Viewer Navigation

All 3-D viewers in ElumTools utilize the same navigation commands. Currently this applies to the Photometric Web viewer in the Light Source - Source Position tab in Luminaire Manager and the visualization viewer.

 

Keyboard Shortcuts

Keyboard key stroke

 Function
Arrows Navigate
Home Zoom In
End Zoom Out
Ctrl+End Zoom Extents
PageUp/PageDown Increase/Decrease navigation speed
Alt+Left Arrow Previous view
Alt+Right Arrow Next view
Ctrl+C Copy image to the clipboard
Type a number (e.g., 5.5), press Enter Sets Eye and Focus height for Interactive commands
Shift key (hold) Changes interactive command to Pan motion
Ctrl key (hold) Changes interactive command to Rotate motion

 

Navigation commands

Command/Function Illustrated Explained

Previous and

Next view

 (Previous), (Next)

ElumTools remembers an unlimited number of views, and you can scroll between them using the Previous and Next view buttons.

 
Save and Copy (Save), (Copy)

Any single scene can be saved to PNG (default), BMP (uncompressed, largest file size) or JPG (highly compressed, poorest quality, smallest file size) using the save button on the toolbar. Scenes can also be copied to the Windows Clipboard using the Copy button (or Ctrl+C).

 
Standard views

Orthographic views

Isometric views

ElumTools provides easy navigation between standard Orthographic views and Isometric views using the buttons on the toolbar.

 
Zoom Extents Zoom Extents

The Zoom Extents button will enlarge any view such that its Extents fills the entire viewer window.

 
Interactive commands

 

Left to right: Zoom, Orbit, Walk, Dolly, Pan, Rotate, Clip

Top: Zoom Extents and button to reveal interactive commands.

 

Navigation speed in any command can be changed by using the PageUp and PageDown keys on your keyboard.

 

(See in more detail below)

Interactive command operations:

Zoom The Zoom command changes focal distance, which enlarges or decreases the image size continuously as the mouse is held down and dragged, or as the mouse wheel is rolled back and forth. The observer focus position is always the center of the screen.
Orbit The Orbit command moves the observer around the model while maintaining the same focus point. Imagine that you are a spaceship orbiting the earth, always looking at the center of the earth.
Walk

The Walk command combines the Dolly, Pan and Rotate commands into one movement. Dragging the mouse up/down moves the observer forward and backward. Dragging the mouse left/right, rotates the observer view position left and right.

 

Using the Shift and Ctrl keys in conjunction with dragging or the arrow keys invokes the Rotate and Pan commands as well.

See Dolly, Pan, Rotate
Dolly The Dolly command moves the observer and the focus point in and out of the model along a straight line. Depending on the view direction, from the observer’s point of view, this feature allows you to “walk” into and out of the space.
Pan

The Pan command moves the observer and focus point relative to a fixed model position. Imagine that you are looking straight ahead and moving laterally left/right or up/down. The image will move opposite to the panning direction; sliding the mouse to the right moves the image to the left.

 

Pressing and holding down the mouse wheel also invokes the Pan function. In this case, sliding the mouse to the right slides the image to the right.

 

Holding down the Ctrl key when using another command invokes the Pan function, overriding the current command.

Rotate

The Rotate command allows the observer to look left or right and up or down from a fixed position. Use this command when you are in a space and want to look at different surfaces without changing position. A panorama view is obtained by moving constantly to the left or right.

 

Holding down the Shift key when using another command invokes the Rotate function, overriding the current command.

Clip The Clip command cuts away the front plane of the image continuously to reveal the objects within and beyond. The size of the image does not increase or decrease. This command is very useful when viewing an image with exterior and interior components. The clip distance specifies how far away from the eye position the image will be truncated.