Silo Quick Start Guide

This guide assumes you are using the basic setup that Silo comes with when it is first installed.  You can customize the mouse and keyboard shortcuts completely, not to mention all of the interface buttons, so don't regard this as the way Silo always works.  You can make it work almost any way you want.  In particular, we recommend that you try the alternate mouse setup built-in to Silo (Options > Mouse Setup) to get an idea of what a difference different setups can make.

View controls
- Hold Alt + Left Mouse Button (LMB) to rotate the view. Rotation will occur around the manipulator.
- Hold Alt + Middle Mouse Button (MMB) to pan the view.
- Hold Alt + RMB to zoom the view, or use the scroll wheel or Alt + LMB + MMB.
- Hold Ctrl + Alt and scroll the mousewheel to cycle shading modes. (Or use the default hotkey, 0 on the number pad.)

Selection
- Use LMB for visible selection (only the foremost components) or MMB for thru selection (all components behind the mouse).
- You can select an individual component (object, face, texture, edge, or vertex) by clicking on it with the left or middle mouse buttons. This will not preserve the previous selection unless modifier buttons are being held.
- Click and drag to perform an area select. This will not preserve the previous selection unless modifier buttons are being held.
- Hold Shift while selecting to add components to the current selection.
- Hold Alt+Shift while selecting to remove components from the current selection.
- Hold Ctrl+Shift while selecting to toggle components between selected and deselected. In Silo, objects which are selected while in object mode will be the only objects editable in texture, face, vertex, and edge modes.

Default selection mode hotkeys:
a - Vertex selection mode
s - Edge selection mode
d - Face selection mode
f - Object selection mode
g - Texture selection mode

Manipulators
- Move - drag handles to move in indicated direction. Hold Ctrl to move in the plane of the screen.
- Scale - drag handles to scale in indicated direction. The center handle scales in all directions. Hold Ctrl to scale in the plane of the screen.
- Rotate - drag handles to rotate in indicated direction. Hold Ctrl to rotate in the plane of the screen.
- Universal - handle shapes indicate function. Drag to rotate, scale, or move. Hold Ctrl to move in the plane of the screen.
- No Manipulator - Hold Ctrl to move in the plane of the screen.

Default manipulator hotkeys:
q - Universal manipulator
w - Move manipulator
e - Scale manipulator
r - Rotate manipulator
t - No manipulator

Subdivision
- Subdivide - creates a smoothed version of an object underlying the original object. Edits applied to the original polygon mesh will affect the subdivided shape. This operation can be performed multiple times to create a smoother underlying shape.
- Unsubdivide - If an object has been subdivided, this undoes one level of subdivision. Can be performed until there is no underlying subdivided shape.
- Refine Control Mesh - deletes the polygonal control mesh and makes the underlying subdivided shape directly editable.
- Crease Edges - Makes the subdivided shape more closely conform to the control mesh along the creased edges.
- Uncrease Edges - Removes creases (if applied) from the selected edges.

Default subdivision hotkeys:
c - Subdivide
v - Unsubdivide
Shift+c - Refine Control Mesh









All contents of this file copyright 2003 Nevercenter Ltd. Co.