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Part 3 - Take A Whack With A Hammer ! - continued.
Move the mouse over the large window and click the left mouse button a few times in different places. You have just performed your first acts of sculpting with VS3D ! Click and drag the left mouse button to "scrape" the surface.
Note that the hammer shape (green outline) moves with the cursor. The outline is actually 3 lines. The highest portion of the hammer is outlined with a solid line, the midway point with a dashed line, and the lowest point with a dotted line. The hammer tip is actually a small sculpture in itself. The default grid size for the hammer tip is 161 by 161. This size can be set via the "File / Preferences" button (VS3D must be restarted for new preferences to take effect). The size of the green hammer outline, as drawn, will depend on the size of the hammer tip grid, the size of the sculpture grid, and any view zoom factor applied to the sculpture grid. Each grid point in the hammer tip always corresponds to one grid point in the sculpture grid.
Move the cursor over the hammer marks and note that the dynamic Z height readout shows the hammer "dents" at a Z height of 1.0 . Click on the "Reset" button to erase the hammer tip. Set the hammer tip draw mode to "Polygon (X=Y)". Note that the "Polygon Type" widget is now active, and it shows the type as "Circle (N)". Click and drag the left mouse button in the hammer tip window to draw a large circle. Switch the hammer tip draw mode from "Add" to "Remove". The Remove mode allows portions of the hammer tip to be "erased". Click and drag the left mouse button in the hammer tip window and draw another circle - smaller than the first one. The hammer tip is now a "donut". Apply the hammer blow a couple times to the sculpture grid (with the hammer blows overlapping somewhat). At the lower left corner of the application window are some settings for the hammer blow. Change the "Z" height setting to 2.0 .
Note that the hammer blow "Z" height can also be set to a negative number. The hammer blow type has five settings : equal ("="), plus-minus ("+--"), greater than (">"), less than ("<"), and "Smooth". In "equal" mode, the sculpture grid under the hammer tip will be set EQUAL to the "Height" value, regardless of the current height(s) of the sculpture grid. In "plus-minus" mode, all points in the sculpture grid under the hammer tip will be moved up or down by the "Z" height value (up if Z is positive, and down if Z is negative). You can think of an "equal" hammer blow as a blow to an absolute height, while a "plus-minus" blow moves the surface incrementally up or down. A "Greater Than" blow will set the surface points under the hammer tip to the greater of : the existing surface height; or the hammer tip height ("Z"). Similarly, a "Less Than" blow will set the surface heights to the lower of the existing surface height or hammer tip height. The "smooth" mode is a very powerful tool for smoothing out and blending surfaces. The "Avg" (Averaging) setting has no effect in "=" or "Smooth" mode. In the other modes, the heights under the hammer tip are averaged, and the result of the hammer blow is based upon that average (the average plus-minus the "Z" height ("+--" mode), the greater of the average or the "Z" height (">" mode), or the lesser of the average and the "Z" height ("<" mode).
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