How-To: Use Tools
you manipulate your K-3D documents using tools. try the following:
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check out the Toolbox, located on the Vertical Toolshelf to
see a listing of all available K-3D Tools installed on your system. |
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within the Toolbox, double-click the LMB on a tools name to run that tool. |
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most tools fall into one of two categories: those that create
geometry (points, polygons, and groups) and those that alter geometry. |
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some examples of tools that create geometry include: Extrude,
Freehand, Lathe, LissaCurve, Primitives, and Tessellate. |
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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. |
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some examples of tools that alter Geometry include:
DoBeSphere, Mirror, Random, Rotate, Scale, ShadeEdit, Slant, Smooth, Snap, Taper,
Translate, Twist, and Wave. |
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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. |
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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. |
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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. |
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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 tools 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. |
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normally, if a tool is active and you use the Undo command in
the Edit menu, the tools parameters will be reset to their defaults and any changes
to selected points and polygons will be undone. |
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