About View Navigation Using the V-Nav Tool

General Information


		The model coordinate axes and planes are represented by colors, according to the RGB principle (red=x, green=y, blue=z).
		A dashed frame indicates the active V-Nav plane. Each V-Nav plane represents a standard OmniPlane. If no frame is displayed, a user-defined OmniPlane is active.
		A continuous frame indicates the coincidence of the active V-Nav plane with the view plane.
		Circles around the labels of the x-, y-, and z-axes indicate that the current view is a standard view.
preselected front plane	preselected rear plane	Planes are highlighted in preselection mode.
		The red, green, and blue circles around the tool indicate the rotation plane of the model coordinate system.
		The orange circle indicates the view plane for rotating around the view normal.
		The highlighted orange circle with a lock symbol indicates that the VNav tool is locked in the current view plane. View lock mode Rotation around the screen normal is possible. Rotation lock mode Rotation is completely blocked, only zoom and pan manipulation is possible. Click the circle to switch between the lock modes. Notes: If locked, all other VNav operations are disabled and the handles are inaccessible. Exception: You can select a standard plane as work plane by middle-clicking a VNav plane. You can also use the function keys F9 (toggle view lock mode and rotation lock mode) and F10 (toggle rotation lock mode)

Standard Views Overview


	front view
	rear view
	side view left
	side view right
	top view
	bottom view

V-Nav Options Bar

You can use the navigation without keyboard shortcuts and choose zoom, mirror, and scaling modes.

In addition to the general view manipulation modes Tumble , Pan , Zoom , and Reframe , you can use the following settings:

Open Camera Panel

Opens a panel with a list of the standard views and user-defined views, if defined.

Click Save Camera to save the current view. By default, the view is saved under the name Camera.x. Double-click the name to enter another name in the box. Click

the delete the view.

Tip: You can use the consecutive number of a camera as a shortcut to activate the corresponding view.

Lock Zoom

Locks zoom view manipulation with Shift right-click shortcut or Zoom

option selected.

Locks the zoom in out view manipulation for Zoom

, Catia Navigation Mode (hold middle

+ click left

), and ICEM Surf Navigation Mode (press Shift and hold right

). With ICEM Surf Navigation Mode, you can still rotate the view in the screen plane by dragging the mouse horizontally.

In the box, specify the scaling factor. The box color changes to green, this indicates that a user-defined scaling factor is used and kept during view manipulation in locked zoom mode

When unlocking the zoom mode

, the box color changes to white again when manipulating the view, for example zooming in and out, or reframing the view. This indicates that the scaling factor is dynamically updated.

The manually specified scaling factor is kept during dynamic translation and rotation manipulation.

Zoom factor

Defines a scaling value for the geometry display in the work area.

Note: This works only in Parallel

view mode.

Example: Set a zoom factor 1 to display the geometry in real size.

Scaling Mode Display

Equal Scaling: Sets the view to proportional display. The effect is only visible if previously the view was scaled using Zoom Different Scaling option.
Different Scaling: Is activated if previously the view was scaled using Zoom Different Scaling option to indicate that the geometry is displayed unproportionally.

Zoom Equal Scaling

Magnifies a zoomed detail with equal scaling by trap selection and activates Equal Scaling

The selected region is scaled in a way that its side with the longer extent fits, according to the direction, the complete screen width or height.

Zoom Different Scaling

Magnifies a zoomed detail with different scaling and activates Different Scaling

The region is scaled in a way that its side with the longer extent fits, according to the direction, the complete screen width and height.


Different scaling in horizontal direction with high, narrow selection region

Different scaling in vertical direction with wide selection region

Tip: Click Zoom Equal Scaling

or Zoom Different Scaling

, press Ctrl and move the pointer to zoom interactively in one direction.

Mirror Display

In the design of symmetric objects (symmetric to the Y=0-plane), only one half of the object is created. You can specify which half of the geometry (original, mirrored half, or both halves) is displayed.

Original: Displays the original part of the geometry.
Mirror: Displays the mirrored part of the geometry.
Both: Displays both, original and mirrored geometry.

View Mode

Perspective: Sets the view to central perspective.; Starting from the eye position (projection center) the projection beams run through all points of the geometry to be mapped and through the projection plane. The eye position has a finite distance to the geometry, so that the projection beams pass through the plane with unequal angles. The image points are the intersection points of the projection beams with the projection plane. In a central perspective view, parallel horizontal edges of the geometry meet in vanishing points lying on the horizon.
Parallel: Sets the view to parallel perspective.; The projection center lies in infiniteness. The projection beams run parallel and pass with an equal angle through the projection plane. Parallel edges of the geometry remain parallel.