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Modeling > Creating Surfaces > Surface parameters
Surface parameters
All surfaces have the following parameters, which appear in the World Explorer and the Parameter Editor when you create the surface. Parameters that apply only to specific surfaces are described in the links below.
Common Surface Parameters
Distance from the center of the World in units, along the X, Y, Z axes.
Scaling values in X, Y, Z. Scale is a multiplication factor.
Toggles anti-aliasing on/off for the selected surface. It blurs the edge of the object to removes the "jaggies".
To be visible, anti-aliasing must be on for the viewport and the object. To turn on anti-aliasing for the viewport, right-click the viewport and choose Anti-aliasing. Anti-aliasing slows down the refresh rate. For more information, see Estimating download time.
Number of points that define the surface. When the surface is published in a web page, the points are downloaded and the AXEL player redraws the surface on the surfer's web page. Increasing the number of points increases download time.
Enables web streaming for the surface after it is published to the web. If you turn on Streamable, select a streaming priority. For more information on streaming, see Estimating download time.
Displays only the outer face of surfaces. To see both faces, turn off Single-sided. Turning on Single-sided increases the display speed since AXEL has to draw only one side of the surface.
Since polygonal surfaces are not smooth, but a collection of flat planes, smoothness creates an illusion of surface roundness. The sphere on the left shows the true appearance of a polygonal surface, where all the facets are visible. The same sphere on the right, with smoothness enabled, creates the illusion of a round surface.
Use crease control for surfaces that have both hard edges and round surfaces, for example, a table top with smooth corners. If you turn on smoothness without crease control, all the angles are rounded. Turn on crease control to disable smoothness for sharp angles.
Defines minimum angle for smoothness to take effect. For example, if you use a low crease angle threshold such as 10, facets will be visible if the angle between 2 faces is higher than 10 degrees. A higher crease angle threshold such as the default 60 degrees will smooth all but the sharpest angles.
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Determines how color is applied to a surface. You apply color per point, per face, or to the entire surface. For more information, see Color per point, per face.
Hides the surface geometry parameters. In addition, if a revolution or extrusion surface is frozen, it is no longer linked to the curve from which it was generated; changing the curve does not change the surface.
A surface freezes if you add, move, or delete points, subdivide it, or simplify. It also freezes if you set the coloring to Per point or it or Per face, or edit texture coordinates.
When the surface is frozen, AXEL draws the surface based on its points, not its parameters. If you turn off Frozen, the surface is redrawn, and any points you modified move back to their original position, and edited point colors revert to the material color.
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