Regardless of the selected workbench, this toolbar will be displayed at the bottom of the 3D area. This toolbar contains several functions that controls the behavior and appearance of the 3D area, as well as several tools for navigation and selection. It provides the user with different functions to set the view of the 3D are, as described below starting from left to right.
Select Object ( Pick Mode)
When starting SimLab Composer the default picking mode is enabled. Picking returns two values; a location and a normal direction. The user can change the picking mode to the following:
The picking modes in SimLab Composer are:
1. Default Pick: in this mode the user picks a point in the model. The location and the normal direction at that point are returned. The geometry at the picked location will be selected in the Object Tree, and its bounding box will be displayed in the 3D area.
2. Pick Edge End Point: this picking mode will highlight the edge closest to the selected point, and the returned normal will be tangent of the curve at the closest end.
3. Pick Edge Loop: this picking mode is useful for selecting the center of a loop.
4. Pick Center Of Curvature: with this picking mode picking a curve will highlight the curve, and will display its center normal .
Window Configuration
This button allows the user to select the number of views, in the 3D area. The user can select to have:
Views can also be displayed by pulling the right and bottom edges of the 3D area.
View Mode
The default view mode in SimLab Composer is the Solid View. It displays models in solid view with edges hidden. The user can select one of the following view modes in SimLab Composer.
Button
Effect
Shortcut
X Ray View
Alt + 1
Edge Only View
Alt + 2
Solid Illustration View
Alt + 3
Solid View
Alt + 4
Real Time
F4
1. XRay View; gives a x-ray effect to the models in the scene.
2. Edges Only View; displays only the edges of the models, in the scene.
3. Solid Illustration View; displays models in solid view, with their edges illustrated.
4. Solid View; displays models in shaded solid view.
5. Real Time; starts real time rendering for the 3D models in the scene
Default View Behavior
This function sets SimLab Composer to default behavior in, which is described in the following table.
Navigation
Mouse Button
Pan
Middle mouse button
Rotate
Left mouse button
Zoom
Right mouse button
Rubber band
This function can change the selection mode in the 3D area and it has three options:
Rubber Band Selection: Changes the selection icon to a square band, and allows the user to window select more than one geometry in the 3D area.
Append To Current Selection: The selection icon will show a ‘+’ sign inside the square band. The user can window select more geometry in a different section of the 3D scene, without losing the previous selection.
Remove from Current Selection: With a ‘-‘ sign added to the band, the user can remove geometry form selection, without losing previous selections.
Camera Pan
This function changes the behavior of the left mouse button, to Pan.
Camera Zoom
This function changes the behavior of the left mouse button, to Zoom.
Fit all
This function automatically updates camera to fit all geometry in the scene within the active view area.
Zoom to Object
This function updates the camera in the active viewport, to zoom to the selected object. In case the user presses the button without selecting an object, a message will be displayed on top of the Common Toolbar asking him to do so.
Switch Between Parallel and Perspective View
This function switches the camera between perspective and parallel modes, in the active viewport. For engineers who are used to parallel mode, this option would be helpful.
Capture View image
This function allow user to capture image from the scene.
