Change View Orientation

When you change the orientation of one of the predefined template views, the selected view is displayed in a new dialog box. The adjacent tools enable you to reorient the model.

A set of six buttons enable you to rotate the view displayed in the adjacent graphic display area about the X, Y, or Z axis of an angle determined by Rotation step.

	Rotate about the X-axis
	Rotate about the Y-axis
	Rotate about the Z-axis

The other controls within this dialog box determine the basis for the reorientation of the view, as described below:

• Current — when selected, the changes you make to the view orientation are based on the current view displayed in the adjacent graphic preview area
  
  
• Default — when selected, you can choose one of the predefined views (such as Top, Front, or Right) in the adjacent drop-down list. The view you select is immediately displayed in the graphic preview area. You can then change the orientation of that view by using the view rotation buttons.
  
  
• Visual bookmark — when selected, you can choose one of the user defined Visual Bookmarks in the adjacent drop-down list. The model is oriented to the view as defined in the selected visual bookmark and is displayed in the graphic preview area.
  
  
• 2 Faces — when selected, you can specify a view based on two orthogonal faces to be selected. You are prompted to select the two plane faces. Before doing so, you can select from the two adjacent drop-down lists to specify the relationship between these two faces. For example, you can specify that the first face you select is the Top face and second face is the Front face. As soon as you select the two faces, the view is immediately reoriented within the preview area. You can then change the orientation of that view by using the view rotation buttons.

When you insert a custom two-dimension view of a 3D model into the current drawing using the Custom command or redefine the view using Redefine View from the context menu — the 2 Faces option is selected in the canvas it is possible to display the datum planes existing in the model and also to select them so as to define the view orientation.



Show datum planes

Enables you to choose whether the datum planes of the referenced model are to be displayed in the canvas or not. When the box is checked, the datum planes of the referenced model are displayed in the graphics area of the canvas. As to which datum planes will actually be displayed, this depends on the current value of the As in model check box. When the As in model check box is not selected, all existing datum planes, no matter whether visible or not, are displayed. When the As in model check box is selected, only datum planes not hidden in the model are displayed. When the box is cleared, datum planes are not displayed.

As in model

If the Show datum planes box is not selected, this check box is grayed out. It enables you to choose which datum planes are to be displayed in the canvas. When the check box is selected, only datum planes that are not hidden in the model are displayed. When not selected, all datum planes existing in the model, no matter whether visible or hidden, are displayed.

Note
The view orientation option will be stored and reused for the creation of new custom views — and also for the following program sessions —, unless you explicitly change it. If the view definition was performed using a visual bookmark and no visual bookmark is available in the model, the orientation will be reset to Current.

When you have finished reorienting the view, click OK to return to the Layout Configuration dialog box. The graphic preview area immediately updates to reflect the new orientation of the view.

Other tools available from the shortcut menu

When you right click within the graphic preview area, the program displays a shortcut menu which provides several additional tools.

• Pan/Zoom/Rotate — lets you pan, zoom, or rotate the view by using standard think3 functions:
  • Pan — drag with the left-hand mouse button
  • Zoom — Shift+drag with either the left-hand or right-hand mouse button. Mouse wheel:
    • Rotate towards yourself to enlarge the image (zoom in)
    • Rotate away form yourself to reduce the image (zoom out).
  • Rotate — drag with the right-hand mouse button
• Previous — restores the previous view
• Next — restores the next view (available only if you have already restored a previous view)
• Fit — zooms the view so that it fills the preview area
• Zoom Window — lets you zoom in to a rectangular windowed area
• Pan — lets you pan the view by specifying a base position and a new position