This quick tutorial will go over the basics of navigating the Pattern Layout tab. We'll go over the layout, the available tools and what the different properties in the property grid control. The Pattern Layout tab is for viewing and editing the patterns of a PDO file, or for generating your own patterns from a 3d model, which we'll cover in a future video. If you're not familiar with patterns, these patterns can be printed out on to the media of your choice and then be used to build the 3d model in the medium of your choice be it paper, foam, cardboard, etc.
On the left you have the 3d model for which the patterns belong to, as well it shows you the dimensions of the object. This view can be navigated in the same way as the costume view. Refer back to the camera controls video for more information on that. The black lines on the 3d model represent the cut lines on the patterns, the red lines represent the valley folds, and the blue lines represent the mountain folds.
On the right, if the model has been unfolded then what we have here is the patterns for that model. With solid black lines for the edges that need to be cut out and then two different dashed lines for representing the mountain and the valley folds. Along the top and to the left we have a ruler. The orange lines represent where the mouse cursor currently is along the rulers. We can also toggle on a grid by pressing the 'G' keyboard shortcut.
Now lets take a moment to discuss the tools that are available in the unfold view.
We have the translate tool for moving parts around. The cursor changes to a move icon when the mouse moves over something it can move. Simply click on an object, and then drag the mouse to move the pattern around. Press 'T' on the keyboard to activate the tool.
The next tool to talk about is the rotate tool. Press 'R' on the keyboard to activate the tool. Now, first click on an object to select it then there are two ways to rotate the object. The first way is to click on the pattern and drag. This will rotate the pattern around the center of the pattern. The second way to rotate is to click on the pattern to set a rotation point, then click on another point on the pattern and drag. This will rotate the pattern around the initially set anchor point.
Now we have the Join/Cut tool which is used for creating patterns. The tool can be activated by pressing 'J' on the keyboard. You can click on an inner edge and cut it, this will open up that edge. This can be used for splitting up patterns. If you click on an outside edge it will join the edges together creating a single pattern. Click on the edge you want to join and then depending on where the mouse is along the join line you can change which way the patterns will move to join together.
We can also measure the distances between patterns using the measure tool. This can be activated via the 'M' keyboard shortcut. Click any two points on the canvas and it will display the distance between the two points.
The last useful tool we'll talk about is the join adjacent edges tool. This can be used to weld together edges that are close together. You can find this under Edit->Join Adjacent Edges. You'll then be asked to enter the distance between vertices to start the weld.
Now if you have a model which hasn't been unfolded yet. You can unfold the model by choosing Edit->Unfold from the menu bar. From here you can go through and adjust all of the patterns to get them set up the way you would like. I'll go over the workflow I like to use in a future video.