To orient yourself in the Palette window

1. Find the Palette window floating on the left side of the screen.

   If the palette is not visible, go to the Windows menu and choose Palette.

   

   The Palette window is divided into separate palettes of tools, each labeled with a tab at the top.

   For example, the Curves palette contains tools for creating new curves. The Curve Edit palette contains tools for editing and reshaping existing curves.

2. Find the Surfaces palette. It is the eighth palette from the top of the window.
   NoteIf you cannot see the Surfaces palette, use the scroll bar on the left side of the palette window to scroll up or down until it is visible in the window.
3. Hold the cursor over a tool.

   The name of the tool appears in a small box just below the icon. This small text window is called a tooltip.

   This feature can help you to identify tools until you become familiar with the icons in the palette.

   NoteOnce you are familiar with the icons in the palette, you may want to disable tooltips. To do this, select the Tooltips option in the Interface section of the General Preferences window (Preferences > General Preferences ❒).

Now use the geometric primitive tools to add some geometry to the scene. The primitive tools create simple 3D geometric shapes such as cubes, spheres, and cones.

As a technical surfacer, you may not regularly need to add these simple shapes to a model. However, they allow you to practice several Alias interface concepts, including choosing tools, using manipulators, subpalettes, tool option windows, and snapping.

To create a primitive sphere in the scene

1. Click the Surfaces > Primitives > Sphere tool.

2. A red outline appears around the icon to show it is the current tool.

3. Click in the Top view window to place the new sphere.

   

   A new sphere, one grid unit wide, appears where you release the mouse button.