4.3. Visualization Views Overview
In this tutorial we will detail all the important features that can be accessed from the Visualization tab.
The main purpose of Visualization tab is to display the geometries in a Render Window or Spreadsheet and provide various tools for interacting with that geometry.
Visualization View Interaction Toolbar
You must have at least one view at all times. (If you wish to remove data from the last view you can do so by right-clicking the items in the Visualization Browser tree and selecting Delete.)
The image below shows all buttons included within the View Interaction group:
Figure 4.7 Additional Buttons Toolbar
These buttons and their functionality will be detailed below:
Render Window Splitting :
The Render Window splitting feature will create a new view and place it next to the existing one (the placement of the copy depends on whether you split horizontally or vertically). There are two options for splitting. The Render View option will create a new render window for visualization the data and the Spreadsheet View option will create a new spreadsheet view for viewing the raw data in a table format. You can split as many times as you like. You can resize the view after splitting by hovering over the space that separates two views until the mouse icon changes, then left-click and hold while dragging the mouse back and forth to reach the desired sizing. The new views will have the data hidden by default. You can turn on/show the data in the view by clicking on the view you would like the data to appear in and clicking the closed eye icon (
)
next to the data view item in the tree until it appears
open ( 
). Click the icon again to hide the data.Before continuing, it is important to know how to identify the current view and what that means as far as the options available in the Render Properties view (located to the right of the Visualization tab by default). The current view is signified by a blue (dark theme) or orange (light theme) border. By default, there will only be one view and it will be selected as the current one. The details shown in the Render Properties view represents the data for the current Render Window. This means that if you have performed a split you can click back and forth between multiple Render Windows and the data in the Render Properties view will change to match that of the current Render Window.
The Split Horizontally Button (
): This will put the new view horizontally next
to the current viewThe Split Vertically Button (
):
This will put the new view vertically next to
the current vi*view*ew.The Close View Button (
):
This will remove the current view.
Interacting with the Render Window
This section covers the basics of how to interact with the camera’s viewpoint in the Render Window. This allows users to visualize data from different angles and perspectives. There are three basic operations one can perform on the camera’s view to do this:
rotating
translating
zooming
It is important to emphasize that these operations are being performed on the camera’s viewpoint and not the data itself. Meaning when you perform a rotation, you are not rotating the geometry through space, you are rotating the camera to view the geometry from a different perspective.
Rotating the Perspective
In order to rotate the perspective, left-click and hold anywhere in the Render Window. While you are still holding the click, drag your mouse around until you find the desired perspective. You may have to perform several of these in order to reach the perspective you are looking for. You should also notice a small axis label in the bottom left hand corner of the Render Window (shown below) which will show you the orientation of your geometry with respect to each of the three x, y, and z axes.
Figure 4.8 Axes Orientation Marker
Translating the Perspective
There are two ways to perform a translation of perspective:
Click down and hold on the scroll wheel anywhere in the Render Window and while you are still holding the click drag your mouse around until you find the desired perspective.
Press and hold the shift key on your keyboard, then while you are holding the shift key left-click and hold anywhere in the Render Window. Then, while you are holding the shift key and the left-click, drag your mouse around until you find the desired perspective.
Zooming
There are two ways to perform a zoom operation:
Hover your mouse anywhere in the Render Window and use the scroll wheel to zoom in and out.
Right-click and hold anywhere in the Render Window, and while you are still holding the click drag your mouse vertically up and down to zoom in and out respectively.
Render Window Toolbar Buttons Overview
This section will go over all the buttons that can be found in the toolbars along the left hand side of the Render Window and what each of these buttons do.
Figure 4.9 Visualization Toolbar Buttons
The Snap to Plane buttons
Reset Camera button (
) : Resets the
camera to fit the data to the render windowRotate Clockwise button (
) : Rotates the
data in the view clockwise by 90 degrees.Rotate Counterclockwise button (
) :
Rotates the data in the view counterclockwise by 90 degrees.X-up button (
): Snaps the camera view to the
positive x directionX-down button (
): Snaps the camera view to
the negative x directionY-up button (
): Snaps the camera view to the
positive y directionY-down button (
): Snaps the camera view to
the negative y directionZ-up button (
): Snaps the camera view to the
positive z directionZ-down button (
): Snaps the camera view to
the negative z direction
Point/Cell Hover Info :
The point (
) and cell ( 
)
hover features allows the user to hover over points and cells in the
Render Window and display id and field data associated with them.
The hovered point/cell will be highlighted in the Render Window
and the data will be displayed in a popup window underneath the mouse.
Right or left clicking the hovered point/cell will print the details
out to the DREAM3D-NX output window and copy the details to the
clipboard in csv format.The 3D/2D button (
) :This will lock or unlock the Render Window to the current camera angle.
3D means you can rotate the camera view using the methods outlined in the Rotating the Perspective section of this page.
2D means you cannot rotate the camera view (you can however still translate and zoom using the methods outlined in the Translating the Perspective and Zooming sections of this page)
The focal point buttons
Show/Hide Focal Point button (
): Shows or hides
the focal point of the camera.Reset Focal Point button (
): Resets the
focal point of the camera back to the center of the bounding box of the visible data.Pick Focal Point button (
): Pick a custom focal point for the camera
Additional Features (Render Window Context Menu Options)
On top of mouse/keyboard interactions with the Render Window and the toolbar buttons described in the previous sections, there are also a number of additional features that are available via a Context Menu in the Render Window. You can access this menu by right-clicking anywhere in the Render Window.
Figure 4.10 Basic Render Window Context Menu Options
General Context Menu Options
There are four basic options that are available via the context menu in the Render Window and are independent of any geometries in the Render Window:
Link Cameras :
This feature allows you to link the cameras from two different Render Windows so that any changes to the camera made in one will also happen to the camera in the other. To activate this feature, select the Link Cameras option from the Context Menu in one of the Render Windows you wish to link. Then left-click in the other Render Window you wish to link. The cameras in these two Render Windows should now be in sync. To unlink the cameras, right-click again in either of the two linked Render Windows and click the Unlink Cameras option.
Only two Render Windows can be linked at once. It is recommended that you unlink any cameras before linking again to a different Render Window camera.
Capture Screenshot :
This feature will take a screenshot of the contents of the current Render Window and save it to an image file. After you’ve selected the file path in which to save the screenshot, a dialog will pop up allowing you to choose a background for your image. You can check the checkbox to save the image with a transarent background or click the Background Color button to choose a custom background color. The selected color to be used with your screenshot will be shown in the preview circle on the right hand side of the button.
Figure 4.11 Screenshot Options
Copy Screenshot :
This feature will take a screenshot of the contents of the current Render Window and copy it to the clipboard. This option is conventient for quickly pasting screenshots of your results into documents, emails etc. This option does not allow for setting a transparent background.
Camera Parallel Projection :
Toggling this option will determine whether the camera should do a parallel (1) or perspective (2; default) projection.
Axes Grid :
This option will turn on/off an axes grid label for all geometries currently being shown in the Render Window. This option is NOT the same as the Data Axes Grid option found in the Render Properties tab. Note: If you only have one geometry showing in the Render Window, the two will coincide.
Figure 4.12 Global Grid Axes
Interacting with the Spreadsheet
This section covers the basics of how to interact with the Spreadhseet View. This view provides several options for viewing the geometry’s raw data in a table format. These options are detailed below;
Attribute : This option allows the user to toggle the table between the point data and the cell data for the selected geometry.
Notation : This option allows the user to change the formatting of the numbers in the table. The options are fixed, scientific, and auto.
Precision : This option allows the user to change the decimal point precision of the numbers in the table.
Export : This option allows the user to export the current table to a csv file. You have the option to choose between tab or comma delimeters.