Part 1: Creating 3D objects

Creating a Primitive Object

What are Primitives?

Primitives are ready-made objects in familiar shapes. The primitives are made from a single surface, or a group of surfaces that form an enclosed volume.

In Alias, you can create the following primitives:

Sphere
Torus
Cylinder
Cone
Cube
Plane

Placing Primitives in views

Use the 2D views (Top, Left, and Back) to place the primitives. Which window you choose affects which way up the primitive is created.

For example, placing a cylinder in the Top view creates a pillar.

Placing the cylinder in the Left or Back views creates a ‘fallen pillar’, or a ‘log’.

Creating the lamp stand

Now create a cylinder for the base of the lamp stand.

Create the first cylinder using the Top window.
Maximize the Top view.
Choose Surfaces > Primitives > Cylinder from the palette. If the palette is not open, choose Windows > Palette from the menu bar.
To choose the Cylinder tool, press and hold the mouse button, so the cursor is over the Sphere icon until the entire Primitives drawer appears.

Then, click the Cylinder icon to choose the Cylinder tool.

The Cylinder tool is displayed in the Surfaces palette, and is outlined in red to indicate it is the active tool.
You can control the exact placing of a primitive using various snapping modes. In this section, use grid snapping to align all the cylinders centrally on the grid origin. The grid origin is where the two dark grid lines cross.
Hold down the (Windows) or (Mac) key to turn on grid snap mode.

Press and hold the (Windows) or (Mac) key near the origin. Keep your finger held down on the (Windows) or (Mac) key and move the mouse until the new cylinder snaps to the correct grid point.

Release the (Windows) or (Mac) key and the mouse button.
Choose Layouts > All Windows > All Windows or press the F9 key to display all four views, and check that the cylinder has been placed correctly, as shown.

The cylinder remains picked, or active. Picked objects are drawn with white lines, and objects that are not picked are drawn with dark blue lines. Most tools and commands work on picked objects. Since the Cylinder is picked, any tools or commands you choose will be applied to it.

NoteThe cylinder has a manipulator attached to it, as do all primitives when they are first added to the scene. The manipulator can be useful for transforming a primitive, but is not relevant to this tutorial.

TipTo delete the cylinder, press the key.

Scaling the lamp base

Next scale the cylinder to the correct size.

Maximize the Left view, as this is the view you will continue working in.
Choose Transform > Scale .

The Scale icon is outlined in red to indicate it is the active tool. At the same time, the cylinder’s manipulators disappear.

Click and drag the

to scale the cylinder equally in all axes.

Scale the cylinder to roughly fit the width of the bottom cylinder shown on the sketch. This forms the base of the lamp.

The Transform > Non-p Scale tool (non-proportional scale) modifies the x, y or z scale of an object separately. This allows an object to be stretched or squashed.

The mouse buttons are used to control the non-proportional scaling. For this section, use the 2D views (Top, Side, and Back) to control the transforms. In these views, the mouse buttons work as follows:

Left mouse button		free transform
Middle mouse button		horizontal transform
Right mouse button		vertical transform

Next use the to adjust the vertical height of the base.

Choose Transform > Non-p Scale .
Click and drag with the to adjust the height of the cylinder. Make the height approximately the same as shown in the sketch.

NoteThe cylinder is centered on the origin.

Later, you will line up the cylinder to the grid line, to make the lamp base sit on the ground.