The Alias workspace

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This is the default Alias workspace.

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Up at the top, we've got a fairly standard menu bar

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and here on Preferences, for example, you can choose your screen colors.

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So you might prefer a dark gray or a dark blue.

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I'm going to start by doing a File > Open

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and bring in a model,

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and I've got an empty model stage already

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so I'm gonna say delete that and open my new one.

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And if this construction options question pops up,

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it's not really important until you start doing some serious modeling.

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So I'm just going to take the default answer which is highlighted in blue.

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Over here with Diagnostic Shade, I can give the model a block color

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Or do some surface analysis

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Or I can use one of these viz shaders to show the materials on the model.

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Above that there's a small customizable tool shelf.

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So for example, I use the Information Window a lot,

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I can drag that onto the shelf with the middle mouse button,

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so I've always got it at hand.

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And at the top in the Control Panel,

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you can manage the structure and the display of your geometry,

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and you have the option to open sections as fly-outs using the right mouse button.

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And these three are just a docked group of tools that I can resize or minimize.

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So over here in the main model window,

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I can zoom in and out using the scroll button on the mouse.

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And if I come up here and click and drag on this ViewCube, I can tumble the view

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and use these view tools.

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And then on the view window title bar,

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I've got this Show menu that I can use to turn off the grid for example.

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And then over here is our main Tool Palette,

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and I can display these tabs as lists or as icons

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and I can change the orientation of the palette,

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and again use the right mouse button for fly-out menus

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and I can choose to keep it floating or dock it

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to any of the borders using the middle mouse button.

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And when I use a palette tool like Revolve here,

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it shows up in this current tool icon

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and instructions for what to do next are given in this prompt line area.

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And below that, we have the layer shortcut bar

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and I can use this to organize the model and turn on and off some geometry layers.

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So this whole layout with any changes or customizations you make

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is saved in this Default Workspace shown down here on the Workspaces bar.

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And optionally you can create additional or alternative

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Workspaces which are simply different tool layouts.

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So on startup, you're given these three as examples to take a look at.