Modeling Basics• Click Bold Green Text for notes, and to cycle images.

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Below: Related Interface Items

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Workspace
GroBoto's World
Coordinate Systems
X Mirroring

Snap•Align•Flex
Snapping Etc.
High/Mid/Low Snap
Object Reference Editing
Simple Flex




The World & Workspace info on this page is just a quick overview of aspects related to the new v3 Modeling Tools.

The GroBoto Documentation PDF has more on GroBoto's World & Workspace.

For more on v3 Tools and Methods see:


Boolean Modeling
Mesh Creation
Interface - Mac OS X
Interface - Windows
v3 Videos





GroBoto Coordinate Systems:
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Coordinate Systems
There are 4 Coordinate Systems for moving and rotating objects:
World
Object
Screen
Reference Object

World & Object Space - Are good choices for modeling. They relate naturally to your objects and model -- especially when using symmetry.

Camera Space - Follows your mouse movement making it easy to 'hit' other objects when using GroBoto's Snap features.

Reference Object - Key to object-based Modeling. GroBoto automatically switches to Reference Coordinates when you drag over objects with the Move or Rotate Tools. See the Modeling Videos.

Some Related Interface Items:


A. Coordinate Space Popup menu - In the Edit Panel. Available for Move and Rotate Tools.

B. Selection & World Axis (toggle buttons found at the bottom of the Workspace). Good for checking the orientation of your camera and Geometry.

C. Send Object Home etc. (Object Context Menu). Handy for placing, aligning, rearranging objects.


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Mirroring
All Modeling Mirroring is on the World X-Axis (Left/Right), and centered in World Space X. This center and direction of mirroring is always used by all GroBoto modeling mirror tools & functions including:

Object Context Menus Items:
Set Object to Mirror of Selected
Duplicate & Mirror

Flex Tools:
All Flex Tools
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GroBoto's World
Modeling Tools work best with your Model located in the center of GroBoto's World. Keep your work near that World Center, and to keep the overall size of your model reasonable (see Scene Info below).

Mirrored modeling requires that your Model be centered in the World.

Some Related Interface Items:


A. Views popup (Edit Panel) - Send Camera Home & Send Camera & Geometry Home -- helps you find the World center and/or send your objects there.

B. Selection & World Axis (toggle buttons found at the bottom of the Workspace). Good for checking the orientation of your camera and Geometry.

C. Send Object Home etc. (Object Context Menu). Handy for placing. rearranging objects.

D. Scene Info (Scene Context Menu). Provides a rough notion of overall size and placement of your Model. World Size and World Center are based on an imaginary sphere just large enough to contain all of your geometry. Sizes from 10 to 10,000 are reasonable.





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Snapping and Aligning
Object Move Snap - match your dragged object to any other object in your model. You may match any or all of these things:
Location
Orientation
Radius

These figures show the v3 equivalents original Version 2 Move Snap/Align options: Snap to Center, and Snap to Touch Point with Object Align and Touch Align options.
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High/Mid/Low Snap
With High/Mid/Low snapping, GroBoto detects ends and centers of dragged and touched objects when using the Move Tool. Snapping is automatic based on where you 'grab' the dragged object and where you 'touch' another object.

The High/Mid/Low buttons set the rules of that automatic snapping.

Object center is implied in the names of those buttons.
Three examples:


1. If only 'To High/Mid/Low' is on, it means: 'Center to High Mid Low' — Center of the dragged object to either end or center of any touched object. Typical use: Dragging spheres to the ends of elongated objects (fig 2).

2. If only 'High/Mid/Low To' is on, it means: 'High Mid Low to Center' — Typical use: Dragging elongated objects and snapping their ends to compact objects like spheres.

3. If both High/Mid/Low buttons are on it means any section of the dragged may be snapped to any section of the touched object.


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Object Reference Editing
Moving and Rotating objects in their own coordinate space is intuitive and natural. Moving and rotating in the coordinate space of another, related, object is just as natural and very useful.

These 'Object Referenced' Move and Rotate options are essentially automatic. GroBoto uses to this method when you:


Lock the Selection
Place the cursor on an object
Drag to Move or Rotate

The object under your cursor at the start of your drag becomes the reference object. It can be any object one of the objects you are moving, or not.

These figures show movement and rotation of the four green 'petals' in the coordinate space of the purple cylinder. No other space would maintain the relationship between petals and cylinder.

Tip: Automatic Object Reference only kicks in when dragging in the Workspace, and does not require setting the Tool's coordinate space to 'Object' in the Edit Panel. You can have two active coordinates available at he same time. For example: setting the Tool's Popup to World gives you World-Space editing when dragging Edit Panel Widgets, and Object/Reference Space editing in the Workspace.
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Simple Flex
GroBoto's new Flex Tools are a somewhat advanced (and fun) feature with a lot of options. We have isolated one of their most useful options and made it available in the basic Snap/Align tools.

This Simple Flex option lets you stretch certain primitives (cones, cylinders, hyperRods, ellipsoids) by simply dragging one end with the Move Tool. The opposite end of the primitive stays 'pinned'. Combined with snapping, this makes a great construction tool.

Tip: Use the Rod & Node snapping option to create linkages like the on in these figures. Rod & Node automatically uses the ends of elongated primitives (cones, cylinders, hyperRods) and the centers of spheres when snapping.

With Rod & Node there's no need to switch High/Mid/Low options when building this sort of structure (and it automatically creates an ideal network for using with the full Flex Toolset).


Notes: