DGKC Control Documentation


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3D View

All 3D Views in DG Kernel software, behave in the same way during view manipulations by end user:

To rotate the model use left mouse button. 

To pan - hold shift key and use left mouse button. 

To zoom - use right mouse button. 

To zoom to a selected rectangle - press and release w key and select a rectangle using the mouse (left button).

Making circles with mouse while holding left mouse button causes the model to rotate around axis orthogonal to the screen.

Further concepts

Viewing rotations and zoom are performed around (relative to) centre of the current Viewing Volume Briefly speaking Viewing Volume is what is visible in 3D window.

Sometimes after a number of manipulations center of viewing volume shifts far from the area on which the user is focused on. This is especially important with high zoom or long models, when a small detail has to be analyzed. In this situation viewing can become awkward because even small rotations can quickly move the focus point out of the window.

To help with that, it is recommended from time to time to adjust near and far extents of the Viewing Volume (Depth Range). Depth Range can be viewed and modified using:

Depth Zoom

DG Kernel 3D views have additional Depth mode. A view works in Depth mode when z key is held down. Normal viewing mode is restored automatically when the key is released.

Depth mode is used to view and adjust depth range of the current Viewing Volume.

In depth mode point of view changes to one from bottom up relative to the current orientation. Lets assume that the current orientation is such that the global z axis is directed orthogonal to the screen towards the viewer and y axis is directed up. Then in depth mode z axis will be directed up and y axis will be directed orthogonal to the screen from the viewer.

In depth mode rotation is disabled but pan and zoom are working as normal.

In depth mode the current Viewing Volume is displayed as blue rectangle. Zoom out slightly to see the whole rectangle.

To modify the depth range click into the window and move the mouse in vertical direction to select which part of the model should be included. New depth range will be displayed with blue dashed rectangle.

This technique also allows to exclude from view objects or parts of them in front or behind the focus point, or, in other words, to zoom in in direction of depth.

See it in a video

3D Navigation

When very high zoom is required to view a tiny detail of the model series of zoom, pan and depth zoom modifications are needed.

If you become disoriented use View>Reset All in 3D Debugger to restore default view configuration. Programmatically the same can be achieved with IView_DG.Reset

Use also View Points to store and return to frequently used view configurations.