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| Reset all |
Applies a view reset to all viewports.
The first click will reset views to focus in on just the selected objects, and clicking a second time will switch to focusing on everything regardless of selection.
You can also reset all viewports by right-clicking the Reset button inside of an individual viewport.
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| Image |
Allows placement and editing of reference image planes.
Click the Add button to create a new image plane.
After an image has been added, it will show up in the list of all images. An entry in the list can be selected to hide, show, or remove it. Pausing your mouse over top of one entry in the list will show the full path to that image.
The Align button allows you to do image registration of the selected image by picking 2 points on the image, then 2 points in the model. The image will be moved, rotated, and scaled to make the picked lines coincide.
The Properties button will pull up an image properies dialog which allows editing the path to the image if you have moved it somewhere else. Also the image can be reloaded from disk, and also an option can be enabled here to embed the image data directly inside of the 3DM model file. You can also right-click on an image's file name as a shortcut for pushing the properties button.
The following options are also available and affect all images:
Draw below objects - choosing this option draws images as a backdrop behind everything else.
Draw with objects - this option draws images mixed in as if they were regular objects.
Draw above objects - this option draws images on top of everything else as an overlay. This is intended to be used with transparency, it gives you a way to always see a faint image without objects blocking the way.
Show in all views - shows the image in all viewports.
Show in ortho only - only shows the image in the Top/Front/Right views, not in the 3D view.
Transparency - you can put in a percentage here from 0% (fully opaque with no transparency) to 100% (completely transparent).
Background images are editable while you are inside this command. Click and drag on an image to reposition it. Dragging on a corner frame widget allows scaling of the image, and dragging on the rotation widget allows rotating the image. A click and release on the rotation widget instead of click and drag enables a different rotation mode that shows a 3-wheel rotation gizmo. When that gizmo is enabled you can click and drag on any of the 3 wheels to rotate around any of the 3 axes - click off of a wheel to exit this mode. Undo can be used to undo edits of the background images while still inside the Image command.
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| CPlane |
The CPlane (Construction Plane) tool allows the drawing plane and ortho views to be relocated to more easily work on objects that are not aligned to the world axis directions.
Note that you can also draw directly on surfaces by using object snaps (see Drawing on surfaces for more info), so it is not always necessary to set up a CPlane manually. But you can set one if there is no surface already available where you want to draw, or if you want more detailed control over the drawing grid.
The CPlane will be situated by an origin point and x/y/z axis locations which are specified using the Orientation picker, and which can be snapped on to a surface or curve in the model to provide a working environment local to that area.
After you have set a CPlane, when you want to return back to the default world planes, press the "Reset CPlane" button that shows up in the command options area after launching the CPlane tool. You can also right-click on the View / CPlane button as a shortcut for resetting back to world planes.
Some options are available to set before placing the CPlane origin point.
When the "Apply to all views" option is enabled, the CPlane will be global and used in all viewports. If "Apply to all views" is disabled, then the CPlane will only be applied to the 3D view and the Top/Front/Right views will remain using their regular world axis planes instead.
When setting a global CPlane, by default the Top/Front/Right views will shift to become plan views of the CPlane, for example the Top view will shift to be looking straight down at the CPlane's Z axis rather than looking down the world Z axis direction. Views that have been shifted in this way will have an additional (cplane) label displayed in their titles. This view direction shift can be disabled by unchecking the "Orient ortho views" option.
Setting a global CPlane will also affect x,y,z coordinate point entry, with the coordinates evaluated in the CPlane's coordinate system instead of in world coordinates. For example typing in 0,0,0 will place a point at the CPlane's origin instead of the world origin. You can prefix typed in points with a w (for example w5,2,1) to enter in a world coordinate point instead when a CPlane is active. The x,y,z point coordinate readout in the bottom toolbar will also show the location of the mouse in CPlane coordinates instead, with a "c" being displayed in front of them to indicate they are CPlane coordinates and not world coordinates.
© 2010 Triple Squid Software Design