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This sections covers a few basic features that are new to version 6.

Parts - Parts are basically selection sets you can define and retrieve later. Some of you may have used Surfaces to make quick selection sets while Modeler. Well now you can assign Parts across surfaces, so a Head object could be made up of a number of Surfaces, but you could still select the whole thing at once by using Parts.

Assigning a Part is easy. Just select the polygons you want to group together and goto Polygon > Transform > Part, and enter a name. Now when you goto into the Statistics Window (default keyboard shortcut is "w"), at the bottom you can select your Parts.

Layers - Layers allow you to have multiple objects loaded into Modeler at once, each with their own set of 10 layers. Under Display > Layers you will find the Layers Dialog box. With this box you can define a layer from one object to be the background for a layer in another object. You can also rename layers of an object by double clicking on a layer (comes in handy later when you load layered objects in Layout).

Note: The LW6 file format is much different from 5.6. You no longer have to save out your objects as a single layer object. Every once in awhile though, someone asks, how can save multiple layers as one object like in 5.6? Well, the only way I know of is to copy the desired layers, make a New Object, and paste the geometry into a single layer and save that new object out.

The New Graph Editor - It's gone under quite a change. Its a little awkward at first, but its very flexible (though it could use a little more work on the interface to make it even easier to use). The best thing about the new graph editor is the ability to pick exactly what channels you want to see, whether they be channels that belong to one object, or channels that are from a bone, an object, a light, AND a camera. This makes clearing out multiple keyframes for multiple objects a lot faster than the old days (though its not as fast as it COULD be...I wish there was more interactivity between the scene editor and the graph editor...). You also save a group of channels as a Set that you can bring up whenever you want. So if you had a scene where one object only ever rotated on the Heading, and the Light only moved ont he Z axis, you could make a Set of just those 2 channels and not ever have to look at anything else.

Record Pivot Rotation (Rec Pivot Rot) - This is perhaps one of the single most useful tools added in 6.0. Sometimes when you're making a skeleton in Layout you get to a child bone that inherits Gimbal Lock from it's parent. But don't worry, rotate it close enough to where you want it to go on ONE axis (usually the Pitch since Bank and Heading collapse on each other when Pitch reaches 90 degrees) and click Rec Pivot Rot. Check your keyframes though! You may have to reset the rotational value after you Reset the Pivot Point.

Renaming Items - I hear a lot of people asking how to rename items (in Layout)? I must say it IS in a strange place. I assigned a keyboard shortcut to it, but you can find it under Actions > Replace > Rename Current Item.

Local, Parent, and World Coordinates - You can now move (not rotate) on an object's local coordinates, it's parent's local coordinates, or on the world coordinates. To switch between them goto Actions > Coord System.

Toggle Single/Multiple Views - (Modeler only) Found under Objects > Additional, map this plugin to a readily available key to quickly switch between views.

Display SubPatch Level/Render SubPatch Level - You can find these two options under your Object's Item Properties (default keyboard shortcut is "p") under the Geometry Tab. Keep the Display level at 0 or 1 to work with your low poly count model and set the render level at 2 or 3 to render your model at a higher poly count.

Activate Bone/Record Rest Position - It's important to understand the difference between these two functions. You must always Record your Rest Position (default keyboard shortcut is "r") before you active your Bones. After the the Rest Position is Recorded, you can use the Activate Bone function (default keyboard shortcut is "CTRL-r") to the turn the Bone On/Off. If you ever want to change the Rest Position of a Bone after it's been activated, you must Turn it Off, move/rotate it to the new Position and Rest it again before you Activate it. Otherwise you'll start seeing geometry shooting off all over the place.