New Segment Action
The Add New Segment Action is found in the Action Panel:

Clicking this Action starts the New Segment Dialog:

The above picture shows the view for users with Skill Level - Advanced. Users with lower Skill Levels will see fewer options than shown above.

Users with lower Skill Levels might often use this Create a new segment window to create a new default Segment by simply clicking on the OK button. They can then use the Attach action to attach the new Segment to the end of an existing Segment.

For more advanced users:

The top of the dialog has a box labeled Action. It contains 4 checkboxes, one grayed out.

These optional actions determine what happens when you click the OK button.

• The Add new Segment to the clipboard action always occurs - it's just here to remind you.
• The Replace an existing Segment checkbox allows you to immediately paste the new Segment onto an existing Segment.
• The Attach to the end of an existing Segment allows you to specify what Segment you want to attach onto.
• The Add as new root Segment will create a new unattached Segment.

Target
The dialog has a box labeled Target. It contains 3 fields, at least some of which will be grayed out.

Depending upon the Action you selected (as described above) some of the fields in the Target section may be enabled.

If you need to specify one of these fields but don't - you'll get an error message when you click the OK button.

When creating a new Segment (as opposed to replacing an existing Segment) don't forget to specify a good name for your Segment. "new_1" (the default) is unlikely to be an ideal choice for most Segments!

Giving your Segments a meaningful name will make your life so much easier when it comes to editing or animating the Segments.

Cylinder data
The dialog has a box labeled Cylinder data containing a number of fields.

These fields determine the shape of the Segment you are about to create.

The orientation of the Segment you create is always along the Y axis (vertical). You can't change that at this stage. However, once the Segment is created you can use the normal Move Segment action to move and rotate the new Segment.

The new Segment is nominally a circular cylinder with hemispherical ends. However, clever use of the data fields can allow you to create a variety of shapes:

• Setting Node count around circumference to 2 creates a flat plate.
• Setting Node count around circumference to 3 creates a triangular object.
• Setting Node count around circumference to 4 creates a square cross section object.
• Setting Length close to zero (say, 0.0000001) can create a pretty good sphere or circular plate.

If you ever click OK and you don't see any new Segments, it might be because:

• You forgot to specify an Action - so you just added your new Segment to the clipboard.
• Your Segment is too small to see - try zooming in with the Camera.
• Your Segment is too large. If the Camera ends up inside your Segment it will effectively be invisible - try zooming out with the Camera.

How many nodes are enough?
Good question - but you need to answer it yourself.

Too few nodes might make it more difficult to add much detail when you move points around. (Although you can always add individual nodes later as described in the Add Points Tutorial.)

Too many nodes can make a Segment slow to render and difficult to edit. (But you may need to suffer that to get the resolution you need.)

If you specify a real high number of nodes you'll get an out of memory error when you press OK. If so, restart ANIMOIDS, reduce the number of nodes and try again.

If you're not sure where to start - stay close to the default numbers. You can redisplay them with the Set defaults button.

More
Go to the start of the Tutorial.

Try the Move Points tutorial.