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giram(1) Giram manual pages giram(1)
NAME
giram - Giram Is Really A Modeller
SYNOPSIS
giram [options]
DESCRIPTION
giram is a simple volumic (as opposed as meshed) 3D modeller. It
allows you to create a 3D scene which you can save as a POV-Ray source
file or AutoCAD DXF.
FRAMES AND VIEWS
When Giram starts, only the Giram Toolbox is open. Choosing File, then
New View presents a dialog box offering to display several viewports.
View X-Y
"Front View", with the X and Y axis of the frame corresponding
to the X and Y axis of the monitor. Allows you to adjust an
object's horizontal and vertical position.
View X-Z
"Top View", with the frame's Z axis placed along the monitor's Y
axis. Allows you to move an object left/right and
forward/backward.
View Z-Y
"Side View", with the Z axis of the frame placed along the X
axis of the monitor, and the Y axis placed normally. Allows you
to change the depth and height of objects.
Camera View
Shows the frame in 3 dimensions. Unlike the other views,
objects cannot be translated, rotated, or scaled using the
mouse. The position and direction of the camera can be
adjusted.
If you leave the drop-down list at its default setting of New Frame,
the viewports will show a newly created, empty Frame. Other currently
open frames are also available. When a frame is first opened, all the
views are shown.
To pan in any of the viewports (except the camera), use the scrollbars
along both sides of the window. Zooming can be done by right-clicking
within the window and selecting View, then Zoom in or Zoom out. Fit to
Selection and Fit to Scene will pan and zoom the viewport
appropriately.
SELECTIONS
Before you can modify a scene, you have to tell Giram which objects are
going to be modified. This is what the Selection Tool is for. With it
you can select an object or group of objects, or change the contents of
the current selection. Once selected, objects can be a translated,
rotated or scaled.
To select an object, just click on it. By default, all objects under
the cursor are selected. As scenes can get quite complicated when
displayed in 2D, and shapes are displayed stacked up on top of one
another, this may not be what you want. So with Giram you can modify
the way objects are selected with the [Shift], the [Ctrl] and [Alt]
Modifier keys.
No Modifier
All the objects under the cursor are selected. Previous
selections are forgotten.
[Shift]
All the objects under the cursor are added to the selection.
[Ctrl] All the objects under the cursor are removed from the
selection.
[Ctrl]+[Shift]
Select only the objects that are under the cursor AND were in
the previous selection.
[Alt] The selection is made by the 'first' object under the cursor -
the 'first' object being the one that is higher up in the CSG
heiracy (basically the one that was created first). Following
clicks in the same spot, with the [Alt] modifier, will select
the next object under the cursor and so on...
[Alt]+[Shift]
The 'first' object under the cursor is added to the current
selection. Following clicks in the same spot, with the
[Alt]+[Shift] modifier, will add the next object under the
cursor to what were the selection before the first click, and so
on...
[Alt]+[Ctrl]
The 'first' object under the cursor is removed from the current
selection. Following clicks in the same spot, with the
[Alt]+[Ctrl] modifier, will removed the next object under the
cursor from the selection as it was before the first click, and
so on...
[Alt]+[Ctrl]+[Shift]
The 'first' object under the cursor will become the new
selection, but only if it was already in the previous selection,
otherwise nothing is selected. Following clicks in the same
spot, with the [Alt]+[Ctrl]+[Shift] modifer, will do the same
thing but with the 'next' object.
THE TOOLBOX
The toolbox is the first window to open when Giram starts. Items in
its dropdown menu apply to the program as a whole, though some commands
will affect the most recently opened file. Giram's toolbox can be set
to either static or dynamic mode; to change between them choose
Preferences from the File menu.
The "Static Toolbox" shows all the icons in one large block. The
problem is that there are quite a few tools to pick from, and the
toolbox can take up quite a bit of screen real estate.
The "Dynamic Toolbox" tries to use as little screen space as possible.
It puts the tools into categories. The selection tool and the
transformations (i.e. move, rotate, and scale) remain in place. The
shapes are grouped into categories: 3D shapes, 2D shapes, lathes,
lights and patches. To pick a shape from the Dynamic Toolbox which is
not visible, right-click on an icon that is in the same class and
select the desired shape. A small black triangle in the top-right
corner of an icon indicates that it contains shapes other than the one
visible.
To align shapes preciscely, use the Snap option located in the pop-up
menu's Edit submenu. A grid with the specified sizes can be displayed
and objects can be set to "snap" to it.
When the Rotate Tool or Scale Tool is active, a green cross will appear
near the currently selected object. This indicates the whereabouts of
the 'pivot point' or 'scale centre point' of an object or group of
objects.
Move To move the current selection, simply drag and drop it to the
desired location. Translations can also be performed
non-interactivly using the choosing Operations, Translate from
the pop-up menu.
Rotate To rotate the current selection, press and hold the left mouse
button while moving the mouse. The selection will rotate around
the pivot point in the plane of the active view. To adjust the
pivot point, hold [Ctrl] and click at the new pivot point while
the Rotate Tool is active. Choosing Operations, Rotate from the
pop-up menu allows rotating a specific number of degrees.
Scale To grow or shrink an object, press and hold the left mouse
button while moving the mouse. The center (i.e. the point
which does not move while scaling) can be set by holding [Ctrl]
and clicking. It is also possible to scale an object by
choosing Operations, Scale from the pop-up menu and entering the
scale amount.
Box To create a new rectangular prism, click the left button to
place the first corner, move the cursor, and release the button
to place the second corner.
Cylinder
To create a new cylinder, click to place the center of the
cylinder's base, and drag the mouse pointer vertically to set
the length and horizontally to set the radius.
Plane To create a new infinite plane, click anywhere the viewport
which resembles the desired plane. For example, a click in the
X-Y view will create an infinite X-Y plane (i.e. with a normal
toward the Z vector).
Sphere To create a new sphere, click to place the center of the sphere,
then drag to choose the radius.
SuperEllipsoid
Left click to choose the center of the SuperEllipsoid. A dialog
box appears asking for two exponents of the superellipsoid.
Exponents near zero lead to sharp edge, and exponents greater
than two lead to pinchy objects.
Sor Left click to place the Surface of Revolution, and a dialog box
appears, allowing modification of the key points and a choice of
splines connecting them rather than straight lines.
CSG TREE
The CSG Tree is a window gives you an insight as to how the objects are
connected and related. Clicking on an object's name in the CSG Tree
selects or deselects the object. Currently its only other use is to
allow you to make specific objects invisible by clicking on the eye at
the left of each object's row in the "Visible" column. Note that it is
possible to have an object invisible but selected. If you modify the
selected shapes at this point, the invisible ones will be affected too.
The objects dimensions are in the far right column marked "Info", and
the centre "Tree" shows the graphic artist's version of a directory
tree, and you will find that it works a lot like a File Manager
utility. Logical branches of a complex object can be individually
opened and closed much as directories are on a hard disk.
Eventually this will be a powerful tool showing the structure of your
model and allowing you to assign portions of models to specific groups
and boolean operations.
OPTIONS
giram accepts the following options:
-h, --help
Display this list of commandline options.
-v, --version
Output version information.
-g, --giramrc giramrc
Use an alternate giramrc file.
--system-gimprc gimprc
Use an alternate system gimprc file.
--verbose
Show startup messages.
-c, --console-messages
Display warnings to console instead of a dialog box.
--debug-handlers
Enable non-fatal debugging signal handlers.
--enable-stack-trace [never | query | always>
Debugging mode for fatal signals.
--display display
Use the designated X display.
FILES
$HOME/.giram-0.3/giramrc
COPYRIGHT
Copyright (C) 2001 DindinX
Permission to use, copy, modify, and distribute this software and its
documentation for any purpose and without fee is hereby granted,
provided that the above copyright notice appear in all copies and that
both that copyright notice and this permission notice appear in
supporting documentation.
SEE ALSO
povray(1), x-povray(1), giramrc(5)
AUTHOR
The primary author of Giram is
David Odin, a.k.a. DindinX, who can be reached at
David.Odin@bigfoot.com.
Version 0.3.5 11 October 2001 giram(1)