The
Church Builder screen The
Church Builder screen
The model is created mainly in the 3D View. The
2D View is used to work on walls.
The Component Controls panel at left is where you can add and modify
components to the church.
Here is the screen when a wall of the nave is selected. You can see the model of the church in the 3D view, the selected wall elevation in the 2D view and a set of controls for modifying and adding to the selected wall in the Components Controls panel.
A
model in the Church Builder screen
When a component is selected, its type appears in the tabs at the top of the Component Controls panel so you can read what kind of component it is as shown below:
Component tabs
If you click on a different tab here it has no affect on selection in the model since Church Builder does not know which component of that new type you are referring to. They are purely aimed at identifying the type of component selected.
The three areas are separated by splitter bars which can be dragged by the mouse left button to new positions.
Areas resized using the splitter bars
It is sometimes nice to make use of the whole screen to admire your work in the 3D edit and tour views. Also, if you are working with a low resolution screen, the tour buttons are not able to show the labels properly. In both cases, the solution is to use the Full screen tab in the tab bar:
The Full screen tab
Full screen 3D view
The tab's label has changed to Part screen.
To revert back to see the 2D and control panels, click on the tab again.
The 3D views |
Along the top of the 3D view you will find a set of tabs as shown below that can be used to change the 3D view.
Tabs for 3D viewsThe edit view is where you will normally develop the model. In this view you can use the left and right buttons while dragging the mouse to rotate and zoom in and out of the model. You select items by clicking on them. Here are the rules for selecting:
These rules appear in a tool tip when the cursor is in the 3D view.
When you select an item, buttons appear on the left indicating what you can do with that item. Most items have parameters such as length, height whose values can be changed using slide bars and edit boxes.
The tour view is where you can tour round your model manually using the mouse and keyboard. You can also create and follow set tours in this view.
In the tour view, grassy ground and a floor to the church. are added. Here is a typical tour view.
Tour
view
Here is a more detailed picture of the tour control panel that appears under the tour 3D view:
Tour
control panel
Here are the rules for navigating around the model using the mouse and keyboard in the 3D view:
These rules appear in a tool tip when the cursor is in the 3D view.
The more you drag, the faster the movement will take place.
Alternatively, use the right side of the tour control panel buttons as shown below:
Controls
for touring the model
Tours consist of travelling through a sequence of viewpoints (sometimes known as "waypoints") in the 3D model.
You can follow a predefined tour by using the left side of the tour control panel buttons as shown below:
Controls
for following a pre-defined tour
| Jump to start | Moves the viewer to the first viewpoint on the tour |
| Glide to next point: | Glide gently to the next way viewpoint on the tour |
| Jump to next point: | Jump at once to the next viewpoint on the tour |
| Glide: | Glide along the tour route |
| Glide speed: | The speed at which you move through the tour when gliding |
You can create a tour by clicking on the Create a new tour button in the Tour view controls.
This opens the view where you can specify the viewpoints on the tour.
Creating a tour from a bird's eye view
Repeated clicking on the 3D view will specify a sequence of viewpoints joined together by lines like this:
A tour created
The green blob indicates the start of the tour. The red blob indicates the end of the tour.
There are buttons to:
| Finish tour | Click on this to complete tour creation. It takes you back to the tour view where you will see that this new tour has become the currently selected tour |
| Undo point | You can undo the last points added to the tour if you make a mistake. |
| Redo point | You can restore deleted points |
| Cancel | You can abandon tour creation and return to the tour view |
| Tour name: | You can replace the default name with names you prefer |
You can select a tour from the dropdown list as shown below:
Note that the selected tour is the one that is embedded in the VRML model when you generate the web page version of your model.
Use the Delete tour button to delete the currently selected tour.
Use the See tour path button to see a bird's eye view of the currently selected tour.
The Bird's eye view tab changes the 3D view to one directly above. You can right button mouse drag to zoom in and out.
Bird's
eye view of the model
This reveals a button used for creating a photo.
This reveals two buttons used for creating a video.