3D Display

The 3D Display is where you can interact with the graphical representation of your organism. Depending on the settings of the Command Bar where you click on the 3D Display will result in different actions. For instance, if the Command Bar is set to Add Bodies Mode and you click on an existing body in the 3D Display a new body will be added. There are a few actions that are independent of the Command Bar. These actions include: rotating the model, panning the view, and zooming. These actions are described in detail at the bottom of this page.

3D Display

This area is the largest area of the Body Editor Window. Here you can see, build, and manipulate your organism. Using the mouse you can interact with your organism in various ways, such as selecting body parts, rotating your organism, adjusting the size of body parts, rotating body parts, panning the view, and zooming in and out on body parts.

World Orientation

The world orientation lets you know which way your organism is facing (Such as looking down the z-axis). The world orientation aids in the placement of body parts by letting you know which way the positive x, positive y, and positive z-axes point. The world orientation coincides with the orientation of the root body. The root body always has a center located at (0,0,0) on the world coordinate system

For a description on World vs. Local coordinates click here (TODO: Add link to description page)

Actions You Can Perform On The 3D Display

These are actions that you can do with your mouse in the 3D Display

Rotate Organism
You can rotate the view of your organism by left clicking on any black space of the 3D Display and dragging your mouse. Once you begin dragging your mouse it does not matter if you drag over a body part, the organism will still rotate until you let go of the left mouse button.

Pan View
If you hold the shift key while left clicking and dragging on the 3D Display you will pan around. This allows you move your view so that you can see different areas of your organism.

Zoom
There are two ways to zoom. The first way is to hold down the control key while left clicking and dragging on the 3D Display. The second way is to use the scroll wheel on your mouse (if you have one). This allows you get zoom in or out of your organism.

Select A Body Part
If the Command Bar is in Select Bodies Mode you can select a rigid or functional body part by left clicking on the desired part. If the Command Bar is in Select Joints Mode you can select a joint by left clicking on the desired joint. Once a body part is selected that part will be surrounded by a white transparent bounding box. And a little square icon will appear at the center of the selected bounding box, this is called the center selection box.

Adjust The Size Of A Body Part
After a rigid body part has been selected you can adjust the size of that part by left clicking and dragging the various sides of white transparent bounding box. For example, if you want to change the radius of a cylinder you can click and drag the sides of the white transparent bounding box that covers the curved part of the cylinder and drag. This will cause the radius to change size. If you want to change the length of the cylinder you can click and drag the sides of the white transparent bounding box that cover the flat parts of the cylinder.

Rotate A Body Part
You can change the rotation of a selected body part by right clicking on the center selection box and dragging the mouse, this will result in a free rotation. You can constrain the rotation to a specific axis by holding down the corresponding key and right clicking and dragging.
If you hold the X key while right clicking and dragging you will rotate around the x-axis
If you hold the Y key while right clicking and dragging you will rotate around the y-axis
If you hold the Z key while right clicking and dragging you will rotate around the z-axis

Translating A Body Part
You can translate a body part relative to it's local coordinate system by left clicking on the center selection box and dragging the mouse, this will result in a translation about the local x and y-axis. As with rotation you can constrain the translation axis by holding down the corresponding key and left clicking an dragging.
If you hold the X key while left clicking and dragging you will translate along the x-axis
If you hold the Y key while left clicking and dragging you will translate along the y-axis
If you hold the Z key while left clicking and dragging you will translate along the z-axis
If you hold the S key while left clicking and dragging you will translate along the x and z-axes