How-To: Use Tools

you manipulate your K-3D documents using tools. try the following:

check out the Toolbox, located on the Vertical Toolshelf to see a listing of all available K-3D Tools installed on your system.
within the Toolbox, double-click the LMB on a tool’s name to run that tool.
most tools fall into one of two categories: those that create geometry (points, polygons, and groups) and those that alter geometry.
some examples of tools that create geometry include: Extrude, Freehand, Lathe, LissaCurve, Primitives, and Tessellate.
tools that create points and polygons will typically have four buttons along the bottom of their interface: "OK," "Cancel," "Set," and "Help." the "OK" button tells the tool to create its' geometry, and close its’ interface. the "Cancel" button tells the tool to close its’ interface without creating any geometry. the "Set" button tells the tool to create its' geometry, WITHOUT closing its' interface (so you can continue using the tool), and the "Help" button opens the online Help for the tool. just above these four buttons, you will usually see a display of how many points and polygons will be created by the tool if you select the "OK" or "Set" buttons.
some examples of tools that alter Geometry include: DoBeSphere, Mirror, Random, Rotate, Scale, ShadeEdit, Slant, Smooth, Snap, Taper, Translate, Twist, and Wave.
tools that alter geometry will typically have four buttons along the bottom of their interface: "OK," "Cancel," "Set," and "Help." the "OK" button tells the tool to alter the selected geometry and close its’ interface. the "Cancel" button tells the tool to close its’ interface and undo any changes made to the document. the "Set" button tells the tool make any changes to the selected points and polygons permanent, and to reset its’ parameters, WITHOUT closing its' interface (so you can continue using the tool), and the "Help" button opens the online Help for the tool.
you can have more than one tool open at a time, but only one tool can be the Active Tool. you make a tool active by clicking its' title in the Toolshelf.
the currently Active Tool will display a message in the Status Bar at the bottom of the K-3D screen, so you can see which tool is active.
many tools are Interactive tools, meaning that you can alter their parameters either by dragging the mouse within any Camera View, or by typing exact parameters into the tool’s dialog box. interactive tools will usually display a message in the Status Bar indicating how to use them interactively, such as "Scale: LMB drag to scale selected polygons," in the case of the Scale tool.
normally, if a tool is active and you use the Undo command in the Edit menu, the tool’s parameters will be reset to their defaults and any changes to selected points and polygons will be undone.

 

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