1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
146
147
148
149
150
151
152
153
154
155
156
157
158
159
160
161
162
|
<HTML>
<HEAD>
<TITLE>The VRweb VRML Editor</TITLE>
</HEAD>
<BODY background="vrwebbg.gif">
<H1>The VRweb VRML Editor</H1>
<p>
<IMG ALT="VRweb" WIDTH="129" HEIGHT="40" SRC="vrwebsmall.gif">
<p>
<small><strong>Important:</strong> The VRML editing capabilities of
VRweb have not been thoroughly tested and are not fully stable
yet. Do not make us responsible for lost work after a program crash.
Save/backup your scenes frequently.</small>
<p>
These two help files should give you a short outline of VRweb's edit
features. A detailed user guide shall be available as part of
Alexander Nußbaumer's master thesis.
<p>
<A name="start"></A>
<H2>Overview</H2>
<p>
On viewing a scene, switch to edit mode by selecting the <b>edit</b>
item in the <b>File</b> menu or with the <i>accelerator key
ctrl-e</i>. This prepares the scene for editing and changes a few
browser behaviours (noted where appropriate). Hit <i>ctrl-e</i> again
to switch back to the "normal" viewing behaviour of VRweb.
<p>
... Or select item <b>new</b> in the <b>File</b> menu to start editing
a scene from scratch.
<p>
Being in edit mode the menubar shows an additional <b>Edit</b> menu.
It contains toggles for object manipulation, display of the edit
toolbar, and the constraint mode. It also lets you undo manipulations
and manipulate the scene with cut/copy/paste/delete operations.
Finally it contains items to launch the individual <A
href="editdlg.html">edit dialogs</A>, which is also possible via the
buttons of the <i>edit toolbar</i> (no icons yet, sorry).
<p>
Save the edited scene with the <b>Save</b> (<i>accelerator key F2</i>,
using the filename specified last time) or the <b>Save As</b> item
(<i>accelerator key ctrl-F2</i> or meta-F2, specifying a new file
name) of the <b>File</b> menu. (If you save a scene loaded without
editing or when saving a scene the first time, you will always be
prompted for a file name.) A "*" appended to VRML in the status line
indicates that your scene currently has unsaved changes.
<p>
Before switching to edit mode, save (and save as) write a copy of the
original input file. Save operations during editing write the internal
data structure, which is re-formatted and has any comments stripped.
No backup copies of older file versions are made.
<p>
<A name="selection"></A>
<H2>Object Selection</H2>
<p>
Select an object for manipulation with a <i>single click</i> (any
mouse button; you have to use shift-click with the left mouse button
when you are not in editing mode). Deselect by clicking outside any
object or using the <b>Deselect Object/Group</b> item in the
<b>View</b> menu.
<p>
For selecting related objects of the scene (see also <A
href="editdlg.html#structure">Structure Viewer</A>) use the items
<b>Select Parent, Child, Previous, Next</b> in Menu <b>View</b> or the
corresponding <i>accelerator keys -, +, space, backspace</i> (you must
already have selected any object).
<p>
You may bring the selected object in view by using <b>View
Selection</b> or view the whole scene with the <b>View World</b>
function (menu View). The <i>accelerator keys</i> are <i>s</i> and
<i>w</i> respectively. See also <A
href="navigate/index.html#viewpoints">viewpoint control</A>.
<p>
<A name="objmanip"></A>
<H2>Object Manipulation</H2>
<p>
In the <A href="basics.html#toolbar">toolbar</A> an additional toggle
button shows up during edit mode, which lets you toggle between
<b>object manipulation</b> and camera <A
href="navigate/modes.html">navigation</A> for viewing. You can also
use the according item in the Edit menu or the <i>accelerator key
ctrl-o</i>.
<p>
When object manipultation is on, you can translate, rotate, and scale
the selected object by dragging with one of the mouse buttons:
<p>
<TABLE border cellpadding=5>
<tr><th align=center>translation</th><th></th></tr>
<tr><td align=center>drag left</td><td>translate object (two axis)</td></tr>
<tr><td align=center>ctrl+left</td><td>translate along single axis</td></tr>
<tr><td align=center>shift+ctrl+left</td><td>translate along orthogonal axis</td></tr>
<tr><th align=center>rotation</th><th></th></tr>
<tr><td align=center>drag middle</td><td>rotate object (two axis)</td></tr>
<tr><td align=center>ctrl+middle</td><td>rotate around single axis</td></tr>
<tr><td align=center>shift+ctrl+middle</td><td>rotate around orthogonal axis</td></tr>
<tr><th align=center>scaling</th><th></th></tr>
<tr><td align=center>drag right</td><td>scale object uniformly</td></tr>
<tr><td align=center>ctrl+right</td><td>scale object in a single direction</td></tr>
<tr><td align=center>shift+ctrl+right</td><td>scale object in orthogonal direction</td></tr>
</TABLE>
<p>
You get a feedback about active axis (drawn in red). Scaling and
orthogonal transformations are not related to the object alignment on
screen (move the mouse along the red line(s)). Axis selection may be
more intuitive when the object's coordinate system is roughly aligned
with your current view. Toggle object manipulation (<i>ctrl-o</i>) for
adjusting the camera view for easier manipulation.
<p>
Accurate setting of transformation values is possible with the <A
href="editdlg.html#transform">Transform Editor</A>. <b>Known bug:</b>
changes made inside WWWInline nodes can not be saved.
<p>
<A name="undo"></A>
<H2>Undo</H2>
<p>
A number of object manipulation steps is <b>undo</b>-able;
<i>accelerator key ^z or F12</i>. The undo facility also keeps track
of the selected object (you can still undo object manipulations after
selecting a different object). <b>Warning:</b> currently no other
editing operations are undo-able; moreover, each operation that
modifies the scene graph (see copy and paste below) will clear the
undo-stack.
<p>
<A name="constraints"></A>
<H2>Constraints</H2>
<p>
By default, VRweb constraints translation and scaling operations, such
that the object does not penetrate other objects. Thus you may e.g.
place a glass on a table or a poster on a wall.
<p>
For free object manipulation deactivate this feature in the Edit menu.
<p>
<A name="copypaste"></A>
<H2>Copy and Paste</H2>
<p>
You can logically regroup the objects of your scene using the copy and
paste operations, which are accessible via the <b>Edit</b> menu or in
the <A href="editdlg.html#structure">Structure Viewer</A>. First <A
href="#selection">select</A> a geometric object to be manipulated by
clicking it in the scene or in the Structure Viewer.
<p>
Selecting <b>Delete</b> deletes the object. With <b>Cut</b> and
<b>Copy</b> you move or copy the object into the paste buffer, from
where it is copied back into the scene using <b>Paste</b>. The copies
are made via references (<i>DEF/USE</i> in VRML terms), not
physically.
<p>
<strong>Warning:</strong> The copy and paste operations are not
undo-able and contain not yet located bugs, which may crash the
editor. Use them with care.
<p>
<H2>Edit dialogs</H2>
<p>
See <A href="editdlg.html">part 2</A>.
<p>
<HR>
<p>
<address>The VRweb editor functions have been programmed by Alexander
Nußbaumer. This documentation was written by Michael
Pichler.</address>
<p>
Back to <A HREF="vrwebhlp.html">overview</A>.
</BODY>
|
