CADtools for Blender-3D(ver. 0.68 with interim User Interface)Blender_2.49_Book.pdf First Start: 004. Splash screen at start of Blender. System Diagnostics: 005. The "System Information..."-script provides information, that is needed for troubleshooting 006. It creates "system-info.txt" text-element in current blend file. 007. Switch to Text Editor window. 008. Call "system-info.txt" text. 010. 011. Scroll up with MMB-drag over text area or with LMB-drag over scrollbar. 012. 014. We will find here all about Python version and paths settings. 015. You can save it as a text file for later reference. 016. 017. Hint: "CADtools System Info..."-script provides even more information. 018. It writes "system-info.txt" file in current directory per default. 019. It can be started also from text console: navigate to blender-home-directory and type: "blender -b -P /.blender/scripts/CADtools_sysinfo.py" to get the "system-info.txt" file directly. Initial Layout Adjustments: 025. MMB(or RMB)-click over window's border gets access to the options. 026. Split the 3d-view window. 027. 028. Confirm the new border position with LMB-click. 029. Move borders with LMB-drag. Start CADtools: 030. Switch to "Scripts window" 032. LMB-click opens Scripts Panel. 033. RMB-click opens Panel Alignment box with options to rearrange the panels. 034. Activate "Script Links" mode. 035. To start CADtools script go to menu "Scripts:System". 036. 036a. Type the password here... 036b. ...and confirm with OK. 037. Ready to go! More Layout Adjustments: 038. We can modify the layout a bit more... 039. 040. 041. 042. 043. 044. 045. 046. Layout changes will be saved in current blend file... 047. Working with CADtools: 082. You should save the blend file periodically. 083. Confirm by LMB-click on the box. Selection Tools: CADtools script interacts with active/selected objects only. 084. 085. SELECT-standard-mode perceives only active objects. 086. NEW-box action (LMB-drag in top-right direction) will replace old selection with a new one... 087. ...result. 088. 089. NEW-box action over empty area will deselect current selection... 090....so nothing is selected. 091. If nothing selected then NEW-box action over empty area will select all... 092....all elements. 095. REMOVE-box action (down-left direction) removes elements from selection... 096....here the result. 097. ADD-box action (down-right direction) adds elements to the selection. 098....here the result. 099. MENU-box action (top-left direction) gives you access to SELECT-menu. 100. 101. You can store current selection for future use. 102. Store-to-List:NEW-mode will overwrite data in destination slot. 103. Choose a destination slot on the list. 104. 105. 106. 107. 108. Recalling selection from list. 109. Recall-from-List:NEW-mode will overwrite current selection with data from slot. 110. 111. 112. 113. 114. 115. 116. 117. 119. We go to SELECT-menu again... 120. ...and recall selection from list. 121. Recall-from-List:ADD-mode will add data set... 122. ... from choosen slot to current selection... 123. ...and here the result. 124. LMB-click selects/deselects elements one-by-one. 125. ... here a face picked via center point. 126. 127. 128. Back to SELECT-menu via MENU-action... 129. ...and Store-to-List again... 130. Store-to-List:SWAP-mode swaps current selection with stored selection. 131. 132. We can change the name of the slot now. Built-in Help System: 133. You can use HELP-button in main menu to access help system. 134. Open help text... 135. ... on Getting Started. 136. Access to on-line manual through web-browser... 137. ... you have to confirm it. 138. Open help text... 139. ... on CADtools HotKeys. 140. Open help text... 141. ... on Blender HotKeys. 142. Open help text... 142b. ... on Version and license information. SNAP-modes: 142c. SNAP-modes are useful for precise drawing and modeling. Multiple SNAP-modes can be active the same time, except HIT, ORIGINAL, RAY and MASS that run only in exclusive mode. GRID, ORTHO and MODULE work as modifiers. NONE-buttton turns off all active modes. SNAP to GRID: You can define arbitrary grids (orthogonal rasters) as construction helpers. They work in relation to current UCS. 143. GRI-button (or F7-key) activates GRID-mode. 144. GRID parameters can be set via CTRL menu 145. 146. 147. 148. You can store GRID parameters for later use. 149. This will open help text to this topic. Drawing with SNAP-GRID-mode: 150. To create mesh objects we have to activate MESH-mode. 151. Set NEW-mode on to get each element be a separate object with individual mesh data. 152. From DRAW-menu... 153. ...start the LINE-tool: 154. LMB-click sets the startpoint... 156. ...and the endpoint. 157. As you can see: startpoint and endpoint match the current grid. 158. The same with PLINE(POLYLINE)-tool: 159. 160. 161. 162. 163. 164. This will draw the close segment of POLYLINE. 165. RMB-click or ESC-key to exit PLINE-tool. SNAP to MODULE: a method to set segments/edges' lengths to be a multiple of given module. 166. Activate "MOD"-snap-mode. 167. Start EDIT:MOVE-tool... 168. 169. ...and start interactive-mode. 171. Turn off GRID-mode. 183. Pick the vertex you want to move. 184. While you are moving it you get visual feedback about module numbers. 185. LMB-click confirms new location. 186. Turn off MOD-snap-mode finally. Display Edge Lengths: To get edge lengths be displayed on the screen:
Edge Length Modification: 187. To change the length of an edge... 188. ... use EDIT:MOVE tool. There are 4 methods: 189."interactive-mode":
218. MOVE-tool help text. Tips and Tricks (text in preparation) |
