The screenshot above shows you what Draw3D (v3.0) looks like when you first start it up. You start with 1 vector at (0, 0, 0), which is in the center of each view. You can use the menu bar on the top to access functions, and you can also use the buttons going down the middle of the screen, or use the special shortcut keys designated to each function. If you are unsure what any of the graphical buttons do, move the mouse cursor onto the button, and the status bar on the bottom of the screen will display a short description of what it does.
As of v3.1, you can also add the Side View, by clicking the Window menu (not shown in the above screenshot of v3.0), and selecting the option to show the Side View & Vectors List. The Side View & Vectors List will replace the bottom of the 3D View. The Vectors List is a list of all the vectors. The current vector is highlighted, and clicking on a vector in the list will change that to the current vector, however, you cant edit through the list (yet;).
As of v3.2, you startup with the Side View & Vectors List shown as default. You can get rid of it by clicking on the List menu and choose None, and you can also choose the list to show all polygons or groups instead, which can always be done by simply pressing 'N' for None, 'V' for Vectors List, 'P' for Polygons List, or 'G' for Groups List.
Normally, the status bar on the bottom of the screen will show details such as the current vector, the amount of vectors, the current vector's co-ordinates, the current polygon and the amount of polygons. You can always change these values by clicking on them, and then typing in the appropriate value in the box.
A faster way to manually type in values may be to use the windows available in the View menu, by selecting Edit/View Vector co-ordinates, or Edit/View Polygon co-ordinates. When you are typing in the values into the boxes in these windows, you can press the 'up' arrow key to increase the current value by 1, or the 'down' arrow key to decrease it. Pressing 'page up' or 'page down' has 10 times more effect than the normal arrows. You can press the 'tab' key to move between boxes, and holding the 'shift' key while pressing 'tab' will move in the opposite direction. However, in the Polygon window pressing 'up' or 'down' will also move between boxes. Pressing the 'esc' key will close the window to bring you back to Draw3D.
Draw3D lets you rotate, move or zoom the object using the mouse, depending on what mode you are in. They also behave slightly differently on the 3D view as to the other views. Modifying the 3D view wont actually change the vectors. Modifying the 2D views will change the actual vectors. The modes are: In the 2D views: The left mouse button will set the current vector to where ever the mouse cursor is. Note: The cursor is considered to be 3 dimensional. You should set the vector on the Top view first, which shows how far back it is, and then set the vector again on the Front view, which will show what it looks like from the front (you can also do it in the opposite order if you wish. The idea is that you must set it on both views. You cant place it on the 3D view, because I haven't added support for a 3D mouse yet!). After this, you will have placed a 3D vector. This is how you should be plotting all of your vectors. However, there are other ways of plotting your vectors. You can manually type in the exact co-ordinates of the vector into the 'Edit Vectors' pop-up window, by going to the View menu and selecting Edit/View vector co-ordinates, which will pop-up a window that lets you type in the values, ranging between -500 to +500, the center being 0. (Make sure to press Enter after typing in each value). Pressing Escape will return you to Draw3D.
Clicking the right mouse button will select a different vector or polygon to edit. This will work in all views. The current vector or polygon will be highlighted red, while the others will be black. You can also select the current vector or polygon by clicking on the Statusbar on the bottom of the window, where it says either 'current vector', or 'current polygon', and then type in your value.
Note: To be able to select the current vector, vectors must be enabled, and to be able to select the current polygon, polygons must be enabled. These are enabled by going to the View menu and clicking Show vectors or Show polygon centres. These can both be on at the same time if you wish. Also be aware that changing modes will automatically change these two settings to the default settings for that mode. Therefore, you should get used to simple shortcut keys such as F1 & F2. However, while there is a current selection, vectors will always be shown.
In Select mode, you make selections, by selecting all the vectors inside your selection box. Use the left-mouse button to click and drag a selection box on any view, just as you would with a normal program. When you release the left-button, all the vectors inside your selection will be red, to show that they are selected. On the bottom of the screen, the amount of vectors selected will be displayed for a few seconds. Notice that selecting/editing a vector will have effects on all other views.
If you want to make additional selections, as well as your current selection, you can use either the right mouse-button to make all additional selections, or hold the key for Shift, Alt, or Ctrl, while you are selecting.
In Move mode, you can move vectors around. If you currently have a selection (of vectors), then Move mode will move the vectors in your selection. If you don't have a selection, then all vectors will be moved. This behaves the same for all views. You can also move vectors by going to the View menu and selecting Edit/View all vectors and typing in percentage values, where 100% will move it completely of you the view. Don't forget that moving the 3D view wont move the actual vectors. To move the 3D view, you can also go into the View menu, and selecting Edit/View Viewport.
In Zoom mode, you zoom vectors closer or further away from you. Zooming is used the same as Move mode, except that moving the mouse left-right doesn't have any effect on zooming.
As of v3.2, you can also zoom along a single axis, such as to stretch an object's width but not height and depth. You do this by holding down the Ctrl key while you zoom. When you do this, use either left mouse button, right button or both buttons (or 3rd button) to zoom along different a different axis.
In Rotate mode, you rotate vectors. The rotation is done around a different axis depending on what view you are in, what direction you move the cursor and what button you use:
In the Top view, use the left button to rotate your selection/all vectors around the Z-axis by moving left-right. Rotate around the X-axis by moving up-down. Use the right button to rotate around the Y-axis, by moving up-down.
The same happens in the Front view, but the Y axis & Z axis are exchanged.
In the 3D view, the same happens as for the Front view.
Alternatively, you can type these values in by going to the View menu and selecting Edit/View all vectors for the 2D views, or by selecting Edit/View viewport, for the 3D view.
Note that rotating around the X-axis means rotating, so that the X values of the vectors wont change, but the Y & Z values will change.
How it all works:
As well as the draw modes mentioned above, there are two view modes: Wireframe mode & Solid mode. You will always be in one or the other, and you can switch between the two by simply pressing the 'escape' key.
When you are in Wireframe mode (also called Vector mode), you will
see polygons in the 3D view as lines. This lets you see through the object, showing what is inside.
In both modes, the Top view & Front view will still be shown in Wireframe. The other difference between the modes is this:
When you are in Wireframe mode (Vector mode), pressing the 'enter' key or adding a new vector will add a new vector, however in Solid mode (Polygon mode), adding a new vector will actually add a new polygon. In other words, you must be in Wireframe mode (Vector mode) to add a new point, or in Solid mode (Polygon mode) to add a new polygon.
To make a polygon (a 4-sided face), you must add a new polygon first, just like you must add a new vector before editing it. After you have added a new polygon, you can set its corners to be at particular vectors. For example, you could set a polygon to be between vectors 4, 7, 5 and 12, and then whenever you change vector 7, the polygon would also change.
The vertical toolbar in the middle of the window has two buttons in the middle: A button with a line between two points, and another button with a blue polygon. The button with the line represents Wireframe mode, and the button with the polygon represents Solid mode. Clicking these buttons will change to that mode.
There are two different ways to fill the polygons: Flat fill, and Gradient fill, both available in the Fill Style menu. Flat filled polygons will be the same colour, all over the polygon, however Gradient filled polygons will be darker at one end than the other, often giving a better look.
There are also different speeds of filling polygons and lines. These are provided, so that if you ever wanted to, you can watch the lines or polygons be gradually displayed. These speed settings are under the Fill Style menu. If you are ever using the Slow or Very Slow settings, and you get bored waiting for it to finish, pressing 'Escape' will set the speed back to Very Fast.
As of v3.2, you can have groups of vectors. Each group has a name and is simply a selection of vectors, as well as a 'base' vector. When you have selected a bunch of vectors using the Selection tool, and you feel they should make up a group, then simply press Ctrl-G or click on Group current selection from the Edit menu. You then simply give it any name that you want (may include spaces and commas, etc).
You can insert shapes such as Cubes, Spheres and Cylinders by clicking on them from the Insert menu.
Draw3D v3 allows you to open & save in two different file formats. Draw3D has its own file format, with the extension '.3D', and is 100% compatible with Draw3D v2. This file format will store the data into the file making it compact and quick to load, as well as storing all the details used for the object.
Draw3D v3 also can use AutoCAD's Drawing Interchange Format, with the extension '.DXF'. This way, Draw3D v3 can be used with other 3D programs. Saving to a DXF file will take a little longer than to a '.3D' file, but more importantly, it stores the data in a different way. DXF files use a seperate vector for each corner of each polygon. In other words, each polygon has its own set of vectors, and hence a vector can only be used by one polygon. This means that if you have an object of 1000 polygons, storing it as or loading it from a DXF file will store the details of 1000 polygons, and 4000 vectors (4 vectors for every polygon), but using the '.3D' files will store the details of 1000 polygons, and only about 400 vectors (it depends on how many you decided to use). As well as this, there is also the problem that if you load from a DXF file, if you try to move a corner that is between two polygons, only one of the polygon's corners will be moved, while the other polygon will remain unchanged.
Because this can be a big problem, Draw3D includes the function called 'Remove unused vectors', which will scan through every polygon and every vector many times, and it will find any vectors that are at the exact same position, and it will delete all of these vectors that are the same except for one of them, and all the polygons using that co-ordinate will now use the one vector instead of many.
As of v3.2, Draw3D remembers the last 9 files opened.
There is the option to 'Remove Hidden Faces' in the View menu. This will only show the visible polygons (faces), so that you shouldn't see the hidden polygons. This often doesn't work perfectly though, and so it is recommended to stick to 'Arrange Polygons', which is the alternative. If you want to use the 'Remove Hidden Faces' option (which will speed up the rendering) , then you should try to always draw your polygons either clockwise or counter-clockwise ( based on the 3D view), so that it will display correctly when the hidden faces are removed. There are also two commands to help you to accomplish this: Polygons are facing me, and Polygons are facing away , in the Edit menu. These will make sure that the polygons in your selection are facing you or away, in the 3D View. Be aware however, that it takes some getting used to, before you can correctly show objects using the hidden face option.
If you have any trouble with Draw3D, or any comments or ideas, you can e-mail me.
by Shervin Emami, gorbash@optusnet.com.au
Side View (right side) and Vectors, Polygons and Groups Lists:
In the Groups List, you can left-click a group to select it as the current group, or right-click it to change its name.
Also, if you left-click on a group that doesnt hold anything, it will automatically be deleted for you.
The Coordinate System:
The co-ordinate system consists of the X-axis appearing from left to right of the screen. The Y-axis appears on the Front view, from bottom to top. The Z-axis appears on the Top view, from bottom to top. The co-ordinates from one end to the other will always be whole numbers from -500 to 500. For example, an X value of -500 means the leftmost position on the views. The right Side View has the same Y-axis as the Front view, but it has the Z-axis from left to right. Obviously the 'Front view' is what the 3D object would look like when viewed from the front, and the 'Top view' is what the 3D object would look like when viewed from the top. However, the 3D view is what the object would look like from any view (you can control it).
Manually typing in values:
Important: Whenever you type in a value into a box, always press 'enter', otherwise your value will not be read by the program.
Modes:
Edit mode:
As of v3.1, you can also change the current vector & polygon by holding down the 'Ctrl' key and pressing the Up/Down/PageUp/PageDown keys. The Up & Down keys will shift through the vectors, while the Page Up & Page Down keys will shift through the polygons.
Select mode:
As of v3.2, you can Invert selection from the menu
Move mode:
Zoom mode:
Rotate mode:
Drawing objects in Draw3D v3:
Draw3D stores the X, Y, and Z co-ordinates of each vector that is being used. Changing any vectors will change those co-ordinates. Since Draw3D also lets you use polygons (4 sided shapes), they must be stored as well. They are stored by storing a reference to four vectors for each polygon. In other words, a polygon has four corners, and each corner points to a vector. Therefore changing the co-ordinates of a polygon wont actually change the polygon, but will change the vectors that it uses. Because of this, you can make more than one polygon point to a vector, and when you move that vector, all the polygons pointing to that point will move, allowing a more realistic approach to editing, than storing a seperate vector for every corner of every polygon.
View modes:
When you are in Solid mode (also called Filled mode or Polygon mode), you will see polygons in the 3D view as filled polygons. This allows you to visualise the objects better than wireframe mode.
Note: Polygons will only be sorted if you are both in Rotate mode & in Solid view mode. This will allow you to always see a polygon if you just made it. Changing to Rotate mode will then sort it.
Adding/Deleting vectors or polygons:
The same applies when deleting a vector/polygon (by pressing 'delete' or 'backspace'). Deleting in Vector mode will delete the current vector, however deleting in Polygon mode will delete the current polygon. Also to note about deleting is that if you have a got a selection, and you press 'delete' or 'backspace' in Vector mode, it will delete all the vectors in the selection. If you did this in polygon mode, the selection will be ignored. In other words, making a selection will only select vectors, and not polygons, and this makes a difference in some of the operations.
Making polygons:
To set a polygon to be between vectors, press the 'spacebar'. This will set the current polygon's current corner to be at the current vector.
In other words, if you just created polygon 6, then the current polygon will be polygon 6, and its current corner will be the first corner. You can then select vector 4 by right clicking on it. Then when you press the 'spacebar', the first corner of polygon 6 will be at vector 4, and the current corner of polygon 6 will move to be corner 2. Therefore, the next time you press the 'spacebar', it will select corner 2, etc...
Adding a new polygon or selecting a different polygon will reset the current corner back to corner 1. Therefore, if you ever set a corner to be the wrong vector, then you can select the polygon again (such as by clicking on the 'current polygon' in the Statusbar on the bottom of the screen and then pressing enter), so that its current corner will be reset back to 1. Then you can set its corners again.
Note: When you first make a polygon, all its corners are set to vector 1.
Important: If you are already in Wireframe mode and you click the Wireframe mode button, it will add a new point. If you are already in Solid mode and you click the Solid mode button, it will add a new polygon.
Fill Style:
There are also two different choices of light settings: Depth based, and Angle based, both available in the Fill Style menu. Depth based lighting makes a darker polygon if it is further away than you, whereas Angle based lighting (slower to render) makes a darker polygon if it is facing away from you.
Groups:
Then whenever you want to use that group again, you simply click on that group from the Groups List.
To change its name, right-click on the group from the Groups List and then you can re-type it.
To change the group to the curent selection, click on Redo current group from the Edit menu.
To delete the current group, click on Remove current Group from the Edit menu. Note: This wont delete the actual vectors, it will simply remove the group.
Note: Whenever you make a new group, the current vector will also be stored, as the 'base' vector for that group, so when you click on that group later, the current vector will be the base vector. This is useful if you want to rotate it around the current vector.
When you save your file to the Draw3D format, it also saves the groups into the file, so they will still be there when you re-open it later.
Inserting shapes:
They will all insert the object starting from the current vector, and use the dimensions you type in.
The dimensions you type in (such as radius, length or size) can be given in either percentage of view, or view-coordinates.
For example, since the views are always between -500 to 500, then typing '500' as the radius will make a shape that will take up the entire view. However, you can also type in percentages.
For example, if you wanted the shape to take up the whole view such as the previous example, you could simply type '50%' as the radius.
Working with files:
This sounds confusing, but it means that Draw3D will convert your vectors from the DXF format to the Draw3D format, so
that even if you loaded 4000 vectors from the DXF file, it will be reduced to 400 vectors, without changing what the object looks like. The 'Remove unused vectors' command can be used in the Edit menu, by selecting Remove Unused vectors.
Recent files list
Draw3D also saves the option whether you want to load the most recent file, when you first startup, letting you automatically start work on your last file.
Hidden Faces: