VRML Manipulation

Using the VRML Manipulation tool, nodes of currently loaded geometries can be manipulated. Two approaches are available:

• a general manipulation approach which allows arbitrary node manipulation and
• a material manipulation approach which allows to change the material throughout the whole geometry

For the general manipulation, the geometry which shall be manipulated has to be selected from the drop down list containing the currently loaded geometries and the boxes for node, field and value have to be set accordingly. For setting the value three different views are presented, depending on the chosen field:

• a standard value textbox, where values are entered as strings (see the example for scaling below)
• a color selector dialog and a color textbox, to set RGB color values
• a slider and a numberbox, to choose a double value between 0 and 1

The current value will automatically be displayed after selecting a field. Changes made in a textbox can be set by pressing the RETURN key or by leaving the textbox by pressing the TAB key or performing a mouse click on one of the dropdown boxes. Values selected in the color selector dialog will be set automatically. The values selected by using the slider will also be set automatically.

An example for a VMRL-node is the transform node. If a geometry is selected which has a transform node called "MyTransform", then this node can be manipulated with a new scale by stating the following:

• Node = MyTransform
• Field = scale
• Value = 2 2 2

In this case the node is scaled by factor 2 in all three dimensions.

The material manipulation works in a similar way. A geometry and the material field which shall be set need to be selected using the according dropdown boxes. Values are again chosen using either the color selector dialog (or the color textbox) or the value slider (or the value numberbox). The slider values will not be set until the mouse button is released. If you want the values to be set immediately (while still moving the slider) you have to select the "apply changes on the fly" option. This should not be done with large geometries because all nodes will be changed constantly. Values entered in the material manipulation will be set for all material fields of the chosen kind in the whole geometry. The reset button allows to revert all changes. Note: When using shader geometries it might occur that values are not set correctly for all nodes or that not all changes are reverted correctly upon reset.

-- SupportMetaio - 2010-03-03