Steering Wheel

The steering wheel is an important element of the Synchronous design, it help you move and orient surfaces of your model.

To display the steering wheel, click on a surface of the model.

The origin of the steering wheel is locate where you click. The primary axis will align itself parallel to the normal of the surface.

The steering wheel use progressive exposure. In a first step the primary axis and the origin will be displayed.

When you click the origin or the primary axis, all the components on the steering wheel will be displayed.

The secondary axis, attempt to orient itself parallel to one of the axis of the base coordinate system.

Progressive/Selective display

The steering wheel use progressive and selective display. Base on your selection, the elements of the steering who will be display will correspond to that selection.

Two main types of steering are available, the 2D and the 3D steering wheel.

 

The main steering wheel elements

The origin

The Primary axis

The Secondary axis

The Steering Wheel plane

The Steering Wheel Torus

The Primary Knob

The Secondary Knob

The Torus Knobs

 

Displacement

To initiate a translation with the steering wheel, use the primary or the secondary axis

To initiate a rotation with the steering wheel, use the Torus

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

To initiate a planar move, use the steering wheel plane

Changing the orientation/position

When it comes time to change the orientation/position of the steering wheel three situations can occur.

• Keep the position and change the orientation
• Keep the orientation and change the position
• Change the orientation and the position

 

Changing the orientation/position - Keep the position and change the orientation

1. – To change the orientation of the primary axis by 90 deg. Click one of the torus knobs.

2. – To change the orientation by any other angle then 90 deg, press and maintain the SHIFT key then click the torus or the primary knob.

You can then enter any numeric values or select any keypoint.

3. – To change the orientation of the secondary axis by 90 deg., click the secondary knob. Secondary axis will be anchor to the mouse cursor. Move mouse cursor and the secondary axis will snap at 90 deg.

4. – To change the orientation of the secondary axis by any other angles then 90 deg. Use the SHIFT key to click on the secondary knob..

5. – You can swap the Primary and secondary axis, by pressing and holding the SHIFT key while clicking the steering wheel plane..

6. – To change the orientation using a 3D vector, click the primary or secondary knob.

The corresponding axis will be anchor on the mouse cursor.

Then click on any keypoint of your model to orient the axis of the steering wheel, along a 3D vector define by the steering wheel origin and the keypoint that you have chosen.

 

Changing the orientation/position – Keep the orientation and change the position

1. – Once the steering wheel orientation is define, it could be useful to reposition the Steering Wheel while keeping it’s orientation.

Press and maintain the SHIFT key, then click the steering wheel origin. The Steering Wheel will be anchor to the mouse cursor.

Select any keypoint, edge or surface to define the new location of the steering wheel. You can also click anywhere in the background to locate the steering wheel in space..

2. – You can offset the Steering Wheel position along the primary or secondary axis. Press and maintain the SHIFT key, then click one of the two axis.

The selected axis will be anchor to the mouse cursor and an input field will allow you to enter the offset distance.

Once the offset value is enter, valid the entry with the Enter key.

Move the mouse cursor to indicate the offset direction, then click to confirm.

Changing the orientation/position – Change the orientation and the position

1. – Here you will change both the position and the orientation of the steering wheel.

Click the Steering Wheel origin, the Steering Wheel will be anchor to the mouse cursor.

Move the mouse cursor on a surface, an edge or a vertex of the part to change the orientation and the position.

a) On a surface, the primary axis will align parallel with the normal of the surface.

b) On an edge, secondary axis will align collinear with the edge.

c) On a vertex, last calculated orientation will be used.

   

Now you know the basics knowledge of manipulating the Steering Wheel. You will be able to manipulate one or more surfaces or group of surfaces to modify tour model. Developing your dexterity at manipulating the Steering Wheel is essential if you intent to get the most benefit of all the possibilities offer by the Synchronous modeling.