Scenes in Clara.io are viewed through viewports rendered in WebGL. The application allows for up to four viewports that can be customized in number, layout and size. Each viewport can be navigated separately with options for panning, zooming and orbiting among others.
This section covers working with viewports and the basic navigation.
Clara.io provides a number of options for changing the settings of a viewport to better suit your needs. These options are found under the + button at the top left of each viewport.
Show / Hide Edges displays highlighted edges on the model. Useful for viewing a model’s topology at a glance. Edges are hidden by default.
Show / Hide Grid displays the grid behind objects. Useful for aligning and snapping objects, as well as preserving a sense of scale. The grid is enabled by default.
Frame All zooms the viewport so that all objects in the scene are within view.
Frame Selection zooms the viewport so that the selected objects in the scene are within view.
Show / Hide Stats displays real-time information about the scene including the number of vertices and polygons and the current frames-per-second (FPS) count.
Maximizing Viewports can be done by clicking on the inverted arrows, located on the upper right corner of your OpenGL viewports.
Since viewports on a computer monitor are inherently two dimensional, viewing a three dimensional object requires multiple view points to accurately grasp its form. Viewports show the scene from a camera which can be set to display from the Front, Back, Left, Right, Top, Bottom or from a Perspective. These views can be found in the top left corner of the viewport. The dropdown is labelled as the current view point. In Clara.io there are two types of cameras and it is important to recognize the difference in their behaviour.
Orthographic cameras display the scene objects without projection. This is not how we naturally see the world. Instead, all objects further in the distance appear to be the same size as if they were close up. This is useful for getting an unbiased look at the size of your model. By default, the Front, Back, Left, Right, Top and Bottom viewport orientations are orthographic.
Perspective cameras display the world with projection. This is how we’re accustomed to normally seeing the world. Distant objects appear smaller than if they were close. Most free form observation of 3D objects is done in perspective, and this is how the Perspective option displays the scene.
Viewports can be rendered using a number of different techniques, each with its own set of advantages.
Realistic mode is the most resource intensive but renders the object with the highest fidelity, with advanced lighting effects such as shadows appearing in real time.
Shaded mode shows the object with basic lighting applied. This setting is sufficient for most work in the Perspective view.
Wireframe mode displays only the edges of the object, allowing you to see the topology of the model clearly. This view is standard for any orthographic views.
Bounding Box displays the object as an axis-aligned bounding box (AABB). This option can be used to get a very general view of the layout of objects or to save on performance when there are many high detail models in the scene.