User Guide
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Chapter 3: Lesson - A Simple Block of Digital Clay
Before launching into a tutorial in which you will make an actual
model, it would probably be a good idea for you to just get to know
the FreeForm modeling system first. After all, you've probably never
experienced anything quite like this before. Whether you are an old
hand with computers or a relative novice, you will find that FreeForm
modeling, based on SensAble's 3D Touch™ technology, is a unique
experience.
There is no substitute for actually using the FreeForm application and
the PHANTOM Desktop, so rather than continuing to attempt the
impossible—describe with mere words what can only be seen and
felt—let's start playing with the digital clay.
Important Note: Help is always available to you. If you ever need help
while using the FreeForm application, press the Fl function key or
select FreeForm Help from the Help menu to display the application's
online help system.
Starting FreeForm Modeling
From your Windows Desktop, click on the Start button and select
Programs, then FreeForm and FreeForm again.
(Or, from the Explorer, select Program Files/SensAblelFreeForm/Free-
Form.exe. Your installation may vary.)
The FreeForm application is displayed as shown in Figure 3-1 below.
…
Moving Your Model
The buff-colored block of digital clay in the middle of the window is
the model that comes up when you first open the FreeForm
application. Before touching or sculpting it, you'll want to explore the
different ways you can move the model within the FreeForm window.
Note: Technically, you don't move the model within the window, but
rather change your view of it, as if you had a camera trained on the
model and were moving around it, panning or zooming in and out. For
sake of simplicity, however, we will refer to these procedures as
moving the model.
Moving Your Model with the Mouse
Grab the mouse and make sure the mouse cursor is somewhere over
the FreeForm window. Then hold down the left mouse button and
move your mouse. The block of clay rotates.
Experiment with the mouse to rotate the block to any position. Now
release the mouse button, press and hold down the right mouse
button, then move your mouse closer to you and then away from you.
As you can see, the block grows and shrinks, getting larger when you
move the mouse closer to you and smaller when you move it away
from yourself. This is called zooming.
Now move your mouse while holding down the middle mouse button.
The block travels across the screen. This is called panning.
To sum up, here are the ways you can move the block--or any
FreeForm model, for that matter using the mouse.
- To rotate your view - move your mouse while holding down
the left mouse button. - To zoom your view - move your mouse while holding down
the right mouse button.
Chapter 4: Lesson - Sculpting a Basic Model
While providing you with some of the more fundamental aspects of
using FreeForm modeling, this lesson focuses primarily on the
sculptural, organic types of models the FreeForm system can make
possible so easily.
When you have finished this chapter, you will have modeled a duck
similar to the one shown in Figure 4-1. The finished model is available
as a FreeForm file called painted duck.cly in the folder named
Models, which is a subfolder of the Documentation and Tutorials
folder.
…
What the Point of This Lesson Is Not
The point of this lesson is not for you to duplicate perfectly the duck
model illustrated here. Rather, the point is to get you acquainted with
FreeForm modeling and comfortable with using some of its tools. And
to do that pretty quickly. If you have accomplished that by the end of
this lesson, then you will have been successful regardless of whether
your model closely resembles this one.
Greg Joyce
Writer in the House
email joyce at writerinthehouse dot com
