The main window contains a Menu Bar, the Graphics Panel and the Tabs Panel.

The Menu Bar

Each of the entries in the Menu Bar is described in the Menus section.

The Tabs Panel

The Tabs Panel is used:

• to control the Simulation , for example, run, pause, rewind
• to edit the model, by executing an Action
• to change which Layers are visible by changing the Aspect
• to define or move to a new camera View
• to access or enable a Tool or Plugin

Each Tab is described in more detail in the Tabs section.

The Graphics Panel

Navigation

There are two 3D-navigation modes for the graphics panel: “InfraWorks” and “Commuter”, selected in an on-screen menu in the top-right corner.

*Can be used with SHIFT key for fine resolution movement.

**Page-Up and Page-Down apply to the “Current Page Function” which can be cycled Zoom → Tilt → Bearing using the Home and End keys.

Definitions of Terms

Pan: To move the cursor and viewpoint horizontally, parallel to the ground plane. While panning, the mouse cursor changes to a 4-way arrow.

Zoom: To move the viewpoint vertically. The cursor position does not change. The Zoom value can change from 2 to Infinity, representing the height of the viewpoint, in meters, above the ground plane.

Tilt: To tilt the view relative to the vertical axis. A Tilt value of 0 means you are looking straight down at the network in plan view, whereas a Tilt of 90 degrees means you are looking horizontally towards the horizon. Double-click on the Tilt bar to snap the view back to vertical.

Bearing: The bearing of your view, in degrees, clockwise from North. Zero degrees is due North, 90 degrees is due East, etc. Moving the mouse to the right turns the map clockwise, which means that the “straight ahead” direction from your point of view turns anti-clockwise. This is why the bearing decreases as you move the mouse to the right. Double-click on the rotation bar to snap the view back to due North / 0 degrees.

Mouse-1: means Mouse Button 1: for a standard set-up this is the left mouse button. You may have inverted the mouse buttons if, for example, you are left-handed.

Navigation Mode “InfraWorks”: In this mode, the gestures to manipulate the view are similar to those used in the main InfraWorks window.

Navigation Mode “Commuter”: This is an alternative (legacy) mode that is still supported because it provides combinations of gestures not available otherwise. There is a virtual slider bar along each edge of the Viewport. The virtual slider bar on the bottom edge of the window is a rotation bar, but it changes function if you have selected any objects. Without selection, the bottom edge bar rotates the view, but with selections, it is the selected objects that are rotated around the cursor center point. If the cursor is visible in the current layer, there will be a second bar above the bottom-edge rotation bar, the cursor bar. This cursor bar will be the same color as the cursor: normally blue. Rotating the cursor bar rotates the far end of the cursor (the T-Point). This means that you can add new objects at any angle.

Object Selection

When objects are selected, they are highlighted in a different color, which is orange by default. You can change the color used for highlighting in the Layer Tab.

You can select any number of objects at any time; all objects selected form the Selection Set. The list of objects contained in the Selection Set is described at the top left corner of the graphics panel.

Normally, selections operate only on visible objects, so you may need to change to another Layer, or click on the Layer tab and make the object that you want to select visible.

Actions for Editing

An Action is something you do to edit the currently active model. For example:

• Road > New Road at Cursor
• Zone > New Zone at Cursor
• Walkway > New Crossing on Lane
• Lane > New Loop
• Road > New Intersection
• Adjust Some actions can be applied at any time. Other actions become available only when you have selected one or more objects. Some example objects are a Road, Walkway, Node, Crossing, Loop or Intersection.

Traffic Analyst does not have separate editing modes. All actions are available at all times, as long as you have selected the objects to which the actions apply. That is, you can edit an Intersection with one click, then with the next mouse click, you can select a Loop and edit that. You do not need to switch between Loop-editing mode and Intersection-editing mode.

Action Tab or Right-Mouse Menu

Actions can be accessed either from the Action Tab or by a right-mouse menu on the graphics window. The right mouse menu shows only the currently available actions; the Action Tab always shows all actions, but some may be grayed out.

Advanced On-Screen Controls

Pressing the Expand button at the lower right corner of the View Tab displays some additional on-screen virtual scroll bars.

• Exp: Exploded view magnification. This parameter expands all objects in the vertical direction. This makes it easier to “see inside” some constructions, such as multi-level parking structures. If your network is flat with all heights set to zero, this control will have very little visible effect.
• Depth: A horizontal slice of this depth (in meters) through the network, centered on the Base height. In combination with the Base control, this can be used to look only at one floor of a multi-floor building. Set this value to zero to see all depths.
• Base: The height of the cursor above “ground-level” (the zero-height horizontal plane).

In the lower right corner, a display shows the (east, north, height) co-ordinates of the cursor. If the display is in Orthographic mode and the view is not tilted, then a map scale is also shown, which is corrected for your monitor's size and dot-pitch. You can use Display > Toggle Orthographic to switch mode, or by default the action to switch to Orthographic view is bound to letter O on the keyboard.