Identifying the Basic Building Blocks

Identifying the Basic Building Blocks

On the Create panel, the categories for Geometry and Shapes supply the "building blocks" to combine and modify into more sophisticated objects. These parametric objects are ready to use. By adjusting values and turning some buttons on or off, you can create dozens of "new" building blocks from the ones listed here.

You can choose these types from the sub-categories list on the Create panel.

Geometry Types

Standard Primitives

Relatively simple 3D objects such as Box, Sphere, and Cylinder, as well as Torus, Plane, Cone, GeoSphere, Tube, Teapot, and Pyramid.

Extended Primitives

More complex 3D objects such as Capsule, OilTank, Spindle, Hedra, Torus Knot, and Prism.

Compound Objects

Compound objects include Scatter, Connect, ShapeMerge, Booleans, Morph, BlobMesh, Terrain, and Loft. Booleans combine the geometry of two objects using union, intersection, and difference operations. Morphs are animated objects that change one geometric shape into other shapes over time. ShapeMerge lets you embed a spline shape into a geometric mesh. Loft uses shapes as cross sections along a path to produce a 3D object.

Particle Systems

Animated objects that simulate spray, snow, blizzard, and similar collections of small objects.

Patch Grids

Simple 2D surfaces ready for modeling or repairing existing meshes.

NURBS Surfaces

Analytically generated surfaces especially suited for modeling surfaces with complicated curves.

AEC Extended

Elements useful for AEC design, including Terrain, Foliage (plants and trees), Railing, for creating custom railings, and Wall, for the production of Wall objects.

Stairs

Four types of stairs: Spiral, L-Type, Straight, and U-Type.

Doors

Parametric door styles include Pivot, BiFold, and Sliding.

Windows

Parametric window styles include Awning, Fixed, Projected, Casement, Pivoted, and Sliding.

NoteDefault materials are automatically applied to Foliage, as well as to the following object types: Railing, Stairs, Doors, and Windows.

Dynamics Objects

Objects designed for use in dynamics simulations.

Shape Types

Splines

Common 2D shapes such as a Line, Rectangle, Circle, Ellipse, Arc, Donut, NGon, and Star. Text shapes support TrueType fonts. Section creates a spline from the cross-section of an object. Helix is a 3D shape.

NURBS Curves

A Point Curve and CV Curve provide the starting points for complex surfaces. See Introduction to NURBS Modeling.

Extended Splines

More complex 2D shapes including Walled Rectangle, Channel Spline, Angle Spline, Tee Spline, and Wide Flange Spline. Extended splines can be used in architectural and similar applications.

Varying the Parameters

Unlike physical building blocks, with fixed shape and size, you can change the parameters of objects and shapes to dramatically alter topology. Here are some examples of changes you can make:

• Turn a cone into a four-sided pyramid by reducing the number of sides and turning the Smooth option off.
• Slice any circular object as if it were a pie.
• Animate almost all creation parameters, and interactively change their settings during animation playback.
• Render splines directly at any assigned width.
• Break, detach, and divide wall segments.
• Change the number of risers without affecting the overall rise of the stairs.

Collapsing Primitives to Base Geometry

You can collapse a building-block object to one of a variety of base geometric types once you no longer need access to its creation parameters. For example, you can convert any standard primitive to an editable mesh, editable poly, editable patch, or NURBS object, and you can convert a spline shape to an editable mesh, editable spline, or NURBS object. The easiest way to collapse an object is to select it, right-click it, and choose a "Convert to" option from the quad menu Transform quadrant. This lets you use explicit editing methods with the object, such as transforming vertices. You can also use the Modify panel to collapse a primitive.

Mapping Coordinates

Most Geometry objects have an option for generating mapping coordinates. Objects need these mapping coordinates if you plan to apply a mapped material to them. Mapped materials include a wide range of rendered effects, from 2D bitmaps to reflections and refractions. See Mapping Coordinates and Using Maps to Enhance a Material. If mapping coordinates have already been applied to an object, the check box for this feature is turned on.