3D Viewer - Tools Tab

The Tools tab contains various generic tools that you will use during your use of the 3D viewer. The tools tab is split into subsections described below.

Tools

• Local Orbit:

  When you select the Local Orbit button, a diamond-shaped green object is drawn on the screen as shown above.  If you start a view drag by clicking into either of the left or right small diamonds, the view will only rotate about its vertical axis.  If you start a view drag by clicking either of the top or bottom small diamonds, the view will only rotate about its horizontal axis.  If you start a view drag by clicking outside of all the diamonds, the view will only rotate about its perpendicular axis.  If you click inside the large diamond, but not inside any of the smaller ones, the normal method of changing the view is used.  To turn this option off, select the Local Orbit button again.

• Global Orbit:

  Allows you to rotate the current view around the three axes of the centre of vision.

  When you select the Global Orbit button, a spherical object of three coloured circles is drawn on the screen as shown to the right.  The three circles represent lines of rotation about the centre of vision axis of the same colour.  If you start a view drag by clicking on any of the three circles, the view can only be changed by rotation about the axis of the same colour.  If you do not start a view drag by clicking a circle, the normal method of changing the view is used.  To turn this option off, select the Global Orbit button again.

• Set Centre: Used to reset the centre of rotation, select the tool then click on your desired centre point, this will lock to Points, Lines, DTM's & Point Clouds. This is also triggered by pressing and holding the CTRL key at any time.

• Screenshot: Creates and saves a screenshot of just the output view of the 3D viewer, allows upscaling to create larger detail images for printing. Automatic will use the current resolution of the display, un-tick and you will be able to enter any value for the resolution. Warning; we do NOT limit this, if you choose numbers too large for the available memory on your system this may cause n4ce to close.
  

• Snap to Face: Aligns view perpendicular to the face of a DTM triangle that you select.
• Export Geo-Image: Exports a single georeferenced orthographic image of the contents of the 3D viewer. The image is fixed to top-down and a world file is created to allow geo-referencing of the image in n4ce or other packages. Using the dropdown you can select from 4k, 8k resolutions and with or without shadows (shadows as rendered by the current lighting settings)
• Export User Defined or Tiled Geo-Images: Using the tool above creates a fixed resolution file. But even at 8k, large models will appear pixelated when zooming in close. 
  
  
  
  This option can generate either a single massive image or a series of hires tiled images, to overcome the pixelation issues when zooming in close to the data to digitise.
  
  • Resolution: Sets the size of the image(s) to generate.  When "Custom" is selected the Width and Height of the image can be set to any values.
  • View: Defines from which view the images should be exported.  
  • Image Width/Height: Reports or when the "Custom" resolution is selected, allows user-definable image sizes to be specified.
  • Show Shadows: When generating images which include a DTM, or an Object loaded from a source file, specify whether to render shadows or not.
  • Enable Tiling: Allows a series of images, usually 4k or 8k to be rendered to cover a much larger area which would otherwise require a single gigantic image.
  • CM/Pixel: Controls the detail level of the tiled images, and therefore the number of images that will be required. The smaller the value the more pixels will be required, and hence the number of images. 
  • Image Count: Updates to display the number of images that will be generated with the current settings.
  • Save: Starts the save procedure by prompting for the name and location of the first file to be saved.  The first tile will be appended _0 and so on.

• Select Point: Allows the users to query a position in the 3D viewer and displays it's coordinated in the tools results window that appears on the right of the 3d view.
• Query Point: Use this tool to query a single survey point within the 3D view, this will display the standard query point dialog used in the rest of n4ce.
• Query Shape: Use this tool to query a shape within the 3D view, this will display the standard query shape dialog used in the rest of n4ce.
• Query Symbol: Use this tool to query a symbol within the 3D view, this will display the standard query symbol dialog used in the rest of n4ce.
• Query Feature: Use this tool to query a feature line within the 3D view, this will display the standard query feature dialog used in the rest of n4ce.
• Load File: Allows 3d objects to be  imported into the scene. Currently, OBJ & 3ds files are the only format supported.  Any necessary materials and texture files must also be in the same folder as the object if they are to load correctly.

Distance

• Measure Distance:
  • Direct: Measure distance between any two points
  • Horizontal: Horizontal distance between two points
  • Vertical: Vertical distance between two points.
• Keep Measurements: With this activated any measurements taken will be saved and displayed on the screen.
• Show Measurements: Hide or show the saved measurements.
• Clear Measurements: Clear all saved measurements.
• Distance: Show's distance of current measurement, this is also displayed live on the 3D viewer.

 Snapping

• Grid Snap: Snapping occurs in the current grid section.
• Angle Snap: This allows you to switch on and off "Angle Degrees".
• Angle Degrees: Allows you to change the angle of which angle snapping occurs.

Hotkeys

• Show Hotkeys: This tool allows you to view all Hotkeys that are available within n4ce.