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Hexagon - General Principles and Concepts of Hexagon
Hexagon is a program for creating models in 3D. It will help you create and model structures, smooth or solid, starting by drawing its contours, inner or outer, or by starting with a simple structure, which you will extend, deform and refine to create before you what is in your imagination.
You are going to create your models in a window representing a 3 dimensional space, and by using a number of tools, or functions, go from simple forms to more complex, following your own tastes. You will be able to edit, observe, and come back to edit again, to your heart’s content, until you reach your goal. Finally, you can prepare your models to be textured, ready to export to another program to fully texture, animate and render a final 3D image with special effects.
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Hexagon - General Principles and Concepts of Hexagon
1. T
HE ORGANIZATION OF THE WORKSPACE
Hexagon and its interface.
The workspace of Hexagon is divided into eight zones:
• The 3D workspace in which you can build and visualize your 3D models.
• The Manipulators palette gives you choices over how you want to position your models in the 3D workspace: moving, rotating, scaling, etc.
• The Selection palette contains tools for selecting all or parts of your 3D scene and models.
• The Modeling palette contains all the tools for building and editing your models, organized for a logical workflow from 2D to 3D.
• The Properties panel contains information about the scene. The Object properties palette has information about your scene and objects, with precise measure-
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Hexagon - General Principles and Concepts of Hexagon
ments and input of positions and dimensions. The Tool properties palette gives you options specific for each tool and creation of objects. The Scene properties palette also shows you the structure of your scene, and gives you access to your models. The Dynamic Geometry palette lets you control and edit your objects’ history, letting you fine tune to get the final result you want.
• The Control Panel gives access to the principal functions of view, display, navigation, and the style of how your 3D objects are represented in the 3D
Workspace.
• The Materials panel contains the Materials properties and domain properties palettes, giving you control over how you texture your model.
• The Contextual Menu, which provides direct access to various options and accessories, and whose content depends on the type of element on which it is activated (by default right-click). The Contextual Menu is available on a 3D object and on Manipulators.
The Hexagon contextual panel
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Hexagon - General Principles and Concepts of Hexagon
1.1. U
SER
I
NTERFACE
C
USTOMIZATION
It is possible to customize the Hexagon 2 user interface in order to organize it according to the specific needs of your current creation.
You can detach palettes which are located in the side panels, resize them, reorganize them, or even lay them out on two columns.
Click and drag the palette to detach it. Move the palette window where you want on the screen, or on a second screen. To re-attach the palette in a side panel, move the palette on the top, bottom, or side until you see a blue line which indicates the location the palette will be placed in when the mouse button is released.
To minimize a palette, click on the down-arrow icon, located on the right of the title bar. To maximize a palette, click again on the down-arrow icon.
To close the palette, click on the X icon. The palette will disappear. To make it visible again, select it from the Window pull-down general menu.
Watch the video!
Remark:
-
If needed, you can reset all User Interface Preferences, by selecting in the File menu, under User Resources, the “Reset Interface” command.
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Hexagon - General Principles and Concepts of Hexagon
1.2. T
HE
C
USTOM
P
ALETTE
In addition to the default palette layout, Hexagon 2 provides a custom palette, which allows you to create your own collection of the most used tools. To add a tool in the custom palette, right-click on its icon. To remove a tool from the custom palette, right-click in the custom palette on the tool’s icon. In both cases, a dialog box will ask you to confirm the operation.
The first palette icon lets you detach the palette from the tab. A click on the triangle of the title bar of the palette opens a small pull-down menu, which allows you to close or to switch the orientation of the custom palette.
The Custom Palette in floating mode.
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Hexagon - General Principles and Concepts of Hexagon
2. W
HAT IS A
3D
OBJECT
?
A 3D Object is made of points in space, creating faces, or facets, between those points. The faces are polygons in space, which are represented on screen in perspective with colors and textures, in order to give an illusion of a real object.
The 3D basic elements, from left to right: Faces, vertices and edges.
The sides of faces are called edges. The points that make up the faces are also called vertices.
A 3D Object is made up of faces, combined together in various complexity, which can be open (surface) or closed (volume).
It is important to note that, when modeling with polygons, an object can appear curved or rounded, but is always composed of few or many faces, each having a slight angle, giving the illusion of curvature.
Another type of 3D element you will be working with are called curves, or lines, or are also sometimes referred to as polylines.
These are made up of points, connected by segments, but with no face. These are structures, like a framework you will be wrapping in fabric to make up a 3D object.
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Hexagon - General Principles and Concepts of Hexagon
Curves components: points, segments, and eventually control points and control curves.
Lines are the basis of construction, letting you create sections and profiles and elevations, and later as a guide in 3D space for “attaching” faces.
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Curves used as construction curves.
Hexagon - General Principles and Concepts of Hexagon
3. H
OW DO YOU CREATE A
3D
MODEL
?
The creation of a 3D model consists of construction, editing and, eventually, assembling the element with one or more other 3D objects.
3.1. C
ONSTRUCTION
You can construct an object using these three principal methods:
•
• By using what is called 3D Primitives: generic predefined objects such as a cube, sphere and cone.
By drawing several lines and combining them together, such as a circle and profile becoming a vase.
By modeling each polygon, one by one, until they make up your desired object.
In practice, you will be combining these 3 methods, depending on the complexity of the model.
3.2. E
DITING
Since an object is rarely made perfect on the first try, you will need to verify and edit the object and its exact position in space.
For this, you will be using certain editing functions (tools) in taking your model from start to finish. The simplest edits might be moving a point/vertex in space to finetune its position. More advanced editing could be subtracting geometric volumes from each other.
3.3. A
SSEMBLY
Depending on the scene you want to create, you might need to bring several objects together. For example, it might be necessary to put an object representing part of the model in an exact position, and then combine it with another form.
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Hexagon - General Principles and Concepts of Hexagon
4. H
EXAGON ON
M
AC
OS X
Most of the actions, tools and way of use are exactly the same on both Mac OS
X and Windows. There are, however, some slight differences which are important to know.
4.1. K
EYBOARD KEYS AND SHORTCUTS
To perform a keyboard shortcut, the usual combination is “CTRL+ key”. On
Mac OS X, the Control/CTRL key is replaced by the Command (Apple) key.
In this manual, when you will read a shortcut written as “CTRL + key”, this will mean that on Mac OS X you have to perform “Command + key”.
Except this difference regarding the keyboard, all other key actions and combinations are identical.
4.2. N
AVIGATING WITH THE MOUSE
Historically, mice provided with Macintosh computers have been one-button mice, until the “Mighty Mouse” has been released by Apple, with several buttons and a mouse wheel.
Hexagon 2 has been designed to use utilize a 3-button mouse with wheel (including the Mighty Mouse), both for 3D navigation, using the contextual menu, and more.
If your system has a one-button mouse, please note that the “Right Click” is performed by the holding the “CTRL + Click” on your keyboard. Furthermore, we recommend that you to get a 3-button mouse (a good quality optical mouse with 3 buttons can be found for very little cost), for a more efficient workflow and more comfort (not only with Hexagon 2!).
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Table of contents
- 1 Welcome!
- 16 General Principles and Concepts of Hexagon
- 17 The organization of the workspace
- 19 User Interface Customization
- 20 The Custom Palette
- 21 What is a 3D object?
- 23 How do you create a 3D model?
- 23 Construction
- 23 Editing
- 23 Assembly
- 24 Hexagon on Mac OS X
- 24 Keyboard keys and shortcuts
- 24 Navigating with the mouse
- 25 Working in 3D space: Navigation, Working Planes and Guides
- 26 Navigation
- 26 Navigation by the Control panel
- 27 Mouse navigation
- 27 Keyboard navigation
- 28 Space Mouse Support
- 29 The three working planes
- 29 The absolute working planes
- 30 The camera working plane
- 30 Specific working planes
- 31 3D Guides
- 33 Precise input, relative mode, absolute mode, origins
- 34 How tools function in Hexagon
- 35 Structure
- 35 Operation sequence
- 37 Options and accessories
- 37 Parameters
- 38 Indication of the tool in use
- 40 3D Manipulator
- 41 The 3D manipulator
- 41 Translation
- 42 Rotation
- 43 Scale
- 44 Universal
- 45 3D Manipulator accessories
- 45 Selection
- 45 Working planes and 3D Manipulators
- 45 Hide/Show
- 46 Delete
- 47 Dissolve
- 47 Copy from the Manipulator
- 47 Universel Manipulator Components Display
- 48 Advanced options for the Manipulators
- 48 Set the pivot
- 49 Reset the pivot
- 50 Selections
- 51 General
- 51 Types of selections
- 52 Select auto
- 52 Soft selection
- 53 Selection memorization
- 54 Selection methods
- 54 Paint
- 54 Drag
- 55 Rectangle lasso
- 55 Polygon Lasso
- 55 Selection operations
- 56 Selection accessories
- 56 Loop
- 57 Ring
- 57 Select between
- 58 One over «N» for Loop, Ring and Select Between
- 59 Grow
- 60 Shrink
- 60 Boundary
- 61 Convert
- 62 1/n
- 62 Invert
- 63 Unselect All
- 64 Selection Extensions
- 64 Extend Selection
- 65 Shift Selection
- 66 Reset Selection
- 66 Set Selection Auto Mode
- 67 Selection by Topology
- 68 Hide/Show Selected Faces
- 69 Isolate Selection
- 70 Dynamic Geometry in Hexagon
- 71 Modes
- 72 Dynamic Geometry Tree
- 75 Controlling the Dynamic Geometry levels
- 75 Global control
- 75 Removing the last dynamic operation
- 77 Modeling with Symmetry
- 78 The Symmetry Mode and the Symmetry Tool
- 78 The Symmetry Mode
- 79 The Symmetry tool and the Clone function
- 80 Pros and Cons
- 81 3D Primitives
- 82 Cube
- 83 Sphere
- 84 Facet
- 85 Cone
- 86 Cylinder
- 87 Platonic shapes
- 88 Grid
- 89 3D Text
- 91 Vertex Modeling
- 92 Edge Tools
- 93 Extract Around
- 94 Extract Along
- 95 Fillet
- 97 Fast Extrude
- 99 Move Along
- 100 Symmetry
- 102 Tesselate
- 102 Free Tesselate
- 104 Tesselate by segment
- 105 Add a single vertex on an edge of a polygon
- 106 Tesselate by slice
- 107 Automatic Tesselation
- 108 Connect
- 110 Smooth more / less
- 112 Close
- 113 Weld objects
- 114 Weld points
- 116 Average weld
- 117 Target weld
- 118 Sweep surface & Extrude surface
- 120 Tweak
- 121 Extract
- 122 Bridge
- 124 Dissociate
- 126 Lines
- 127 Rectangle
- 128 Square
- 129 Circle
- 129 Circle from the center
- 130 Circle from the basis
- 131 Circle from diameter
- 132 Circle from three points
- 133 Arc
- 134 Center - Start/Radius - Angle
- 134 Start -Center/Radius - Angle
- 134 Start - End - Middle
- 135 Start - End - Center/Radius
- 135 Start - End - Tangent
- 136 Polyline
- 137 Bézier
- 139 Interpolated Curve
- 140 Curve
- 141 Composite Curves
- 143 2D Text
- 145 Helix
- 146 2D Symmetry
- 147 Curve Extraction
- 148 Curve Offset
- 149 Insert Points
- 150 Polyline Tesselation
- 151 Close
- 152 Revert a curve
- 153 Surface modeling tab
- 154 Ruled surface
- 157 Double sweep
- 160 Coons surface
- 162 Gordon surfaces
- 164 Extrude line
- 167 Sweep line
- 171 Boolean operations
- 174 Thickness
- 176 Offset
- 178 Smoothing
- 181 Chamfer
- 184 Weld objects
- 186 The Utilities Tab
- 187 Stretch
- 189 Lay on
- 191 Snap/Align
- 193 Taper, Bender and Twister
- 195 Déformer (NFFD)
- 196 Bend
- 198 Copy
- 199 Multiple Copies
- 201 Copy on a support
- 203 Cut into slices
- 205 Hide
- 207 Show
- 208 Group
- 210 Ungroup
- 212 Orient normals
- 213 Decimate
- 214 Extract the openings
- 215 Triangulate non planar facets
- 215 Triangulate n-gons
- 216 Merge duplicate points
- 216 Merge duplicate UVs
- 217 Merge coplanar facets
- 218 Materials in Hexagon
- 219 Definition
- 219 Materials Palette
- 221 Materials Management
- 221 Creating a new material
- 222 Operations on Materials
- 222 Shading Domains
- 222 Creating a Shading Domain on a Selection of Faces
- 224 Operations on Domains
- 225 Creating and Managing UVs
- 226 Texture mapping
- 226 Usuing the Gizmos
- 228 The Gizmo Editor
- 228 The Gizmo UV Stretch
- 229 The UV editor
- 229 Interface
- 231 Selection and Manipulators
- 231 Tools working with UVs
- 232 Options and Utilities
- 233 Unfold
- 233 Principles
- 234 Unfolding UVs
- 235 Re-editing the Unfolding
- 237 Surface Displacement Modeling
- 238 Concepts
- 238 Structure, Mesh Density and Smoothing
- 239 From the Rough Shape to the Detailed One
- 239 True or Fake Modeling?
- 240 Preparing the 3D Model Before Displacement Modeling
- 241 Multi-resolution smoothing
- 242 Communication with other 3D tools
- 243 Displacement Texture Export
- 244 Bump Map Texture Export
- 245 Bump Map and Displacement Texture Export
- 246 Brushes and Painting
- 247 Principles of the Displacement and Painting Tools
- 247 The Working Channels
- 248 Revealing Textures to Paint or to Displace
- 249 Brush Shapes
- 250 Load Your Won Brushes or Textures to Reveal
- 251 Brushes Display
- 252 Types of Strokes
- 252 Working with the Graphic Tablet
- 253 Working with Symmetry
- 254 Using Displacement and Painting Tools
- 256 Soften
- 254 Displacement Brush
- 258 Pinch
- 259 Inflate
- 261 Paint
- 263 Brush
- 266 Exporting Textures
- 266 Color and Transparency Textures
- 267 Bump Textures
- 268 Displacement Maps
- 270 The control panel
- 271 Presentation
- 271 Organization of 3D workspace: split views
- 272 Snapping and axis constraints: 3D guides
- 273 Centering Tools
- 274 3D navigation tools
- 275 3D drawing styles
- 276 Real-time Display
- 276 Lightmaps
- 276 Real-time Shadows
- 277 Ambiant Occlusion
- 279 The Scene properties palette
- 280 The Scene tree tab
- 281 The Scene properties tab
- 282 The Object properties palette
- 286 Preferences
- 287 The Interface preferences
- 287 General
- 287 Grids
- 288 3D Rulers
- 288 Misc
- 289 Display preferences
- 289 Entities display
- 289 Selection
- 290 Advanced display parameters
- 290 Lighting parameters
- 291 Import/Export options
- 292 Imports / Exports
- 293 .CAR Format (export only)
- 293 .OBJ Format
- 293 .3DS Format
- 293 .DXF Format
- 293 .DWG Format
- 294 .STL Format (export only)
- 294 .A3D Format
- 294 .AI Format (v 3.2) - (import only)
- 295 Enjoy