viewer
The viewer accepts renderable objects from all modules with red output ports to include their output in the view. When instanced, it opens a window in which connected objects are rendered and can be manipulated interactively.
Objects can be transformed and scaled in the viewer window using combinations of mouse actions and keyboard keys:
- Rotation is accomplished by clicking and dragging with the left mouse button.
- Translation is accomplished by clicking and dragging with the right mouse button.
- Zooming is accomplished using the mouse wheel, or by holding Shift while clicking and dragging the middle mouse button toward the upper right to zoom in or lower left to zoom out.
Ports
| Direction | Name | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Input | Objects | Renderable | Renderable objects to visualize. |
| Input | Input Z Scale | Number | The factor for vertical scaling. |
| Output | View | View | The view containing all associated renderable objects. |
| Output | Output Z Scale | Number | The factor for vertical scaling. |
Properties
Properties
| Property | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Show Contents | Boolean | Shows or hides the Viewer Contents. |
| Pin Contents | Boolean | Determines whether the contents panel is pinned or overlaid. |
| Azimuth And Inclination | Orientation | Allows the user to set the orientation of the view including azimuth, inclination, roll, scale, and origin. |
| Set To Top View | Button | Zooms to fit the entire model and displays it centered from top down. |
| Zoom To Fit | Button | Zooms to fit the entire model and re-centers around the centroid of the scene. |
| Bookmarks | Bookmarks | Bookmarked project states for reuse. Bookmarks may include view states, visibility states, sequence states, or any combination. |
| Picked Object | String | Displays the current object selected in the Viewer. Updated by holding Ctrl and clicking on an object in the Viewer. |
| Picked Coordinate | Coordinate 3D | Displays the coordinates of the current object selected in the Viewer. Updated by holding Ctrl and clicking on an object in the Viewer. |
| Z With Scaling | Double | Displays the z coordinate, adjusted by the z scale, of the current object selected in the Viewer. Updated by holding Ctrl and clicking on an object in the Viewer. |
| Center On Picked | Button | If an object has been picked in the Viewer, forces the Viewer to center around that object. |
| Show Viewer Center | Boolean | Shows an indicator of the current view center point. |
| Perspective Mode | Boolean | Toggles perspective projection. When off, parallel lines are displayed as parallel and objects are the same size regardless of distance. When on, the view simulates a camera with perspective distortion, used in conjunction with Field of View. |
| Field Of View | Double | Used to compensate for distortion while in Perspective Mode. A smaller value is like zooming in and reduces perspective effects. |
| Auto Fit Scene | Choice: Never, On Any Change, On Significant Change | Controls what kind of change will cause the Viewer to normalize the view. |
| Z Scale | Double | The scaling factor for vertical (z) coordinates. The viewer uses this for computing proper distances and probe coordinate locations. |
Window Size
| Property | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Activate Window | Button | Brings this viewer window to the foreground in the EVS user interface. |
| Window Sizing | Choice: Size Manually, Fit to Window | The method for determining how to size the Viewer contents. |
| Viewer Width | Integer | The width of the rendered portion of the Viewer, in pixels. |
| Viewer Height | Integer | The height of the rendered portion of the Viewer, in pixels. |
| Viewer Actual Width | Integer | The actual width of the rendered portion of the Viewer, in pixels. |
| Viewer Actual Height | Integer | The actual height of the rendered portion of the Viewer, in pixels. |
| Video Safe Area | Choice: None, HD/1080p/4K, Web and Phone Safe, NTSC, PAL, SECAM | Displays areas usable for text and animation purposes for several standard video formats when creating a video animation. |
Export Image
| Property | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
| View Scale | Double | The scale to apply to both the viewer’s height and width when creating the image. Values are truncated to integers when setting the actual width and height. |
| Auto Scale Forward Facing Font | Boolean | When selected, all forward-facing fonts in the image will be scaled depending upon the size of the output image. |
| Prefer Lossless | Boolean | Prefer using lossless compression when the image format supports it. |
| Quality | Integer | Affects various lossy output files, including JPEG. Higher qualities result in less loss to the image but create larger files. |
| Transparent Background | Boolean | Allows you to create an image with a transparent background. |
| Image Filename | File | The image file and format to use when creating the image. |
Distance Tool
| Property | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Measure Distance | Boolean | Turning on the Measure Distance tool allows the user to probe two locations in the viewer and return detailed information about each point as well as the line connecting the two locations. |
| First Point Location | Coordinate 3D | The first point probed using Ctrl + Left click. This value may be altered to change the line values, but it will make the data and object probed on invalid. |
| Second Point Location | Coordinate 3D | The second point probed using Ctrl + Left click. This value may be altered to change the line values, but it will make the data and object probed on invalid. |
| Clear Points | Button | Clears the probed points. |
| Distance Line Color | Color | The color of the line between the probed locations. |
| Point Radius | Double | The radius of the spheres displayed at the probe locations. |
| Line Filename | File | The EVS Line File name for exporting the distance line in ELF format. |
| File Behaviour | Choice: Append To File, Overwrite File | When an EVS Line File has been selected, choose whether to overwrite it with the stored points or append the points to an existing line file. |
Background
| Property | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Style | Choice: Solid Color, Two Color Gradient, Vignette | Controls how the background is colored. |
| Gradient Angle | Double | Changes the orientation of the gradient computed in the background. |
| Background Color | Color | Sets the primary background color. |
| Gradient Color | Color | Sets the second color of the two-color gradient. |
View
| Property | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Depth Sort | Choice: No Sorting, Simple, Detailed Sorting | Controls depth sorting for properly displaying multiple transparent objects. Without depth sorting, the appearance of which object is in front or behind can be improperly displayed. Higher sorting options require progressively more computation. |
| Update Automatically | Boolean | When toggled on, user changes to the Viewer are handled immediately. |
| Refresh | Button | If Update Automatically is not toggled on, the Refresh button will cause the Viewer to handle all user changes. |
Lights
| Property | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Turn On Ambient Light | Boolean | Toggles the visibility of the ambient light. Ambient light affects all objects and is not directional. |
| Ambient Light Color | Color | Sets the ambient light color. |
| Show Lights | Boolean | When toggled on, the position of the lights will be shown in model space. |
| Mouse Controls | Choice: Scene, Light 1, Light 2, Light 3, Light 4 | Controls what object to transform when the mouse moves inside the Viewer. |
| Reset Lights | Button | Forces all lights to return to their default values. |
| Light 1 | Light | Controls for this light including type, color, visibility, attenuation, concentration, and spread angle. |
| Light 2 | Light | Controls for this light including type, color, visibility, attenuation, concentration, and spread angle. |
| Light 3 | Light | Controls for this light including type, color, visibility, attenuation, concentration, and spread angle. |
| Light 4 | Light | Controls for this light including type, color, visibility, attenuation, concentration, and spread angle. |
Camera
| Property | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Normalization Scale | Double | The camera by default is set a distance away from all objects. The Normalization Scale reduces this distance by a set factor, making the objects appear closer. |
| Normalize Invisible Objects | Boolean | Tells the Viewer whether to include objects that have had their Visible status set to off when adjusting its scale. |
| Global Scale | Double | When Perspective Mode is on, a smaller Field of View is like zooming in and reduces perspective effects. You can compensate for changing Field of View by adjusting the Global Scale. |
| Viewport Size | Double | When Perspective Mode is on, you can compensate for changing Field of View by adjusting the Viewport Size. |
| Tripod From | Coordinate 3D | The coordinates for the position the camera looks from. |
| Tripod Up | Coordinate 3D | The coordinates that describe the direction defined as ‘up’ for the camera. This can produce a roll-like effect. |
| Tripod At | Coordinate 3D | The coordinates for the position the camera is looking at. |
| Clipping Planes Active | Boolean | If toggled on, objects that are too close or far from the camera will be clipped off. |
| Clipping Plane Front Perspective | Double | If Perspective Mode is on, sets the position of the front clipping plane. |
| Clipping Plane Front | Double | The clipping plane closest to the camera. Any objects in front of this plane will be clipped. |
| Clipping Plane Back | Double | The clipping plane furthest from the camera. Any objects behind this plane will be clipped. |
| Depth Cueing Active | Boolean | Controls the fading of light based on the distance objects are from the viewer. |
| Depth Cueing Front | Double | Sets the position, relative to the camera, where lights are at 100 percent. Depth cueing is a linear blend from front to back. |
| Depth Cueing Back | Double | Sets the position, relative to the camera, where lights are at 0 percent. Depth cueing is a linear blend from front to back. |
| Depth Cueing Scale | Double | Amplifies the change between the front and back depth cueing positions. |
Export VRML
| Property | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
| VRML Filename | File | The output VRML file name. Setting this filename will cause the file to be written. |
| Output Optimization | Choice: Target 3D PDF, Target 3D Printing, Compressed VRML, Target Web Publishing | Sets the type of output to optimize the VRML for. |
Output Images The View Scale parameter allows you to specify that your image to be output will be ânâ times larger (or smaller if a fraction less than 1.0 is specified) than your current Window Size When the Autoscale FF Font toggle is selected all Forward Facing fonts in the image will be scaled depending upon the size of the output image.
Recording (Capturing) 4DIM Files
Recording (Capturing) 4DIM Files The Record 4DIMÂ output option in the Viewer provides the ability to export in C Techâs proprietary 4DIMÂ vector animation format. Limitations In some circumstances transform_group cannot be used with 4DIMs. It can cause the 4DIM extents to be different than they were in the EVS viewer. This has been noted when doing rotations. In most cases, the transform_field module can be used instead, however it does not allow for multiple objects to be connected to its input. volume_renderer is not compatible with 4DIMs 4DIM files will not record any object whose cache has been disabled. This occurs when large fields are connected to the viewer. When this occurs (for external_faces in this example), the following message appears in the Status Window: â Warning from: module: external_faces â
write_vrml The write_vrml output in the viewer is able to output most graphics objects in the viewer to a VRML-formatted file. VRML is a network transparent protocol for communicating 3D graphics. It has fallen out of favor on the web, though it is still a standard for 3DÂ model output. We provide VRML output for two primary purposes: