{"id":33944,"date":"2017-08-29T09:25:50","date_gmt":"2017-08-29T13:25:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shapeways.com\/blog\/?p=33944"},"modified":"2017-11-08T16:24:03","modified_gmt":"2017-11-08T21:24:03","slug":"tutorial-tuesday-32-learn-fly-wings3d","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shapeways.com\/blog\/tutorial-tuesday-32-learn-fly-wings3d","title":{"rendered":"Tutorial Tuesday 32: Learn to Fly With Wings3D"},"content":{"rendered":"

In this week’s Tutorial Tuesday<\/a>,<\/em>\u00a0we’ll expand our design toolbox to include the 3D modeling program\u00a0Wings3D<\/a>. Wings3D is free and open source, but includes much of the functionality of paid professional software like Autodesk’s\u00a03ds Max<\/a>, as well as topological mesh modeling software like TopMod<\/a>. Wings3D is a “low-poly subdivision” tool, meaning that you can create a geometric model with very few faces, interact with mesh selections and modifications, and then smooth or subdivide the model later as needed. Wings3D also has materials and UV mapping tools that can be helpful if you want to export your models for rendering in other software.<\/p>\n

The “wings” in the name refer to the\u00a0Winged-Edge Data Structure<\/a>\u00a0that Wings3D uses to describe the edge, face, and vertex adjacency data of its polygonal models \u2014\u00a0but you don’t need to know about that to design something!<\/p>\n

Getting Started<\/h3>\n

You can\u00a0download Wings3D<\/a> for free on Mac, Windows, or Linux\/Unix. To get started immediately, try right-clicking to open a menu for dropping shapes onto the workspace, then select vertices, edges, or faces and right-click again to open a new menu of possible modification tools. Check out the Wings3D guide Finger Exercises to Get You Started<\/a> for a quick text overview of how basic modeling works in Wings3D.<\/p>\n

Navigation works a little differently than other modeling programs you might be used to, so check out the\u00a0Wings3D Tutorial – Beginners, How to Get Started<\/a>\u00a0by VscorpianC<\/a>. In this video, you can learn the default Wings 3D navigation tools for rotate and pan, or, if you prefer, how to set your preferences so that the navigation works like it does in other programs like Blender, Sketchup, or Maya. You’ll also learn basic workspace setup, how to move and place objects, and how to use the Wings3D Geometry Graph.<\/p>\n