Using Marking Menus

Marking menus are radial menus that you can display near your mouse pointer. They are similar to hotkeys in that they provide a quick way to select frequently used commands. With practice, you can select functions up to ten times faster by using marking menus than by selecting items from a linear menu.

How Marking Menus Work

To display a marking menu:

1

Press and hold the Shift and Ctrl keys simultaneously.

2

Click and hold a mouse button anywhere in a window:

• The left mouse button displays pick tools.

• The middle mouse button displays transform tools.

• The right mouse button displays miscellaneous tools.

3

To select a tool, drag the mouse in its direction. As you drag, a "rubber band" line follows the cursor from the center of the menu. Release the mouse button when you have selected the tool you desire.

Tips:

• You can avoid selecting anything by returning to the center of the menu.

• As you drag, you do not have to be directly over a menu item for it to be highlighted. You only have to move the cursor in its general direction.

• See Editing Marking Menus on page 507 for details on setting up your own marking menus.

Notes:

• The marking menu contents are automatically saved in the HOME/.Alias/Prefs.2/shelves.scm file when you exit Alias.

• It is possible for a non-standard definition of X-window mouse operations to disable marking menus. The Shift-Ctrl-mouse click, which initiates the marking menus, is an X-windows feature used by Alias.

This feature is defined as a button operation, in the.4Dwmrc file, located in a user's $HOME directory. Alias loads a version of this file as one uses the Alias setupacct script to create or update a user account. If this file is not used, it is possible for the Shift-Ctrl-mouse click to be defined as some other X-windows operation. To correct this situation, the user, not root, should copy the default.4Dwmrc file from /usr/aw/alias/etc/acct/skel to $HOME.

For more information, see Release Notes and Installation.

Quick Picks

Selecting from a marking menu is much faster than selecting an item from a linear menu. It works exactly the same, except you make a quick flick with the mouse in the direction of the desired menu item. You don't even have to wait to see the marking menu to select an item.

The idea behind marking menus is that if you frequently use the commands in the menu, you will quickly memorize their positions. Once you have an item's position memorized, you can select it almost instantaneously with a short flick of a mark. Even if you forget the position of an item, you can quickly check it by displaying the marking menu.

For example, in the following, if you select CV the first time you display the marking menu, the next time you use the Shift-Ctrl keys, you just have to drag in the general direction of CV. You'll notice that rather than displaying the menu, an "ink trail" or "mark" is left behind the cursor.

The direction of the mark corresponds to the desired menu item. The "rubber band" line that appears when the menu is displayed represents the type of mark needed to select a particular item.

Example of Picking using the Marking Menu

In the above example, Pick > Template is selected. When you let go of the Shift-Ctrl key combination, you can click on the templated object to make it active.

Using Option Boxes and Control Windows

In some cases, a menu item includes a small box ()on the right, as shown in the diagram on the side. This box indicates that additional options are available for this particular function, and that an option box or control window will be displayed if you select the box.

To access the option box or control window associated with the menu item, drag the cursor to the right to select the and release the mouse button. The option box or control window is displayed.

A Quicker Way to Open an Option Box or Control Window

If you started by using the left mouse button, then decide you want to open the option box or control window, you can keep holding the left mouse button, hold the Shift key, then release the mouse button.

Also, if an icon contains a small box at the top left, this indicates that there is an associated option box or control window. Double-click one of these icons in either the shelf or the palette to open its associated option box or control window.

What's in an Option Box or Control Window?

Option boxes and control windows may contain radio buttons, popup menus, toggles, sliders, fields, and buttons that give you the flexibility to work in a variety of ways.

Title Bar

The title bar contains the name of the current function's options and a help icon (indicated by a small question mark) that lets you access the on-line documentation about the function.

Parameters

The left column in an option box or control window displays a set of headings indicating the parameter options that can be set. Any radio button that is highlighted beside the parameter heading indicates the current default option setting.

Radio buttons

You click a radio button to select an option. Depending on the option chosen, the option box or control window may expand to display additional parameters, or compress to just show the parameters available to the selected option.

Popup menus

Some option boxes contain menus, although you are more likely to see them in control windows. Click and hold the mouse to the right of the parameter heading to access the menu. From these menus, you can choose a variety of options.

Entering Values

In some cases, an option box or control window may also include one or more slider bars that you use to adjust parameter values. The current parameter value is always displayed in a value field at one end of the slider scale.

Typing numeric values

Cutting and pasting values

1

Select the value to cut (click and drag, or double-click).

2

Click the text cursor at the end of the field to place it.

3

Press the Esc key to clear the field.

4

Click the middle mouse button to paste the text.

5

Press Enter to complete the paste.

Using Special Keys

You can also use the following special keys when typing in Alias text entry fields:

Left arrow

moves backwards one character in the field.

Right arrow

moves forward one character in the field.

Up arrow

scrolls backwards through the last 25 lines of text entered.

Down arrow

scrolls forwards through the last 25 lines of text entered.

Home key

moves to the first character in the field.

End key

moves to the last character in the field.

Delete key

deletes the character (if any) to the right of the cursor position.

Backspace key

deletes the character (if any) to the left of the cursor position.

Dragging Slider Bars

• To display a mini-slider bar, press and hold the Alt key and click and drag just below the number field

Important! If you release the Alt key, the slider bar will disappear.

• To decrease the current value, click the button on the slider and drag left. To increase the current value, click the button on the slider and drag right.

Toggles

The toggles in option boxes and control windows are used to toggle specific functions on or off. See the information on the specific functions to find out what their toggles do.

Standard Option Box Buttons

Option boxes always contain at least two of four standard operations: Save, Exit, Reset, and Go. These buttons are located at the bottom of the option box.

Save

Click the Save button to save any changes made in the option box for subsequent selections of the menu without immediately executing the function. Typically, you might set parameter values in several option boxes at the start of a work session, using this Save option. This way, you can customize parameter defaults for a working session.

Exit

To leave the option box without applying or saving any changes that you have made, click the Exit button. Typically, you use Exit whenever you access an option box by mistake.

Reset

To return to the original system default values, click the Reset button.

Go

To execute the menu item according to the current settings and save them for subsequent selections, click the Go button.

How to Use Control Windows

A control window differs from an option box because it remains on the screen, so you can change option settings after the operation is performed.

See NURBS Modeling for a description of all the Swept options and parameters.

For example, when using Surfaces > Swept surfaces > Swept, the resulting surface depends on the options that were set to create the surface. The Swept Control window interaction provides you with a tool to quickly see how the various option settings affect the resulting surface without having to re-select anything.

Control Window Buttons

At the bottom of some Control windows is a Recalc button and a Next button. The Recalc button recalculates the surface you are building with a surface construction tool based on the parameters set in the Control window. The Next button disassociates the Control window from the surface just built. This lets you set the parameters for the next surface you build.

Menus in Control Windows

Click and hold the mouse to the right of the parameter heading to access menus in Control windows.

From these menus, you can choose a variety of options. Depending on the option chosen, the control window may expand to display additional parameters, or may compress to just show the parameters available to the selected option.

Using Modeling Windows

The Main Alias Window

The Alias system uses multiple viewing windows. By default, there are four modeling windows, each occupying a quarter of the screen. You can change the number of windows and their position, size, and shape, to customize your working environment to suit your needs.

When you are creating a scene, it is helpful to have the four standard application windows open to judge the relative position of items.

Moving Windows

To move a modeling window, place the cursor anywhere in the title bar at the top of the window, being careful not to select any of the icons, then drag the window to its new location.

Resizing Windows

To change the size of a modeling window, move the cursor to one of the size boxes located in the four corners of any modeling window. Drag the size box, and a red outline showing the new window size follows your mouse movement. When the mouse button is released, the window is resized to the new dimensions.

Enlarging Windows

You may want to enlarge one window to examine its view in greater detail. To enlarge any modeling window to full screen size, click directly on the Full/Half Resize icon in the upper right corner of the title bar. To return the window to its previous size and location, click the enlarge box again.

Closing Windows

You may want to close some windows to shorten the time required to manipulate complex scenes. To remove a modeling window from the screen, click the Close box in the upper left corner of the title bar.

Hiding Windows Quickly

As you work, you may open so many windows that your model becomes obscured. Closing each window individually, then finding the menus to reopen each of the windows, can be tedious.

To close all windows except the orthographic and perspective views, the SBD, and some statistic windows, hold the Ctrl key and press the spacebar. To reopen them later, hold the Ctrl key and press the spacebar again.

Customizing Alias Modeling Windows

The appearance of borders is set in the interface:

1

Select Preferences > Interface > Palette/Shelves Layout - to display the control window.

2

Turn off the All windows options at the bottom of the window to see the individual settings.

3

Turn Studio titlebar and border on or off to display or hide the title bar or borders for the main Alias window.

See also Palette/Shelves Layout Options on page 505 for more details.

Modeling Window Control Icons

You can move, resize, enlarge, and close any modeling window using window control icons.

The icons on the title bar of any window let you perform certain operations without having to select an item from the menu bar. For example, you can manipulate the camera by tracking and dollying in or out without having to select the Cameras > World Move camera > Track or Dolly functions from the Cameras Tool Palette section.

Camera Picker

Selects the three DAG nodes (eye, view, up) above the camera currently used by the perspective window.

Camera Switcher

Selects which camera is to be used to view the world in the perspective window. See Using the Perspective Window Camera Switcher on page 46.

Magnify

Opens a new window containing a magnified view of the current modeling window. See Using the Magnify Icon on page 47.

Tumble

Tumbles the camera in the perspective window by varying the azimuth and elevation angles. See Using the Tumble, Dolly and Track Icons on page 49.

Dolly

Dollies in or out on the center of the window. See Using the Tumble, Dolly and Track Icons on page 49.

Track

Tracks vertically (up and down) or horizontally (left and right). See Using the Tumble, Dolly and Track Icons on page 49.

Linear Units

Active window displays the current linear units of the wire-file.

Angular units

Active window displays the current angular units of the wire-file.

Grid Mesh Size

Active window displays the current grid mesh size of the wire-file.

Window Aspect

Allows you to lock the image resolution of a modeling window to be proportional to a given resolution, as well as allowing you to change the resolution. See Using the Window Aspect icon on page 50.

Resize

Resizes a window to specific dimensions. See Using the Resize Stats Icon on page 51.

Using the Perspective Window Camera Switcher

An alternative to using Cameras > Previous is to use the camera switcher icon in the title bar of the perspective window.

When you click on the icon, a pull-down menu appears containing a list of all the perspective cameras that are available. The camera that the window is currently using is highlighted. If you select another camera from the list, the window's view changes so that it is now using the view of the selected camera.

The perspective window title bar shows the name of the camera the perspective window is currently using: Persp[Camera].

When the camera is switched, the title bar updates to display the name of the new camera being used.

Using the Magnify Icon

The Magnify icon provides a magnified view of an area within a window. This helps you do detailed work on an object while retaining the current window as is.

When you click the Magnify icon, the MagnifyView icon appears at the center of the current window surrounded by the MagnifyFrame, and a MagnifyWindow is displayed.

Position the MagnifyView icon within the parent window to a region that you want to magnify and the view changes in the Magnify window. The MagnifyFrame represents the subregion of the parent window displayed in the Magnify window.

Notes:

• When using the dolly icon or Cameras > World move camera > Dolly in a Magnify window, the effect is like a zoom rather than a dolly. By changing the field of view rather than the eye position, you can see a magnified view of an object while still being able to see all other objects from the parent window.

• Magnify windows always appear on top of the modeling windows, in the upper left corner of the screen.

• Magnify windows do not have a camera. Therefore, adding an image plane to a Magnify window actually adds the image plane to its parent window (File > Import >Image plane).

• To cancel the magnification view, click the magnify icon again or close the magnification view window by clicking its close icon, just as you do with any other modeling window.

Using the Tumble, Dolly and Track Icons

Select the appropriate icon and hold the mouse button down to retain the button's active status. As long as the icon remains active, any movement of the mouse manipulates the view according to the icon selected.

Each mouse button provides specific movement control:

Left

Allows free view manipulation along both horizontal and vertical axes.

Middle

Constrains view manipulation to the horizontal axis.

Right

Constrains view manipulation to the vertical axis.

Using the Window Aspect icon

The window aspect icon contains text that indicates the current image resolution to which the window is locked. By default, the window aspect icon is free , which means that the window can be resized freely in both horizontal and vertical directions.

If the window aspect icon indicates a specific resolution, for example, 645 X 486, the window can be resized to any multiple of this resolution, such as 323 X 243. To change the current image resolution ratio, click the window aspect icon to display a menu.

free

This is the default mode for a window. When selected, the window retains its current size, but can then be resized freely in both horizontal and vertical directions.

free:(default)

When selected, the window is resized to its default size. From then on it is considered free, and can be resized freely in both horizontal and vertical directions.

fixed(current)

This fixes the aspect ratio of the window to its current value without having to define a special render resolution in the Render Globals window (Render>Globals). To use this option, reconfigure the modeling window to the desired aspect ratio, then select fixed(current) from the Window Aspect menu. The window now maintains the aspect ratio you set.

(render res):m x n

The m x n resolution is taken from the X and Y Resolution specified in the Render > Globals window under Image File Output. The remaining options in the menu are the resolutions specified in the Render > Globals window under Predefined Resolutions.

Note : You can specify an arbitrary image resolution by changing the X and Y Resolution, or adding a new image resolution to the Render > Globals window.

Using the Resize Stats Icon

When you click the Resize Stats icon, the Window Info stats window is displayed.

This window shows the current window resolution and position in pixels. Both the position and size of the window can be changed by clicking on the appropriate parameter fields and typing new parameter values.

Positioning

These fields determine the origin of the image, where 0,0 is the lower left corner of the main Alias window.

Resolution

These fields determine the window dimensions in pixels.

Confirmation Boxes

• Click YES to confirm that you want to carry out the function, or click CANCEL to cancel the operation.

• Type the letter y for YES or the letter c for CANCEL (in either upper or lowercase) on the information line.

• Press the space bar to select the button with a double outline.

Using Alias with Digitizing Tablets

You can draw curves, point by point, in two dimensions from paper-based diagrams, photographs, or sketches placed on the surface of a digitizing tablet. The result is polyline or spline curves lying on a plane.

Interactive support for digitizing tablets uses two distinct modes of operation-Screen Mode and Digitizing Mode . Screen Mode is used when you are interacting with menus, windows, and so on, but switches temporarily to Digitizing Mode when you trace data from the tablet. Each mode maps a specific region on the tablet to screen or world coordinates.

Using Screen Mode

Screen Mode mimics the behavior of the mouse. If you use a tablet for drawing (without a paper original), geometry input can be done in Screen Mode without entering Digitizing Mode.

To switch from mouse to digitizer input, select Preferences > Interface > Interface options-, then choose either the MOUSE or BITPAD Pointing Dev option.

Tips

• You can also switch to digitizer input by selecting Curves > Curves > Setup digitizer, then Curves > Curves > Digitize.

• To switch between the mouse and a tablet, press the F1 key on the keyboard. Pressing F1 again switches you back to mouse input.

Using Digitizing Mode

When in digitizing mode, you look at the tablet, not the screen, and can use the entire drawing surface of the tablet without inadvertently selecting menu buttons or window controls.

When you enter digitizing mode, the cursor is turned off and all tablet input is used for point drawing until you press the Enter key on the keyboard, which causes the system to revert to regular Screen Mode. If you have not set up a mapping from tablet coordinates to world coordinates, then the full range of the tablet maps into the initial size of the selected orthographic modeling window.

Points and curves in Digitizing Mode are drawn in the current window. If the current window is a perspective view, the following error message is displayed:

Cannot digitize in Perspective window

To exit the digitize function and switch back to mouse input, press F1 while in digitizing mode.

General

Ctrl-<SPACEBAR> will temporarily close all control windows for items in the Multi-lister, as well as the Multi-lister itself. Press Ctrl-<SPACEBAR> again to toggle the control windows open.

For more information, see Windows > Multi-lister in Rendering in Alias.

For the multi-lister

To open the control window for an item in the multi-lister:

Double-click on the item in the Multi-lister to open the control window for that item (this is the same as invoking Edit > Edit in the Multi-lister ).

To open the color control window:

To open the color control window of an item in the Multi-lister, hold the Alt key and click on the item in the Multi-lister . The color control window is opened and you can edit the color of your item.

• To edit the color of the shader ball, Alt-click on the shader ball.

• To edit the incandescent color of the shader ball, Alt-click on the shader ball where it is in shadow.

• To edit the background color of the shader ball display, Alt-click on the background of the shader ball.

To select items in the multi-lister

When you have opened the control window of an item in the Multi-lister, you can open the control window of the next (or previous) item in the Multi-lister by clicking the left (or right) arrow button in the title bar of the control window. This de-selects the current item in the Multi-lister and selects the next (or previous) item.

Selecting multiple items in the Multi-lister

You can select multiple items in the Multi-lister by holding the Shift key and selecting other items besides the currently selected one. The primary selected item in the lister has a white border around its name, while the secondary selected item(s) have a gray border around their name. The primary selected item is currently editable in the editor. Multiple selection in the Multi-lister is useful for performing operations such as Delete, Copy, or Save as on multiple items at the same time.

Selecting and deselecting item parameters

To select and deselect the parameters of Multi-lister items, Shift-click on the parameter names in the associated editor. For example, select a primary shader in the lister, then use the Shift key to select secondary shaders in the lister. In the shader editor, select the color parameter by holding down the Shift key and clicking on Color. In the Multi-lister, select Edit > Copy parameters. The color of the primary selected shader is copied to the color of all the secondary selected shaders in the multi-lister. Note that Edit > Copy parameters will also copy any animation that is on the selected parameters.

Keeping the texture menu open

Normally, when you select a texture map for a shader or another texture in the texture editor, the newly created texture map becomes selected in the lister and the texture menu closes. If you hold down the Shift key before selecting the texture, the texture menu stays open, and the current shader or texture onto which you are placing the texture map remains selected. This enables you to choose another texture map if you're not satisfied with your first choice.

Defining the size of a specular highlight

If you have a Lambert shader, you can click on the shader ball and drag your mouse to define a specular highlight. This automatically changes your shader to a Blinn shader. If you have a Blinn or Phong shader, you can click and drag on the specular highlight to define its size.

Playing back an animation

If an item in the Multi-lister is animated, it has a slanted box in the bottom left corner of the item. If you click on this parallelogram with the left mouse button, the animation is played on the shader, texture, environment, or light item. To play back the animation in reverse, click down on the parallelogram with the middle or right mouse button.

For the File Browser

Changing the path or filename

When you invoke File > Save or File > Open, or any other operation that opens the file lister, a default path and/or filename is often displayed. If you want to change the path or filename, click in the prompt area and press the Esc key. This clears the field of whatever name was there before, and you can type a completely new name without using the backspace to clear the old name.

The File Browser now supports expansion of environment variables. The variable will be expanded if you type "/ " or press Enter.

The File Browser also supports a form of File completion in its prompt line. If you have a partial path typed in and you can't quite remember the spelling, you can press the Tab key and the system will expand the string to the first match it finds in the directory. Press the Tab key again to cue the system to select the next match.

For Fast Render

Changing from a positional to a velocity control

For more information on Render > Fast render, see Rendering in Alias.

In the fast render window, if you hold the Shift key before using any of the viewing icons, control is changed from a positional to a velocity control.

For Improving Drawing Speed

If you have a very large scene, Alias may seem slow to respond. Large scenes take longer to redraw, and the more things there are to draw, the slower each interaction will be. Here are some tips for reducing the amount of time it takes to redraw the Alias window.

• Close as many modeling windows (orthographic and perspective) as possible, or make one window full screen. The less windows there are to redraw, the faster the window will be redrawn.

• Close as many non-modeling windows as possible. These windows use system resources to communicate with Alias, and can cause the graphics to slow down if they are open.

• Use ObjectDisplay > Invisible to hide objects you are not currently working on. Use Tgl quick wire to draw geometry if the CV positions will not be modified, or ObjectDisplay > Bounding box to get an approximation of your object.

• Use DisplayTgls > Model and display just the hull of your objects. Drawing the hull of an object is much faster than drawing the actual object.

• Use Object Edit > Patch precision to reduce the number of segments that are drawn in each patch of your surface.

• Use Preferences > Performance options to fine-tune the drawing degradation as well as changing drawing degradation during motion (for example, while using Xform , Camera tools, or Playback ).