First Light Kit | User Guide
Aim At Surface
Use for
- Adjusting the position of highlights on a surface (polygons).
- Adjusting the distance of lights to a surface.
Overview
This tool provides a fast way to manipulate lights in your scene by allowing you to interactively set a light’s facing and position by clicking on- or click-dragging across- a polygon surface. It also provides a visual indication of where each light is pointed upon activation and enables fast in-view switching between lights (max. 50).
Workflow Quickstart
Step by Step
To activate this tool,
- Select one or more mesh items.
- (Optional) Select one or more lights; Max. 50.
- Left-click in the 3d viewport.
To use this tool,
- To select a light, left-click on its associated square handle.
- To move a light, left-click on a surface(polygon) or click-and-drag over a surface.
- To alter the distance of the light from the surface, left-click on the blue arrow handle or right-click and haul the mouse forwards/backwards.
Important Workflow Tip
After moving every 1-to-3 lights, shift-left-click in an empty area of the 3d view to apply the transforms. This will restore/improve interactive performance.
Please also note,
- Initial handle placement is determined by hit testing against all geometry in the scene.
- Handle movement is constrained to surfaces of active mesh item layers.
- Handle movement will stop at the borders of geometry.
User Interface
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Lock Pos
When checked, the position of the selected light will be locked. This setting is global and persists when switching between lights.
Right-click hauling is not disabled when Lock Pos is active.
Updates
Version 1.1
- Improved: Workplane alignment is now ignored (taken into account) during surface tracking.
Limitations
Does not support items with (non-identity) scale transforms applied due to a bug in the modo sdk; Translation and rotation transforms are supported.