VENICE3D.NET  
 

 

Wings3d - Basic tutorial

Chapter 3 - Basic functions

3.1- Select / deselect

We make a cube : right-click and choose : cube.

Now you will see a grey-coloured cube : nothing is selected now.

In the icon menu you can choose to select vertices, edge, faces or the entire object .

We click upon the 3rd icon to select faces

When we go with our mouse cursor above a grey cube-face , then this cube-face changes into a green colour. .

When we click upon a grey cube-face , then this face gets a red colour (=active)

When we go with our mouse cursor above a red cube-face, then this cube-face changes into a yellow colour

When we click upon a red cube-face, thien this face get a grey colour (=inactive )

On the icon menu , we can choose now the 2nd icon , and now you can only select select or deselect the edges (lines)

You can also press upon the spacebar , then all the faces,edges and vertices will be deselected.

 

 

3.2 - The most important buttons and hotkeys for orientation

Wings3d uses hotkeys and the hotkeys are case sensitive .

x shows the width/right side of the object (x-axis)
y shows the height/upper side of the object (y-axis)
z shows the depth/front side of the object (z-axis)
r back to the start position view (=reset)

X (or shift x)

shows the left side of the object (x-axis)

Y (or shift y) shows the bottom side of the object (y-axis)
Z (or shift z) shows the back side of the object (z-axis)
mousewheel zoom in and zoom out
u rotates the scene (stop rotating with the mouse click)
a centrate the selected face or object
arrow keys move the scene on your screen (the objects remain on the same grid position ).
alt + leftmousebutton

and grab now with the mouse in order to rotate around the object in random directions (remark : you need to go to preferences , and go to the tabsheet camera; and there you need to put the camera mode on "maya" , otherwise this won't work)

 

3.2 - The most important buttons and hotkeys for selection

left-click upon a vertex , edge, face or object : selection of the object (part)

spacebar deselect

(undo) -> ctrl +w (azerty-keyboard) ctrl + z (qwerty-keyboard)
  (redo) -> ctrl + shift + w (azerty-keyboard )ctrl + shift + z (qwerty-keyboard )
v selection of vertices --> v (vertex - vertices - dots)
e selection of edges --> e (edges - lines)
f selection of faces --> f (faces - surfaces)
b selection of the object --> b (body - object - mesh) "mesh" = an object without a texture
i

activates alle visible identical parts after 1 selected part of the mesh (except for those parts that have been locked) --> i (identical)

del all those which are selected , will be deleted (objects, faces, ...)

 

3.3 - The most important buttons of the menu toolbar

File -> Save file , export and import files , import images

Edit -> undo , redo , preferences

View -> rendering and lighting menus, camera settings

Select -> selection methods, hiding and showing objects, locking objects,...

Tools

Help -> defined hotkeys.

 

3.4 - Object dimensions in Wings3d

1 square of the grid in Wings3d equals 1 square meter in Activeworlds.

There are 2 ways to do an input of dimensions for objects. As an example, we are going to make a wall of 4meter by 4meter and 2cm thick.

First way ::
Right-click >  Cube > click upon the rectangle beside the cube , and here you type these values :
x=4  y=4 z=0.02

Second way : (This way is how you can modify the dimensions afterwards)
Right-click >  Cube  (and now there will be created a cube with default dimensions : 2x2x2m) , now we will select this cube entirely : press "b" and click upon the cube , so that the cube is selected in red colour.
Right-click > Absolute Commands  > Scale
Here we type the values for the x y and z-axis.  

Checking the dimensions :

The lenght of a line : Click upon the edge-cube (or type "e") , and select 1 edge-line , and now grab your mouse so that the cursor is above this line , and in the objectinfoline (under the icons toolbar) you will see this : length: 4.0.

The distance between 2 lines of vertices : Click upon the vertex-cube (or type "v") and select 2 vertices which are close to eachothe , en now look at the objectinfoline : distance 0.02