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334 Chapter 5: Creating Geometry
Inter face
Parameters rollout
Size—The radius of each metaball for objects
otherthanparticles.Forparticles,thesizeofeach
metaball is determined by the size of the particle,
whichissetbyparametersintheparticlesystem.
Default=20.
Note: Theapparentsizeofthemetaballsisaffected
by the Tension va lue. When Tension is set to its
lowest possible value, the r adius of each metaball
accurately reflects the Size setting. Higher Tension
values will tighten the surface, and make the
metaballs smaller.
Tens ion—Determines how relaxed or tight the
surface wi l l be. A smaller va lue makes a looser
surface. Thisvaluecanrangefrom0.01to1.0.
Default=1.0.
Evaluation Coarseness—Sets the coarseness, or
density, of the resulting blobmesh . When Relative
Coarseness (see following) is off, the Render
andViewportvaluessettheabsoluteheight
and width of blobmesh faces, and lower values
create a smoother, denser mesh. When Relative
Coarseness is on, t he height and width of blobmesh
facesisdeterminedbytheratioofmetaballsize
to this va lue. In this case, higher values c reate
a denser mesh. Range (b oth)=0.001 to 1000.0.
Render default=3.0, Viewport default =6.0.
The lower end of the range for both Coarseness
settings, previously limited to 0.5, is now 0.001,
which allows for much hi gher-resolution metaball
geometry when Relative Coarseness is off. Using
such low values can also cause lengt hy calculation
delays; if this happens and you wish to halt
calculation, press
Esc .
Relative Coarseness—Determines how the
coarseness values wil l be u sed. If this option
is turned off, the Render Coarseness and View
Coarseness values are absolute, where the height
and width of each face on the blobmesh is always
equal to the coarseness value. This means the faces
ontheblobmeshwillretainafixedsizeevenif
themetaballschangesize.Ifthisoptionisturned
on, the size of each blobmesh face is based on the
ratio of the met aball size to the coarseness, which
will cause the blobmesh face size to change as the
metaballs become larger or smaller. Default=Off.
Large Data Optimization—This option provides an
alternate method for calculating and displaying
the blobmesh. This method is more efficient than
the default method only when a large number of