Move, Rotate, Scale

Owned by
thomas (Unlicensed)
Last updated: 21 Apr, 2015 by
Alex Ribao
3 min read

With these tools it is possible to select one or more nodes and change their position in 3D space. These tools work exactly like their counterparts in 3D applications: by holding and dragging the mouse, position, rotation, or scale changes are executed. You can find them here:

  • Main menu > Edit
  • Icon bar > Edit


RealFlow's move, scale, and rotation tools are available from the main menu and the icon bar.
Select

With this tool, indicated by an arrow an available from the "Icon Bar", you can choose any visible node from the viewport. Multi-selections can be performed with a pressed Shift key. When a node is selected it will be highlighted in the “Nodes” panel and the “Relationship Editor”.

In RealFlow's viewports you can also draw a virtual rectangle around one or more objects to select them at once. The “Select” tool supports hierarchical selection: for example, a node cannot be selected directly from the viewport, because it is overlapped by other objects, click on the desired node until it becomes active. Of course, you can select it from the "Nodes" panel or the “Relationship Editor” as well.

Move

When “Move” is active, the currently selected object shows three coloured arrows. Each colour represents one of the three spatial directions: the X axis is red, Y is displayed in green, and the Z direction is blue . The node can be moved along one of these directions by dragging the arrow – the other two directions are locked at this moment. With the coloured squares it is possible to move the object in two directions, e.g. XZ or XY. You can always see which directions are currently active, because they are displayed in yellow. The “Move” tool's shortcut is W.

 

 

 

Rotate

To rotate an object, point the mouse cursor over one of the surrounding circles and drag. The active circle turns yellow and the object will follow your motion until you release the mouse. Rotations can only be performed in one direction at a time. The “Rotate” tool's shortcut is E.

 

 

Scale

The mode of operation is similar to “Move” and “Rotate”, but here the object's dimensions are changed. There is also a small cube in the middle of the coordinate axes. When you click and drag the mouse over this box, all axes turn yellow and it is possible to scale the node in all three dimensions simultaneously. The “Scale” tool's shortcut is R.