Morph Volume Panel

Location: Tools page > HyperMorph module

A morph volume (or "mvol") is a six-sided prism that can be used to manipulate a mesh by manipulating the shape of the morph volume. Morph volumes are very malleable; the length and curvature of each edge can be modified independently of the others, and adjacent morph volumes can be linked through various tangency conditions. This malleability allows you to enclose a given mesh with morph volumes, alter the morph volumes to fit your model, and then change the shape of your model by modifying the morph volumes. Morph volumes present a simple, powerful, and intuitive way to morph.

Although morph volumes can be created, edited, and deleted in this panel, the actual morphing of morph volumes is performed either in the Morph panel, where you can move the handles, or the map to geom panel, where you can map morph volume edges to a variety of entities. Morph volumes behave very much like domains (by moving the handles associated with the morph volumes the enclosed mesh can be manipulated) but morph volumes have the additional feature that you can morph them independently of the enclosed mesh. For instance, if you wish to change the shape of your morph volumes without affecting the mesh you can set the morph volumes to be inactive. This allows you to use all of the morphing capabilities to modify the shape and position of your morph volumes to better fit your mesh. Then you can switch the morph volumes back to being active and use them to morph the mesh.

Note: When you set your morph volumes back to being active, you may be asked whether you want to remove the inactive handle perturbations from the morph list. Clicking yes, which is recommended, will make it so that the undo and redo buttons do not undo and redo the inactive movements of your morph volumes. Clicking no will treat the morph volume perturbations just like any other morphing. The toggle that allows you to switch morph volumes between being active and inactive can be found in the parameters subpanel of the Morph Volumes panel, and in the morphing subpanel of the Morph Options panel.

Morph volumes will only morph the mesh for nodes that have been registered. In some cases, nodes within morph volumes are automatically registered when the morph volumes are created, while in others only the selected nodes or nodes on selected elements are registered. If the morph volumes do not appear to be morphing nodes inside them, you may need to register those nodes.

Save/Load Subpanel

Use the Save/Load subpanel to save or load morph volumes and morphed shapes to or from a file.

Option	Action
file:	Specify the file path and name of the morph volume file, either the file to save mvols to, or the one to load them from. You can enter the filename and path, or click browse to navigate to and select it.
morph volumes	Select the mvols that you wish to save to the specified file.
register all inner nodes	Automatically assign mesh nodes to the loaded morph volumes.
save mvols / load mvols	Choose whether the specified file will be saved or loaded.
save shapes	Save shapes (morphs) to the same file as morph volumes.

Parameters Subpanel

Use the Parameters subpanel to change basic settings of morph volumes, such as the handle size, the way that they are drawn, or the method of interpolation for edge curvature. You can also make morph volumes inactive (or reactivate them) so that you can move the volume handles to better fit your mesh without morphing the mesh in the process.

Option	Action
face drawing	Choose how the flat faces of morph volumes are drawn. Wireframe Draw only the morph volume edges and handles. Do not color the face at all. Transparent (1, 2, or 3) Draw the faces semi-opaque; higher numbers mean more opacity. Opaque Set the morph volumes' transparency to zero.
global influences	Choose how morph volumes respond to global influences. Direct influence Global handles directly affect each node. Hierarchical influence Global handles affect the individual domain handles within the global domain, and they in turn affect the nodes within their domains. Mixed method Global handles move the local handles, as for hierarchical, but they also apply the direct method to any nodes within the global domain's influence that are not part of a local domain. Such nodes otherwise would not morph at all when using the hierarchical method, causing mesh distortion at the local domain boundaries.
handle size	Specify the radius of corner node handles, the largest type of handle used by morph volumes. Other handles are drawn slightly smaller and in a different color. The units used for this setting are the same as those used by your model.
Interpolation mode	Choose how edge curves are calculated. Spline (default) Generally produces the best results. Lagrange A polynomial method, which may produce "wilder" curves for widely varying handle movements. For complicated curves the spline option is used even if this parameter is set to Lagrange.
morph volume solver	Choose which solver is used for determining the morphing of the nodes inside the morph volumes. Standard Map the inner nodes to a position inside the morph volume and then use a reverse mapping process to determine where the nodes belong after the morph volume is morphed. Morph volume tangencies and edge curvature is respected. Kriging Apply the kriging algorithm for the morph volumes using only the handle positions as guides. Since the kriging algorithm is linear and morph volumes with tangencies have curved edges, the movement of the inner nodes may not match the shape of the morphed volumes. Increase the number of mid-side nodes if better correlation is desired.
morphvolumes (color)	Select a color to assign to morph volumes.
mvols: active, inactive, or skin only	Turn the morph volumes' ability to affect the mesh on and off, and/or delay morphing of the interior of solid meshes. mvols: inactive Change the shape and size of morph volumes (on the morph panel) to better fit your mesh without actually altering/morphing the mesh itself. After adjusting the mvols, you can then return to the parameters subpanel to set them back to active and resume normal morphing behavior. mvols: active / mvols: skin only Automatically re-registers all currently registered nodes. HyperMorph will first try to register a node in its current morph volume; if that is unsuccessful it will register it to any morph volume. Unregistered nodes are unaffected, even if they now lie within a morph volume. mvols: skin only Delay the morphing of any nodes inside of a solid mesh until solve is clicked. This allows you to more rapidly morph your model if it contains a large number of nodes while still being able to see what affects your morphing is having on the model. To use this feature, switch the selector to mvols:skin only, make any number of shape changes to your morph volumes, and then click solve to morph the interior nodes. Note: Switching the selector away from mvols:skin only will automatically trigger the morphing of the nodes inside the solid mesh.
pts for edge draw	Specify how many points each morph volume edge uses to represent curves. Use larger numbers for smoother curves, or smaller numbers for faster rendering. The default number is ten.
register all inner connectors, register displayed inner connectors, don't register connectors	Specify the behavior for automatically registering enclosed connectors when creating new morph volumes. register all inner connectors Automatically register all enclosed connectors (displayed or undisplayed) when creating new morph volumes. register displayed inner connectors Automatically register displayed enclosed connectors only when creating new morph volumes. Undisplayed connectors will be unaffected even if enclosed by the new morph volumes. don't register connectors Connectors are not automatically registered to new morph volumes.
register tolerance	Specify how far outside the boundaries, relative to the size of the morph volume, a node may be from a given morph volume to be registered to it. Thus, larger values allow nodes further outside a volume to still map to it. Note: Nodes near the boundary between two morph volumes maybe mapped to either one.

Command Buttons

Button	Action
combine	Combine selected mvols into one.
convert	Convert mvols to hexas or vice-versa
create	Create a new mvol.
delete	Delete the selected entities.
fit	Fit mvols to their registered mesh nodes as described in the update subpanel.
join	Join selected mvols together. Note: The volumes are not combined into a single volume; they simply share an edge (This differs from combine).
load	Load the specified file.
reject	Reject the creation or update (tangency, split/combine, and so on) of a morph volume.
review	Fill the node selector with the currently registered nodes. Use the left and right mouse buttons to select and unselect nodes to be registered.
save	Save the specified file.
shrink	Shrink the mvols in accordance with your specifications.
split	Split the specified mvol into two.
update	Update the selected mvol nodes or handle placement.