Surface tools in Alias

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Many of the surface creation tools have common parameter sections,

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so, for example, Control Options, Surface Structure, Flow Control and Range.

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So when you open up a surface tool control window with a double click, it can look quite complex.

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But if you use the Shift button and close off all of the sections,

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you can see that there are some common parameters which will apply across other tools as well.

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So once you have an idea of how these work and you respond to what the prompt is asking you,

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it becomes much easier to just explore a tool.

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So for example here, if I put Explicit Control on, I get a section for Explicit Control Options which I can use.

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I can have a look at Flow Control here and maybe do a Modify range.

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And once you've explored that in one tool, then this section will work exactly the same way for other surface tools.

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We have a look at the Control Options,

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Things like Auto update history, metadata, Chain select will always be in this control options section.

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If we take a look at M S Draft, for example, use Shift+click to close off the sections, you can see there's a lot of common sections.

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There's rain there, surface structure, control options, et cetera.

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So it's worth spending a little bit of time understanding these tools.

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And if you always take note of what the prompt line is asking you, you're in a good position to start exploring the tools on your own.

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And I would recommend taking a look at the Alias Help.

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And in the Tool Palettes section, if you go to the Surfaces palette,

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you'll see that this top section explains those surface tool common parameters.

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And looking at these, we'll give you information that will get you started on the majority of the surface tools.