Editing Forms - Beginner Question

[et_cetera]

Hi all! 

I am trying to create the model in this video to learn about forms. At 17:30, he rotates the stem of the pumpkin using the Edit Form tool. However, when I do the same thing, it "twists" the model instead of rotating it. I've attached a screenshot and my model below. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks!  

[adam.helps · Accepted solution]

I think you missed a step.

You shouldn't have any yellow faces in your selection. A yellow face means "implicitly selected due to symmetry." But in the tutorial (at least by 17:30), the model doesn't have any symmetry. Your model does! Do you see all the green lines running along the ridges of the pumpkin? Those are the matching symmetric pieces, and Fusion won't let you make any changes that break symmetry.

I think the tutorial told you to clear symmetry earlier, but you missed it. You need to turn off symmetry. After that, the rotation should work as you expect. As-is, it's only going to let you manipulate the stem in ways that perfectly preserve the stem's radial symmetry. Tipping it off-center does not.

[et_cetera]

@adam.helps ,

Thanks for the help! Really appreciate your teaching. Once I do that and try to seal my surface with "Fill Hole" though, it doesn't allow me to finish because my body apparently self-intersects. Is there any way to fix this? Thanks!

[adam.helps]

There's no quick-and-easy way to fix a self-intersecting surface. There are a couple of tricks to help you untangle things, though:

1. Pay attention to the red circles that appear when you "Finish Form." These will tell you where the self-intersections are. You should use the Edit Form tool to untangle the control points in these areas.
2. Under Utilities > Display Mode, look at the structure of your surface's hull. Use Box Mode (Alt+1) or Control Point Mode (Alt+2) and look for any areas where you have let the surface get tangled into itself. It is best to do this frequently when you model. The more tangled you let things get, the harder it will be to fix it later.
3. The Modify > Smooth tool can automatically smooth out your control points. This tool can sometimes smooth out simple tangles. It doesn't always work, but it's automatic and quick, so can be worth a try.
4. A common source of confusing tangles are the tangency handles. You can only see tangency handles when you turn on Edit Form and then enable Vertex selection. The tangency handles will appear as red control points (you may need to switch to Wireframe view to find tangency handles hidden beneath the surface). The quickest way to untangle them is to select them and then click "Link Tangency Handles." This tells Fusion to manage the position of the tangency handles automatically, which usually prevents tangles.
5. If you have a loop that you've collapsed down to a point (such as at the tip of a sphere or cylinder), then you should not fill the hole with a face. Just collapsing the loop to a point (by scaling the points in the loop to zero) is sufficient. Such loops are detected as closed surface when you convert to a solid, even though they are topologically open.

Hopefully these tips will help you fix self-intersections in your surface.