Archive review from 13 October 2001

Review of solidThinking
from EVOQE

A surface creation tool for organic forms

Page 2 of 4

(continued...) Whilst provision of the increasingly ubiquitous hierarchical browser is unsurprising, the inclusion of a construction history tree in addition to camera, lights and layer branches is unusual for a surface modeller.

This Construction Tree shows the relationship between a surface and all of its construction curves making each element accessible for selection.

Once selected, parameters for each element can be adjusted in the Modelling Tool Panel.

Parameters with numeric values also have slider bars which dynamically adjust both the selected entity such as the radius of a circle and any dependant objects such as surfaces.

Objects can be grouped within the tree so that any transformations can be applied simultaneously to all members.

Objects can also be copied by drag and drop within the tree.

This ability to edit entities at any time is crucial for encouraging design experimentation.

Models are constructed from primitives including cubes, spheres, cylinders, and prisms or by extruding, revolving, lofting, or skinning NURBS or Meta curves.

Subsequent editing options include interactive trimming of surfaces, blending, filleting, and the ability to edit vertices, edges, and faces.

Curves can be derived from existing objects in many ways such as by offsetting a curve, extracting the edge of a surface or by projecting a curve onto a surface.

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