Opening and Manipulating a Model

Video captions: Welcome to VRED. Today, we will import a model and use the default import settings. Click Import.

A linked Autodesk Alias WIRE file has been provided for you to download and use.

To increase file performance and enhance the rendering process, let's optimize the scene. In the Scenegraph, right-click the top node of the geometry and select Edit > Show Optimize Module. You can also access the Optimize Module via the Scene menu or through right-clicking on the Quick Access Bar. In addition to the default settings, check both Flush Transformation Nodes and Cleanup Group Nodes, then click Optimize. This optimizes the Scenegraph, removes stored transformations, and removes unnecessary or empty group nodes to reduce the number of drawn nodes in the scene. Please keep in mind, this could destroy your Scenegraph structure, so don't use "Cleanup Group Nodes" if the structure should not be modified.

Because Boundings is enabled, a bounding box appears around the model, which indicates that it is selected. Click Wireframe to display the wireframe of selected components.

There are several ways to select and deselect objects.

• Shift + LMB-click to select an object.
• Shift + RMB-click in empty space to deselect all.
• Ctrl + Shift + LMB-click to select additional objects.
• Ctrl + Shift + RMB-click to deselect additional objects.
• Shift and drag with the LMB from top left to bottom right to select items fully inside the selection frame.
• Shift and drag with the LMB from the bottom right to the top left to select objects fully or partially inside the selection frame.

To navigate in the Render View, use the LMB to rotate, MMB to pan, and RMB to zoom.

• Double-LMB-click on geometry to set it as the pivot point. This does not move the camera.

• Double-MMB-click on geometry to set the pivot point, then focus and center it in the Render View. Use this to zoom into small parts quickly. Also use this to quickly zoom out when working with large parts. This works like Selection + Zoom to.

• Double-RMB-click on geometry to set the pivot point and center it in the Render View.

Now, let's check the direction of the surface normals, to ensure they are facing the correct direction. To display these in VRED, in the Visualization menu, select Vertex/Face Normal Rendering. The colors displayed identify their orientations.

• Green indicates the vertex and face normals are correctly pointing toward the camera.
• Blue surfaces have vertex and face normals pointing away from the camera and need to be flipped for proper rendering results. Open the Geometry Editor, use the button, Face and Vertex, to flip those.
• Gold indicates inconsistencies, where the face normals point away from the camera, while the vertex normals point toward the camera. Use Face/Surface to flip only those pointing away from the camera.
• Magenta indicates inconsistencies, where the face normals point toward the camera, while the vertex normals point away from the camera.Use Vertex to flip only the vertex normals, so the geometry looks green.
• Red or pink indicates invalid or broken normals. This can only be repaired with the recalculation of all normals. For more information on the red and pink color definition check the documentation.

You can also flip normals of shells and meshes with different twisted components and patches using the following hotkeys:

• Alt + LMB-drag from top left to bottom right and enclose the entire car. This flips whole shells, depending on the normal direction. Parts which show already green won´t be flipped. Rotate to the opposite view and repeat. Use this to flip most normals. Ensure to leave the environment dome blue.
• Alt + MMB-drag from left to bottom right or click to flip only selected components of a shell.
• Alt + RMB-click to flip only connected components inside a shell. This is useful, if Alt + LMB toggles back and forth, as the whole shell with all components flips.

When all normals are facing the camera (green) go back to Visualization > Realistic Rendering.