Coalesce Read Me

Coalesce v1.0.0b Introduction: This is the first beta of a 3D modeler for Macintosh. Your computer needs to have Mac OS X and OpenGL hardware acceleration. Being the first release it is missing many features, such as the ability to export in different model formats. The main idea is for testers to see if the program would be useful and what features they would like to see in future releases of the program (e.g. different model formats). Using the Program: Navigating: An important thing to know about the modeler is how to change perspectives. If you hold down spacebar while dragging the mouse in the window your workspace will rotate. If you hold down command while dragging the workspace will move in the direction you dragged. If you hold down option while dragging up the camera will zoom in and if you hold down option while dragging down the camera will zoom out. Exiting: Command-Q works just as it always does to quit the program. There is no "Are you sure you want to quit" dialog. If you think there should be let me know. Pressing Escape will jump you back to the finder and will hide Coalesce. Clicking on the icon in the dock will take you back. Also clicking on the blue bubble in the upper left corner will do the same thing as pressing Escape. The Window Menu: The Vertex Window: This window has three coordinates that describe the location of the vertex that is currently selected. If more than one vertex is selected only one of them will be affected by this window. If you click on the values of the vertexes X, Y, or Z coordinate you can type in a new value. This is particularly useful if you need a vertex in a specific position. I've been wondering whether an option that locks the vertices to a grid would be useful. If you think so let me know. The Design Window: This window has four different tools. The first tool creates new vertices. You can create vertices by simply clicking on the workspace where you want the new vertex to be. The second tool selects vertices. If you click on a vertex it will be selected and you can drag it around the screen. If you click but not on a vertex a drag box will appear and anything inside the drag box when you release the mouse will be selected. Holding down shift will allow you to select more vertices without unselecting the previous ones. The third tool creates triangles. If you click between three vertices a triangle will form there. A note of caution is that the triangle that will form will be the one as near as possible to the camera. That means if you have many vertices scattered around the screen the triangle that will form will most likely not be one that you wanted. A way around this is to leave as few open vertices as possible (i.e. make the triangles as you create the vertices, not long after). The triangle tool is mainly for creating the first triangles on the model or for filling in holes later on. The bulk of the model should be created with the extrude tool (below). If you c…