[Hexagon] Beginner needs help with terms

[judee3d]

Okay, so I'm a total noob but willing to learn. My problem comes from the multitude of tools which, although they have names that probably make sense to most people, they don't make sense to me - at least not in a way that I can picture the actual function of the tool.

The simple stuff I do know - polygons, faces, lines points, extrude, etc.

But the other stuff? What exactly does Sweep do? Tesselate? What's the diff between weld, target weld, average weld, etc.? How is extract different from extrude? Dissociate? Heck, I don't even know what a "normal" is, but I see it mentioned often.

I'm not asking for specific info in here - I'm just giving examples of how it can be confusing to someone who doesn't know the terminology. (And not just in Hexagon, !)

It would be really nice if someone would point me to a "dictionary" of 3d terminology. Or maybe one of the great tutorial people might consider creating a pdf that explains some of these terms?

I do realize that once I've watched a few tutorials, I will begin to pick it all up - but it would make watching the tutorials much easier if I knew the function of some of these tools, etc.

Thanks in advance for any help - and if someone does put together such a pdf, please do let me know.

I also do want to say thanks to all who have put together tutorials here in these forums - you are a blessing to the beginners!

judee

[mayito7777]

Ifd you check the manual that comes with hexagon, it is a PDF file, you will find the answer to those questions.

[judee3d]

Okay, red face time! I didn't even realize there was a manual but I checked and found it in the Data folder under docs. Lol, next time I'll think before I speak - just too used to everything being explained in forums.

Thanks,

[Couerl]

Well, even with the manual, sometimes these things can be difficult to grasp and the manual will give you some good insight and show you what tool does what, but it will not teach you how to model. The way to do that is ask questions and if you get stuck you'll get answers here.

[mayito7777]

I didn't mean to be rude, I just wanted to say what he said look up!

[Couerl]

No, of-course not.

I just want to make our new guest feel welcomed, that's all..

[judee3d]

Lol, don't worry, mayi, you didn't sound rude to me, you just made a lightbulb go off in my head - one of those "I should have thought of that" moments, .

Coeur, your name befits you, and thank you for making me feel welcome. I know I'll probably have a lot of questions eventually. For now, I'm reading through the manual and watching the tutorials.

For once, I'm not going to jump in and try to do everything at once - I have two screens, so I read the manual on one screen and play with examples on the other screen. Right now I'm still just playing around with feeling comfortable moving around, .

I'll be sure to let you all know if I run into any bumps in the road.

Thanks for being there,
judee

[jonnyray]

Let me put a vote in for taking a look at Grendel's excellent tutorial on creating a digital camera too. http://forums.polyloop.net/hexagon-t...al-camera.html

I've read through it a couple times and started working on completing it. It helps a lot in taking concepts and turning them into something that makes sense.

If you're like me and learn better by doing things rather than just reading about them, that tutorial should go a long way in helping out.

[judee3d]

Thanks jonnyray,

I've got it downloaded, but have to admit it seems kind of complex to start with, .

I'm still trying to get used to extruding and such and having things go all over the place before I can get my mouse in order - I keep thinking click will end it, but it just makes another one - still not used to pressing the enter button.

I've ended up with some interesting constructions...

I did manage to make something that looks a bit like a watering can, but I doubt I could re-do it if I had to! One thing I'm curious about - I did the mini-render and it came out one color, but when I used the little camera in the corner to take a pic, it came out with two colors - as if part light and part shadow. But I haven't found any lights yet - if there are any.

Just need practice - lots and lots of practice!

[mayito7777]

No no lights that I know. if you look in the toolbar at the bottom one of the icons allows you to change the "texture" so it looks in several different ways.

[judee3d]

Yeah, I saw the texture change thing - confused me at first, as there is no identifying text when I mouse-over each of the choices, so I just look at what each did- but the minirender was still not the same as what saved as a png when I clicked the camera. I guess I'll just do screen captures instead.

Thanks,
judee

[mayito7777]

You can also export what you are doing (you got several options) and use a program like Carrara or any other renderer that accept .obj files or the others

[rickei]

Hex does not really have a renderer. the 2 different shades you are referring to in the watering can pic you posted looks like inverted normals.
select all the objects faces and then got to tools -> utilities -> orient normals.
you will need to click on orient normals in the properties tray, and make sure the arrows are pointing out...if they are pointing in then click on reverse normals. then click validate. this should make everything look right. It's a good idea to do this before you export your file anyway.

[judee3d]

Thanks, rickei, I'll give that a try and see what happens.