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964 Chapter 9: Surface Modelin g
behave as if surrounded by a "magnetic field."
Part ially selected sub-objects within the field
are drawn along smoothly as you transform the
sub-object selection; the effect diminishes with
distance or the “strength” of the par tial selec tion.
This falloff is visible in the view por ts as a color
gradient surrounding the selection, conforming
to the first part of the standard color spectrum:
ROYGB (red, orange, yellow , green, blue).
Red sub-objects are those you select explicitly.
The highest-value soft-selected sub-objects are
reddish-orange; they have the same selection
value as red sub-objects, and respond the same
way to manipulation. Orange sub-objects have
aslightlylowerselectionvalue,andrespond
to manipulation a bit less strongly than do red
and reddish-orange vertices. Yellow-orange
sub-objectshaveanevenlowerselectionvalue,
and then yellow, green-yellow, and so on. Blue
sub-objects are effectively unselected and don’t
respond to manipulation, except as required by
neighboring soft-selected sub-objects.
Normal ly, you designate a soft selection
procedurally, by setting par ameters and then
selecting sub-objects. You can also “paint” a soft
selectionexplicitlyonpolyobjects.SeePaint Soft
Selection group (page 1–966).
By default, the soft-selection region is spherical
w ithout regard to geometr ic structure.
Alternatively, you can use the Edge Distance option
to limit the selection to vertices in contiguous
faces.
If a sub-object selection is passed up the modifier
stack, and Use Soft Selection is on, the results of
modifiers that deform t he object, such as Bend
and XForm, are affected by the Soft Selection
parameter values.
ThecontrolsinthisdialogletyoumodifySoft
Selection p arameters. All sub-object levels share
thesameSoftSelectionparametervalues. Soft
Selection is available for NURBS, mesh, poly,
patch, and spline objects.
Soft selection colors and effect on the surrounding area
Interfa ce
Use S of t S election—Affects the action of Move,
Rotate, and Scale functions at sub-object levels
oftheeditableobjectorEditmodifier,aswellas
the action of deformation modifiers applied to
the object if they are operating on a sub-object
selection (the latter also applies to the Select
modifiers). When on, the software applies a spline
cur ve deformation to the unselected sub-objects
surrounding the selection you transform. To