The Interactive Bevel Designer

A detailed guide to designing and editing bevels in the Interactive Bevel Designer (IBD).

More to come...

Drawing Bevels

A screen shot of the IBD, and the same screen shot with descriptions.

Adding Points

Points can be added to the Bevel by left clicking with the mouse button where you would like the point created.  VertiBevel will attempt to place the point on the nearest line segment.  You cannot add points beyond the end point, only between the start point and end point.  Thus it is easiest to first set the position of the end point, and then add the intermediary points.

Deleting Points

Points can be removed from the Bevel by right clicking (Command-click on Macintosh) directly on the point you wish to remove.  You can quickly remove all points other than the start and end points by clicking on the "Clear Points" button located below the IBD window.

Moving Points

Points can be moved by clicking on them and dragging them with the left mouse button.  In areas where there are many points very close together, it is often easier to zoom into the area of interest and move the point when in close enough to properly distinguish the point of interest from its neighbors. As you drag a point around, its shift and inset position will be updated and shown in the shift and inset fields to the left of the IBD.

Using Shift

Dragging a point while holding down the Shift key on the keyboard will stretch/compress the points on either side of the current point. Dragging the end point while holding down Shift will have the effect of scaling the Bevel.  This can also be used to quickly mirror the bevel by dragging it across one of the major axis lines.

Using Control

Dragging a point while holding down the Control key on the keyboard will move it and all following (toward the end point) points together in unison.  This allows you to make changes in the lower part of your bevel while maintaining already positioned points above.

Using Shift and Control

Dragging a point while holding down the Shift and Control keys simultaneously will stretch/compress all points before the selected point, and will move all following points together in unison.

Note:  The drag modifier keys can be dynamically changed while dragging a point.  This allows for very quick and powerful editing capabilities.  It is recommended that you spend a few minutes playing with the modifier keys to get a feel for what they do.  You'll soon find yourself being able to modify your Bevels with greater ease and speed.

VertiBevel Documentation - This page last updated 03/02/01