For now, our provisional
versions of illiCombo work only in Windows98, WindowsNT, and Linux. Present
documentions is maintained only for the first named platform, and for the
commandline invocation of combo.
Change to the directory where the file combo.exe is located.
The commandline syntax is
combo [-i infile.sds [-o outfile.sds]]
which means that you may specify the file you wish combo to read from,
the "infile", and you may specifiy the file you wish combo to write to,
the "outfile". Both are optional, in which case combo reads foo.sps and
write bar.sps by default. The suffix .sps is traditional. This line
duplicates the default:
combo -i foo.sps -o bar.sps
When combo executes, two windows appear--the viewer, illiLevel, and the editor, iLevelEditor--with the illiLevel window active. You may resize the windows by dragging the edges, or maximize and minimize using the buttons in the upper right hand corner as with any Windows application. Resizing may freeze your CPU/graphics card, so enlarge with caution.
illiLevel automatically detects the displacement of the mouse from the origin (located in the small circle in the center of the window) which is interpreted as a rotation. Conforming to illiNavigation, in the (default) TURNMODE (magenta) the center of rotation is in near the surface. In the FLYMODE (yellow), the center of rotation is closer to your head. The (SPACEBAR) toggles these modes. To disable all roation (F)reeze the image, by toggling the F-key. (We follow the illiView convention, used also in (W)riting on the screen, that "(K)ey" means that the K-key affects the "key" action in an observable manner.
Press (Z)ap to return RTICA to its default condition. (This feature needs work, for now.)
Press the F1 key to save the current image.
Press the Esc key to exit the program.
You need a (three button) mouse and a keyboard to successfully navigate in the illiLevel viewer.
To view the image from another angle, move the mouse until the image is oriented the way you want it. (Note: since the image is orbiting around the origin, one side of the object will always be closer to you than the other side.)
You can zoom in by pressing the middle mouse button and zoom out by holding down the Shift key and pressing the middle mouse button at the same time (if you have a three button mouse--otherwise you must use the keyboard to zoom).
You can also rotate the image about the origin by pressing the left or right mouse buttons.
Once you have stabilized the image by moving the mouse to the origin, you may use these keys to move the image in the window:
The left and right arrow keys can be used to move the image left and right.
The up and down arrow keys zoom in or out, respectively.
Page Up and Page Down keys move the image up and down.
Note: You do not have to hold down the keys to continue the action--just tap it once and then hit the End key to stop the motion.
Use the spacebar to toggle between Flying and Control mode. In Control mode, the object rotates about its own axis, allowing you to see all sides of the object. In Flying mode, the object maintains its orientation with respect to you, which allows you to fly around and through the object.
v Toggles between normal and binocular mode
n/N Adjusts the space between the two images in binocular mode
On the screen, you will see a menu of options that you can control. Each of these keys will automatically increment or decrement when pressed, and will continue if the key is held down. You may also enter a numerical value from the keyboard and then the key for the variable you want to change.
Holding the Shift button down while pressing any of these keys reverses the action:
| s/S | Change the zoom speed |
| q/Q | Change the rotational speed |
| o/O | Change the focal length |
| i/I | Change your size in relation to the world |
| g/G | Slice the image |
| a/A | Change the ambient lighting on the object |
| t/T | Recenters image |
| r/R | Compress or expand the image |
| d/D | Change the plaid design |
| < > | Used for 3D picking (not necessary with the use of the iLevelEditor) |
With the iLevelEditor, you can see a cross section of the object, one level at a time. You can move points in the editor window and see the results simultaneously in the viewer window.
-Use the up and down arrow keys to change the level you are viewing.
-Use the left mouse button to drag a point to a new position.
-You may also flip the curve about its x- and z- axes by pressing the x and z keys.