The Perspective window is bordered by three rulers containing pointers that control the rotation of the displayed design. If the mouse is clicked anywhere in a ruler, the pointer will move to that angle and the design will be redrawn in the new orientation. Alternatively, you may drag any of the sliders to the desired angle. You may rotate the design in the Perspective window within the following limits:

The zero position for each ruler is at its centre and markers are given at 15°. The Yaw and Roll rulers also have elongated markers at 30° intervals.

 View a video showing how to rotate a model in the Perspective view window using the slider bars and free rotate. The video also shows how to render the model and toggle different light sources.

As it is not possible to uniquely determine a three-dimensional coordinate from a two-dimensional screen position, Maxsurf limits movement of control points to a particular plane. It does this by determining which plane is most perpendicular to the direction of view, and only allows movement in that plane. You will see an axis indicator in the lower right corner of the window showing the current plane of movement.

For example, if the bow of the hull was pointing almost towards you, the sections plane would be most perpendicular, and points could be moved in the same plane as they could be in the Body Plan window (i.e. transversely and vertically, but not longitudinally).

In the perspective view, the control point constrain function (holding the Shift key whilst dragging the control point) constrains movement to longitudinal, transverse or vertical motion in the design's co-ordinate system (not the screen's horizontal and vertical directions).

The Rotate function in the view menu activates the Rotate command, which is a virtual trackball, which lets you freely rotate a design in the perspective view.

After selecting the Rotate tool, move the mouse to a location in the Perspective window and press the left mouse button. With the left button depressed, you can rotate the image by dragging the mouse around and the rotation is performed by projecting the movements onto a virtual sphere on the screen – essentially like a virtual trackball. Generally speaking, moving the mouse left and right rotates about a vertical axis while moving the mouse up and down rotates about a horizontal axis. The Rotate mode is exited when the left button is released.

The rotate function may also be initialised via the mouse.  Hold the shift key down while pressing the middle mouse button to rotate the model.

Also see:

Rendering a Surface on page 92.

When Maxsurf is redrawing a complex design, or when it is rendering with simple shading in the perspective window, you may interrupt the drawing by pressing Esc or by clicking with the mouse.