3D viewer

Once you’ve imported a CAD file, you can explore it in the 3D viewer as follows.

Zoom

To zoom in and out of your model, use the scroll wheel on your mouse.

Pan

To pan your model (i.e. move the view without changing the zoom or rotation), click the scroll wheel on your mouse and drag. Alternatively, hold Ctrl on your keyboard then right-click your model and drag.

Rotate

To freely rotate your model, right-click and drag.

If you right-click a point on the model’s geometry and drag, you will rotate the model around that point.

You can also rotate your model using the view cube in the bottom-right.

To rotate your model in 45 degree increments in a particular direction, click one of the arrows around the cube.

You can also click one of the cube’s faces (Top, Bottom, Left, Right, Front, or Back) to view the model from that orientation.

Select a face or edge

With (Default Cursor) selected in the toolbar, left-click a face or edge of a part to select it. To add additional faces or edges to your selection, click them also.

You can also use the dedicated selection tools: (Face Selection) and (Edge Selection). In addition, the tool lets you draw a rectangle to select multiple faces.

To remove a face or edge from your selection, click it again. Alternatively, to clear your selection, click an empty area of the 3D viewer.

With a face selected, you can apply a force to it using the toolbar on the Physics tab.

Select a part

With (Default Cursor) selected in the toolbar, double-click a CAD part to select it. To add additional parts to your selection, single-click them.

You can also use the dedicated selection tool: (Part Selection). When this tool is active, single-click a CAD part to select it.

With a part selected, you can apply a material to it in the Properties panel.

Select a load or fixture

On the  tab, loads and fixtures are visually represented on your model. Select one of these to show its properties in the Properties panel.