Hi Tokkie, I can give you a quick overview of each item here. If you have additional questions on any particular thing, let me know and I can give you additional details or maybe some screenshots to help illustrate. This is just an overview here, this doesn't handle a comprehensive list of everything that each of those tools can do, just gives you an idea of what it is mainly used for.
Edit / Join - This is used to join selected objects together into a combined object. This is used to join 2 or more touching curves into a single composite curve object, or to join 2 or more surfaces that touch along edges into a connected surface object. If you join together surfaces where all resulting edges are joined between 2 surfaces, that will form a solid object with a volume.
Edit / Separate - this is the reverse of join, use it to break apart a composite object into smaller components. Use it on a curve to break the curve into individual segment objects, or on a solid to break the solid into individual surfaces. Sometimes it is useful to break a solid into surfaces, then do some work on the surfaces and re-join it into a solid later on. You can also separate just a set of selected faces out of a solid, which will extract just those faces.
Edit / Trim - use this to cut up an object. You can trim a curve using another curve, surface, or solid as a cutting object, or trim away parts of a surface or solid by intersections with other surfaces or solids. You can also trim a surface by a planar curve which will project the curve on to the surface to cut away part of the surface. After you select the cutting objects, you can either pick which pieces to remove, or you can push "Done" without picking any pieces if you want to keep all pieces.
Edit / Extend - this is used to extend lines or arcs (or curves in general by a straight line extension) to match up to a boundary object.
Edit / Show pts - you can use this on a curve or surface to show edit points. You can then click and drag on the edit points to manipulate the shape of the object. You can't show edit points in general on a solid that is made up of surfaces joined together - you generally have to separate a solid into surfaces before you can point edit the surfaces. Push show pts again to turn off points, or use repeated pushes of the Esc key to also turn off points.
Edit / Add pt - use this to add a new point to a curve. You would use this if you want to add some more detail to a curve in a particular area but don't have enough points in that area currently.
Edit / Copy - This copies the selected objects to the clipboard.
Edit / Paste - Pastes in the objects currently on the clilpboard.
Edit / Hide - use this to hide the selected objects. Push it again to show hidden objects.
Edit / History - this is used to enable or disable history updates on an object. For instance, if you do a loft by default the lofted surface will update if you edit one of the original curves. If you don't want this updating to happen, select the lofted surface and run History and push "Disable update". There are also some commands that have history off by default, but you can turn it on if you like. For example mirror - by default the results of mirroring do not update when you edit the original object, but if you select the mirrored result and use Edit/History and push "enable update", then the mirrored object will update when you edit the original.
Construct / Boolean - Booleans are used to drill holes or combine multiple objects into one object. They basically do a similar job to using Trim, then discarding certain pieces, then joining the pieces together, but they are often more conveinent to use since they combine all those steps into one single action. In MoI you can boolean curves with each other, or surfaces/solids with each other, and also in many situations you can boolean a surface/solid with a planar curve where the curve will be automatically extruded to cut the surface.
Construct / Boolean / Difference - Used to subtract an object from a base object. For example if you have a sphere with a cylinder sticking through it, select the sphere, run boolean difference then select the cylinder - this will take the sphere as the base object and subtract the cylinder from it, leaving a hole through the sphere.
Construct / Boolean / Union - combines two objects together by discarding any interior parts.
Construct / Boolean / Intersect - combines two objects together by keeping areas that are common to both volumes.
Construct / Fillet - Used to generate a rounded corner where there is currently a sharp corner. You can fillet 2 curves (such as lines) together to create an arc that joins them. You can also fillet a single curve like a rectangle which will allow you to pick corner points to round. You can also fillet a solid object or edges of a solid object which will generate rounded surfaces along what used to be sharp edges.
Construct / Fillet / Chamfer - Chamfer is similar to fillet except it creates a flat piece along the sharp edge instead of a rounded piece.
Construct / Offset - generates a curve or surface that is a constant distance away from an existing one.
Construct / Offset / Shell - thickens a surface or solid object. Typically you use this by selecting a face of a solid which then becomes an opening. All the other surfaces of the solid become thickened by offsetting.
Construct / Planar - used to create a surface from a closed planar curve. You can also use it to create planar end caps on a selected surface that has open planar ends.
Construct / Extrude - used to punch a curve or face into a surface or solid along a certain direction.
Construct / Revolve - used to create a surface by revolving a curve around an axis.
Construct / Revolve / Rail revolve - a variant of revolve that also takes a path curve that is used to scale the surface out from the axis.
Construct / Loft - used to generate a surface through 2 or more cross-section curves.
Construct / Sweep - used to generate a surface through 2 or more cross-section curves that is further guided by either a single path ("rail") down the center for a tube type shape, or by 2 rails on either side.
Construct / Blend - used to create a new object that smoothly connects a gap between 2 existing objects. Can be used to create a curve that smoothly connects between 2 existing curves, or a surface that connects smoothly between 2 edges.
- Michael
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