Title Bar

Displays the name of the currently open Module.

File Menu

The file menu is accessed by pressing the Blade3D icon at the top left of the application. It provides access to load and save your project in XML format or import packages in the Blade3D binary format. Additionally the file menu also shows recent projects that you have been working on to allow you to quickly reload them.



Main Menu Tabs
The main menu is the horizontal bar at the top of the Blade3D application. It shows functional categories each of which contain toolbar buttons that perform operations specific to the category. Examples of such might be inserting items in the scene, modifying transform properties, changing the material of an object or accessing the documentation.



By clicking on the menu headings on the main menu tab strip you can control which toolbar is currently displayed. You can also use the scroll wheel on a 3 button mouse to quickly cycle through the various toolbars.


Toolbar

The toolbar is directly below the main menu at the top of the application. It displays icons that represent actions or tools that can be used specific to a functional category. The image below shows the default 'Scene' toolbar.



The default toolbars at the time of writing are: Scene, Environment, Spatial, Materials, Lighting, Shadows, Camera, Particles, Animation, Splines, Physics, Project, and Help. The toolbar can be hidden (or shown) by double-clicking the main menu tab directly above the toolbar. Each of the toolbars contains the commands most commonly used for the tasks within the category. For example, the 'Scene' toolbar contains actions to insert geometric primitives, import models and control scene level options while the 'Materials' toolbar provides tools for changing the material and textures of scene items.

If the application window is not large enough to display the entire toolbar, a button is displayed on the right hand side of the toolbar that allows you to scroll through hidden toolbar items.


*(edited and verified, jsm, 1/9/08)