Datasheet

TOURING THE INTERFACE
17
9.
Another way to see more of the command panel is to increase its width by dragging the ver-
tical border between the command panel and the viewport. Position your mouse along this
edge and drag to the left and expand the command panel to two and then three columns.
10.
The advantage to having a three-column command panel is obvious—you can see all the con-
trols within the command panel at once. The disadvantage is equally apparent—the viewport
area becomes much smaller. Drag the command panel back to one vertical column to give
yourself the maximum amount of screen space. In a one-monitor system, it’s better to learn
how to scroll within the command panel than to sacrifice valuable viewport space.
In this exercise, you see that the entire set of options can be changed by clicking a single tool. You
can also see that the set of tools can extend beyond the bottom of the command panel. You can scroll
the options up or down within the panel in several ways. This allows VIZ to offer a wide variety of
options within the limited space of your display.
The Main toolbar also acts like a scrolling panel whenever a portion of the toolbar extends beyond
the screen area. For example, if your screen resolution is 1024
×
768, a portion of the Rendering toolbar
isn’t visible to the right of the screen. If you place the cursor on a blank area of the Main toolbar, it
turns into a hand cursor. You can then click and drag to the left to display the additional tools.
When you clicked the Target button in step 4 of the preceding exercise, a set of options appeared
under a bar labeled Parameters. There are three other bars, labeled Depth of Field Parameters, Object
Type, and Name and Color. Notice the minus (–) sign to the far left of these bars. These are called
rollouts.
They let you open and close a set of options to get them out of the way, or to roll them out for use. Try
the following:
1.
Click the rollout labeled Parameters. The options below the Parameters rollout disappear.
Also notice that the minus (–) sign to the left of the rollout changes to a plus (+) sign. This
indicates that the rollout is in its closed state. The plus tells you that there is more informa-
tion inside, waiting to be rolled out.
2.
Click the rollout labeled Name and Color. It also closes and displays a plus (+) sign to the
left. Click the rollout to open it again. Right-click on a blank part of the interface within any
one of the rollouts and you’ll see a context menu. Select Close All.
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