In a typical clay prototyping
workflow, you might follow these steps:
- Create a model in Alias.
- Mill a clay model from the Alias data.
- Reshape the clay model by hand.
- Digitize the reshaped parts of the clay
model.
- Integrate the changes back into the Alias surfaces
with the Surface Edit > Claymate
tool.
How It Works
The Claymate tool
works by asking you to select:
- surfaces to modify (corresponding to
the changed data),
- modifier curves or surfaces (the digitized,
reshaped data), and
- reference surfaces (surfaces that have
not changed).
It then uses the modifier
curves/surfaces to reshape the original surfaces, while maintaining
positional and tangent continuity with the reference surfaces.
TipTo
streamline the use of the Claymate tool,
you may want to put the surfaces to modify, the modifier curves/surfaces,
and the reference surfaces in different layers.
More Uses
You can also use Claymate in
other situations that require you to fit surfaces back to modified
curves or surfaces. For example:
- Create cross-section profile curves from
a surface model.
- Modify the curves.
- Use the Claymate tool
to fit the original surfaces to the new profile curves.
To use digitized changed
data to reshape surfaces on a model
- Pick the surfaces that were changed on
the clay version.
- Click the Claymate icon , or choose Surface Edit > Claymate from
the palette.
The Claymate
Control window appears.
NoteIf any of the picked
objects are invalid for use with Claymate,
the Claymate tool unpicks everything.
- Pick any other surfaces that need to
be updated, then click Go.
- Pick the curves or surfaces that were
digitized from the changed sections of the clay model (the modifier
curves).
Modifier
curves/surfaces that are outside the Min/Max Mod. Distance range
are ignored.
- Click Go.
- Pick all the surfaces on the model that
were not changed on the clay version (the reference surfaces) and
with which you want the modified surfaces to maintain positional and
tangent continuity.
The Claymate tool
will maintain continuity with these reference surfaces as it modifies
the changed surfaces.
- Click Go.
Claymate uses
the settings in the Claymate Control window to
reshape the surfaces of the model to match the modification curves.
NoteUsually
you will want the Auto Recalculate option on
to see the effects of changing options interactively. If the surfaces
involved are very complex, however, updates may take a long time.
Turn Auto Recalculate off and use
the Recalculate button at the bottom
of the window.
-
TipIncreasing
the number of samples allows finer control over the surfaces, but greatly
increases the time required to perform the operation. Calculation
time increases linearly with the number of samples on the modifier
curves, and with the square of the number of samples on the target
surface.
