INTRODUCTION:
TERMINOLOGY:
INTERFACE
TOOL PALETTE
WINDOWS AND PALETTES

MENU REFERENCE
FILE MENU
EDIT MENU
SELECTION MENU
MODEL MENU
TEXTURE MENU
ANIMATE MENU
RENDER MENU
WINDOWS MENU

OPERATIONS REFERENCE
GENERAL REFERENCE
EXAMPLES

MENU REFERENCE

FILE MENU
New Project - Create a new Project, named Untitled-x. Any number of Projects can coexist, limited by available memory.
Close Project - Close the current project. All open dialogs (associated with the current project are removed, and if there is no other project open, the Tools Palette disappears.
Open... - Read in a saved Project from disk.
Close Window - Close the current window. If it is the last open window, the Project will also be closed.
Save... - Save a Project to disk. Can also appear as Save # if the option key is down or Numbered Backups is checked. See Numbered Backups below.
Save As... - Rename current Project and save under the new name.
Save Copy... - Save a copy of the current Project under a new name.
Revert - Discard current Project and restore last saved version.
Numbered Backups - If this is checked, PatchDance will treat each Save as a Save As..., using the current name and adding # X. X runs from 1 to 999 (and starts over). If the Option key is down, X is reset to 1. This is used to save numbered copies (a history of your Project) instead of overwriting the old copy on each Save.
Page Setup/Print... - Not Used.
Quit... - exactly as expected.
See Save and Restore Dialogs for details of the Save and Open operations.

EDIT MENU

Undo - (Appears as Undo something). Undo the last user action.
Redo - (Appears as Redo something). Redo the last undone action. Undo and redo can be turned off, or set to one or 32 levels. See Preferences and Undo/Redo for details).
Repeat - (Appears as Repeat something). Repeat the last menu item chosen. Beeps if nothing or unable to repeat. Not all actions can be repeated: New Project, for example, cannot. Executing a non-repeatable action clears this feature. This item is often enabled even when nothing can be done, allowing it to warn you if you try to repeat and PatchDance is unable to do so.
Cut - Delete the current selection and copy to the internal clipboard.
Copy - Copy the current selection and copy to the internal clipboard. For both Cut and Copy, you can paste the data into other programs that support QuickDraw 3D if you Have QuickDraw 3D available and have Export Clipboard turned on in the Preferences.
Paste - Paste the contents of the clipboard into the current Project. If the Option Key is down (Paste At) the clipboard is pasted relative to the 3D Cursor (if the Cursor was at the center of the object when cut/copied, the pasted object will be centered on the current 3D Cursor location). Pasting data from other programs is available if QuickDraw 3D is available.
Duplicate - Make a copy of the current selection in place. The current selection is deselected and the copy is selected: normally there is no visible result from this operation. The clipboard is NOT affected.
Clear Selected Points
Clear Selected Splines
Clear Selected Patches - Deletes the affected entities. See Selection for details (especially for Splines and Patches). Clear IS undoable. IMPORTANT: Clearing points clears all associated splines and patches; clearing splines clears all associated patches; clearing patches has no effect on anything else.
Show Clipboard - opens a window containing the contents of the 3D object clipboard. This requires you to have the QuickDraw 3D and QuickDraw 3D Viewer shared libraries installed on your computer, and meet their requirements for use. If you don¹t, this command is disabled.
Preferences - Display the Preferences dialog.

SELECTION MENU
The Selection Menu allows selecting/deselecting/swapping any or all objects, controlled by Modifier Keys. The menu items (currently) never change, but a red label at the top of the menu gives the mode (Select,Deselect,Swap) in effect. Not all items are applicable (or available) in early releases.
By TextureŠ (when available) presents a dialog allowing the user to pick any or all Texture parameters (including a color range). It applies only to patches (since points/splines cannot be textured).

MODEL MENU
Hide / Show submenu - Hide causes all selected points (and their associated splines and patches) to become invisible. Show makes ALL hidden objects visible. All hidden points are deselected when shown. Objects can also be hidden or shown individually if they have been assigned a name: see Hierarchy. Be careful when editing a partially hidden object, since hidden parts will not be affected by whatever you do to the rest. NOTE for exporting files: Most other applications do not allow you to hide only part of an object. Hidden objects are not supported in DXF files.
Points submenu - Miscellaneous operations on points. Currently the only choices are to create a selected/deselected point at the current 3D Cursor location.
Splines Submenu - Miscellaneous operations on splines. Currently:

Divide Splines cuts all selected splines in half (like the Scissors (2)). NO splines that are part of a Patch are affected. Compare with Subdivide Surface below, which works only on patches.
Patches Submenu - Miscellaneous operations on patches. Currently:
Delete Patches destroys (removes) all selected patches, leaving holes. No splines or points are affected in any way. Actually the same as Clear Selected Patches under the edit menu.
Make A Patch fills an empty 3 or sided connected figure. If the figure already contains a patch or is invalid, the computer beeps and does nothing. When only one patch is needed, this is faster and uses much less memory than Fill Mesh.
Fill Mesh is similar to Make a Patch except that it operates on all selected, 3 or 4 sided figures that don't already contain patches. This is useful when Joining 2 complex surfaces: often new empty areas are formed where edges meet. You will be warned if no patches were made.
Subdivide affects all selected PATCHES (NOT selected splines that are not part of a selected patch! See Divide Splines above) Each patch is divided into 4 smaller patches. Note that this requires cutting the patch splines, which affects deselected patches which share the selected spline; Subdivide also divides deselected patches as necessary to maintain integrity of the surface.

The remaining menu items are modeling operations. Most use a dialog to set options. See the specific operation for details.

TEXTURE MENU
Quickcolors... sets the display color of all selected patches (in the Camera Window). Newly created patches are set to the current default color, which is checked in the QuickColors submenu (initially white). Note that QuickColor changes are NOT undoable; selection or deselection by QuickColor can be undone, for the specific points affected (regardless of their current color).
Several modifier keys are defined for this menu:

No modifiers: color all selected patches.
with Option: do NOT color ANY patches.
with Command: reset default color.
with Control: select all patches of the given color.
with Shift (and NOT Control): deselect all patches of the given color.

An alert appears listing what was done: number of patches affected, whether the default was reset. If for some reason neither could be done, the computer also beeps.

PaletteŠ opens a small floating palette with buttons for the colors. Clicking these buttons works exactly the same way as selecting them from the menu: this is provided as a convenience. The Display Patch Count checkbox (default off) allows you to suppress the usual alert giving the number of patches affected.

Fifteen QuickColors are provided, and they cannot currently be changed like the colors in the Modeling Windows. The last color (Invisible, or a dashed red X in the palette) effectively hides patches. This is useful for simulating transparency or speeding up the Camera view when only part of a large scene needs to be visible.

Edit TextureŠ Opens a dialog used to create and modify textures. Only a few items are available at present: you can create a new texture and assign it to currently selected patches, and then select and deselect by Texture (though this is not nearly as fast or efficient as using the Hierarchy system).
IMPORTANT: You can set any texture name you wish (they are editable as in a Finder list view, like Hierarchy names). The name is NEVER used internally: it is strictly (also like Hierarchy names) a user convenience. Changing the name or importing a file containing the same name will never confuse PatchDance (it might confuse you, however).
IMPORTANT: Operations on textures are generally not undoable. Selecting or deselecting can be undone as usual; however, they are based on the ACTUAL points affected, and changing the texture around later has no effect.

A few preliminary notes on the Texture controls:
- Update resets the currently selected texture from the list to the current values in the dialog (currently, none are available except for the texture name).
- New creates a new texture and adds it to the list. This is useful when ³cloning² an existing texture: simply select it from the list, modify as desired, then click New (NOT Update, which changes the old texture).
- Assign applies the current texture to all selected patches.

ANIMATE MENU
Not used in early versions.

RENDER MENU
Only 2 enabled entries:
Set Focus creates a Focus (small X) in the modeling windows at the current 3D Cursor location. The Camera always points towards the focus: this is how the view is defined.
Create Camera - creates a Camera (small circle) in the modeling windows at the current 3D Cursor location.
Performing either of these operations when their object already exists has the effect of moving the object to the current 3D Cursor location: multiple cameras/foci are not yet available. See Camera Window for more details.

WINDOWS MENU
Items in this menu that affect the display are generally NOT undoable! All windows controlled by this menu are Project-specific, not global.
Tile Windows - Restores the default window configuration (as seen when a new Project is created).
Full Windows - Expand all four windows (if open) to full screen size (less Tools and the Prompt bar, if open).
Match Scales - Set the scales of all 3 modeling windows to the scale of the active/last active window. No effect on the Camera Window.
Center Cursor - SCROLLS all 3 views so that the 3D Cursor appears in the center. This is NOT the same thing as clicking to set the Cursor: the Cursor is not moved, the view is. No effect on the Camera Window.
Locate & Center submenu - centers all Model Windows on a variety of different objects/places. Also centers the 3D Cursor. Similar to Center Cursor above, except with many more options.
Projects submenu - If more than one Project is open, allows you to select a Project to work on. The current Project is checked.
General - Displays the General Dialog.
Hierarchy - Displays the Hierarchy Dialog.
Snaps - Displays the Snap Dialog.
Tools - Displays the Tools Palette (if it has been closed).
Prompt Bar - Displays the small help window at the bottom of the screen(if it has been closed).
Online Help - Displays the large help window (when this feature is activated.)
North,West,Down,Camera - Open a closed window and/or bring it to the front (for the current Project).
Camera Options submenu:
- Update Camera Only when on (checked), completely turns off ghosting in the Model Windows (except for adjusting single points and splines). This can significantly speed up Camera Window updating, especially in shaded mode. Closing the Camera Window turns this off and disables the menu item. Using it with no Camera updating (Pencils off) will result in NO updating in any window.
- Shading Off causes the shaded view to be displayed with no shading. This effectively removes the 3D effect; objects appear in solid colors. It is intended for designers who are importing 3D models into 2D programs.
- Auto Create Camera is normally on (checked). This causes PatchDance to create a default Camera and Focus as soon as you create your first patch. This is generally more convenient than doing it yourself.
IMPORTANT: There are two other ways to override this feature: if the Camera window is closed, nothing happens; if either a Camera OR a Focus already exists, PatchDance assumes you want to create the other yourself and doesn¹t try to help. Also, you can always move or re-create either object if the default position is not satisfactory. If any patches exist and the Camera window is opened or Auto Create Camera is turned on, it operates immediately.

Next Section: OPERATIONS REFERENCE