Plyview Quick Start

To use Plyview, follow these simple instructions:

To view a PLY file you have two options:

Open the File. There are two methods to accomplish this:

Double-click the PLY file to open it using Plyview.

Double-Click Method

Right-click the PLY file, then select View from the pop-up menu.

Right-Click Method

A window will open to display the file, as in the illustration below:

Plyview (Initial View)

Refer to the charts below for the basic rendering, file positioning and measurement commands.

All commands are issued to the software via keyboard commands while Plyview is the active application. Simply click on the Plyview window, then type in the desired command.

Changing the View

Left mouse button	Rotate view.
Ctrl + Left mouse button	Spin view
Middle mouse button	Pan view
Ctrl + Middle mouse button	Zoom view
5 (key pad)	Rest pan, zoom and rotate
Space + 5 (key pad)	Rest pan, zoom, rotate and spin
4 (key pad)	Rotate view 30 degrees left
6 (key pad)	Rotate view 30 degrees right
2 (key pad)	Rotate view 30 degrees down
8 (key pad)	Rotate view 30 degrees up

Rendering the Mesh

l	Draw face edges.
s	Shade faces.
c	Shade faces with color.
w	Shade faces with confidence.
e	Render faces in chrome.
E	Load new reflection map.
F12 key	"Locked In" rendering control.

Viewing Parameters

S	Toggle smooth shading.
o	Toggle orthographic projection
f	Toggle fog
n	Flip normals
t	Toggle display of vertexes

Hiding Faces

h	Hide inside box
H	Hide outside box
Space + h	Swap hidden and visible faces
Alt + h	Make all faces visible

Measures

.	Add a point measure
>	Delete a point measure
m	Add a distance measure
M	Delete a distance measure

Capturing the Image

Print Screen	Save displayed image into "snap.rgb" (SGI) ...or... Save displayed image into "snap.bmp" (Windows)
Ctrl + PrintScreen	Switch on 24-bit render

Exiting

Esc or q

Exit from Plyview