Describes changes and improvements to NURBS and subdivision modeling tools.

Introducing History Presets

Alias 2022 introduces History Presets, which provide a way to save and reuse Alias tool settings in the History Visualizer. Presets save the construction history of existing tool nodes, which you can then apply to other tool nodes of the same type. Using presets lets you quickly and consistently regenerate commonly used geometry. Sharing presets across a network not only helps your design team to increase workflow efficiency, but also they can help maintain surface modeling standards across teams.

For more information, see the following topics:

• Create and assign construction history presets
• Windows > Information > History Visualizer

We've also added a new Pan With MMB option, which lets you navigate history graphs by holding down the middle-mouse button and dragging. You can turn on Pan With MMB in the History Visualizer View menu.

Reference Manager additions

We've continued to add improvements and additions to reference data workflows.

Support for group nodes

In 2022, we've continued to improve the way reference data is represented in the Reference Manager so that it more closely resembles the way source data displays in the Object Lister. For example, group nodes now display in the Reference Manager. When you import references that include group nodes, the group hierarchy now displays exactly the way it does in the Object Lister. Also, reference objects that come from subdivision bodies now display in the Reference Manager with the same subdivision objects icons used by the Object Lister.

To complement the support of group nodes in references, we've added the following:

• When you pick a reference group, Assign Shader applies the shader to all surfaces, meshes, and shells in the group.
• A Pick Level option in the Pick Reference tool called Object, which now picks the root node of a group when you select a reference object in the canvas.
• A filter option for Groups, so you can choose to display or hide group nodes in the Reference Manager.

New Promote Geometry options

We've improved the Promote Geometry feature to give you more control over how your reference geometry gets promoted. A new Promote to Create Layer options lets you promote the geometry as a flat hierarchy without creating unwanted layers. With this promotion method, you can choose to preserve the group node hierarchy of the reference by turning on Promote Group. To preserve the layer hierarchy, including existing layers, layer folders, and group nodes, of your referenced files, use the new Promote Layer Structure option when promoting geometry. This option produces results similar to the way Promote Geometry worked in previous releases.

Use the method when promoting the geometry of nested reference hierarchies as it generates all the geometry for the entire structure, including top-level nodes down to child nodes.

For more information, see Promote reference data.

Promote Subdiv

A new Promote Subdiv option lets you promote referenced subdivision objects to subdivision geometry. Promoted subdivision geometry includes the object's faces and the control cage as well as any crease information. All subdivision objects in your selection get promoted to geometry. For example, if you select a file, all the referenced subdivision objects get promoted, and if you select a layer or group, objects in the layer or group get promoted.

Note the following:

• Selecting a single limit surface results in the promotions of the control cage and all other associated limit surfaces.
• Any hybrid modeling operations applied to the referenced subdivision object are not preserved in the promoted geometry.

Other Reference Manager additions

• A new Reset Shader option lets you restore the source geometry's shader to its referenced object. You can access Reset Shader in the Reference Manager Edit menu.

For more information about the Reference Manager improvements see the following topics:

• Promote reference data.
• File > Reference Manager.

New Camera-based Selection option

We've added a camera-based selection option to Alias, so you can now choose to only select components with a clear line-of-sight to the camera. This ensures that you do not accidentally select components you cannot see. Camera-based selection has Shaded and Shaded & Wireframe Controls options so that, whether you are working with shaded objects or objects in wireframe, you can use a camera-based selection method that best suits your workflow. You can assign a hotkey to Camera-based selection to quickly toggle it on and off as needed.

For more information see the following:

• Select only unobstructed components
• Preferences > Selection Options.

NURBS modeling

Surface Continuity tool improvements

We've made the following improvements to the Surface Continuity tool:

• You can now switch between Position Continuity, Tangent Continuity, and Curvature Continuity on multiple instances of the Surface Continuity locator. After selecting the Surface Continuity on multiple surfaces, you can use the Position, Tangent, or Curvature buttons in the viewport to switch between continuity types, or use the spacebar to cycle through them.

• Continuity values no longer overlap in the canvas. For example, in previous versions, the display of continuity values along edges often overlapped each other, making it difficult to read the values.

• We've added a deviation comb for the G0 Positional Continuity locator. To display the comb, turn on the Show deviation in the Surface Continuity Options window. You can use the left mouse button to scale the comb and the middle mouse button to edit the steps in the comb.

  

See Evaluate > Continuity > Surface Continuity.

Additions to the Create CurvesOnSurface Project tool

We've added Continuity Check and Continuity Check Types to the Project tool. This means when projecting a surface edge onto another surface, you can quickly enable continuity check between two surfaces without the additional step of creating a Surface Continuity locator. When Continuity Check is enabled, you can choose from G0 Position, G1 Tangent, and G2 Curvature Continuity Check Types.

See Surface Edit > Create CurvesOnSurface > Project.

Curve to Curve Deviation locator improvement

You can now add multiple deviation locators to curves using Shift + LMB. After adding a Curve to Curve Deviation locator (Locators > Deviation > Curve to Curve) to measure the distance between two curves, you can then Shift + LMB click anywhere along the length of a curve to add another measurement point.

Other modeling tool improvements

We've also made the several other improvements to Alias modeling tools. They include the following:

• A new Create COS option in the Surface Offset tool now lets you specify whether or not to create a COS when applying a surface offset. In previous versions of Alias, a COS was created by default when you applied a surface offset with this tool.

  

  See Surfaces > Surface Offset.

• We've improved the Continuity Check options for the Align, and Align 2008 tools by removing the Specify Check and adding a new Tool Defined option to the Continuity Check Type drop-down list.

  These changes mean that you now select from Continuity Check Type list when Continuity Check is turned on. The Tool Defined option automatically sets the continuity type according to the tool's current Continuity setting.

  

  See Object Edit > Align > Align and Object Edit > Align > Align 2008.

• You can now create segments for Keypoint Circles. After creating the circle, open the Information Window (Windows > Information > Information Window, and in the Attributes section, enter the Arc Length/Radius values for each segment.

  

• You can now switch between Global and Pivot mode directly from the Transform tool manipulator.

• It's now possible to align the Transform tool manipulator on NURBS CVs, edges, and faces, just like you can with subdivision edges.

  • For the Fillet Flange and Tubular Flange tools, we've changed the default Draft Angle value range for Parting line Flange types. The slider control now lets you set a Draft Angle of between -80 to 80 degrees, which is the suitable working range.

• We've made some improvements to the way Alias handles values for Tool slider controls that have a default value range, but no maximum allowable value. In previous versions of Alias, setting a control slider value higher than its default range caused the control to reset to its default value. For example, if you used the Multi-surface Draft tool manipulator to set the Length to a value greater its slider range, the value reset to the default value for Length. Now, when you set a control slider value that is higher than its range by using the tool manipulator, typing it in, or using the mini-slider (Alt + drag), the new value persists.

• You can now select individual instances using the Pick tool. When you select an instance, only the instance highlights in the canvas. In previous versions of Alias, selecting an instance would cause the parent object to highlight in addition to the instance. The Pick Chooser now distinguishes the instances from other objects by appending its name with the parent object name and/or the word "symmetric".

Subdivision modeling

New Torus primitive

We've added a new Subdivision Torus Tool for creating torus primitives.

See Subdivision > Primitives > Subdiv Box/Plane/Cylinder/Torus.

Other improvements

• The Subdiv Extrude tool now maintains creases when extruding a creased surface.

  

• You can now use the Subdiv Cut tool to cut through both sides of subdivision body. Manipulate the view to position the cutline on the subdivision body and then click the Cut Through button in the viewport.

  

  See Cut subdivision bodies using the Cut tool.