Mouse Manipulation of Models

The X axis is horizontal in the plane of the screen, the Y axis is vertical in the plane of the screen, and the Z axis is perpendicular to the plane of the screen. By default, using a three-button mouse (although fewer buttons can be workable), models are:

Also by default, Mouse button assignments can be changed in the Mouse preferences.

Additionally holding down the Shift key reduces the speed (mouse sensitivity) of manipulations in the main window and Side View by a factor of 10.

See also: Movement Mouse Mode, Constrained Move, other input devices

Activation for Motion

A model must be active (activated for motion) to move in response to mouse manipulations. Models are active by default. Toggling model activation status allows users to manually position one model relative to another. Models can be activated/deactivated using:

One- and Two-Button Mice

On a Mac with a one-button mouse, buttons 2 and 3 can be emulated with the option and (apple) keys, respectively. For example, click-dragging with the option key pressed performs XY-translation (assuming default Mouse preferences). In Mac OS 10.5 (Leopard), emulation of a 3-button mouse is off by default, but can be turned on in the Input section of the X11 preferences.

A two-button mouse is also workable. Starting with the default mappings, if the right button of a two-button mouse is not already performing XY-translation, use the Mouse preferences to reassign XY-translation to button 3. The right button of a two-button mouse should then work for XY-translation, leaving the left button for rotation (the default). Scaling can be performed with the Side View or the command scale instead of with the mouse.

Other Input Devices

Chimera also supports the 3Dconnexion SpaceNavigatorTM input device. Other 3Dconnexion devices such as the SpaceExplorerTM may also work. The 3Dconnexion driver must be installed, except on Linux, where spacenavd (an open-source alternative to the 3Dconnexion driver) must be installed. Thanks to Thomas Margraf, University of Hamburg, for the Linux implementation.

Besides a cap that can be tilted, rotated, and pushed/pulled in any direction, the SpaceNavigatorTM has two buttons with the possible Chimera functions:

The Zoom Direction controls how the cap coordinate system relates to the screen coordinate system: Zoom direction and other settings are shown in system dialogs (for example, the Windows Control Panel or Mac System Preferences), although some of the Mac controls appear to have no effect.

Accelerators (keyboard shortcuts) for changing SpaceNavigatorTM behaviors:

Accelerators are disabled by default. One way to enable their use is with the command ac.


UCSF Computer Graphics Laboratory / April 2010