INTRODUCTION:
TERMINOLOGY:
INTERFACE:
TOOL PALETTE

WINDOWS AND PALETTES
MODELING WINDOWS
CAMERA WINDOW
Tools in the Camera View
Using the Shaded View
GENERAL DIALOG
SAVE and OPEN DIALOGS
HIERARCHY DIALOG
SNAP PALETTE
PREFERENCES

MENU REFERENCE
OPERATIONS REFERENCE
GENERAL REFERENCE
EXAMPLES

WINDOWS AND PALETTES

MODELING WINDOWS
The modeling windows are the 3 orthographic views used to create and edit a model. Their names consist of the Project name, a colon, and their direction. (i.e. MyProject:Down). For the direction, treat the window as a real window: Down means that the user looks Down into the model space, North means looking north, etc. The directions can be changed: if the default (Compass) is confusing, you may opt to use Drafting (left/right, front/back, up/down) or Cartesian (XYZ). See Preferences for details on changing the direction names. Note that changing the name has no effect on the model or the display: it is purely a user convenience. Swapping the direction (UP instead of DOWN) is not supported.
The modeling windows look from 3 directions into a volume of space which (hopefully) contains your model. They may have different scales, but their CENTERS are always located at the same point and they are always aligned to their respective axes. The windows can be treated as being infinitely far away from their focus point: all points within a window¹s frame are visible, regardless of their depth. This means that objects may be visible in one window and not in others. In general, you will find that keeping window scales close is more often useful.
You are free to close any modeling window at any time. This is a good way to save memory. Closing all 3 modeling windows plus the Camera window will close the Project (you will have the chance to save your work or change your mind). When rendering, it is often desirable to close all but one Modeling window and shrink it to its minimum size to make as much memory as possible available to the rendering engine.

Model Window Controls
There are several small buttons located at the bottom of each modeling window, in addition to the rulers.
The left 2 buttons (arrows) refer to the other Windows. For example, in the North window, an arrow pointing left is actually pointing West. Clicking this button would bring the West window to the front (opening it if it is closed). These buttons allow quick movement between the 3 windows based on the direction that you wish to look, handy when one window has been expanded to cover most of the screen and the others are hidden. The Camera button works the same way, bringing up the Camera Window.
The 2 Magnifier buttons zoom the window in or out (factor of 2). Command-clicking a button affects all the windows (actually, it matches all scales to the new scale of the window that was clicked, rather than zooming all windows).
Fit alters the scale so that the current selection is centered and fills the window. Command sets the same scale for all open windows.
The Pencil (also found on the Camera Window) turns off ghosting in inactive windows when it is off (a red line is drawn across it). (This has no effect in the active window). This reduces the load on the computer, allowing more to be drawn in real time when performing an interactive operation. (This is especially useful with larger window sizes: if one window covers most of the screen, there is no need to spend time updating the others). The Pencils are off by default in the Camera Window, on in the 3 modeling windows.
The Rulers replace the standard Macintosh scrollbars. They display the numeric location of the view (rounded to one decimal place). The ruler markings always align with the grid if it is active. Clicking and dragging in a ruler scrolls the window exactly like the Hand (H) does in the window. The rulers update to reflect scrolling and scale changes. They do not respond to clicks: you must drag to move the view.

CAMERA WINDOW
The Camera window is a perspective view of the model. It is inactive unless a Camera and a Focus have been created (see Render Menu and Auto Create Camera). It uses the same background as the modeling windows and draws splines or patches only (no points). Once a Camera and Focus have been defined there is no way to delete them: you can either close the Camera Window or move the Camera and Focus very close together (close enough deactivates the Camera View).
The Camera Window can display a wireframe (spline only) or shaded (patch only) version of the model. Currently, shading uses only the Quick Colors set for each patch (see Texture Menu). The display mode is controlled by 4 buttons at the bottom of the window, which are covered in the section on Using the Shaded View. The shaded view is interruptible: you are free to do other things while waiting for it to redraw. The wireframe view (like the modeling views) is not interruptible; it¹s not a hard feature to add, but the speed of these windows has made it unnecessary so far.
The camera view is always FROM the Camera (appears as a small circle in the modeling windows) TO the Focus (a small X). These are created at the current cursor position (see Render Menu) or automatically (see Auto Create Camera). Creating a second one of either has the effect of moving the old one to the new position: you cannot have multiple cameras (a View Palette that selects between multiple Cameras and Focus Points is planned as part of the animation tools). The Focus has no actual focusing effect: it sets direction only.
There are orientation rules for the camera view, but they aren¹t very useful in practice: in essence, up in the Modeling Window is up in the Camera Window unless you¹re looking straight up or down, in which case North becomes up (using geographic coordinates). Experiment until you understand how it works.

Tools in the Camera View
Editing in the Camera Window is not supported in this release, and clicking in this window has the same effect no matter which Tool is in use. The cursor changes to reflect the modifier keys in effect: for Command, a large X; for Option/Shift, the appropriate magnifier symbol.

Click - move the 3D Cursor to the approximate location clicked. This location will be in the ³plane² of the focus, i.e. a 2D plane containing the focus and perpendicular to the line between the Camera and Focus.
Shift - Zoom In (factor of two). This is done by moving the Camera towards the focus and IS undoable (the Lens Length is NOT changed).
Option - Zoom Out (factor of two). See Zoom In above.
+ Command - recenter the Camera View on the clicked point. This is done by simultaneously moving the Camera and Focus and IS undoable.

Controls for the Camera View
There are several controls available for the Camera view, located in the menu bar at the bottom
The icon on the left (showing a tipped camera), along with the adjacent numeric field, controls the camera roll. You can type or paste a value into the field, adjust it with the thumbwheel feature, or click and drag (horizontally) in the icon, which is a Slide Widget. The results are ALWAYS displayed in real time in the camera window.
On the right edge, there is a Slide Widget and another numeric field for lens length (Zoom). This is used the same as the roll control above. Zoom corresponds roughly to the field of view of a 35mm camera with a 50mm (normal) lens.
The Camera mode is controlled by a popup menu next to the roll controls: it is initially set to Wireframe (like the modeling windows, less the points). Other modes are discussed below.
Camera updating is controlled by another popup, next to the lens length control. It is normally set to ³No Realtime,² meaning that the window is redrawn at the end of an operation (mouse button is released). It can be set to Splines (updating only the splines, like the Modeling Windows), or (if NOT in Wireframe mode) to Patches, which updates a shaded image in real time. This obviously requires much more effort by the computer, and slows things down. IMPORTANT: when using one of the QuickDraw 3D camera modes, this is ignored and updating ALWAYS takes place in Patch mode.
Using the Arrow (A) tool to drag the camera in a modeling window (the cursor becomes a camera) or the Focus (the cursor becomes a large X) is also reported in real time. This is the easiest way to set the view parameters. Option-dragging either object moves BOTH at once.
The Camera Window has no scroll bars: it is not adjustable except by adjusting the view controls or Camera/Focus locations.

Using the Shaded Views
Spline-based wireframes can be confusing, since they don¹t fill space the way polygons do. The shaded versions are easier to interpret but have a few limitations. Chief among them is the fact that the preview takes MUCH more effort to create (and is consequently slower).
You should avoid highly curved surfaces; for instance, while it is physically possible to construct a sphere from 4 patches instead of the usual 10, you won¹t like how it looks in the camera view. See Patches.
Shaded (PatchDance¹s native mode)
This is flat shaded and POLYGONAL: images are faceted, with a limited degree of patch subdivision. Unlike a high quality rendering, color tones are NOT continuous. The image has a ³patchwork² appearance and is not based on lighting: it does not consider any lamps you may have placed in a scene. It IS fast enough to be used in real time, which is its purpose. It also requires much less memory than the QuickDraw 3D modes.
Using the QuickDraw 3D View
There are 3 camera modes available that are based on QuickDraw 3D. They tend to have more realistic effects (they do consider lamps in the scene) but are slower and require much more memory to use. All of these modes automatically make use of any installed QuickDraw 3D accelerator cards.
Using these features require that you have the QuickDraw 3D shared library installed on your computer. This in turn requires that you have at least 16MB of RAM (and several free). If you don¹t, this won¹t work (and you¹ll see an alert). While not officially supported by Apple, QuickDraw 3D has been successfully operated on 8MB computers using RAMDoubler. Contact Tech Support for details if you¹d like to try this.
Mesh (Quick) - This is the fastest preview available that provides realistic shading. The drawback is the limited degree of subdivision and consequently the faceted appearance. This works best on lathed objects, worst on objects containing 3 sided patches (spheres).
Mesh (Better) - This is similar to the Quick Mesh mode, with more subdivision. It provides much better results (with spheres especially) at a fairly modest additional cost.
NURBS - This displays PatchDance¹s spline surfaces as NURBS, providing a very high quality (but slow) preview. There are a few known problems, mainly involving 3 sided and/or highly curved patches. (You can see this with a sphere. Note that Subdividing ONCE improves the image considerably).
WARNING: Displaying large meshes (whether created by PatchDance or another QuickDraw 3D modeler) can cause problems. PatchDance assumes that any image is composed of CURVED patches that must be faceted to display well as a mesh. In the interest of speed, very little testing is done before attempting to display. This can cause a mesh (which is already subdivided) to be subdivided even further, producing a VERY large number of faces. A partial fix for this is planned for the next release.

GENERAL DIALOG
The General dialog is opened by selecting General... from the Windows menu. It displays miscellaneous system and model information and provides numeric control over the 3D Cursor, the modeling grid, and the coordinate and units mode.
The top section displays selected/deselected/hidden status for points, splines, and patches in the current model. This area is still under construction, and may simply be wrong on occasion. As of this writing, all point data is accurate, but counts of selected and hidden splines and patches must be updated by clicking the small checkmark before being used (These fields display a "?" when their value is uncertain.) There are no controls available in this area.
The next section displays the current 3D Cursor position. Adjusting a value here causes the Cursor to move. Note that this display does NOT continuously update (when the mouse is dragged); it changes when the mouse button is RELEASED. For real-time cursor information, use other windows (such as for the Mover (D), Scaler (S), and Rotator (R) tools) which display real time information in several different formats. The Rotator (R) dialog, for instance, can display an angle which is useful as a protractor.
The middle section controls the modeling grid, which operates just like grids in every other program with a few additions. Show Grid becomes Hide Grid when clicked. Grid Spacing is self explanatory. Clicking Grid Center resets the grid to the 3D Cursor position (it starts out at 0,0,0). Finally, the Units popup sets the measuring units in use. Numbers following the units name (Inches / 12) refer to the number of ruler divisions.
The lower sections control the coordinate system in use. Normally PatchDance uses an ³absolute² coordinate system (0,0,0, the 3D Cursor position at startup). When the Relative Coords checkbox is checked, a second, relative coordinate system is invoked. It starts out equal to the absolute coordinates, but can be reset to the 3D Cursor position by clicking Set Origin. When this is done, all operations will use and display relative coordinates (the 3D Cursor position when the origin was set becomes 0,0,0). Absolute coordinates cannot be changed, though the Grid can be recentered at a different location.
The final line displays available memory. Low memory situations may significantly degrade performance, especially on memory-intensive operations like large Pastes. You might also want to save your work more often: PatchDance has not yet been extensively tested under low memory conditions.

SAVE and OPEN DIALOGS
These are invoked by the various save/open commands under the file menu. They are essentially the same as the standard Macintosh file dialogs with the addition of a file type popup menu and a checkbox (Options).
Selecting a file type from the popup has the expected effect. When you save a Project, the chosen format is remembered and used for that Project from then on (until changed by Save AsŠ.) Save CopyŠ allows you to make copies in different formats without affecting the default. PatchDance allows you to work transparently in any supported format. The native format is much faster, however, and others may not be able to save all the characteristics of a model.
Options calls up an optional dialog (after the File dialog is dismissed) that allowing you control various format-specific file settings. Settings you make are saved and reused (until changed) whenever the checkbox is checked (the dialog still appears).

HIERARCHY DIALOG (Grouping)
The Hierarchy system was completely redone for v0.4b4. The new arrangement not only works better, but has been substantially simplified. Files containing hierarchy information from earlier versions may not open correctly: our feedback suggests that this feature was so little used to date that fixing old files was not necessary. An example file is provided, containing a simple hierarchy: you may wish to refer to it and try things out while while reading the remainder of this section. If you make a mess, just revert and try again.
The Hierarchy window contains a list of names and a number of buttons; those who have used previous versions may notice that many buttons have been removed, making the system much simpler to use and losing very little functionality.
The Hierarchy system is PatchDance¹s equivalent of other programs¹ Group function. It allows you to build a hierarchic naming system for a model, based on points, splines, and patches, then access (select or hide) any individual part or group of parts by name. This is how animation works, by the way: by applying transformations to names.
Note that there is as yet no mechanism for linking objects so that moving one automatically moves the other the Name Arrow (N), when fully activated, is intended for this purpose. For now, you can select any object (and all its subobjects) and operate on them with any of the usual tools.
You may assign names to selected points, splines (actually, their endpoints), and patches (actually, their corner points). Since these are done independently, you can in effect name a given point several times: this is useful, for example, when naming patches individually for texturing purposes, since 2 patches may share points and splines.
The scrolling list of Names is designed to resemble a standard Finder list view as much as possible, with a few exceptions discussed below. Generally, you select a row by clicking its icon (or to the left, if it¹s not a Folder or Patch with a twist down triangle). Clicking in the text will select it for editing (exactly the same way as in the Finder, including the Return and Enter keys): the names you use, like Texture names, are solely a user convenience and can be changed, duplicated, or ignored at will. If a row is selected, clicking one of the Properties buttons will perform that action (select, hide, etc.) on the named object (and all subobjects, in the case of a folder or path). Showing or Selecting a Path also snaps the 3D Cursor to the Path¹s start point and (for Select) selects the direction point if applicable.
The small icon to the left of each row is the type of object contained in it: a question mark means empty. The others are points, splines, patches, Folders, and Paths. If you have doubts, they are listed in order in the row of small filter buttons below the window. These buttons behave like checkboxes. They are all on (highlighted green) by default; turning one off causes objects of that type not to be displayed. ALL resets them all to on; CLR turns them all off.
Click the Name Objects buttons to assign all selected objects to the currently selected name. Folders and Paths, however, can ONLY contain other names (not points, etc). Clicking the Folder or Path buttons does not rename anything but creates a new Folder/Path CONTAINING the selected name. Clicking the Path button only works if you have designated a Spline Path by snapping the 3D Cursor to it. Paths can be renamed to Folders: this discards the path information. Renaming a Folder to a Path requires that you provide a spline path as usual.
In general, operations that create new objects do not preserve the hierarchy (Duplicate produces an unnamed object). Also, certain operations that replace existing objects with new ones can lose hierarchy information (Subdivided Patches and all the divided splines/new points are unnamed). So far we can¹t think of a way to do this that always ³does the right thing!²
Select, Hide, etc. by name may always be undone as usual, but most other operations on names are not undoable. Changing a name or moving it around is permanent; renaming an object is also permanent but has no effect on later undos or redos of modeling operations: they are based on the ACTUAL objects affected.
Differences from the Finder
The list is not sorted (the Finder sorts by name, date, label, etc.) You can drag names at will to reorder them, but you cannot drag anything out of the window. When you click and drag, a heavy black line appears to show where the name will go if the mouse button is released. If you drag INTO a folder (this will be obvious) the name becomes the first INSIDE the folder; otherwise it is placed below it (after it) at the same indentation level. Important: You must drag onto a Folder/Path ICON to place a name first in its list. If a folder is open, a line beneath means to place the dragged name AFTER the folder (below all the displayed contents).
Pressing a letter scrolls the list to the first name beginning with that letter; pressing it again (with the same row selected) moves to the NEXT row starting with the letter. (Press a letter repeatedly to cycle through all names beginning with it.) You cannot use the Tab key to move alphabetically through the list (it moves to the next line).
Using the Option key:
Option-backspace/forward delete removes a ROW (NOT any selected text). They work slightly differently, try them to see how. Important: deleting a name has no effect on its contents (except that they become unnamed). To delete a name¹s contents, you must Select them and delete normally from a Modeling Window.
Option-Tab creates a new name. The name is selected for editing (so you can press option-tab then type a name).
Option-close (clicking the triangle for an open folder or path) does not close any subfolders: the hierarchy will reopen exactly as it was when closed.
Option-open causes all subfolders and paths to be opened.
Option-drag copies rather than moving names; however, the copy is EMPTY (names no objects).
SNAP PALETTE
The Snap Palette is opened from the Windows menu (Snaps) or by double/option-clicking the Arrow (A). It is used to set the current snap mode and to perform snaps.
The Palette consists of a list of available Snap types. This list is growing as new types are added. Most are self explanatory, but a few points may be of help:
Center means the center of the current selection¹s bounding box; Centroid means the calculated center of the current selection. ONLY points are considered in either case (splines have no effect one way or the other). For symmetrical objects, the result is usually the same.
Snapping to the nearest selected/deselected point first looks for a point within about 50 pixels; if it finds nothing, it scans the entire database. It will be quicker if you start fairly near the point you want.
Snap to Grid won¹t work unless the grid is showing.
The absolute origin is point (0,0,0), where the Cursor starts out in a new, empty Project. Current origin reflects any relative origin that may be in effect (See General Dialog). Initially and when not in relative mode, it is the same as the absolute origin.

Clicking a snap type causes a snap to occur in 3 dimensions; command-clicking constrains the snap to 2 dimensions, meaning that the 3D Cursor moves in the plane of the current or last active Model Window, but not in depth. Note that this palette behaves somewhat like a tearoff menu, and may become one in a later version.
The radio buttons to the right of the list set the snap mode used when a Tool is command-clicked. They are completely independent of the snap list. Snap types that don¹t make sense with tools have no radio buttons.

PREFERENCES
The Preferences Dialog is opened by selecting Preferences from the Edit menu. This is a modal dialog: it must be dismissed before doing anything else.
The largest (upper) part of the dialog is a set of Color Buttons used to set interface colors. You may set any or all interface colors without restriction (make sure you have decent contrast!) and they will always display correctly, even in 8 bit color (the recommended setting). You cannot directly set the mouse cursor colors, but they adjust to provide contrast with the background color you set. (The 3D Cursor is displayed in the current Marker color). Also, you cannot change the QuickColors used in the Camera view: you are limited to the 15 colors provided. This capability may be added if there is sufficient demand.
Notice that there is a small color button called the Palette: this doesn¹t control any colors and is not saved. It allows you to swap colors between 2 other buttons by providing a place to temporarily paste and store a color.
When you adjust colors, the visible parts of the Modeling Windows will be updated; by placing objects of interest where they can be seen, you can ³try out² new color choices without having to close and reopen the dialog.
Two buttons, Get Factory and Get Default, allow you to reset the Preferences Dialog to either the built-in or the most recently set default preferences. If no default has been set (or the Preferences file has been deleted from your System folder) Get Default also returns the Factory settings.
Small Windows (default off) controls the default window size. PatchDance normally sizes its windows to fill the screen; Small Windows are sized to fill a 640 x 480 screen. This happens automatically if free RAM is low (currently, less than about 1.7 MB when opening a Project).
Mode (the left popup) controls the names of the 3D axes. It is normally set to compass (North/South/East/West/Up/Down). Two other modes are available: Drafting (Left/Right/Back/Front/Up/Down) and Cartesian (XYZ). These settings have absolutely no effect on the program other than the Window titles; they are purely a user convenience.
Undo (the right popup) sets the number of Undo levels allowed. Note that this can vary from Project to Project. Reducing the Undo levels to 1 can save a significant amount of memory (depending on the operations to be undone); turning Undo off saves very little extra and is not normally recommended. PatchDance¹s Undo mechanism is quite efficient and you should notice little or no performance effect from using it.
The four buttons at the bottom close the dialog. The default (press Return/Enter) is Cancel, which throws away any Preference changes you may have made. The other three choices all set the current Preferences and may have other effects as well:
This Time sets the current preferences but doesn¹t save them: they last until you quit the program.
This Project stores the settings with the current Project the next time the Project is saved. This feature is on trial; it might be useful when moving saved Projects between different computers.
Set Default saves the settings as the new application defaults, creating or updating the Preferences file stored in your System Folder. These settings will be used for all new Projects. To reset the defaults, you can either save new ones or just delete the Preferences file, which resets the defaults to the factory settings.

IMPORTANT: A new Preference setting is under construction (Alternate Interface) and may be included with this Manual. See the READ ME file for more information.

Next Section: MENU REFERENCE