Object Editor

Version 1.0
Tomi Lamminsaari

 

Sisältö

Front page

Main menu

Project Management

Editor

Editing views

Perspective window

Face Properties-menu

Texture Manager

Preferences

Keyboard

Editing views

Most of the work is done in these editing views. There are 3 editing views where you can see the object from top, from front and from side. These windows don't have perspect. Moving the vertices, rotations, etc. are done in one view at time.

Which view is currently active is defined by the position of the mouse cursor.

Sivun sisältö

3D-cursor Vertices Faces Other actions Keyboard shorcuts

 

3D-cursor

3D-kursorilla määrätään mm. se kohta, mihin uusi verteksi lisätää ja minkä pisteen ympäri pyöritykset tapahtuu. Kursori näkyy ruudulla punaisena ympyränä, jonka sisällä on tähtäin.

3D-cursor defines the position where new vertices are inserted. It also defines the center of rotations. Cursor looks like red crosshair.

You can change the position of the cursor by right clicking inside the editing views. Current coordinate of the cursor is displayed in top of each editing view.

Vertices

Vertices are the cornerpoints of the object. In editor they look like red dots. Selected vertices are shown by yellow dots.

Adding new vertices

Move the 3D-cursor to the place you want by rightcliking your mouse inside the editing views. Press V-key or Add Vertex-button from the toolbar to add new vertex at the coordinate pointed by 3D-cursor.

Selectin and deselecting vertices

To select vertices, press left mouse button down and move your mouse. All the vertices that are inside the rectangle will be selected as you release the mouse button. If there were vertices that were already selected, they are deselected.

If there are faces made by these selected vertices, they will be also selected.

Moving the vertices

Select the vetices you want to move. Move mouse cursor inside the editing view where you want to perform the movement. Press M-key and move your mouse. The selected vertices will move by your mouse.

You can move the vertices only horizontally or vertically by holding left SHIFT-key before starting to move the vertices. As you move your mouse, the vertices will move only horizontally or vertically defined by the direction you moved your mouse first.

Deleting vertices

Select the vertices you want to delete. Press Del Vertex-button from the toolbar. All the selected vertices will be deleted unless they are set to be members of a face.

Et voi poistaa verteksejä, jotka on liitetty osaksi jotain tasoa. Poista näihin vertekseihin liittyvät tasot ensin ja vasta sitten verteksit. Nämä tasot saat selville pitämällä vasenta CONTROL-näppäintä pohjassa samalla kun valitset verteksejä.

Rotating vertices

Select vertices you want to rotate. Move the 3D-cursor to the position to be center of the rotation. Move mouse pointer to editing view where you want to do the rotation. Press R-key and move your mouse vertically.

Scaling

Scaling changes the size of the object or group of vertices. Center of the scaling is defined by the 3D-cursor.

Select the vertices you want to scale. Move the 3D-cursor to appropriate place. Press S-key and move your mouse vertically.

Scaling in editing views may change the shape of a 3D-object since scaling is done in 2D-editing views. To do 3D-scaling, move your mouse to Perspect Window and press S-key. Scaling in Perspect window is done in all 3 dimensions.

 

Faces

Vertices itself are invisible. Faces are visible. Faces are built by vertices.

Polygonize! 3D-Editor supports faces with 3 or 4 vertices.

Creating a face

Select 3 or 4 vertices. Press SPACE-key or press Make Face-button at the toolbar. New face will be created between the selected vertices.

If the new face looks weird it propably intersects itself. The faces may not be self intersecting so press Twist 1- or Twist 2 - buttons to straighten the face. It's usually impossible to say which button straightens the face but if Twist 1 didn't do it then Twist 2 will.

By default all the faces are "single sided". This means that only one side of them is visible. You can click the Doublesided-button in Face Properties menu to set both sides visible.

If the Backface Culling is turned off in Preferences-menu, all the faces are shown doublesided.

Extruding a face

To extrude a new face, select 2 vertices. Press E-key and move mouse. The editor will create 2 new vertices and build a face between the original 2 selected vertices and these new vertices.

Selecting a face

You can select faces by holding left SHIFT while selecting the centerpoints of them. These centerpoints are shown as a purple dots.

Another way to select a face is to select all of its vertices.

Reselection of a face deselects it.

Selecting all faces that shares the vertex

Hold left CONTROL-key down while selecting a vertex. Now all the faces that have this vertex as a one corner, will be selected.

Deleting a face

Select the faces you want to delete and press DELETE-key or press Del Face-button in toolbar. Now all the selected faces will be deleted but vertices remain untouched.

Moving a face

You cannot move the face itself. To move a face, move the vertices it's made of.

Changing the visible side of a face

To change the visible side of a face, select the faces and press Inv. Normal-button in toolbar. Now the visible sides of the selected faces will be changed.

If the face has been set to Double sided in Face Properties-menu, this action has no effect.

Setting the face properties (color, texture, etc.)

See Face Properties-menu.

Duplicating the faces

Select the faces you want to duplicate. Move the mouse pointer to the editing views. Press D-key and all the selected faces will be duplicated. Now, move your mouse to move these new faces and finally press left mousebutton.

 

Other actions

The editing buttons in the bottom of the Editing views

There are some buttons in the bottom of each Editing view. The meaning of those buttons are:

# Toggle the grid on / off in this Editing view.
G Toggle "Snap to Grid"-feature of this Editing view on / off
+ Zoom this Editing view in.
- Zoom this Editing view out.
C Center the focus of this Editing view to position of 3D-cursor.
M Move selected vertices.
R Rotate selected vertices around the 3D-cursor.
S Scale selected vertices in proportion to 3D-cursor.
U Unselect all the vertices / faces.

 

Zooming

To zoom the editing views, move the mouse pointer in them. Press + or - keys from numpad to zoom in and out.

Moving the contents of a editing view

The part of the object that will be shown in editing view can be changed by holding the left SHIFT-key while clicking right mousebutton. Now the position you click on will be centered in editing view.

Using the grid

The grid can be set on or off from Preference-menu.

Hiding the vertices and faces

Sometimes it's useful to hide some of the vertices or faces. Select the vertices and faces you want to leave visible. Press H-key and all except these selected elements will be hidden.

Press H-key again to bring them back to visible.

 

Keyboard shortcuts

RMB = right mouse button
LMB = left mouse button

Key Description
V Adds new vertex to the position pointed by the 3D-cursor.
M Moves the selected vertices.
U Unselect all the vertices and faces.
R Rotate the vertices around the 3D-cursor.
H Hides all but selected vertices / faces.
D Duplicates the selected faces and their vertices.
F opens the Face Properties-menu.
S Scales be selected vertices in proportion to position of the 3D-cursor.
E Extrudes new face from 2 selected vertices.
I Switch the visible side of the selected faces. If faces are doublesided, this action has no effect.
SPACE Creates new face by3 or 4 selected vertices.
DELETE Removes the selected faces, if there are selected faces. If there are no selected faces, it removes the selected vertices. So deleting both faces and vertices, you have to press DELETE-key twice.
F1 Shows the help pages. If mouse pointer is in Editing views, it shows a help page about Editing views. If mouse is inside the Perspect window, it shows help about that.
F5 Refresh contents of the screen.
Numpad shortcuts
+ (numpad) Zooms in the active Editing view.
- (numpad) Zooms out the active Editing view.
0 (num.pad) Focuses the camera to the point of the 3D-cursor.
4 (numpad) Rotates the contents of the Editing view around the vertical axis counter-clockwise.
6 (numpad) Rotates the contents of the Editing view around the vertical axis clockwise.
5 (num. näppäimistö) Restores the rotation of the Editing view back to default.
Keys used in selecting vertices or faces
Left SHIFT + LMB Selects faces by their centerpoints.
Left SHIFT + RMB Moves the view to the coordinate the mouse was clicked on.
Left CONTROL + LMB Selects all the faces that have the selected vertices as a one corner.

 


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