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Menu Commands

File menu

Copy to Clipboard

Copies the present 3D view to the Windows clipboard, enabling to get pasted into other applications.

Save image As…

Saves the present 3D view as a bitmap file (*.bmp) to the selected directory.

Video...

Opens the Save As dialog to enter a file name for the video file (*.avi). Subsequently, the dialog of available video compression codecs is displayed. Select a video codec available on your PC and close the dialog by OK.

Now, the video recording starts. The camera moves from the first to the last point along the selected polygon. During travel, the line of sight may be changed using the mouse (by keeping the left mouse button pressed and moving the mouse).

The video file is automatically saved to the specified directory at the end of the travel.

Close!

closes the 3D-Special view

Display menu

Animation!

When selecting this command, the 3D animation starts. When no polygon object has been selected, the camera moves through the scene starting from the bottom left to the upper right corner of the limits.

Reload objects only

When objects have been changed, this command updates the display of geometry.

Reload DTM and objects

When objects or terrain relevant objects have been changed, this command updates the display of geometry. Depending on the size of the terrain the procedure requires more time than just updating the other objects.

Appearance...

This command enables access to the Appearance dialog on the Options menu (see Object Appearance). There are relevant for 3D special view settings can be made on the 3D tab (see 3D Tab).

Stereo-Display

Available options:

  • none: no 3D processing
  • split - left-right: stereo representation with partial views left/right
  • split - top-bottom: stereo representation with partial views top/bottom

Check the user manual of the 3D TV set or monitor for the appropriate settings for processing stereo images.

Effects

The following options are available:

  • Toggle wire frame: toggles to wire-frame representation
  • Display terrain heights: shows in 3D-Special view the terrain heights applying the color palette selected on Properties 3D Special dialog (see below).
  • Toggle backface culling: This is an algorithm not to display non-visible (hidden) polygons in the 3D view. When activated the display speed is increased and prevents with camera viewing points below the ground to display polygons hidden by the ground (on by default).
  • Anti aliasing (FXAA - fast approximate anti-aliasing): very fast software anti-aliasing using the pixel shader, on by default
  • Shadows (small projects only): generates shadows at objects using a defined light source (see Symbol, Option „Light Source“).
  • Ambient Occlusion (SSAO - screen space ambient occlusion): algorithm for occlusion calculation per pixel, off by default

Show grid legend and mini map

toggles the display of the grid legend (in the lower left corner) and the mini-map (in the upper right corner) on/off

Full screen

shows the 3D-Special view on the entire screen (without menu bar), close the full screen view by pressing the ESC key

Properties

Opens the Properties 3D Special dialog with the following options:

Option Explanation Default Value/s
Camera Offset
  • vertical
  • horizontal
    		•  vertical displacement of the camera position relative to the camera line, vertical: change height, horizontal: change lateral offset (positive to the right, negative to the left) vert.: 1.0
    horiz.: 0.0
    Animation Speed (km/h) moving speed of the camera
    The actual speed depends on the size of the project and on the hardware.    		 500
    Rotation Speed (°/s) The rotation speed just causes an effect when the left/right arrows on the keyboard are used. 10
    Field of View (°) angular range of the viewing area (in the horizontal plane) 45°
    Distance Range:
    - Near Plane (m)
    - Far Plane (m)    		 This defines the visible area in the viewing direction (from the near plane to the far plane, i.e. the horizon). Depending on the graphics card further settings may be required (condition: both values > 0 m). For example, enlarge the value for the near plane and decrease the value for the far plane. near:
    3 m
    far:
    30000 m
    Video-Frame rate (fps) This value determines the number of frames stored per second when saving a video in AVI format (Video command on the File menu). 15
    Project Grid onto DTM, Transparency (%) By default, the grid is projected onto the ground. When this option is disabled, however, the grid gets displayed with a transparency (default: 66%) at the grid height set. on
    Copy to Clipboard, Resolution Factor The resolution factor determines the level of detail in the bitmap. The actual resolution of the bitmap depends on the resolution of the screen. A large resolution factor may result in a long-lasting copying process. 1
    Building Noise Map This setting determines what type of facade point symbol is sued in the 3D-Special view. The following options are available:
    - Rectangle: coloring entire facade sections
    - Octagon: using octagons in facade plane
    - Sphere: 3-dimensional (half) sphere
    - Level Box: octagons with level in line of sight
    In particular, when using facade textures the symbol type „Sphere“ is recommended.
    Note: This option is independent from the selected „Symbol Type“ on the Building Noise Map dialog.    		 Sphere
    Sun, parallel light color when illuminating the scene from above (noon position) white
    Background color of the background ("Sky") light blue
    Terrain height palette lists the default palette and color palettes from the local library Default
    Terrain height color gradient generates progressive colors based on the selected palette off
    Link point objects to ground When active, point objects will receive an additional vertical line between the object and the ground surface. off
    Hardware acceleration (recommended) By default, the hardware acceleration for 3D rendering is used provided by the installed graphics card. A hardware acceleration is not available for remote desktop connections.
    If this option is disabled, a restart of CadnaA is required.
    When using software rendering a simplified object appearance is applied.    		 on
    Take invalid grid points from palette If this option is enabled, invalid grid values use the color from the selected palette (instead of default green). off
    Skybox (background image) The subsequent dialog Skybox enables to select up to 6 different bitmaps which will be used as background in the 3D-Special view.
    The bitmaps must be squares with a common number of pixels. By enabling the option "Determine bitmap size automatically" the software will control the correct settings. Alternatively, the dimensions can be entered in pixels.
    Clicking the "Reset" button deselects all bitmaps.

    Camera and Scene menu

    Increase movement speed

    increases the speed of camera movement

    Decrease movement speed

    decreases the speed of camera movement

    Load Preset

    In case presets for camera positions have been saved these can be selected here. Once a preset has been chosen, the viewing point is updated immediately.

    Save Preset

    Up to 10 presets for camera positions can be saved. Select a preset to save the current viewing position for this preset.

    Note

    The presets are stored in CadnaA as auxiliary polygons with an increasing ID „3D-CAMERA-1“, „3D-CAMERA-2“ and so on (see table Aux. Polygon on the menu Tables|Other objects).

    Rest Camera

    sets the camera position back to the initial position

    Save Aux. Polygon for Print

    Select this option to generate an auxiliary polygon for the current camera position without saving it as a preset (keyboard shortcut: C).

    Note

    The camera positions generated this way are also selectable for the 3D cell of the PlotDesigners (see Cell Properties, „3D-View“ tab).

    Help menu

    Help!

    displays the Help text

    OpenGL information

    provides information on the OpenGL software and hardware