Squeeze and hold the Support hand trigger.
Last updated on
Aug 9, 2021
- Medium User Guide
- Introduction
- Sculpting in Medium
- Medium Settings
- Work with the scene graph
Learn the basics of tool settings and Menus in Medium.
Medium contains a subset of menus related to Tools and Tool Settings. These menus allow you to access features of certain tools, adjust the position and rotation of the tool, and set your desired alternative tool (Alt Tool) .
Tool Settings
Any sculpts in your scene are made semi-transparent and a menu appears in your scene, with various options related to how the current tool works.
The Clay settings menu lets you set things like the shape and size of the tool, tapering, and constraint preferences. The settings menu for every tool is described in Sculpting Tools.
Note:
You can move the menu by pointing at it with your Tool hand, then squeezing the Tool hand grip button and moving your tool hand.
Editing Your Tool Apply Transform
For every tool, you can also adjust the position and rotate on of the tool apply transform relative to your tool. This is essentially “how you are holding your tool”.
To edit or reset the tool apply transform, click the Tool Hand thumbstick in like a button, and hold. This releases the tool apply transform. When you move your hand to the desired position, release the button and it will set.
To reset the tool back to the default position in the Tool Apply edit mode (Thumbstick clicked in), select the Reset Tool Transform button with your trigger.
Tooltip Previews
For most menus in Medium, you can display short tooltips that describe what each setting does. In addition, the tooltip shows a brief animation of the effect of the setting or tool you’re hovering over.
When you stop pointing at the option, the tooltip (and the video) both disappear. You can turn this feature on or off in the User Preferences menu.
Setting an Alternate Tool
Once you start sculpting, you may get into a groove where you find yourself switching back and forth between two tools (for example, using Clay to build out your volume and Smooth to refine its surface). In Medium, you can define a primary and an Alt tool and switch between the two tools with a simple gesture:
- Select your primary tool.
- Push your Support hand thumbstick forward to open the Tool Tray.
- While the Tool Tray is open, point to a tool, and squeeze the Support hand trigger to select it as the alt-tool. A pink triangle appears on the Tool Tray next to the selected tool.
To switch to the alternate tool while sculpting:
-
Note:
The tool preview on the Tool hand changes to that of the selected alt-tool.
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Use the Tool hand as you normally and release the Support hand trigger to return to using the primary tool.
Tool Settings Menus
In some cases, you must to tell Medium what you want to do, or change the settings for a tool. Menus are panels that appear in your workspace when you tap certain buttons on your controllers. For example, if you tap the Gear button on your Tool hand, the Settings menu for that tool appears.
Interacting with Menus
To interact with a menu, aim your Tool hand at the option on the menu you want to change and squeeze the Tool hand trigger:
- For sliders, hold the trigger while you drag the handle either left or right.
- Aim at the - and + symbols to decrement or increment the displayed value.
- Aim at the value itself to bring up a numeric keypad (for specifying exact values).
- For options that toggle on and off, aim at the option itself.
Moving Menus
Many of Medium’s menus can be moved. If you are sculpting and you find that your view is obscured by a menu:
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Aim the Tool hand at the menu.
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Squeeze and hold the Grip button on the Tool hand.
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Move the menu to its new position and release the Grip button.
Closing a Menu
Follow the below ways to close a menu in Medium, depending on its type:
- For most menus, you can simply aim the tool hand away from the menu and it disappears. The action is also called "waving off" the menu.
- For menus with an X in the upper left or right corner, aim at the X with your Tool hand and squeeze the Tool hand trigger. You cannot wave off a menu with an X in its corner.
Some special menus have specific closing behaviors:
- The Control Panel stays visible only as long as you press and hold the yellow Control Panel button on the Support hand. Releasing the button dismisses the menu.
- The Tool Tray stays visible only as long as you push the Support hand thumbstick forward.
Saved Tool Settings
Your tool settings are saved across multiple sculpting sessions in Medium, except for color, size, shape, and constraints. This makes it easy for you to keep your commonly used settings for a tool across sessions or sculpts.
What's Next?
Now that you have learned about Tool Settings and Menus in Medium, check out how to save and load your sculpt next.
Have a Question or Idea?
If you have a question to ask or an idea to share, come and participate in Medium Discord Community. We would love to hear from you.
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The Creativity Conference
Oct 14–16 Miami Beach and online