Instructions for using ScanView

Viewing Controls

• To rotate the view: hold left mouse button and drag
• To pan or translate the view: hold right mouse button and drag
• To zoom the view: hold left and right mouse buttons and drag, or press the Control key and left mouse button and drag
• To change the light direction: hold the middle mouse button and drag, or press the Control key and right mouse button and drag

Menu Options

• File menu

  • Open model...: This menu option lets the user select from the models folder which 3D model to view. Also, the local model detail can be selected. Higher polygon counts provide more detailed model renderings while positioning the model, whereas lower polygon counts may allow faster, more interactive performance on slower computers.

  • Reset all defaults: This menu option resets all of ScanView's settings to their values when the application was first run. Warning: the current viewpoint will be lost when this option is used (the default viewpoint for the default model will be set).

  • Quit: Quit ScanView. The current settings (other than the viewpoint position and direction) will be saved and then loaded when ScanView is run again later.

• View menu

  • View options...: This menu option leads to a dialog box which allows the user to select:
    • The local model detail. Higher polygon counts provide more detailed model renderings while positioning the model, whereas lower polygon counts may allow faster, more interactive performance on slower computers.
    • Whether the low-resolution local model should be rendered using a smooth or flat shaded lighting model.
    • The "shininess" of the model material.

  • Show refined image URL: This menu option will show the URL of the currently displayed refined rendering (if applicable). This URL can be copied from ScanView and pasted into a web browser's address bar for later viewing or into an email message for distribution to others.

  • Reset viewpoint: This menu option resets the viewing position back to the way it was when the model was first loaded.

  • Refine rendering: This menu option is used to explicitly request a refined rendering from the rendering server. This option is mainly useful when automatic refinement mode (see below) is disabled.

• Server menu

  • Server Options...
    • Select rendering server: This list may contain multiple rendering servers on the network that can be used to render the high-resolution images requested by ScanView. As a rule of thumb, users should select the rendering server which is geographically closest to them. If the selected server seems slow or is non-responsive, other servers may work better.
    • Proxy Server: To access the rendering server via an HTTP proxy server or firewall, check the "Use Proxy Server" box and specify the address and port number of the proxy server in the corresponding fields.
    • Refined image quality: This slider allows the user to specify the tradeoff between image size and image quality used by the rendering server when it compresses the images for network transmission. If there is a slow network connection between the local client computer and the rendering server, lower image quality settings may yield image updates with shorter delays.

  • Automatic refining: By default, automatic refinement mode is enabled, which causes a remotely rendered image to be requested after each change to the model view. If the user turns off automatic refinement, image updates must be explicitly requested (see above). This menu option toggles the automatic refinement mode.

• Help menu

  • About this model: Shows details and copyright information pertaining to the local models. Also provides a link to online information about the remote models used by the rendering server.

  • Help with controls: Shows ScanView's mouse controls.

  • Go to online instructions: Opens this webpage in a browser window.

  • Go to ScanView website: Opens the main ScanView webpage in a browser window.

  • About ScanView: Shows information about ScanView, including version number, credits, and copyright.

Status bar indicators

• Polygon counts (left): This indicator displays the number of polygons of the local model (the user can select this value when selecting a model to view) as well as the number of polygons of the remote model rendered by the rendering server. The number of polygons of the remote model will change depending on the viewpoint for some models (in general, closer viewpoints will cause higher resolution models to be rendered).

• Refined rendering request status (right): The refined rendering request indicator will provide information pertaining to the status of the current refined rendering request. The status bar will say when a refined rendering is being requested from the rendering server, when the rendering has been received, when a request has been cancelled, and when there has been some error in the process of obtaining a refined rendering. Error messages will always be prefixed with the string "ERROR:" to make them obvious. If errors are encountered in communication with the rendering server, this likely means that the server is currently encountering some sort of problem. If these errors are encountered, please run ScanView again later; the server problem may be fixed by then.

Frequently Asked Questions

Back to ScanView homepage