Form Modeling Tool tutorial/documentation

[ssawyerLVXNY]

I was experimenting with creating and modifying forms the other day, trying to understand how the "modification tool" works (I don't know what it's called - see the picture below). Some if this tool's behaviors I was able to discern through experimentation, but some of them surprised me - trying to turn "off" the snapping behavior, I hit the Ctrl key and it seems to have changed the behavior of the control, producing a sharp corner of some kind, but I may have triggered this behavior some other way - I read in a thread on this board that the Ctrl key can be used to turn off snapping, which I wanted to do because it was extremely annoying when trying to modify a form. I seem to understand the Alt-key (stretch?) modifier, but it seems that there are other subtleties of this control that I'm not getting yet. Can anyone tell me what I should be looking at in the documentation, or what search term I can use to find out all of the behaviors of this tool in the Solid/Form workspace?

Thanks!

[davebYYPCU]

There is nothing in that pic to relate to the content of your question.

I can see a symmetry line, and maybe you have a point selected under the Triad.

I don’t remember using the Control key, in Sculpting operations, I might learn something here.

That is the move Triad, with all controls available. It becomes active when in Edit Form mode.

Perhaps full screen shots, with open Dialogue Boxes, model, timeline and browser allows us to read the most detail to assist.

[TrippyLighting · Accepted solution]

Here's a link to the documentation.

However, T-Spline modeling is the same in Fusion 360 and Autodesk Speedform. My recommendation would be go through the documentation and and then watch tutorials to see in action how these tools are applied.

Attached is a PDF of the "old" Rhino T-Spline documentation, which is excellent for people new to T-Spline modeling.

Not all the tools that were available in Rhino are available in Fusion 360.

[ssawyerLVXNY]

Thanks, @TrippyLighting  - I'll work through the tutorials in the documentation.

@davebYYPCU- In that picture is a control with (by my count) seven different points at which that control can be "grabbed", six of which are duplicated 3 times, once for each plane. The function of each "control point" seems to vary by the type of object selected (vertex, line, surface); some seem to do nothing in certain contexts, but become active in others. Once I use the Alt-key to extrude, things become a lot more complicated; I can make some extremely interesting shapes, but I'm unclear from observing the changes to the form exactly what it is that I'm doing.

I was hoping that there was some documentation specifically for this control given its complexity so that I don't have to come on here and ask dumb questions that are answered in the documentation. Being a newbie, I'm really trying hard to ask very pointed, clear questions as I know everyone's time is valuable. I'll try to do better.

[TrippyLighting]

The arrows are for moving/translating.

The lines and short arcs are for scaling in certain directions/planes.

The Center point is for scaling uniformly.

The rounded rectangles are for translating in a plane.

All of that can easily be observed with a minute of experimentation.

[ssawyerLVXNY]

Thanks, but I spent much more than a "a minute" with that - probably close to an hour, and I did indeed see what you enumerate in some cases, but because some operations are active in some contexts, and not active in others, my understanding was still incomplete. I wasn't able to find a context that enabled the "scaling" you describe, and really wasn't asking for a full explanation here. I suffer as do many new users from not knowing the proper terms to refer to things, and didn't know how to research on my own how to use this control (note that I don't know how to refer to that "thing" that I pictured above - a "tool", a "control", a "pointer"?). Again, I was trying to not be the "needy new user" that wants everything spoon-fed, I was simply asking for a pointer into the documentation - a search term, a topic - that might help me figure out all that that "thing" can do. Your first reply was sufficient. It told me "No, Steve, there is no documentation on this "pointer" specifically, you simply need to learn more about the operations in which it is used", and that's exactly the kind of advice I was seeking, which I appreciate. I didn't really want this to turn into a discussion thread.

Again, I'll try to do better.

[TrippyLighting]

To be honest I am not sure there is an "official" name for it. 3D manipulator maybe ?

You are correct that this is not described in the documentation. At least I was not able to find it.

T-Spline modeling shares very many similarities with Sub-D mesh modeling and "feels" in general very different from modeling with BRep. This manipulator is in fact so common in those applications that it might not have occurred to anyone to describe how it functions.

If my brief explanation in my last above did not work, then let me know and I'll create a screencast.

@Phil.E Not sure your are the correct person to tag, but his is another thing that would be great to add to the documentation.

[Phil.E · Accepted solution]

Here is the Form help page

http://help.autodesk.com/view/fusion360/ENU/?guid=GUID-39A52CE7-F03B-43D4-AE06-4F6B84121CD1

The left hand browser shows all the Form topics.

In the tutorial section you can find this page showing how the manipulator works.

http://help.autodesk.com/view/fusion360/ENU/?guid=GUID-B35B3870-F607-4C62-8793-204F1CEC3D4E

This is the edit Form dialog box help page, the manipulator is described but no pictures. I've asked to have pictures included here.
http://help.autodesk.com/view/fusion360/ENU/?guid=GUID-DA558854-D0EE-4C36-AD87-AAA743320DB5

When searching for help, and seeking product documentation, always filter the results on the left hand panel by picking "documentation"

http://help.autodesk.com/view/fusion360/ENU/?query=form%20manipulator&knowledgeSource=Product%20Docu...

Let me know if this helps.

[ssawyerLVXNY]

@Phil.E- thanks so much for that. "Manipulator" - got it. Having a proper name for something makes it so much easer to search for it in the documentation. Also thanks for pointing out the filtering on the Documentation! So easy to get focused on the results and ignore the tools laying around in plain sight to narrow down the results!