Graphical User Interface

Getting Started

mged [-c] [-d display] [-h] [-r] [-x#] [-X#] [database [command]]

The -c (Classic MGED) option causes MGED to start in the style of previous versions of MGED, that is, by prompting the user to select a display manager to attach and by remaining attached to the tty. Without this option MGED will detach itself from the tty and bring up the new GUI. The -d option provides a way to specify a display string. This string is expected to be in the same format as the X DISPLAY environment variable. The -h option causes the help message to print out. The -r option causes the database to be read-only (i.e. no editing allowed). The -x and -X options provide a way for the user to specify the debug level of librt and libbu, respectively. Note that if MGED is started by redirecting stdin or stdout, MGED will not enter interactive mode. Similarly, if MGED is started with a command, that command will be executed and MGED will exit. If the user starts MGED in "Classic" mode, the new GUI is still available via the gui command. There can be many instances of the GUI running at the same time. Each instance of the GUI owns four display manager windows (panes) and by default each of these panes has its view initialized as follows:

Table 1. MGED GUI COMMANDS
Pane Azimuth and Elevation

upper left

0 90

upper right

35 25

lower left

0 0

lower right

90 0

All four panes can be displayed simultaneously, or a single large pane containing the active pane can be displayed (look in the "Modes" menu). The active pane is the pane that is controlled by the GUI. The active pane can be changed from the "Settings" menu, or by certain key or mouse button actions. Essentially, any key sequence or mouse button action that will pop up an MGED menu in the pane will cause the active pane to move to the pane wherein this action occurred. For example, alt-f will pop up the file menu and make this pane the active pane. Similarly, alt-Button1 will pop up the "Settings" menu and alt-Button2 will pop up the "Modes" menu.

The new GUI also provides "Help on Context". This is always available via the right mouse button (i.e. button 3). The user can right mouse click on some feature of the GUI and a message window pops up with information about the feature. This behavior works everywhere except in the drawing panes (i.e. display manager windows) where a right mouse button is bound to "zoom 2.0".

There are many new features and improvements in MGED providing greater access to its underlying power. The single greatest improvement to MGED is the incorporation of Tcl/Tk. Tcl (tool command language) is an interpreted command language that can be embedded into an application providing the application with an interpreter as well as a built-in command language. Tk is an extension to Tcl for building GUI’s. Incorporating Tcl/Tk into MGED gives the user the ability to develop their own commands and GUI’s. Other new features are: command line editing similar to tcsh, multiple display managers opened simultaneously, shareable resources among display managers, view axes, model axes, edit axes, rubber banding for zoom or raytracing, support for color schemes, frame buffer support for display managers, snap to grid for accuracy with the mouse, query rays for interrogating the geometry, and improved solid/object/combination selection from among displayed geometry.

Command Window

The main function of the command window is to allow the user to enter commands. The command window supports command line editing and command history. The two supported command line edit modes are emacs and vi. Look under File  Preferences  Command_Line_Edit to change the edit mode.

There are also two command interpretation modes. One is where MGED performs object name matching (i.e. globbing against the database) before passing the command line to MGED’s built-in Tcl interpreter. This is the same behavior seen in previous releases. The other command interpretation mode (Tcl Evaluation) passes the command line directly to the Tcl interpreter. Look under File  Preferences  Special_Characters to change the interpretation mode.

The command window also supports cut and paste as well as text scrolling. The default bindings for these operations are similar to those found in typical X Window applications such as xterm. For example:

Table 2. Commands
Key-Button Sequence Action

ButtonPress-1

begin text selection

ButtonRelease-1

end text selection

Button1-Motion

add to text selection

Shift-Button1

modify text selection

Double-Button-1

select word

Triple-Button-1

select line

ButtonPress-2

begin text operation

ButtonRelease-2

paste text

Button2-Motion

scroll text
If motion was detected while Button2 was being pressed, no text will be pasted. In this case, it is assumed that scrolling was the intended operation. Of course, the user can also scroll the window using the scrollbar.

Panes (Display Manager Windows)

A pane is a place wherein solids/objects are drawn. Here the user can interact, via the mouse and/or keyboard, with the panes view or with solids/objects that are being edited. The user can also access menus from the menu bar from within the pane.

Shift Grips

MGED offers the user a unified mouse-based interface for “grabbing” things and manipulating them. Since it was built for compatibility on top of the older interface:

Mouse Button View Operation

Button-1

Zoom out

Button-2

Recenter view at the specified point

Button-3

Zoom in

It uses the modifier keys: Shift, Control, and Alt. This use of modified mouse clicks to grab things is called the “shift-grip” interface. The Shift and Control keys are assigned in combinations to the three basic transformation operations as follows:

Modifier Key Transformation Operation

Shift

Translate

Ctrl

Rotate

Shift+Ctrl

Scale

And the Alt key is assigned the meaning “constrained transformation”, which is described below. Thus, in general, holding the Shift key and a mouse button down and moving the mouse drags things around on the screen. The Control key and a mouse button allow one to rotate things, and the combination of Shift, Control, and a mouse button allow one to expand and contract things. These general functionalities are consistent throughout MGED, providing a unified interface. The precise meanings of “drag things around”, “rotate things”, and “expand and contract things” depends on the operating context.

When one is merely viewing geometry the shift grips apply by default to the view itself. Thus they amount to panning, rotating, and zooming the eye relative to the geometry being displayed. When one is in solid-edit or matrix-edit mode (what used to be called object-edit mode), the shift grips apply by default to the model parameters. In this case, they modify the location, orientation, or size of object features or entire objects in the database.

The default behaviors in the viewing and editing modes may be overridden by the “Transform” item in the “Settings” menu. This allows the user to specify that the shift grips should transform the view, the model parameters (if one is currently editing a solid or matrix) or the angle-distance cursor (in which case the mouse may be used to position the ADC, to change its angles, and to expand and contract its distance ticks). The behavior of the shift grips may be further changed by the “Rotate About” item in the “Settings” menu, which allows the user to specify the point about which shift-grip rotations should be performed. The choices include the view center, the eye, the model origin, and an object’s key point.

CONSTRAINED TRANSFORMATIONS

When the Alt key is held down along with either of the Shift and Control keys the transformations are constrained to a particular axis. For such constrained transformations the mouse buttons have the following meanings:

Mouse Button Axis

Button-1

x

Button-2

y

Button-3

z

Thus, if the view is being transformed, Alt+Shift+Button-1 allows one to drag the objects being viewed left to right along the view-x axis. Similarly, if the model parameters are being transformed, Alt+Ctrl+Button-2 allows one to rotate the object about a line passing through the rotate-about point (as described above) and parallel to a y-axis. The coordinate system to which these transformations are constrained may be specified by the “Constraint Coords” item in the “Settings” menu, which allows the selection of any one of the model, view, and object coordinate systems.

Besides the default mouse button bindings described above, the user can access the "Settings" menu with alt-Button1 and the "Modes" menu with alt-Button2.

Default Key Bindings

MGED offers the user short cuts to much of the functionality available via the menus as well as the command line interface. The table below lists the default key bindings:

Key Sequence Behavior

a

toggle angle distance cursor (ADC)

e

toggle edit axes

m

toggle model axes

v

toggle view axes

i

advance illumination pointer forward

I

advance illumination pointer backward

p

simulate mouse press (i.e. to pick a solid)

3

view - ae 35 25

4

view - ae 45 45

f

front view

t

top view

b

bottom view

l

left view

r

right view

R

rear view

s

enter solid illumination state

o

enter object illumination state

q

reject edit

u

zero knobs and sliders

N

shoot a ray with nirt

F1

toggle depthcue

F2

toggle zclipping

F3

toggle perspective

F4

toggle zbuffer

F5

toggle lighting

F6

toggle perspective angle

F7

toggle faceplate

F8

toggle Faceplate GUI

F9

toggle keystroke forwarding

F12

zero knobs

Left

rotate about y axis

< Right >

rotate about y axis

< Down >

rotate about x axis

< Up >

rotate about x axis

Shift+Left

translate in X direction

< Shift-Right >

translate in X direction

< Shift-Down >

translate in Z direction

< Shift-Up >

translate in Z direction

< Control-Shift-Left >

rotate about z axis

< Control-Shift-Right >

rotate about z axis

< Control-Shift-Down >

translate in Y direction

< Control-Shift-Up >

translate in Y direction

< Control-n >

goto next view

< Control-p >

goto previous view

< Control-t >

toggle between the current view and the last view

< Escape >

stop interactive rotation, reject edits, reset mouse behavior

Besides the default key bindings listed above, the user can access menu items with Alt key sequences. For example, the File menu can be popped up with Alt+f. The raytrace control panel can then be popped up by typing r (i.e. R is underlined in the "Raytrace…​" menu item).

Control Panels

ADC Control Panel

Tool for setting ADC parameters.

Grid Control Panel

Tool for setting grid parameters.

Query Ray Control Panel

Tool for setting query ray parameters.

Raytrace Control Panel

Tool for setting raytrace parameters.

AnimMate Control Panel
Solid Editor

Tool for editing solids.

Solid Editor (Internal)

Tool for editing MGED’s internal solid (i.e. held in es_int while in solid edit state). The internal solid is the in-memory copy of a solid that is being edited.

Combination Editor
Color Editor

Tool for specifying colors in either RGB or HSV.

Status Bar

The status bar contains two lines for displaying information about the state of the active pane. The first line contains information about the view center, view size, local units, azimuth, elevation, twist, and rate of rotation about the x, y and z axes. The second line can contain several different things depending on the state. If the angle distance cursor is being drawn, information about its parameters are displayed. Specifically, angle 1, angle 2, tick distance, center and delta are displayed. Otherwise, if in the VIEWING state, the frames per second is displayed. If in SOL PICK or OBJ PICK state, the full path of the illuminated solid is displayed. If in OBJ PATH state, the full path of the previously selected solid is displayed along with an indication of which matrix along the path will be edited. And finally, if in either SOL EDIT or OBJ EDIT state the keypoint is displayed.

Menu Bar

  • File

    • New — open a new database. Note: the database must not already exist.

    • Open — open an existing database.

    • Insert — insert another database into the current database.

    • Extract — a tool for extracting objects out of the current database. This tool consists of an entry for specifying the destination file and an entry for specifying the objects to be extracted.

    • g2asc — converts the current database into an ascii file.

    • Raytrace — pops up the raytrace control panel.

    • Save View As

      • RT script — saves the current view as an RT script file.

      • Plot — saves the current view as a plot file.

      • PostScript — saves the current view a postscript file.

    • Preferences

      • Units

        • micrometers — set the unit of measure to micrometers. 1 micrometer = 1/1,000,000 meters

        • millimeters — set the unit of measure to millimeters. 1 millimeter = 1/1000 meters

        • centimeters — set the unit of measure to centimeters. 1 centimeter = 1/100 meters

        • meters — set the unit of measure to meters.

        • kilometers — set the unit of measure to kilometers. 1 kilometer = 1000 meters

        • inches — set the unit of measure to inches. 1 inch = 25.4 mm

        • feet — set the unit of measure to feet. 1 foot = 12 inches.

        • yards — set the unit of measure to yards. 1 yard = 36 inches.

        • miles — set the unit of measure to miles. 1 mile = 5280 feet.

      • Command Line Edit

      • Special Characters

        • Tcl Evaluation — set the command interpretation mode to Tcl mode. In this mode, globbing is not performed against MGED database objects. Rather, the command string is passed, unmodified, to the Tcl interpreter.

        • Object Name Matching — set the command interpretation mode to MGED object name matching. In this mode, globbing is performed against MGED database objects.

      • Color Schemes — pops up a tool for setting colors used by drawing panes (display managers).

    • Close — close this instance of the MGED GUI.

    • Exit — exits MGED.

  • Edit

    • Solid Selection — pops up a tool for selecting a solid to edit.

    • Matrix Selection — pops up a tool for selecting a matrix to edit.

    • Solid Editor — pops up a tool for creating and editing solids.

    • Combination Editor — pops up a tool for creating and editing combinations.

  • Create

    • Make Solid — gives the user a pulldown menu from which to select a solid to create. The following is a list of the available solid types that the make command can create: arb8, arb7, arb6, arb5, arb4, sph, grip, ell, ellg, tor, tgc, tec, rec, trc, rcc, half, rpc, rhc, epa, ehy, eto, part, nmg, pipe.

  • View

    • Top — view of the top (i.e. azimuth = 270, elevation = 90)

    • Bottom — view of the bottom (i.e. azimuth = 270, elevation = -90)

    • Right — view of the right (i.e. azimuth = 270, elevation = 0)

    • Left — view of the left (i.e. azimuth = 90, elevation = 0)

    • Front — view of the front (i.e. azimuth = 0, elevation = 0)

    • Rear — view of the rear (i.e. azimuth = 180, elevation = 0)

    • az35,el25 — an oblique view (i.e. azimuth = 35, elevation = 25)

    • az45,el45 — an oblique view (i.e. azimuth = 45, elevation = 45)

    • Zoom In — zoom in by a factor of 2.

    • Zoom Out — zoom out by a factor of 2.

    • Default — same view as top (i.e. azimuth = 270, elevation = 90)

    • Multipane Defaults — sets the view of all four panes to their defaults.

      Pane Azimuth Elevation

      upper left

      90

      0

      upper right

      35

      25

      lower left

      0

      0

      lower right

      90

      0

    • Zero — stops all rate transformations.

  • ViewRing A view ring is simply a dynamic list of views owned by a pane (display manager). This mechanism supports multiple views within a single pane. A view consists of a position in model space, a view size and an orientation.

    • Add View — Adds a view to the view ring.

    • Select View — a pulldown menu that lists the views in the view ring that can be selected.

    • Delete View — a pulldown menu that lists the views in the view ring that can be deleted.

    • Next View — go to the next view on the view ring.

    • Prev View — go to the previous view on the view ring.

    • Last View — go to the last view. This can be used to toggle between two arbitrary views.

  • Settings

    • Mouse Behavior — a menu for selecting among the available mouse behaviors.

      • Default — enter the default MGED mouse behavior mode. In this mode, the user gets mouse behavior that is the same as MGED 4.5 and earlier.

        Mouse Button Behavior

        1

        zoom out by a factor of 2

        2

        center view, or some edit action if in an edit state

        3

        zoom in by a factor of 2

      • Pick edit-solid — enter pick edit-solid mode. In this mode, the mouse is used to fire rays for selecting a solid to edit. If more than one solid is hit, a listbox of the hit solids is presented. The user then selects a solid to edit from this listbox. If a single solid is hit, it is selected for editing. If no solids were hit, a dialog is popped up saying that nothing was hit. The user must then fire another ray to continue selecting a solid. When a solid is finally selected, solid edit mode is entered. When this happens, the mouse behavior mode is set to default mode. Note - When selecting items from a listbox, a left buttonpress highlights the solid in question until the button is released. To select a solid, double click with the left mouse button.

        Mouse Button Behavior

        1

        Zoom out by a factor of 2

        2

        Fire edit-solid ray

        3

        Zoom in by a factor of 2

      • Pick edit-matrix — enter pick edit-matrix mode. In this mode, the mouse is used to fire rays for selecting a matrix to edit. If more than one solid is hit, a listbox of the hit solids is presented. The user then selects a solid from this listbox. If a single solid is hit, that solid is selected. If no solids were hit, a dialog is popped up saying that nothing was hit. The user must then fire another ray to continue selecting a matrix to edit. When a solid is finally selected, the user is presented with a listbox consisting of the path components of the selected solid. From this listbox, the user selects a path component. This component determines which matrix will be edited. After selecting the path component, object/matrix edit mode is entered. When this happens, the mouse behavior mode is set to default mode. Note - When selecting items from a listbox, a left buttonpress highlights the solid/matrix in question until the button is released. To select a solid/matrix, double click with the left mouse button.

        Mouse Button Behavior

        1

        Zoom out by a factor of 2

        2

        Fire edit-matrix ray

        3

        Zoom in by a factor of 2

      • Pick edit-combination — enter pick edit-combination mode. In this mode, the mouse is used to fire rays for selecting a combination to edit. If more than one combination is hit, a listbox of the hit combinations is presented. The user then selects a combination from this menu. If a single combination is hit, that combination is selected. If no combinations were hit, a dialog is popped up saying that nothing was hit. The user must then fire another ray to continue selecting a combination to edit. When a combination is finally selected, the combination edit tool is presented and initialized with the values of the selected combination. When this happens, the mouse behavior mode is set to default mode. Note - When selecting items from a menu, a left buttonpress highlights the combination in question until the button is released. To select a combination, double click with the left mouse button.

        Mouse Button Behavior

        1

        Zoom out by a factor of 2

        2

        Fire edit-combination ray

        3

        Zoom in by a factor of 2

      • Sweep raytrace-rectangle — enter sweep raytrace-rectangle mode. If the framebuffer is active, the rectangular area as specified by the user is raytraced. The rectangular area is also painted with the current contents of the framebuffer. Otherwise, only the rectangle is drawn.

        Mouse Button Behavior

        1

        Zoom out by a factor of 2

        2

        Draw raytrace-rectangle

        3

        Zoom in by a factor of 2

      • Pick raytrace-object(s) — enter pick raytrace-object mode. In this mode, the user can pick an object for raytracing or for adding to the list of objects to be raytraced.

      • Query ray — enter query ray mode. In this mode, the mouse is used to fire rays. The data from the fired rays can be viewed textually, graphically or both.

        Mouse Button Behavior

        1

        Zoom out by a factor of 2

        2

        Fire query ray

        3

        Zoom in by a factor of 2

      • Sweep paint-rectangle — enter sweep paint-rectangle mode. If the framebuffer is active, the rectangular area as specified by the user is painted with the current contents of the framebuffer. Otherwise, only the rectangle is drawn.

        Mouse Button Behavior

        1

        Zoom out by a factor of 2

        2

        Draw paint rectangle

        3

        Zoom in by a factor of 2

      • Sweep zoom-rectangle — enter sweep zoom-rectangle mode. The rectangular area as specified by the user is used to zoom the view. Note - as the user stretches out the zoom rectangle, the rectangle is constrained to be the same shape as the window. This insures that the user gets what he or she sees.

        Mouse Button Behavior

        1

        Zoom out by a factor of 2

        2

        Draw zoom-rectangle

        3

        Zoom in by a factor of 2

    • Transform — a menu for selecting a transform mode. The transform mode determines what will be transformed when using the mouse.

      • View — set the transform mode to VIEW. When in VIEW mode, the mouse can be used to transform the view. This is the default.

      • ADC — set the transform mode to ADC. When in ADC mode, the mouse can be used to transform the angle distance cursor while the angle distance cursor is being displayed. If the angle distance cursor is not being displayed, the behavior is the same as VIEW mode.

      • Model Params — set the transform mode to Model Params. When in Model Params mode, the mouse can be used to transform the model parameters.

    • Constraint Coords — a menu for selecting a coordinate system to use while performing constrained transformations with the mouse.

      • Model — constrained transformations will use model coordinates.

      • View — constrained transformations will use view coordinates.

      • Object — constrained transformations will use object coordinates.

    • Rotate About — a menu for selecting the point about which to rotate.

      • View Center — set the center of rotation to be about the view center.

      • Eye — set the center of rotation to be about the eye.

      • Model Origin — set the center of rotation to be about the model origin.

      • Key Point — set the center of rotation to be about the key point.

    • Active Pane — a menu for selecting the active pane. The active pane is the pane (display manager) that is tied to the GUI, effectively becoming the target of GUI interactions that affect panes. In other words, if the user types the command, ae 35 25 in the command window, and the active pane is the upper left pane, then its`" view orientation will become azimuth=35 and elevation=25. Similarly, if the user selects Settings/Grid/Draw_Grid from the pulldown menus the drawing of the grid will be toggled in the active pane.

      • Upper Left — set the active pane to be the upper left pane. Any interaction with the GUI that affects a pane will be directed at the upper left pane.

      • Upper Right — set the active pane to be the upper right pane. Any interaction with the GUI that affects a pane will be directed at the upper right pane.

      • Lower Left — set the active pane to be the lower left pane. Any interaction with the GUI that affects a pane will be directed at the lower left pane.

      • Lower Right — set the active pane to be the lower right pane. Any interaction with the GUI that affects a pane will be directed at the lower right pane.

    • Apply To — a menu for selecting the "Apply To" mode. This further specifies what pane(s) will be affected by actions that affect panes.

      • Active Pane — set the "Apply To" mode such that the user’s interaction with the GUI is applied to the active pane.

      • Local Panes — set the "Apply To" mode such that the user’s interaction with the GUI is applied to all panes local to this instance of the GUI.

      • Listed Panes — set the "Apply To" mode such that the user’s interaction with the GUI is applied to all panes listed in the Tcl variable mged_gui(id,apply_list) (Note - id refers to the GUI’s id).

      • All Panes — set the "Apply To" mode such that the user’s interaction with the GUI is applied to all panes.

    • Query Ray Effects — a menu for selecting the effects the user will see as a result of firing a query ray.

      • Text — set qray effects mode to "text". In this mode, only textual output is used to represent the results of firing a query ray.

      • Graphics — set qray effects mode to "graphics". In this mode, only graphical output is used to represent the results of firing a query ray.

      • both — set qray effects mode to "both". In this mode, both textual and graphical output is used to represent the results of firing a query ray.

    • Grid — a menu of grid related settings. A grid is a lattice of points over the pane. The regular spacing between the points gives the user accurate visual cues regarding dimension. After setting the anchor point and grid spacing, the user can use snapping to gain a high degree of accuracy while using the mouse.

      • Anchor — this pops up an entry dialog for specifying the grid anchor point. The grid anchor point is a point such that when the grid is drawn one of its points must be located exactly at the anchor point. The anchor point is specified using model coordinates and local units.

      • Spacing

      • Draw Grid — toggles drawing the grid.

      • Snap To Grid — toggles snapping to grid points. When snapping to grid points is active, the user’s mouse actions are "snapped" to the nearest grid point before being further processed. This gives the user a high degree of accuracy while using the mouse.

    • Grid Spacing — a menu for selecting "canned" grid spacings. Note - all of these selections will result in a square grid.

    • Autosize — set the grid spacing according to the current view size. The number of ticks will be between 20 and 200 in user units. The major spacing will be set to 10 ticks per major. ole="par

    • Arbitrary — pops up the grid spacing entry dialog. The user can use this to set both the horizontal and vertical tick spacing.

    • micrometer — set the horizontal and vertical tick spacing to 1 micrometer.

    • millimeter — set the horizontal and vertical tick spacing

    • centimeter — set the horizontal and vertical tick spacing to 1 millimeter.

    • decimeter — set the horizontal and vertical tick spacing to 1 decimeter.

    • 12 meter — set the horizontal and vertical tick spacing to 1 meter.

    • kilometer — set the horizontal and vertical tick spacing to 1 kilometer.

    • 1/10 inch — set the horizontal and vertical tick spacing to 1/10 inches.

    • 1/4 inch — set the horizontal and vertical tick spacing to 1/4 inches.

    • 1/2 inch — set the horizontal and vertical tick spacing to 1/2 inches.

    • inch — set the horizontal and vertical tick spacing to 1 inch.

    • foot — set the horizontal and vertical tick spacing to 1 foot.

    • yard — set the horizontal and vertical tick spacing to 1 yard.

    • mile — set the horizontal and vertical tick spacing to 1 mile.

  • Framebuffer — a menu of framebuffer related settings.

    • All — use the entire pane for the framebuffer.

    • Rectangle Area — use only the specified rectangular area of the framebuffer.

    • Overlay — put the framebuffer in overlay mode. In this mode, the framebuffer data is placed in the pane after the geometry is drawn (i.e. the framebuffer data is is drawn on top of the geometry).

    • Underlay — put the framebuffer in underlay mode. In this mode, the framebuffer data is placed in the pane before the geometry is drawn (i.e. the geometry is drawn on top of the framebuffer data).

    • Framebuffer Active — this toggles the framebuffer.

    • Listen For Clients — this toggles listening for clients. If the framebuffer is listening for clients, new data can be passed into the framebuffer. Otherwise, the framebuffer is write protected. Actually, it is also read protected. In other words, in order for programs outside of MGED to communicate with any of MGED’s framebuffers, the intended framebuffers must be listening.

  • View Axes Position — a menu of "canned" view axes positions.

    • Center — locate the view axes in the center of the active pane.

    • Lower Left — locate the view axes in the lower left corner of the active pane.

    • Upper Left — locate the view axes in the upper left corner of the active pane.

    • Upper Right — locate the view axes in the upper right corner of the active pane.

    • Lower Right — locate the view axes in the lower right corner of the active pane.

    • Modes

      • Draw Grid — toggle drawing the grid. The grid is a lattice of points over the pane (display manager). The regular spacing between the points gives the user accurate visual cues regarding dimension. This spacing can be set by the user.

      • Snap To Grid — toggles snapping to grid points. When snapping to grid points is active, the user’s mouse actions are "snapped" to the nearest grid point before being further processed. This gives the user a high degree of accuracy while using the mouse.

      • Framebuffer Active — this toggles the framebuffer.

      • Listen For Clients this toggles listening for clients. If the framebuffer is listening for clients, new data can be passed into the framebuffer. Otherwise, the framebuffer is write protected. Actually, it is also read protected. In other words, in order for programs outside of MGED to communicate with any of MGED’s framebuffers, the intended framebuffers must be listening.

      • Persistent sweep rectangle — this toggles drawing the rectangle while idle. For example, if the sweep rectangle is not persistent, the rectangle will not be drawn unless the user is actively sweeping out a rectangle (i.e. for raytracing, zoom etc.). And if the sweep rectangle is persistent, the rectangle will always be drawn.

      • Angle/Dist Cursor — toggles drawing the angle distance cursor.

      • Faceplate — toggles drawing the "Classic MGED" faceplate.

      • Axes — a menu of axes

        • View — toggle display of the view axes. The view axes are used to give the user visual cues indicating the current view of model space. These axes are drawn the same as the model axes, except that the view axes’ position is fixed in view space. This position as well as other characteristics can be set by the user using rset.

        • Model — toggle display of the model axes. The model axes are used to give the user visual cues indicating the current view of model space. The model axes are by default located at the model origin and are fixed in model space. So, if the user transforms the view, the model axes will move with respect to the view. The model axes position as well as other characteristics can be set by the user using rset.

        • Edit — toggle display of the edit axes. The edit axes are used to give the user visual cues indicating how the edit is progressing. They consist of a pair of axes. One remains unmoved, while the other moves to indicate how things have changed. Characteristics of the edit axes can be changed using rset.

      • Multipane — toggle between multipane and single pane mode. In multipane mode there are four panes, each with its own state.

      • Edit Info — Toggle display of edit information. If in solid edit state, the edit information is displayed in the internal solid editor. This editor, as its name implies, can be used to edit the solid as well as to view its contents. If in object edit state, the object information is displayed in a dialog box.

      • Status Bar — toggle display of the command window’s status bar.

      • Collaborate — toggle collaborate mode. When in collaborate mode, the upper right pane’s view can be shared with other instances of MGED’s new GUI that are also collaborating.

      • Rateknobs — toggle rate knob mode. When in rate knob mode, transformation with the mouse becomes rate based. For example, if the user rotates the view about the X axis, the view continues to rotate about the X axis until the rate rotation is stopped.

      • Display Lists — toggle the use of display lists. This currently affects only Ogl display managers. When using display lists the screen update time is significantly faster. This is especially noticeable when running MGED remotely. Use of display lists is encouraged unless the geometry being viewed is bigger than the Ogl server can handle (i.e. the server runs out of available memory for storing display lists). When this happens the machine will begin to swap (and little else). If huge pieces of geometry need to be viewed, consider toggling off display lists. Note that using display lists while viewing geometry of any significant size will incur noticeable compute time up front to create the display lists.

    • Misc

      • Z Clipping — toggles zclipping. When zclipping is active, the Z value of each point is checked against the min and max Z values of the viewing cube. If the Z value of the point is found to be outside this range, it is clipped (i.e. not drawn). Zclipping can be used to remove geometric detail that may be occluding geometry of greater interest.

      • Perspective — toggles perspective_mode.

      • Faceplate — toggles drawing the "Classic MGED" faceplate.

      • Faceplate GUI — toggles drawing the "Classic MGED" user interface (i.e. faceplate menu and scrollbars)

      • Keystroke Forwarding — toggles keystroke forwarding. When keystroke forwarding is active, any key events get forwarded to the command window for processing as if the user was typing directly into the command window. This behavior can often save the user time by not having to move the mouse out of the geometry window in order to type commands. The effects of any commands apply to the pane wherein the command was entered, regardless of whether or not this pane is the active pane.

      • Depth Cueing — toggles depth cueing. When depth cueing is active, lines that are farther away appear more faint.

      • Z Buffer — toggles Z buffer.

      • Lighting — toggles lighting.

    • Tools

      • ADC Control Panel — pops up a tool for controlling the angle distance cursor.

      • Grid Control Panel — pops up a tool for setting grid parameters.

      • Query Ray Control Panel — pops up a tool for setting query ray parameters.

      • Raytrace Control Panel — pops up a tool for raytracing.

      • Solid Editor — pops up a tool for creating and editing solids.

      • Combination Editor — pops up a tool for creating and editing combinations.

      • Color Editor — pops up a tool for defining a color

      • Command Window — this is a convenience button that raises the command window.

      • Geometry Window — this is a convenience button that raises the geometry window.

    • Help

      • About MGED

      • Help on context — The new GUI provides "Help on Context". This is always available via the right mouse button (i.e. button 3). The user can right mouse click on some feature of the GUI and a message window pops up with information about the feature. This behavior works everywhere except in the drawing panes (i.e. display manager windows) where a right mouse button is bound to "zoom 2.0".

      • Getting Started

      • Shift Grips

      • Commands — pops up a tool for getting information on MGED’s commands.

      • Apropos — pops up a tool for searching for information about MGED’s commands.

      • Manual — start a tool for browsing the online MGED manual. The web browser that gets started is dependent, first, on the WEB_BROWSER environment variable. If this variable exists and the browser identified by this variable exists, then that browser is used. Failing that the browser specified by the mged_default(web_browser) Tcl variable is tried. As a last resort, the existence of /usr/bin/netscape, /usr/local/bin/netscape and /usr/X11/bin/netscape is checked. If a browser has still not been located, the built-in Tcl browser is used.