Geometric primitives are familiar as objects in the real world such as beach balls, pipes, boxes, doughnuts, and ice cream cones. In Autodesk VIZ, you can model many such objects using a single primitive. You can also combine primitives into more complex objects, and further refine them with modifiers.
Autodesk VIZ includes a set of 10 basic primitives. You can easily create the primitives with the mouse in the viewport, and most can be generated from the keyboard as well.
These primitives are listed in the Object Type rollout and on the Create menu:
Also available from the Object Type rollout is the AutoGrid option.
You can convert standard primitive objects to editable mesh objects, editable poly objects, and NURBS surfaces. You can also convert primitives to patch objects; see the path annotation at Editable Patch (the information at the start of the topic that tells you how to create this type of object).
All primitives have name and color controls, and allow you to enter initial values from the keyboard. See these topics:
Object Name and Wireframe Color
Creating Primitives from the Keyboard
The remaining rollouts are covered in the topic for each primitive.