Hello all.

I'm sure there are a lot of unhappy people since the old graphics was removed in the new version. I wanted to know if there is any rhyme or reason to the orbit command. Its annoying that there is no longer an option to rotate about the vertical or horizontal axis.

Any one have a trick to be able to better control the rotation with the mouse using orbit?

Hi, Richard.

We certainly hope "a lot of people" are happy!. The capability to orbit around any of the three axes hasn't been "taken away" (a "how to do it" follows). As far as I know, nothing has been taken away and many things have been added or enhanced. If there is some capability you find missing or implemented incorrectly, please let us know.

The graphics use a real-world paradigm of a fixed model and moveable camera, with the camera moving around the model as if it were attached to a string whose other end is tied to the center of the model. You zoom in/out by adjusting the string length, and you orbit by moving the camera along the outside of an imaginary bubble. The model never moves, the only thing that moves is your viewpoint. I have a couple of pictures that show exactly how things work. I'll try to scan those tomorrow and post them here.

If you want to orbit around a true Y-axis (assuming "Y" is up), choose "orbit" as your operator and set the view to the Right or Left view (either by pushing the appropriate view button or typing "x" or &ltshift&gt "X"), then use the right and left arrow keys. This will move the camera around our mythical bubble's equator, which is perpendicular to the y-axis. The up and down arrows will move the camera around the ball over the "prime meridian" (around the "Z"). Moving around the other two axes works the same way. In an isometric view, though, it will appear the the y-axis is "wobbly". That's because the direction cosine of the camera in an iso view is (1,1,1), which is a little off center (the "Y" is rolled forward slightly). Just remember that the camera is moving around a ball with respect to the y-axis of the screen.

The mouse orbit moves the camera around the ball based on the direction of its movement. This is similar to an AutoCAD orbit or most other 3D drawing packages. The old graphics had a mouse orbit, but it just rotated around the model's y-axis in a clockwise direction -- 5 degrees for every movement -- no matter which way you moved the mouse.

Please let us know if you have any more questions.

Regards,

David Little
COADE, Inc.
Houston, TX.

David,

That definitely helps. Having "orbit" as the operator and using the arrow keys is much easier than trying to use the mouse.

One feature I do like is the cutting plane. That could be real handy, especially on a large, crowded system.

Thanks for the tip.