Pesky Newbie

Pesky Newbie

Blame Architosh for revealing your whereabouts! :shock:

I'm in the Master of Design Studies program at Harvard currently. As a Mac user from (gulp) 1984, I'm being baptised (immolated?) into the cruel harsh world of Windows. My first beating was with Solidworks. Now I'm being flogged with Rhinoceros. The scars may be permanent. Why must these programs be so incredibly obtuse? :evil:

Anyway, I'm truly amazed with the capabilities of Cheetah. I tip my hat to you Martin - and other enthusiasts on this forum! I've been using PowerCADD/Wildtools for the past 10 years and am a sworn devotee to this 2D program. Is it possible that Cheetah is the 3D equivalent? Powerful, Elegant, Intuitive?

Anywho, as I better understand the program (working on tutorials now), I'll probably begin to ask a barrage of inane questions. Please forgive me in advance, but I've found it useful to "shout across the room" for quick tips instead of digging for hours through the sand with my forehead. We all have bad habits and this is one of mine. In the meantime, feel free to direct me to any useful orientation tools (or relevant archive posts) in my learning process.

First question: Anybody like to share recommended keyboard shortcuts to make life a bit more streamlined?

Delete Spline Points?

OK, here's a perfect example of a REALLY dumb question:

I see how to add points on a spline, but how to delete them? I've tried a bunch of key combinations and don't see it in the Help section.

Is there any way to search the Help section?

-thx!

I see how to add points on a spline, but how to delete them?

Click to expand...

In "Point Mode", select the point you want to delete, and then hit backspace. It might work, but I'm not sure - I have never tried. =)

Hi there.
One thing you must know about splines; deleting the yellow-end-point (Starting-point) will shot the nearby point (now the new starting-point) to xyz-zero coords and you will never bring it back. It´s lost. Deleting the red-end-point will do, what we expect. And, yes, it´s that easy as RandyWang said; Backspace deletes the choosen points .......

with kindest regards

Frank 8) - the heavy spline user :wink:

Thanks folks! Strangely, I tried this last night with no luck - no matter what I did... HONESTLY!!! :roll: Today, I opened a new drawing and tried again and it worked as you suggested - both in transform mode and in select mode.

So I feel rather stupid now. Either I needed more coffee last night or perhaps there was some bizarre corruption in my file?

By the way, Martin. I REALLY like the Yellow to Red concept in the splines!!!! Out of curiosity, why did you establish the color order in reverse from ROY (as in ROYGBIV - the colors of the rainbow) as the order for start to end on splines?

Hi again.

If possible, I would like to have a look at a screenshot, even a cut out....if possible.

with kindest regards

Frank

Unfortunately, I can't provide any files or screenshots since the file that didn't function properly (either me or the file) was not saved. Sorry. If I run into the problem again, I'll post something.

Here's another Q:
Any way to increase the zooming percentage on the mouse scroll wheel? Seems a bit slow.[/i]

Okay. Found it. Was looking for Cheetah pref, when it is a System Pref.

System Prefs: Mouse: Scroll wheel speed.

Hi Yoüf,
welcome. It's nice to hear that the user base of Cheetah3D at Harvard is growing. :wink:

Now to your first question if Cheetah3D can compete with Rhino. If you need NURBS the answere is a clear NO. Rhino has very powerful and specialized NURBS tool for which Cheetah3D doesn't have a real aquivalent.
But many things can be also done with subdivision surfaces. Only perfect circles or balls are not possible with subdivision surfaces.

Yoüf said:

By the way, Martin. I REALLY like the Yellow to Red concept in the splines!!!! Out of curiosity, why did you establish the color order in reverse from ROY (as in ROYGBIV - the colors of the rainbow) as the order for start to end on splines?

Click to expand...

That is the same color order C4D uses. So I thought it might be intuitive to some users.

By,
Martin

So for a long time, I was thinking I absolutely needed NURBS. Considering the power of Cheetah, I'm beginning to wonder if I really need NURBS.

My goals with Cheetah are to be able to make STL 3D models on the ABS printer, or the ZCorps printer.

If I only need NURBS to create perfect circles, then I may not need them, since not even the earth is a perfect circle!

However, I must confess, if Cheetah would allow for exporting of IGES files, life would be pretty good - since I need IGES files to drive our CNC Router. Sure I can translate STL files, but would need to operate one of those filthy Windows machines! :wink: Any Mac program that can translate your exports into IGES?

Also, I noticed that Cheetah will not translate Rhino files (3dm format). While Cheetah will supposedly import OBJ files, my export from Rhino in that format would not come in. Any advice? 3DS came in fine.

So here's what's got me confused now. How the heck do I get two polygons on the same layer so I can WELD or BRIDGE them (like in your Help section). This seems really simple, once again, but sometimes the simplest things are what experienced users forget to explain to dummies, like me.

hi,
the bridgetool on planeobjects will generate a second layer for depth, while the tool is expecting the third dimension, wich really not exists in planes. So weldingtool is fine for planes and bridgetool for 3 dimensional objects.
Connecting the two parts is easy as button a shirt. Click two points near the border (they will become highlighted by moving the curser over it), one west, one east. Row C: Don´t forget to erase the polygons on the facing sides. You can´t melt two closed objects by bridgetool.
Hope this helps..............(lost in translation?)

with kindest regards

Frank

Thanks. This is very helpful in the future.

However, my question is much, much simpler. I see in all of your diagrams two different objects which have points which are selected. I can't do this.

When I draw two objects, they each appear as separate objects in the tree. I can only select points on one object at a time. I can't select points on both objects to perform a weld (for planes) or bridge (for objects).

What am I doing wrong, or what do I need to do to select points on two objects. This question almost has nothing to do with WELD or BRIDGE, but a more basic operating question.

Thanks for your help!!!

Hi,
the polygon tools only work on one object at a time. But you can join to polygon object.
To do that use the "Import children" tool. Please check out the documentation to learn how to use that tool.

By,
Martin

AHA!

That's it! This was probably covered in one of the tutorials, and being impatient, I tried to noodle around on my own. BAD YOÜF!

I'm going back to the tutorials right now! :roll: