Usage

Navigation

Move around the 3D viewport either with mouse, touchpad, trackpoint or touchscreen.

Mouse

Dragging middle mouse button:

Pan

Dragging right mouse button + Shift:

Pan

Dragging right mouse button:

Rotate

Dragging middle mouse button + Shift:

Rotate

Dragging right mouse button + Ctrl:

Tilt

Double middle click:

Reset tilt

Scrolling:

Zoom

Trackpoint

Scrolling:

Pan

Scrolling + Shift:

Rotate

Scrolling + Ctrl:

Zoom

Touchpad / Touchscreen

Use two-finger gestures for pan and zoom.

Actions

Double-click a workplane to center and align the view to it. Also see further actions available from the context and spacebar menu in the “View” group.

Help, I’m stuck!

In some cases, such as looking at the ZX plane, the rotate axis coincide, leaving only one rotational degree of freedom. In this case, hold Ctrl to change the tilt axis or reset the tilt axis to go back to normal rotation.

If you’re totally lost, use the “Reset view” action to look at the XY plane.

Solid model

Show or hide the current body’s solid model by clicking on the cube next to it in the workspace browser in the left side of the window.

Use clipping planes to hide parts of the solid model.

Where to find things

All tools and actions are available from the spacebar menu. Open it by by pressing Space anywhere in the 3D viewport.

Tools and actions specific to the selection are also available from the context menu that can be invoked by the right mouse button.

For some tools and actions, there are predefined keyboard shortcuts that are listed in the spacebar menu. All keyboard shortcuts can be customized in the preferences window.

Tools

After having started a tool, it receives all keyboard and mouse input, until the tool is finished or you end it by pressing Esc. Look at the bar that appeared at the bottom of the viewport to see what pressing keys will do in this particular tool.

Selection

The selection in Dune 3D has two distinct modes. In hover select mode, the item under the cursor is selected automatically and can be used in tools. So you only need to hover over an item before deleting it by pressing Del.

Clicking on an item switches to click select mode. In click select mode, the current selection is retained until it’s explicitly modified. Clicking on an item adds or removes it from the current selection.

Pressing Esc clears the current selection and returns to hover select mode.

The current selection mode is shown in the bottom left corner of the window.

Hovering over a constraint highlights the constrained entities.

Groups

Click on a group in the workspace browser on the left side of the window to make it the current group. The current group is shown in boldface. All groups after the current group are hidden automatically. Individual groups and bodies before the current group can be hidden by clicking on the checkbox. The number at the right side indicates the degrees of freedom for the group.

You can also switch groups with the PgUp/PgDn keys or the back/forward buttons on your mouse.

See Groups and bodies for more details on them.

Workplanes

The current group’s workplane is shown in the status bar. Clear the checkbox to temporarily turn off the group’s workplane for constraining in 3D. The active workplane is rendered with a double border.