Finalizing your Hot Air Balloon Design

1. Choose your final 3-Ddesign.  
2. Save your file.
3. Unroll your shape (Surface Tab, Unroll Developable Surface).  Then delete the original shape and do an incremental save.  Keep doing this occasionally.
4. Check your total area and adjust if necessary.
   • Select all of your pieces at once and use the Analyze tab to measure their combined area.  The maximum allowed area is 4,000in².  Adjust their scale as necessary.  If you resize your pieces, resize them all together! Two methods are...
     • Guess and check.  Since the pieces are now 2-D, you can use scale 2-D (under the Transform tab) if you want.
     • Calculate the scale factor.  Scale factor = square root of (4,000/Current Area).  Rescale as usual, but only click once; then type in the scaling factor and hit enter.
5. Create a virtual 6'x9' sheet of plastic
   • Click the rectangle tool on the tool bar to the left of the screen. 
   • Click somewhere in the Top view.
   • Type 108 and press enter.
   • Type 72 and press enter.
6. In TOP view, move and/or rotate your pieces into a convenient layout that will fit on your virtual plastic.  A net is convenient, but it might cost you some volume.  You might want to skip this step if you have a curved object, like a cone or cylinder.
   • At the bottom of your screen, click Osnap.  Then click the box on the bottom left that says End.   Then click the box that says Near.
   • Click the arrow icon to cancel any unfinished commands.
   • Move a piece
     • Select a piece that you want to move.
     • At the top of the screen, click the Transform tab.
       • Click the Move command.
       • Click a corner of your piece.  Then find where you want that corner to go, and click again.
   • Rotate the piece that you moved.
     • Select the piece (if you haven't already)
     • At the top of the screen, click the Transform tab.
       • Click the Rotate command.
       • Select the center of rotation by clicking the corner of your piece that you want to rotate around.
       • Click another point along the edge of the piece.
       • Move your mouse until your piece pops into the right place.  Then click again.
   • Repeat the steps above with other pieces until you are satisfied with your arrangement.
   • Lay your pieces out on the virtual plastic sheet.
   • IF your pieces won't fit on your virtual plastic, you can either rearrange them, resize them, or both.  If you resize your pieces, resize them all together!  Otherwise, they won't fit together to make the shape that you designed.
   • To select more than one piece at a time, you can hold shift and click them.  You can also group pieces by selecting them all and pressing ctrl + G.  To ungroup, use ctrl + G + shift.
   • If your pieces are too big, resize them.
     • Select them all at the same time (if you haven't already)
     • At the top of the screen, click the Transform tab.
       • Click the Scale command.  Then click 2D or 3D.
       • Click somewhere on your pieces.  Then click somewhere else. 
       • Move your mouse until your pieces fit.  Click one last time.
7. If you're happy with your file, save it as Your Names Balloon Layout.

• Upload your file to the appropriate folder...
  • A12
  • A34
  • A56