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Part III: Modeling Basics

Cross-Ref
See Chapter 3, “Working with Files, Importing, and Exporting,” to learn about importing AI files. n
Whereas newly created or imported shapes are 2D and are confined to a single plane, splines can exist in
3D space. The Helix spline, for example, exists in 3D, having height as well as width values. Animation
paths in particular typically move into 3D space.

Working with shape primitives
The shape primitive buttons are displayed in the Object Type rollout of the Create panel when either the
Create ➪ Shapes or the Create ➪ Extended Shapes menu is selected. The Shapes category include many
basic shapes, including Line, Circle, Arc, NGon (a polygon where you can set the number of sides), Text,
Section, Rectangle, Ellipse, Donut, Star, and Helix, as shown in Figure 12.1. The Extended Shapes category
includes several shapes that are useful to architects, including WRectangle, Channel, Angle, Tee, and Wide
Flange, as shown in Figure 12.2. Clicking any of these shape buttons lets you create the shape by dragging
in one of the viewports. After a shape is created, several new rollouts appear.

FIGURE 12.1
The shape primitives in all their 2D glory: Line, Circle, Arc, NGon, Text, Section, Rectangle, Ellipse,
Donut, Star, and Helix

Above the Shape buttons are two check boxes: AutoGrid and Start New Shape. AutoGrid creates a tempo-
rary grid, which you can use to align the shape with the surface of the nearest object under the mouse at the
time of creation. This feature is helpful for starting a new spline on the surface of an object.

Cross-Ref
For more details on AutoGrid, see Chapter 7, “Transforming Objects, Pivoting, Aligning, and Snapping.” n

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