44824c01.fm Page 1 Wednesday, August 29, 2007 4:43 PM Chapter 1 AL Getting to Know VIZ MA TE RI Welcome to Mastering Autodesk VIZ 2008. Once again, Autodesk VIZ 2008 benefits from the development of its sister product, 3ds Max, to give architects and other design professionals an indispensable design tool.
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 Welcome Screen from the menu bar.
44824c01.fm Page 3 Wednesday, August 29, 2007 4:43 PM TOURING THE INTERFACE Figure 1.2 The standard Autodesk VIZ 2008 window 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.
4824c01.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. Try out the menu bar by taking a look at the Units Setup dialog box. 1. Choose Customize Units Setup. The Units Setup dialog box displays. 2.
44824c01.fm Page 5 Wednesday, August 29, 2007 4:43 PM TOURING THE INTERFACE 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 figures in this book, choose Customize Revert to Startup Layout. You’ll see a warning message telling you that any user interface (UI) changes you have made will be lost.
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 1280×1024, you won’t see all the tools on the Main toolbar. 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 appears, and then click and drag the toolbar to the left. The hidden tools will emerge.
44824c01.fm Page 7 Wednesday, August 29, 2007 4:43 PM TOURING THE INTERFACE 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.
44824c01.fm Page 8 Wednesday, August 29, 2007 4:43 PM 8 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). 4. Right-click the two vertical lines (called the toolbar handle) on the left side of the Extras toolbar to open the shortcut menu. 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.
44824c01.fm Page 9 Wednesday, August 29, 2007 4:43 PM TOURING THE INTERFACE Figure 1.5 All toolbars docked at the top or left side of the viewport 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 additional tools appear.
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 the palette from the menu that appears (see Figure 1.7). Figure 1.
44824c01.fm Page 11 Wednesday, August 29, 2007 4:43 PM TOURING THE INTERFACE The Viewport At the center of the window 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.
44824c01.fm Page 12 Wednesday, August 29, 2007 4:43 PM 12 CHAPTER 1 GETTING TO KNOW VIZ Figure 1.9 The bottom sections of the Autodesk VIZ 2008 window Status bar Track bar Prompt line Time controls Viewport navigation tools 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.
44824c01.fm Page 13 Wednesday, August 29, 2007 4:43 PM TOURING THE INTERFACE 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.
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 L key. You can also press B for the bottom view. Pressing P will display the perspective view, and pressing 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.
44824c01.fm Page 15 Wednesday, August 29, 2007 4:43 PM TOURING THE INTERFACE 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.
44824c01.fm Page 16 Wednesday, August 29, 2007 4:43 PM 16 CHAPTER 1 GETTING TO KNOW VIZ 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 programmers 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.
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 vertical 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. 10. The advantage to having a three-column command panel is obvious—you can see all the controls within the command panel at once.
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.
44824c01.fm Page 19 Wednesday, August 29, 2007 4:43 PM TOURING THE INTERFACE 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 creation mode. 3.
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 up arrow to the right of the box several times.
44824c01.fm Page 21 Wednesday, August 29, 2007 4:43 PM WORKING WITH OBJECTS 2. Press the Tab key. Notice that the Width value is now highlighted. 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.
44824c01.fm Page 22 Wednesday, August 29, 2007 4:43 PM 22 CHAPTER 1 GETTING TO KNOW VIZ 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.
44824c01.fm Page 23 Wednesday, August 29, 2007 4:43 PM WORKING WITH OBJECTS 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 coordinate 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.
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.
44824c01.fm Page 25 Wednesday, August 29, 2007 4:43 PM WORKING WITH OBJECTS 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 the 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.
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 orientation when it was created. In the Offset mode, you can control the orientation relative to the object’s current orientation. Now try out the Scale tool: 1.
44824c01.fm Page 27 Wednesday, August 29, 2007 4:43 PM WORKING WITH OBJECTS 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.
44824c01.fm Page 28 Wednesday, August 29, 2007 4:43 PM 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.
44824c01.fm Page 29 Wednesday, August 29, 2007 4:43 PM WORKING WITH OBJECTS 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 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.
44824c01.fm Page 30 Wednesday, August 29, 2007 4:43 PM 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.
44824c01.fm Page 31 Wednesday, August 29, 2007 4:43 PM WORKING WITH OBJECTS 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.
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 to here You can use the Ctrl key in conjunction with 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.
44824c01.fm Page 33 Wednesday, August 29, 2007 4:43 PM WORKING WITH OBJECTS 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.
44824c01.fm Page 34 Wednesday, August 29, 2007 4:43 PM 34 CHAPTER 1 GETTING TO KNOW VIZ Figure 1.21 Selected objects appear in blue in the Select Objects dialog box. 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.
44824c01.fm Page 35 Wednesday, August 29, 2007 4:43 PM WORKING WITH OBJECTS Whenever you 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.
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. 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 The Named Selection Sets dialog box showing the contents of the Sample selection set 3. Click Sample in the list.
44824c01.fm Page 37 Wednesday, August 29, 2007 4:43 PM WORKING WITH OBJECTS Figure 1.24 Selecting an object with the Select Objects dialog box Figure 1.25 The expanded list of objects in the Named Selection Sets dialog box 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.
44824c01.fm Page 38 Wednesday, August 29, 2007 4:43 PM 38 CHAPTER 1 GETTING TO KNOW VIZ Getting the View You Want So far 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.
44824c01.fm Page 39 Wednesday, August 29, 2007 4:43 PM GETTING THE VIEW YOU WANT 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 previous view. Try the following steps to return to the previous view: 1. Choose Views Undo View Change. You return to the previous view. (Alternatively, press Shift+Z.) 2. Choose Views Undo View Change or press Shift+Z again. Your view returns to the view prior to the last view. 3.
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 viewport, 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 function.
44824c01.fm Page 41 Wednesday, August 29, 2007 4:43 PM GETTING THE VIEW YOU WANT distance from the object; instead, you’re changing the area that your viewport displays. The Fieldof-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.
44824c01.fm Page 42 Wednesday, August 29, 2007 4:43 PM 42 CHAPTER 1 GETTING TO KNOW VIZ 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 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.
44824c01.fm Page 43 Wednesday, August 29, 2007 4:43 PM GETTING THE VIEW YOU WANT Using Multiple Viewports So far, you’ve done all your work in the Perspective 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 viewports, each representing a different view. Let’s go back to that viewport arrangement to explore the uses of some of VIZ’s display tools.
824c01.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 discussed 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. 2. In any viewport, click and drag the cursor up.
44824c01.fm Page 45 Wednesday, August 29, 2007 4:43 PM GETTING THE VIEW YOU WANT 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.
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 The User viewport in Wireframe mode 3. Change the User viewport back to the shaded mode by selecting Smooth + Highlights from the viewport label right-click menu. 4. Right-click the Perspective viewport label, and then select Other Hidden Line from the pop-up menu.
44824c01.fm Page 47 Wednesday, August 29, 2007 4:43 PM GETTING THE VIEW YOU WANT Figure 1.34 Two of the four viewports are now Perspective viewports. 2. Right-click the Perspective label of the upper-left viewport, and then select Views Top. The view now changes back to the original top view. Notice that the chairs are still in wireframe. 3. Right-click the Top label, then select Smooth + Highlights. The view returns to its original state.
44824c01.fm Page 48 Wednesday, August 29, 2007 4:43 PM 48 CHAPTER 1 GETTING TO KNOW VIZ Figure 1.35 The Viewport Configuration dialog box Figure 1.36 The Layout tab of the Viewport Configuration dialog box Figure 1.37 Select a layout from the samples.
44824c01.fm Page 49 Wednesday, August 29, 2007 4:43 PM GETTING THE VIEW YOU WANT 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 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 Viewport Configuration. 2.
44824c01.fm Page 50 Wednesday, August 29, 2007 4:43 PM 50 CHAPTER 1 GETTING TO KNOW VIZ Figure 1.40 Changing a specific 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 perspective view, arranged in a more traditional manner.
44824c01.fm Page 51 Wednesday, August 29, 2007 4:43 PM GETTING THE VIEW YOU WANT Before you conclude your tour of the VIZ interface, let’s see how the Move tool acts in the nonPerspective 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. In the Top viewport, click and drag the cursor from a point below and to the left of the bottom row of chairs. 3.
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.
44824c01.fm Page 53 Wednesday, August 29, 2007 4:43 PM WORKING WITH THE CUSTOM UI AND DEFAULTS SWITCHER 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.
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.
44824c01.fm Page 55 Wednesday, August 29, 2007 4:43 PM THE BOTTOM LINE Figure 1.48 The Save Custom UI Scheme dialog box 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.
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