Pretty Poly Editor Documentation

I. PPE Manual - 7. GUI Commands - a 3D-Viewer Menus

• File:
  The File-menu. For an up-to-date list of the formats we support and some comments about them, see http://plib.sourceforge.net/ssg/non_class.html. At the time fo writing, formats that we can write are *.ssg (the format of plib/PPE), *.ac (of the AC3D Linux-Modeller), *.ase (3DSMAX ASCII EXPORT Version 2.00), *.dxf (AutoCAD format), *.obj (Wavefront format), *.atg (ascii TerraGear; used by FlightGear), *.m, *.off (from GeomView) and *.tri. We can read all those formats also, and additionally *.wrl (VRML), *.mdl (Micro$oft Flight Simulator planes), *.flt (OpenFlight), and last but by no means least *.3ds (3D-Studio-format).
• New:
  This discards the scene currently in the viewer. It does NOT open a new scene in a new viewer, to do that go via main-gui/new Later it should ask whether the user wants to save *if* the scene has been changed.
• Open:
  Opens a File in the formats mentioned above, discarding the old scene. If you want to open a scene in a new viewer, go via main-gui/open Later it should ask whether the user wants to save *if* the scene has been changed.
• Save:
  Saves in the formats mentioned above.
• Save as:
  Saves as into the formats mentioned above.
• Merge:
  Opens a File in the formats mentioned above and adds the contents to the current scene. The new objects appear under one new branch node, so that one can easily select them.
• Merge and position:
  Works like "merge", but additionally the object is positioned. It is translated so that its origin lies on a point the user has clicked and, if you work with *.atg files, it is rotated so that its "up" direction should coincide with the normal of the horizon on this scenery tile. For more info, you might find something in the scenery section of Wolfram.Kuss.bei.t-online.de
• Start Macro recording:
  Starts macro recording. Every input you give to PPE should be recorded from now on until you press "Stop Macro recording".
• Stop Macro recording:
  Stops macro recording and saves the marco into a file. It asks you for the file name.
• Load Macro:
  Loads and executes a Macro. Unfortunately, macros currently don't work completely.
• Close:
  Closes the window.
• Quit:
  Exits the program. Later it should ask whether the user wants to save *if* the scene has been changed.



• Edit:
  There is also a standard edit-menu.
• Undo:
  A powerful Undo is planned. It shall be possible to go back many steps, without needing much memory. The speed is of second priority.
• Redo:
  See Undo.
• Cut:
  Cuts the selected part into the clipboard.
• Copy:
  Copies the selected part into the clipboard.
• Paste:
  Pastes from the clipboard. The geometry apears one unit offset in x-direction.
• Cut to global Clipboard:
  Cuts the selected part into the global clipboard. The global clipboard is implemented via a file. This means you can cut or copy in one PPE instance and paste in another or in the same PPE after loading another model or in a new session of PPE.
• Copy to global Clipboard:
  Copies the selected part into the global clipboard.
• Paste from global Clipboard:
  Pastes from the the global clipboard.
• Select All:
  Selects all vertices.
• Select None:
  Deselects all vertices.



• View :
  The operations in the view-menu always affect the current view. They define, how the scene is displayed in the current view, but don't change the scene itself.
• Orthographic:
  switches the current view to orthographic. This means there is no perspective distortion and things in the distance are as large as they are nearby.
• Scale:
  Goes into orthographic mode and sets the display scale.
• Perspective:
  Goes into perspective mode. Only useful if the view is currently in orthographic mode. This means things get smaller in the distance.
• Zoom:
  Goes into perspective mode. Works like a zoom on a camera and increases or decreases the field of view (FOV). The objects get smaller or larger on screen. The important thing to remember is that the "camera-position" stays the same. Decreasing the field of view will make the object-display larger (zoom in). If OTOH, make it appear larger by moving nearer (for example with the numkeymap-keys), then this will increase perspective distortions.
• Make everything visible:
  Moves the camera sideways, so that the centre of the scene is centred in the view. Moves the camera back/forth, so that the scene more or less fills the view. Currently, the algortihm to fill the view is very simple. Actually, it fits the bounding sphere into the width of the screen. So, when in this view the object is much smaller than the sphere, it can be much smaller than the view. OTOH, if it the object (nearly) touches the top and bottom of the sphere, it may even stick out of the screen a bit.
• Make curr. (sub-) object visible:
  Works like "Make everything visible", but not on the complete scene. Only the current (sub-) object is centred and "zoomed". To choose the (sub-) object, simply click on it beforehand in the structure view.
• Centre view:
  Centres the view around the 3d-cursor. You may also use the key "a" for centre Around the cursor.
• Camera/Rotate h, p:
  If activated, the mouse rotates the camera left/right and up/down.
• Camera/Rotate r:
  If activated, the mouse rotates the camera around its own axis.
• Camera/Rotate around model h, p:
  If activated, the mouse seemingly rotates the object left/right and up/down. Actually, the coordinates of the object don't change, but the camera is moved so that it seems the whole scene rotates. The point around which the rotation occurs is the origin by default and set by "Make everything visible" and "Make (sub-) object visible".
• Camera/Rotate around model r:
  If activated, the mouse seemingly rotates the object around an axis perpendicular to the screen. Actually, the coordinates of the object don't change, but the camera is moved so that it seems the whole scene rotates. The point around which the rotation occurs is the origin by default and set by "Make everything visible" and "Make (sub-) object visible".
• Camera/Translate Camera x, y:
  If activated, the mouse moves the camera left/right and up/down.
• Camera/Translate Camera z:
  If activated, the mouse moves the camera back/forth.
• Camera/Translate object x, y:
  If activated, the mouse seemingly moves the object left/right and up/down. Actually, the coordinates of the object don't change, but the camera is moved so that it seems the whole scene moves
• Camera/Translate object z:
  If activated, the mouse seemingly moves the object back/forth. Actually, the coordinates of the object don't change, but the camera is moved so that it seems the whole scene moves.
• Save Camera Position:
  Saves the current camera position, including the direction it is looking in, into a file on disc. This effectively allows "naming" camera poisitions
• Load Camera Position:
  Loads a saved camera position.
• Enable Update:
  Normally, all the views are rendered all the time. Therefore, when you move the 3D cursor in one window, you will see it moving in all. With this option, you can disable updateing. Currently, it affects all windows.
• Frame rate limiter:
  The rendering in PPE costs a lot of resources and other programs are therefore slow while PPE is running at full speed. To reduce this effect, by default PPE caps the frame rate to 50 Hertz. If you want to see how much of a strain on the CPU and graphics card your model is, you can disable the limiter,


• Windows:
  
• Structure:
  Opens the current scene in a new structure viewer (= hierarchical view).
• 3d viewer:
  Opens the current scene in a new 3d viewer. You can use this to have different perspectives of the same scene open at the same time.
• Open TFS Windows:
  Open Top/Front/Side (TFS) orthographic views. The new views will be "rotation locked", that means you cant rotate the camera. Therefore, the three views will always be orthogonal to each other.
• Material:
  Opens the material/Map browser. Map = Texture.
• Re-open Main Window:
  If the main window is open, it is simply brought to front. Else, it is opened


• Selection:
  
• Set Colour: Toolbox => Selection:
  Sets the colour of the selected polygons to the colour of the "colour swatch" in the main window.
• Set Colour: Selection => Toolbox:
  Doesn't work yet.
• Set Material: Toolbox => Selection:
  Sets the material of the selected primitives(!) to the one you chose in MAD.
• Set Material: Selection => Toolbox:
  AFAIK, not yet implemented.


• Object:
  Not yet implemented
• Surface of revolution:
  Not yet implemented.
• Extrude:
  Not yet implemented.



• Surface:
  
• Reverse:
  Reverses (changes frontface into backface and vice versa) the selected polygons.
• Make Single Sided:
  Makes the selected polygons single sided, that is, you only see the front face (as long as you don't have Render/Backfaces activated).
• Make Double Sided:
  Makes the selected polygons double sided, that is, you always see both sides of these polygons.
• Delete:
  Deletes the selected polygons (and any vertices/line segments they contain).


• Vertex:
  
• Clamp onto current Plane:
  Clamps the selected vertices onto the current plane.
• Snap all together:
  Snaps all the selected vertices together at their centre of gravity.
• Snap Selected within tolerance:
  Snaps only vertices, that are quite close to each other.
• Scale selected vertices:
  This is missing an input of the scale factor.
• Project texture from current plane:
  With this, you can influence from which direction textures are projected.


• Test:
  
• Print Scene graph to stdout:
  Prints the hierachie of the current scene to stdout. This is usefull for debugging, both debugging of code and debugging of the 3D models.



• Help:
• About PPE:
  Displays information about PPE.
• Version:
  Displays the PPE version number.
• View current bindings:
  Displays the current bindings in a HTML browser.
• View Manual:
  Displays this user manual in a HTML browser.