User Interface Notes

Existing Limitations

Limitation

Track/Dolly can get really sluggish when working with a model for a long time.

Workaround

This problem is usually caused by an incorrect perspective gain value in the camera definition. This can be resolved a number of ways:

In the tool palette, choose Cameras > Look at. By default, it calculates a perspective gain value based on the distance between the resulting eye position and the centroid of the selected geometry, or the entire model if there is no selection.

The user may enter a perspective gain value in the Camera Editor. Very rough examples of reasonable values would be: 1.0 where the default primitive is visible, and 30 for objects 100 times that size. You can find reasonable gain values for extremly large views without the use of Lookat through experimentation.

If you define a point of interest on your object, track and dolly operations will not use the gain defined for the camera but will calculate the gain value interactively as you move the camera. This results in a better overall beheavior.

Limitation

Some special characters do not work as hotkeys.

For example, the following characters when used with the Ctrl key do not work correctly: /, ", |, }, {, +

Limitation

If you click very fast in the tool palette, it may appear as though the mouse is being held down when it isn't (so that menus are being constantly selected).

Workaround

Clicking in the title bar of a non-Alias window (such as a Console or Shell window) should solve this problem.

Limitation

When entering text in the hotkey editor, you should click in the left or middle of the text field to position the text cursor. Clicking on the right side of the field may not accept the text.

You may want to cut and paste text/values. To cut and paste a value from one editable field to another:

1: Select the text from the first field using the left mouse button to drag, or double-click.

2: Click once in the field you want to paste to and press the Esc key to clear the field.

3: Use the middle mouse button to paste in the text and press Enter .

Tip:

If you assign a Shift + letter combination for a hot key, you may encounter problems. For example, if you assign the combination Shift + L as a hot key for locator toggling, problems may arise when you try to pick an assigned layer by its default name. (The default name for all layers starts with an uppercase L.) Instead of picking a layer, you will toggle locators on or off.

Limitation

Changes to using micro-sliders to change number values.

The micro-sliders that were available for number fields by dragging on the field are still available but now you must hold down the ALT key to use them. In accordance with standard text-editing behavior, dragging on the text field now selects the text (or number) in that field.

Limitation

For Delete > Del active.

When using the Delete key to perform Delete > Del active, if you press the Backspace key first by mistake, pressing the Delete key will not work.

Workaround

Click anywhere with the mouse then press the Delete key again.

Limitation

When using alternative fonts.

If you use an alternative setting for the Xresource 4DWm*client*fontList: and you have specified a font that is not available on a particular machine, then you may experience problems with window sizing and position. For example if you use the Palette/Shelves Layout tool, it may place the window off the screen.

Workaround

Ensure that the font that you have specified is available on the machine you are using.

Limitation

For maximizing the size of the Alias window.

If you prefer to use Alias with the X window title bar off the screen so that only the Alias menu bar is visible, you may have noticed that you cannot then resize the Alias window to reach to the bottom of the screen.

Workaround

You may want to set a preference to turn off the window borders on the Alias window only. To do this, set the following preference in your .Xresources file:



*Alias*clientDecoration: none

You must log out and log back in for this change to take effect.

Limitation

Pressing the Alt key does not open the color editor.

Pressing the Alt key while in the background region of a shader icon should display the color editor for the background, but it does not.

Workaround

Press the Alt and Shift keys.

Limitation

Windows disappear on a high resolution system (example: the Onyx) if the Palette layout is changed.

If working on an Onyx running at more than 1280x1024 (like HDTV, or the 16xxX1024 mode) and you change the Palette layout (Preferences > Palette/Shelves layout), the Palette and Shelf are laid out correctly, but the main window disappears. It could be that there is an error in reading the title bar default font size for .4DWm.

Workaround

Exit before reading other Xvars. Those vars include the border and title bar size. This font is set correctly in the default .Xresource.

Limitation

User color settings get confused between the background and grid colors.

If you use the predefined colors in the user color settings and make the grid color the same as the modelling window background color, any subsequent modifications of the grid color will be reflected in the background color as well.

Notes on Plug-ins and the Shelf

Auto loading plug-ins and placing them on the shelf

If you are placing plug-in icons onto the Shelf, you must manually reload the $ALIAS_LOCATION/shelves.scm file every time you run Alias.

If you don't reload the Shelf, the plug-in icons will start disappearing from the Shelf each time you run Alias.

Alias and non-X events

Alias cannot correctly handle timer, signal or alternative input events. If a plug-in adds an event handler using XtAppAddInput, XtAppAddTimeout, or XtAppAddSignal, Alias will freeze until the next X event is received.

This causes an animation or quick render to stop until Alias receives a focus or mouse movement message.

Please send questions or comments regarding the documentation to:

[email protected]