Object Menu

Model Menu

All of the commands and options in this menu require an object is selected.

Smooth

Gently smooth out a whole mesh. This command is easier to use from the keyboard - press S until the mesh is adequately smoothed.
For faster smoothing press SHIFT and S together.
For more control, use the Warp Smooth Tool to smooth a small part of the model.

Convert to Mesh

This changes the object from a Curvy Object made from edit curves into a triangle mesh. Any Curvy Map painting is baked into the mesh and a clear curvy map is put on the object.
As a mesh the object can be editted with the Warp Tools, the Widgit Tools and the curvy map.

Mirror

Makes a mesh symmetrical from right to left in the front view.

Explode

Splits a mesh into separate connected parts. Useful for splitting up imported meshes and Inflated Images

UV Front/Back

Map UVs onto the model from the front and the back to give a quick UV map to any shape of model.
Resulting texture map will be split into halves for the front faces and the back faces.

Merge

Join models together using solid modelling.

Quick Merge All

Merge all visible models into a single mesh, and delete the original parts.

Merge Group

Merge selected group of models into a single mesh, and leave the original parts.

Sub Children

Subtract (Cut) grouped child models from selected model, and leave the original parts.

Add Children

Add grouped child models to selected model, and leave the original parts.

Merge Properties

Choose the precision for merge operations. Warning Fine Precision will produce very large/slow meshes.

Apply to Parent

Add or Subtract this object or group from the parent object's Curvy map. To work well you must first set up the parent's curvy map to have a curvy displacement large enough so white values cover the applied objects, and the resolution is fairly high.

This will work faster if the child objects resolutions are kept low.

Inflate Image

Converts a BMP into a 3D model.

Image Inflate Tutorial

1) Select Inflate Image from the Model menu.

2) Click Image... and pick a BMP image.

3) Click OK and you are done.

4) You can cancel during the "Prepare Height..." phase - It will still make a mesh, but will skip the rest of the smoothing steps.

The final mesh is made at the origin, with size determined by the two scale values [If Scale(X,Y) is the same as Scale(Z) an image circle should become a 3D sphere].

It is usually best to use a higher resolution image than you want the final mesh to be, Quad Size (pixels) is the width of an output quad represented as a number of incoming image pixels. (Using a Quad size of 1 gives very large (slow) meshes and also bugs in Curvy).

Image Inflate Settings

Inflation Mode:

Relief mode creates a heightmap from the image brightness.
Use a greyscale image with white where you want a higher surface.

Auto mode cuts out the white area of the image and estimates a rounded 3D surface to make a 3D model - this mode can handle very complex input images.
The best images to use are solid black and white pictures (not greyscale), 128-256 pixels wide with patches of solid white where you want your object to appear.

Smooth - Uncheck to get a straight line inflation, a circle becomes a cone, a rectangle becomes tent like. This can be useful along with Clamp Height to make spaceship bumpmaps.

Quality (Steps) - Used to control smoothness of the Auto surface.

Mirror to make back faces - Tick to make a full 3D surface, leave unticked to make a simple heightmap.

Pure Quad Mesh puts quads at the edge of the geometry instead of triangles - (better for subdivision). Triangles on the edge give cleaner models in Curvy.

If you tick Clamp Height any point more than Clamp Height (Pixels) away from an edge is flattened out - giving a beveled effect.