximum coordinates of the model are also drawn. The exported objects are drawn in black while the support structures are shown in the highlight color. The preview dialog includes tools for manipulating the view parameters of the display.

The STL Diagnosis dialog.

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Requirements and recommendations

Before exporting to STL files, you should carefully review the instructions of the manufacturer of the rapid prototyping machine you will be using and follow their recommendations. As an example, following are the re-quirements and recommendations for STL files intended to be used with a Stereo Lithography Apparatus (SLA), manufactured by 3D Systems, Inc., of Valencia, California. The SLA machines use a liquid polymer that is cured by the exposure to a laser beam.

About the model:

• The minimum recommended wall thickness is 0.02 inches (0.5 mil-limeters).

• The model must reside entirely in the positive XYZ octant.• The distance between the model and the origin should be minimized.• The height of the model should be minimized, by selecting the most

efficient slicing direction. This reduces the number of layers required to be built, which reduces the construction time.

• The number of enclosed volumes (cavities) should be minimized.• The number of sloped surfaces should be minimized. Such surfaces

tend to result in a stair-step appearance, with the thickness of each layer being the height of the step. Special effort should be made to orient the most important surfaces vertically or horizontally.

• The part must fit in the tank holding the liquid polymer. Large models can be built in parts through several runs and assembled after they are constructed.

About the support structure:

• The supports should be located in a manner that provides a rigid foundation for the model. This includes supporting corners and edges. The model should be separated from the machine platform by support structures.

• Bottom and side supports should overlap the model by 2 to 3 layers (0.04 to 0.06 inches). This ensures a strong bond between the supports and the model.

• Diagonal supports beginning and ending on the part should be de-signed as buttresses rather than extending into a corner of the model, where they are hard to remove.

• Supports typically are spaced 0.1 to 0.8 inches apart. In general, they must be located at sufficiently close intervals so that no appreciable sag or curl occurs.

• The supports must be at least 0.65 inches long where they contact the platform to span platform drain holes.

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Trimble SketchUp

This file format is only available for importing and is used for bringing into form•Z models from SketchUp. Note however, that not all SketchUp models can come into form•Z as solid models. Form•Z will do its best to convert the information imported from SketchUp to solids, but it is not always successful due to the fact that some objects may be incompletely enclosed.

The Trimble SketchUp files use the extension ".skp."

To import a SketchUp file invoke the Modeling Import Options: Sketch-Up dialog, which is a standard import dialog. That is, it only contains general type of options and has no SketchUp specific options. In this dialog, the Import Textures option is on by default.

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ZPRZPR is a file format that is used by 3D printers from Z Corporation (www.zcorp.com). 3D prints are made by spreading a thin layer of powder on the print bed. Then, using inkjet printer technology, a binder is “printed” on the powder which solidifies the powder. This printing process is done one cross-section at a time until the full 3D model is printed. To print a form•Z model, the model is exported as a ZPR file. The exported file is then loaded into Z Corporation’s Zprint software which drives the printer.This process imposes many of the same restrictions as any other rapid prototyping process. The model must be described by one or more closed volumes. Independent surfaces are not allowed. Overlapping or intersect-ing volumes are allowed but in some cases may result in anomalies in the printed model. To avoid any anomalies, volumes should intersect at facetted face edges. ZPR files only contain triangular faces; consequently, form•Z decomposes all the faces of an object before the object is exported. The maximum size of the exported model is limited by the specific printer model to be used. Unlike STL, supporting structures are not needed in ZPR files. Z Corporation's Zprint software will add these.

Importing ZPR FilesA ZPR file is imported into form•Z in the standard manner. The Model-ing Import Options: ZPR dialog contains two format specific options, in addition to the common options.

The ZPR specific import options.

Ignore File’s Scale Data: ZPR files contain a transform which scales (and can also rotate and translate) all geometry in the file. This allows original model vertex coordinates to be preserved while transforming the model to fit within the physical limits of the printer. Normally when a ZPR file is imported into form•Z, the geometry is transformed as specified by the file. When this option is selected, the geometry will not be trans-formed and the original vertex coordinates will be imported.Scale Factor: X, Y, Z: The scale factors entered in these fields are ap-plied to the geometry in addition to the file’s transform (unless Ignore File’s Scale Data is selected). If no scaling is needed, these values should be kept to 1.0, which are the default values.

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Exporting ZPR Files

The content of a form•Z project is exported as a ZPR file in the standard manner. When exporting to ZPR, the active window must be a modeling window, as drafting elements can not be exported to ZPR. The desired options are set in the Modeling Export Options: ZPR dialog, which contains a number of format specific options.

ZPR Version: The version of the format can be selected from this pop up menu. ZPR v. 3 and later contain a specification for the type of units used in the file (Metric or English). Version 2 files do not have this infor-mation, thus when version 2 files are opened, the ZPR File Units dialog is invoked for telling form•Z what units the ZPR data is in. Select Inches, Feet, Centimeters, or Meters and click OK.

The Modeling Export Options: ZPR dialog.

The Printer Model menu.

Printer Model: A printer model can be selected from this pop up menu. This information is used to determine the size of the printer bed and may cause the model to be sectioned into several zpr files. Known printer models are listed in the menu.

Embed Textures In File: When this option is selected, the model’s tex-tures are embedded (contained) in the exported ZPR file. This can result in larger ZPR files, however, it has the advantage that all of the informa-tion necessary to print the model is contained in a single file. When this option is not selected, the textures are kept in separate texture files. The location and format of these is controlled by the options in the Textures section above. The Embed Textures In File option is enabled and is on

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by default when ZPR version 3 (or later) is selected. This option can not be disabled when exporting ZPR version 2 files as this version only sup-ports embedded textures.Scale: Models printed on Z Corporation printers are limited to a certain size, which may make it necessary to scale the model when it is ex-ported. This can be done by selecting the Scale option and entering the appropriate scaling parameters. Scale Geometry: ZPR files contain a transform which scales (and can also rotate and translate) all geometry in the file. This allows original model vertex coordinates to be preserved while transforming the model to fit within the physical limits of the printer. When this option is selected, this transform is set to unity and the geometry of the model is scaled.

Write Scale Data To File: When this option is selected, the scale data defined here is written to the ZPR transform and original vertex coordi-nates are exported.

Scale Factor: When this option is selected, the scale factor contained in its field will be uniformly applied in all directions to the model.

Fit Box: When this option is selected, the model is scaled to fit in a bounding box whose size is determined by the numeric values contained in the X, Y, and Z fields.

Scale To Printer: When this option is selected, the model is scaled to fit within the printer bed as specified by the printer chosen in the Printer Model menu. When this option is selected, the model will not be split up and will be exported as a single ZPR file.

Use Current Reference Plane As Base Plane: When this option is selected, the model is rotated so that the current reference plane is aligned with the print bed. Layers of the printed cross-sections will be parallel to this plane.

Position In Positive XYZ Octant: When this option is selected the model is translated such that all it’s coordinates take on positive values and no coordinate value is less than that specified in the Min. Coord. Value field.

Export Solids Only: When this option is selected (the default), only solid objects are exported.

The Diagnosis and Preview options are identical to STL.

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Importing and exporting image file formatsIn addition to the object formats, form•Z includes the ability to import and export several image formats, namely, BMP, EPS, Illustrator, JPEG, PNG, QuickTime Image, Targa, and TIFF. Additional image formats may be available through QuickTime. The dialogs invoked when image files are imported or exported have been structured as uniformly as possible so that switching from one format to another should not require extensive adjustments. Like the object formats, the image file formats also share a number of identical import and export options and therefore their dialogs share a common format.

Common image import options

The dialogs invoked when opening or importing image files into form•Z have been structured consistently, as they share many common options. These common options are in the upper section of the dialog, while the lower section contains options specific to that format. When an option does not apply to a format, it is dimmed.

Import As Modeling: This group of items controls how vector based images are imported.

Scale Factor: This group of items determines the X and Y scale that is applied to the vector image data when it is imported. The default is 1.0.

Display Resolution: This option sets the display resolution of imported smooth objects.

Replace Unavailable Fonts With: This is a menu that lists available fonts on the system form•Z is running on. If a file to be imported refer-ences a font that is not available, the font selected from this menu will be used as a substitute.

The common image file format import options.

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Common image export options

The common image file format export options.

The dialogs invoked for ex-porting image files also share common options, which are at their upper portion. The lower section contains format spe-cific options. When an option does not apply to a certain format, it appears dimmed.

Platform: File formats that are exclusively ASCII always have the Plat-form pop up menu available. Selection of one of these options produces text files with line terminations that are acceptable by Apple’s Macintosh, DOS, or Windows, and UNIX computers respectively. Binary file formats that can be exported optimized for different platforms (i.e. TIFF) have this pop up menu available too.Image Options: This group contains options that affect the export of images.

Include Background: If the current scene is exported as vector data, selecting this check box includes the background in the file. The background is a filled rectangle placed behind the entities shown on the screen. When this option is off, vector lines are exported without a back-ground. In other words, deselecting this option exports the scene with a transparent background, which is desirable when a file is intended to be included on top of some other image. Note that pixel images always include the background when exported.

Include Preview: When this is on, a pixel based representation of the saved scene is included in the file. This image may be displayed as a preview of the content of a file, when the file is included by another ap-plication. This option is on by default for the formats that support it.

Export As Image Map: If this option is selected, the file is exported as a bitmap file.

Export As Vector/Polygons: If this option is selected, the file is ex-ported as vector lines.

Line Weight: If the current scene is ex-ported as vector data, all lines are assigned the line weight indicated in the pop up menu. The Hair Line option generates lines at the smallest resolution which a format can support. All other line weight options generate lines at the indicated thickness in points. One point is equal to 1/72 of an inch. The default is set to 0.5 point.

The Line Weight menu.

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BMP

BMP is the standard bitmap image format for MS-DOS and Windows applications. It is an exclusively pixel based format similar to TIFF and Targa.

Exporting BMP files

The form•Z image displayed in the current window is exported as a BMP file in the standard manner, which is by using the Export Image com-mand of the File menu. BMP files will always export the image displayed on the window.

DXF

DXF (Drawing Interchange Format) is the format in which AutoCAD® saves and exports its drawings.

Recall that this format can be used to transport 3D models. It can also be used to transfer 2D CAD data. Such data can be exported as a vector image from vector based renderers like hidden line. This is useful for exporting line drawings to drafting programs.

Exporting DXF files

The content of a form•Z window is exported as a DXF file in the standard manner. There are no DXF export options.

DWG

DWG is the native format of AutoCAD®. Similarly to DXF, this format is rather extensively used to transport 3D models. It is also used to trans-port 2D CAD drawings, which is why it is also included with the image file formats.

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EPS

An EPS (encapsulated PostScript™) file contains PostScript language commands which describe the appearance of a single page. The com-mands in an EPS file generate 2D graphic information in the form of text, vector graphics and pixel images. Vector shapes may be lines, arcs or bezier curves. Connected paths can be constructed using those basic shapes. Paths can be drawn with different line styles and line thicknesses. Closed paths may be filled with a solid color or predefined patterns. Typi-cally, the purpose of an EPS file is to be included, or “encapsulated,” in another document. That is, when an EPS file is included in a document, the content of the EPS file is not interpreted and translated to the graphic format of the including document, but a direct copy of the commands in the EPS file is included. When the document is printed on a PostScript com-patible output device, such as a PostScript Laser Printer, the encapsulated PostScript commands are executed by the device and they will generate the graphic information as it is described in the initial EPS file. EPS files may contain a preview image. A document including the EPS file is able to show the content of the EPS file by displaying the preview image. How-ever, the final content of the included EPS file usually cannot be revealed until the document is printed.

Exporting EPS files

The content of a form•Z window is exported as an EPS file by executing the Export Image command (File menu), which in-vokes the Save dialog and then the Export Options: EPS dialog. This dialog contains a few format specific options.

The Export Options: EPS dialog.

Saving as an EPS file exports the content of the active window. When a modeling window is active, the 2D image displayed on the screen is ex-ported, rather than the 3D representation of the modeling objects. How the exported image is represented in the EPS file (vector or pixel data) depends on the type of display that is on the screen. Hidden line images are exported as vector lines. Other renderings are exported as pixel im-ages.

When a modeling scene is exported as vector lines, the line thickness is determined by the active Line Weight option in the pull down menu of the Export Options: EPS dialog. All lines are exported as solid lines.

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When a modeling scene is exported as pixel data, the maximum number of colors in the pixel image is determined by the Image Color Depth selected in the Image Options dialog, invoked from the Display menu. For example, if 8 bit (256) is selected in the Image Options dialog, the pixel image can contain up to 256 different color values. When a scene is exported as vector data, the color information of an entity exported to an EPS file is determined by the red, green and blue values of the color attribute of the respective object, face or drafting element, regardless of the current Image Color Depth setting.

The modeling underlays that are produced from image formats cannot be described by EPS commands. Therefore, these entities are not included in the graphic information of an EPS file.

Write Black As: One of the three available items can be selected from this pull down menu:

RGB: When this item is selected, black is exported as red=o, green=0, and blue=0.

Gray: When this item is selected, black is exported as gray=0.

CMYK: When this item is selected, black is exported as cyan=0, magenta=0, yellow=0, and black=1. This option is only available when PostScript Compatibility is set to Level 2.

Which option is selected may be significant when producing plates for color printing and black need to be generated as a spot color. In such cases, the CMYK and Gray options usually work best.

Postscript™ Compatibility: When the Level 1 option is selected, the EPS file can be printed on a Postscript device which only supports Postscript Level 1. Postscript Level 1 does not support color images and hatch patterns. Level 1 files are supported by Level 2 devices but Level 2 files cannot be printed on Level 1 machines. The default option is set to Level 2.

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The HPGL export options.

HPGL

An HPGL (Hewlett Packard Graphics Language v2) file contains com-mands which control pen plotters (mostly HP plotters, although several other plotter manufactures have also adopted this language). The com-mands in an HP-GL/2 file represent 2D graphics information in the form of stick text and vector graphics. Vector shapes may be lines, arcs, or Bezier curves. Connected paths can be constructed using those basic shapes. Paths can be drawn with different colors, line styles, and line widths. Paths may be filled with a solid color or a predefined pattern. Typically the pur-pose of an HP-GL/2 file is to be sent to a pen plotter to be plotted/printed on paper. HP laser printers which support HP’s PCL5 (Printer Control Language v5) can also print HP-GL/2 by setting their print mode to HP-GL. There are also several HPGL software viewers available.

Exporting HPGL files

The content of a form•Z win-dow is exported as HP-GL/2 by executing the Export Im-age command (File menu), in the standard manner. The Export Options: HPGL dialog is shown at right. It contains a number of format specific options. Saving an Hp-GL/2 file exports the content of the active window. When a modeling window is active, the 2D image which is currently displayed on the screen is exported, rather than the 3D representation of the modeling objects.

Since HP-GL/2 does not support pixel images, Shaded Render*, Render-Zone*, and Sketch Render* renderings can not be exported. Text objects are exported as outlines since HP-GL/2 does not support fonts.

When a modeling scene is exported, the line thickness is determined by the active Line Weight option on the pull down menu of the Export Op-tions: HPGL dialog. All lines are exported as solid lines. When a drafting window is active, vector line data is exported for the drafting elements currently displayed on the screen. The line weights, line styles, and hatch patterns are exported to match the attributes of the respective drafting elements.

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HPGL Options: These are the options specific to the HPGL format, as follows:

Plot Scale: Sets the scale of the drawing on the printed page.

Scale To Fit Page: When this option is selected the drawing scale is automatically set to fit the drawing on a single sheet of paper defined by the Page Size options.

Page Size: This menu contains several standard drawing sizes. The Custom item allows you to define your own page size.

Height, Width: The height and width of the page.

Margins: These values determine the space between the plot area and the edge of the page.

Right, Left, Top, Bottom: The spaces between the right, left, top, and bottom edges of the page and the plot area.

Orientation: Orientation specifies the orientation of the printed page.

Portrait: With this option on, the page is plotted as defined.

Landscape: This option swaps the width and height of the image to be plotted; in other words, it plots the image sideways.

Origin: This value specifies where the origin of the drawing (plotter coor-dinate 0, 0) is.

Lower-Left: This option places the plotter origin in the lower-left corner of the page.

Center Of Media: This option places the plotter origin in the center of the page.

Add PCL Commands: When this option is selected, PCL5 commands are added to the beginning and end of the HP-GL/2 file. The exported file can then be sent to an HP laser printer. The PCL5 commands set the printer’s mode to HPGL before HP-GL/2 commands and resets it to PCL mode after the HP-GL/2 commands.

Pen Selection Method: Since plotters use physical pens to draw and HP-GL/2 files refer to these pens by number (not color), there needs to be a mapping from colors in form•Z to pen numbers. Pen tips can also have different thickness resulting in different line widths. This menu and the dialog invoked from the Pen Definitions... button are used to set up this mapping.

One Pen: The plotter has only one pen. All colors are mapped to this pen.

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Best Match – Color First: The form•Z color is mapped to the Pen Colors dialog by comparing colors and line widths. The pen color has a higher priority than the line width; thus a pen will be selected for an object or draft element which has the best color match, even if it has a different line width.

Best Match – Width First: The form•Z color is mapped to the Pen Colors dialog by comparing colors and line widths. The pen’s line width has a high-er priority than the color; thus a pen will be selected for an object or draft object which has the best line width match, even if it has a different color.

Dynamic Pen: This is only useful for HP-GL/2 files that will be viewed in a software viewer or printed on a color printer. This option embeds color infor-mation on the HP-GL/2 file. Pens are assigned dynamically to these colors.

The HPGL Pen Definitions dialog.

Pen Definitions…: This but-ton invokes the Pen Defini-tions dialog, shown in to the right. This dialog is used to define the pens that are available on a plotter. The top portion of this dialog is a scrol-lable list of defined pens. It shows the pen number, color, and line (pen tip) width. Click-ing on a pen definition in this list will select it for editing. The bottom portion of the dialog contains fields that are used to set pen definitions.

Number Of Pens: This sets the number of pens the plotter has. The number of pen definitions shown in the list will match this number.

Edit Pen: This area contains fields for editing the definition of the se-lected pen.

Pen #: The numeric index of the selected pen (not editable).

Color: The color of the selected pen. Clicking on this item will pop up the Color Selection dialog and the pen color can be set in this dialog.

Line Width: The line (pen tip) width. The value in this field is always in millimeters.

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Illustrator

Adobe Illustrator™ is a 2D drawing and page designing program. Users of the program can generate open and closed paths and add text. Paths are defined by a series of connected segments. Each segment can be a straight line or a curved Bezier segment. Paths can be filled with a solid color or a pattern. Text elements in Illustrator can be placed at a point, inside a path, or along a path. The Illustrator file format describes the geometry and attributes of all paths and text elements in a PostScript® language page description. When imported into form•Z, the PostScript commands contained in the Illustrator file are interpreted and modeling objects are generated. Currently, form•Z imports Illustrator files versions 3 to 8, and exports Illustrator files version 3.

Illustrator paths can be composed of straight line segments and curved Bezier segments. When imported into the modeling environment, an Il-lustrator path is created as a composite curve.

Given the 2D character of the Illustrator file format and the 3D nature of the form•Z modeling structures, only 2D images of modeling scenes can be exported from the modeling environment and only surface objects can be imported into it.

As a comprehensive page design program, Illustrator offers a great variety of text attributes. Some of those attributes are not supported in form•Z, since they exceed the scope of a modeling program. When text elements are imported, those attributes are ignored for the generation of form•Z text. In addition, Illustrator text is stored both in a parametric form and in a final form, the latter of which is displayed on the screen. Since form•Z does not support several of the Illustrator text parameters, the final form representation of the text is used when importing. That is, all parts of a text element which share the same attributes are generated as separate form•Z entities. Illustrator also offers text which follows the shape of a path or fills the area of a path. When imported into form•Z, each part of the text which bends at a corner of a path or wraps to a new line will be generated as a separate text object in form•Z.

Importing Illustrator files

An Illustrator file is imported into the modeling environment of form•Z in the standard manner. The Import Options: Illustrator dialog contains some of the common options and a few format specific options, as fol-lows:

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Maintain Grouping: This option is only available when importing into a modeling project. When selected, the elements grouped in the Illustrator file will be grouped when imported into form•Z. Otherwise no groups will be generated.

Position On Current Reference Plane: With this option the 2D data in the Illustrator file will be placed on the current reference plane, which may even be an arbitrary plane. When this option is off, the Illustrator data is placed on the world XY plane.

Create Object Text From Text Elements: When this option is on text objects are created from the text elements contained in the imported Il-lustrator file.

Make Smooth Objects: When this option is on, which is the default, curves will be imported as smooth objects. Selecting this option for large files can greatly increase the import time. When this option is off, all enti-ties will be imported as facetted.

Exporting Illustrator filesThe content of a form•Z window is exported as an Illustrator file in the standard manner. The Export Options: Illustrator dialog only contains common options.

Saving an Illustrator file exports the content of the active window. When a modeling window is active, the 2D image which is currently displayed on the screen is exported, rather than the 3D representation of the mod-eling objects. However, since Adobe Illustrator does not support pixel images, pixel based renderings cannot be exported.

The Import Options: Illustrator dialog.

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JPEGThe Joint Photographic Experts Group (JPEG) format is commonly used to display photographs and other continuous-tone images over the Internet. JPEG files retain all their color information in an RGB image and also use a compression scheme that effectively reduces file size by identifying and discarding nonessential image display data.

Because it discards data, the JPEG compression scheme is referred to as “lossy.” Once an image has been compressed and then decom-pressed, it will not be identical to the original image. A high level of com-pression will result in lower image quality, while low compression levels result in higher quality images.

Exporting JPEG files

The content of a form•Z window is exported as a JPEG file in the standard manner. The Export Op-tions: JPEG dialog, in addition to the common options contains one format specific option.

The JPEG specific export options.

Quality Factor: The items in this pop up menu specify which JPEG compression scheme will be used when exporting. Selecting the maxi-mum quality setting, 5 (High), will produce the best image, but will result in a larger file size. Selecting the lowest setting, 1 (Medium), will pro-duce the lower quality image, but will result in a smaller file size. The default setting is 2.

Piranese

The Piranesi File Format (EPX) is a pixel based format used by Pi-ranesi, a stylistic render and painting program that can be used to apply artistic treatment to computer renderings. form•Z exports renderings to EPX files for use in Piranesi. For more information on Piranesi, please see the informatix web site at www.informatix.co.uk.

Exporting Piranesi files

The image contents of a form•Z window are exported into a Piranesi file in the standard manner. The Export Options: Piranesi dialog contains common options only. The size and resolution of the EPX file is de-termined by the settings in the Image Options dialog. Piranesi export works with all rendering modes

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PNGThe Portable Network Graphics (.png) image format is a generic cross platform format designed to be compact and transmit quickly across networks and the Internet. It is fully supported in form•Z as all other pixel based image formats (TIFF, TARGA, BMP). PNG images can be used as texture maps and can be viewed using the View File menu item in the File menu.

Exporting PNG files

The graphics in a form•Z window can be exported in PNG format in the standard manner. The Export Options: PNG dialog only contains com-mon options.

QuickTime™ Image

QuickTime supports a single frame QuickTime Image format as well as additional formats through component plug-ins. Form•Z can import and export the QuickTime Image format as well as any format that is supported through the avail-

The QuickTime™ Image export options.

able Apple or third party QuickTime plug-ins. This format is not available when QuickTime is not installed.

The minimum version of QuickTime supported is QuickTime 2.5 for Ma-cintosh and 3.0 for Windows. It is recommended to use the latest version of QuickTime available. Please visit www.QuickTime.com for details on the latest versions.

Exporting QuickTime Image files

The content of a form•Z window is exported as a QuickTime Image file in the standard manner. The Export Options: QuickTime™ Images dialog contains both common and format specific options.

Compress: When this option is selected, the image will be compressed using the standard QuickTime compression options which are accessed from the adjacent Options... button.

QuickTime plugin components may add formats to the Export Image submenu of the File menu. These formats can be identified by the string “(via QuickTime)” written next to the format name. If one of these items is selected at export time, the data to be exported is sent to QuickTime which produces the export file.

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TARGA

The Targa (TGA) file format is commonly supported by MS-DOS and Windows color applications. It is a pixel based format similar to TIFF. It is available on both Windows and Macintosh versions of form•Z.

Exporting Targa files

The form•Z image displayed in the current window is exported as a Targa file in the standard manner. The Export Options: TARGA dialog, in addition to the common export options, contains a format specific option.

The TARGA specific export options.

Compress: When this option is selected, the TIFF file is compressed to the small-est size possible without losing any image information. The TIFF specific export op-

tions.

Compress: Selecting this item causes the Targa file to be run length encoded, which results in a smaller size without losing any image infor-mation. Targa files will always export the image displayed on the window (which can be a modeling or a drafting window) and they are always writ-ten as 24 bit color pixel images.

TIFF

The Tagged-Image File Format (TIFF) is a pixel based format, used to exchange image documents between different applications and differ-ent computer platforms. Typically, in applications that support TIFF, the scene currently displayed on the screen is saved into a TIFF file. Each screen pixel is saved with the color information as shown on the screen. TIFF files can be quite large. To keep their size reasonable, there is an option for compressing them.

Exporting TIFF files

The contents of a form•Z window are exported into a TIFF file in the standard manner. The Export Options: TIFF dialog contains common options and one format specific option.

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Windows Metafile

The Metafile format is a Windows standard, where it is used for exchang-ing graphic information between applications. A Metafile is a collection of 2D integer based Windows drawing commands. A Metafile image may contain vector graphics, such as lines, rectangles, and polygons, as well as bitmap or pixelmap images. The Metafile format is analogous to the PICT file format for the Macintosh computers and all the options available in its import and export dialogs work as for PICT files. The Metafile format is only available on Windows.

Importing Metafile filesThe content of a Metafile is imported into form•Z in the standard manner. The Import Options: Windows Metafile di-alog contains common options only. Note that Metafile images can also be imported as under-lays and image maps.

Exporting Metafile filesThe content of a form•Z win-dow is exported as a Metafile file in the standard manner. The Export Options: Windows Metafile dialog contains com-mon options only. Saving as Metafile exports the content of the active window, which may be a modeling or a drafting window.

The Windows Metafile Import options.

The Windows Metafile Export options.

When a modeling window is active, the 2D images currently displayed on the screen are exported, rather than representations of the modeling objects. How the exported images are represented in the Metafile format (vector lines or bit/pixel maps) depends on the type of display that is currently on the screen. Shaded render, and RenderZone renderings are exported as bit maps. Wire frame, hidden line, quick paint, and surface renderings may be exported as vector or bit map representations.

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Network renderingNetwork rendering uses a group of machines (referred to as a render-ing farm) to render an image or animation by splitting the rendering task among the available machines. This allows form•Z on the original machine to continue to be used for modeling or other local operations. There are three components of network rendering: the form•Z application, the form•Z Render Server, and the form•Z Render Client.

TCP/IP must be enabled on any machine that will run any of the compo-nents. Consult your operating system’s user manual for specific details on how to enable TCP/IP. It is on by default for most modern operating systems. In order to access the server, the form•Z application and the render client need to know the TCP/IP address and port number of the server. A server can be added by network browsing or by machine name on networks that support it (see the Server Settings dialog) for details. The port number is an identifier on the server that identifies the render server network traffic from other network traffic. The default port number is 28838.

The form•Z application is used to create the model and setup the render-ing scene and parameters. The scene is then sent to the form•Z Render Server to be generated. This scene is called a render job. The server manages all the jobs that have been sent to it and distributes the work to the form•Z Render Client software running on each machine in the farm. When the rendering or animation is complete it can be retrieved from the server by form•Z.

The rendering content files (form•Z project files, textures, etc.) are transferred and stored on the server machine so that they are available for rendering. The files are also transferred to the client when needed for rendering. The files are stored in directories on the server and client machines based on how the form•Z application connects to the server. form•Z supports two types of connections: registered user and guest. When connected as guest, the files are only kept on the server until ren-dering is completed and then they are removed. When connected as a registered user the files can be kept on the server and client machines so that subsequent network renderings are faster, since they do not need to redistribute the content files. See below for details on connection types.

All of the networks rendering components communicate using TCP/IP. This allows the components to be installed in mixed environments of Macintosh and Windows operating systems. The other advantage of using TCP/IP is that it allows rendering over the Internet. The form•Z application, server, and clients can be at completely different addresses, anywhere in the world. Note that the speed of the network between the

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components can be a big factor in how fast the farm can generate im-ages. This is especially true of the connection between the server and the clients, as they must communicate frequently during generation of the images. Multiple components can be run on the same machine, how-ever, this will degrade performance.

Network rendering is accessed in form•Z through three items in the Dis-play menu: Network Render… is used to initiate static renderings on the network and Network Render Status… is used to check the status of the network rendering and to retrieve completed renderings. The Ani-mation Generation Options dialog, invoked from the Generate Anima-tion... item in the Display menu, has options for network renderings of animations.

Network Render...This menu item is used to initiate a static rendering job over the network. When invoked for the first time after installing or whenever there are no known render servers, the No Known Servers dialog is invoked, which provides a convenient way to get connected to a render server.

The No Known Servers dialog.

The save project alert dialog.

The Add... and Browse... buttons are the same as in the Network Settings dialog discussed in the next section.

Selecting this menu item invokes the Network Render dialog. This dialog is used to name the rendering job, select the rendering type, and select the render server to be used. Once the desired options have been set, clicking OK initiates the network rendering and places it in the job queue. If the project has not been saved, the standard File Save As dialog ap-pears to save the project before network rendering can occur.

When sending a job to the server that has changed since it was last saved, form•Z presents an alert dialog asking the user if they want to save the change to the project file (Save Project File) or write the changes to a tem-porary file (Write Temporary File). The Write Temporary File option is for changes that the user wants rendered on the network but doesn’t want saved with the project.

The options of the Net-work Render dialog are as follows:

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Job Name: The name of the rendering job is entered in this field. This identifies the job in the job queue.

Renderer: This pop-up menu identifies the rendering mode to be used for the network ren-dering. The Options... button to the right invokes the corre-sponding options dialog for the selected rendering mode.

Server: This pop-up menu iden-tifies the rendering server that the job will be sent to. The Set-tings… button invokes the Net-work Settings dialog, discussed in the next subsection, which is used to add servers that will be displayed in the menu.

The Network Render dialog.

Priority: This slider determines the priority assigned to the job. If the priority selected exceeds the user’s priority, the job priority will be capped to the user priority.

Keep Project On Server: When this option is selected, rendering content files (form•Z project files, textures, etc.) are kept on the server for future renderings. This option is only available when the Registered User option is selected for the current server, as set in the Server Settings dialog.

Project: This pop-up menu identifies the name of the project to use for the rendering job. The project name is used to identify all of the ren-dering content files for the project. This name will be used in the direc-tory name on the server machine where the files are stored.

Add...: This button can be used to add a new project name to the list. The Add Project dialog is invoked for entering the name of the proj-ect.

Remove...: Clicking on this button removes the current project from the project list. This will also delete any associated jobs which use this project. This will remove the project and its jobs from the server as well.

File Retrieval: This group of options is used to determine how the com-pleted renderings and animations are retrieved from the server.

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Manual: When this option is selected, completed renderings and animations are retrieved manually by the user. Manual retrieval is done by selecting the Retrieve... button in the Network Render Status dialog.

Automatic: When this option is selected, completed renderings and animations are automatically retrieved when they are completed. Note that automatic retrieval only happens while the form•Z application is running. The remainder of the options in this group are the same as the corresponding options in the Image Autosave Options dialog.

Display Image After Retrieval: When this option is selected, the completed rendering will automatically be displayed, once retrieved from the Server. Leave File On The Server: When this option is selected the completed rendering or animation is left on the server after retrieval. This option allows for future manual re-retrieval.

The Network Settings dialog

This dialog is invoked by clicking on the Settings... button in the Network Ren-der Status dialog. It maintains the list of servers form•Z can use for network rendering. It also contains settings used when connecting to the server.

Servers: This list contains a list of all of the servers that the form•Z ap-plication is aware of. The current server is highlighted in the list.

Browse...: This button invokes the Browse For Server dialog.

Edit…: This button is used to edit the settings for the current server. The Server Settings dialog is invoked for editing the server address and login information.

The Network Settings dialog.

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The Browse For Server dialog.

Add...: This button is used to add a server to the list. The Server Set-tings dialog is invoked for entering the server address and login information of the server to be added.

Remove: This button is used to remove the current server from the list. This will also delete any associated jobs which use this server.

Settings: This group of options controls parameters that affect the link between the form•Z application and the Render Servers.

Communicate With Server Every n Seconds: This setting controls how frequently form•Z checks with the server. A smaller time will improve responsiveness in retrieving completed images, updating the Network Status dialog and receiving error messages. A smaller time will also slow down other operations in form•Z while a job is pending or rendering on the server.

Port: form•Z will use the port number entered in the text field to the right of this option as the port number. Care must be taken that this port num-ber is not being used by any other application on the same computer. The default static port number is 28837.

The Browse For Server dialog

This dialog shows a list of all servers found on the network by browsing.

Servers: This list contains the names of all the servers found on the network by browsing. The cur-rent server is highlighted.

Add...: This button is used to in-voke the Server Settings dialog to enter login information and add a server to the list of known servers.

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The Server Settings dialog.

Server: This group specifies the server location. Server: This is the TCP/IP address or Machine name of the machine on which the server is running as shown at the top of the render server window. Note that Machine names will only work under the following conditions: • On any platform if the server machine name is registered with a DNS server. • On windows if a WINS server is running in the servers domain. Port: This is the TCP/IP port that the sever is running on. It must be the same as the port set in the Server Configuration dialog of the render server. The default is 28838.Connect As: This group of options determines how the form•Z appli-cation connects to the server. When a registered user name is used, rendering content files can be kept on the server after renderings are completed so that subsequent renderings do not require data to be re-uploaded to the server unless it has changed.

Registered User: When selected, the form•Z application connects using a user name and password that have been setup in the form•Z render server’s Users section. Name: This field contains the user name to use when connecting to the server. Remember Password: When this option is selected, form•Z remembers the specified password and it does not need to be entered when connecting to the server. When this option is off, which is the default, the password will be prompted for when the form•Z application connects to the server.

The Server Settings dialog

This dialog is used to add or edit a server in the server list. It can be invoked in different ways: (1) by clicking on the Add... button of the Network Status dialog; (2) by clicking on the Edit... button after selecting a server in the list of the Network Status dialog; and (3) by clicking on the Add... button after selecting a server in the Browse For Server dialog, which is in-voked by clicking Browse... in the Network Status dialog.

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Guest: When selected, the connection is established using a guest connection.

The Network Render Status dialog.

Settings: This group of options controls parameters that affect the link between the form•Z application and this Render Server.

Network Render Status...

Selecting this menu item

invokes the Network Render Status dialog. It is used to manage the rendering jobs that have been sent to the server. Job Queue: This list shows the list of all of the jobs that have been sent to a render server. Clicking in the list makes the selected job the active job of the list.

Pause/Continue: This button will pause the current job. If the job is being rendered, the server will stop rendering the job. When the job is paused, the title of the button changes to Continue. When Continue is selected, the job will resume.Info…: This button invokes the Job Information dialog for the current job.Remove…: This button removes the active job from the queue. If the server is rendering the job, the rendering is aborted and all intermediate data is lost.Retrieve…: This button retrieves a completed rendering or animation of the active job of the list from the render server. The standard file save dialog is invoked for saving the file on the local machine. The format of the file is determined by the selection from the Format menu in the dialog. If the job is static rendering, the Format menu contains all of the applicable 2D image formats. If the job is an animation, the menu only contains the form•Z Animation (.fan) file format.View...: This button works similar to the View... button in the Imager window and displays the most recently generated image. This item is only available when a completed rendering has been retrieved from the Render Server.Stop/Start: This button stops the job queue. When the job queue is stopped, rendering jobs that are created accumulate in the queue, but they are not sent to the server. When the queue is stopped, the title of the button changes to Start. When Start is selected, the queue is started and any pending renderings are sent to the server.

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The Job Information dialog.

Progress: The rendering progress, which is 0% while the job is pending in the queue, and 100% when it is completed.

Number Of Clients: If the job is currently being rendered, this shows the number of clients rendering the job.

Renderer: This indicates which renderer (Surface Rendering, RenderZone, etc.) is being used for the job. This field also indicates if the job is processing a static image or an animation.Added To Queue: The date and time the job was added to the queue.

Settings…: This button invokes the Network Rendering Set-tings dialog described previ-ously.Log…: Selecting this button invokes the User Log dialog. This dialog contains the con-tents of the form•Z application log file that details the actions of the form•Z application. This information can be used to diag-nose problems with the Net-work Render. The Clear button clears the content of the log file. The Save As... button allows the log to be exported to a file.

The Job Information dialogThis dialog shows information about the job, as follows.

Name: The name of the job.Server: The server the job is on.User: The name and IP ad-dress of the user who submitted the job.Status: The current status for the job. This can be sending/re-ceiving files, queued, rendering, completed or retrieved.

The User Log dialog.

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The Results dialog.

Start Render Time: The date and time the job started rendering.

End Render Time: The date and time the job completed rendering.

Total Render Time: The total time the job took to render. This is mea-sured from the time that the jobs status changes from pending to render-ing and from rendering to complete.Last Retrieved By: The name and IP address of the user who last re-trieved the job.Last Retrieved Time: The date and time when the job was last retrieved.File Retrieval: Displays whether the job is set for manual or automatic file retrieval. If automatic, the format of the output file is displayed.Assigned Work: This field shows the work assigned to the job. If the job is an animation, this field displays the range of frames in the animation. If the job is a static image, this field displays the number of bands in the image.Disk Space: This field displays the amount of disk space the job is using

on the Render Server. For jobs that are part of a project, this number may include files that are shared with other jobs in the project.Priority: This is the priority for the job and can range from the highest available priority for the user who has created the job to the low priority of 99. The prior-ity for the job can be changed anytime until the job has fin-ished rendering. If changing the

priority for a job causes another job to have a higher priority, the current job will stop rendering and the new higher priority job will start rendering.

Results...: This button invokes the Results dialog. This dialog shows a list of which clients worked on the job and what part and for how long they worked.

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The form•Z Render Server window.

The form•Z Render Server and its windowThe form•Z Render Server is the network rendering component that performs the management of the rendering. The Server receives rendering jobs and content from the form•Z application, distributes the rendering to the clients that are connected to it, composites the image or animation, and returns the completed image or animation to the form•Z application machine.

The form•Z Render Server interface consists of a few standard menu items and an interface window. The enabled menu items are Quit from the File menu, and form•Z Web Site..., form•Z Web Support..., and email Tech Support... in the Help menu. The main part of the render server interface is the form•Z Render Server window. This window is used to control the render server and displays the activity and progress of the server.

Server: This is the name, the IP address, and port of the machine the server is running on. The IP address and network name is determined by the operating system’s network settings. The port is set in the Server Configuration dialog as described later in this section.

Users: This list shows all of the registered users for the server. The highlighted user is the current user.

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Total: The total number of users in the user list is entered in this field.

Add...: This button is used to add a user to the list. The User Set-tings dialog is invoked for entering the user’s information, as described in the next subsection.

Edit...: This item is used to edit the current user in the user list. The User Settings dialog is invoked for entering the user’s information as described in the next subsection.

Remove: This button removes the current user from the list. If the user has jobs in the queue that are being rendered, they are also removed. This button will not remove the guest account.

Job Queue: This list shows all of the form•Z jobs that the server is processing. The highlighted job is the current job. The following buttons operate on the current job.

Total: The total number of jobs in the Job Queue list is entered in this field.

Pause/Continue: This pauses the current job. All of the clients that are processing the job stop processing and the server collects any inter-mediate data that can be preserved. When the job is paused, the title of the button changes to Continue. When the latter is selected, the job is changed to pending and its processing continues.

Info...: This button invokes the Job Information dialog for the cur-rent job. This dialog was discussed earlier in this section.

Remove: This button removes the current job from the list. If the job is rendering, it is stopped before being removed.

Clients: This list shows all of the form•Z render clients that are connect-ed to the server. The highlighted client is the current client. The following buttons operate on the current client.

Total: The total number of clients in the list is entered in this field.

Stop/Start: This button stops the client. When the client is stopped it does not perform any rendering and the server collects any intermedi-ate data that can be preserved. When the client is stopped, the title of the button changes to Start. When it is selected in this state, the client resumes processing.

Info...: This button invokes the Client Information dialog for the current client.

Remove: This button removes the client from the list. If the client is rendering, it is stopped before being removed.

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The Client Information dialog.

Configure…: This button invokes the Server Configuration dialog, which is shown and discussed in the next section.

Stop/Start: This button stops the render server. When the server is stopped, new rendering jobs can not be sent to the server and the ren-dering clients can not communicate with the server. When the server is stopped, the title of the button changes to Start. When it is selected in this state, the server resumes processing. It is not recommended to stop the server while it is rendering a job, as the clients will continue to try to contact the server and this could lead to network slow down.

The Server Log window.

Log…: Selecting this button in-vokes the Server Log dialog. This dialog contains the contents of the server’s log file that details the actions of the server. This informa-tion can be used to diagnose prob-lems with the server. The Clear button clears the content of the log file. The Save As... button allows the dialog to be exported to a file.

The Client Information dialog

This dialog shows information about the client, as follows:

Name: The name of the client.

Status: The status of the client.

Job Name: The name of the job the client is working on.

Progress: The progress of the job on the client.

Renderer: This indicates which renderer (Surface Rendering, RenderZone, etc.) is being used for the job. This field also indicates if the job is processing a static image or an animation.

Assigned Work: This field shows the work assigned to the client. If the job is an animation, this field displays the range of frames in the anima-tion. If the job is a static image, this field displays the number if bands in the image.

Strength: This slider can be adjusted from 0 to 100 with 100 being the strongest. Clients default to a strength of 50.

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The Server Configuration dialog.

The User Settings dialog

This dialog is used for adding new users and editing existing users. It can be invokes in two ways: (1) by clicking on the Add... button in the form•Z Render Server window or (2) by clicking Edit... after selecting a non-guest user in the user list of the same dialog.

Name: This text field specifies the user name, which can be up to 64 characters long and must be unique.

Password: This text field specifies the user password. Passwords can be up to 64 characters long.

Priority: This slider determines the priority assigned to jobs that are sent to the server by the user. 1 is the highest priority and 99 is the lowest.

The Server Configuration dialog

The User Settings dialog.

This dialog contains the server configuration information. It is invoked by clicking on the Con-figure... button in the form•Z Render Server window.

Port: This text field specifies the TCP/IP port that the server is operating on. The default is 28838. This number should not be changed unless you encoun-ter a collision with this port on the network.

Clients: This group of options specifies the client connection settings.

Check Client Every n Seconds: This text field determines how often the server will check on the client’s progress (in seconds.) Increasing this number increases the performance at the expense of accurate infor-mation in the Clients section of the Render Server window.

Disconnect Client After n Missed Checks: This number controls how toler-ant the server is to a client which is not responding to server queries. This can be caused by network problems or problems with the client machine. A client that is not responding properly can slow down the overall rendering process.

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Ban Client After n Crashes: When this option is on, this number controls how tolerant the server is to a crashed client. A client that is not functioning properly can slow down the overall rendering process. Note that the server thinks that the client is crashed when it loses contact. Thus a network problem with a client is treated as a crash.

Limit Jobs To n Clients: When this option is on, the server will only split a job across the specified number of clients when there are other jobs in the queue. If there are more clients available than the current job can use, the ad-ditional jobs in the queue are rendered simultaneously. This setting can dramati-cally affect the performance of network rendering of static images. If a job is split between too many clients, the overhead of transferring data to the clients can be more than the actual rendering time.

Allow Server to Reassign Clients (Slower Rendering): When this option is selected, the Render Server will attempt to keep all Render Clients working, but will frequently result in renderings that take more time.

Allow Guests: When this option is on, the server allows guests to con-nect to the server in addition to registered users. A guest login allows for anyone on the network with a copy of form•Z or the Imager to send jobs to the Render Server without a user specific login account. Any user signed in with a guest account can remove or retrieve any job submitted by any other guest user.

To more securely handle jobs, a registered user can be added to the Render Server that will require the users to enter a user name and pass-word to access the jobs on the Render Server.Turning off Allow Guests will remove the guest account and any jobs on the server sent from a guest login.

Guest Priority: This slider determines the priority assigned to jobs that are sent to the server by guest users. 1 is the highest and 99 the lowest priority. Launch at Startup: When this option is selected, the Render Server will launch when the computer is started.

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The form•Z Render Client and its window

The form•Z Render Client is the network rendering component that performs the actual rendering of the image or animation. The client is controlled by a form•Z Render Server. The server sends rendering con-tent (form•Z project files, textures, etc.) and rendering commands to the client. The client renders the data and returns the rendered image data or animation back to the server.

The form•Z Render Cli-ent interface consists of a few standard menu items and an interface window. The enabled menu items are Quit from the File menu, and form•Z Web Site..., form•Z Web Sup-port..., and email Tech Support... in the Help menu.

The form•Z Render Client window.

The main part of the render client interface is the form•Z Render Client window. This is used to control the render client and shows the activity and progress of the client.

Client: This is the name of the client computer and the IP address of the machine that the client is running on. This address is determined by the operating system’s TCP/IP settings. Consult your operating system’s user manual for specific details of how to control your TCP/IP address.

Server : This is name and the IP address of the current render server. This address is determined by settings in the Client Settings dialog as described below.

Connection Status: This is the status of the client’s connection with the server. This will read “Off Line” if the client is connected to the server and “Connected” when it is connected. When the client is connected to the server, the server is able to communicate with the client. When the cli-ent is not connected, the server does not know that the client exists.

Job: This is the name of the job being rendered.

Job Status: This displays the task that the client is currently performing. This will be blank when the client is not connected to a server. When it is connected, it will commonly show one of the following:

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Idle: Waiting for the server to send instructions. Receiving: Receiving data from the server. Rendering: Rendering the data. Sending: Sending completed data to the server. Loading: Loading the project.

Progress: This is the progress of the current rendering. Since the server divides the rendering among the available clients, this progress is just for the small portion that the server has asked the client to render. This also displays the progress of sending and receiving files from the server.

Settings…: This button invokes the Client Settings dialog.

Connect/Disconnect: This button connects or disconnects the client to the current Render Server. This button reads Connect when the server is not connected and Disconnect when it is connected. If you disconnect from the server while the client is rendering, the current rendering is stopped and any completed image data is sent to the server. Incomplete render data is discarded.

Stop/Start: This button stops the client’s actions. When the client is stopped, the server will retrieve any intermediate rendered files. After selecting this button the title changes to Start. Selecting the button in this state resumes the client process.

Log…: Selecting this button invokes the Client Log dialog. This dialog contains the contents of the client’s log file that details the actions of the client. This information can be used to diagnose problems with the client. The Clear button clears the content of the log file. The Save As... button allows the log to be exported to a file.

The Client Log dialog.

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This dialog maintains the list of severs that the client can use for network rendering. It also contains settings the client uses when connecting to the server.

Servers: This list contains a list of all of the servers that the client is aware of. The current server is highlighted in the list.

The Client Settings dialog

Browse: This button invokes the Browse For Server dialog.Add...: This item is used to add a server to the list. The Server Settings dialog is invoked for entering the TCP/IP address or machine name and port of the server to be added.

Edit…: This button is used to edit the setting for the current server. The Server Settings dialog is invoked for editing the TCP/IP address or ma-chine name and port of the server.

Remove…: This item is used to remove the current server from the list.

Launch At Startup: When this option is selected, the Render Client will launch when the computer is started.

Warn When Quitting: When this option is selected, the Render Client will ask for verification when it is being quit.

Port: This group of options allows you to designate which port will be used.

Static: When this is selected, form•Z Render Client will use the port number entered in the text field to the right of this option as the port number. Care must be taken that this port number is not being used by any other ap-plication on the same computer. The default static port number is 28836.

Dynamic: When this is selected, form•Z Render Client will automatically use the free port number that the Operating System selects. This is the default option.

Client Strength: This slider can be adjusted from 0 to 100 with 100 being the strongest. Clients default to a strength of 50.

Remove Job Files…: This button will remove any files sent to the client by the server.

The Client Settings dialog.

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The Server Settings dialog.

The Server Settings dialog

This dialog is used to add or edit a server in the client’s server list.

Server: This is the TCP/IP ad-dress or Machine name of the machine on which the server is running as shown at the top of the render server window. Note that Machine names will only work

This dialog shows a list of all servers found on the network by browsing.

Servers: This list contains the names of all of the servers found on the network by browsing. The current server is highlighted in the list.

Add...: This button is used to add the current server to the list of known servers.

Add All...: This button is used to add all the servers found by browsing to the list of known servers.

The Browse For Server dialog.

under the following conditions:

• On any platform if the server machine name is registered with a DNS server.

• On windows if a WINS server is running in the servers domain.

Server Port: This is the TCP/IP port that the sever is running on. This must be the same as the port set in the Server Configuration dialog of the render server (see earlier in this section.) The default is 28838.

The Browse For Server dialog