How to use PicView

Within this document a PicView viewer is activated by selecting an image. If correctly installed, after a few seconds a viewer like the one below will appear preloaded with the appropriate PicTree.

Three sliders control the following (using the left mouse button):

- right slider: UP rotates up, DOWN rotates down

- bottom slider: LEFT rotates left, RIGHT rotates right

- left slider: UP scales up (makes larger), DOWN scales down (makes smaller)

If the arrow button is selected at either end of an angle slider, the value is incremented by 1 degree. If the region between the marker and the arrow is selected, the value is incremented by 10 degrees.

On most systems the mouse can be used to control the following.

- left button: cursor movement UP rotates up, DOWN rotates down, LEFT rotates left, RIGHT rotates right (same as right and bottom sliders)

- center button: UP scales up (makes larger), DOWN scales down (makes smaller) (same as left slider)

- right button: hold down to rotate about the center of the screen (updates when release)

If the right mouse button is activated without cursor movement the scale and viewpoint will be reset.

The menu buttons along the top are as follows:

- Objects: if multiple PicTrees are available, select the one to be viewed

QUIT - close PicView viewer - Tumble: START/STOP: start or stop tumbling (????)

RESET: reset scale and viewpoint to initial values

- Help: HELP: describes use of PicView

ABOUT: brief description of PicView (version, etc.)

CAPTION: information about the object or objects being viewed

- Options: customized features contained in PicTree files (not available with miniPicView)

The keyboard can also be used as follows:

H - Help A - About C - Caption 0 to 9 - Object Selection

G - Start Tumble space - Stop Tumble R - Reset Q - Quit

NOTES:

(1) The PicView window can be changed to any size (the exact method depends on the sindow system). The object will be automatically scaled based on the largest dimension of the window (width or height).

(2) PicView initialization information can be included in .ptr files. This includes viewpoint, scale, viewpoint limits, window size, display mode, initial tumble mode (on or off), etc.

(3) All PicTrees shown in this document use 8-bit mapped color (because most users will have an 8-bit display). Other color formats are 16-bit color (5-bit red and blue, 6-bit green), 24-bit color (8-bit red, green and blue) and 32-bit color (8-bit red, green, blue and alpha).

(4) There may be color changes caused by your window system (the version of PicView used here simply passes an 8-bit image and a color map to whatever operating system is being used).

(5) While multiple instances of PicView can be operated simultaneously, we suggest that you close them before opening one ones to conserve system resources and improve performance (especially on smaller machines).

(6) A PicView viewer can easily become hidden behind a document and forgotten. Also, a PicView viewer left in tumble mode will eat up a lot of machine cycles.

(7) The operation of PicView can be extensively customized by RPL instructions embedded in PicTree files.

(8) The images generated by PicView are generated on YOUR machine, NOT by some computer on the Internet! (Some people become confused about these things.)