Gravity Sketch Glossary

This article details and defines common terms that you may see in Gravity Sketch.

Creation Mode Diagram

Edit Mode Diagram

Controller Terminology 

Dominant Hand 

The hand/controller that you typically use to draw with.  Both the Grabsphere and Creation Cursor are located on the dominant hand controller. 

Non-Dominant Hand

The hand/controller that you do not use to draw with. The non-dominant controller can be identified as having the blue General Menu button.

Index Triggers (dominant/non-dominant)

The triggers at the top of your controllers. The dominant Index Trigger is used for drawing/creation, while the non-dominant Index Trigger (commonly referred to as “Shift Trigger”) can be used for a variety of actions (snapping, selecting loops, etc).

Grab Triggers (dominant/non-dominant)

The triggers on the inside of your controllers. The Grab Trigger on your dominant hand is used to grab objects, while the Grab Trigger on your non-dominant hand is used to move in space. When held down together they can be used to scale yourself relative to your surroundings.

Delete/Undo Button

This is the Red Button on your dominant hand. While grabbing an object it functions as a delete button. While not grabbing an object it functions as an undo button.

General Menu

The Blue Button located on your non-dominant hand. Pressing this button accesses the General Menu.

Brush Library

The Purple Button is located on your non-dominant hand. Pressing this button accesses your Brush Library.

Toolbox

The Black Button with the Hammer and Paintbrush icon located on your non-dominant hand. While in Creation Mode this button accesses tools such as - Color & Materials, Viewpoints and Laser Pointer.

When in Edit Mode it accesses the editing tools.

Thumbstick (dominant/non-dominant)

The thumbsticks are located on the face of both the controllers.

Grabsphere

The gray translucent sphere on the inside of your dominant hand is used for grabbing objects and control points. 

By default, it is a sphere, but it can also be changed to a cube, ‘Grab Cube’ by pressing both Grab Triggers and flicking the joystick on the dominant hand to either side.

Color Wheel (dominant / non-dominant)

The Color Wheel on the dominant hand appears when holding an object and can be used to change the color of that grabbed object.

The Color Wheel on the non-dominant hand is located on the inside of your controller and can be used to change the color and material of your creation cursor.

Edit Mode Button

The blue button on your non-dominant controller, which appears only when grabbing an object. Pressing this button allows the user to switch into Edit Mode.

Group

The purple button with the 3 hexagons. Appears when holding objects and when pressed it groups them together.

Ungroup

The purple button with the break icon. Appears when holding grouped objects and when pressed ungroups them.

Creation Cursor (Creation Mode)

The cursor located at the top of your dominant hand controller used to draw and create.

Microphone

Pressing this button mutes (red) or unmutes (green) the headset microphone.

Meta Button

Pressing this button brings you back into the Meta Window.

Menus

General Menu

The General Menu accesses options such as Settings, Import and Export among others.

Edit Mode Menu 

The purple button is located on your dominant hand when in edit mode. This button accesses further editing options such as Sub-D level, Low Poly and Loop.

Brush Library

These menus can be accessed to further customize your brushes by double clicking into any of the brush presets to further customize your brush tool.

Quick Access Menu

The Quick Access Menu will appear when rotating your non-drawing hand controller to the outside.

Selection Menu

The Selection Mode Menu lets you choose between box select or paint, Gumball, Group Selection and Direct Selection.

Brush Presets

Built-in presets to choose from for creation eg. Ink, Stroke, Point, Fine Line, Ribbon, and Volume. If you change the settings of the tool in the Sub-Menu the preset option will also change.

Surface Presets

Built-in surface presets such as Quilt, Precise Quilt, Bridge, Round.

Shapes Presets

Built-in shapes presets.

Text Presets

Built-in font presets for adding titles and comments.

Export Presets

Built-in presets to choose from when exporting models to programs like Blender, Keyshot and VRed.

Hand Actions 

Full Trigger Pull 

Pressing down on the trigger fully (highlights blue on non-dominant hand and purple on dominant hand). This is used for most actions in Gravity Sketch like interacting with menus, sketching and using most creation tools.

Half Trigger Pull

Pressing down on the trigger lightly (highlights light blue on your non dominant hand and light purple on your dominant hand). This is used for actions such as settling an axis, selecting edge loops and snapping images to a plane.

Rotate Inside

Used to bring up the Quick Access Menu.

Smart Move Hand Alignment

Aligning controllers both on the same angle and axis to translate and object with precision. To replicate, imagine a rope running from the top of the dominant controller down through the bottom of the non-dominant controller.

Bumping Controller Bottoms (switch dominant hand)

Tapping the bottom of controllers together results in switching the dominant hand and non-dominant hands.

Navigation

  Scaling

To change your size relative to the environment.

Scale Up

To increase your size relative to the environment. Activated by pressing down both Grab Triggers and moving the controllers together.

Scale Down

To reduce your size relative to the environment. Activated by pressing down both Grab Triggers and pulling the controllers apart.

1:1 Scale

1:1 scale means that 1 unit of measurement on the model equals 1 unit of measurement on the actual subject. For example, a 1:1 scale model of a car means that when viewing the model in VR it appears as the same size as the car.

Swimming

To scale yourself up and then down to your desired destination. Allows you to quickly move from one place in the sketch room to another.

World Axis (RED X, GREEN Y and BLUE Z)

The World Axis is the X, Y and Z axis for the entire 3D scene. They do not change and serve as a single reference point for direction in your scene. 

3D Modeling/Sub-D Terminology

Stroke

A curve in 3D space made of two or more control points.

Control Points

Any of the points that make up either a stroke or surface.

Edge

A single connection between two control points.

Edge Loop

A series of interconnected edges.

Faces

A patch of a subdivided mesh made up of 3 or more edges.

Selection Filter

Accessed while in edit mode and allows you to toggle between selecting edge, faces and edge loops.

Soft Selection

Enables users to smoothly deform sections of a model by selecting a set of vertices within a sphere of proportional influence.

Topology

Topology in 3D modeling refers to the arrangement of vertices, edges, and faces that form the structure of a digital object.

Polygons

2D Shapes used to create 3D meshes. Consists of Quads, Triangles and N-Gons.

Quads

4 sided polygons, which are typically the easiest to use to create clean SubD models.

Triangles

A polygon made of 3 edges. Typically avoided as they can warp 3D surfaces.

N-Gons

Any polygons that are made of 5 or more edges. Typically avoided as they can distort 3D surfaces and make precision modeling more difficult.

Extrusion

The duplication of an edge/edge loop/face on a subdivision object. Used to build from an existing mesh.

Convert to SubD

Turns a non-subdivided model into a subdivided mesh which can subsequently be edited.

Subdivision Levels

The first level of subdivision breaks the original polygons into smaller ones, adding detail and softness. Each subsequent level of subdivision multiplies the number of polygons further. The higher the subdivision level the smoother the surface appears.

Display Level Slider

Appears when putting an imported model (OBJ, FBX, GLB) into edit mode. Only visible for imported objects and used to prevent visual collapse. 

Contour Line Slider

Accessed through the Settings option. Controls the visibility of contour lines on a surface to show at all times, in edit mode, or not at all

SubD Editing Tools

Selection Tool

The Selection Tool selects objects regardless of their location in the sketch and manipulates them as grouped objects. The same applies when editing the geometry. Selection mode will also activate the gumball feature, which allows you to rotate, reposition, and resize the selection.

Group Selection Tool (Black Arrow) 

Selection Tool used to select objects or entire groups.

Direct Selection Tool (White Arrow)

Used for selecting objects or objects within a group

Gumball

When applied to an object the gumball can be used to move, scale, and rotate transformations around the gumball origin. *Add duplication in the Gif with the selection tool. *Add selection tool Menu Gif

Bounding Box

Use the Bounding Box to quickly select parts of your model and snap it to axes and the stage floor.

Control Point Addition

For strokes it adds a single control point.

For surfaces it adds a edge loop perpendicular to the edge where the control point was added.

Edge Cut

Enables users to create faces with any number of vertices, to allow for tighter control over the topology of the mesh and create complex shapes.

Separate Edge 

The Separate edge tool allows you to cut your SubD surfaces along edges and is useful for creating geometry which requires unmerging vertices, as well as improving the appearance of textures on subdivision objects.

Merge and Separate

The Merge & Separate tool either combines two separate Sub-D surfaces into one surface or separate the faces of a Sub-D surface.

Crease Tool

The Crease tool applies a crease to a Sub-D surface.

Smooth Tool

Averages a selection of vertices to create a smoother shape, useful for organic modeling.

Measurement Tool

The Measurement Tool creates accurate readouts of measurements in space.

Reviewing Tools

1:1 AR Passthrough

Enabling AR Passthrough while models are at a 1:1 scale with the surrounding world. Used to review models in real time at life size scale to get a feel for proportions.

Digital Visor

Virtual representation of the headset in the app. The Digital Visor can be removed to transition from VR to AR and back.

Lock Model/Lock Scene

Locks the Model and scale of the environment. Typically used during AR Passthrough review and Enabled by pressing down on your thumbstick.

Laser Pointer

Laser Pointer used to review and present work.

Screen Collab

Screen Collab is an app that allows you to invite your peers to collaborate in real time from their VR headset, PC or Mac, and leave notes for your team members for when they next access the room. 

Review Mode

Review Mode disables editing/creating features while still allowing you to teleport, switch between Viewpoints, and use the laser pointer with the main hand index trigger.

Section View Tool

The Section View Tool creates a cross section for further measurements and screenshots to communicate with manufacturing partners.

Viewpoints

Viewpoints allows you to smoothly navigate through a room by switching from view to another.