Model Viewer

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Introduction

Model Viewer provides a spatially accurate, fully rendered, model of your surfaces and designs, updating as you make design changes and including analysis for sight distance.  This is a full 3D environment with zoom, pan and orbit navigation.  Any alignment can be immediately driven to assess visual and design outcomes.  Sight distance analysis accounts for all surfaces, design features and objects in assessing whether adequate sight distance is provided for each road and intersection.

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Video Help on Model Viewer

A video playlist on the use of Model Viewer is available here.

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Mouse controls are used to navigate in the environment.

The Model Viewer is made up of three primary components:

• A tabbed ribbon interface at the top of the form, containing commands to manage the display of items and to generate analysis and reports

• A 3D view area displaying the models in the middle of the form

• Command information text and view/explore commands at the bottom of the form

At the bottom left corner is a UCS icon, showing the orientation of the model.  This is not editable.

Ribbon Interface Controls

The Ribbon is divided into a number of Tabs, grouped by functionality.  For individual command help, please expand the relevant command using the Help navigation pane on the left.  Ribbon tabs include:

• Home Tab: this tab manages the overall display of the environment and setting up how models should be displayed
• Analysis Tab: this tab provides access to model analysis including drive animations and sight distance calculations
• Objects Tab: this tab facilitates inclusion of 3D objects in the display
• Labels Tab: this tab enables the addition of labels in the drawing to describe design objects
• Point Clouds Tab: this tab manages the import and display of point cloud data
• CAD Tab: this tab allows for drawing (.dwg) files to be included in the model
• BIM Tab: this tab supports creating a BREP solid representation of the design, lofting shapes and export to IFC
• Outputs Tab: this tab manages outputs including screen shots and videos.

Bottom of form Controls

The bottom of the form provides the following (from left to right)

• Command prompts display bottom left to advise users of recent activity and to provide instruction on completing commands
• Coordinate tracking of the mouse location relative to the surface
• Fast Refresh toggle
  • Click to toggle on/off the 'fast refresh' mode (for updating the paste boundary between the base surface and other surfaces)
• Primary Surface display toggle
  • Toggle on/off the display of the Primary Design
• Play Animation
  • When adding Object Groups in Model Viewer, users can animate objects along a path.
  • Click this button to start and stop animating objects in the view
• Perspective/Orthographic Toggle
  • Toggle perspective view on/off using this icon.  Orthographic views are more common when viewing CAD drawings in Model Viewer
• Walk Mode
  • Click to enter Walk Mode.  Press again to exit Walk Mode
  • In walk mode the viewer is placed on the surface.
  • A form will display to provide navigation controls
  • w,s,a,d buttons are used to move forward, back, left, right
  • Left mouse button changes direction
  • Press [Space] to jump.
• Transparency Toggle
  • Toggle on/off transparency display
• Ribbon display toggle
  • Toggle on/off the display of the Ribbon command controls.

3D Model Navigation and Selection Controls

You can zoom, pan and orbit around the 3D environment, as well as execute commands to edit/review/analyse objects in the model. 

Note: There are some specific selection techniques when particular commands are invoked, such as Select Objects.  The mouse actions will be outlined for each command where it differs from the below default navigation behaviour.

Below is a description of the methods for navigating and selecting objects.  The model environment includes a number of navigation controls which are outlined below:

Navigation Modes	Sets different methods for navigation
Default Navigation Mode	By default, Pan mode is normally enabled, with the following controls: Left Mouse: Pans up/down/left right Middle Mouse: hold down to orbit.  Orbit is centered around the position of the cursor at the time of starting the orbit. Roll the mouse to zoom in/out [Shift] + [Middle Mouse]:  hold down both to enable dynamic zoom [Ctrl] + [Middle Mouse]:  hold down both to enable Pan Right Click: this opens a shortcut menu relevant to the object closest to the mouse cursor.  Options are as follows:   Vertical Grading Editor Opens the Vertical Grading Editor for the nearest String   Design Data form Opens the design data form for the nearest String   Display Cross Section Opens a cross section window at the nearest sampled cross section for the nearest String   Display Volumes Opens up the Volume Report for the nearest String   Plot Long Sections Starts the Long Section Plot command for the nearest String   Plot Cross Sections Starts the Cross Section Plot command for the nearest String   Add Variation Allows addition of a variation at the location specified (or over a chainage range).  See Open Cross Section Window for more details.   Add Batter Override Allows direct override of default batters applied via the Template.  A form will display for user input.  See Open Cross Section Window for more details.   Open Section Design Data Opens up a view of the template, variations and batter overrides applied at the cross section position of the mouse.  See Open Cross Section Window for more details.   Water Drop Traces a water flow path, using the mouse position at the time of right clicking.  The surface displayed at the mouse pointer location is used to trace the downstream flow path.  A marker is placed at the start (sphere) and end (cone) of the path    Assign Material Group to Triangle Provides a very rapid method for assigning materials to triangles of the surface set as the Primary Design surface.  This opens the Material Group form to enable manual assignment of a material to the selected coded triangle.   Details as follows: The design Codes for the triangle are described in the form description at the top (eg: C.L., C.L., EB)   Model Style Lists the Material Style applied to the triangle   Material Group Select a Material Group (image) to apply to all triangles with this code assignment. A preview of the image is also displayed. Apply Apply change and exit Close Exit without change
	These navigation modes change what the Left Mouse selection will do
Home	Zooms to the model and displays a front-right corner view
Magnifying Glass	Puts a magnifying glass over the view.
Zoom Window	Drag the left mouse button to form a window to zoom to
Zoom	Hold down and move the left mouse button to dynamically zoom in and out
Pan	Hold down and move the left mouse button to move left/right/up/down
Orbit	Hold down and move the left mouse button to orbit about the cursor position (set at the time of commencing the orbit)
Zoom Fit	Zooms to show the entire model
	The View Cube facilitates rotation/orbit of the model via direct manipulation of the cube in the display. Holding down the left mouse button over the cube will enable orbiting of the model. Hovering on the cube will highlight different 'parts' of the cube.  Left click selection will change the view based on the 'part' highlighted.  Samples below
	When a face of the cube is highlighted, clicking on that face will zoom to it. In the example, left, clicking on the Top will show a top view of the model, oriented North.  This is the Home (starting) orientation
	When a corner is highlighted, clicking on that corner will zoom to an isometric view. Clicking on a 'side' will set to that side.
	When the 'compass' is highlighted, holding down the left mouse will constrain the orbit to a horizontal rotation, while maintaining the vertical rotation angle. Click on N, S, E, W to go to a front view at that orientation

 

Shortcut Keys

Shortcut Key	Command
CTRL + R	Refresh Model Viewer
CTRL + C	Create a copy of the selected Object
CTRL + T	Toggle the display of tooltips - the display of tooltips are managed in the Viewer Settings
CTRL + F	Toggle fast-draw of the base surface.  This will improve redraw speed but the boundaries between the base and other surfaces will not be updated.
DELETE	Delete the selected Object