Tutorials PartCraft help Walkthroughs
The view cube
Click a face, edge or corner of the cube in the corner of the view to look from there, drag it to orbit, turn the compass ring, step around a face-on view, and go home.
Written for PartCraft 0.3. The same help is inside the app: press F1.
The view cube sits at the top right of the 3D view (not while sketching or on the drawing sheet). It turns with the view, so it always shows which way you are looking: Top is the part's +Y side (the Top plane), Front the +Z side (the Front plane faces you when you look at it), Right the +X side. It stays see-through until you point at it.
Look from a side, an edge or a corner
- Point at the cube. The part under the pointer lights up: the middle of a face, an edge (it lights on both faces that share it) or a corner (on all three faces).
- Click it. The view turns to look from there, keeping the same middle and zoom.
There are 26 places to click: 6 faces (Top, Bottom, Front, Back, Left, Right), 12 edges and 8 corners. A corner gives the classic three-quarter view; an edge looks halfway between two faces.
Clicking Front, Top or Right gives the same views as Views in the toolbar, without the zoom to fit.
Orbit by dragging the cube
Drag the cube to turn the view, the same as orbiting in the view itself. A drag is never taken as a click, so you can grab the cube anywhere.
The compass ring
The ring under the cube carries N, E, S and W.
- Drag the ring to turn the model about the vertical axis, as if it stood on a turntable. The ring follows the pointer.
- Click a letter to look from that side, keeping how steeply you look down. In a view from straight above, the letter you click goes to the bottom of the screen.
Face-on views: arrows
When you look straight at a face, small arrows appear round the cube:
- The four triangles bring the face on that side to the front: the triangle above the cube shows the face that was at the top, and so on.
- The two curved arrows at the top right turn the picture a quarter turn clockwise or counter-clockwise, without changing which face you look at. Use them to turn a plan so that a long wall runs across the screen.
Home
The house button at the top left of the cube goes back to the three-quarter view and fits the part in. fn ←Home does the same while the cube has the keyboard focus.
With the keyboard
TabTab to the cube, then:
| Key | Does |
|---|---|
| ←← / →→ | choose a side, edge or corner round the cube, in eighth-turn steps (screen readers say which) |
| ↑↑ / ↓↓ | choose a higher or lower one, up to Top or down to Bottom |
| ReturnEnter or SpaceSpace | look from the one chosen |
| ⇧←Shift+← / ⇧→Shift+→ | turn the view a quarter turn about the vertical axis |
| fn ←Home | the home view |
| EscEsc | leave the cube |
Keys pressed on the cube stay with the cube: they do not start PartCraft tools.
Axis icon or nothing instead
Open Settings (⌘,Ctrl+,), the PartCraft tab, and set Corner indicator to View cube (the start), Axis icon (a small X, Y, Z marker at the bottom left: X red, Y green, Z blue) or None. This browser remembers the choice. See PartCraft settings.