Deform Status Bar

Reading the Deformation Dialog

The Deformation dialogs for Scale, Twist, Teeter, and Bevel all use the same layout. You can use buttons in the window's toolbar and prompt area to perform the following functions:

• Change deformation curve display.
• Edit control points.
• Navigate the Deformation dialog.

Reference

The following topics describe how to work with curves in the Deformation dialogs.

• Deformation Grid: The view where the deformation curves are displayed is called the deformation grid. This grid charts the value of the deformation along the length of the path.

The main grid components are:

• Active area: The light colored area of the grid defines the first and last vertex boundaries of the path. The ends of the deformation curve lie on each boundary and cannot be moved off of the boundary.
• Horizontal lines: Mark deformation values on the vertical scale. The meaning of the deformation values varies for the type of deformation displayed. The following table lists each deformation curve type and the meaning of the deformation values.

Deformation Type      Deformation Value

Scale      Percentage

Twist      Rotation Angle

Teeter      Rotation Angle

Bevel      Current Units

The thick horizontal line at 0 represents the deformation value at the loft path.

• Vertical lines: Mark levels of the path. The levels displayed vary with the Adaptive Path Steps setting in the Skin Parameters rollout.
• If Adaptive Path Steps is checked, levels are displayed at all path vertices, and shape locations.
• If Adaptive Path Steps is unchecked, levels are only displayed at path vertices.
• Path Ruler: Measures the length of the path. The values on the ruler measure percentage along the path. You can drag the path ruler vertically in the Deformation dialog.
• Deformation Curves: You can see one or two curves in the Deformation dialog based on the deformation type and your curve display setting. The curves are color-coded by axis:
• A red curve displays deformation along the shape's local X axis.
• A green curve displays deformation along the shape's local Y axis.
• Control Point Fields: At the bottom of the Deformation dialog are two edit fields. When a single control point is selected these fields display the path location and deformation amount of the control point.
• Control Point Position: The left field displays the location of the control point on the loft path as a percentage of the total path length.
• Control Point Amount: The right field displays the deformation value of the control point.

Navigating the Deformation Dialog

You will want to zoom and pan around the view of the deformation grid as you edit the curve values. The Deformation dialogs carry their own view navigation buttons in the lower-right corner.

• Zooming the View: The Zoom buttons change the view magnification value.
• Zoom Extents: Changes the view magnification so the entire deformation curve is visible.
• Zoom Horizontal Extents: Changes the view magnification along the path length so the entire path area is visible in the dialog.
• Zoom Vertical Extents: Changes the view magnification along the deformation values so the entire deformation curve is displayed in the dialog.
• Zoom Horizontally: Drag horizontally to change magnification along the path length.

·      Drag right to increase magnification.

·      Drag left to decrease magnification.

• Zoom Vertically: Drag vertically to change magnification along the deformation value.

·      Drag up to increase magnification.

·      Drag down to decrease magnification.

• Zoom: Drag vertically to change magnification along both the path length and deformation value preserving the curve aspect ratio.

·      Drag up to increase magnification.

·      Drag down to decrease magnification.

• Zoom Region: Drag a region on the deformation grid. The region is then magnified to fill the deformation dialog.
• Panning the View: You can use two methods to pan the view without changing magnification:
• Pan: Drag in the view to move in any direction.
• Scroll bars: Drag the horizontal and vertical scroll bars to pan the view in a single direction.