Navigating in 3D space

If you are new to 3D programs,  moving and scaling objects can be quite
confusing. I am going to show you a very simple way of accomplishing
this,  using the world coordinate system.
The buttons for controlling the system are at the lower right of the screen
and look like this.



The Wld  [World]  button pops up and can be changed to other navigation
systems. I strongly advise you not to change this, until you know what you
are doing, or you may get hopelessly confused.

The other three buttons control movement in a particular direction or Axis.
X   controls movement horizontally  across the screen,
Y   controls  movement  vertically on  the screen.
Z  controls movement in depth,  that is movement into the 3D view away from the
screen.
The third direction or axis Z seems to be the most confusing. Fortunately,
we don't have to think about it,  because we won't be using it by itself.

The only directions we need to concern ourselves with, are the X and Y.
Take a look at the three buttons for each direction. When they are all highlighted,
you can move an object in any direction,  which is great for arranging objects
but, for modeling and scaling objects it is necessary many times to constrain
movement to either the Y or X axis only. This is accomplished by clicking  the
other two axes you don't want,  and, leaving highlighted the axis you do want.

This concept is very important, and you should take time at the very beginning
to understand it thoroughly.

Start by opening trueSpace and making the main screen the front view.

First,  make a sphere from the primitive pop up menu   by clicking, 
holding and selecting the sphere.
Next,  locate the navigation buttons we have been discussing above. Click
the Y and Z axis to deselect them,  leaving only the X axis active. Click
and hold your left mouse button, and drag the sphere. You can see that
it  will only move horizontally across the screen. Now, pop up a second
window with a top view, again, click and hold the left mouse button, and drag
the sphere. Notice again it will only move horizontally across the
window, even though the view has changed. The worldview navigation
system like compass directions are constant. The vertical Y axis and
horizontal X axis always remain the same as in the real world.

Take some time and repeat this exercise by deselecting the X and Z axis,
leaving only the Y axis active. Again, move the sphere in both the front
and top view and notice movement will only be vertical in both views.

scaling and rotating objects by constraining axes

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