When you create objects, it's important to set the units of measurement you want to work with.

In the Customize menu, select Units Setup.

In this dialog, you can choose options that let you work in the metric system, with feet and inches, with a custom setup, or the default generic units.

This scene uses the metric system, which we'll leave active for now.

You can even toggle the lighting units between international and American systems.

But we'll not get into that right now, so cancel this dialog to exit.

Other settings you can work with are in Grid and Snap, which you can find by selecting Tools, Grids and Snaps, then Grid and Snap Settings.

You can also right-click on one of the Snap buttons.

And under the Home Grid tab, you can readjust the grid you see in the working area to fit your own standards.

This is something game companies are known to use to satisfy the units of their game engines.

It can also be used for architectural projects that follow a particular pattern.

We'll leave the default values as is.

Now that we've set the units and grids, let's see how to create simple shapes.

These are in the Create panel, under Geometry.

You can select different categories of geometry from this menu.

We'll stick with Standard Primitives for now.

You can create any of these objects in any viewport with a series of clicks and drags.

Some are simple enough, requiring a simple click and drag like Sphere and Teapot. Others require a bit more.

A box, for example, needs an initial click and drag for the base, and another mouse move and click to define its height.

The same is true for a cylinder.

A cone is built like a cylinder, with an additional mouse move and click to define the upper radius. And so on for other objects.

Let's undo that.

Using different viewports lets you create objects that face different directions.

For example, let's create a cylinder in the Perspective view, first with a click and drag to define its base, then by moving the mouse, and clicking once more to define the height.

Let's not worry about its size for now; we'll discuss object parameters later.

When you work in the Perspective view, you create a cylinder standing up, with its base lying flat on the ground.

You obtain similar results if you create a cylinder in the Top view.

However, when you create a cylinder in the Front view, notice that the cylinder is lying on its side.

That's because there are 3 default construction planes oriented in X, Y, and Z, and represented by the grids in the viewport.

So when you create a cylinder in the Top view, its base is lying on the grid you see in the Perspective viewport.

When you create a cylinder in the Front view, its base is lying on an invisible vertical grid, represented by this black line in the Top view.

The same is true if you create an object in the Left view.

The base of that cylinder is aligned with the third construction plane, represented by another black line in the Top view.

Using different construction planes is faster than having to build an object always standing up and reorienting it manually.

You can create more grids apart from the three default ones, but it's easier to use a feature called Auto Grid.

Let's say we want to build a cylinder, maybe representing a bottle, on top of one of those barrels.

Activate the type of object you want to create, then enable the Auto Grid option.

In the viewport, a tripod appears and updates as you move the cursor across surfaces.

This indicates the face orientation on the object, and by creating an object there, that individual face becomes the temporary construction plane for your cylinder.

It's good to use Auto Grid on a temporary basis, so make sure to turn it off when you're done with it.

Once you've created an object, it's good practice to go to the Modify panel to change its parameters.

Even though the Create panel displays parameters, switching to the Modify panel helps you avoid problems later.

You can change an object's name.

It's a good idea to give your objects names that are not too generic.

That way, when you're working in a scene with a lot of objects, you will be able to find each one more easily.

For example, we can rename this cylinder "Bottle_001".

Adding a number after the name is useful if the object is the first in a series.

If you start making duplicates of it, they will be automatically incremented 002, 003, and so on.

The color swatch next to the name displays the object's wire color.

This color is generated at random, and sometimes is a little hard to see against the background.

You can change the wire color, but stay away from white and red; these would conflict with object and sub-object selection later on.

For now, the wire color displays on the object in both Shaded and Wireframe views, but that will eventually change when you apply a material to the object.

At that point, the wire color will only show in the Wireframe views or when Edged Faces mode is active.

In most cases, you don't need to worry about the object's exact size or other properties when you're creating it.

You create it first, and then you go to the Modify panel to adjust its base radius, height, and other parameters.

For example, you can change the Cylinder parameters in a number of ways.

By clicking in a field and specifying a value, let's say for the Radius,

by using the spinner arrows incrementally, in this case to change the height of the object,

or by clicking and dragging on the spinners directly.

Here's a tip about numerical values:

You can set them down to their minimum possible value by right-clicking the spinners.

For example, right-clicking the Radius spinner brings the value down to zero, making the cylinder disappear.

Let's undo that.

However, right-clicking the number of Sides brings the value down to 3, which is the minimum value for the level of detail.