Modeling Class - Day 4 - Manipulating Primitives

[qrfan3]

An easy to follow tutorial so far with lots of pictures showing the "where it is / which one to use".....very well done Pete...
I'll grab the mic first...How do you hide / get rid of...the origin gizmo shown below, without having to select all the objects and then the right click option of show only?

giz.jpg

I continued on with your tutorial, modifying it some and adding a few more pickets to suit the span after closing the gap slightly between them.
I wouldn't make a fence like this for the sim...too many polys...but has been good to do so far as a training model.

pck_fnce.jpg

[Trainguy76]

Very nice and complete tutorial, thanks.

I might be getting ahead of this class but, is there an operation that does the opposite of the inset operation?

[pwillard]

1st, I don't know how to eliminate the 0.0.0 axis marker... I just ignore it unless i need it.

2nd, Nice work on the fence!

===

Well, I'm not certain I know what you are looking for... but I Imagine you mean this:

Extrude.jpg

If so, you want EXTRUDE operation with a non-zero bevel parameter.

[Trainguy76]

Thanks, if I set the distance to 0 and the bevel >0 I achieved what I was looking for.

[qrfan3]

1st, I don't know how to eliminate the 0.0.0 axis marker... I just ignore it unless i need it.

2nd, Nice work on the fence!

Not a biggie Pete, I was just wondering if there was an easier option to hide it. I have done some searching and not found an answer so I have emailed Richard.
Thanks for the compliment on the fence.
Come on fellow students..ask the questions, lets pull Pete's brain apart and keep this unique class and great idea rolling at a steady but easy pace. We are all new to to this type of modeling ( well, I am..that's for sure ) and we will all gain great knowledge..

[rgarber]

Hey Pete, great job with the class, keep an eye on the Marine out there, he has a tendency to fall asleep in class! Here's something that gets to me every now and then on my projects. It has to do with turning the lights on in 3D Canvas. I'm sure I'm not the only one who experiences a dark environment especially doing dirty grimey steel mill buildings. It's hard to see. What's the best way to lighten up the view and does that have any impact on the exported model? - Rich

[Hawk]

One thing I've found that helps to light things up is create 3 new Point Lights then move them to each of the other three corners of the palette/table/whatever you want to call the checkered plane.

[pwillard]

Ditto! What he said.

As you may have noticed... I'm sort of walking us through the primitive Operations buttons (including the comments about EXTRUDE). IE;

What is the the opposite of "INSET"?

Well, the best match *is* EXTRUDE. I wanted to take a moment to point out how useful the EXTRUDE operation is to me. (I'm not talking about the OBJECT BUILDING TOOL known as EXTRUDE). Below is an example of what you can build from a CUBE using the EXTRUDE operation.

Extrude2.jpg

The only part of the truck that was not based on EXTRUDE are the "cutouts" done with a BOOLEAN EDIT OPERATION... but a Boolean Operation is a little advanced for the discussion we are having right now.

[qrfan3]

Below is an example of what you can build from a CUBE using the EXTRUDE operation.

That's amazing a cube could make that truck.....weird looking truck also, "independent suspension"..??....

An update also on my query above with what I thought was the origin axis. According to Paul Gausden they are the light indicators.
The two sticks....are the Directional #1 & #2
The sphere in the middle.....Ambient.
The can be hidden if required by right clicking each in the hierarchy list and selecting hide. ( version 8.2 )

Note: The part I made bold is interesting and most important I would say.

Hi Gordon,
Those white objects are actually the directional light indicators. There is no scene origin axis.

The main model group axis is the true model origin.

[pwillard]

Goes to show you how much I bother with them.

[pwillard]

Yes, I know... I sort of wandered away.

Well, you see... 3DCanvas "changed" on me.

As many of you know, it is now called 3DCrafter and there are versions 8 and 9 in production now. My discussions were about version 7 and this really was not the way to continue.

So... I have version 8 now. It's different, techniques are different, commands work differently... some options are even gone. So, it's a bit of a learning curve for me to continue with this (which had me seriously considering Blender as a replacement)

I'll say this. Version 8 (latest release), has bugs, at least for me. Maybe it's because I build libraries of parts for later use, and these parts may be many 3DC versions old, but that's important to me, so I need to get beyond these issues somehow.

IE; I often have a problem with the MAIN SCREEN work area going blank on me and only resetting 3D canvas to default settings will fix it, and that's a pain. Opening the model that suddenly has this issue will create the problem every time.

Regardless. if there is interest, I can start over with version 8.

[Hawk]

As for me personally, if/when I get back into modeling, I believe I'm going to try and learn Blender.
If I'm not mistaken, Blender has better options than 3DCrafter, as far as texturing goes.

I still have 3DCanvas V-7.1.2 if all else fails. I have heard that Crafter does have some issues that need to be resolved.

Don't let my comments influence you though. Wait to hear what others say.

[PapaXpress]

I would like to make models for RW, and I am a complete beginner, so any step-by-step tutorials with pro's and con's about which software to use would help me out.