Use this command to create a set of 2D planar curves that are unfolded from the edges of a 3D face. You can position the curves on the plane using a base and target point.  Only faces that are linear in either their U or V parameter space can be flattened with this command.

 

Required Inputs

 

• Face - Select a face to unfold.

• Origin - Select a base point for unfolding or middle-click to accept a default base point.. You will be able to position this point on the unfolding plane.

 

Optional Inputs

 

• Plane - Select a datum plane to unfold on or middle-click for the default XY Plane.

• Target - Select the target point on the datum plane for the new origin or middle-click to accept the default 0,0 origin of the datum plane. This point will be oriented with the Origin selected above.

• Curves - Select additional curves on the face to unfold.

 

 

 

Use this command to emboss (deform) a face using an external raster image file as a height map. If the file is color, it is converted to monochrome. The boundary of the file is mapped to zero height so that the face can still match its edges. For this reason, the boundary of the raster file should all be the same intensity. Values less than the boundary value are depressions and values greater are elevations.

 

The image file is indexed using cubic interpolation for smoothness; however, this does not prevent "jaggies" from showing up in small (low resolution) images. For best results, the file should be high resolution and antialiased. Low resolution and aliasing will be obvious in the resulting face. The face degree is elevated to 3 if needed, and knots are inserted as required.

 

This command is intended to emboss text onto a face but will deform the face with any raster image file. Refer to the form below for the additional options available. Refer to the Notes section below for a complete list of image file formats supported by this command.

 

Required Inputs

 

• File name - Enter the height map file name (GIF, JPEG, TIFF, etc.) to emboss. You can pick the folder icon and use the File Browser to select the file.

• Face - Select the face to emboss.

• Height - Enter the maximum depth or height of the embossed image. A negative value denotes a black on white image with height above the surface.

• Width - Enter the width of the emboss or middle-click to fit it within the face parameter space box.

 

Optional Inputs

 

• Emboss toward inside - Make the emboss toward the inside of the face. The inside of a face is opposite the face normal. This option will reverse the orientation of the embossed image.

• Rotate - Specify the embossed image rotation form the U parameter direction of the selected face.

• Resolution - Specify the approximate control point interval (emboss resolution). This value has a direct impact on display speed. The lower the resolution value, the longer it will take to manipulate the display. This is especially true when the display is set to shade or when the display is rendered.

• Center - Locate the center of the embossed image. By default, the image is centered and fit to the face's parameter space box.

 

 

Raster Image (emboss.gif)

 

Shaded Image of Face
(Select to enlarge)

 

Wireframe Image of Face
(Select to Enlarge)

 

 

 

This command transforms (morphs) a shape by warping face geometry. Modifications are not limited to a single face, but work across edges maintaining the integrity of the solid shape.  The transformation is performed by grabbing a point on a face and dragging it in different ways. This command gives you more precise control over local face modifications than the Modify Face Control Points command.

 

There are six ways that you can move the point on a face.  They are tabulated below with the Required Inputs for each.

 

 

 

 

This command is similar to the Morph Shape at Point command (see above).  It also transforms (morphs) a shape by warping face geometry.  This command however, allows you to grab a curve on a model or a datum plane that cuts through a model. The surfaces near the curve or plane are dragged just as surfaces near a point are.  The Required and Optional Inputs for both commands are similar.

 

 

 

 

 

All of the Morph Shape commands require you to select Geometry to morph.  You can select a Shape, Face, 3D Curve, Parting Line, 3D Point or a 3D Block.  If a face is selected, its edges are automatically Locked.  See Optional Inputs below for more about Move and Lock options.

 

 

 

 

This command is similar to the Morph Shape at Curve command (see above).  It also transforms (morphs) a shape by warping face geometry.  This command however, allows you to grab a curve on a shape and offset it rather than move it.  Again, the surfaces near the curve are dragged just as surfaces near a point are.  Select the curve and then enter or drag the offset.  The Optional Inputs for all of the Morph commands similar (see below).

 

 

 

 

 

This command is similar to the Morph Shape at Point and Morph Shape at Curve commands (see above).  It also transforms (morphs) a shape by warping face geometry.  This command however, allows you to grab a curve on a model and morph it to a destination curve.  The surfaces near the curve are modified.  The Required and Optional Inputs for all three commands are similar.

 

 

 

 

 

• Bend/Translate - Use this option to allow the transformation to be a straight translation instead of a bend.

• Move, Lock - On the Move tab, you define the Geometry that will move and the parameters that affect how much nearby geometry will move (these are the transition parameters).  You can use the Geometry option to change the geometry to move.
  
  On the Lock tab, you define the Stationary geometry that will not move and the same transition parameters.  You can lock individual points, edges, curves, faces or datums.  For instance, you could move a point using a radius of influence of 50mm while locking down a point using a radius of influence of only 10mm.  You can define one set of transition parameters for the moving geometry and one set for the locked geometry.  Use the Stationary option to change the geometry to lock.  The locking geometry can be a set of curves, edges, points or datum planes.
   

• Influence (I) - Specify radius of influence.

• Rigid (R) - Specify radius for rigid motion

• Bulge (B) - Specify bulge factor for transition region.

• Slope - Specify slope for transition region.

• Flat/Peak - This determines whether the surfaces at the new point location are rounded (flat) or sharp (peak).  This option is useful when you are dragging a point on the corner or edge of a part.

• Geometry, Stationary - (see Move, Lock above).

 

 

 

Use this command to smooth one or more NURBS surfaces.  While there are other existing commands wit h similar functionality, this command makes use of the Finite Element Method (FEM), which has the advantage of being substantially faster.

 

As with the other FEM-based surfacing tools, the overall shapes of the selected faces need to be projectable in a certain direction. If not, faces can be smoothed individually with the tangency option turned on.

 

More about This Command

 

One or more faces may be selected for fairing similar to the Smooth Face Shape command.  Instead of modifying the existing, untrimmed surface, a new, trimmed surface replaces the old one. More than one face can be modified and if multiple faces are selected, adjacent faces are merged automatically to maximize smoothness and disjointed faces are also smoothed individually.  The usual FEM-related options for controlling the surface quality, complexity and tangency are supported.

 

Required Inputs

 

• Faces - Select a single face or a list of faces to smooth.

 

Optional Inputs

 

• U-degree/V-degree - This is the degree of the resulting surface. Lowering the degree values will generally result in a simpler surface.

• U-direction - This is the U-parameter direction of the resulting surface. Better results can be had if the resulting surface is oriented in the same direction as the parameter space of its neighboring surfaces.

• Tangent at boundary - Check this box to enforce tangent continuity across the resulting surface boundary.

• Specify sample density - Check this box if you want to specify the sample density for refitting a surface and then enter the density in the space provided.  The higher the density, the less change in overall shape will result. This is useful if some surface detail needs to be retained.

• Tolerance - This option can be used to specify the allowable deviation from the original geometry.

 

 

 

• Shading can be slow on these faces. Wireframe viewing can only be accomplished at this time by adding multiple isolines to the embossed face.
   

• Image file formats supported by Emboss Image on Face command (see above).
  
  Tag - Description
  AVS - AVS X image file
  BMP - Microsoft Windows bitmap image file
  BUMP - Microsoft Windows 24-bit bitmap image file
  CMYK - Raw cyan, magenta, yellow, and black bytes
  DCX - ZSoft IBM PC multi-page Paintbrush file
  DIB - Microsoft Windows bitmap image file
  EPS - Adobe Encapsulated PostScript file
  EPS2 - Adobe Level II Encapsulated PostScript file
  EPS - Adobe Encapsulated PostScript file
  EPSI - Adobe Encapsulated PostScript Interchange format
  FAX - Group 3
  FIG - TransFig image format
  FITS - Flexible Image Transport System
  FPX - FlashPix Format
  GIF - CompuServe graphics interchange format; 8-bit color
  GIF87 - CompuServe graphics interchange format; 8-bit color (version 87a)
  GRADATION - gradual passing from one shade to another
  GRANITE - granite texture
  GRAY - Raw gray bytes
  HDF - Hierarchical Data Format
  HISTOGRAM
  HTML - Hypertext Markup Language with a client-side image map
  JBIG - Joint Bi-level Image experts Group file interchange format
  JPEG - Joint Photographic Experts Group JFIF format; compressed 24-bit color
  MAP - colormap intensities and indices.
  MATTE - Raw matte bytes
  MIFF - Magick image file format
  MONO - Bi-level bitmap in least-significant-byte (LSB) first order
  MPEG - Motion Picture Experts Group file interchange format
  MTV - MTV Raytracing image format
  NETSCAPE - Netscape 216 color cube
  NULL - NULL image
  PBM - Portable bitmap format (black and white)
  PCD - Photo CD
  PCX - ZSoft IBM PC Paintbrush file
  PDF - Portable Document Format
  PGM - Portable graymap format (gray scale)
  PICT - Apple Macintosh QuickDraw/PICT file
  PLASMA - plasma fractal image
  PNG - Portable Network Graphics
  PNM - Portable anymap
  PPM - Portable pixmap format (color)
  PREVIEW
  PS - Adobe PostScript file
  PS2 - Adobe Level II PostScript file
  RAD - Radiance image file
  RGB - Raw red, green, and blue bytes
  RGBA - Raw red, green, blue, and matte bytes
  RLA - Alias/Wavefront image file; read only
  RLE - Utah Run length encoded image file; read only
  SGI - Irix RGB image file
  SUN - SUN Rasterfile
  TEXT - raw text file; read only
  TGA - Truevision Targa image file
  TIFF - Tagged Image File Format
  TIFF24 - 24-bit Tagged Image File Format
  UYVY - 16bit/pixel interleaved YUV
  TILE - tile image with a texture
  UIL - X-Motif UIL table
  VICAR - read only
  VID - Visual Image Directory
  VIFF - Khoros Visualization image file
  X - select image from X server screen
  XC - constant image of X server color
  XBM - X Windows system bitmap, black and white only
  XPM - X Windows system pixmap file (color)
  XWD - X Windows system window dump file (color)
  YUV - CCIR 601 4:1:1 file