Model View Mouse Controls
By default, the first button referred to here is the left mouse button and the
second button is the middle button.
These two buttons can be switched using an option in the 3dmod Preferences
dialog, accessed via the Edit-Options menu entry in the 3dmod Info
Window.
Moving/Rotating/Zooming the Model
- First Mouse Button Drag
- The first mouse button moves the model when held down.
- Second Mouse Button Drag
- The second mouse button rotates the model around an axis perpendicular to
the direction of motion of the mouse. It can also be used to "throw" the model
in a new direction if the model is already rotating automatically, or if a
button or hot key has been pressed to start rotation. The model will rotate
continuously in the direction of movement, and the speed of rotation will be
proportional to the distance moved. (Moving 100 pixels will make it rotate at
the standard speed.)
- [Shift] + Right Mouse Button Drag
- The right mouse button together with the Shift key can be used to rotate
the model around the viewing (Z) axis.
- Scroll Wheel
- The scroll wheel zooms the model display up or down.
Moving/Rotating a Clipping Plane
- [Ctrl] + First Mouse Button Drag
- When the Ctrl key is held down, the first mouse button moves the current
clipping plane.
- [Ctrl] + Second Mouse Button Drag
- When the Ctrl key is held down, the second mouse button rotates the current
object clipping plane around an axis perpendicular to
the direction of motion of the mouse.
- [Ctrl] + [Shift] + Right Mouse Button Drag
- When both the Ctrl and the Shift key are held down, the right mouse
button rotates the current clipping plane around the viewing (Z) axis.
Moving the Light Source
- [Shift] + Second Mouse Button Drag
- When the Shift key is held down, the second mouse button rotates the light
source instead instead of the model. A red vector with a cross on the end is
drawn from the middle of the window in the direction of the light
source. If you move the light by mistake, you can recenter it by rotating it
until only the cross appears. The light direction is specific to each model
if multiple models are loaded, and to the particular view if multiple views
have been stored.
Selecting Points and Contours
- Right Mouse Button Click
- Clicking on a point in the model with
the right mouse button will select the nearest, frontmost point in the model as
the current model point. This is mostly useful when using the Model View from
3dmod, but it can be used to select and delete contours when running the
program as 3dmodv. When 3dmod is in model mode, clicking on an object with a
saved isosurface will make that the current object.
- [Ctrl] + Right Mouse Button Click or Drag
- Multiple contours can be selected by holding the Ctrl key down; click on a
contour to add it to the set of contours selected in Model View or to remove
it from the set if it is already selected. Dragging the mouse with the
right button down and the Ctrl key down will add contours that are crossed
by the mouse to the set of contours selected in Model View. In either
case, if the current point was
selected in a 3dmod window instead of in Model View, the set of selected
contours will be cleared before adding ones selected in Model View.
When 3dmod is in model mode, clicking on an object with a
saved isosurface will add that object to the list of selected objects.
Because there is no visible indicator of which objects are selected, the
list of selected objects will be printed in the Info window.
Note that Ctrl+A can also be used to select all contours
that are being drawn in the current object (excluding ones that are completely
clipped).
- [Ctrl] + [Shift] + Right Mouse Button Click
- Points can be selected in the current object by holding down the Ctrl and
Shift keys and clicking with the right mouse button. The nearest, frontmost
point in the current object will be selected. This feature is particularly
useful when modeling scattered points that are being used to paint an
isosurface, but it will work in other situations as well.
Modeling Scattered Points
If the current object type is scattered points, then holding down the Ctrl and
Shift buttons allows you to move, resize, or add points with the mouse.
Hot keys can also be used to move or delete a point.
- [Ctrl] + [Shift] + Left Mouse Button Drag
- Moving the mouse while holding down the Ctrl and Shift keys and the left
mouse button will move the current scattered point.
- [Ctrl] + [Shift] + Middle Mouse Button Click
- Clicking the middle mouse button while holding down the Ctrl and Shift keys
will insert a scattered point, as long as the model view is opened from
3dmod and 3dmod is in model mode. The point will be centered at the
location that would be selected by clicking with the right mouse button. If
the click selects a point on a meshed surface, then the new point will have
its center on that surface.
- [Ctrl] + [Shift] + Scroll Wheel
- Operating the mouse scroll wheel while holding down the Ctrl and Shift keys
will resize the the current scattered point.
Help Index