WMS:Static Tool Palette

Static tools

The tools available in every module are located in the Static Tool Palette. These tools are used for basic operations such as panning, zooming, and rotating. The static tools are as follows:

Pan Tool

The Pan tool is used to pan the viewing area of the Graphics Window. When the Pan tool is active, clicking the mouse in the Graphics Window has the following results:

If a point is clicked, the viewing area is shifted so that the point clicked corresponds to the center of the window.

If the cursor is dragged while holding the mouse button down, the viewing area is shifted to simulate moving the image the direction and distance specified by the line defined while dragging the cursor. The image isn't updated until the mouse button is released.

• Mouse Click – by clicking on a location on the screen the entire display will be panned so that the point clicked on is in the center of the graphics window.
• Mouse Drag – while clicking and holding the mouse cursor down, drag the point clicked on to any other location in the graphics window.

Zoom Tool

The viewing area can be magnified/shrunk using the Zoom tool. When this tool is active, the following actions can be used to redefine the viewing area of the Graphics Window:

A rectangle can be dragged around a portion of the display to zoom in on a particular region. The display is refreshed and the area inside the rectangle is expanded to fill the entire screen.

If a point is clicked, the display is zoomed in around the point by a factor of two.

If a point is clicked while the SHIFT key is held down, the display is zoomed out about that point by a factor of two.

• Zooming In – To zoom in select the zoom tool and click on the part of the model to zoom in about, or drag a rectangle around the area to be fitted to the graphics window.
• Zooming Out – To zoom out select the zoom tool and hold down the SHIFT key (notice that the plus sign File:WMSimage340.png inside of the zoom tool changes to a minus sign File:WMSImage341.png while moving the cursor). To zoom out, click on a point in the graphics window. WMS will zoom out with the point the user clicked on at the center of the screen.
• Framing – Sometimes a user wants to change the zoom so that everything just fits within the graphics window. This can be done at any time by selecting Display | Frame Image, or by selecting the Frame macro .
• Previous View – After zooming in/out it is sometimes useful to return the previous view. This can be done by selecting Display | View | Previous View, or by selecting the Previous View tool .

Rotate Tool

The Rotate tool provides a quick way to rotate the image on-screen about the x and z axes. Two rotation methods are available:

Single Update – Holding down the mouse button and dragging the cursor in the Graphics Window rotates the object in the direction specified in dynamically A horizontal movement rotates the image about the z axis. A vertical movement rotates the image about the x axis. The amount of rotation depends on the length the cursor moves while the mouse button is down.

Continuous Update – Holding down both the CTRL key and the mouse button while dragging the cursor in the Graphics Window creates an arrow vector indicating the direction and magnitude of rotation. This is useful because the image is not updated until after the mouse button is released.

View Previous Tool

View Previous – redraw everything in the graphics window. Selecting the View | Previous View command of the Display, or the View Previous tool, restores the Graphics Window viewing parameters to those in place before the last viewing command was issued: rotate, zoom, pan, etc.).

Related Topics

• Tool Palette
• Dynamic Tool Palette
• Macros