How to Use Community Place Conductor

Sony VRML Editing Tool
beta release

Table of Contents

Starting Community Place Conductor
 Limitations
 Your Comments
 Window Descriptions

Starting Community Place Conductor
  1. Double-click "vscpc.exe" in the authoring directory.
    The VS Authoring System Window appears and "Wait for file" is displayed in the message field.

  2. Select "Open" from the pull-down "File" menu and select the file you want.

Limitations

The beta release has the following limitations:

Your Comments

We appreciate your comments or questions. Send your comments to vs_info@sm.sony.co.jp

Window Descriptions

Community Place Conductor includes the following windows:

1.0 Viewer Window

This window shows the 3D informational space under creation. In this window, you can navigate, change your viewpoint, select and move objects.
The message field at the bottom of the window shows your location (in terms of X, Y, Z coordinates) and the name of the selected object (if you select one).

1.1 Operations in the Viewer Window

To Do this
Select an object Click the left mouse button.*
To select multiple objects, while holding down the shift key, click the left mouse button.
Navigate Hold down the left mouse button and drag it.
Move up and down While holding down the shift + ctrl keys, drag the mouse upward/downward.
Move horizontally While holding down the shift key, drag the mouse to the right/left.
Tilt up and down While holding down the shift key, drag the mouse upward/downward.

*When the object is active (selected), the bounding box (the thin line that appears around the object) will be displayed. The selected object will be highlighted in the Node List Window.

1.2 Zooming in/out

Clicking the zoom buttons, which are at the left bottom corner of the Viewer Window, lets you zoom in or out.

1.3 Functions in the pop-up menu

To display the pop-up menu, click the right mouse button inside the Viewer Window.
The pop-up menu includes the following operations. To select an item, point the cursor to the item you want and click the left mouse button.
To close the pop-up menu, click the left mouse button inside the Viewer Window.

Tip
You can easily go around an object and check the object from behind. First, select "Attention ON" from the pop-up menu and select the object. Then, while holding down the shift key, drag the mouse.

2.0 VS Authoring System Window

This window is the first window that appears in the display and has pull-down menus and buttons for controlling operation and for navigation.

2.1 Pull-down Menus

Menu Function
File "Open" chooses a file and loads VRML files.
"Save" saves the file.
"Save As" saves the file under a different name.
"Exit" closes the Community Place Conductor application.
Edit "Cut" deletes the selected object and stores it on the Clipboard.
"Copy" copies the selected object to the Clipboard.
"Paste" pastes the contents of the Clipboard.
"Group" puts the multiple selected items into a separator.
"Ungroup" undoes the grouping and makes each item a separate entry.
View "Resource Lib," "3D View," "Node List," "Attribute," "Material," and "Transform" open respective windows.
Options Not available for this release.
Help "About" displays the version information of this release of Community Place Conductor.

2.2 Buttons

Button Function
Opens a file.
Saves a file.
Starts operation.
Pauses the current operation.
To restart, click the button again.
Stops the operation.
Navi Lets you navigate in the Viewer Window.
Move Moves the selected object by dragging the mouse.

2.3 Messages

The message field displays the status of the current conditions, such as "Wait For File" and "Loading."

3.0 Resource Library Window

The Resource Library has the following libraries:

Each library has a "tab." Clicking the tab displays its contents.

3.1 Drag and drop operation

You can drag and drop items in the library. When you drag and drop an item, a message, such as, "roate-z tcl has been dropped" appears at the bottom of the Viewer Window.
The effect of drag and drop varies as follows:
Tip
To attach an item to a separator, first select the separator in the Node List Window, then attach the item.

3.2 Displaying the contents of an item

To see the details of the selected item, double-click on an item in the library window. You can check the contents of the following libraries.

3.3 Changing the display mode of items

To switch back and forth from Large Icon to Small Icon mode, click the button on the top right .

3.4 Functions in the pop-up menu

To display the pop-up menu, click the right mouse button inside the Resource Library Window.
The following operations are included in the pop-up menu. To select an item, point the cursor to the item you want and click the left mouse button.
To close the pop-up menu, click the left mouse button inside the Resource Library Window.
Note
Files such as "bin/datalib/XX/libindex.txt" contain library contents data and are read-only files.

4.0 Node List Window

This window displays the tree structure of objects in an outline format. You can check the results of your editing in this window. Double-clicking an entry will show the sub-layers of the tree structure.

4.1 Selecting separators

You can select separators, which you cannot select in the Viewer Window.

5.0 Material Window

This window appears when you select "Material" from the pull-down "View" menu. This window lets you change the Texture, Color Attribute and Color of the selected objects.
The sphere in the upper-left small window shows the current color of the selected object.*

5.1 Changing Texture

Change the column in the Texture field.
If the object already has any texture attached, the column shows the current texture file. By changing this column, you can change the texture file.
To delete texture, clear the column or click the "Clear" button.

5.2 Changing Color Attribute

Change the value of Transparency.

5.3 Changing Color

To display the Windows color panel, click the color tile shown in the Color field or directly edit the RGB elements.
You can edit Ambient, Diffuse, and Specular.

5.4 Applying/Cancelling the changes

The changes you've made in the Material Window will not be applied to the selected objects immediately.
*If you selected multiple objects (by clicking the objects while holding down the shift key), the color/texture of the one you selected first will be displayed.

Warning
If you attach a texture to an object whose color you have changed, the color change is cancelled and you can't see the color through the attached texture.

6.0 Transformation Window

This window appears when you select "Transform" from the pull-down "View" menu. This window lets you move and rotate objects by changing Translation and Rotation.

6.1 Choosing World/Local and Absolute/Relative

You can specify the position/rotation by either the World or Local coordinate system. You can specify the offset coordinates by either absolutely or relatively.

6.2 Setting coordinates and rotation

To specify Translation and Rotation, set the parameters of X, Y, and Z.

6.3 Applying/Cancelling the changes

The changes you've made in the Transformation Window will not be applied to the selected objects immediately.
.

7.0 Attribute List Window

This window shows the status of the selected object. The upper half of the window shows the attributes that you can edit, and the lower half shows the faces that consist of the object.

The changeable attributes are:

You can edit these attributes by diretly entering the literal data, double-clicking the attribute, or using the Function Selection Window.

7.1 Entering the literal data

7.2 Double-clicking the attribute

7.3 Using the Function Selection Window

To open the Function Selection Window, double-click the "Pick" and "Timer" columns.

8.0 Function Selection Window

Double-clicking the "Pick" or "Timer" attribute columns in the Attribute List Window displays the Function Selection Window. This window allows you to attach or detach Event Handlers on objects. You can also change intervals of Timeout Handlers.

8.1 Attaching/detaching Event Handlers

To attach a handler, select the item displayed in the "Available Handlers" box (the left one) and click the right arrow button to move the item to the "Attached Handlers" box (the right one).
To detach, select the item in the "Attached Handlers" box and click the left arrow button.
Note that the Function Selection Window shows only the handlers that you have already applied to an object by dragging and dropping from the Resource Library Window.

8.2 Changing the Interval

To change the Interval setting of a Timeout Handler, change the value in the Interval field at the bottom of the window. The value changes by 10 milliseconds.

8.3 Editing the Event Handlers

Double-clicking the Event Handlers close the Function Selection Window and opens the Script View Window, where you can edit the selected Event Handler.

8.4 Applying changes

To apply the changes and close the window, click the "OK" button at the bottom.

9.0 Script View Window

You can use the Script View Window in two situations: when you browse a script listed in the Resource Library Window or when you edit a script (an Event Handler) attached to an object.

9.1 Browsing

To browse a script in the Resource Library Window, double-click on the item listed in the Resource Library Window.

9.2 Editing

To edit a script attached to an object by dragging and dropping from the Resource Library Window, double-click on the script name (Event Handler) listed in the Function Selection Window.