Render Window


The render window is where all data is displayed. It has four main parts: the menu bar, the rendering area, a side button bar, and a bottom bar. The menu bar gives access to options to save/restore the state of Vizamrai and access to the help screens. The rendering area is where the images appear. The mouse can be used to move the camera around (see screen navigation ). The button bars give access to some basic rendering functions (bottom) and camera views (side).


Render Window Menu Bar

File -> Open

Opens an existing Vizamrai state file. A Vizamrai state file (.vstate) contains the state of controls (slider bar values, colors, and other options).

File -> SaveAs

Saves the current state of the Vizamrai controls to a file. Very useful when you have the tool setup the with a view that you like and would like to be able to get back to quickly.

File -> Exit

Exits Vizamrai.

Help -> Help Contents

Online users manual for Vizamrai. If you are reading this you probably have found this already.

Help -> About

Gives the version number for Vizamrai, VTK, and TCL/TK.  Useful when reporting bugs back to the developers.

View Button Bar

The view button bar (left side) contains icons which can be clicked (normally with the left mouse button) to invoke some commands to effect the camera position.  The button bar can be hidden by left clicking on the pullout control on the right side of the panel.

Center

This resets the display by centering the objects in the display window. You need to do this when you load in datasets that are located in a different physical location in the domain or when you load in datasets on a different domain. This is also accessible through the "r" keyboard shortcut.

Pan

By click-dragging (clicking the left mouse button and moving the mouse while holding the button down) will pan the display.  This can also be done using the mouse in the render window (see screen navigation ).

Rotate

By click-dragging (clicking the left mouse button and moving the mouse while holding the button down) will rotate the display.  This can also be done using the mouse in the render window (see screen navigation ).

Zoom

By click-dragging (clicking the left mouse button and moving the mouse while holding the button down) will zoom the display.  This can also be done using the mouse in the render window (see screen navigation ).

Preset Views

The seven little views of the teapot will move the camera to the view indicated (top, bottom, left, front etc.).  Activate by clicking with the left mouse button.

User Defined Views

The "memory dot" buttons are used to set user defined camera positions and enable you to quickly return to that view. Pressing the button with the left mouse button takes you to the saved view. A right mouse click will set the view to the view currently on the screen. This is very useful for fine tuning a view.  Once you get a view that you like, save it to one of the user defined views before trying to "tweak it". If after tweaking you realize that it looks much worse just pop back to the previous view by left mouse clicking.

Render Button Bar

The render button bar (bottom of display) contains icons which can be clicked (normally with the left mouse button) to invoke some commands to effect the renderer, save the render image and other miscellaneous tasks.  The button bar can be hidden by left clicking on the pullout control on the top of the panel.

Save Image

Save the current image to the file indicated in the control panel for the current render window. This is often used when you are in full screen mode and want to save this image since many OpenGL renderers render directly to the screen buffer you will pick up any overlapping windows that cover the render window.  The keyboard shortcut "o" in the render window can also be used.

Render

Forces a render of the screen. This is used most often when you have turned off the rendering pipeline and want to force a render. This function can also come in handy if the display the window has not refreshed correctly.

Render Pipeline

This toggles the rendering process on/off. When the render pipeline is turned off, the user interface is active but the screen will not be updated. This is very useful for larger datasets; you can set multiple settings (like maybe a slice plane value and min/max on the colormap) without having to wait for each change to redraw.  With the pipeline turned on every change will cause a screen update to provide immediate feedback.  The problem is with large datasets "immediate" feedback isn't very immediate.  You can force a render using the Render button or turn the pipeline back on.

Wireframe/Full Render

Toggles the display between wireframe and full surface drawing. It is claimed on some systems wireframe may be faster than shading for some images. The "w" and "s" keys also can be used to set the drawing mode.  In practice this feature has not proven to be very useful.

Command Line Interface

Starts a command line console at which you can type TCL commands. This is for advanced users only. Pressing the keyboard shortcut  "c" will bring also bring up the command line console.