Navigation & Orientation

Every preview carries always-on navigation aids, plus screenshot export and find-by-ID.

Orientation cube & axis arrows

An always-visible labeled cube sits in the bottom-left corner (RIGHT / LEFT / TOP / BOTTOM / FRONT / REAR) and follows the camera as you orbit. Prominent X (red), Y (green), and Z (blue) axis arrows with letter labels radiate from it. Click a cube face to snap the camera to that canonical axis direction. The label colors adapt to the light / dark scene theme.

Navigation controls

A compact on-screen panel appears next to the cube once a model loads:

• Rotate compass — four arrows orbit the camera by the selected step (15° / 45° / 90°, azimuth / elevation); press-and-hold for continuous rotation.
• Pan compass — four arrows translate the camera plane (step proportional to the current zoom level).
• Zoom — + / − dolly the camera (×1.25 / ×0.8); press-and-hold for continuous zoom.
• Fit — frame all visible geometry (same as Reset Camera).
• Ctr (Center) — re-center the focal point on the visible bounds without changing the orbit angle or zoom.

All of these are webview-local — no round-trip to the extension host.

Background grid

The Grid toolbar button toggles a bounding-box grid with labeled X / Y / Z axes and tick marks around the mesh — handy for reading off coordinates and scale. Axis and tick label colors adapt to the active theme.

Screenshot export

The 📷 toolbar button captures the current viewport as a PNG and opens a Save dialog pre-filled with the source file's name (e.g. mesh.png next to mesh.mdpa). It uses VTK.js's captureNextImage() for correct WebGL swap-chain timing.

TIP

SVG export is not possible — the viewport is a rasterized WebGL canvas.

Find entity by ID

The Find toolbar button (or the Find Entity by ID command) opens a search bar: choose Node, Element, Condition, or Geometry, type an ID, and press Go. The matched entity is highlighted in yellow and the camera zooms to it, while every other layer drops to wireframe for contrast. Closing the bar restores the previous display state.

Extras

• Cut Plane — an interactive clipping plane (choose the X / Y / Z axis, flip its direction, and drag the position slider) to slice into a solid mesh.
• Wireframe — render all layers as edges only.
• Scene theme — the toolbar dropdown switches the viewport between Auto, Dark, Light, and Scientific palettes.