The Surface Tool is primarily used to create organic objects.
Objects are built from a patchwork of surfaces. Surfaces are added to the object by
clicking on
.
Clicking on a surface exposes its control points (handles), which can then be dragged
to deform the surface. Selecting a control point on an edge and clicking results in a new
surface being glued to that edge.
A perspective view is provided as well as three orthographic views. A default background grid is provided, but is customizable. You may specify side, top and front view bitmap images of the object you want to create to replace this background grid. Providing a side view image of the object you are creating makes modelling much easier as you can use this image to "trace" your desired object.
The best procedure for creating a model from an image is to lay out one surface at a time matching edges to your side view image. Once you are satisfied with the position of the surfaces and the shape of the object, begin adding depth to your object. Adding depth is easiest with the orthographic side view of the object. Right click and drag on control points while watching the other three views for correct depth.
Control points glue to each other if placed near each other. If you right-click on a group of control points, you can choose to Un-group them.
A slider is provided to adjust the detail level of the surfaces.
The default Surface type is an N-Spline patch. Alternatively, you may use Bezier patches. For more information on Bezier curves see the Lathe or Extrude tools
creates
a new 3D Canvas Object Builder Surface object.
opens
an existing 3D Canvas Object Builder Surface (CBS) file.
saves
the object to a 3D Canvas Object Builder Surface (CBS) file.
deletes the active surface.
undoes the
previous operation. Only modelling operations can be undone.
redoes the last
action undone.
adds a
new surface to the object. Select control point on an existing surface to glue the new
surface to that edge. If no control point is selected, 3D Canvas will attempt to glue to
the most appropriate edge.
mirrors the active surface along the z axis. Once you have completed a side view of your
object, you can use this to mirror the completed surfaces.
resets all grid textures to their default.
allows
you to provide a replacement image for the grid. This image should be the side view of the
object you wish to create.
allows
you to provide a replacement image for the grid. This image should be the top view of the
object you wish to create.
allows you to provide a replacement image for the grid. This image should be the front
view of the object you wish to create.
displays all control points for all surfaces.
Having all control points displayed causes significant performance degradation, but is
useful for when you want to glue control points together.
displays the surfaces in wireframe.
smoothes the joints between surfaces. This is provided to allow
you to see the object in its final rendered state. Joints when automatically be smoothed
when you click the OK button. This results in considerable performance degradation and
should only be used on fast systems.
When you click the OK button the object becomes available for dragging and dropping.