First steps

Quick start

This tutorial explains in detail the first steps to get started with Spacedraw. It is written also for novices to 3d-modeling, but should be read by experts as well to get used to the interface.

First steps

start Spacedraw

if you start the app for the first time, an empty scene is loaded

if you have previously exited or closed Spacedraw, the state is restored - in this case tap the F on the left border, then new scene to start with an empty scene
the screen should now look similar to the next image (without the yellow annotations) - the arrangement of the ribbon-items at the top will be different, dependent on your device's screen-size and resolution
the viewport shows

the home grid in the x-z-plane, where the x-axis is displayed red and the z-axis blue
the 3d-pointer, currently at the origin of the coordinate-system, showing additionally in green the direction of the y-axis (up)

adjust the interface

The interface is adaptable to any screen-size and -resolution; Spacedraw tries to detect these and set the size of the menu-items accordingly itself, but may fail in some cases; if the "tappable" areas are to small or to large, first adjust the size settings:

tap the F on the left border, then Preferences ; the Preferences-panel opens
tap the first entry, "Tap size"; a green up-down-arrow appears besides the panel; slide up/down on it to change the size of the "tappable" areas; do the same for the "Text size", then tap the "OK"-button at the panel's bottom (you don't have to use "Save")

explore the touch-areas

they are marked by the little green arrows on the screen's borders and divide it in rectangular zones, according to the image to the right. Touching the screen has different effects depending on the area where the touch starts

change the view:
the bottom part of the screen is used for changing the view and called view-zone

slide one finger freely in the orbit-area - the view rotates around the view-center, currently the origin of the coordinate-system

after you have touched down on the screen, you may slide out of the area (this counts for all other areas as well)

slide one finger freely in the pan-area - the view now follows the movement of your finger "sideways"
slide one finger up/down in the zoom-strip - the view is zoomed out/in; that is, the "virtual camera" is moved towards a fixed point, the view-center
slide one finger up/down in the pan-strip - the view is moved back/forth - an effect similar to zooming;

however, you can now move past the 3d-pointer - the view-center moves back/forth together with the view - orbit again to see this effect

slide two fingers somewhere below the horizontal area-splitter - now, the average motion determines the movement parallel to the screen-plane (like pan), and pinching zooms simultaneously

move the 3d-pointer:
the upper part of the screen is used for operating the tools and called tool-zone

slide one finger freely in the large pointer-area - the 3d-pointer moves in the x-z-plane, and the current coordinates are shown in the status-bar
slide one finger up/down in the small pointer-area - the 3d-pointer now moves along the y-axis
slide two fingers in the large pointer-area - now, the 3d-pointer moves freely in space, where the average motion determines the movement parallel to the screen-plane, and pinching moves back and forth
slide two fingers, with on starting the touch within the small, and with the other starting the touch within the large pointer-area - now, you can also move the 3d-pointer freely in space, but the up/down motion of the left finger moves along the y-axis, and the motion of the right finger moves in the x-z-plane

test tilt-view:

slide into the screen from left over the green line at the bottom of the left border a little way, then release the touch
now tilt your device in various ways - the view orbits according to the motion, as if the scene would stand still somehow, and you would move the virtual camera with your device's

if your device has no gyroscope, the accelerometer is used, possibly providing only a very unsteady feedback of the motion, so the view-change is unsteady as well

deactivate tilt-view again by sliding again into the screen from left over the green line

Creating a first model

This section describes in detail how to create a simple tower. It covers polygon- and patch-modeling, materials and lighting.
You can download the scene file without or with history (for more info on how to use these, see Resources)

If something goes wrong, you can undo any operation: slide into the screen from right over the green line at the right border, or tap close besides it; to redo, use the blue line below the green one (only visible if redo is possible)

create a prism

If necessary, start a new scene via F > new scene
enable grid snap
tap n-gon
tap within the tool-zone; the status-line now reads "create polygon: 0 radius"
slide in the large pointer-area to move the 3d-pointer to e.g. (10 0 0)
zoom out some way
slide up in the small pointer-area to move the pointer to e.g. (10 20 0); a prism is created
touch the screen on "radial division" and slide up until the value is -1 and the prism has no top- and bottom-face
in the same way, change "height division" to e.g. 10 (alternatively, tap "height division" and type e.g. 10)

shape the tower

tap , then edge
hide the home grid via F > home grid (tap within the tool-zone to close the menu)
tap some edge of the prism's bottom border so it is selected (pink)
- make sure the edge is within the tool-zone, else tapping has no effect
- alternatively, slide in the tool-zone to move the 2d-pointer to the edge to select it
tap the ... in the ribbon to open the selection-rollout, then tap border
rotate the view to confirm that the border edges are selected (one pink, the others green)
tap move ; the 3d-pointer now has arrows
tap the green arrow so the others disappear
- here again, make sure the 3d-pointeris within the tool-zone, else tapping has no effect
slide down in the large pointer-area to move the edges down to e.g. (0 -50 0)
tap scale ; the 3d-pointer now shows white lines connecting the axes
tap the line connecting the blue and the red axes; the green arrow disappears
slide away from the 3d-pointer to spread the edges a little; change the view to observe how the tower looks so far and adjust the scaling as you like

tap within the tool-zone to deselect all edges, then select one of the bottom vertical edges
tap ring in the ribbon to select the 6 edges around the tower
now tap scale , and then the pointer's white line connecting the blue and the red axis again
tap extrude , then slide away from the 3d-pointer
- (remember that you can change the view simultaneously to operating a tool - slide with one or two fingers of one hand in the bottom part of the screen, and with one of the other hand in the upper part)
tap vertex and select the 6 upper outer vertices of the extruded faces, then tap delete
select the topmost 3 edge-rings of the tower and move them up a little way, e.g. to (0 20 0)

make it solid

select the 6 elongated edges, tap , then inflate
tap joint to disable it, change "sides" to e.g. 8 and "thickness" to e.g. 0.15
tap face , then select one of the faces of the tower's lower part and one of the upper part, then tap connected to select every face except the pillars
tap diverge , enable cap borders , and set "inner amount" and "outer amount" to the same values as the thickness of the pillars, e.g. 0.15

build the prongs

select the edge-loop above the pillars (as shown in the last image), then tap face , twice to select the adjoining 2 face-loops. Now tap to patches and set "divisions" to e.g. 6, then tap somewhere in the tool-zone
tap edge , then tap somewhere in the tool-zone away from edges to deselect all, then select one of the middle horizontal edges of the created patches, then loop , then vertex two times so that the 6 middle vertices of the patches are selected
tap , then scale , then the pointer's white line connecting the blue and the red axis again; now tap sel. handles to disable transforming the handles, then scale the vertices out some way, e.g. as in the image

create the globe

enable home grid in the D -menu again, tap object , select the tower and move it down so it's top level lines up with the grid
tap , then slide in the screen over the red-green-blue line at the screen's top right border, downwards slantwise until a text-box appears labeled "x="; now type 0, ENTER (or NEXT) trice to move the 3d-pointer to (0 0 0).
tap sphere , then tap in the tool-zone , then move the 3d-pointer to create a sphere of radius e.g. 11, and set "longitude division" to e.g.8 and "latitude division" to 6
tap , select the sphere, then tap inflate again; now enable joint and set the thickness to e.g. 0.1

examine the tower

now zoom out to examine the tower; slide into the screen from left over the green line at the bottom of the left border to enable tilt-view; tap V , then orbit / look around to look around from your virtual standpoint; change orbit / look around again to orbit and disable tilt-view
if you think the tower is not height enough, tap , then vertex and lasso ; rotate the view so you look at the tower obliquely from below; move the 2d-pointer to approximately the center of the tower's bottom, then spread two fingers within the tool-zone to form a lasso and select the bottommost vertices (if you don't get all with one grip, just lift the fingers and touch again to enlarge the rectangle); now move the vertices down until the tower looks right

assign materials

tap , then material ; the material-panel opens after a short time; try resizing the panel: place one finger within the panel and another outside of it and slide - start sliding above the panel’s center to shift the top border, in the lower half to shift the bottom border
make sure object is selected in the ribbon, select the tower (without the sphere) tap "Library", then e.g. "brick" to expand the group, and tap the image of the material you want to assign, e.g. "brick2"; a box-gizmo appears and the texture is projected using box-projection (you could now transform the gizmo, use another mapping, adjust the color etc.)
tap within the tool-zone to hide the gizmo, and change the overall scale of the texture by sliding on the green up/down arrow in the material-panel
tap , then select the 12 patches by tapping them (with the -ribbon loaded, tapping a facet of a patch selects the individual facet see below), then tap again and open the material-panel; scroll to the top of the list, select the standard material by tapping the word (not the color-box), then tap new in the ribbon to create a new material based on the standard material
now assign it to the selection by tapping the color-box, then tap object , select the sphere and assign the new material to it also; now disable wireframe in the D -menu, and hide the wireframe on the sphere also by deselecting it to better see the material
tap "Diffuse" to open the color-picker and change the main color of the material - slide two fingers outside the color-picker within the tool-zone to change the color; also try the other ways to adjust the color and moving and resizing the color-picker by sliding two fingers within the picker, or one within and one outside it. the same way, adjust the specular color (after tapping Spec. , an adjuster for the shininess appears). try changing the view while adjusting the color.

illuminate the scene

tap material to close the material-panel; in the D -menu, tap lights: default / scene to enable the scene lights, also enable show lights; there is one point light at (0 0 5); select it and move it around by sliding two fingers in the tool-zone and adjust it's properties; decrease "ambient intensity" to only have the light from the lights position; try moving it into the tower
tap lights , then directional , tap within the tool-zone to create the light; rotate it using two fingers; simultaneously, change the view; adjust the color of the lights, possibly to simulate a sunset; open the scene-explorer by sliding into the screen over the white line at the screen's right border to easily select a light; disable show lights , and tap the menu-button / -key to hide the UI; take a screenshot

How to go on

To explore Spacedraw further, use the manual, e.g. draw some lines or curves, or load the other sample scenes.