Changing Interface Options

Lets you view and change interface options.

Interface Options

Icon Mode

Click one of these radio buttons to customize the display of your icons. This option is automatically saved when you exit Alias.

Palette/Shelves

Click the entry next to this heading to use a pop-up menu containing the following items.

MOVABLE

The palette and any shelves can be moved freely.

<SHIFT> MOVABLE

The palette and any shelves can be moved freely only if you hold down the Shift key while dragging the item.

LOCKED

The palette and any shelves cannot be moved. They are locked into the fixed position where they appear. You can move them only by selecting the other choices in this pop-up menu.

Editor Windows

Click the entry next to this heading to use a pop-up menu containing the following items.

MOVABLE

The option and editor windows can be moved freely.

<SHIFT> MOVABLE

The option and editor windows can be moved freely only if you hold down the Shift key while dragging the window.

LOCKED

The option and editor windows cannot be moved. They are locked in the fixed position where they appear. You can move them only by selecting the other choices in this pop-up menu.

Show Icon Labels

This toggle is off by default. Click to toggle the text labels of your icons on or off. This option is automatically saved when you exit Alias.

Plugin Labels

This toggle is off by default. When toggled on, plugin functions are marked by a plus sign (+ ) at the left of the name in the menu.

Hotkey Labels

Click to toggle hotkey labels on or off in the menus.

Title Bar Info

Click to toggle off the units and grid size information on the top of your active modeling window.

Stage Selector

Click to toggle off the Stages pull-down menu in your layers bar. Please note that the Stages pull-down menu appears on the layer bar only when there are two or more stages.

Set Selector

Click to toggle off the Sets pull-down menu in your layers bar. Please note that the Sets pull-down menu appears on the layer bar only when at least one set exists.

Pointing Device

See Using Alias with Digitizing Tablets on page 53 for information on using Screen and Digitizing modes.

Click to specify which pointing device is currently in use. To change devices, choose one of the two available selections-MOUSE or BITPAD.

Keyboard Entry

Specifies that the numbers you use for keyboard entry of Xform functions will be considered absolute (ABS) or relative (REL).

See Using Absolute and Relative Addressing Modes on page 12 for details.

ABS uses the origin for placement (0, 0, 0), and 0 degrees along the X, Y, and Z axes for rotation. REL uses the object's current placement and rotation.

Reuse Object Names

For information about changing object names, use the Information window. (See Getting Detailed Information on page 379.)

This specifies that an object name can be re-used if it has been freed up by deleting the object (TRUE) or not used again in the same file, even if there is currently no object with that name (FALSE).

Drag Mode

When ON (indicated by a check mark), an object will be continuously redrawn on screen while being moved.

When OFF, an object will have a red line drawn from the point where you press the mouse button down to the point where you release the mouse button, when being moved. The object is moved and redrawn when you release the mouse button.

Point of Interest Viewing

See Changing the Point of Interest on page 480.

Click to toggle ON or OFF the visibility of the Point of Interest Manipulator. The default is OFF .

Use Pick Chooser

Click to toggle the Pick Chooser ON and OFF. If this option is toggled ON (the default), a small box appears under the mouse when more than one object is picked by a mouse click. This box contains a list of all pickable items under the mouse and allows you to choose the one you want.

Arrow Size

Specifies the number of pixels applied to cursor movement (cursor step size) inside the modeling windows when using the keyboard arrow keys. The default value is 1. This means that if arrow keys are used, the cursor moves one pixel in the direction of the arrow key.

The available range for Arrow Size is from 0 to 256. To change the value, either move the slider or click in the field. Press the Esc key to clear the field, type a new value and press Enter. If a value greater than 256 or smaller than 0 is entered, the system defaults to 256 and 0 respectively.

Space mouse device

See the Stand-alone Utilities Guide for more information about the Space mouse.

The Space Mouse (Magellan) can be used to control your view or issue animation time slider commands. The space mouse is in tumble/dolly view mode by default.

Space Mouse Sensitivity sliders

There are separate sensitivity settings and controls for Time and View modes. Lower slider values make the device more sensitive and faster.

Acceleration threshold/Acceleration factor

In Time mode, you can adjust the Acceleration threshold and Acceleration factor which affects the fast forward or reverse playback feel.

The Acceleration threshold value determines how much time is needed during a twist of the cap to switch from single frame to fast playback mode.

The Acceleration factor value is used to adjust how fast the playback transitions into maximum playback.