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Wiley Mastering Autodesk VIZ 2008

1. 6 Place the cursor on the square at the top of the circle Now the cursor changes to a vertically oriented ellipse 7 With the cursor on the square click and drag the cursor down The view now rotates in that direction The squares on the yellow circle are like handles that you can grab and turn to change your view orientation The left and right squares constrain the rotation to the horizontal plane and the top and bottom squares constrain the rotation to the vertical plane If you prefer you can adjust the view freely without constraint in the vertical or horizontal direction by clicking and dragging the cursor anywhere within the circle You can also rotate the view by clicking and dragging anywhere out side the circle The following exercise demonstrates these features Pay attention to the shape of the cursor in each step 1 Place the cursor anywhere within the circle Then slowly click and drag in a small circular motion Notice how the view changes as if your point of view were rotating around the group of chairs 2 Place the cursor anywhere outside the circle Then slowly click and drag in an up and down motion Now the view rotates around the circle as if you were tilting your head from side to side You may have noticed that the cursor changes depending on whether you re inside or outside the circle This gives you further cues regarding the way the Arc Rotate tool affects your view You ve been introduced to nearly all
2. Reference Number of Copies T 2 Nome Bue SS o c 6 In the Object group of the Clone Options dialog box select Copy 7 Click OK The new chair is added to your model aa Zl y 44824c01 fm Page 29 Wednesday August 29 2007 4 43 PM WORKING WITH OBJECTS 29 CREATE A COPY IN THE SAME LOCATION AS THE ORIGINAL You may experience times when you want to make a copy of an object in exactly the same location as the original object To accomplish this first select the object you wish to copy and then select Edit gt Clone from the menu bar or press Ctrl V on the keyboard You see a Clone Options dialog box similar to the one that you saw in the preceding exercise Set your options and click OK Note that the new copy doesn t appear at first because it occupies the same space as the original You can accomplish the same thing by Shift clicking on an object with the Select and Move tool or by selecting Clone from the transform quad menu which can be accessed by right clicking the object Instep 6 you selected the Copy option in the Clone Options dialog box This option creates a dis tinct copy of the original object The other two options Instance and Reference create clones that are linked to the original so that changes in one object affect the other You ll learn more about these options in Chapter 2 e Real World Scenario PARKING CURBS AND BOLLARDS Every project has features in it th
3. a2 b 44824c01 fm Page 1 Wednesday August 29 2007 4 43 PM Chapter 1 Getting to Know VIZ Welcome to Mastering Autodesk VIZ 2008 Once again Autodesk VIZ 2008 benefits from the develop ment of its sister product 3ds Max to give architects and other design professionals an indispensable design tool VIZ 2008 gives designers cutting edge rendering technology easier to use architectural materials improved communication with other software enhancements to modeling and animation tools and better viewport interactivity than ever before This chapter introduces some of VIZ 2008 s special features and then gets you started working with the VIZ 2008 interface In this chapter you will learn to Dock and float toolbars Copy objects and use the transform tools Create a named selection set Introducing the New VIZ 2008 Features Each new version of Autodesk VIZ incorporates new and exciting tools to enhance your capabilities and workflow and increase the performance of the program on your computer system Utilizing these new features is key to improving your skills and decreasing the time it takes to complete your projects The VIZ 2008 Welcome Screen dialog box see Figure 1 1 now includes links to essential skills movies which teach many of the basic skills for using VIZ as well as links to movies that explain the new features and additional VIZ related tutorials FIGURE 1 1 The new Welcome Screen dialog box Essential Skills
4. If the Constraints toolbar is still open you ll see that the Y axis button is selected As you ve seen in this step you can select an axis to constrain just by placing your cursor on the axis coordinate arrow 5 Place the cursor on the XY plane handle the square that joins the X and Y handles of the Move gizmo Notice that the XY plane handle highlights in yellow Click and drag the box on the grid The box now moves in the XY plane When you click and drag the X arrow movement is constrained along the X axis only aa Zl y 44824c01 fm Page 23 Wednesday August 29 2007 4 43 PM WORKING WITH OBJECTS 23 6 Click and drag the blue Z coordinate arrow up Now movement is constrained in the Z axis away from and toward the grid As you may guess clicking and dragging the green Y coor dinate arrow constrains movement in the Y axis THE LAST AXIS TRANSFORMED IS HIGHLIGHTED IN YELLOW The axis that is highlighted in yellow is the last axis constraint that was used For example if you transform an object in the Y direction the next time you start to transform an object the Y axis will be highlighted If you click an object in a location other than the coordinate arrows but still on the object you can freely move the object in the current axis or plane restriction Notice that the coordinate location of the object is displayed in the status line just below the drafting tools CONSTRAINING MOTION
5. Click the rollout to open it again Right click on a blank part of the interface within any one of the rollouts and you ll see a context menu Select Close All Close Rollout Open Al Object Type v Nome and Color Parameters v Depth of Field Parameters Reset Rollout Order o TK 44824c01 fm Page 18 Wednesday August 29 2007 4 43 PM 18 CHAPTER 1 GETTING TO KNOW VIZ 3 Notice that the Parameters and Depth of Field Parameters rollouts closed but Object Type and Name and Color remained open This is because all objects on the Create Panel have Object Type and Name and Color rollouts and these always remain open by default Any additional rollouts belong to the object you have chosen to create and can be controlled with this context menu Try dragging the Depth of Field Parameters rollout above the Parameters rollout AuloGnd M Target Free ails Teed bef Pt 5 i Depth of Field Parameters Jj 4 You will see a horizontal blue bar appear with an image of the rollout you are dragging ghosted When you release the mouse the rollout you are dragging gets docked where the blue bar was Now the Depth of Field Parameters rollout should appear above the Parame ters rollout Obiect Type AuloGnid I Target Free L Desh of Fd Pame e____Paaneters i 5 Click the Parameters and Depth of Field Parameters rollouts again to display the options Now you can see how easy it is to control and customize th
6. Left Front and Perspective viewports 44824c01 fm Page 13 Wednesday August 29 2007 4 43 PM P TOURING THE INTERFACE 13 4 Click the Maximize Viewport Toggle again to return to a four viewport layout 5 Place your cursor at the intersection of the four viewports until it changes to a crossing arrow cursor Click and drag to resize all viewports simultaneously as shown in Figure 1 11 You can also place the cursor between just two viewports to resize the viewports in only one direction FIGURE 1 11 Resize the viewports by dragging their intersection 6 Right click on the border between two viewports and choose Reset Layout from the menu that appears to return to the default layout 7 Click anywhere within the Perspective viewport 8 Click the Maximize Viewport Toggle to restore your original window setup You ve just seen how you can expand the graphic area into multiple viewports showing the Top Front Left and Perspective viewports Several other views and viewport arrangements are avail able as you ll see later in this chapter To the left of the viewport navigation tools are time control tools These tools give you control over the animation functions of VIZ Here you can set your creations in motion by selecting the length of time for your animation as well as setting the precise location of objects within that time frame on 22 Seiecied 7 a an 5 gt mm Set Key Key Fikers m fo Ne
7. The box moves vertically 4 Click the Absolute Offset Mode Transform Type In button to switch to Absolute mode 2 Then click in the Z coordinate readout input box and enter 11 The box moves so that its base is exactly at 1 for the Z coordinate 5 Right click the X coordinate readout spinner Remember that right clicking a spinner converts the value associated with the spinner to its lowest value which is 0 in this case Notice that the box moves to 0 for the X coordinate 6 Right click the spinners for the Y and Z coordinates in the coordinate readout The box moves to the center of the screen at the origin coordinates 0 0 0 z Exe lt Just as with the spinners in the command panel the transform type in spinners let you set values by clicking and dragging You can also return to the default values of zero by right clicking the spinners When in Offset mode the spinners automatically reset to zero because the values repre sent numerical values away from the current baseline location The spinners in the coordinate readout appear when you turn on the Select and Move Select and Rotate or Select and Scale tool from the Main toolbar a 4 0 44824c01 fm Page 25 Wednesday August 29 2007 4 43 PM WORKING WITH OBJECTS 25 ACCESSING THE TRANSFORM TYPE IN DIALOG BOXES If you are used to earlier versions of VIZ you can still use the floating Transform Type In dialog boxes that appear when you right click th
8. Zoom tool up from the center of the viewport Notice how you appear to get closer to the boxes 3 Click and drag the cursor down in the viewport Now you appear to be moving away from the boxes 4 Continue to click and drag down until your view looks similar to the one shown in Figure 1 26 You may have also noticed that as you moved farther away the grid became denser Then at a certain point the grid changed to a wider interval VIZ does this so that the grid doesn t over whelm the view when it becomes too dense Again as with other graphics programs the Zoom tool enlarges or reduces your view In addi tion to the Zoom tool the wheel of the mouse can be used to zoom in and out within a viewport In VIZ s Perspective viewport zooming has the effect of moving you closer to or farther away from the objects in your model gt 44824c01 fm Page 39 Wednesday August 29 2007 4 43 PM GETTING THE VIEW YOU want 39 FIGURE 1 26 Zooming out to view a larger area Now suppose you don t like the last view change you made and you want to go back to the pre vious view Try the following steps to return to the previous view 1 Choose Views gt Undo View Change You return to the previous view Alternatively press Shift Z 2 Choose Views gt Undo View Change or press Shift Z again Your view returns to the view prior to the last view 3 Choose Views gt Undo View Change a third time You return
9. and Pan tools perform the same functions in orthogonal views in VIZ as they do in other pro grams allowing you to zoom in and pan over the view FIGURE 1 28 Selecting a view to enlarge with the Zoom Region tool aa 44824c01 fm Page 44 Wednesday August 29 2007 4 43 PM 44 CHAPTER 1 GETTING TO KNOW VIZ You may have noticed two other tools in the viewport navigation controls that haven t been dis cussed yet the Zoom All and Zoom Extents All tools Now that you have multiple viewports displayed you can try out these two tools 1 Click the Zoom All tool a aE BRATI 2 In any viewport click and drag the cursor up Notice that the view in all of the viewports is enlarged to take in as much of the four chairs as can be displayed 3 Click and drag the cursor down and the views expand to show more of the model area 4 Click the Zoom Extents All tool a E CREA All of the viewports change to display enlarged views of the chairs as shown in Figure 1 29 Although not as frequently used as the other viewport navigation tools the Zoom All tool and the Zoom Extents All tool can be helpful when you need to adjust the overall view of your model in multiple viewports You should be aware that the Arc Rotate Selected tool you used in the Perspective viewport also works in the other viewports Try it out on the Top viewport in the next exercise 1 Click the Arc Rotate Selected tool 2 Click and dr
10. of the viewport tools However there s one more feature of the Arc Rotate Selected tool that you ll want to know about before you move on The Arc Rotate Selected tool uses the center of the viewport as the center about which it rotates when no object is a 4 0 ae 44824c01 fm Page 42 Wednesday August 29 2007 4 43 PM 42 CHAPTER 1 GETTING TO KNOW VIZ pep selected But the Arc Rotate Selected tool works in a slightly different way when objects are selected Try the following exercise to see how this variation works 1 Choose Views gt Restore Active Perspective View to restore the view you saved earlier 2 Click the Select Object tool from the Main toolbar 3 Click the chair on the left side in the back row 4 Click the Arc Rotate Selected tool again 5 Slowly click and drag the cursor within the circle Notice how the view appears to be fixed at the center of the selected chair 6 Slowly click and drag the cursor in a vertical motion outside the circle The view appears to rotate around the selected chair 7 Return to the saved view by choosing Views gt Restore Active Perspective View If you click and hold the Arc Rotate Selected tool you ll see two other Arc Rotate tools in the Arc Rotate flyout The tool at the top called simply the Arc Rotate tool rotates the view about the view center regardless of whether an object is selected You ve already seen how the second tool the Arc Rotate Selected t
11. reflect a more traditional mechanical drawing layout with a top front and right side view Here s how you can set up such a viewport arrangement 1 Choose Customize gt Viewport Configuration 2 With the Layout tab selected click the layout showing four equal viewports which is the rightmost layout in the bottom row of layout options see Figure 1 39 3 Click the sample viewport labeled Front in the upper right corner of the large sample layout and select Perspective in the pop up menu as shown in Figure 1 40 FIGURE 1 39 Viewport Configuration ax Selecting a four Rendering Method Layout SaleFiames Adsplive Degradation Regons Statistics viewport layout ENE aS A E E3 Ge D E ee aa gt 44824c01 fm Page 50 Wednesday August 29 2007 4 43 PM 50 CHAPTER 1 GETTING TO KNOW VIZ FIGURE 1 40 Viewport Configuration 2x Changing a specific Rendering Method Layout Sale Fiames Adeplive Degradation Regions Statistics viewport s view 4 Click the sample Perspective viewport in the lower right corner and select Right from the pop up menu 5 Click the sample Left viewport in the lower left corner and select Front from the pop up menu 6 Click OK Now you have a layout that shows the top front and right views plus a perspec tive view arranged in a more traditional manner Perform a Zoom Extents All and your viewports should look like Figure 1 41 As you can see from what
12. up arrow to the right of the box several times Arrows like this one are called spinners and they allow you to graphically adjust the value of the input box they are associated with Notice that the box in the Perspective viewport begins to widen as the value in the Width input box increases Parameters Length 5 3 259 gt Width 76 3617 EN Height 20 299 E Click and hold down the left mouse button while pointing to the up arrow of the Width spinner Notice that the box continues to grow in width as you hold down the mouse button When you hold the mouse button down and move the mouse forward or backward the rate of change on the values is accelerated Right click the spinner arrow The box shrinks in width to 0 Right clicking any spinner changes the spinner value to its lowest possible non negative value which is 0 in this case Click and drag the mouse up from the Width spinner The box grows in width Click and drag down and the width shrinks back down Click and drag the Width spinner up until the cursor reaches the top of the screen Then con tinue moving the mouse up Notice that the cursor reappears at the bottom of the screen This circular action of the spinner lets you scroll continuously without being limited by the screen area UNDOING SPINNER CHANGES While adjusting a spinner you can immediately undo any changes you make by right clicking the mouse while still holding the left mouse button This allows you to q
13. you ve learned so far Autodesk VIZ 2008 provides a wide array of display options but most of the time you ll stick with one viewport layout that you are comfortable with For the purposes of this book you ll use the default layout that shows the four equal size viewports FIGURE 1 41 The four viewport layout with modifications 44824c01 fm Page 51 Wednesday August 29 2007 4 43 PM GETTING THE VIEW YOU want 51 Before you conclude your tour of the VIZ interface let s see how the Move tool acts in the non Perspective viewports The following exercise will give you a feel for the ways that you can use multiple viewports 1 Click the Select and Move tool 2 Inthe Top viewport click and drag the cursor from a point below and to the left of the bottom row of chairs 3 Drag the selection region above and to the right of the two chairs in the lower row as shown in Figure 1 42 so that they are enclosed in the rectangle The two chairs are selected FIGURE 1 42 Drag a selection region around the lower chairs 4 Right click in the Right viewport RIGHT CLICKING RETAINS THE SELECTION SET By right clicking in a viewport you can make it active without disrupting any selections you may have active at the time 1 In the Right viewport click and drag the green Y arrow up Notice how the chairs move in the front and perspective views as you do this 2 Position the chairs so they are higher by about
14. 4 Sample selection set Bruer03 Bruen4 mesh 03 mesh 04 tube 05 tube 06 tube 07 tube c8 wood 03 wood 04 Semele Selected 12 3 Click Sample in the list Then click the Select Objects By Name button in the Named Selection Sets toolbar axla CRA 0 04 Brue3 4 The Select Objects dialog box displays Select one of the names in the list that doesn t already appear in the Named Selection Sets dialog box as shown in Figure 1 24 and then click the Select button This selects the listed objects in the scene 5 Click the Add Selected Objects button in the Named Selection Sets dialog box zi X tl Ob Ed cP ow id Selected Objects 0 04 Bruei03 The name of the object you selected now appears in the list of objects contained in the selec tion set as shown in Figure 1 25 6 Close the dialog box and deselect all by clicking off to the side in the viewport e ae 44824c01 fm Page 37 Wednesday August 29 2007 4 43 PM WORKING WITH OBJECTS 37 ee eee ux Selecting an object f with the Select I L ansees Objects dialog box iphzbetical C ByType C By Color All None Inveit Influences I Displey Subtee I Display Influences I Sect Sutnee I Select Dependos SS Cerca FIGURE 1 23 xi The expanded list 3 x a9 0 0 oP of objects in the Named Selection Sets dialog box Mie zi Semele S
15. Customize User Interface dialog Toolbars and Quads Menus Colors and Keyboard respectively o Zs 44824c01 fm Page 55 Wednesday August 29 2007 4 43 PM THE BOTTOM LINE 55 FIGURE 1 48 i Tke Gace omui ax seenfou Scheme dialog box Flegme veseni Sl Save as lype irterface Schemel ui Shorteut File kbd When you choose to save the first format in the Save Custom UI Scheme dialog Interface Scheme format you are saving a composite file that contains all the customization present in all the other formats combined It is this Interface Scheme format ui that is displayed in the UI Schemes portion of the new Custom UI and Defaults Switcher The Bottom Line Dock and float toolbars The VIZ user interface has several customizable features including the ability to hide or expose and dock or float the program s toolbars Master It Detach the command panel from the right side of the VIZ window and release it so that it floats in the middle of the VIZ window Select the command panel again and attach it to the left side Expose a hidden toolbar and dock it to the left of the command panel Copy objects and use the transform tools The transform tools Move Rotate and Scale are the most commonly used tools in VIZ With them you can position orient and scale your objects as required in the scene You can quickly create a copy in VIZ a process called cloning by holding down the
16. I and Defaults Switcher as shown in Figure 1 44 FIGURE 1 44 ma UNa EASi eb The Customize menu Customize User Interface Load Custom LI Scheme Save Custom UI Scheme Revert to Startup Layout 2 Click on the DesignVIZ initial settings for tool options in the upper left corner of the dialog box to see the settings listed in Figure 1 45 3 Scroll down in the dialog box and read through the changes that the Design VIZ settings repre sent in the HTML file that is part of the Custom UI and Defaults Switcher dialog box There are two initial settings for tool options Design VIZ and DesignVIZ mentalray shown in Figure 1 46 The DesignVIZ settings are configured to provide you with good rendering performance in large scenes with many lights this assumes you ll be using the radiosity renderer and pho tometric lights e ae 44824c01 fm Page 53 Wednesday August 29 2007 4 43 PM WORKING WITH THE CUSTOM UI AND DEFAULTS SWITCHER 53 The DesignVIZ mentalray initial settings are meant to be used in conjunction with the mental ray renderer Each of these settings automatically configures multiple preferences in layers the Material Editor Lights Daylight System Rendering Motion Blur Cloning Select by Name i drop Inverse Kinematics and Viewport Shading and Real World Texture Coordinates FIGURE 1 45 Custom Ul and EN Choose initial settings for tool options and UI layout xj 2 Initia
17. M 28 CHAPTER 1 GETTING TO KNOW VIZ of an axis For example put your mouse over the green dot at the end of the Y axis and drag to scale in that direction only Once you master the mechanics of the new transform gizmos you will find that you have much finer and more intuitive control over your objects as compared to earlier versions of VIZ Copying an Object You ve covered just about all the ways of moving rotating and scaling an object in the Perspective viewport If you want to copy an object you use the same methods you would use to move rotate or scale objects with the addition of holding down the Shift key Try the following steps to see how copying or cloning as it s called in VIZ works Copying is one of the forms of a more general function called cloning 1 From the File menu choose Open The Open File dialog box appears Navigate to the Chap X ter 1 files on the Sybex website Select the Chair max file and then click the Open button 2 Click the Select Object button in the Main toolbar and then select the chair 3 Click the Select and Move button 4 While holding down the Shift key drag the chair to the left A second chair appears 5 Release the mouse button The Clone Options dialog box displays This dialog box lets you control the quantity and type of copies you re making as well as the name of the new objects Cone Options TF Object Controller Copy Copy Betance Instance
18. Movies Welcome Screen Autodesk F Show Ihis dalog at startup ma Zs 44824c01 fm Page 2 Wednesday August 29 2007 4 43 PM 2 CHAPTER 1 GETTING TO KNOW VIZ The new features and additional skills movies are located on the Autodesk website and an active Internet connection is required to view them When you no longer want the dialog box to appear as VIZ opens simply uncheck the Show This Dialog at Startup option in the lower left corner The dialog box can then be opened by choosing Help gt Welcome Screen from the menu bar Throughout this book you will change the viewport rendering mode the way that VIZ interac tively displays the scene New to VIZ 2008 is the Hidden Line rendering mode which displays the scene objects in wireframe but does not display an object s edges for faces that are oriented away from a camera or the viewport The Hidden Line rendering mode displays the scene objects quickly while maintaining an uncluttered picture of the scene When VIZ utilizes image maps during the rendering process the files are not actually included in the VIZ file but pointed to at rendering time The filename and location must be consistent for each occurrence of the rendering for the rendering to be completed In VIZ 2008 the file paths can be absolute pointing to a specific location or relative pointing to a file path relative to the current file location The relative path option can make it easier to relocate th
19. None Irweit Influences I Display Subtree I Display Influences SelctSutnee I SeletDependense _S0ect_ _Cancet_ 2 Click the None button near the bottom left of the dialog box This clears the selection set 3 Click Bruer02 and then Ctrl click Bruer04 in the list of object names This list lets you select multiple names as you would in a typical Windows list box You can Shift click to select a group of adjacent names or Ctrl click to select a group of individual names Figure 1 22 shows the Select Objects dialog box with the new selection FIGURE 1 22 ax The Select Objects sat Alphabetical dialog box Wh the Rt Fe ey tt new selection ed By Color All None Invert IV Display Subiree Case Sensitive I Sekot Suttee I Select Dependents _ Select 1 _ Canca 4 Click the Select button The two chairs are selected The preceding exercise showed you how to select objects based on their names but it also indi rectly showed you the importance of the names of objects Giving objects meaningful names helps you locate and select them more easily especially in a crowded model EACH OBJECT HAS ITS OWN NAME AND PARAMETERS VIZ is a parametric object oriented program and every object has its own name Each object has its own parameters that can be accessed from the Modify tab o Zl Y 44824c01 fm Page 35 Wednesday August 29 2007 4 43 PM WORKING WITH OBJECTS 35 Whenever yo
20. O KNOW VIZ FIGURE 1 9 Status bar Track bar The bottom sections of the Autodesk VIZ ae ye G RUA ALLAL a UAILL T LLLI O LULL TULLE EEA LLRAJ E OR RULEAE INT 2008 window E a cae Coca cl oa Bute Koad Selects lee au am fret E fe Sate Karic Kig 2 gt a amp h Prompt line Time controls Viewport navigation tools Tich or olok anddag 9 satect objects Sed Tine Teg The viewport navigation tools give you control over the main graphic display in the center of the window With these tools you can zoom and pan over the display as well as alter the viewpoint of your model You can also switch between multiple views and a single view Try the following 1 Click the Maximize Viewport Toggle button in the far lower right corner of the window This is a tool you ll be using often You can also press Alt W on the keyboard he aga Pics Maxine viewport Toggle The graphic display changes to display four separate viewports Each viewport shows a dif ferent type of view as shown in Figure 1 10 Notice that the viewports are labeled in their upper left corners 2 Right click the upper left viewport labeled Top Notice that the border of the Top viewport becomes highlighted in yellow 3 Click the Maximize Viewport Toggle again Now the Top viewport fills the graphic area Notice how you can quickly expand the view of a viewport to see more detail FIGURE 1 10 Four viewports showing the Top
21. Shift key while using any of the transform tools Master It Make a box that is 3 long 10 wide and 8 high Make five instance clones of the box and rotate each clone 20 degrees more than the previous clone Stack the boxes like a spiral staircase with the greatest amount of swing with each stair and leaving no vertical or horizontal gaps in the stairs Create a named selection set Whenever any objects are selected in VIZ the selected objects are referred to as a selection set Often you may need to repeatedly select the same objects for different operations By creating named selection sets you can quickly select objects by selecting the selections set name from a drop down list Master It Continuing from the previous Master It exercise rename the boxes to Step1 Step2 Step3 and so on starting with the top step Make and test two named selection sets one containing the lower three steps and another containing the even numbered steps ZY yY 44824c01 fm Page 56 Wednesday August 29 2007 4 43 PM T
22. The tools in the Axis Constraints toolbar constrain the motion of an object in the X Y or Z axis For example to constrain motion in the X axis click the Select and Move tool and then click the X tool in the Constraints toolbar The selected object s motion is constrained to the X axis In early versions of VIZ this was the only method available to constrain motion Another important function that the Axis Constraints toolbar offers is the selection of the default free motion plane In step 5 of the preceding exercise you were able to move the box freely in the XY plane but you were constrained to that plane The Constraints toolbar lets you select the default plane to which you are constrained The Restrict to XY Plane tool is a flyout offering three options XY YZ and ZX You can select the plane in which you want to constrain motion by selecting one of these three options The XY option is fine for nearly all of your work every now and then though you Il want to use one of the other options so it s good to be aware of this tool You can also access these constraint planes simply by dragging the appropriate parts of the Transform gizmo it s very intuitive If you prefer to use shortcut keys instead of a toolbar the F5 F6 and F7 keys toggle the X Y and Z axis constraints respectively Pressing the F8 key repeatedly cycles through the XY YZ and XZ plane constraints Finally a tool that is related to the transform tools is
23. Z 4 Click the box A graphic displays showing the X Y and Z orientation of the box in relation to the viewport Also notice that marks like 3D corner marks appear at the corners of the box These are called selection brackets and they indicate graphically the objects that are selected With the box selected you can go to the Modify tab of the command panel and edit its properties or you can use any number of other editing tools to affect the box Let s continue by looking at one of the more basic editing tools you ll use the Select and Move tool 1 Click the Select and Move tool in the Main toolbar Notice that the graphics indicating the box selection change and new ones appear IREE Select and Move 2 Place the cursor on the box It changes into the Select and Move icon 3 Click the box if it isn t still selected A graphic known as the Move Transform gizmo appears showing the X Y and Z orientation of the box in relation to the viewport Selection brackets also appear at the corners of the box 4 Place the cursor on the blue Z axis handle of the Move Transform gizmo the blue arrow rep resents the Z axis Notice that the Z axis label highlights in yellow and the X axis label turns back to red When you move the cursor away from the Z axis the X axis is highlighted again and the Z axis returns to blue The yellow highlighting shows you which axis is currently active The Y axis is the default constraint direction
24. ach side it sees it as a1 unit box with a 200 scale factor applied 4 Press the Tab key to move to the Y value input box and enter 100 5 Press Tab again to move to the Z input box and enter 75 1 The box is now slightly shorter than it is wide and long The Select and Scale tool works in a slightly different way from the other two transform tools For one thing a zero value in the coordinate readout doesn t return the selected object to its original shape This is because the values in the coordinate readout represent percentages where 100 is the original size The Scale gizmo allows you to both uniformly and nonuniformly scale an object by automatically switching between scale modes Which operation you perform depends on which part of the Scale gizmo you drag 1 Try dragging the center of the Scale gizmo You will see the object get uniformly bigger or smaller when you drag up or down 2 This time put your mouse over one of the edges of the Scale gizmo When you drag over one of the plane handles you are performing a nonuniform scale in two directions at once Look closely at the gizmo and you can see the axes labeled Try nonuniformly scaling the box in the YZ plane 3 The last operation you can perform using the Scale Transform gizmo is a nonuniform scale in one direction To accomplish this put your mouse directly over the axis handle at the tip e 44824c01 fm Page 28 Wednesday August 29 2007 4 43 P
25. ag the cursor from the center of the Top viewport up and to the right so it shows a view similar to Figure 1 30 FIGURE 1 29 The four viewports after using the Zoom Extents All tool 44824c01 fm Page 45 Wednesday August 29 2007 4 43 PM GETTING THE VIEW YOU wanr 45 FIGURE 1 30 Top view after using Arc Rotate Selected The view changes to a type of 3D view known as an isometric projection Also notice that the label in the upper left corner of the viewport now reads User This indicates that the view is a custom view based on your changes 3 Click the Zoom Extents tool to center the view in the viewport The 3D view in the upper left corner of the display differs in many ways from the perspective view But as you ll see in the next section it s different only because a few of the settings for that viewport are different from those of the Perspective viewport Changing the Viewport Display and Configuration If you compare the User viewport with the Perspective viewport you notice one thing that is dif ferent As mentioned in the previous exercise the User viewport shows a 3D orthographic pro jection Parallel lines do not converge as the distance from the viewpoint increases as they do in the Perspective viewport You ll notice that the User viewport is shaded the chairs appear to have visible faces rather than simple line outlines called a wireframe view These display charac teristics can be modifi
26. application will be directad towards photo raalistic rendering of typical architectural models mental ray Extensions enabled by default e Layers all objects are created By Layer a Material Editor populated with Arch amp Design mi materials displays reflectance and transmittance information more Seka Lights all cast raytraced shadows Daylight defaults 10 mrSun and mrSky Rendering using the mental ray renderer exposure controls is pre assigned Motion Bhar all objects will use motion blur when created Cloning objects are instanced by default Select By Name display sublree and select dependent are enabled idrop maps are copied from the i drop source to the downioscds folder Inverse Kinematics optimized for interactive manipulation Viewrport Shading optimized to support many light sources ReatWorki Texture Coordinates Sette suppor rea world sealing of UWY coordinates Zs 44824c01 fm Page 54 Wednesday August 29 2007 4 43 PM 54 CHAPTER 1 GETTING TO KNOW VIZ RENDERING AND MENTAL RAY See Chapter 11 to learn more about the radiosity renderer and Chapter 12 to learn how to use the mental ray renderer On the right side of the Custom UI and Defaults Switcher dialog box you ll see a list of UI schemes you have already saved Here you can conveniently select which UI scheme you d like to use UI schemes hold in one place all the customization you can make to the keyboard hot
27. ar in this chapter you ve done all of your work without making any modifications to the point of view of your model Now let s take a look at ways you can control your view Understanding the viewport controls is essential for manipulating objects in your model so take some time to become familiar with all the tools discussed in this section Understanding the Perspective Viewing Tools If you look at the viewport tools in the lower right corner of the VIZ window you ll see some tools that are common among most graphics programs These include the magnifying glass and the hand Other tools in this area may be a bit more mysterious In this section you ll learn how these tools let you get around in your model PANNING AND ZOOMING YOUR VIEW Let s start by looking at the tool with the hand icon known as the Pan tool Like similar tools in other programs the Pan tool displaces your view up or down or to the left or right But in VIZ s Perspective viewport you re also changing your point of view Do the following to see what this means 1 Click the Pan tool a gga D ja Bh 2 Click and drag the viewport to the left and up until the boxes are roughly centered in the viewport Er AE 3 Click and drag the viewport in a circular fashion Notice that your view of the model appears to change as if you were moving sideways while looking at the boxes Next try the Zoom tool 1 Click the Zoom tool 2 Click and drag the
28. ar the bottom center of the interface is a large button with the symbol of a key on it and two smaller buttons to the right that are used to create animation keyframes called keys e Zs 44824c01 fm Page 14 Wednesday August 29 2007 4 43 PM 14 CHAPTER 1 GETTING TO KNOW VIZ USING SHORTCUT KEYS TO SWITCH VIEWPORTS You can set the current active viewport to display a top front or left side view by pressing the T F or Lkey You can also press B for the bottom view Pressing P will display the perspective view and press ing U will display an isometric user defined view If you have added a camera you can press C to select from a list of camera views The hotkeys of R for right view and K for back have been removed from the defaults in VIZ You can easily assign your own hotkeys to commands this procedure is covered later in the chapter The long horizontal elements across the bottom of the viewport are the time slider and track bar used for animation You can hide the track bar to save space on the screen Choose Customize gt Show UI gt Show Track Bar to toggle this part of the interface off until you re ready for making animations Just to the left of the animation controls are the transform type ins This area displays the location of your cursor in X Y and Z coordinates It also displays other types of data depending on your current activity For example if you re rotating an object the coordinate readout disp
29. at the Units Setup dialog box 1 Choose Customize gt Units Setup The Units Setup dialog box displays 2 Select the US Standard radio button and make sure that Feet w Decimal Inches is selected below it and that the Inches radio button is selected for Default Units as shown in Figure 1 3 FIGURE 1 3 ax Defining the units in the Units Setup L__ sees dialog box Display Unit Scale Metric eter US Standard Feet w Decimal Inches z pa Defauk Units Feet Inches Custom F fee o Meters Genetic Unite Lighting Units Jletemnational 0K cma 3 Click the System Unit Setup button and you will see another small dialog box Make sure 1 Unitis set equal to 1 inch Do not change anything else in the System Unit Setup dialog box and click OK twice to close both dialog boxes xi System Unit Scale 1Unit fi 0 Inches z IM Respect System Unie in Files Di ion OT Resulting Accuracy 010 0000001 192 By setting the Units Setup dialog box you ensure that in future exercises you ll be working with the same units that are discussed in this book e Als 44824c01 fm Page 5 Wednesday August 29 2007 4 43 PM TOURING THE INTERFACE 5 REVERTING TO THE STARTUP LAYOUT Autodesk VIZ 2008 is something of a chameleon It can change its appearance depending on the focus of your modeling needs If your VIZ 2008 window doesn t look the way it does in the fi
30. at vary from interesting and cool to mundane and repetitive Although we all like to work on the exciting projects we ll all do our share of the latter When those less than exciting projects pop up it s best to crank them out quickly and accurately and then move on to the next portfolio quality project down the line While the main effort of our company was being applied to the creation of a mall complete with an enter tainment center and several freestanding buildings for restaurants and other shops someone had to work on the parking lot 1 was hired to accurately place several thousand parking curbs and bollards vertical posts used to restrict vehicular traffic throughout the parking lot and around the entrances to the structure Park ing curbs are usually identical and placed equidistant from each other usually 9 0 so the layout wasn t dif ficult After modeling the simple curb I placed one at the end of each parallel run of parking spaces 1 selected the first curb on each run held the Shift key down and moved it 9 in the proper direction In the Clone Options dialog box I set Number Of Copies to the number of curbs in the longest run and then deleted any superfluous curbs This process was repeated several times for the remaining curbs and then a similar process was used to place the bollards Upon receiving the completed work the company assigned me the task of creating the traffic islands and the screen walls around t
31. bar and the MAXScript Mini Listener for creating mac ros On the right side of the user interface you see the command panels which contain nearly all the tools you ll use to create and edit objects in VIZ Let s take a closer look at each of these components VIZ often offers several methods including toolbars command panels menus and shortcuts for accomplishing many tasks Touring the Interface VIZ offers a wealth of tools and their sheer number can be overwhelming To get a basic under standing of the VIZ window let s look at each of the window components individually starting with the menu bar The Main Menu Bar At the top of the screen is the menu bar Here you find the typical Windows commands for file maintenance as well as commands specifically for Autodesk VIZ 2008 The options in the menu bar are organized in the same way as they are in most other Windows applications Clicking an option issues a command and you re expected to take some action An option that s followed by three periods called an ellipsis opens a dialog box usually to allow you e 44824c01 fm Page 4 Wednesday August 29 2007 4 43 PM 4 CHAPTER 1 GETTING TO KNOW VIZ to make changes to settings related to the option An option with a right pointing arrow displays more options in what is called a cascading menu Modiers Animation Grech Edkors Rendering Customize MAXSaipt EASYr Try out the menu bar by taking a look
32. control over the dimension shape and parameters of your objects You find tools to extrude twist and bend your objects You can also control methods for applying material definitions to objects called mapping coordinates in this tab Hierarchy Offers a set of tools aimed primarily at animation The options on this tab let you build relationships between objects to simulate joint movement or to constrain motion of one object in relation to another It also offers a way to control the location of an object s pivot point Motion Another tab that gives you control over animation Here you can control the actual motion or parameter change of objects over time and view the objects trajectories Display Lets you turn the visibility of objects on or off in your model There may be times when you don t want a particular object visible while you render your model or while you re editing a complex model full of objects Display lets you temporarily hide objects from view or lock them out from being selected Objects can be hidden individually or by category Utilities A kind of catchall tab that provides access to special features and plug ins This is where you find the Camera Match utility that lets you match your model view to a photograph You can also get access to the MAXScript customization features in this tab FLOATING AND HIDING THE COMMAND PANEL You can move the command panel just like any toolbar or close the panel entirely by clic
33. corner of the screen don t release the mouse button just yet As you move the mouse a rectangle follows your cursor Notice that the values in the Length and Width input boxes in the Parameters rollout change as you move the mouse 4 Place the cursor so that the rectangle looks similar to the one shown in Figure 1 12 and then release the mouse button You don t need to match the rectangle in the figure exactly Now as you move the cursor the rectangle changes in height Notice that the Height value in the Parameters rollout also follows the change in height FIGURE 1 12 The rectangle so far 5 Adjust the height so that the Height parameter shows about 2 0 and click your mouse The box is now fixed at the height you selected It should look similar to Figure 1 13 FIGURE 1 13 The finished box CREATE A NEW BOX IF NECESSARY The following steps only work as directed if you have not deselected the box If you have create a new box and then proceed with the following steps e Zs 44824c01 fm Page 20 Wednesday August 29 2007 4 43 PM 20 CHAPTER 1 GETTING TO KNOW VIZ You ve just created your first object in VIZ and in the process you ve seen how the dimensions of an object are reflected in the Parameters rollout Once you ve created an object you can continue to modify its parameters as the following exercise demonstrates 1 In the Parameters rollout locate the Width input box and click the
34. e Select and Move Rotate and Scale tools Rotating and Scaling Objects Besides the Move tool the transform tools also include the Rotate and Scale tools Try the following set of exercises to see how these tools work USING THE TRANSFORMS FROM THE QUAD MENU You can also activate the Move Rotate and Scale tools by right clicking on an object and selecting Move Rotate or Scale from the transform section of the quad menu that appears You can access the Transform Type In dialog boxes by clicking the icon to the right of the transforms listed 1 With the box selected click the Select and Rotate tool in the Main toolbar A graphic known as the Rotate Transform gizmo a kind of virtual trackball displays showing rings for rota tion about the X Y and Z axes kal og lew z 2 Place the cursor on the red ring that circumscribes the X axis Notice that the ring is high lighted in yellow Click and drag the X axis ring up The box rotates about the X axis A tan gent indicator arrow will appear indicating the direction of rotation and a transparent red slice along with a text tooltip will appear displaying the amount of rotation os Make sure the Absolute Offset Mode Transform Type In button is in the Absolute mode and look at the coordinate readout Notice that the X value is not zero because you rotated it in step 2 It now shows a number of degrees 3 Right click the X spinner in the coordinate readout to set the X valu
35. e command panel interface In this and later chapters you ll explore the rollouts that appear in the panel and throughout the program CREATING OBJECTS AND SETTING THEIR PARAMETERS By now you ve seen most of VIZ s interface and how it functions However you will want to know about a few more tools and methods before you delve into using VIZ In the following exercises you ll get a chance to create a simple object and in the process you ll be introduced to a few new tools 1 In the Create tab of the command panel click the Geometry tool at the top of the panel 1A Al Q T IKS Ba gtGeometry hives fe You see the Object Type rollout with a set of object types Object Type H AutoGrid 7 Box Cone Sphere GeoSphere Cylinder Tube Torus Pyramid Teapot Plane o 44824c01 fm Page 19 Wednesday August 29 2007 4 43 PM P TOURING THE INTERFACE 19 2 Click the Box button Additional rollouts appear in the command panel These include Creation Method Keyboard Entry and Parameters Notice that a message displays in the prompt line at the bottom of the screen that says Click and drag to begin creation process Also the cursor in the graphic area displays as a cross telling you that you re in object cre ation mode 3 Place the cursor at the center of the graphic area at coordinates 0 0 where the two darker grid lines intersect and click and drag diagonally to the upper right
36. e file to another computer or for staff in different locations to render the same file The DWG import and export functionality and the DWG File Linking have been updated to coincide with the 2008 family of Autodesk products Support for the latest versions of Revit is also included The mental ray renderer that now ships with VIZ 2008 has been upgraded to version 3 5 of the high level production quality rendering system This version includes final gather presets and easier to use controls and the new Arch amp Design and Car Paint materials for architectural and vehicular projects You can also render larger images in separate portions using the split and stitch options All aspects of a VIZ scene can now be externally referenced XRef d including both scene objects and materials Controllers the features that determine how animated objects are managed can now maintain dependencies between XRef d objects All items using the same style in an imported or linked AutoCAD Architecture formerly Archi tectural Desktop file can be quickly selected using the new Select Similar command Getting Started Although many of VIZ s components are typical for a Windows program quite a few are unique To begin exploring the VIZ 2008 interface start the program by doing one of the following Double click the Autodesk VIZ 2008 icon on the Desktop Choose Start gt Programs gt Autodesk gt Autodesk VIZ 2008 gt Autodesk VIZ 2008 You l
37. e rotation back to zero Notice that the box snaps back to its original orientation The Select and Rotate tool s methods are the same as those for the Select and Move tool You can rotate an object graphically by clicking and dragging the object or with an object selected you can enter e 44824c01 fm Page 26 Wednesday August 29 2007 4 43 PM 26 CHAPTER 1 GETTING TO KNOW VIZ an exact rotation value in the coordinate readout When the Absolute Offset Mode Transform Type In button is in the Absolute mode you can control the orientation in relation to the object s original orien tation when it was created In the Offset mode you can control the orientation relative to the object s cur rent orientation Now try out the Scale tool 1 With the box selected click the Select and Uniform Scale tool in the Main toolbar The Scale Transform gizmo appears showing the X Y and Z orientation of the box in relation to the viewport JEEE Click in the center of the Scale gizmo that appears or the box itself and drag up The box grows uniformly in size Click and hold the Select and Uniform Scale tool Then from the flyout select the middle tool which is the Select and Non uniform Scale tool This step is not absolutely required it is presented here to clarify the concept The axis handles alone can be used to scale an object nonuniformly Yam a Drag the XY plane handle of the Scale gizmo highligh
38. e viewport but this isn t the only view you have available You saw earlier how you can divide the VIZ window so that it displays four equal view ports each representing a different view Let s go back to that viewport arrangement to explore the uses of some of VIZ s display tools The first item you ll look at is the way that the Field of View tool changes when your active viewport changes 1 Click the Maximize Viewport Toggle in the set of viewport navigation controls Ran aP LER Maximize Viewport Toggle The VIZ window changes to display four viewports 2 Right click anywhere in the viewport labeled Top in the upper left corner of the display Notice that the Field of View tool changes to a magnifying glass with a rectangle This is the Zoom Region tool Rene Also notice that the Top viewport now shows a thick yellow border around it indicating that it is the current active viewport 3 Click the Zoom Region tool 4 Click and drag the cursor ona point below and to the left of the chairs as shown in Figure 1 28 As you drag the cursor you see a rectangle appear Don t release the cursor just yet 5 Position the rectangle above and to the right of the bottom row of chairs as shown in Figure 1 28 and then release the mouse button The view enlarges to the region you just indicated with the Zoom Region tool The Zoom Region tool acts like the magnifying tools in many other graphics programs Also the Zoom
39. ed for each viewport In the following exercise you ll see how you can alter viewport settings to obtain specific view characteristics such as shading and perspective 1 Right click the User label in the upper right corner of the User viewport A pop up menu appears as shown in Figure 1 31 FIGURE 1 31 The viewport SR context menu Wireframe Other gt Edged Faces Transparency gt Views a v Show Grid Show Background Show Safe Frame Show Statistics Viewport Clipping Texture Gorrection Disable View Unde View Pan Reda Configure aa gt 44824c01 fm Page 46 Wednesday August 29 2007 4 43 PM 46 CHAPTER 1 GETTING TO KNOW VIZ 2 Select Wireframe from the menu The chairs now appear as lines see Figure 1 32 just as they do in two of the other viewports FIGURE 1 32 M E The User viewport in GE Ss Wireframe mode gt 3 Change the User viewport back to the shaded mode by selecting Smooth Highlights from the viewport label right click menu New 4 Right click the Perspective viewport label and then select Other gt Hidden Line from the pop up menu The Perspective viewport changes to reflect the contents in the new Hidden Line rendering mode 5 Zoom in to the chairs to better see the appearance of the Hidden Line rendering mode Your view should be similar to Figure 1 33 FIGURE 1 33 The chairs in Hidden Line rendering mode Notice that the pop up menu is the same f
40. elect Sample The two boxes you selected earlier are now the current selection set Qh EE zii pi In these early stages of learning VIZ the concept of named selection sets may seem simple but it s one tool you ll likely use quite a bit as you expand your skills OTHER METHODS FOR SELECTING OBJECTS The Edit option in the menu bar offers some additional selection commands such as Select All Select None and Select Invert You can also use the Edit gt Select By cascading menu to select objects by color or name Editing Named Selection Sets Named selection sets are not set in stone You can add to or subtract from them or you can delete them entirely through the Named Selection Sets dialog box 1 Open the Named Selection Sets dialog box by choosing Edit gt Edit Named Selection Sets or by clicking the Named Selection Sets button just to the left of the Named Selection Sets input a 4 0 ae 44824c01 fm Page 36 Wednesday August 29 2007 4 43 PM 36 CHAPTER 1 GETTING TO KNOW VIZ box you used before The Named Selection Sets dialog box appears with a list of all of the selection sets that have been created SRNE Named Selection Sets 2 Click the plus symbol next to your Sample named selection set to see which objects are contained within this set as shown in Figure 1 23 FIGURE 1 23 zi The Named Selection 9 x x 09 En P Sets dialog box show ECF Sample ing the contents of the 0 03 0 0
41. elected 6 7 Select Sample from the Named Selection Set drop down list Now you see that three of the boxes are selected 8 Click on a blank area of the viewport to clear the selection set There are several other tools in the Named Selection Sets dialog box These tools let you select objects from a set highlight selected objects delete objects from a set or remove a set altogether You can also create new named selection sets using the Create New Set tool at the far left of the Named Selection Sets toolbar You ve now seen most of the selection tools you ll need to get started with VIZ You ll learn about a few other selection tools as you work with VIZ and you ll also get a chance to apply the tools you ve already learned as you start to build and edit 3D models in later chapters In the next section you ll learn about the tools that enable you to view your model from different angles and how these different views can aid you in creating and editing your model Named selection sets can also contain selections of subobjects such as vertices edges or poly gons the components that make up an object You will learn about subobjects in Chapter 4 When a subobject named selection set is created it is only available when that object is selected and the subobject level is accessed o Zs 44824c01 fm Page 38 Wednesday August 29 2007 4 43 PM 38 CHAPTER 1 GETTING TO KNOW VIZ Getting the View You Want So f
42. gures in this book choose Customize gt Revert to Startup Layout You ll see a warning message telling you that any user interface Ul changes you have made will be lost Click Yes to set up your VIZ windows to match the interface you see in this book The Main Toolbar Just below the menu bar is the Main toolbar The tools on this toolbar offer tooltips to help you remember their purpose To the far left of the toolbar are the Undo and Redo options Click these buttons to undo your last actions up to 25 by default or redo any undone actions Right clicking either button brings up a list of actions that you can select from ns Next is a set of tools for linking and selecting objects The two linking tools one for linking and the other for unlinking cause one object to move rotate or scale based on commands applied to another object The selection tools let you select objects by clicking them or by selecting them by name You can also set the method for selecting objects by using a selection window which provides a way of indicating a selection by placing a rectangle circle or other border around the objects ec TNS cy To the right of the selection tools are the transform tools This set of tools lets you move rotate and scale objects You can also choose the reference coordinate system set the center of the trans form using the pivot options use different snap options work with named selection sets and use tools to mirror a
43. he palette from the menu that appears see Figure 1 7 FIGURE 1 6 A typical tool palette FIGURE 1 7 Right click below the last visible palette to display the context menu x GE Concreta Precast Structura Concrete Smooth Hil TOOL PALETTES MATERIALS m E ir 5 Hi z m z f Concrete Cast In Alacs SandBlasted Concrete Cast InrAace Pancs Sure Concrete Cast In Aace Paneis Reved 3 Concrete Cast In Place Formwork Holes Concrete Cast In Placs Flat Grey Ffirescence Concreta Cast In Placa Flat Grey 1 Concreta Cast In Placa Exposed Agcregate Medium Flooring Finishes Masonry Gloss Z F WoodsePastics Aastics vinyl PAC White WeodsiMastics Mastic B Polyethyiens E 2 WoodsiPtastics Mastics Foam Bj Futber WoodssPlastics Hastics hari Trerstucent Pa Scena In Use D Y WoodsePiastics Mastics hordic Cea th Scene Unused Camaras Woods amp Plastics Arish e Concrete Carpentry Plastic Laninates Nevy E Doors Windows g co Luminares Fri Ij Masonry TC Material Studios 2 mea Fluorescent High Intensity Discharge Imerese Low Pressure Sedum g Smes Lurinsies S Studios Fabric g Peoi a shs E Plastic i Rubber i Wosd icy 44824c01 fm Page 11 Wednesday August 29 2007 4 43 PM P TOURING THE INTERFACE 11 The Viewport At the center of the windo
44. he service areas I m sure one of these days they ll give me a fun job to do Selecting Multiple Objects You ve now learned how to select move and copy a single object but what do you do if you want to move or copy several objects at once You can select multiple objects or selection sets as they are called in VIZ using two methods The first is one that is also employed in other graphics programs 1 Click the Select Object tool on the Main toolbar 2 Click on a blank area of the viewport to clear any selections you may already have a 4 0 44824c01 fm Page 30 Wednesday August 29 2007 4 43 PM P 30 CHAPTER 1 GETTING TO KNOW VIZ 3 Click and hold your mouse at a point below and to the left of the original chair Then drag to the right and up Notice that a dotted rectangle follows your cursor as shown in Figure 1 14 FIGURE 1 14 to here Placing the selection rectangle around the chairs Click and drag from here 4 Continue to drag the cursor up and to the right until it encloses both chairs Then release the mouse button Both chairs are selected Notice that selection brackets or bounding boxes appear at the corners of both chairs and a gizmo appears between them indicating that the two objects are selected You can select objects in a couple of other ways which you ll learn about in a moment but first let s use the current selec tion to make a few more copies of the box 1 Cl
45. i Listener serves two functions The pink area displays your activity when the MAXScript MacroRecord function is turned on and the white area provides a space where you can enter commands through the keyboard None Selected Click and diag to a 4 0 Als 44824c01 fm Page 15 Wednesday August 29 2007 4 43 PM TOURING THE INTERFACE 15 Getting to Know the Command Panel You ll be using the command panel for most of your work in VIZ If you re an experienced AutoCAD user you might think of the command panel as the equivalent of the AutoCAD command line it s a single entry point for nearly all of the program s functions The command panel offers nearly all the tools for creating and editing in VIZ Across the top of the command panel you see a set of six tabs each displaying an icon JAAT From left to right the tabs are Create Modify Hierarchy Motion Display and Utilities If you place the cursor on a tab you ll see a tooltip displaying the name of the tab When you click a tab the functions relating to the tab appear in the rest of the command panel Here s a brief rundown of what each tab offers Create Allows you to create two and three dimensional objects You can also create light sources cameras and helper objects that are used to determine distance and relationships between objects Light sources cameras and helpers are objects that don t appear when your view is rendered Modify Gives you
46. ick the Select and Move tool in the Main toolbar 2 Hold the Shift key down and drag the X axis arrow of the Move Transform gizmo back so that copies of the two chairs appear in the location shown in Figure 1 15 You don t need to be exact about the placement of the copies FIGURE 1 15 Place the copies just beyond your first two boxes 3 When you have the copies in place release the mouse button 4 In the Clone Options dialog box make sure Copy is selected in the Object group and click OK e 44824c01 fm Page 31 Wednesday August 29 2007 4 43 PM WORKING WITH OBJECTS 31 The four chairs help to demonstrate some of the other selection methods available to you First let s look at another property of the selection window 1 Click the Select Object tool or right click and choose Select from the quad menu 2 Click a blank spot in the viewport to clear your selection set 3 Click and drag the cursor from the point indicated in Figure 1 16 FIGURE 1 16 Selecting points fora crossing window to here Click and drag from here 4 Drag the rectangle up and to the right so that it completely encompasses one chair but just a portion of two other chairs as shown in Figure 1 16 Then release the mouse button Three of the four chairs are selected Notice that you didn t need to enclose the chairs completely to select them In the current selection mode you only need to have the selecti
47. keys tool bar quad menus standards menus and color schemes To make changes to an existing UI scheme you ll use the Customize User Interface dialog box 1 Choose Customize gt Customize User Interface to display the dialog box shown in Figure 1 47 FIGURE 1 47 xi The Customize User Keyboard Toobats Quads Menus Cokes ToolPdettes Interface dialog box Elements Viewpoits z coe M Aset Intensity 155 I Ipvet Colo M Reset Saturation 50 s Value T al Transparency 77 2l F invest Apply Colors Now Mod ier Selection A nemne aa G e es 2 Click each of the tabs at the top of this dialog box to become familiar with all the ways you can customize your user interface changes can be made to the keyboard toolbars quads menus and colors If you do decide to make any changes simply click the Save button on the tab in this dialog box to record your specific changes to disk Each tab saves as a different file type which controls different aspects of the user interface Apply Colors Now Load Eyl Reset 3 Choose Customize gt Save Custom UI Scheme Open the Save As Type pop up as shown in Figure 1 48 You will notice five different file formats that can be saved and loaded through Save and Load Custom UI Scheme from the Customize menu Each one of the lower four formats U I File cui Menu File mnu Color File c1r and Shortcut File kbd corresponds to each of the tabs in the
48. king the Close button the one with the X in the upper right corner of the window when the panel is float ing To bring the command panel back right click on the blank area of any toolbar and then select Command Panel from the shortcut menu You can also right click the command panel s title bar to dock the panel on the left or right side of the screen Understanding VI1Z s Tools There are a few ways of working in VIZ that are a bit unusual for a Windows program In this sec tion you ll explore the Create tab of the command panel as a way to understand some of VIZ s quirks There aren t many but understanding them now will make it easier for you to learn how to use the program a 4 0 SVA TS 44824c01 fm Page 16 Wednesday August 29 2007 4 43 PM 16 CHAPTER 1 GETTING TO KNOW VIZ o GETTING TO KNOW SCROLLING PANELS AND ROLLOUTS Autodesk VIZ 2008 has a rich set of creation and editing tools so many in fact that VIZ s program mers had to come up with a way to get to them easily without making the program too arcane Two of these tools help you navigate its interface the scrolling panel and the rollout A scrolling panel is an area that can be scrolled up or down using a hand cursor A rollout is a set of tools that can be opened or closed much like a drawer in a dresser Let s start by looking at how a scrolling panel works 1 Click the Create tab of the command panel Notice the row of icons j
49. l see a variety of components in the VIZ window see Figure 1 2 some that are familiar and others that are not THE LARGE ICONS OPTION The images in this book use the Large Icons option to better display the toolbar buttons To activate this option choose Customize gt Preferences to open the Preference Settings dialog box In the UI Display section of the General tab check the Use Large Toolbar Buttons option and then shut down and reopen VIZ for the option to take effect 44824c01 fm Page 3 Wednesday August 29 2007 4 43 PM TOURING THE INTERFACE FIGURE 1 2 PEED d The standard a mi ie ea tr Autodesk VIZ 2008 window Ue ee Fo ite ere o Miabi eda ene ian a D Masher diastaina iad O ee Be J lt lt lt a cies Fr Meshes oi steed eee re eS Caw riia oe haart SSS fe T 4 wr ae tgs tal fees a EUN wT Ly stone olf SPR SARE Bec er manbaa fo wt abe At the top you see a typical Windows menu bar and the VIZ Main toolbar You may also see up to five floating toolbars containing additional VIZ tools and the tool palettes that hold materials lights and cameras for use in scenes In the center you see the viewport area which currently shows a Perspective viewport At the lower right corner of the screen you see the viewport navigation tools for adjusting your views in the current viewport You also see the time controls for creating and play ing animations the prompt line and status
50. l settings tor tool options Ul schemes Defaults Switcher Desig Z mertaray settings al Configure Autodesk VIZ s options to match the type of work you will be doing Artists and designers in differant industries use Autodesk VIZ s tools in different ways The initial settings for too options control the initial settings of the tools in Autodesk VIZ to more closely match the type of work you are doing while he Uf schemes options control how the user interface of Autodesk VIZ will look Click on an item in the list on the left above to choose a group of initial toal settings most suited to your type of work Click on an item in the list on the ght to choose a tool layout you prefer Click on any item to get more infornation about that choice you have not committed to thal choice until you click the Set button below Note The Autodesk VIZ lulonals assume thal you are using the DefavAUl interface scheme and the Design VIZ intial settings defaults E FIGURE 1 46 ap s se initial settings for tool options and UI layout The default mental ES A 2 Initio settings for tool options Ul schemes ray settings Dege Initial settings for Design amp Visualization with the mental ray renderer Overview Almost identical to the Design amp Visualization intial settings the Design Y Z mentelrey intial settings are configured to proide as much rendering performance possible with large eS containing many lights using the mental ray renderer Your
51. lays the rotation angle of the object being rotated If you re scaling the data these text boxes will show percentages In addition to the transform type ins there is a Grid panel which may lie hidden to the right if your display is set to low resolution To find it place the cursor on the vertical bar just to the left of the prompt line until you see a double pointed arrow UlfNene Selected a ES Click and diag to select and When you see the arrow click and drag to the left The Grid panel will be revealed to the right of the transform type ins Grid 10 0 Add Time Tag You can display a grid in the current active viewport by clicking this panel or by clicking the G shortcut key Right click the panel to open a dialog box that lets you set the grid spacing and other grid parameters Below and to the left of the Grid panel is the Communication Center icon Click this icon to establish the settings that determine when VIZ checks for official updates patches and news from Autodesk Once this is set up an information bubble will appear whenever information from Autodesk is available from the provided Internet link Grid 10 0 Lites Time Teg Communication Center Finally to the far left at the bottom of the VIZ window is the MAXScript Mini Listener MAXScript is a programming language that allows you to create custom applications or macros in Autodesk VIZ 2008 A macro is like a prerecorded series of instructions The MAXScript Min
52. le objects Besides changing the way the viewport displays your model wireframe view also gives you control over the layout of the viewports themselves The following exercise shows you the variety of layouts you can create in VIZ 1 2 Choose Customize gt Viewport Configuration The Viewport Configuration dialog box appears as shown in Figure 1 35 Click the Layout tab You see the current viewport layout Above it is a set of predefined lay outs as shown in Figure 1 36 Click the layout that looks like three small rectangles stacked on the left side with one large rectangle on the right see Figure 1 37 Click OK The viewports change to the selected layout Click the Zoom Extents All button to zoom all the viewports to show the contents of the scene Your viewports should look similar to the viewports in Figure 1 38 e 2 44824c01 fm Page 48 Wednesday August 29 2007 4 43 PM 48 CHAPTER 1 GETTING TO KNOW VIZ FIGURE 1 35 The Viewport Config uration dialog box FIGURE 1 36 The Layout tab of the Viewport Configura tion dialog box FIGURE 1 37 Select a layout from the samples o seen ee eer VU TU Tt ve 44824c01 fm Page 49 Wednesday August 29 2007 4 43 PM GETTING THE VIEW YOU wanr 49 FIGURE 1 38 The viewports after changing the viewport layout You aren t limited to the canned layouts either You may decide that you want the layout to
53. lect them as shown in Figure 1 20 FIGURE 1 20 Selecting objects using a lasso selection region Right now you have only a few objects in your model but as your model develops you ll find that selecting objects in a crowded model becomes more of a challenge Knowing about the different selec tion modes you ve just used will go a long way toward making your work easier One more selection method will be an invaluable tool as your model becomes more complex You can select objects by their names using the Select Objects dialog box The following is a quick exercise that will introduce you to this important tool 1 Click the Select by Name tool in the Main toolbar or press H on the keyboard Select by Name The Select Objects dialog box displays Notice that it contains a list showing the names of the objects in your drawing with the currently selected objects appearing in blue see Figure 1 21 Groups of objects appear in brackets Right now the list shows the default names given to the objects by VIZ You can always change the name of an object in the command panel You can rename an object on every tab except Utilities e ae 44824c01 fm Page 34 Wednesday August 29 2007 4 43 PM 34 CHAPTER 1 GETTING TO KNOW VIZ FIGURE 1 21 ux Selected objects I Find Case Sensitive appear in blue in Een the Select Objects A abies g B1ue03 C ByType dialog box Brani By Colo All
54. nd align objects lt U ae igr amp V OH sly The next group of tools to the right includes access to the Layer Manager and graph editor tools and the materials and rendering tools The graph editor tools display your scene information as graphs or wiring diagrams to indicate the functionality or relationships of scene objects The materials tools give you control over the appearance of objects by defining and applying their surface appearance With these tools you can create color texture opacity and other material characteristics and then apply these characteristics to objects in your model You can also open the Render Scene dialog box select the render type and perform a quick render with the buttons on the far right BR s3ieh The rendering tools give you control over the output of your Autodesk VIZ 2008 scene Unlike output from most applications output from VIZ 2008 is most likely to be image or animation files The rendering tools let you set the type and size of output from single large format stills to video ready animations a 4 0 44824c01 fm Page 6 Wednesday August 29 2007 4 43 PM 6 CHAPTER 1 GETTING TO KNOW VIZ WORKING ON A LOWER RESOLUTION SYSTEM If you re working with a screen resolution less than 1280x1024 you won t see all the tools on the Main tool bar Some of the tools are off the screen to the far right To access these tools place the cursor on the toolbar so that a hand icon ap
55. numeric input boxes and spinners are quite common throughout Autodesk VIZ 2008 SETTING THE SPINNER RATE OF CHANGE If you hold down the Ctrl key while you move a spinner the rate of change in the spinner value increases The Alt key has the opposite effect decreasing the rate of change The higher the numeric value in the spinner the faster the rate of change and vice versa Working with Objects Now that you ve seen the main elements of the VIZ interface let s take a look at how you interact with objects in the viewport You ll start by looking at a way to move the box you ve just created Then you ll learn how you can view your box from different angles Selecting and Moving Objects VIZ s basic editing tools are simple and straightforward although it may take a little explaining for you to grasp the finer points As with most graphics programs you use a selection tool to select objects This tool is typically shown on the toolbar as an up arrow that looks like the standard Windows cursor 1 Click the Select Object tool in the Main toolbar F Select Object 2 Click ona blank area of the viewport This clears any selections that may currently be active 3 Move the cursor over the box Notice that the cursor turns into a plus sign This tells you that the cursor has found a selectable object a 4 0 ae 44824c01 fm Page 22 Wednesday August 29 2007 4 43 PM 22 CHAPTER 1 GETTING TO KNOW VI
56. om of the command panel You can scroll the options up or down within the panel in several ways This allows VIZ to offer a wide variety of options within the limited space of your display The Main toolbar also acts like a scrolling panel whenever a portion of the toolbar extends beyond the screen area For example if your screen resolution is 1024x768 a portion of the Rendering toolbar isn t visible to the right of the screen If you place the cursor on a blank area of the Main toolbar it turns into a hand cursor You can then click and drag to the left to display the additional tools When you clicked the Target button in step 4 of the preceding exercise a set of options appeared under a bar labeled Parameters There are three other bars labeled Depth of Field Parameters Object Type and Name and Color Notice the minus sign to the far left of these bars These are called rollouts They let you open and close a set of options to get them out of the way or to roll them out for use Try the following 1 Click the rollout labeled Parameters The options below the Parameters rollout disappear Also notice that the minus sign to the left of the rollout changes to a plus sign This indicates that the rollout is in its closed state The plus tells you that there is more informa tion inside waiting to be rolled out Lt Parameters 2 Click the rollout labeled Name and Color It also closes and displays a plus sign to the left
57. on TK 44824c01 fm Page 17 Wednesday August 29 2007 4 43 PM TOURING THE INTERFACE 9 Another way to see more of the command panel is to increase its width by dragging the ver tical border between the command panel and the viewport Position your mouse along this edge and drag to the left and expand the command panel to two and then three columns New 18 4 16 amp o cM 20h 81 Bits JALAT oote t Focal Depth 17 Sana SCY Lens 43456 2 mm FOV E0 Elodes I Orthographic Projection F Use Target Distance Focal Depth i B4 0 E Sampling I Use Original Location Total Passes 72 F Pomale Modi ATAT ai __ Object Type og Stock Lenses T Fi s aos AE Inm 20mm 24mm 28am 3mm 50mm E PMi Display Passes AReom 19mm 10 The advantage to having a three column command panel is obvious you can see all the con trols within the command panel at once The disadvantage is equally apparent the viewport area becomes much smaller Drag the command panel back to one vertical column to give yourself the maximum amount of screen space In a one monitor system it s better to learn how to scroll within the command panel than to sacrifice valuable viewport space In this exercise you see that the entire set of options can be changed by clicking a single tool You can also see that the set of tools can extend beyond the bott
58. on window cross over the desired objects This is known as a crossing window If you re an AutoCAD user this type of window should be familiar to you You can change the way the selection window works by using the Window Crossing Selection tool The following exercise demonstrates this 1 Click on a blank area in the drawing in order to clear your selection set 2 Click the Window Crossing Selection tool in the Main toolbar inal U Window Crossing Notice that the icon highlights in yellow and changes to one showing a sphere that s com pletely within a dotted rectangle This tells you that you are now in Window Selection mode 3 Click on a point above and to the left of the front left chair in the foreground as shown in Figure 1 17 4 Drag the rectangle down and to the right until it completely encompasses the two chairs in the front as shown in Figure 1 17 Then release the mouse button Notice that the only objects selected are the two chairs in the front When you use Window Selection mode only objects that are completely within the selection win dow are selected Unlike with the crossing window objects that are partially inside the selected window are omitted from the selection e 44824c01 fm Page 32 Wednesday August 29 2007 4 43 PM 32 CHAPTER 1 GETTING TO KNOW VIZ FIGURE 1 17 Placing a selection window Click and drag from here You can use the Ctrl key in conjunction wi
59. one half the height of a chair 3 Click and drag the red X axis of the chairs to the right of the screen so they merge with the chair to the right as shown in Figure 1 43 4 You can save or discard this file You won t need it anymore In this exercise you ve seen a number of methods in action First the Select and Move tool can be used to select objects as well as move them This can help you move objects quickly by reducing the number of clicks But be careful or you might select and move the wrong object when you re in a hurry You also saw how you can right click in a viewport to make it active Had you simply clicked in the Right viewport in step 4 you would have lost the selection set you created in step 3 e 44824c01 fm Page 52 Wednesday August 29 2007 4 43 PM 52 CHAPTER 1 GETTING TO KNOW VIZ FIGURE 1 43 Move the selected chairs along the X axis Finally you saw how objects in VIZ don t conform to one of the basic rules of physics In VIZ more than one object can occupy the same space at the same time This characteristic can be useful in a number of ways as you build models in Autodesk VIZ 2008 Working with the Custom UI and Defaults Switcher The Custom UI and Defaults Switcher provides an easy and unified method for managing all the myriad preference settings within VIZ 2008 Let s explore what the Custom UI and Defaults Switcher has to offer 1 Choose Customize gt Custom U
60. ool works The tool at the bottom of the Arc Rotate flyout is the Arc Rotate Sub Object tool This tool rotates a view about a subobject level selection You ll learn about subobject level editing in Chapter 4 ARC ROTATE ON THE FLY You can Arc Rotate on the fly without leaving the current command by holding down the Alt key on the keyboard and dragging the wheel button of your mouse in a viewport Don t turn the wheel but drag it as if the wheel were a middle mouse button This is a huge timesaver because you ll find that you don t have to spend time clicking the Arc Rotate button when you want to rotate your viewing angle By being able to select an object or set of objects as the center of rotation for your view you are better able to set up your views for rendering or editing The combination of the Zoom Pan and Arc Rotate tools allows you to obtain just about any view you may need as you work within VIZ s Perspective viewport But you aren t limited to a perspective view of your model In fact there are many situations where the perspective view is not ideal especially when editing your model In the next section you ll look at other viewport types that give you greater flexibility in creating and edit ing objects in your model e 44824c01 fm Page 43 Wednesday August 29 2007 4 43 PM GETTING THE VIEW YOU want 43 Using Multiple Viewports So far you ve done all your work in the Perspectiv
61. open the shortcut menu mee 5 Select Float from the shortcut menu The Extras toolbar returns to its floating position Another way to do this is to drag the toolbar by its handle down into the viewport 6 Toolbars can be docked on any side of the viewports However you should avoid docking tool bars to the left and right sides of the interface if the toolbars have drop down lists otherwise the lists will not appear Select the Snaps toolbar and dock it to the left side of the user interface Ses REZAR ARAA A 7 Select the remaining floating toolbars and dock them on the top or left edge of the viewport Your screen should look similar to the VIZ window shown in Figure 1 5 In this brief exercise you learned how to dock and float toolbars and how to access the shortcut menu where you can toggle the toolbars on and off Hide or float the toolbars however you wish Toolbar Flyouts You may have noticed that some of the tools in the Main toolbar show a small arrow in the lower right corner of the tool icon S mje x Ge Select and Uniform Scale e 44824c01 fm Page 9 Wednesday August 29 2007 4 43 PM FIGURE 1 5 EXluntitied Project Folder C Documents and Settings jmcfarland My Documents IZ Autodesk VIZ 2008 Unregistered ersion Display Direc All toolbars docked Fle Edk Teds Grop mews Create Modiers Armion GraphEdkors Rendering Customize MASc EASYnat Hep at the top or lef
62. or both the User and Perspective viewports This menu gives you control over the display characteristics of the viewport Try out a few other options in the Viewport pop up menu 1 Right click the User label and then select Views gt Perspective The User viewport changes to a Perspective viewport Notice that the label changes to read Perspective so that you now have two Perspective viewports as shown in Figure 1 34 e 44824c01 fm Page 47 Wednesday August 29 2007 4 43 PM FIGURE 1 34 Two of the four view ports are now Perspec tive viewports 2 3 GETTING THE VIEW YOU wanr 47 Right click the Perspective label of the upper left viewport and then select Views gt Top The view now changes back to the original top view Notice that the chairs are still in wireframe Right click the Top label then select Smooth Highlights The view returns to its original state Now two of the viewports still show wireframe views of the chairs Wireframe views are often bet ter for many types of editing operations Wireframes also redraw faster when your model is very large and full of complex geometry Another type of view called bounding box is even faster than a wireframe view but bounding box views reduce the representation of objects to rectangular boxes The Edged Faces mode available when the viewport is in any of the available shaded modes displays both the shaded mode and the edges of the visib
63. palettes and so forth to the second monitor freeing up as much screen real estate as possible Layers are like overlays that help you organize the objects in your model If you are an AutoCAD or Photoshop user you should have an idea of how layers work You ll learn more about layers in Chapter 6 Layers p x lot earn JS ebay a 4 0 44824c01 fm Page 7 Wednesday August 29 2007 4 43 PM TOURING THE INTERFACE 7 Render shortcuts contain predefined render settings such as resolution and output file type used to create content from your VIZ scenes The Render Shortcuts toolbar is where you will find the tools for saving and storing your preset values You ll learn about rendering in Chapters 10 and 11 render shortcuts x SSS Snaps are features that control where the cursor jumps to adding a degree of precision to your scene when the cursor is near a characteristic in the scene Using snaps you can easily move the corner of one object to the midpoint of another or nearly any other characteristic combination snaps CEP SCLC EOL Transforming objects moving rotating or scaling is often done along a particular axis or direction relative to the object or the scene This functionality is usually utilized through the Trans form gizmo an onscreen tool to facilitate the transforms The Axis Constraints toolbar also contains these tools axis Constraints E XY Z xe The Extras toolbar contains tools tha
64. pears and then click and drag the toolbar to the left The hidden tools will emerge You canalso clickthe Rendering menu item to access all the rendering tools The smallest supported resolution in VIZ 2008 is 1024x768 but the recommended resolution is 1280x1024 or higher Docked and Floating Toolbars In addition to the Main toolbar you see several floating toolbars that may be sitting on top of the viewport see Figure 1 2 or hidden You can open hidden toolbars by right clicking on a blank part of any toolbar A context menu will appear listing the available toolbars Let s take a quick look at the floating toolbars 1 Right click on a blank area of the Main toolbar and click on any of the toolbar items that do not have a checkmark next to them DEANIE 2 Repeat the process until all five floating toolbars are exposed All five toolbars float over the Perspective viewport the Layers Render Shortcuts Snaps Axis Constraints and Extras toolbars As with most toolbars you can move these floating toolbars to the side or hide them altogether to gain better access to objects in the Main viewport The toolbars can be resized by clicking on and dragging their left edges CONSIDER A DUAL SCREEN SYSTEM In VIZ and many other graphics programs screen space is always at a premium Using a two monitor system allows for a lessening of screen clutter by moving items such as floating toolbars the Material Editor graph editors tool
65. t don t fit cleanly into other categories You can override existing shortcuts and turn on a creation grid relative to the surface of any scene object with the tools on this toolbar You can also create numerous precise clones of objects in matrices along a path or at equal intervals You can dock the floating toolbars or float the docked toolbars Try the following exercise to see how to change the location of toolbars 1 Click and drag the title bar of the Layers toolbar so that the toolbar is below the Main toolbar see Figure 1 4 The Layers toolbar appears ghosted as a horizontal outline just before you release the mouse button 2 When the outline is in the position shown in Figure 1 4 release the mouse button The Layers toolbar is now in a docked position FIGURE 1 4 File Edt Too Group Views Create Modifiers Animation GraphEdRors Rendering Docking the Layers on GS A l 8 OHI p toolbar under the n Main toolbar ae xl Nor JS amp A aa gt ae 44824c01 fm Page 8 Wednesday August 29 2007 4 43 PM CHAPTER 1 GETTING TO KNOW VIZ 3 Dock the Extras toolbar just to the right of the Layers toolbar also just under the Main toolbar File Edit Took Group Views Create Modifiers Animation Graph Editors Rendering Customize 93 16 amp oF LHI JN 8 Severn Jra Tya 4 Right click the two vertical lines called the toolbar handle on the left side of the Extras tool bar to
66. t side FRR AR RCS amp ah AM ec A A x of the viewport ls Ser R se BO efauk z ea a LEARE AZA ARAA El That arrow indicates that the tool is one of several offered in a flyout A flyout is like a graphical version of options in a menu bar If you click and hold a tool that s part of a flyout you see a set of other tools appear For example if you click and hold the Select and Uniform Scale tool two addi tional tools appear Once you select an option from a flyout it becomes the default button that you see in the toolbar Tool Palettes Tool palettes see Figure 1 6 are collapsible boxes containing materials and tools for quick onscreen access The palettes are collapsed by default taking up a minimum of screen space but expand whenever the cursor rolls over them Clicking on any of the named tabs switches the visible cate gory of tools or materials To constantly view the tools right click on the palette s title bar and uncheck the Auto hide option in the context menu that appears TK 44824c01 fm Page 10 Wednesday August 29 2007 4 43 PM 10 CHAPTER 1 GETTING TO KNOW VIZ You can change the visible palette by right clicking on the title bar and choosing the palette that you want from the bottom of the context menu The All Palettes option displays a single palette with all categories available To access the contents of a specific palette right click below the last visible tab and choose t
67. ted in yellow to nonuniformly scale the box in the XY plane in this case Similarly the axis handles can be dragged to constrain the scaling of an object to one axis Now take a look at the coordinate readout The values you see are percentages of scale When the Absolute Offset Mode Transform Type In button is in the Absolute up position the values are per centages of the original size of the object When it s in the Offset position the values are the scale in relation to the current size and are immediately reset to 100 when you release the mouse button e 1 2 3 With the Absolute Offset Mode Transform Type In tool in the Absolute position click and drag the Z spinner up Notice that the box grows in the Z axis Right click the Y axis spinner The box distorts to a 0 value in the Y axis Click in the X value input box and enter 100 The box s X value is restored to its original size e 44824c01 fm Page 27 Wednesday August 29 2007 4 43 PM WORKING WITH OBJECTS 27 HOW VIZ SEES THE SCALE TRANSFORM Look at the box s Length Width and Height values in the Parameters rollout in the command panel They all read 5 0 0 even though the box has been scaled This is an important indicator as to how VIZ handles object data For example if you have a box that is 1 unit long on each side and then scale it to twice its size VIZ does not now see this as a box that is 2 units on e
68. th any selection method to continue to add more objects to your selection set You can also remove objects from your selection set by using the Ctrl key Let s see how adding and subtracting from selections works 1 Switch back to the Crossing Selection method then Ctrl click and hold a point above and to the left of the chair near the top of the viewport as shown in Figure 1 18 FIGURE 1 18 Adding objects to your selection set using the Ctrl key and a window 2 Drag the window down and to the right so that it encloses a portion of the two chairs in the back Then release the mouse button Now all four chairs are selected 3 Hold down the Ctrl key and then click the chair in the upper right of the screen as shown in Figure 1 19 Now all chairs except the upper right one are selected FIGURE 1 19 Removing an object using the Ctrl key aa 44824c01 fm Page 33 Wednesday August 29 2007 4 43 PM WORKING WITH OBJECTS 33 You can change the shape of your selection window to help select objects There are rectangular circular polygonal lasso and paint selection region options The next exercise explores the lasso selection region that allows freeform sketching for a selection 1 Drag open the selection window flyout and click the Lasso button 2 Switch back to the Window selection option 3 Sketch a lasso selection region by dragging the mouse in a freeform manner around two of the chairs to se
69. the Selection Lock Toggle tool a2 xf07 574 This tool helps prevent the accidental loss ofa selection due to a mouse click It also allows you to use the transform tools without actually placing the cursor on the selected objects You can also toggle this tool on and off by clicking it or by pressing the spacebar while in a selection mode Zl Y 44824c01 fm Page 24 Wednesday August 29 2007 4 43 PM 24 CHAPTER 1 GETTING TO KNOW VIZ As you see moving an object in VIZ is fairly straightforward But what if you want to move an object a specific distance or to a known position The following exercise demonstrates how this is done 1 With the box still selected and the Select and Move tool still active click the Absolute Offset Mode Transform Type In button at the bottom of the VIZ window Rx 2t1 232 slyfzaia siz tm The tool changes to show that the Offset mode is active ogor siono el Typq offset Mode Transform Type In When the Absolute Offset Mode Transform Type In button is in the up or Absolute mode you can enter the specific coordinates of the point where you want to move your object When it s in the down or Offset mode you can enter a relative distance from the object s current location 2 Click in the X input box in the coordinate readout and type 10 1 The box moves 10 inches in the positive X direction 3 Click and drag the Z axis coordinate readout spinner up
70. to the view you had before you panned your view The Views gt Undo View Change command lets you step back to a previous view in case the last view change you made is one you don t like Views gt Undo View Change undoes any view change regardless of which viewport tool you used last UNDO VIEW IS DIFFERENT FROM UNDO Don t confuse Views gt Undo View Change with the Edit gt Undo command Edit gt Undo undoes cre ation and editing operations but not view changes SAVING A VIEW YOU LIKE If you happen to get a view that you know you want to go back to later you can save the view with the Views gt Save Active command from the menu bar Use it in the next exercise to save a view that you ll return to later in this chapter And as you ll see in Chapter 8 you can also create a camera object and align it to an existing view 1 Click the Zoom Extents tool to set up your view for the next exercise Zoom Extents causes the viewport to display the entire model 1 NE gt 9 Broom extents 2 Save this view by choosing Views gt Save Active Perspective View e 44824c01 fm Page 40 Wednesday August 29 2007 4 43 PM 40 CHAPTER 1 GETTING TO KNOW VIZ The Zoom Extents tool repositions your view so that the entire model just fits within the view port filling the viewport as much as possible If you re an AutoCAD user you re familiar with this tool because its counterpart in AutoCAD performs the same f
71. u create an object in VIZ 2008 you have the opportunity to give the new object a name If you don t indicate a new name VIZ provides a name for you If the new object is a copy of an existing one the new name that VIZ provides is the name of the original object with a number appended to its name If you don t give an object a meaningful name when you create it it s easy enough to change the name later Just select the object and then enter a new name in the object name input box at the top of the Modify tab or in the Name and Color rollout of the Create tab TAE T oT m Naming Selection Sets Suppose you ve gone through a lot of effort selecting a set of objects and you know you will want to select the same set of objects again at a later time VIZ offers the Named Selection Sets tool which lets you name a selection set for later recall Here s how it works 1 Make sure two of the chairs are selected It doesn t matter which two because you re just practicing using the Selection Sets tool 2 Click inside the Selection input box that s just to the left of the Mirror tool in the Main toolbar OI I PN 3 Type the name Sample You ve just given the current selection set a name You can enter a selection set name up to 15 characters long 4 Click in a blank area of the viewport to clear the current selection set 5 Inthe Main toolbar click the down arrow to the right of the Named Selection Sets input box S
72. uickly experiment with spinner set tings while you work You ve just seen how you can change the parameters of an object by using the spinner Now let s take a look at the absolute way of entering values into input boxes 1 Double click the Length input box in the Parameters rollout and type 60 Notice how the box s length changes and the Length value changes to 50 0 the feet and inches equivalent of 60 Notice that it s not necessary to enter the inch symbol to indicate a measurement in inches You are however required to enter the foot symbol when entering a measure ment in feet This is due to your selecting the Inches option as the default units in the Units Setup dialog box earlier in the chapter o 4 0 Zs 44824c01 fm Page 21 Wednesday August 29 2007 4 43 PM WORKING WITH OBJECTS 21 2 Press the Tab key Notice that the Width value is now highlighted Fase Lenath 50 0 width EEE Height 20 2397 3 Type 60 for the width and press Tab again The Height value is highlighted 4 Enter 5 again The box is now a cube 60 square USING THE CUBE CREATION METHOD You can also create a cube directly by selecting the Cube radio button in the Creation Method rollout If there is a series of related input boxes such as the Length Width and Height boxes in the previous exercise the Tab key lets you advance from one value to the next You ll find that
73. unction RESETTING THE PERSPECTIVE VIEW You can restore the default perspective view the one you see when you open a new file in a blank file by clicking the Zoom Extents tool or by choosing File gt Reset to reset the scene CHANGING YOUR VIEWING ANGLE Two other tools are specifically designed for viewing 3D objects Field of View and Arc Rotate Selected The Field of View tool changes your field of view The Arc Rotate Selected tool lets you rotate your view around a selected object The Field of View tool appears to do the same thing as the Zoom tool but as you ll see in the following exercise there is a significant difference between the Zoom and Field of View tools 1 Save the current view by choosing Views gt Save Active Perspective View This lets you return to the current view later 2 Click the Field of View tool Field of View 3 Place the cursor in the viewport and click and drag down until your view looks similar to Figure 1 27 FIGURE 1 27 Appearance of the Perspective viewport after increasing the field of view In one sense it appears as though you ve zoomed out from the chairs but if you compare this view to the zoomed out view in the previous exercise you ll notice a difference When you use the Zoom tool in the Perspective viewport your view changes as though you were physically moving closer to or farther away from the chairs As the name implies the Field of View tool widens or nar rows yo
74. ur field of view much as a zoom lens on a camera does You re not actually changing the e Zl Y 44824c01 fm Page 41 Wednesday August 29 2007 4 43 PM GETTING THE VIEW YOU want 41 distance from the object instead you re changing the area that your viewport displays The Field of View tool has the potential to distort your view just as a super wide angle fish eye lens or a super telephoto lens tends to distort a photograph Until you find yourself in a situation where you really need to change the field of view you may want to refrain from using the Field of View tool Now let s take a look at the Arc Rotate Selected tool 1 Return to the view you had before you used the Field of View tool by selecting Views gt Undo View Change 2 Click the Select Object tool then click on a blank space in the viewport to clear any selections that may be active In the next exercise you ll see why this is significant 3 Click the Arc Rotate Selected tool Qa x gt AN Arc Rotate Selected You see a yellow circle with squares at each of the four cardinal points on the circle If you place the cursor inside the circle the cursor looks like two overlapping ellipses 4 Place the cursor on the square at the far left of the circle Notice that the cursor changes shape to what looks like a horizontal ellipse 5 With the cursor on the square slowly click and drag the cursor to the right Notice how the view rotates
75. ust below the title of the tab These icons are buttons or tools that offer different categories of objects foaereau Place the cursor over the tool that looks like a movie camera Notice that a tooltip displays offering the name of the tool Click the Camera tool You see the options change below the tools wWlA 2 Q T eee Standard Cameras Atid M Target Free r J D Click the Target button A set of additional options appears Although it may not be obvious these options extend beyond the bottom of the command panel Move your cursor down to a blank spot in the command panel The cursor changes to a hand Click and drag up with your mouse Notice that the options in the command panel scroll up following the motion of your mouse This is an example of a scrolling panel This scrolling action exposes the rest of the options in the lower portion of the command panel Release the mouse button at any time once you ve seen how this scrolling action works Place the cursor on a blank area again so that the hand cursor displays Then click and drag down to view the Target and Free buttons under the Object Type bar You can also scroll the command panel by rolling the wheel on your mouse or by dragging the dark gray slender vertical scroll bar on the right side of the command panel Try both of these methods eaStl aua Standard hd Parameters Lene 43 456 mm gt Fov 150 2de I Orthographic Projecti
76. w is the viewport see Figure 1 8 This is where you ll be doing most of your modeling work In a blank file the viewport shows a grid that you can use as a reference for orientation and size The grid is labeled with distances in the current default unit setting The labels also indicate the X and Y axes FIGURE 1 8 A typical Perspective viewport in the opening screen If you look in the lower left corner of the viewport you see the world axis tripod that indicates the orientation of the X Y and Z axes The world axis tripod helps you get your bearings when looking at other types of views Currently the viewport shows the perspective view as indicated by the label in the upper left corner You can also tell that it s a Perspective viewport by the way the grid squares get smaller and converge in the distance As you ll see toward the end of this chapter you can configure and view your model in a variety of ways depending on your needs Tools for Working with the Viewport At the bottom of the window are several other options that are grouped into four sections the sta tus bar the prompt line the time controls and the viewport navigation tools see Figure 1 9 Most of these tools affect the viewport either by modifying the display of the viewport directly or by affecting the way you interact with objects within the viewport e 44824c01 fm Page 12 Wednesday August 29 2007 4 43 PM 12 CHAPTER 1 GETTING T

Wiley Mastering Autodesk VIZ 2008

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