Use the Create subpanel to create new handles.

If more than one handle is created, their names will have a number appended to the prefix so that all handle names are unique.

Dependencies assigned during creation apply to all handles being created.

You do not need to select a domain for a handle when using the by nodes option.  If you do not select a domain, the handle will be assigned to a domain that contains the node.

In the image below, three handles were created at the selected nodes.

To remove individual handles without affecting other handles that have been created, use the Delete panel (shortcut key: F2) and select handles.

Panel Inputs

Use the Update subpanel to update the position or dependencies of handles.

If more than one handle is selected, you can only update the handle dependencies.

Review sym displays the selected handle’s associated symmetries by plotting vectors between handles which are linked via symmetry. Review dep displays the selected handles’ dependencies by plotting vectors on the screen pointing from the selected handles to the handles upon which they are dependent.

Panel Inputs

Use the Load subpanel to load shapes, global handles, or both from a file.

Only global handles and shapes are stored in the file.  Saving and loading local shapes to and from a file can be done in the Shapes panel.

The load and save subpanels allow you to transfer globally defined shapes from one model to another even though the local handle and domain definitions may be different.  It also allows you to save shape templates.  When you read in a shape, it searches for the handles it perturbs by name.  So if you have global handles with the same names in different models, you can transfer your shapes between them by saving your shapes in one model to a file and then reading that file into another model.  For this option, you should only read in the shapes and not the handles when loading the file.

Panel Inputs

Use the Save subpanel to save global handles and shapes to a file.

All of the shapes and global handles are saved to a file.  However, only global handles and global handle perturbations for the shapes are saved; local handles and local handle perturbations are not written to the file.  If a shape contains both local and global perturbations, only the global ones are written to the file, and constraints that are applied to nodes will not be saved.  Only shapes that have been saved as handle perturbations are written to the file.

Saving and loading local shapes to and from a file can be also done in the Shapes panel.

The load and save subpanels allow you to transfer globally defined shapes from one model to another even though the local handle and domain definitions may be different.  It also allows you to save shape templates.  When you read in a shape, it searches for the handles it perturbs by name.  So if you have global handles with the same names in different models, you can transfer your shapes between them by saving your shapes in one model to a file and then reading that file into another model.  For this option, you should only read in the shapes and not the handles when loading the file.

Panel Inputs

The following action buttons appear throughout the subpanels: