Control Bar and Status Bar

The Control Bar is located at the top of the Figure Window, and allows you to control the Figure Window's operating environment. The Status Bar is located at the bottom of the Figure Window, and shows the current coordinates of the cursor in 3D space, allows you to change the units used, and displays other information.

Control Bar

Select View > Control Bar to toggle the display of the Control Bar.

The buttons displayed on the Control Bar can be customized by first right-clicking (Windows) or Control-clicking (Mac OS) on an empty area of the Control Bar, and then selecting Hide, Icon, Text, or Icon+Text.

Editing Mode

Click to switch between object editing modes. The editing modes are Object, Modify, Mapping, Joint, and IK. Switch editing modes as needed when doing different work in your scene. The Figure Window updates to show controls for the selected mode.

Still/Sequence Mode

Click to select Still Mode (used when working with regular still images) or Sequence Mode (which updates the Figure Window with the state of Motion Window's sequence cursor).

Mesh Editing Mode Buttons

In Modify Mode, use the Mesh Editing Mode buttons to switch between methods of selecting different elements of a polygon mesh. From left, the buttons are Vertex Selection Mode, Edge Selection Mode, and Face Selection Mode.

Vertex Selection Mode: In Vertex Selection Mode, clicking or dragging across a polygon mesh will select its vertices (points).
Edge Selection Mode: In Edge Selection Mode, clicking or dragging across a polygon mesh will select its edges.
Face Selection Mode: In Face Selection Mode, clicking or dragging across a polygon mesh will select its faces (polygons).

Selection Mode

Click to switch between Figure Window selection modes. There are three modes: Box, Lasso, and Trace. Select a mode according to the kind of selection you wish to make.

Box: In Box Selection Mode, dragging in the Figure Window displays a selection box (a rectangular area). Objects enclosed or intersected by the selection box will be selected when the mouse button is released.
Lasso: In Lasso Selection Mode, dragging in the Figure Window displays a free-form "lasso" line. Objects enclosed by the lasso will be selected when the mouse button is released.
Trace: In Trace Selection Mode, dragging in the Figure Window displays a trace line. Objects intersected by this line will be selected when the mouse button is released.

Continuous Mode

Continuous Mode enables you to use the selected tool repeatedly, without reselecting the tool each time.

Repeat

Used to repeat an operation performed last using the Move/Copy tool the number of times specified. Click the Repeat button and select the number of times to repeat from the pop-up menu. To repeat a number of times not on the menu, select "..."

Manipulator Types

Click to switch between manipulator types. Select Universal, Translate, Scale, Rotate, Size, or select Hide to hide the manipulator.
By default, the universal manipulator is displayed in all views.

Manipulator Coordinate Mode

Click to change coordinate systems used for the manipulator. Select User, World, Local (Default Rotation), Local, or Normal.

User: User coordinate axes are displayed, showing user coordinates with a rotation element added to the Top View, Front View, or Side View.
World: The world coordinate axes are displayed. These are equivalent to the XYZ axes of the world coordinates.
Local (Default Rotation): The coordinate axes of the default rotation of the joint. The default rotation uses the values when the joint is reset.
Local: The local coordinate axes are displayed. In the case of a joint, the joint's rotation is added to the coordinate system.
Normal: Coordinate axes that use the surface normal of the selected polygon mesh as the Z direction are displayed.

Manipulator Pivot Settings

The following two buttons affect the 3D Manipulator. From left, these are Set Pivot, Reset Pivot, and IK Depth.

Set Pivot: Click this button and then click in the Figure Window to set a new position for the origin of the 3D Manipulator.
Reset Pivot: Resets the 3D Manipulator's origin to the default position.

NURBS Assembly Settings (Shade3D Professional)

The following two buttons are used for CAD assemblies. For details on assemblies, see Surface Assembly.

Set Assembly Origin: Click to set the assembly origin of a NURBS surface.
Assembly: Click to assemble two selected NURBS surfaces after setting the assembly origin for each.

IK Depth

Click to select the level of hierarchy depth for which IK is effective when working with joints in IK Mode.

Coordinate System

Click to switch between global and local coordinate systems. The global coordinate system is the default.

Work Plane

Click to switch between work planes. A work plane is used to constrain movement of the 3D cursor in a particular plane in Perspective View.

YZ: Movement of the 3D cursor in Perspective View is constrained to a fixed X coordinate.
XZ: Movement of the 3D cursor in Perspective View is constrained to a fixed Y coordinate.
XY: Movement of the 3D cursor in Perspective View is constrained to a fixed Z coordinate.
Screen: Movement of the 3D cursor in Perspective View is constrained to the plane perpendicular to the line of sight.
Auto: Movement of the 3D cursor in Perspective View is constrained to whichever plane (YZ, XZ, or XY) is closest to perpendicular to the line of sight, and will switch automatically as the line of sight moves. The screen plane is excluded.

Viewport Layout

There are nine different viewport layouts for the Figure Window. Click this button to open the Viewport Layout Controller, and position the mouse pointer over it so that the red rectangle contains the viewports you wish to display.

Wireframe Color

Click to specify the way color is added to wireframes in the Figure Window.

No Color / Off: The color set in the Wireframe settings of the Colors tab in the Preferences Dialog is used for the wireframe display color.
Use Diffuse Color (Except in Modify Mode): Each object's diffuse color is also used for its wireframe, except in Modify Mode, in which case the color set in the Wireframe settings of the Colors tab in the Preferences Dialog is used.
Use Diffuse Color: Each object's diffuse color is also used for its wireframe, in all editing modes.
Use Marker Color (Except in Modify Mode): Each object's marker color (set in the Browser) is also used for its wireframe, except in Modify Mode, in which case the color set in the Wireframe settings of the Colors tab in the Preferences Dialog is used.
Use Marker Color: Each object's marker color (set in the Browser) is also used for its wireframe, in all editing modes.

Window Open Buttons

ShadeExplorer: Opens or closes the ShadeExplorer window. For details see ShadeExplorer.
3D Printing Assistant: Opens or closes the 3D Printing Assistant. For details see 3D Printing Assistant.
Template Settings: Opens or closes the Template Settings Window. For details see Template Settings Window.
Numeric Input: Opens or closes the Numeric Dialog. For details see Numeric Input Dialog.

Sketch/Photo Modeling Buttons

Sketch Modeling: Opens or closes the Sketch Modeling Window. For details see Sketch Modeling.
Photo Modeling: Opens or closes the Photo Modeling Window. For details see Photo Modeling.

Other Figure Window Settings

From left: Snap to Grid, Object Guide, Large Cursor, Large Point, Multi-Handle, Particle Preview, and Stereo Vision.

Snap to Grid: Snaps the 3D cursor to the grid and in-between the grid at 1/2 width.
Note Snap to Grid and Object Guide cannot be used at the same time.
Object Snap: When creating or manipulating objects, snaps the 3D cursor to object points, edges, and the center of bounding boxes. For details see Object Snap.
Note Snap to Grid and Object Snap cannot be used at the same time.
Large Cursor: Extends the crosshairs of the 3D cursor to fill each viewport.
Large Point: Control points are displayed larger.
Multi-Handle: In Modify Mode, when multiple control points are selected, their tangent handles can be edited simultaneously.
Particle Preview: Enables a real-time preview of Particle Physics (Shade3D Standard and Professional).

Stereo Vision

Click to select the type of Stereo Vision used in the Figure Window: None, Anaglyph, Nvidia 3D Vision, Polarized 3D Display, or Polarized 3D Display (Reversed).
Nvidia 3D Vision makes it possible to display Stereo Vision in full color but requires a compatible display.

See also Polarized 3D Display

Status Bar

Select View > Status Bar to toggle the display of the Status Bar.

3D Coordinates

The current X, Y, and Z coordinate values of the 3D cursor are displayed.

Distance

Depending on whether Absolute or Relative is selected from the Relative pop-up menu, the distance in a straight line to the 3D cursor from the origin or from the last-clicked position is displayed.

Relative Pop-up Menu

Switches between measuring the distance to the 3D cursor from the origin (Absolute) or from the last-clicked position (Relative).

Relative: Measures the distance to the 3D cursor from the last-clicked position.
Absolute: Measures the distance to the 3D cursor from the origin.

Dot

The distance between adjacent dots on the monitor. A dot is the minimum unit of distance the mouse pointer can move. If the Figure Window units are set to "mm", a Dot value of 10 indicates that the dot distance is 10 mm. This means that the mouse pointer can move in units of 10 mm.

Grid

The distance represented by a single grid cell in the Figure Window.

Units Pop-up Menu

Specifies the units used in the Figure Window. Choose between mm, cm, m, km, inch, foot, yard and mile.