Whats New: Autodesk Alias 2010

To start off, one obvious change in the Autodesk Alias family of products is the product name re-branding.  For 2010 product lines, Autodesk has revised the names of a limited number of products to streamline the naming structure and to more clearly communicate the product to customers and end-users.  Autodesk AliasStudio, DesignStudio, SurfaceStudio, and AutoStudio are now called Autodesk Alias, Alias Design, Alias Surface, and Alias Automotive respectively.

To be consistent with other Autodesk products, Autodesk Alias now incorporates the ViewCube in its Perspective view window.  The ViewCube tool is a persistent, clickable and draggable interface that you use to switch between standard and isometric views of your model. By default, it displays in the top right corner of the perspective window in an inactive state. While the ViewCube tool is inactive, it provides visual feedback about the current viewpoint as view changes occur. When you position the cursor over the ViewCube tool, the tool becomes active; you can switch to one of the available preset views, roll the current view, or change to the Home view of the model.   If you come from a mechanical CAD background, you would appreciate Alias having a View Cube in the perspective window in a way that you do not have to switch between Top, Left/Right, Back/Front, and Perspective viewports using either the F shortcut keys or the Layouts pull-down menu but by simply just clicking on the ViewCube.  You can also Tumble (Rotate) by dragging the ViewCube using the left mouse button as an alternative to the traditional Shift+Alt+LMB

Additionally, the NavBar is a tool panel associated with the ViewCube. It provides supplemental navigation functions that correspond with functionality on the View Panel.  You can change the default View Control option under the Preferences > General Preferences.  Click Viewing and set the View Control option to VIEW CUBE, VIEW PANEL, or NONE.  View Control must be set to View Cube in order to the NavBar to appear when you press Shift+Alt

The ViewCube	The NavBar

One common requirement in industrial design is symmetry.  Traditionally in Alias, when you require a symmetric curve, you need to create the half the curve in one side of the layers symmetry plane, turn on the symmetry visibility for that layer, create geometry, then use the Attach under Object Edit to turn the two curves into one.

New in 2010, Alias now lets you do symmetric modeling more efficient where you can select geometry and modify it in a symmetric manner by moving controls (CVs, edit points, and so on) on one side, and having the corresponding controls on the symmetric half automatically move in the opposite direction.

The symmetry plane is still defined by the default symmetry plane for the layer the curve or surface belongs to. This plane can be modified by using Layers>Symmetry>Set Plane. If you move the object, the symmetry plane moves with it.

With this new functionality, you have to create the entire curve without worrying how symmetric it looks.  Once you are done creating the curve, invoke the Symmetric Modeling command under Object Edit, and select the curve.  The curve then will become symmetric with respect to the layers symmetry plane.  You also have the option to Flip the Master Side, having the flexibility to control which side you want to preserve during symmetry process.

Traditional Way:  Using Layer Symmetry:

Left image shown before Create Geometry and Attach command.  Right image shown after Create Geometry and Attach command

The last new feature I want to mention in this article is the new Apply Shaders tool.  You can access this tool from the Render pull-down menu, Apply Shader.  The Visualize Control Panel mode will also become active.  This tool simplifies the workflow for assigning shaders.  The tool provides two menus that display when you click the middle mouse button and the right mouse button. Use these menus to assign shaders to your models quickly and easily.

Using the middle mouse button allows you to assign shaders using filters such as by Component (single surface or mesh), by Material (all geometry that use the same material), by Object (all components that are grouped in the same object, and by Layer (all geometries in the same layer)

Using the right mouse button provides four tools that perform shading functions namely Shader Picker, Open Shader Editor, Duplicate Shade, and Create Layered Shader. Shader Picker allows you to pick a shader assigned to a geometry and make that particular shader active.  The Shader Editor allows you to edit the projected texture assigned to a geometry.  Duplicate Shader allows you to duplicate a shader assigned to a geometry.  And Create Layered Shader allows you to add and/or remove a shader on top of another shader assigned to a geometry.

In the Apply Shader mode, the left mouse button functions as the Pick and Go button.

You can exit the Apply Shader mode by selecting any other tool.

The preceding texts in this article describe some but not all of the new features of Autodesk Alias family of products.  For details and complete list of the new features, please refer to the Whats New section of the Help file.