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This chapter describes all parts of the SOFTIMAGE 3D interface, often called the display.
The SOFTIMAGE 3D display is where you work. The software display includes the windows, a server bar at the top, two menu bars on the left and right sides containing menu cells, a wireframe colour box, a status bar made of three parts, and a playback control box.
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The server bar is located above the four windows. The left side of the server bar shows the SOFTIMAGE 3D name and the right side shows the module names: Model, Motion, Actor, Matter, and Tools.
When a module is in use, its name is highlighted and the server bar is coloured accordingly: violet for Model, green for Motion, salmon for Actor, blue for Matter, and gold for Tools.
| violet for Model, | ||
| green for Motion, | ||
| salmon for Actor, | ||
| blue for Matter, and | ||
| gold for Tools. |
When you want to move from one module to another, use any mouse button to select its name in the server bar.
You can also use Supra keys to change modules:
The Supra keys give you quick access to menu cells of other modules that are useful for your current task. For example, you could quickly go to Model to use the Edit menu cell while you are doing shape animation, then go back to Motion to save a keyframe.
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The menu bars contain menu cells and are located on either side of the display windows. Many of the menu cells are common to several modules, and are available when those modules are in use. Menu cells particular to a certain module appear only when that module is selected. When you move from one module to another, you will see that the menu cells in the menu bars change.
Menu cells let you perform the different software operations. The software display has approximately 88 menu cells altogether.
The top half of each menu bar contains menu cells that are shared, or common, to the Model, Motion, Actor, and Matter modules (the Tools module is a special module that lets you perform different types of tasks than you perform in the other four modules). The shared menu cells include general operations related to getting, saving, and manipulating objects, lights, and the camera, as well as choosing picture format, lens specifications, and so on.
The Model module menu cells are related to modelling activities such as drawing, revolving, extruding, editing, and establishing relations between objects in a hierarchy.
The Motion module menu cells are related to animation tasks such as creating and editing paths and keyframes for various parameters of objects, lights, the camera, etc. using various methods.
The Actor module menu cells allow you to create and animate models using inverse kinematics and flexible envelopes, and to create dynamic simulations or add Quick Stretch interactive deformations.
The Matter module menu cells allow you to perform all the tasks related to material definition, such as choosing shading models, defining colour, reflection, transparency, 2D textures, 3D textures, and shaders, as well as previewing and rendering.
The Tools module menu cells relate to tasks more peripheral to the creative process such as compositing frames, creating a flipbook, or importing/exporting images and objects to various devices such as film recorders, or to other file formats.
Most menu cells include
commands. When you open one of these cells, a menu is displayed listing the available
commands associated with the menu cell and its operation.
A green bar highlighting the command indicates the default command or the command that was used last.
There are three types of menu cell commands: action, mode, and toggles.
When you choose an action menu cell or command, its operation begins immediately (such as the Cut menu cell) or it opens a dialogue box in which you can enter information. For example, the Render menu cell immediately opens a dialogue box in which you specify information about rendering.
Commands that have three dots (ellipses) after their name indicate that a dialogue box is displayed when you choose this command.
For more information on dialogue boxes, see Dialogue Boxes.
When you select a mode menu cell, SOFTIMAGE 3D enters into a particular action mode and remains there until you exit from that mode (usually by pressing the Esc key, by right-clicking, or by activating another mode). For example, the Draw->Bezier command puts you in "draw" mode.
When a mode command is active, a "Mode:" message is displayed in the status bar.
When you're in a mode, you pick objects. This is similar to selecting except that you can click on an object without using the space bar. Other examples include the transformation menu cells Rotate, Scale, and Translate. If you select a Scale menu cell, and then select a Rotate menu cell, the scaling mode is deactivated because scaling and rotation cannot take place at the same time.
All text boxes
that accept numerical values allow keyboard input as well as the use of mathematical
operations.
A hollow circle or a circle with an x beside the name of the command indicates that it is a "toggle" that can be activated or deactivated. A circle with an "x" indicates that the command is activated. Some commands are activated by default. Choosing the command reverses its current state.
Every menu cell has a memory: you can choose the command that was used the last time the cell was selected by middle-clicking the menu cell. The menu command (and its subcommand, if appropriate) is not displayed, but the command is executed.
This memory feature also applies when you change modules. Each module has a memory for each of its menu cells regardless if it is a menu cell that is available in more than one module.
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The wireframe colour box, located in the lower-left corner of the display, allows you to colour wireframe objects. It is used primarily to help identify objects by colour coding and does not affect the colour of the rendered object.
You can change
the wireframe colours of objects any time.
By default, the wireframe colour box is not activated and appears dimmed.
Activate the colour box by clicking the grey bar on its left side and click the desired colour. Apply the colour:
Deactivate the wireframe colour box by clicking its left bar or any menu cell.
Note:
Wireframe colour is not considered to be an attribute of objects so it is saved in scene files rather than in model files.
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Note:
Real time playback is achieved by setting the frame step to zero in the PlayControl menu cell. However, with a complex scene, frames may be skipped to maintain real time. For more information, see PlayControl and Fast Play Back.
S text box: Sets the starting frame number. Click in the box to insert a number. Middle or right-click to replace the starting frame number.
E text box: Sets the end frame number. Click in the box to insert a frame number. Middle or right-click to replace the end frame number.
L: Loops the playback. Click "L" to activate it and then click either the backward or forward arrow. By middle-clicking the playback arrows, you can play the animation from the current frame and then loop it from the start frame to the end frame (or end frame to start frame if played backward). By right-clicking the playback arrows, you can play back your animation in a "flip-flop" manner which alternates between forward and backward.
F: Plays the animation one frame at a time. Click "F" to activate it and click either the backward or forward arrow. The next frame displayed depends on the frame step setting in the PlayControl menu cell. To deactivate it, click "F" again.
K: Plays the animation one keyframe at a time. Click "K" to activate it and click either the backward or forward arrow. The current frame moves to the next/previous keyframe for the selected object(s).
Note:
When the Fcurve window is open, it moves through the keyframes for the selected function curves only.
In the DopeSheet window, only the frames within the white selection box can be played using the playback box. The playback start and end frames correspond to the start and frames of that operation zone. In addition, you can choose to play back animation of specific objects, or specific types of animation applied to an object (such as only rotation) by activating only those tracks in the DopeSheet window. For more information on the DopeSheet, see DopeSheet Window.
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The status bar is located at the bottom of the display. It contains the time line, mouse line, status line, and the Manipulation and Transformation Mode options.
The top line in the status bar is the time line. Its width represents the length of an animation sequence. The triangular pointer (time line pointer) can be moved back and forth along the time line causing the software to display the animated sequence in the windows.
To move the pointer, either click anywhere along the time line to move it to that position, or drag the pointer with the mouse. Dragging the pointer while holding down the left mouse button updates the sequence frame by frame.
Dragging the pointer while holding down the right mouse button lets you move to a different frame without updating the scene (the currently displayed frame remains in the windows). This is especially useful if you want to quickly copy a keyframe to another part of the animation sequence. To do this, go to the keyframe you want to copy, drag the pointer with the right mouse button to the frame to which you want to copy the animation, and then click the SaveKey menu cell in the Motion module.
You can also use the right mouse button with the F and K buttons in the Playback box to move one frame or keyframe at a time without updating the scene.
The current frame number is displayed at the right end of the time line. Click in the box to insert a number; middle or right-click to replace the current frame number.
Note:
If you are playing back a very complex animation sequence in real time (step is 0), an asterisk (*) may appear in the frame rate box. This indicates that frames are being skipped during the playback to maintain real-time playback.
For more information on animating and playing back scenes, see the Animating User's Guide.
The middle line in the status bar is the mouse line. It shows the current functions of the three mouse buttons. The displayed functions depend upon the currently active menu cell operation, as well as the location of the mouse cursor on the screen.
The bottom line in the status bar is the status line. It displays the user login name, information about current operations such as which mode is active, and warning or error messages.
There are three levels of status line messages: Message, Error, and Warning. A box around one of these words in the status line indicates that a new message, error, or warning is in the See Contents dialogue box (the log file for this is in /temp/soft.status). If you click on one of these words (or the words Status or Mode), the See Contents dialogue box is displayed in which you can view these messages that have occurred during your work session. A dotted line is added every time you open this dialogue box, separating each message in the box. The most recent message appears at the bottom of the list.
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Five manipulation modes are displayed by default in the mode area to the right of the status bar.
These modes allow you to perform transformation operations (scaling, rotation, translation) on selected objects (OBJ), tagged points (TAG), centres (CTR), 2D texture support (TXT), or individual polygons on a polygon mesh object (POL).
Note:
As soon as you choose a Scale, Rotate, or Translate menu cell, their corresponding transformation modes are displayed above the current manipulation modes. For more informations, see Transformation Modes.
Manipulation modes can be used while either the Single or Multi menu cells are activated.
The manipulation mode commands can be accessed using the F8 to F12 keys as they map respectively to the five boxes in the manipulation mode area.
OBJThe Object (OBJ) mode is activated by default. You can also click OBJ to activate it,
or press F8. The OBJ mode allows you to scale, rotate, or translate the entire selected
object.
TAGClick TAG to activate the Tagged Point mode or press the F9 key. The TAG mode allows
you to scale, rotate, or translate the tagged points of a selected object.
CTRClick CTR to activate the Centre mode or press the F10 key. The CTR mode allows you to
scale, rotate, or translate the centre of a selected object.
TXTClick TXT to activate the Texture mode or press the F11 key. The TXT mode displays a 2D
texture support in red which can be translated, scaled, and rotated.
POLClick POL to activate the Polygon mode or press the F12 key. The POL mode lets you
perform operations on one or more polygons of a polygon mesh object, such as duplicating,
deleting, extruding, scaling, rotating, and translating them. For more information on
modelling selected polygons on a polygon mesh object, see the Modelling User's Guide.
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When one of the transformation menu cells is selected (ScaleX/Y/Z, RotX/Y/Z, or TransX/Y/Z), the mode area displays corresponding transformation modes above the manipulation modes.
There are three scaling modes: Non-uniform (XYZ), Uniform (UNI), and Volumetric (VOL). All three can be used in conjunction with any of the manipulation modes.
The Non-uniform scaling mode is activated by default. You can also select XYZ to activate it or press Shift-F8. It allows you to scale along a specific axis.
The mouse movements are configured so that the left mouse button scales along the
x-axis, the middle mouse button scales along the
y-axis, and the right mouse button scales along the z-axis.
Select UNI or press Shift-F9 to activate the Uniform Scaling mode. This mode allows you to scale uniformly along all three axes at once.
The left mouse button scales slowly, the middle mouse button scales at a moderate speed, and the right mouse button scales quickly.
Select VOL or press Shift-F10 to activate the Volumetric Scaling mode. This mode allows you to scale an object along any axis while keeping the volume of its bounding box constant.
The left mouse button scales along the x-axis, the middle mouse button scales along the y-axis, and the right mouse button scales along the z-axis.
Tip:
This mode is especially useful for "squashing" and "stretching" objects.
For more information on scaling, see ScaleX/Y/Z.
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There are five rotation modes: Local Axis (LCL), Global Axis (GBL), Additive (ADD), Reference (REF), and Reference to Plane (PLN). All of these can be used in conjunction with the OBJ, TAG, CTR, and POL manipulation modes. TXT manipulation mode can only accept LCL rotation mode.
Note:
By default, the Preferences->Continuous Rotation command is activated, meaning rotation numerical values are "additive" and do not loop from -180 to 180 degrees, but continue to increase or decrease as the object is rotated (as in the ADD mode). When the LCL, GBL, REF, or PLN rotation modes are in use and you want numerical values to loop from -180 to 180 degrees, simply deactivate the Preferences->Continuous Rotation command.
Select LCL or press Shift-F8 to activate the Local Axis Rotation mode. This mode allows you to rotate an object, its tagged points, its centre, its texture, or selected polygons (for polygon mesh objects) about its local axis; that is, according to the object's own centre orientation.
The left mouse button rotates about the x-axis, the middle mouse button rotates about the y-axis, and the right mouse button rotates about the z-axis.
Select GBL or press Shift-F9 to activate the Global Axis mode. This mode allows you to rotate an object about its centre according to the global axes. Tagged points rotate about the global axes.
The left mouse button rotates about the x-axis, the middle mouse button rotates about the y-axis, and the right mouse button rotates about the z-axis.
The Additive mode is activated by default or by pressing Shift-F10. The Additive mode allows you to rotate an object about its own centre orientation in the x-axis. In the z-axis, the object rotates about the z-axis of a parent or, if there is no parent, about the global z-axis. Tagged points rotate about the local axes.
In the ADD mode only, the numerical values are always "additive" meaning that they do not loop from -180 to 180 degrees; the rotation values continue to increase or decrease in one direction (positive or negative).
The left mouse button rotates about the x-axis, the middle mouse button rotates about the y-axis, and the right mouse button rotates about the z-axis.
Select REF or press Shift-F11 to activate the Reference mode and pick a reference object according to the mouse button instructions displayed in the status bar. The Reference mode causes an object to rotate about its centre according to the global axes orientation of the reference object.
Tagged points rotate about the axes orientation of the reference object.
The left mouse button rotates an object about the x-axis, the middle mouse button rotates it about the y-axis, and the right mouse button rotates it about the z-axis.
Select PLN or press Shift-F12 to activate the Reference to Plane mode. This mode allows
you to rotate an object about its centre according to the plane of view of the windows,
meaning that the object rotates about the axis which "extends" out from the
screen. For example, in the Front window, the object rotates about the
z-axis, while in the Right window, the object rotates about the x-axis.
Tagged points rotate about the plane of view of the windows.
Any mouse button can be used to rotate in this mode.
For more information on rotation, see RotX/Y/Z.
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There are five translation modes: Local (LCL), Global (GBL), Parent Axis (PAR), Reference (REF), and Drag (DRG). All five can be used in conjunction with any of the manipulation modes.
Select LCL or press Shift-F8 to activate the Local Translation mode. This mode allows you to translate an object's along its own axis, using the object's centre as its orientation.
The left mouse button translates along the x-axis, the middle mouse button translates along the y-axis, and the right mouse button translates along the z-axis.
Select GBL or press Shift-F9 to activate the Global Translation mode. This mode allows you to translate according to the global axes.
The left mouse button translates along the x-axis, the middle mouse button translates along the y-axis, and the right mouse button translates along the z-axis.
Select PAR or press Shift-F10 to activate the Parent Axis mode. This mode allows you to translate an object according to the local axis direction of the object's parent.
The left mouse button translates along the x-axis, the middle mouse button translates along the y-axis, and the right mouse button translates along the z-axis.
Select REF or press Shift-F11 to activate the Referential mode and pick a reference object according to the mouse button instructions displayed in the status bar. The Referential mode allows you to translate according to the local axes orientation of a reference object.
The left mouse button translates along the x-axis, the middle mouse button translate along the y-axis, and the right mouse button translates along the z-axis.
The Drag mode is activated by default, or by pressing Shift-F12. This mode allows you to translate an object by dragging it in any window.
To drag an object, move the mouse cursor over the desired object, hold down the left mouse button to drag in any direction, or use the middle mouse button to drag vertically, and the right mouse button to drag horizontally.
For more information on translation, see TransX/Y/Z
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Supra keys
are system defined keyboard shortcuts which perform the equivalent of some menu cell
operations. For example, to quickly manipulate the camera view in any window: use z
to enter zoom mode; use o to orbit, p to dolly, etc. The
Info-Supra Keys menu cell provides a complete listing of all the default Supra Keys.
These are the default settings, however you may redefine them and add additional
keyboard shortcuts called Swift Keys.
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Swift keys
let you create your own keyboard shortcuts, similar to the Supra Keys. By invoking the Keyboard
Setup->Learn menu command, you set the system up to record your subsequent
sequence of menu selections.
The system then prompts you with the Key Sequence Setup box shown below, where you can
assign your own Swift Keys to the menu actions recorded. The new Swift Key(s) you define
will overwrite any previously existing Swift Key(s). A warning message will appear in the
Key Sequence Setup dialogue box if your new Swift Key sequence conflicts with an existing
one.
To get a list of the User Defined Swift keys click on Info->User Swift Keys.
Note: To start up SOFTIMAGE 3D with your Swift Keys automatically loaded, use the -k option, otherwise load them under Preferences->Keyboard Setup.
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A database is similar to a box, or folder, in which you place all necessary files describing your SOFTIMAGE 3D scenes.
The database is divided into many chapters containing information for camera, objects, lights, scenes, materials, etc.
The Database Tool is divided into two parts:
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This tool allows you to navigate through various levels of your databases quickly and easily, using a series of interactive dialogue boxes.
The Database Manager allows you to perform all necessary database operations including:
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When you open the Database Exchange Manager dialogue box, it displays two scroll boxes and provides the tools that let you move, copy, delete, and rename files as a group or individually.
Last updated 03-apr-1998
