Tools#

Tools are used for many things such as manipulating and selecting items. Most tools work using the 3D View and the Image View. To select the current tool, you can either use the widget Tools and click on the tool icon or select one through the Tools menu. Please note that there can only be one active tool in the application.

Toolbar

Contextual Help#

Tools always display a comprehensive contextual help describing their use, actions and shortcuts in the HUD of the 3D View or Image View. Make sure to display the HUD when you want to access to a quick help related to the currently selected tool.

Tool Help

Here we see the description of the Select tool on the HUD of the 3D View

Tool Options#

Tools always have options. Tool options can be accessed through Tool Options widget found in Window > Tool Options... or by double-clicking on a tool icon in the toolbar.

Tool Options

Tool Options displaying Translate Item options

Picking Transparent Items#

Tools dedicated to selection and picking have a special option to deal with transparency. This attribute, called Opacity Threshold, is set to 50% by default. By default, Tools consider items that are over than 50% transparent as not selectable.

A typical example where 3 transparent quads are in front of the sphere

To change the opacity threshold of the currently selected tools, go to Window > Tools Options... and change the value of Opacity Threshold.

When set to 100%, transparent items are invisible to selection whereas set to 0% transparent items are always selectable.