manual de modo

modo 202 1 User Guide

modo 202 manualmodel. paint. render.

2 modo 202User Guide


Learning modoThis manual is written as a companion guide to the modo inline training system. The inline training system contains much of what you will nd in these pages and has the added advantages of being contextual and augmented with dynamic media such as GIF and Quicktime movies. At Luxology we believe the integrated modo training system is the most effective method for learning the application. We also understand the value of being able to take a printed manual on a bus, train or plane. So here we are!

Understanding the inline help systemThere are several components to the modo inline training system. The rst and most useful from a day to day perspective is the contextual help system. At any time you can activate Help (F1) and simply click on a button, a command in the menu bar or an Item in a list to get help about that specic element.

The Help Cursor appears as a question mark.

The Help system will open a locally hosted HTML page with text and often images and/or movie clips about the feature. This provides a very effective and direct method for getting up to speed with modo or pushing your working knowledge of the app to the next level.


The Help System opens your default web browser to display text and video help.

Many of the linked pages will refer to other pages with relevant topics.

There are also entire pages dedicated to hosting Quicktime video clips for specic areas of the application such as the Paint tools or process based tutorial materials such as the hard surface modeling series. If you want to get to these video pages directly you can choose the Tutorials link found in the Menu Bar> Help> Documentation submenu. The Help System opens your default web browser to display text and video help.


The inline help system provides comprehensive coverage of the modo 202 toolset as well as extensive process based training material. There are several hours of integrated training videos for you to enjoy which take you through the major aspects of modo 202 from modeling, painting, texturing and rendering to in depth customization of the modo interface.

Enjoy!


Copyright 2006 Luxology, LLC. The content of this manual is furnished for informational use only and is subject to change without notice. Luxology assumes no responsibility or liability for errors or inaccuracies that may appear in this documentation. All products or brand names mentioned are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders. Mention of third-party products is for informational purposes only and constitutes neither an endorsement nor a recommendation. Luxology assumes no responsibility with regard to the performance or use of these products. This software uses the FreeImage 1.0 open source image library. See http://freeimage.sourceforge.net for details. FreeImage is used under the FIPL, version 1.0.

Acknowledgments:Software Design and EngineeringJoe Angell, Mark Brown, Arnie Cachelin, Matt Craig, Gregory Duquesne, Stuart Ferguson, Allen Hastings, Jason Hurdlow, Jason Linhart, Brad Peebler, Eric Soulvie, Yoshiaki Tazaki

Stock Content CreationRadek Nowakowski

Training Materials Testing

Ananya Banerjee, Kriss Craig, Mark Gerhard, Brad Peebler

Dion Burgoyne, Dave Sherwin

Manual Design

Solid Design, Stephen Mack Thanks to all of our testers and demo artists who have gone above and beyond the call of duty to make modo an excellent product.

Special Thanks to

Nicky, William and Anna Brown, Francis Dose, Christine Duquesne-Puppinck, Rhiana Ferguson, April Fisher, Robin Hastings, Tracie and Parker Linhart, Sandi Spires

Luxology, LLC, San Mateo, California.


202 guide



Table of ContentsAn Introduction to modo Customizing modo User Interface Mousing Standards in modo Tool Pipe Common Viewports Modeling Tools Falloffs Working with Presets and the Preset Browser Painting in modo Render and Shading Tools 11 33 67 73 85 123 229 243 259 291

modo 202 modo 202



An Introduction to modoThe modo 202 Philosophy

Fig. 01 The modo Default Layout

W

hen we designed modo 202 we knew that our users would want and need very different workows and toolsets. Some people want to use modo in an existing pipeline and as such might only use modo for modeling or 3D painting. Others will use modo as a pipeline: creating models, texturing them and rendering images to take out to Photoshop or a document editing application. With such a widely varying user base it was critical for us to design a platform that would allow each person to choose how he or she works with modo. Moreover, for those who want to blend the disciplines together, it was essential for us to fuse the major technologies at the core. For users who employ modo as a component in a multi-application pipeline there are various le format options, which allow modo to interoperate with most pipeline systems. The modo user interface also allows for the quick remapping of user controls so that as the artist bounces between modo and the pipeline application, the workow is not impaired by having to make the mental switch and


change things as basic as how to tumble a viewport or activate the Move tool. The modo interface itself is so malleable it is nearly uid in operation. This allows the user to use a standard interface conguration and thus utilize modo in a specic focused mode, or to customize and adapt modo to their most demanding workow requirements. These options represent a tremendous amount of research, design and implementation at the Luxology labs and the end result is an application that can be painlessly inserted into an existing pipeline and enable artists to produce stunning work more efciently than ever. The modo 201 architecture enables a new kind of workow altogether, a richer and much less linear workow. The core fusion of the various technologies (modeling, painting, lighting, texturing and rendering) allows users to model paint and render at the same time. This deep integration also enables users to leverage rendering technology while painting or use geometry to create new images which can later be used as brushes to paint detail onto other models. This interweaving of technologies makes the modo experience much greater than the sum of its parts. Tip: Want a quick introduction to modo? Select modo Exploration from the le menu! This is a great way to accomplish some interesting things right away in modo. Enjoy it. We do.

Exploring the 201 Default LayoutThe Default Layout provides ready access to virtually all aspects of the application be it modeling, painting or texturing, lighting and rendering. In this hybrid layout you can focus on a single task such as modeling or you can mix and match modeling, painting and rendering processes simultaneously. This layout is comprised of ve basic regions. At the top we have the Menu Bar, below that on the left is the modo Tools area and Render Settings, to the right of that area is the Main 3D tabbed viewport, just above the main 3D section is the modes tool bar for setting selection modes and tool controls. Finally, over on the right are the data lists and info sections stacked above one another.

Menu Bar

Fig. 01 The Menu Bar, is a familiar site and sits at the top of your screen.


The menu bar across the top is always a failsafe way to gain access to virtually any of modos tools. The menu bar is most likely a familiar workow as this method of exposing functionality is standard across most applications. The categories of the menu bar are mostly self explanatory and make it relatively straightforward for you to quickly nd a tool or command to assist with a specic action. For instance, if you are looking for the command to select a continuous ring of edges, you would look inside the Select pull down and will see the Ring option. If you want to edit a UV texture you would most likely open the Texture pull down to nd the various tools and commands to assist. Of course, many of these tools and commands can be found directly on the tool bars in the various layouts, but with the menu bar you have a direct method for gaining access to any of them in addition to your visible tool bars.

Tools and Render Settings

Fig. 02 The Tools and Render settings tabs exposed.


On the left hand side of this layout is a tabbed viewport that contains most direct access to the main modeling and painting tools on one tab (Tool Bar) and the render and shading settings on the other (Render Settings). These two tabs give ready access to the key tools for modeling and painting as well as all controls necessary for setting up and perfecting your renders.

The Main Workspace

Fig. 03 The Main Workspace window, this is where the magic happens.

In the middle of the modo interface is the most important view of all as this is where all the action takes place. This is the stage, if you will, for your digital creation. When working in modo there are many processes such as pure modeling, UV editing, 3D painting, or scene layout and render tweaking. Each of these processes or disciplines benets from a particular view or style of view(s) for maximum


productivity. For this reason the main workspace in the default layout is the Tabbed 3D viewport with tabs that allow you to easily switch between a pure modeling 3D view, UV views, scene layout (Render) view and even some combination view styles that have more than one style active at the same time. The tabbed viewport allows you to easily click to different optimized views of your project as you are creating.

Data Lists and Info Views

Fig. 04 The Data Lists tabbed viewports and the Info Views.

The right hand side of the default layout is divided in half vertically. The top half contains a tabbed viewport with the common data lists and a color picker. The bottom half contains the common Info/ utility style views. In the topmost tabbed viewport you will nd the Item List (for quick selection and control over meshes, cameras, lights and locator items), the Vertex Map list (for selection of UV, morph, weight and color maps), the color picker (which can be used for servicing tools and items that require color input), and the Image list. The bottom viewport contains three tabs: the Item Properties, Tool Pipe, Info and Statistics and the Command History.


With so much access to tools and settings at your ngertips the 201 Default Layout may be more than you require for general work. Sometimes, for example, you may simply want to work on a modeling project and have modo present you with an ideal environment for that. modo provides focused Layouts for modeling, painting, rendering and UV mapping as well as other custom Layouts. All of these are available via the Menu Bar Layouts section.

3D Navigation

Fig. 01 modo uses the LMB (Left Mouse Button) with key qualiers for Pan, Rotate and Zoom


3D navigation maybe the single most important aspect of a 3D content creation application. The 3D viewport is your window to the virtual world in which you may spend countless hours each day. Having a comfortable and efcient navigation system for this viewport is critical. If you are new to 3D or have an open mind, you can simply use the modo default navigation style which we are quite fond of. However, if you have worked with other 3D applications you may have an established workow for navigating a 3D view. In that case we can also show you how to remap your input for 3D navigation and even keyboard shortcuts. modo is all about helping you to work in the way that makes you the most effective. For the rest of this section we will assume you are working with the modo default 3D navigation. There are three viewports that are relevant to this topic: 3D viewport, UV viewport and the Preview window. While the UV view is technically not 3D it does share some common navigation controls with the other two. Additionally, navigation of the 3D view when set to Camera or Light has some differences and extra settings that we will discuss.

Tip! Every 3D and UV viewport also has handy navigation icons. You can click and drag directly on these icons to navigate the project. Using the mouse directly in the viewport is far superior, but these are useful when you are getting your bearings.

NavigationThe 3D viewport has several different projection modes including orthographic (top, front, side) and perspective (Camera, Light, Perspective). The basic navigation in these views is identical. AltLMB = Rotate (in UV and Orthogonal views there is no rotation so AltLMB will Pan the view) ShiftAltLMB = Pan CtrlAltLMB = Zoom There are also Pan, Rotate and Zoom icons in the top right hand corner of each 3D viewport for direct view manipulation. When using a viewport set to Camera or Light the Zoom control (CtrlAltLMB) will actually move the item forward or backwards. To perform a traditional Zoom in the Camera view you can use CtrlAlt RMB. This will leave the Camera in place and adjust the Focal Length. The Preview viewport allows you to perform Camera view navigation directly within the view. This viewport adheres to the same controls as the 3D viewport set to Camera.


More about the Camera and Light viewWhen you use the Alt-LMB combination to navigate the viewport you are effectively orbiting the viewport around whatever item or element happens to be at the center of the orbit point. This orbit point is typically set automatically as you move or rotate the view. There are also commands that assist with viewport navigation such as Viewport Go to Viewport (G key) which will move the center of the viewport to match the mouse cursor location. Commands like this one will also reset the orbit center. If you are in the Camera view you may want to reset the orbit center without moving the view center or editing the view in any way as the Camera view represents your shot. To reset the orbit center for the Camera you can hover your mouse over the desired element and press CtrlT. Now when you Alt-LMB rotate the view the center of the orbit has been set. While orbit style navigation works quite well when you are focused on a specic item or element, often you may want traditional rst person rotation of the camera while looking through it. To accomplish this use Alt-RMB and the Camera will be rotated on its axes accordingly.

Standard Layouts and ControlsLayouts are simply interface setups that streamline the application for various user styles or specic tasks. There are also tools for creating and saving custom layouts. These layouts are what makes modo look like modo. Of course, due to our uid user-interface paradigm you have the power to modify these layouts while you work or create one you like and save it as a preset that you can recall at any time. At the end of the day, a layout is nothing more than a collection of viewports organized in a specic way. One might say these viewports are organized in alayout. Ahem.

201 Default LayoutThe 201 Default Layout is the rst layout you will see when launching modo. (Yes we realize this is modo 202, but the layout was designed as 201. So there.) This layout is a hybrid containing a series of tabbed viewports that provide access to nearly all aspects of 201 from modeling to painting and rendering. When used in combination with the Menu Bar the 201 Default Layout gives you comprehensive access to all of the 201 toolset. This is a power-user layout as it does bring a lot of functionality to the forefront. For beginning and intermediate level users the more focused layouts such as Model, Paint and Render are a good place to get started. The 201 Default Layout has three main areas of interest. The left-hand side is made up of a full height tabbed viewport that contains the basic modo Tools tool bar and tool properties on one tab and the Shader Tree and Render Properties on the other. In the middle of the layout is a Tabbed 3D viewport


that provides quick access to six 3D and UV viewport layouts. The far right-hand side is divided by two tabbed viewport groups. The top group contains is the Data List group and contains the Item List, Vertex Map List, Color Picker and Clip List (Images). The viewport group on the bottom right holds the Tool Pipe, Info & Statistics and the Command History. The Default Layout and each of the other supplied layouts in modo subdivide the screen into areas called viewports. These viewports can be dynamically adjusted in size using the LMB. Thus, even the supplied layouts are merely a convenient starting point for your session. As you create in modo, you may nd it useful to move from one layout to another and also to adjust the relative size of viewports on your screen. You can also change the identity of any viewport in modo by changing its type via the viewport widget in the top right hand corner of the viewport. This principle of changing your layout as you work is fundamental to modo and we encourage you to exploit the malleable user interface just like any other tool in modo.

3D Sparse

Fig. 01 The 3D Sparse layout


The 3D Sparse layout is popular amongst power-users who prefer to work in a clean workspace leveraging keyboard shortcuts as well as newer users who prefer the document centric workow with the menu bar and oating palettes providing access to tools and commands.

Menu BarThe menu bar across the top is always a failsafe way to gain access to virtually any of modos tools. The menu bar is most likely a familiar workow as this sort of functionality is standard across most applications. The categories of the menu bar are mostly self-explanatory and make it relatively straightforward for you to quickly nd a tool or command to assist with a specic action. For instance, if you are looking for the command to select a ring of edges you would likely look inside the Select pull down and will see the Ring option. If you want to edit a UV texture you would most likely open the Texture pull down to nd the various tools and commands to assist. Of course, many of these tools and commands can be found directly on the tool bars in the various layouts, but with the menu bar you have a direct method for gaining access to any of them in addition to your visible tool bars.

Accessing Palettes

Fig. 01 The Palette submenu and modo Tools toolbar as a palette viewport.

From the Menu Bar, Layouts pull down, you will nd a submenu for Palettes. These palettes are oating viewports and there are presets available in this submenu for every common viewport. Many of the palettes are set up as tabbed viewports and as such provide access to more than one viewport via a single palette. The really nice thing about palettes (especially when working with 3D Sparse) is that their visibility can be toggled by simply pressing the ~ key (the tilde key).


When used with the right combination of pie menus, popovers, palettes and keyboard shortcuts, the 3D Sparse layout can be incredibly powerful and streamlined.

Model

Fig. 01 The Model layout

The Model Layout is nearly identical to the Default Layout of modo 101, 102 and 103. This is a highly focused modeling environment. As such it is a good choice for work that does not require any painting or rendering tools or commands for it pushes these out of the way of the artist so that the focus is on modeling. There is a vast amount of training materials available for modo, some of which is based on previous versions of the software. The Model Layout allows you to follow along with these legacy tutorials easily since it matches the older model versions of modo very closely. This layout consists of a Menu bar, the single Perspective 3D Model View, the modo Modes toolbar, the modo Tools tool bar, a Tool Properties sheet, a Mesh List, Vertex Map List, Info & Statistics form, Tool Pipe form, a Command History, a Tools Info and Help Info view.


Simplied

Fig. 01 The Simplied layout

modo Simplied: This layout consists of a Menu bar, the single Perspective 3D Model View, a buttons only version of the modo Tools tool bar, a headless Mesh List, Vertex Map List and Tool Pipe, a Tool Qualiers form, and a Tool Properties form. This layout may be of interest to those who prefer an icon driven user interface.


Paint

Fig. 01 The Paint layout

The Paint Layout looks and feels like a dedicated painting application. This layout pushes modeling and rendering tools to the background so you can focus on texturing your masterpiece. The layout consists of the painting tools across the top of the interface in icon form and a large workspace underneath. The main workspace is a tabbed viewport providing quick access to Render Single, UV Paint, UV Texture View, Clips and Preview. By default you are in a Camera view. Paint tools are presented as icons along the upper left and a rapid way to access other useful views is provided to the upper right. On the right hand side of the layout is a viewport group with the Item list, Vertex Map list and a color picker for quick access. Beneath that viewport is another tabbed viewport group containing a Tools Properties section and Render Settings view. The rst provides access to the current paint tools properties so that you can control the tool with precision. You can also press the K key with your cursor over the 3D viewport to bring up a popover of the tools properties directly under your mouse. The Render Settings tab contains the Shader Tree and a Render properties form.


Render

Fig. 01 The Render layout

The Render Layout provides streamlined access to the main options you will need when focusing on the task of rendering your project. On the left hand side is the Shader Tree and Render Properties form so you can create and edit the various material and texture items and settings. The main 3D workspace provides you with the direct control over scene layout using a Camera view. On the right hand side the Item List allows you to create, select and edit items such as meshes, cameras and lights. Just above the Item List are three Quick Access buttons which open Palettes containing modeling tools, vertex mapping tools and a preview window, in that order. To render in this view, hit F9 or select Render from the Render pulldown. The resulting Render Frame oating window can be dismissed with the Esc key.


UV Edit

Fig. 01 The UV Edit layout

The UV Edit Layout is provided for intensive UV editing sessions. The layout consists of three major areas and two smaller sections that can be expanded or contracted as needed. On the left hand side you will nd the selection modes (in icon form or under a Quick Access button), the UV & Vertex Mapping tool bar and also a Tool Properties section. Just to the right of that section is the main UV edit viewport and to the right of that is a tabbed 3D viewport. These two views provide ample space for viewing your UV map and your textured model in the upper right as you edit. Just underneath the UV and 3D viewports are additional viewports that collapse and hide nicely when the UV or 3D viewport is expanded. Under the UV view is an Image list and Command History and under the 3D viewport sits an Item List and Vertex Map List. By dragging the border between the UV or 3D view and the views beneath them you can expand and collapse the viewports as needed.


UV Edit 102

Fig. 01 The UV Edit 102 layout

This layout consists of a Menu bar and four viewports that ank a central set of tool bars. On the left hand side are UV Texture and Perspective views. On the right hand side is a Top and Right view. In the middle of the display is a central UV and Vertex Mapping toolbar, plus a collapsed Vertex Maps toolset and a Tool Properties section. Rounding out this layout are a Mesh List, and a set of Selection mode icons accessible under a Quick Access button.


Layout Controls and CommandsLayout New Window The New Window command found on the Layout menu creates a blank frame that lets you start to build your own Viewport.

To create a new window, do the following:1) On the Layout menu, choose New Window. A blank window labeled default appears. It has a header marked (none) and a blank area below also marked (none).

Fig. 01 Using the New Window command creates an empty oating viewport.

You can use the viewport widget to the right of the header to make selections to populate this new window. Once you have populated the new viewport, you can click on the header to make additional changes and selections. You can use the viewport thumb to the left of the header to subdivide the new window and save it once you have customized it as you choose.


Layout Save

Fig. 01 Accessed by the main Menu Bar> Layout> Save

The Save command found on the Layout menu will let you save any layout customization you may have created into a new modo Default Layout.

To save your layout do the following:1) Customize your layout as you like. 2) On the Layout menu choose Save. (A conrming dialog box appears) Your layout is then automatically saved to the modo Default Layout. This layout is now stored in the cong le (modo.cfg). Anytime you now choose Layout > modo default, this new saved layout will be applied. To return to the original Default Layout from Luxology, you have to delete (or edit) your cong le.

Layout Save AsThe Save As command found on the Layout menu will let you save any layout customization you have created to a named layout. This is a powerful way to extend the range of layouts available to you when using modo.


Fig. 01 The Save As Option gives you the ability to develop a collection of specic Layout Styles

To save your layout do the following:1) Customize your layout as you like. 2) On the Layout menu choose Save As. 3) In the Name eld give your customized layout the name of your choice. It can be a new name or the name of an existing layout. The named layout will now appear in the Layouts list, available to be chosen whenever you want. This layout is now stored in the cong le.

Layout ClearThe Clear command found on the Layout menu will clear everything from the active window. All forms and viewports are removed when this is chosen, leaving only a large blank window with a blank header. If you have been working on a customized window and wish to start over this is a handy way to remove what you have done. If you use the Clear command on the main modo window, everything except for the Menu bar will be removed. Use the Layout Restore command to reverse the effect of the Clear command, if you mistakenly apply this to the main user interface.


Fig. 01 Windows and Palettes may look similar but have different characteristics

WindowsWhile all the default layouts have viewports that are embedded, it is also possible to have oating viewports. When viewports are oating (or detached) they can be Window or Palette style. There are two differences between Windows and Palettes. The most signicant difference is that all Palettes can have their visibility toggled with the ~ key. The other difference is that Palettes have a thinner header and only controls for closing the Palette whereas Windows allow minimizing as well as closing.

PalettesWhile all the default layouts have viewports that are embedded, it is also possible to have oating viewports. When viewports are oating (or detached) they can be Window or Palette style. There are two differences between Windows and Palettes. The most signicant difference is that all Palettes can have their visibility toggled with the ~ key. The other difference is that Palettes have a thinner header and only controls for closing the Palette whereas Windows allow minimizing as well as closing.

Toggle PalettesPalette viewports can be toggled on or off using the ~ keyboard shortcut.




Customizing modo UI

B

ecause of the wide variety of uses and user styles available in 3D modeling, it is critical that the work environment be exible enough to conform to the users desired workow. It is for this reason that modo offers the user such a malleable workspace. Ergonomics are a very user-centric issue and so the best method for meeting the needs of a widely varying audience with a single application is to provide a set of methods for the user to sculpt the program to t their specic requirements.

Fig. 01 The modo interface is very adaptive and allows an exhaustive amount of customization. Here we see the three basic layouts in modo and a oating material editor. All viewports can be embedded or detached.

Often when a user interface (UI) is dened as customizable, the denition of UI is restricted to the graphical user interface (GUI). Many programs allow the user to change some aspect of the appearance of the GUI. In modo we consider all aspects of the UI including the graphical user interface as well as


the physical user interface. In fact, in many cases the physical user interface can be more important than the simple layout or look of buttons. Editing 3D models on a 2D screen is a very complicated and involved artistic process. Therefore it is critical that the application provide a method for interaction in the 3D space that is most comfortable for the user. Modo allows several aspects of the UI to be customized including: General layout of viewports Custom toolbars Keyboard shortcuts 3D viewport navigation mousing User dened pie menus

General layout of the user interfaceThe basic framework of the modo GUI is based on a simple component called a viewport. You can think off a viewport as a region of the interface that is treated as a container. By combining a number of viewports in a specic layout and lling each one with the appropriate content (3D views, mesh lists, toolbars, etc) you can quickly create a complete interface.

Fig. 02 In this simplied version of modo there are only 2 viewports. The 3D area on the left is a single viewport set to 3D_Model view and the viewport on the right is set to the modo Tools toolbar.


Controlling ViewportsTo control the viewports there are two main elements, the thumb and the widget. The thumb is found on the top left hand corner of all viewports and the widget is located opposite on the right. The thumb allows you to control the location of the viewport as well as operations such as detaching and splitting the viewport. The widget is used for settting the contents and properties of a viewport such as changing a viewport from a mesh list into a 3D Model view, or simply changing a 3D model views settings.Viewport Widget (Triangle) Viewport Thumb (Dimple) Fig. 03 This is the viewport header for the modo Tools toolbar. The dimple on the left side is the viewport thumb and the triangle on the right is the viewport widget. All viewports have both a thumb and a widget. This allows control over every viewport in modo.

Using the viewport thumbThe thumb gives you a several methods of control. Left clicking and dragging the thumb allows you detach the viewport or drag it between two other viewports. Right clicking the thumb provides you with a context menu with all options for the viewport. There are also gestural controls for quickly creating new viewports.

Dragging viewports into a new locationUsing the LMB to click and drag on a viewports thumb, you can move it to a new location on the screen. When your mouse is over the thumb the viewport border will highlight. Clicking on the thumb and dragging will detach the viewport if you release it away from any viewport borders (Note: This way you can easily detach a viewport by simply dragging the thumb into or away from the viewport). If you hold the LMB down while dragging, and position your mouse between two viewports, then release the LMB, the viewport will be insert between the two viewports. Sometimes a viewport borders more than one other viewport. In that case, there are two or more insertion points. Watch for the border between the two viewports to highlight before you drop the viewport. The yellow bar indicates the insertion point and at one various locations will indicate how large the viewport will be at the time of insertion.


Fig. 04 This is the Tool Pipe viewport in its default location.

Fig. 05 Dragging the thumb and positioning the mouse cursor between the Info & Statistics and 3D model viewports creates this insertion highlight bar to let us know where the Tool Pipe viewport will be positioned. Releasing the LMB will move the viewport to this location.


Fig. 06 After dropping the viewport you can see the interface has adapted to the Tool Pipe viewports new position next to Info & Statistics.


Fig. 07 This time we drag the thumb slightly further to the left and the insertion bar changes to indicate that the viewport will stretch to match the 3D viewport.

Fig. 08 This is the resulting viewport layout with the ToolPipe now stretched to match the 3D viewport on the left.


Fig. 09 If you release the viewport when there is no insertion highlight on screen the viewport will be detached and become a oating viewport.

Fig. 10 The RMB context menu of the viewport thumb has many options for controlling the viewports


Duplicate: Creates a copy of the selected viewport and deposits it as an embedded viewport on the right hand side of the layout leaving the original in place. Copy: Creates a detached copy of the selected viewport leaving the original in place. Detach: Floats the current viewport. Delete: Removes the current viewport from the interface. Save Viewport: Saves any changes made to the current viewport preset. Save Viewport As: Saves a new viewport preset allowing you to set the name and viewport category. Revert: Restores the viewport to its default preset settings. Maximize/Restore: Fills the frame with the current viewport. This is mostly useful in the case of maximizing a 3D viewport inside a collection of 3D views as in the case of the Mod_Quad preset. Min Header: Removes the viewport header leaving mini versions of the thumb and widget. This is very useful when using viewports for simplied data displays such as the coordinates viewport in the bottom left hand side of the default modo layout. Lock Height: Fixes the viewport height at the current setting. Lock Width: Fixes the viewport width at the current setting. Split Horizontal: Splits the current viewport into two viewports of the same type, next to each other. Split Vertical: Splits the current viewport into two viewports of the same type, one on top of the other. Split Quad: Splits the current viewport into four viewports of the same type arranged in a two by two array.

Using gestures to quickly split viewports

To quickly split a viewport either horizontally or vertically you can use the ctrl-LMB drag gesture. Hold the ctrl key down while you click and drag a viewport to the right, or downward. Dragging to the right will split the viewport horizontally and dragging down will split It vertically.


Fig. 01 The image on the left is the viewport before the gestural viewport split. Ctrl-dragging the thumb to the right and releasing, creates a quick split of the viewport.

Using the viewport widgetFrom the viewport widget you can completely control the viewport contents. From switching a viewport from one mode to another, to simply adjusting some settings on the current viewport mode. You can even access the layout presets from the widget. The widget menu contains several subsections. The top of the menu shows a list of optional viewports that are of the same category as the current viewport. The second section is a list of submenus. Each submenu is a viewport category. All the viewport presets are available from these categories. If you create a new viewport preset, you will assign it a category so that it is automatically organized into the submenus. Below the categories section is a submenu for Viewport Settings. Not all viewports have additional settings, so on certain viewports this will be unavailable. The viewport settings allows you to customize a viewport with various attributes. For example, a 3D model view settings submenu includes the various projection modes (Front, back, top, bottom, right, left, perspective).(Tip: RMB clicking on the viewport header will give you quick access to Viewport Settings if any are available for that viewport type.)


The nal subsection of the widget menu contains two submenus. One is the Viewport Controls submenu and the other is the Layout Controls submenu. The Viewport Controls is a mirror of the Viewport Controls you will nd by RMB clicking the viewport thumb and Layout Controls is a mirror of the options found in the Menu Bar > Layouts pull down. These have been added to the widget menu for convenience.

Fig. 01 The widget menu for the Mesh List starts with all the viewports that are located in the Data Lists category so that you can quickly switch to common viewports.

Viewport GroupsSome viewports are part of a viewport group, this allows you to quickly activate or switch between several viewports with one click. The most common example of a viewport group is the Mod_Quad 3D Edit view style. This group consists of four 3D Edit viewports in a two by two grid. Having these four viewports as part of a single viewport group allows you to quickly change the group to another setting such as UV_3D_Split or Mod_Single and back again without having to do any viewport splitting. When the current viewport is part of a group, an extra section is added to the top of the widget menu to allow you to either change all viewports in the group or only the viewport you have selected. Lets take a look at an example.


Fig. 02 Here we see modo with the 3D Edit section set to Mod_Quad. All four 3D viewports are part of the same viewport group, a viewport preset named Mod_Quad.

Fig. 03 The top section of the widget menu for a viewport group allows you to quickly change all the viewports in the group. The second section only sets the current viewport.


Fig. 04 Choosing the UV Texture View option from the second section of the widget menu will only change the current viewport.

Fig. 05 Notice that only the perspective viewport has been modied. It was set to UV Texture View.


Fig. 06 Choosing an option from the rst section will change the entire group. Here we are changing the group from Mod Quad to UV 3D split.

Fig. 07 The Mod Quad four viewport layout has been changed to the UV 3D Split mode.


Fig. 08 We can easily switch back to the Quad view layout by selecting that option from the widget menu.

Fig. 09 The Quad Mod preset has been restored.


Creating A Custom LayoutTo create a custom interface you can simply start from an existing layout and move viewports around, or you can clear the layout and start fresh. In this example we will clear the layout to give you a better understanding of how the interface is constructed.

Fig. 01 Using the Menu Bar, choose Layout > Clear to clear the entire interface to a single blank viewport.


Fig. 02 While holding the Ctrl key, LMB drag on the viewport thumb and move your mouse downward, then release. This will split the view creating a new viewport below the current one.

Fig. 03 Your layout should now look like this. The next step is to drag the header of the lower viewport downward. Click on the header with the LMB and drag downward.


Fig. 04 Now use the ctrl-LMB drag to the right gesture on the top viewports thumb to split that viewport to the right.

Fig. 05 The right hand viewport will become a toolbar, so grab the divider between the two top viewports and drag it to the right to make the rightmost viewport an appropriate width for a toolbar.


Fig. 06 Now that we have three viewports, lets begin to populate them. First we will change the top-left viewport to the Mod_Quad 3D Edit viewport.

Fig. 07 From the viewport widget menu, choose 3D Edit > Mod_Quad.


Fig. 08 Nice. Before we set the right hand viewport to a toolbar, lets split it downward so that we can have a toolbar and a tool properties form on that side. Use the LMB-ctrl drag down gesture on the right-hand viewport thumb.

Fig. 09 Now we are ready to set these two viewports to a toolbar and a properties form respectively.


Fig. 10 Using the widget on the top right viewport, choose the Toolbars category and select modo Tools.

Fig. 11 Your interface should now look like this.


Fig. 12 Now from the widget menu on the viewport below the toolbar, select the Properties category and choose Tool Properties.

Fig. 13 Since no tool is active the new viewport will be blank. However, you can tell if you have the correct viewport selected as the viewport header should now read Tool Properties.


Fig. 14 Next we want to split the bottom viewport to the right. Again, use the ctrl-LMB drag right gesture to do this quickly, or RMB click on the thumb to access the option from the context menu.

Fig. 15 Using the widget on the bottom left viewport, select Form View, then RMB click on the black header of a Form view to gain access to more form presets. RMB click on the header and choose modo modes.


Fig. 16 Using the widget on the bottom right viewport, select the Status Feedback option.

Fig. 17 The Status Feedback viewport has several different settings. In this case we want to use this viewport to view coordinates in 3D and tool settings. From the viewport widget menu, select Viewport Settings > Tools.


Fig. 18 Your new interface should now look like this. Cool! Now for a little polish. The coordinates viewport that we have set up in the bottom right hand corner looks a little odd with the large black header. Fortunately we can use the Min Header option to remove it.

Fig. 19 From the viewport thumb RMB context menu, you can choose Min Header to remove the header from a viewport.


Fig. 20 Your layout should look like this now. Lets clean up the size of the toolbar viewport on the right. There is a little too much dead space between the buttons and the toolbar tabs.

Fig. 21 Click and drag the toolbar viewport border to the right. Your interface should now look like the image above. Now that the layout is complete, lets save this as a new Layout preset.


Fig. 22 Use the Menu Bar to select Save As from the Layout pull down menu. This is where you can save new Layout presets.

Fig. 23 Type a name for your layout preset in the layout.save requester.


Fig. 24 Now you can always recall your new layout from the Menu Bar > Layout > Layouts drop down.

That is sweet.


Creating a viewport presetBy default all viewports in modo are actually considered presets. Viewport presets are simply the combination of a viewport type, a category and any viewport settings. This combination is given a name and voila! You have a viewport preset. Of course, you can create your own viewport presets as well. Lets take a look at a default viewport preset and then create a new one. Use the Menu Bar > Layout > New Window to spawn a new oating viewport. From the widget of that viewport select 3D Edit > 3D Model View.

Fig. 01 The oating window has been set to a 3D Model View.

The default 3D Model view has been assigned to the 3D Edit category, has no custom settings and has a name of 3D Model View. Lets create our own preset now. Change using the 3D view properties pull down (currently should read Shaded), choose the Vertex Map option. Using the projection style pulldown (currently set to Perspective), set the view to Top.


Fig. 02 The viewport should be looking down at the top of your model, and the model will be drawn with the vertex map shading.

Lets change another viewport property to rotate the orientation of the Top view so that it is landscape rather than portrait style. Once again use the 3D view properties pull down menu and select Properties from the list.

Fig. 03 The 3D view properties menu allows you to quickly set any single property, or open the Properties dialog to set many options at once, and/or gain access to some advanced properties.


Fig. 04 The Properties dialog shows all the options for the current 3D viewport in one easy to use menu. From here you can change multiple settings at one time.

Use the Spin pop-up menu and to rotate the view orientation by 90 degrees. Press the OK button or hit Return to dismiss the Properties dialog.

Fig. 05 Notice that the Top view has been rotated by 90 degrees putting it in a landscape orientation.


We now have the basis for our viewport preset. To save this as a new preset, use the RMB thumb context menu and choose Save Viewport As.

Fig. 06 The viewport controls context menu, opened with the RMB click on the viewports thumb.

Type the name of your viewport preset into the Save Viewport dialog and leave the category set to 3D Edit. The category pop-up is the mechanism for organizing viewports in the viewport widget.

Fig. 07 The Save Viewport dialog.

Now that we have saved the viewport preset, we can easily recall this viewport from any viewport widget. Close the oating viewport so that you are back to the default modo layout. Choose the viewport widget for the Info & Statistics viewport and navigate down to the 3D Edit category.


Fig. 08 From the widget menu of the Info & Statistics viewport we can choose our new 3D Edit viewport preset.

Fig. 09 The Info and Statistics viewport has been changed to the Vertex Map Top Landscape preset.

With viewport presets, you can create your most commonly used viewport settings so that you can easily access them from any viewport. Super bon bon!




Mousing Standards in modo

M

odo has two main styles of mouse input, hauling and handle manipulation. Hauling is LMB dragging anywhere in the 3D viewport while there is a tool active, without using the handles. Handle manipulation is LMB dragging on any of the current tools handles.

Single axis Handle

A Haul handleFig. 01 Tool handles for Stretch. Dragging a handle constrains the tool to that axis. Hauling off handles allows you to quickly adjust two or more tool properties at one time.

Modo employs a set of standards for all mouse behaviors depending on the style of tool. These standards allow us to leverage all three mouse buttons and qualier key combinations to produce variations on the tools behavior. There are two basic types of tools, geometry creation tools and geometry editing (transform) tools. The standards for mousing are slightly different between these two categories so that we have mapped the most commonly desired behaviors to the primary mouse inputs for each style of tool. When you activate a tool in modo you can always see the mousing behaviors listed at the bottom of the modo interface in the ToolTips viewport.


Fig. 02 The ToolTips viewport can be located at the bottom of the modo Default layout.

The basic rules of mousing are quite simple. Understanding these rules will allow you to take full advantage of the exibility and speed of the tools.

LMBTransforms Reset tool and haul parameters Haul parameters Create new curve node

Shift-LMBContinue hauling parameters w/o reset Reset tool and haul parameters Drag node Child nodes

MMBClone and haul parameters Clone and haul parameters Delete node

RMB(none: reserved for falloff modiers) Haul alternate parameters none

Ctrl-LMBConstrain parameters Constrain parameters Move constrained

Create

Curves

Transforms ToolsReset tool and haul parameters.Denition: At the mouse click the tool properties are reset. As the mouse is dragged the values are changed. Example: When using the Axis Rotate tool with the Automatic Action Center, clicking in the 3D viewport sets the pivot position for the rotation. LMB click and drag will reset the tool properties to 0 degrees and set the pivot for the rotation under the mouse. Dragging will then change the amount of rotation.

Continue hauling parameters without reset.Denition: The tool properties are edited from the current value without resetting any of the tools parameters or action center info.


Example: When using Axis Rotate, this mode will leave the current rotation amount in place as well as the rotate tools pivot. Dragging the mouse in this mode will simply increase or decrease the rotation value.

Clone and haul parametersDenition: Re-applies the current properties of the tool and allows continued editing from those values. Example: The Axis Rotate tool has been used to rotate the selection by 45 degrees. Using clone and haul parameters will reapply that rotation so the selection will then be at 90 degrees from its original position. The tool widget will still be at 45 degrees since the value was cloned. You are now able to continue hauling to edit the value.

Constrain parametersDenition: Uses initial mouse drag to determine which properties to edit and constrains the mouse to only edit those values. Example: When hauling the Move tool, two properties are edited simultaneously depending on the current Work Plane. If you are editing on the XY plane, hauling will edit both the X and Y move value. Using Constrain parameters, the rst direction the mouse is moved determines the editable axis. In this case, holding CTRL and dragging to the right will edit the X move value and the Y value will remain unchanged.

Geometry Creation ToolsHaul parametersDenition: The tool properties are edited from the current value without resetting any of the tools parameters or action center info.


Example: Using the Polygon Bevel tool, the rst click activates and allows you to haul both the inset and shift values freely. Subsequent clicks will simply add to the existing edit values. This enables you to click and drag repeatedly on a single bevel to edit the values.

Reset Tool and Haul ParametersDenition: Any current tool action is applied, the tool properties are reset and a new application of the tool begins. Example: When using the polygon bevel tool this behavior allows you to begin a new bevel and immediately haul the inset and shift values. With this method you can quickly apply a series of bevels, each with its own inset and shift values.

Clone and haul parametersDenition: Re-applies the current properties of the tool and allows continued editing from those values. Example: The polygon bevel tool can be applied repeatedly with the same inset and shift properties by using Clone and haul parameters without additional dragging.

Haul alternate parametersDenition: Some creation tools provide hauling edits for secondary properties via the RMB. Example: The Cube primitive tool allows the segment value to be edited by dragging the RMB while the tool is active. The axis is determined by the orientation of the work plane.

Curve tools Create New Curve NodeDenition: LMB clicking with a curve-type tool (Curve, Bezier, Tube, etc) will create a new curve point after the


currently selected point. To add a point between two existing points, rst select the point that you intend to be behind the new point. LMB click/dragging on a curve point will edit the location of that point. Example: The Tube tool allows you to click repeatedly in the 3D viewport to dene new tube control points. Clicking on an existing point will select it so that you can add new points in the middle of the tube.

Drag Node and Child NodesDenition: Holding down the Shift key while using the LMB to move a curve node will also move any nodes that are children of that node. Example: When using Solid Sketch you may want to move an entire branch. To do this, simply hold the Shift key while LMB dragging the node.

Delete NodeDenition: MMB clicking directly on a curve handle will delete it immediately. Example: When working with the Curve tool you may add more nodes that you need. Simply MMB clicking on a node will delete it from the curve.

Move ConstrainedDenition: Ctrl-LMB dragging a curve control point will constrain your movement along the rst axis you drag toward. Example: When using the Tube tool, hold the CTRL key down and click on a control point in the tube. Dragging along an axis will constrain the move to that axis so that you can not adjust the position of the point on the other axis.



Tool Pipe

T

he Tool Pipe viewport is a seemingly simple, yet incredibly important aspect of modo. Much of modos power and exibility comes from the ability to compose tools with various action centers, axes, falloffs and snapping. The Tool Pipe is where all of this is managed, and much more. The Tool Pipe is essentially the air trafc controller for all tools in the system. It decides which tools are active, how a tool should draw, if a tool should be auto-activated on selection, if selections can change while the tool is active and whether a tool modier should be persistent or transient between tool selections. These options are managed automatically by the Tool Pipe and can also be overridden by the user.

Fig. 01 The Tool Pipe currently populated with the Soft Drag deformation tool preset.

In the default modo layout you will nd the Tool Pipe viewport in the bottom right hand side of the interface on a tab labeled Tool Pipe (Clever!). The viewport is divided into several columns and depending on the currently active tool preset, falloffs and other modiers, several rows as well. Each entry in the tool pipe receives its own row. The columns are labeled E, V, A, Tool and Preset as you can see in Fig. 01 above.

E: EnableThe E column indicates the state of the enable/disable toggle. When the checkmark is visible in this column the tool or modier is enabled. This can be very useful when working with modiers such as falloffs or guides as it allows you to quickly disable the effect of the modier without removing it from the tool pipe completely so that you can re-enable it with its settings intact.


Fig. 02 The Screen Falloff has been disabled by clicking on the checkmark in the E column. This column is a toggle so each click will switch between enabled and disabled.

V: VisibilityThe V column indicates the handle visibility settings for the current tools and modiers. There are several visibility states available to most tools. RMB clicking on this column opens the visibility context menu. The default setting, Preference uses the Tool Handles Draw Style setting on the Preference editor. This allows you to globally set the tool handles to a specic style. The Advanced setting will, in many cases, add extra handles and/or HUD sliders for the tool. Basic uses the core set of tool handles for the primary controls and Invisible will hide the handles altogether for users who prefer simple hauling behaviors. You can quickly toggle between Invisible and Preference by LMB clicking in this column.

Fig. 03 The Visibility context menu can be used to customize the tool handles for the selected entry in the tool pipe.


Fig. 04 LMB clicking the column quick toggles between Invisible and Preference.

A: ActiveThe A column indicates the current active state of the tool or modier. This column has three states, manual (m), automatic (a) or inactive (blank). When a tool or modier is activated it is either set directly by the user (manual) or automatically by the system (auto).

Fig. 05 The Soft Drag tool has just been activated. The Action Center, Axis and Falloff parameters are currently derived automatically and the Active state is set to Auto. The Move tool is using user input and is therefore set to Manual.

Fig. 06 When the user modies the falloff radius using the RMB hauling option, the falloff is switched to Manual mode. During this edit, the Move tool is inactive so the falloff can trap the mouse input.


Fig. 07 LMB clicking in the 3D view to use the tool reactivates the Move tool in manual mode. Since both the Move tool and Screen falloff have had direct user input they are set to manual.

Tool ColumnThe tool column shows a list of the tolls and modiers that currently occupy the tool pipe. Using the RMB in this column reveals the tool preset context menu. This context menu allows you to activate, apply, reset or remove a tool in the tool pipe as well as create and load new presets and set activation and locking states.

Fig. 08 RMB clicking on the Tool column reveals the tool presets context menu.


Apply ToolThis option will apply the current tool using the parameters in the tool properties form. This does not result in the tool being in interactive mode as Activate tool does. Example With the Cube tool selected, utilizing Apply Tool will create a cube with the current parameters found on the tool properties form. This does not activate the tool.(Tip: Many of the transform tools are set to Auto Activate so the Apply Tool option is irrelevant. However, in some cases where the data is very large and interactive edits are not desirable, disabling Auto Activate for that tool allows you to select the tool, numerically enter the desired parameters in the Tool Properties form and then use Tool Apply. This allows you to use any of modos tools in a non-interactive manner.)

Reset ToolResets the properties of the currently selected tool or modier to the preset defaults. Example: After dragging out a custom cube, you may wish to return the tool to the default 1 meter cube. Use the Reset Tool option to set the properties back to the defaults.


Remove ToolThis option will remove the currently selected tool or modier from the tool pipe. You can use this feature to remove a falloff or other tool modier from the tool pipe without changing the state of the rest of the tool pipe inhabitants. (Note: An Action Center and Axis must always be in the Tool Pipe. As such, using the Remove Tool option on an Action Center of Axis will merely replace the current Center or Axis with Auto Center or Auto Axis respectively.) Example: Activating the Soft Drag tool will populate the tool pipe viewport with Screen Falloff and the Move tool. If you would like to leave Screen Falloff in place, but switch to the Rotate tool, you can use Remove Tool on the Move tool. This will leave the Screen Falloff in place and allows you to add Rotate to the pipe.

Save PresetThis option allows you to save any tool/modier composition as a preset that can be recalled like any tool in the system. Once you have saved a tool preset you can recall it with the Load Preset option, or via the command tool.set.


Load PresetLoading a preset will insert the contents of the preset into the currently active tool pipe. If there are components of the preset that collide with the current tool pipe contents, the loaded preset takes precedent. Any tool pipe contents that do not overlap with the loaded preset will remain in place.

Auto ActivateThis is a toggle option. When there is a checkmark next to Auto activate the currently selection tool pipe option is set to activate immediately upon selection. Activation means the tool, when selected, will be reset and set to the active state. Tools that are have Auto Activate disabled require manual activation. Manual activation can be accomplished by clicking in the 3D viewport or by RMB clicking in the tool pipe and choosing activate tool. Activating a tool sets the tool into interactive mode and will display any handles available for the tool.


Example: Using Auto Activation, or not. You may wonder why you would ever want a tool to have Auto Activate disabled. After all, if you are selecting a tool, presumably you want to interact with it, right? Well, there are actually a couple very good reasons why you might not want a tool in Auto Activate mode. As discussed earlier, there are two actions that occur when a tool is in Auto Activate mode. First the tool properties are reset and then the tool is set to interactive mode. The properties are reset so that the tools handles are in a reasonable position and so that when the tool is set to interactive mode (activated) those parameters are not applied to your mesh (wouldnt that be annoying!). These two actions are exactly the reasons you might NOT want a tool to auto activate. There are times you might want to keep the previous tool settings around to repeat the tool exactly as you have just used it and there are times when you might want to use the tool in a non-interactive manner (working with very heavy meshes). Consider the rst case of reusing tools settings. One interesting benet to the modo tool preset system, is that modo treats all tools as presets. Each time you work with a tool, modo remembers the tool properties for the next time you select that particular tool. With auto activate turned on, however, the tool properties are immediately reset, so those settings are cleared before the tool is activated. But what if you wanted to move a selected polygon exactly 1.2 meters on X, and then repeat that move several times after selecting different elements of the model? Since the move tool uses Auto Activate, you would need to numerically enter 1.2m in the X eld each time you selected the tool. Instead, you could disable Auto Activate after the rst time you enter 1.2m. Now each time you select the move tool, the properties maintain the settings from the previous session. Now you can simply use the Apply button on the tool properties form to trigger the tool. Using the Apply command does not put the tool into interactive mode, only activating the tool (clicking in the 3D or UV viewport or using Activate in the toolpipe) sets the tool into interactive mode. The other case of using tools with Auto Activate disabled occurs when working with large datasets. If you happen to be working with very heavy meshes, using tools in the interactive method may not be feasible (or at least not very pleasant). In this case, you may have better results by dialing in precise values for a tool in the properties form, and the using the Apply command. This can often result in a much more accurate use of tools. The default setting for Auto Activate varies between tools. The general rule for the default conguration is that basic Transform tools have auto activation enabled and any tool that creates geometry has auto activation disabled. Examples of transforms are Move, Rotate, Size and Stretch. Examples of geometry creation tools are primitives, bevel and slice. Changing the auto activation state of a preset is persistent between tool sessions. If, for example, you prefer to use the Move tool with Auto Activate disabled, you only need to toggle Auto Activate in the Tool Pipe once. Each time you select the Move tool from that point forward, the Auto Activate state will be disabled as this ag is stored as part of the tool preset.


LockIn some instances, you may want to lock a tools properties so that each time you select the tool its settings are always in the originally locked state. In this case you would use the Lock option. Example If you have created a Cube with specic dimensions and you would like that to be the default settings for the Cube tool each time you select it, you can use the Lock option in the Tool Pipe. Typically, each time you interact with the Cube tool, these current settings will be remembered and applied the next time you select the tool. However, using the Lock option will reset the tool to these locked parameters regardless of any interactive session with the tool. Try this exercise. Step 1: Select the Cube tool from the modo Tools toolbar. Notice that the default settings are set to a 1 meter cube centered on the X, Y and Z axes. Step 2: In the 3D viewport, drag out a custom cube. Perhaps a nice long rectangle on the X axis. Step 3: Look at the Properties form and make a mental note of your settings. Step 4: Drop the tool by pressing the Space Bar. Step 5: Delete the mesh by pressing Ctrl-X. Step 6: Select the cube tool again. Notice that the settings from the previous tool session are in the Properties form. Cool! If you want to recreate the exact same box, you can RMB click on the Cube Primitive entry in the tool pipe and choose Apply Tool. Step 7: Drag out a new box in the 3D viewport. Make sure it is noticeably different than your last box. Again, note the tool properties for this box. Step 8: Drop the tool by pressing the Space Bar.


Step 9: Select the Cube tool and note that the settings were persistent. Step 10: In the Tool Pipe viewport, RMB click on the Cube Primitive and select the Lock option. Step 11: In the 3D viewport, create yet another cube with completely different dimensions than the previous. Note the settings in the properties viewport. Step 12: Drop the tool. Step 13: Select the Cube tool. Step 14: Notice this time the settings were reverted back to the cube that you created when you set the Lock ag on. These are now the default settings for the Cube primitive each time it is activated.

Auto DropThis option completes the tool action with each mouse-up. This is mostly useful for tools that have a stroke action such as painting or sculpting tools. Without the Auto-drop option adjusting tool parameters after a paint stroke will undo the stroke or change its effects which in the case of these tools is undesirable. With other tools, such as Bevel, being able to numerically adjust the tool parameters after interactively setting them roughly is benecial and in this case Auto Drop would be disabled.


Select ThroughThere are two very different workow methods for 3D artists as it applies to 3D tool use. Some applications rely solely on the use of tool handles, while other applications allow the user to haul tool values by clicking and dragging away from the 3D handles. There are advantages to both methods. Hauling advocates proclaim the relative merits of being able to quickly drag out a result without having to precisely grab a tool handle. Further, the use of hauling allows the user to set the Action Center by clicking the mouse in 3D space. This allows quick and easy customization of the tools center position. On the other hand, users who rely solely on the tool handles like to preserve mousing off handle for changing selection. This workow allows you to quickly change selection while the tool is still active. When combined with the Transform tool which encompasses move, rotate and scale in a single widget this can be very fast way to tweak a mesh. modo goes both ways and Select Through is the gateway to get you there. When Select Through is disabled, clicking off handle can both reset the Action Center (when in Auto mode) and haul tool values. Since 3D tools need to know which parameters are being adjusted, hauling uses the active WorkPlane to determine which values are being modied. Enabling Select Through will allow you to keep the tool active and change the selection by clicking or click-dragging away from the handles. This mode disables the ability to haul and quickly reset the Action Center. To set the Action Center to a custom location with Select Through active you will need to directly edit the Action Center handle.



Common ViewportsItem List

Fig. 01 The Item List viewport

T

he Item List has a number of functions. First, and most obviously, it lists all of the locator type items in your project (For more info about Locators and lists see Item List versus Shader Tree section below). In the Item list you can create and edit the following Items: Mesh, Group, Camera, Directional Light, Spot Light, Point Light, Area Light, Dome Light, Cylinder Light, Texture Locator and Backdrop Item.


Fig. 01 Clicking (new item) in the list opens this dialog.

The functionality of the Item List includes, simple selection of the Items in the list, creation and deletion of Items and entire scene les, re-ordering items in the list, creating parent/child hierarchies, setting visibility, edit item properties and creating item groups for general organization.

Auto VisibilityThere are two very different workows between modeling and layout/rendering processes. When modeling you often want to focus on a single mesh item whereas the layout process demands a complete view of the project. modo offers a solution for both via Auto Visibility. By default this option is off. The Auto Visibility mode will automatically turn visibility on for the currently selected item and hide all deselected items. In this way you can easily set the focus to a specic mesh item. Once the item is visibly isolated you can use the Shift or Control key to add to the selection. If you want to have one layer active but another layer visible and inactive you can Control click on that Items visibility column to override the Auto Visibility setting at that time. To access the Auto Visibility option you can either RMB click on the viewport tab or header or you can use the Viewport Widget and navigate to the Viewport Settings.


Fig. 01 RMB on the viewport Tab or using the Viewport Widget allows you to set Auto Visibility from the Viewport Settings sub-menu.

Creating Groups in Item ListAs your projects become more complex you may nd your at list of Items becoming unwieldy. modo provides Item Groups to help organize your project. To create a group you can choose new item>Group. With the new Group item created you can begin to drag and drop items into the group to clean up your list. If you have several items that you want to add to a group quickly you can select them all and press Control-G. This will create a group and move all selected items into that group in one step. Lets collapse the Chair mesh items into a single group container.

Select the rst item in the list.


Holding Shift click the last mesh item you wish to add to the group. Holding Shift while clicking will select all items in between. If you wish to select only certain items use the Control key and click on each item independently.

Press Control-G to create the group item and all of the selected items are automatically swept into the group. Poof!


To keep the project usable, give the group a reasonable name. You can RMB click on the group item and choose Rename, or Click-pause-click to invoke an inline edit.

Now the long list of items composing the chair is nicely tucked into a group logically named All Chair Items. The long list of mesh items is out of the way, but easy to get to by simply unfolding the group with the arrow widget to the left of the group items name. Groups can contain items of any type. In other words, you could include texture locators, lights and meshes in a single group.


Creating Parent/Child Hierarchies with the Item ListParent/Child relationships amongst items have several benets. First, if you are exporting to an animation system you already know the power of these hierarchies for animation. Since setting them up in modo is so simple this is a rst step at rigging your project for animation. However, even within the modo-sphere there are advantages to creating these hierarchies. The two main areas of advantage are gang-manipulations and organization. Creating hierarchies in modo is a simple drag and drop operation. In the Item list, drag and drop one item onto another and that item becomes the child item. Thats it really. Well there are some nuances.

Fig. 01 With a at list even simple projects can get lengthy.

Fig. 02 We Shift-click on these two items to select them both.


Fig. 03 Dragging the two items up onto the Top Section mesh item.

Fig. 04 Now the two selected items are children of the Top Section item.


Fig. 05 We repeated those steps for the Bottom section items and collapsed both Parents to visually clean up the list signicantly.

Fig. 06 Double clicking on the Parent item in the Item list will automatically select the parent and ALL children. Handy!


Fig. 07 While our project consists of 6 items, we can easily select the entire top or bottom by simply double clicking on the parent items in the list.

Manipulating Items in a HierarchyIt is important to note that there are some ramications to editing items in Item mode when you have a hierarchy established. (The following section is only relevant when the selection mode is set to Item.) For instance, when you translate the Parent item the children will receive the same amount of translation. However, if you select the parent AND child items the effect of the transform will be doubled on the child. Additionally, if there are Item level transforms applied to the Parent item before the relationship is set up the Child will move to match the Parents transforms. If the Item Transform is changed prior to the child relationship being severed the child item will also move. There is a simple solution to maintaining the childs current position during parenting or un-parenting the item. Simply hold the Control key down when you drag and drop the child to or from the parent item. This will adjust the child items Transform values such that the item does not move from its original world location.


Fig. 01 The Parent has Item level transforms applied as we can see in the Item Properties to the right. Also note that when the parent item is selected, the children shade in a light blue to indicate the relationship in the 3D view.


Fig. 02 Un-parenting the top section moves the item back to the world space location. Note the transforms for this item are all at defaults.


Fig. 03 In this case we held the Control key while un-parenting the item. This triggered modo to apply transforms to the item so that it remains in the same location after the parent/child link was broken. Have it your way.


Hierarchy Navigation Quick TipsOften when you have created hierarchies it may be arduous to expand the various parent items to dig down to the level where you can see the item you are looking for. If you change to Item selection mode and click on the item in 3D view (where it is most likely in plain sight) you can press the F key to Find the item in the list. The list will auto-expand to reveal your item. Fancy. You can also quickly expand/contract an entire hierarchy branch with a single action. Holding Shift when you click to expand or contract a hierarchy will expand/contract the current item and all items down the branch.

The Item Context MenuThere are several options available via the Item List context menu. Simply RMB click on any item to open the menu.

Fig. 01 The Item List context menu from the Item level.

The Item list context menu provides quick access to a number of useful controls. Properties: Mesh items have options for renaming, setting the subdivision and spline patch levels, adjusting the curve renement angle, visibility and toggling between smooth SDS UVs or linear UVs. All other items only have the option to set their name as the other options are irrelevant to non-mesh items. Add to Group: This creates a group item and tucks all currently selected items into said group. The same can be achieved with Control-G shortcut.


Rename: Allows you to rename the item. Duplicate: This command will create a duplicate of the current item. Instance: The Instance command is only relevant for Mesh items. The result is a duplicate of the current mesh that is simply a reference to the mesh. Instances can be transformed at the item level and can have their own materials and textures applied to them via Item level masks. However, they can not be edited at the mesh level as they derive all mesh information from the original mesh item. The advantage is that all mesh changes made to the original mesh item will propagate to its instances. Delete: This will delete the currently selected item(s). Load Preset: This will load an item preset into the project. Apply Preset: The Apply preset command will apply values from a compatible item preset to the currently selected item. (Note: Mesh items cannot be saved as presets. Nor can preset values be applied to meshes.) Preset Browser: This option will open the preset browser so that you can quickly choose a preset to load or apply. Save Preset: For non-mesh items you can save Presets that can be reloaded or applied to existing items. Create Item Mask: This option will create a mask group in the Shader Tree with the current Item as the lter. This allows you to quickly add a material/texture mask at the mesh item level so that you can isolate material changes to that specic item. Change Item Type: With this option you can quickly convert an item into another item type. For instance, you can convert an Instance mesh into a real mesh so that you can edit the item at the component level. Another example is to convert a Directional Light into an Area Light. It should be noted that certain parameters would be lost if you were to switch back to the original item type. Common parameters should be preserved.


Project Item Context MenuRMB clicking on the le name in the Item list will open the le context menu. This is a very convenient place to perform routine tasks such as Save, Save As, Export, Close and Revert.

Fig. 01 The Item list context menu from the Project level

Item List modesThe Item List has three UI modes depending on the size of the viewport. When the Item List is fully expanded it shows all Items and acts as a complete project manager. When the viewport gets collapsed it morphs into a Mesh List allowing a very compact user interface for quickly selecting the various meshes in your project. The Mesh List mode has two sizes, Medium and Small depending on the amount of screen space available to the viewport. This allows you to compress the list into a very small space on your screen to make room for other UI elements.

Fig. 01 The Item List in medium Mesh List mode.

The Medium view shows the current project in a popup at the top of the viewport and has large check boxes for each mesh. In this particular project there are 6 mesh items. Currently the rst item in the list is selected and the other meshes are visible but inactive (this is also known as a Background mesh). In both the medium and small versions of the viewport there are two rows. The top row (as labeled in the medium view) is the Active (aka Foreground) mesh and the bottom row (aka Background) is inactive but visible. To toggle visibility of an inactive layer simply Control click on the bottom cell of the mesh item.


Fig. 02 The Item List in small Mesh List mode.

The Small view shows the current project popup to the left of the mesh selection list and the available mesh items in small cells on the right. The top row is for Active mesh items and the bottom cell indicates an inactive (but visible) mesh item. Ghosted dots in the top row indicate the mesh item contains geometry. White dots indicate that a mesh item exists but contains no geometry (an empty layer).

Item List versus Shader TreeYou may have already noticed that some modo items appear in both the Item List and the Shader Tree. The Item List is generally used to select Locator type items. Locator type items are items that can be selected and edited directly in the 3D viewport. There are items that are not Locator type. For instance, materials, masks and texture layers are also items but are not directly editable in the 3D viewport. These items are accessed via the Shader Tree rather than the Item list. There are some crossover items that appear in both the Item List and the Shader Tree. This is because they may share common linked items such as a texture layer and its locator item (texture positions are set by Texture Locators which can be manipulated in 3D), or items that can be modied by textures (Lights have a material and can be textured within the Shader Tree).


Vertex Map ListThe Vertex Map List view lists vertex maps for the current mesh in groups: UV, Weight, Morph, and Other. The Other list includes the type of the vertex map as well as just the name. The list of maps available is the union of the named maps in all the active meshes.

From within the Vertex Map list viewport you can select (new map) regardless of the viewport size. If the viewport is compressed such that you are presented with a single or multiple pop-ups, you will nd the (new map) option inside the pop-up. If you accidentally choose (new map) from the wrong map type pop-up, you can simply change the map type on the new map dialog that appears when creating a new map. When the viewport is expanded to its full size, expanding any of the vertex map types in the list will present you with the (new map) option. Again, selecting this option in the list will open the Create New Vertex Map dialog. When working in the vertex map viewport, the current selection is maintained even when selecting new mesh layers, if each layer contains a vertex map with the same name. For instance, if you have a mesh layer with a texture map named SteelMap selected in the vertex map list, changing layers to another mesh that also has a texture map with the same name will automatically select that vertex map. This is very handy when working on objects that have been broken up into multiple layers. When the Vertex Map List viewports size is changed, it will automatically change its appearance so that the viewport is more appropriately displayed for the space available. The viewport has 3 size settings: Compact, Medium, and Expanded.


Compact: The viewport is minimally displayed as a list of four buttons W,T,M, and O (Weights, Textures, Morphs, Other) next to a pop-up list. The four buttons allows you to quickly set a lter for the pop-up list. If W is selected, the pop-up list will display all Weight Vertex Maps in the current mesh layer. To see the list of Texture maps, you would click on the T button and so forth. The Other vertex map list contains color vertex maps as well as Pick maps or custom vertex maps added by 3rd party extensions or foreign data formats.

Medium: The viewport is displayed as four pop-ups stacked vertically. The type of vertex map is clearly labeled next to each pop-up. Expanded: The viewport is displayed as a tree with four categories with expand/contract widgets on the left side of the text. In this view it is possible to view and select multiple vertex maps from the four vertex map groupings.


Color Picker

The Color Picker provides a non-modal method for exploring color space on various elements. The Color Picker is essentially a global service that can be used by tools and item control alike. The current client of the Color Picker is determined by selection order. If you select a Material Item, the Color Picker will be communicating with that Material so that you can use it to set any of the base colors (Diffuse, Specular, Reection, etc). If you choose a tool like the Airbrush that allows color input the Color Picker will service that tool. If both a Material and color ready tool are selected, the most recently selected will take precedence. At the top of the Color Picker are a number of adjacent cells. These are used when the current Color Picker client can accept multiple colors. Once again we will use the Material Item as an example. With the Material Item selected, the rst 6 cells become white. These cells represent the following color settings (in this order): Diffuse, Specular, Reection, Transparent, Subsurface and Luminous color. Clicking a cell makes it the active setting and any clicks or drags in the color area will set that attribute with the selected color. Next to the cells is a small button labeled S. This is the Swap Color button which will swap the current colors (or cycle them in the case of clients with more than two color cells). This is a very useful option when working with painting tools as it allows you to quickly swap the foreground and background colors. There is also a tool-specic keyboard shortcut (S) so that you can toggle these colors when using tools such as the Airbrush and Paintbrush. At the bottom of the Color Picker are two horizontal ramps. The rst sets the brightness for the current color and the second (checkered one) sets the alpha amount.


Tool Pipe

The Tool Pipe is a very powerful component inside modo that allows the combination of tools and tool modiers. It is also useful as a simple view to the currently active tool combination. There are many settings available through the Tool Pipe interface via context menus on the specic Tool Pipe components. The Tool Pipe also acts as a list that shows all the tools in the current preset, with the action tool at the bottom. The selected tool in the list is the haul tool, and selecting it again asserts the haul state if it has been cleared. Tools can be made visible or invisible, enabled or disabled. They can also be removed, renamed, or reset. Tools required by downstream tools cannot be disabled. The attributes are shown as sub-tree lines. In the Tool Pipe the E column enables the entry. The V column controls its visibility, and the A column indicates whether or not it is activated.


There are several options from the Tool Pipes RMB context menu.

Apply Too0l: You can re any tool by right-clicking on it in the Tool Pipe and choose the Apply tool. This is a good alternative to using the tool interactively in the 3D Model View. Reset Tool: Will revert all the tools attributes back to their default state. Remove Tool: Will simply remove the selected tool from the Tool Pipe. Save Preset: Allows the current state of the Tool Pipe to be captured as a preset for loading during later sessions. Many of the default modo tools are simply tool presets such as Element Move which combines Element falloff and the Element Action Center with the Move tool. To reload presets you can use this context menu, create a custom button on the interface or assign the preset to a keyboard shortcut. Auto Activate: Is a useful toggle. When active, a tool will become active immediately upon clicking its button or pressing the hotkey. All of the transform tools in modo are set to Auto Activate and this is why their handles appear immediately. Geometry creation tools such as the Cube or Bevel tools are not Auto-Activated so they require an initial click in the 3D viewport by the user. This allows t

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