Main window

 

This is the application main window. In the following, we will describe each part of this window.

> Main toolbar :

It manages the main actions in the application.

  Note : For Apple MAC OS X platforms, you should use the Command key instead of the Control key wherever it applies.
Open (Ctrl+o) Open any of the supported scene (model) 3D file formats.
  And application special files :
  TWS : Townscope Workspace File (text format), contains all the loaded scenes, the defined elements and the defined analyses. When the user loads a TWS file all the previously loaded scenes, defined elements and analyses are all deleted.
  TRF : TownScope Results File (binary format), contains the data used in the calculation and the results of one analysis. In fact, during the execution of any analysis, the results are written directly to this temporary binary file. The user can choose (see Settings/Miscellaneous window) the directory used to store all these files.
  TSX : TownScope Script execution file (text format). This file is equivalent to the TWS file, but when loaded, the execution of the defined analyses starts immediately.
  Important: For all these files, except for the .URB format, only the surfaces elements are imported.
Save Workspace (Ctrl+s) Save the current workspace.
Close WS   Close the current workspace (it asks for any changes saving before). All the loaded scenes are closed, all the defined elements and the defined computations are deleted.
Settings (Ctrl+t) Open the Settings window.
Tools   Pop-up the extra-Tools menu.
View (Ctrl+v) Open the View manager window to edit the view (projection) of the activated scene.
  This button shows the menu of all the supported projection types. On selection, the View manager window is opened with the selected projection and its default values. Here is the list of the supported projections :
  - Parallel projection with rotations around X and Z axes.
  - Perspective projection with rotations around X and Z axes.
  Spherical projections : Any spherical projection is divided into 2 phases : 1) projection form the 3D space to a 3D sphere and 2) projection from the 3D sphere to a plane. The second projection differs according to the following types :
  • Isoaire : It respects solid angles meaning that all areas within the circle are representative of the solid angles intercepted by the surfaces.
  • Stereographic : This is a conform projection meaning that the tangents angles are conserved after projection. A circle drawn on the sphere will thus be projected as a circle in the plane.
  • Equidistant : It respects the vertical angles, which means that the radial dimensions within the circle are directly proportional to the 3D world visual heights.
  • Orthogonal : It respects the view factor between an elementary horizontal surface located at the origin of the axes and any face of the 3D model.
     
  • Solar Paths projection : a bottom up stereographic projection plus solar paths (curves) for one day (15th) of each month of the year and the solar hours paths (curves). The solar paths depends only on the latitude value specified in the Settings window.
More information about spherical projections is available at www.lema.ulg.ac.be/tools/audience in the glossary section.
Define (Ctrl+e) Open the Elements edition window.
Analyses (Ctrl+a) Open the Analyses manager window.
Help (Ctrl+h) Open this help window.
About   Show information about the software (version, copyright,...) and provides hyper-links to the TownScope website and to the software-support email address.
In the complete versions of the software, a Check for updates button is also available. When activated, the update procedure contacts the software website, searches for any update and installs it.
Exit (Ctrl+q) Ask for any changes saving and exits the application.

> Scenes list :

This list contains miniatures of every opened (loaded) scene. These miniatures represents a plan projection of the scene and are labeled with scene name. Possible mouse actions on these miniatures are :

Double click :The scene is activated, the miniature is selected and all the others are unselected. When activated, the scene is rendered in the main view using its last chosen view projection.
Right click :Popups the actions menu on the scene under the mouse pointer :

> Main view pane :

All the drawing and the rendering are done into the pane. It displays the currently activated scene (using its last choosen view type), or the results of inspected calculation.

Mouse actions :

Keyboard actions :
Shortcut Parallel Perspective Spherical Solar paths
Ctrl+UpArrow Forward rotation on X Forward (1) Forward on Y
Ctrl+DownArrow Backward rotation on X Backward (1) Backward on Y
Ctrl+LeftArrow Counterclockwise rotation on Z Turn left (1) Backward on X
Ctrl+RightArrow Clockwise rotation on Z Turn right (1) Forward on X
Ctrl+PageUp - Up on Z
Ctrl+PageDown - Down on Z
Ctrl+Shift+h For Toggles on/off the hidden mode for all projections.
Shift+UpArrow Zoom in Go forward Zoom in
Shift+DownArrow Zoom out Go backward Zoom out
Ctrl+Shift+UpArrow Shift Up the drawing without any changes Up Vertically (3) Shift Up the drawing without any changes
Ctrl+Shift+DownArrow Shift Down the drawing without any changes Down Vertically (3) Shift Down the drawing without any changes
Ctrl+Shift+LeftArrow Shift Left the drawing without any changes Left horizontally (3) Shift Left the drawing without any changes
Ctrl+Shift+RightArrow Shift Right the drawing without any changes. Right horizontally (3) Shift Right the drawing without any changes.
Ctrl+L Refresh the main view pane.

(1): If the spherical projection is a botton-up (or top-down) projection, the forward, backward, left and right actions acts as for the solar paths projection : forward and backward on X and Y axis.

(2): When view angle is lesser, the focus of the perspective view is higher.

(3): The vertical and horizontal directions correspond to the screen X an Y axes.

> View toolbar :

These tools acts on the drawing in the main view pane.

  This tool pops up the short cut actions menu. The actions made throw this menu are only applied to the selected surfaces (if any) in the activated 3D model :
  • Solar Acces,Comfort, Sky Opening, View Lengths : Choosing one of these items lets you :
    • Create for every selected surface a zone analysis element and the correspending analysis.
    • Create a multi-zone element that uses all the selected surfaces as a single analysis element. The calculations and the results viewing will be done on all these surfaces simultaneously.
    All the created items will be added to the Analyses manager window and shown to the user.

  •  
  • Surfaces properties : Open the Surface properties window.
This tool can be used to execute a zoom-in operation in the main view pane. This operation depends on the type of projection currently applied.
  • Plan and Parallel projections : click and drag a rectangle in the main view pane and, the area under the dragged rectangle will be redisplayed and re-centered in full-size of the pane. If you do not drag a rectangle, a zoom in (by 2) and re-center operations are executed at the selected position.
  • Perspective projection : the perspective angle is directly increased without any graphical selection.
  • Spherical projections : a zoom in (by 2) and re-center operations are executed at the graphically selected position.
Zoom out (by 2) the rendered scene.
Drag the scene using the mouse left button.
Reset the current view : restore the default parameters on the current projection.
Captures the current drawing in the main view pane and save it to an image file chosen by the user. It saves ALL (and only) THE VISIBLE AREA of the main view pane.
When activated, this tool generates an MPEG sequence of all the rendered views until the user stops the sequencing by deactivating it. This is a very general tool : each rendered drawing, while it is activated, will be added as a new frame in the mpeg sequence.
  Important: the size of the mpeg sequence file will be bigger if i-) the main view pane size (and so the main window) is bigger, and naturally, ii-) if the number of rendering is higher.

> Notification pane :

The lower part of the main window. It is used to display all simple messages to the user. It shows, for example, the progress status in the execution of the analyses.

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