Description

A control tool, the View Manipulator (VM), is provided by default in the upper right corner of the Display window which can be used to perform view manipulations other than zooming.

The View Manipulator tool can be seen by default in the upper right corner of the Display window.
The View Manipulator tool can be seen by default in the upper right corner of the Display window.

The default location for the VM is the upper right corner of the Display window. However, you can click in any non-control area of the tool to drag it to any location desired in the Display. This location will be stored automatically per user on a given workstation and used again for subsequent sessions. Use Reset Defaults at the bottom of the Edit, Preferences panel to restore the VM position and color (see below for color adjustment).

The View Manipulator tool provides capability to pan and rotate the view, and more.
The View Manipulator tool provides capability to pan and rotate the view, and more.

Click the left, right, up and down arrows to pan the view in those corresponding directions. Use the curved arrows at bottom left and right of the VM to rotate the view about the Z screen axis. (See the Keyboard and Mouse section for more on Fidelity Pointwise's reference axes.) The home icon to the upper right resets the view entirely and is equivalent to the View, Reset, View command (Ctrl+R).

 

Note: Keyboard shortcut equivalents to all of the VM controls are displayed as tooltip text when mousing over each control.

Clicking the gear tool provides a small menu of preferences for the VM.
Clicking the gear tool provides a small menu of preferences for the VM.

The gear icon to the upper left of the VM provides a pop-up menu of preference settings for the VM including:

  • Hide View Manipulator: Turns off the display of the VM altogether. Users who prefer using Keyboard and Mouse manipulations exclusively may wish to turn off the VM. The VM can be restored to the Display window via the View menu or the View toolbar.
  • Set Button Color: Provides the color chooser panel to customize the colors of the VM controls to your preference. Use Reset Defaults at the bottom of the Edit, Preferences panel to restore the VM color to original.
  • Auto Hide Buttons: When enabled all of the VM controls except the central cube will not be visible until the mouse hovers over the VM.
Click and drag the cube faces to rotate about the screen X and Y axes.
Click and drag the cube faces to rotate about the screen X and Y axes.

In addition to clicking the curved arrow controls for Z screen axis rotations, you can also click on the face of the cube and drag to rotate your view.

 

Tip: Using click and drag on the VM cube for rotations is subject to the Glide preference just as the standard Keyboard and Mouse view manipulations are. This setting can be changed in the Edit, Preferences panel.

Click on a face of the VM cube to go directly to that primary view.
Click on a face of the VM cube to go directly to that primary view.

The axis direction shown on the cube faces represent the direction the user is viewing into and are equivalent to using a primary view icon on the View toolbar. Clicking any visible cube face will directly align to that primary view, again, just as using the View toolbar icons. However, one subtle difference is that the View toolbar primary views reset the zoom level of the view. Clicking a VM cube face does not change the zoom level.

Click the highlight to the side of the VM cube to go directly to that primary view.
Click the highlight to the side of the VM cube to go directly to that primary view.

When currently in a primary axis view, hovering the mouse just outside of the VM cube will produce a "glow" or highlight to that side of the cube. Click the highlight to immediately switch to that primary view direction.

Demonstration