Conventions

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L3DD was developed using Microsoft Visual C++, and wherever possible L3DD follows the standard Windows conventions for menus, toolbars, buttons, dialog boxes and the help system. Users familiar with Windows programs will have no problems understanding and navigating them, so no special instructions are needed for these aspects. All toolbar buttons replicate commands available in pull-down menus, but some less-used menu commands have no equivalent button.

The 3D environment, however, is unique and requires some preliminary explanation:

1.	Rapid rotation is so important to 3D visualization that the right mouse button is always available for this purpose in the 3D View. However, a single right-button click, without moving the mouse, will display a context-sensitive popup menu.

2.	Wherever possible, editing uses the selection and action principle. Selection of single vertices, edges and faces is done with a single click of the left or right mouse button. The right button will also display the appropriate popup menu.

3.	Multiple selection follows the Excel convention of the Shift Key and left or right mouse button.

4.	Five special editing modes are signaled by Special Cursors For example, Select Mode enables the selection of all faces, etc, within a mouse-dragged rectangle.

5.	Faces are normally pale blue, vertex handles and diamonds green, and edge handles deep blue. However, they all turn yellow when selected.

6.	A pink face is used in Plane Mode to define the current plane of movement. This is selected by double-clicking with the left mouse button.

7. A face is normally created by selecting each of its vertices in anticlockwise oeder.

The X, Y and Z axes in L3DD follow the OpenGL convention, with the Y axis north-south, the X axis east-west, and the Z axis coming out of the screen.