Learning the Basics/ Getting Started

Getting Started

How to use this manual

A 3D modeling and animation application is, by nature, open-ended. There is no "one correct way" to create a scene. Your imagination and creativity drive the end result. A 3D application is really a set of tools. Learning how to use the "tools" within the Realsoft 3D "toolbox" will help you express your creativity and design your own masterpieces in the same way that learning how to use woodworking tools would allow you to construct anything you can imagine.

The Realsoft 3D documentation is divided into several main sections, such as Modeling, Materials and Rendering. Each section introduces one major sub system of the program.

The overall documentation approach is to build your knowledge through a series of tutorials. Each tutorial within a section tends to build on the techniques and knowledge from previous tutorials. Although some tutorials can be done "out of sequence", be aware that most of the tutorials build upon knowledge and skills gained in the previous, or prerequisite, tutorials.

Therefore, although you are not required to follow the tutorials in order, you may find that if you skip around you will be asked to use a particular tool or technique and there won't be much of a description of how to use or do it. If this happens, you should be able to find the relevant tutorials from the contents page.

For the sake of clarity, the beginning of each tutorial includes a note about required knowledge: Beginner, Medium or Advanced. It is recommended that you first read all beginner level tutorials of those sections, which you find interesting. You will be able to build real scenes quicker by reading the basic tutorials for modeling, materials and rendering instead of going through all modeling related tutorials from the beginner level to the advanced ones.

The first section, Learning the Basics, introduces the user interface and shows you how to build your first scene. The first tutorial assumes that you have no previous knowledge of 3D applications. 

What you should already know

It is assumed that the user is familiar with the basic concepts of using computer software applications, and standard graphical user interface (GUI) operations. Only GUI operations that are not standard to the windowing environment of your operating system will be described. Realsoft 3D is available for multiple platforms and the user interface is implemented in an operating system independent manner. On the other hand, the software also follows the standard guidelines of each computing platform, and therefore there may be some minor differences in using the program in various operating systems.

Using the mouse

The following table lists common terminology of mouse operations that is used throughout the documentation. It is important to become familiar with these terms.

Getting to know the user interface

Realsoft 3D provides you with a lot of flexibility in the user interface, but we have to begin somewhere...right? Several UI arrangements have been provided for you, and are listed in the Environments menu. Before getting into the first tutorial, take a moment to get used to the idea of being able to "construct" different user interfaces.

The philosophy could be described as follows:

You are the Director, and this is your stage: make it in any way, and in "as many" ways, as you want in order to achieve your goals.

Try the following:

1. If you haven't done so already, start the Realsoft 3D program (do this in any of the standard ways for your operating system).
2. Realsoft 3D opens using the "default" user interface. To verify this, go to the Environments menu, and select Default from the list. You should not observe any change in the UI (the same environment was simply reloaded).
3. Select each of the environment options listed in the menu to see what they look like. This should give you an idea of some of the possibilities you have available for creating a UI that you like.

Note that it isn't necessary to construct your own user interfaces. You can simply use the ones supplied if you like (and this is recommended for the present).

Starting the program

Realsoft 3D can be started in the same way as any standard application i.e. by double clicking its icon.

The program opens the default configuration, which is defined in the project file 'progdir/startup.r3d'. You can later customize and save your favorite configuration to this file if you like, so that it is automatically loaded in the program startup.

Default user interface

When you start the program, the default user interface is loaded from the startup project. The default interface consists of the following elements:

Toolbar

This Toolbar allows you to activate such things as the creation and modification tools, as well as many others. The default configuration shows a 'tabbed' toolbar, with tool icons grouped under several tabs like SDS, Creation, Light Sources, and so on. You can hide/show the toolbar by clicking the header area at the top left corner of the toolbar.

The Toolbar contains more tools than may fit into your screen. However, you can scroll the toolbar by dragging it with the right mouse button while holding down the Ctrl key.

The F3 function key toggles Hide/Show of the Toolbar.

Control Bar

The Control Bar is located right below the Toolbar. The control bar is context sensitive; its contents depend on the selected tool. When you select a tool (the Rectangle tool, for instance), the control bar contains the set of modifiers that are relevant to that tool. This is true for each of the four basic construction tools. If you activate the Rectangle tool, valid rectangle-specific options are shown.

This so-called tool Control Bar always shows options that are related to the action the user is currently performing. Therefore, its contents change frequently, and adapt to the workflow.

Rectangle tool selected. The control bar automatically shows the tool-specific controls.

The Control Bar can be scrolled in the same way as the Toolbar if all the controls do not fit into the screen area.

The F4 function key toggles Hide/Show of the Control Bar.

View Control Bar

The View Control Bar is a tall and narrow vertical window, located near the right edge of the main window. It allows you to control the view orientation, and other options specific to View Windows. For example, the View Control Bar contains buttons for switching between Front/Side/Top views, activating different rendering methods, and rotating, zooming, and panning a view.

Controls for switching to front, side and top views.

The View Control Bar can be scrolled in the same way as the Toolbar if all the controls do not fit into the screen area.

The F5 function key toggles Hide/Show of the View Control Bar.

Select Window

The Select Window is located near the left edge of the main window. It allows you to select objects based on their names. When working with large projects, this window is extremely useful for selecting all types of objects, from geometric ones to light sources and material maps. Through its various tabs, the Select window also allows you to manage such things as materials, rendering settings, post effects, and so on.

The Select Window

The Select Window allows you to manage the object hierarchy using a drag&drop interface. For example, you can drag one object inside another 'level' object. A drag box can be used for multi-selecting objects. You can also multi-select objects by holding down the Shift key while clicking objects.

If there are more objects than fit into the window, you can scroll the contents of the select window in the same way you can scroll the toolbar: just hold down the Ctrl key while dragging with the right mouse button.

The F2 function key toggles Hide/Show of the Select Window.

View Window

The View Window is perhaps one of the most often needed windows. It renders geometric 3D objects using various rendering methods, such as wire frame, OpenGL, or ray tracing. You can enter 3D data through the View Window using mouse or some other input device, such as a digital tablet.

View window in shaded OpenGL rendering mode.

To Pan a view window (scroll it): Ctrl + drag RightMouse

To Zoom a view window: Shift + drag RightMouse vertically

To Rotate a view window: Alt + drag RightMouse

Status Window

The Status Window is where the program prints out messages and other feedback.

Status Window

The F9 function key toggles Hide/Show of the Status Window.

In addition to these, there are several other windows included with the standard startup project. You can open any of these windows through the 'View' pull down menu.

Compass menus

Realsoft 3D has incorporated a new Compass menu system. Compass menus are context sensitive. The contents of the compass are usually set to include those functions that are most likely needed in each situation. For example, if a curve object is selected, the compass menu includes the most frequently needed curve editing functions.

You access a compass menu by dragging the right mouse button. Where you drag, the mouse determines which compass menu is displayed. When you have moved the mouse more than a certain threshold distance, the compass menu is opened.

For example, to activate shaded OpenGL rendering in a View window, drag while pressing the right mouse button in the View window. The compass menu is displayed. Keep moving the mouse until the 'shaded OGL' label is highlighted and release the mouse button. Shaded OpenGL rendering is now activated.

Drag with the right mouse button to select 'near north-east' compass menu

Note: when selecting the shaded OGL compass menu, don't try to hit the actual label with the mouse. The menu selection is based on angle and distance detection.

The big idea behind the compass menus is that your muscles can "learn" to use them. Selecting functions in this manner can become very fast after some practice, because it is not necessary to watch the menu while using it (unlike when using traditional menus, or buttons where you have to accurately position the mouse pointer over the desired item). Your hand 'remembers' the necessary motions to pick an item.

Compass menus also can be bound to keys. For example, the View window compass menu (shown in the previous illustration) is bound to 'v' key. Holding down the 'v' key while dragging with the right mouse button overrides the default context sensitivity rules, allowing you to access the view specific options whenever you need.

Compass menus are an extremely powerful way to access tools in Realsoft 3D and we strongly suggest you learn to use them.