Matrix 5 PRIMARY TUTORIALS

Creating Curves: Page 1

Creating Curves
Learn how to use simple tools from the Curves menu to create 2 In the bottom half of your screen, re-create the
curves on different layer colors. Use End O-Snaps to create images that you see in the top half of your screen.
closed curves and Curve Transform Tool to create unique, Remember that, to draw in a certain layer color,
interactive shapes. you need to first click on the name of the color
before clicking on the tool name in the
Primary-Level Skills Curve fly-out menu. Before drawing each curve,
select its layer color from the Layers Menu so that
Arc it is highlighted in bright blue. This makes it the
Layers Menu active color.

Circle Grid Snap

End O-Snap 3 To create the Arc, select this tool and left
Rectangle
mouse-click where you want to place the center of
the arc. Click again at the location where you want
Polyline Curve Transform Tool the curve to start. Now, swing the arc around to the
location where the curve will end. Click once more
1 Go to the File menu; click on Open and find to complete the arc. To set the beginning and
DGMatrix53. Double click on System. Double click ending points of the arc on a straight line, hold
on Demos. Double click on Curves. Double click on down the Shift key on your keyboard to engage
Creating Curves. Ortho (which causes grid images to snap to the
horizontal or vertical axis) while positioning your
mouse for each point.

4 To create straight lines (these are still called

curves!), click on the Curve menu and select the
Polyline tool. Click once on the point where
you want your line to begin. Hold down the Shift key
on your keyboard to engage Ortho and extend your
line straight out. Click again on the point where you
want your line to end. Press Enter on your keyboard
to complete your curve and “let go of” the Polyline
The screen shot below shows the curves you’ll
tool.
see onscreen. Press F7 on the keyboard if you wish
to hide the grid lines.
5 To create a circle, click on the Circle
tool. The first place you click will be the center of
the circle. The next place will be the outer edge of
the circle. Essentially, you are defining the radius of
the circle (the distance from the outer edge to the
center).

6 Create a rectangle by clicking on the

Rectangle tool. Your first click will be the upper-
left corner of the rectangle, and your second click
will define the bottom-right corner.

7 Once you have re-created these shapes, select

Open again. DO NOT elect to Save this file: click on
NO before moving on, or else your file will save
Matrix 5 PRIMARY TUTORIALS
Creating Curves: Page 2

over the current file in the Demos folder! This time, Tips for Drawing Curves & Using Layers:
click on the ctt demo file found in the same folder
(DGMatrix53 > Demos > Curves > ctt demo) to 9 It is a good idea to determine first if you will need
open it. The following is what you’ll see onscreen:
the Grid Snap on, and what
distance you will want it set to (e.g., 0.5
mm). This tool helps you control where you are
drawing your lines and curves by causing them to
“snap to” a distance (indicated in millimeters) on
the grid.

9 It will be important in your future designs to know

how to make Closed Curves, or, curves where
the starting point and the ending point are
identical. To do this, make sure your

End O-Snap is on. As you are

drawing and you near the end of a curve with
your mouse, the End indicator will appear
8 Select the curve located between the two and you can click your left mouse button once to
boxes and input it into the Line preview window in “snap” your new curve to the end indicated.
the Curve Transform Tool builder. Using the
interactive controls in the builder, set the Hold and 9 It will also be very important to your future
Bend points and then adjust the Bend Curve slider designs to know how to change objects’ layer
to create the paper-clip shape shown onscreen. color. To do so, you can either (1) click on a new
layer name, like User Red, to highlight
When adjusting the Hold and Bend points (Hold is it in bright blue before choosing the tool you will
red and Bend is green), the area of the curve to be use to create your item, or (2) select the item after
bent is located roughly between the two. All of the it has been created (by clicking on it with the left
curve that is past the Hold point will remain still mouse button so it is highlighted), and then click
while all of the curve that is past the Bend point will on the arrow beside the color box to indicate the
be bent. Imagine bending a wire coat-hanger: one color change.
hand will hold the wire still while the other hand
will move the wire. The bend will occur roughly
between the two hands, so it will be a tighter bend 9 While clicking directly on the arrow is the way to
if the hands are closer together and a looser bend if place a highlighted object on a give layer color,
the hands are farther apart. In this analogy, the the swatch of color next to the arrow has another
hold point is the hand that remains still and the purpose entirely: right mouse-click on the swatch
bend point is the hand that moves the wire. of color to highlight all of the curves on that layer.
This is a quick way to highlight everything you
need at once, without painstaking individual
clicks onscreen. It also shows the usefulness of
layers: when modeling, choose your layers
carefully so you can better control your model
with methods like this one!