T U T O R I A L

THE PRIMITIVES (CUBES, SPHERES, PLANES ...)
Beginning from here, each predefined POVLAB-object will be featured. The most simple shapes are the so called »primitives«. Nevertheless, the crafty and accurate usage of primitives will result in stunning objects, for example a column, which we will build during the following pages.
Analysing a columns components

· As you can see in the picture to the left, the tutorial column contains 3 different shapes: 1: one cylinder for the shaft, 2: two boxes (cubes) for the bottom and the top and 3: four toruses as decoration. We will begin with the shaft (cylinder), because this is a very simple shape to create.

The shaft

· The first two things to do, are to load the template- scene and to maximize the »front«-viewport, so that we can work with a good visual control. In the next step, select the menu-entry »Cylinder« from the »Objects«- menu. POVLAB then asks you, to give the object a unique name. It is highly recommendable, that you give the objects descriptive names (for example: »Col01_Shaft«). In complex scenes verbous and descriptive object identifiers can do a lots of good!

· After you have named the object, press enter and klick on the »OK«-button. As you can see, a cylinder is pasted into the scene.

· The width, the height and the depth are two grid units each, and the shape is pasted into the center of the coordinate system. Therfore the position vector is [X:0, Y:0, Z:0]. Furthermore every object, that is inserted into a scene has a uniform scale factor of [1.0] for the X-, the Y- and the Z- direction of the coordinate system. 		· For a columns shaft, our cylinder lacks a little bit in height. In order to correct this, we have to scale the shape along the Y-axis. To do that, click on the »modify«-button and the appropriate sub-menu will appear.

· For scaling operations, ther are two buttons, labled »scale 2d« and »scale 3d«. To obtain information, on how to work with these functions, click here. For now, we will concentrate on a thing called »manual setup«, which you can access by activating the »manual«- button. After clicking on this control, you have to select an object with the mouse (in our case, you click on the cylinder). After selecting an object, a quite complex dialogbox is displayed (see picture below).



· Fortunately we only have to alter the value of one field in this »mega-dialogbox«. This field is on the left side of the dialogbox (DB) and is called »Scale Y:«. Click on the field and enter the value [2.9]. After pressing »ENTER« and klicking on the »OK«-button, our cylinder has grown and is now looking more like a shaft than ever before.
Chapter A/Page 7
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This page was last modified on: 1996-07-08