View window toolbars

Source file: view-window-toolbar.htm

View window toolbars are used to modify the display of data in only the associated view windows. The tools do not change the data itself.

The toolbar that appears depends on the types of data loaded in the associated view window. The toolbars available are summarised below.

View toolbar

The view toolbar duplicates most of the tools found on the View tab. These tools are described in the table below, with shortcuts where applicable.

Icons   Description Shortcut
Predefined views: Provides a choice of views of the scene from the main orthogonal directions aligned with the axes (Top, Bottom, Front, Back, Left and Right). The command provides two-stage functionality, described below:
  1. Selecting a predefined view once will simply align the present camera settings to the selected direction, with no change to zoom.
  2. Selecting the same predefined view again immediately will zoom out and centre the view to display all objects from that direction.
 End

Zoom to selection: The view window will zoom to include all the selected objects (without changing the camera direction).

L

Set camera view point: Displays the data from a defined position, towards a selected orientation.
  1. Click the Set camera view point  button to launch the Set view point dialog in the Status bar.
  2. Manually enter the camera position, or click in the desired location in the view window.
  3. Manually enter the camera orientation, or click in the desired location in the view window.
 Shift+K

Set centre of rotation: Moves the centre of rotation. Click on the button then in the new location. When rotating a view, the centre of rotation is at the position of the axes in the view window.

Tip:   If the axes are blocking data from view, right-click and select Show axes to deselect them. Select Show axes again to redisplay the axes. Alternatively, toggle A.

C

Set manipulation mode: Four manipulation modes are available to manipulate the view of the data.
  • Z up mode: The Z axis is constrained to move in the vertical plane in your viewing direction, regardless of viewing angle. This is the default mode.
  • Look from mode: Fixes the viewpoint. Use to maintain a fixed location in space.
  • Plan view mode: Sets the view to look down on the data.
  • Screen mode: Rotates views in any orientation.

Z

K

P

S

Set projection mode: Toggles between orthographic and perspective projection.

  • Perspective projection: Displays data naturally as it would appear from a single viewpoint. Objects appear smaller further away.
  • Orthographic projection: Displays all data at the same size regardless of distance.

8

Select all visible data: Selects all objects or primitives (based on the current selection mode).

Ctrl+A

Invert selection: Changes selection to all visible data that was not selected.

I

Surface render mode: Switches the rendering between solid, wireframe and points display.

The selection affects all objects in the view window.

 G

Side Light: Change the number of lights and light positions to alter scene lighting and subsequent shadow display.

  • Toggle left light
  • Toggle right light

 

Alt+4

Alt+5

Headlight toggle on/off: Turns the headlight on and off. The Headlight is a light aligned permanently with the camera direction.

 Alt+3

Eye-Dome Lighting:

Toggles the eye-dome lighting on and off.

  

Coordinate grid: Toggle display of coordinate grid. The grid is viewable only from above (looking down z axis) in orthographic mode. The grid is auto-scaling and displays basic dimensions. To learn about creating a grid, see Grid.

 

Action plane group: Provides a mechanism to help place points in 3D space as well as set up a convenient plane to perform 2D operations on. For detail on action planes, see Action Plane.

  
Export to: Create a file from the current view.
  • Export PDF: Creates a 3D PDF for easy distribution of data.
  • Export U3D: Creates a Universal 3D file of the current view.

To learn about exporting 3D data, see Capture Scene.

 

Image Render: Render a high resolution image of the view. To learn about rendering an image, see Capture Scene.

  

Display animation editor: Set up and render animated scenes including data. To learn about creating an animation, see Export.

 

Visibility editor: Displays a list of the contents of the view window, which can be hidden and redisplayed. To learn more about the visibility editor, see Visibility editor.

 V

Juxtaposition View: Splits the view in half for easy comparison of objects. To learn about using the juxtaposition view, see Juxtaposition view.

 
Sectioning overview: Places a thumbnail in the view window for view orientation tracking when working with sections. See Sectioning Overview.  

Tie to <view name>: Ties the active view to the named view so that data manipulation functions on tied views simultaneously. For more detail, see Tying view windows together.

 

  

Stereonet toolbar

When a stereonet is loaded in its own view window, the view window toolbar and the View ribbon will display stereonet and related tools.

The stereonet-specific tools are as follow:

Icons Description

Projection: Click to toggle the projection between the following:

  • Equal angle: A map projection on which a constant ratio of angle is preserved.

  • Equal area: A map projection on which a constant ratio of areas is preserved, so that any given part of the map has the same relation to the area on the sphere it represents as the whole map has to the entire area represented.

Grid style: Select from the following grid style options:

  • None: Turn off stereonet grid.
  • Equatorial: Change the stereonet grid to equatorial mode.
  • Polar: Change the stereonet grid to polar mode.

Click the button to cycle through the options.

Pole Render Mode: Click to toggle the pole render mode between points and wireframe.

Pole Render Colour: Click to toggle the pole colour scheme between the following:

  • The original surface colour

  • The pole symbol colour

Scale Poles: Click to size the poles according to their discontinuity lengths or triangle areas. Select an option from the tool panel and set the parameters.

Conformance scene toolbar

When you load the scene in a new view window, the view window toolbar is tailored with tools most relevant to managing the scene. These tools include several from the standard view window toolbar (see View), but with the different camera and scene controls described below.

Icons Description
Set Camera as Default: Make the current direction and zoom the default view.
View Camera Default: Return to the default viewing direction and zoom.

The view window toolbar also provides the following tools with which you can query volume and distance conformance (see Design Conformance for more detail):

Icons Description
Query Volume: Pick a region to report the underdig or overdig volume.
Distance to Design: Pick a point to report conformance as distance from the design surface.

When activated, these tools appear in the status bar. After picking points, click or press Enter to finish. Query results appear as annotations in the scene container.

Note:  The conformance scene view tab includes tools for changing annotation appearances (font size and colour) and for selecting the items to include in the distance to design annotation.