24. Spotlights

Here we will make a spotlight with one of the more powerful Amapi 3D tools: the Gordon surfaces. With Dynamic Geometry, a few clicks will be enough to modify our object and to create some variants. In this exercise, to save time, we will work from curves already drawn. Don’t forget, if you run into any problem, there are intermediate files for each step in the Exercise folder.

Create the surface

q Tool: Surfaces/Gordon Surfaces q Open the model file: Spotb1 Please note that this model is made from longitude and latitude curves. This is necessary for working with the Gordon Surfaces tool. q Do this: 1. Select the Gordon Surfaces tool. 2. First, click on all the longitude curves: they turn red. 3. Validate. 4. Then click on the latitude curves: they turn green. 5. Validate: you will see blue and yellow points. The blue points are the connected ones. The yellow points are not connected (this has been done for this exercise). Amapi 3D will help you and connect these points itself. 6. Validate again: the surface is generated. q See the detailed explanations in the chapter: User Manual/Tools/Construction/Surfaces/Gordon

Smoothing

q Tool: Smooth q Open the model file: Spotb2 q Do this: 1. Select the Smooth tool. 2. Select Catmull smoothing. 3. Validate. q See the detailed explanations in the chapter: User Manual/Tools/Modeling/Smooth

Deform a spotlight using Dynamic Geometry

· Method 1: Structure deformation

q Tool: Stretch q Open the model file: Spotb3 q Do this: Select the Stretch tool. A palette appears: it shows you the three finishing levels on which you may work: · The structure (the construction curves) · The rough object (extruded object) · The smoothed object If you click on the first finishing level (bottom icon), you can work on the structure. If you click on the level above, you can modify the rough object, BUT you will not come back to the level below. Likewise, if you work on the smoothed object, you will lose the lower levels. Before changing to an upper level, save your work in a file, so that, if needed, you can come back to it later. Select the structure level (bottom icon). In the Assistant Palette, select the Bullseye and click on the points of the bottom curve of the spotlight (see picture, each point is highlighted). Pull these points together. Validate. The shape of the spotlight has changed. See the result in the Spotb4 file. q See the detailed explanations in the chapter: User Manual/The Objects/Dynamic Geometry, User Manual/Tools/Modeling/Stretch

· Method 2: Rough object deformation

q Tool: Stretch q Open the model file: Spotb3 q Do this: Select the Stretch tool. A palette appears: it shows you the three finishing levels on which you may work: · The structure (the construction curves) · The rough object (extruded object) · The smoothed object You can modify the rough object, BUT you will not come back to the level below. Likewise, if you work on the smoothed object, you will lose the lower levels. Before changing to an upper level, save your work in a file, so that, if needed, you can come back to it later. In the Dynamic Geometry palette, select the rough object level. In the Assistant Palette, select the Bullseye and click on the points of the spot bottom curve (see picture, each point is surrounded). These points turn red. Press the spacebar once to constrain motion to the vertical axis (green). Move these points to the top. Click to stop the moving. Validate. The shape of the spot has changed See the result in the Spotb5 file. q See the detailed explanations in the chapter: User Manual/The Objects/Dynamic Geometry, User Manual/Tools/Modeling/Stretch

· Method 3: Smoothed object deformation

q Tool: Scale q Open the model file: Spotb3 q Do this: Select the Scale tool A palette appears: it shows you the three finishing levels on which you may work: · The structure (the construction curves) · The rough object (extruded object) · The smoothed object In the Dynamic Geometry palette, select the smoothed object level (top icon). With the Lasso, select the points line after line as shown on the picture. You will select four lines of points. Use the Scale tool to move these points toward the center. Validate. The shape of the spot has changed. See the result in the Spotb6 file. q See the detailed explanations in the chapter: User Manual/The Objects/Dynamic Geometry, User Manual/Tools/Assembly/Scale