Live Editing in 3D

A 3D page shows the drawing as it is now. Live editing lets you change the drawing from the 3D page itself and watch the model change as you go: its sizes in the Variables panel, a panel's fold angle by dragging the panel, and the fold order on a timeline of steps. Everything you change is written to the drawing, as statements you could have typed, so it is saved with it, can be undone one step at a time, and stays parametric.

Turn each on with the buttons on the 3D view's toolbar (Variables, Timeline, Fold by Hand), or from 3D › Folding › Adjust in 3D. The Scene button beside them shows the Scene panel, which changes the drawing's shelf, pallet load or wall the same way. Each drawing remembers how you left its 3D page (see The layout is remembered). The timeline and Fold by Hand are shown only on pages that fold (see Build Mode): a page made only by extruding, wrapping or sweeping has no creases to fold.

The Variables panel

The panel beside the 3D view lists the drawing's input variables: those with a label (L=380,"Length"), the same ones Run Parametric asks for and the Variables panel's Run view shows. Each is shown by its label and name, with a control for its kind:

The variable	Is shown as
A number the drawing keeps in a range	a slider and a box
Any other number	a box (type a value, or use its arrows)
`TRUE` or `FALSE`	a tick
A list or dictionary with one item chosen (`T={"E":1.5,"B":3}["B"]`)	a list to choose from
Text	a text box (press Enter or click away to set it)

A number has a slider when the drawing says the range it keeps it in: where another variable clamps it, TK=CLAMP(TUCK,10,H/2) gives TUCK a slider from 10 to half of H (as H is now). Hover over the slider to see its range. Typing a value outside it in the box is allowed: the slider stretches to take it in.

Each change is one step to undo, written as the variable's statement (TUCK=40), its label kept. While you drag a slider the 3D is made again as it moves; letting go makes it one step on the undo history. A value that can't be worked out, or would break something in the drawing, is refused and said in the message bar, and the variable is left as it was.

The 3D is made again in the background, so the view, the fold slider and the camera stay as they are and the app doesn't stop while it is made. Changes made meanwhile wait, and the latest is carried out as soon as it is done. Undoing (Ctrl+Z) a change made in the panel makes the 3D again in the same way. Each step says what it was: Edit › Undo and its tip, and the Interactive window, name it (Undo Variable TUCK = 40, Scene: Rows = 5, Fold angle = 120°, Fold steps (timeline)), so you can see what Undo will take back.

Folding a panel by hand

With Fold by Hand on, drag a panel in the 3D view to fold it about its crease: the crease between it and the panel it hangs from, towards the base panel. The page is shown folded right up while you drag, and the panel follows the pointer, between flat (0°) and folded right over (180°), the way its crease folds (its layer says which way: Crease or Reverse crease). It moves in whole degrees; hold Shift for 15° steps. The message bar shows the angle as you go. Press Esc while dragging to put it back.

When you let go, the angle is written to the drawing as one step to undo:

on the crease's line (each line of the crease, if it is drawn in pieces), as its fold angle: RULE FOLD=120 (see element settings); its other rule settings are kept;
or, when the line's angle is written as a variable (RULE FOLD=LID), on that variable: LID=120, so every crease that folds by it follows, and the drawing stays parametric.

The 3D page then folds again from the drawing. The line is on the page the 3D page shows, which is changed while you stay on the 3D page.

Some panels can't be folded by hand, and the message bar says so: the base panel (it doesn't turn), a panel of a part that bends (a curved crease), a panel whose crease is worked out from the panels round it (the closing crease of a tube), and a crease made by a script block (give it its angle in the script). With Fold by Hand on, a plain drag on the background still moves the view, and Ctrl+drag (or a right-drag) still turns it.

The fold-order timeline

The timeline under the 3D view shows the folding as a strip of steps, in the order they fold, each with its creases (by their lines' ids, @12). A crease whose line gives its step (RULE STEP=2) is shown tinted; the others take the step the fold order gives them. At its left is the fold order, the same choice as 3D › Folding › Fold Order (Natural, Together, Base First, Tips First); with Together, everything folds at once and there are no steps.

Click a crease to light it up in the 3D view (clicking a crease in the view lights it up on the timeline too).
Drag a crease onto a step to fold it in that step: its line is given that step's number.
Drag a crease between two steps (or before the first, or after the last) to fold it in a step of its own there: its line is given a number between theirs (1.5), half the first's before the first, or one more than the last's after it.
Drag a step by its heading to another place to move the step, with its creases: every crease is then given its step's new number (1, 2, 3 …), so the page folds in the order shown whatever the fold order.

Each move is one step to undo, written on the creases' lines as RULE STEP=…, the same as 3D › Folding › Set Fold Step… writes it (Pages › 3D pages). 3D › Folding › Play Steps then plays them in the new order. Creases made by a script block are left as they are, and the message bar says how many.

The layout is remembered

Each drawing remembers how its 3D page was laid out: whether the Variables and Scene panels and the timeline are shown, whether Fold by Hand is on, and where the splitter between the two panels was left (drag it to give one more room). When you go to its 3D page, or switch to the drawing while its 3D page is shown, they are put back as they were for that drawing; turning one on or off in another drawing doesn't change this one.

The app keeps this with the drawing's file, as it keeps the place and zoom a drawing was last looked at, not in the file itself (saving it unchanged writes the same file). It is recorded when the drawing is saved or closed, and put back when it is opened again. A new drawing, or one opened for the first time, starts with the layout in use.

Saving the layout in the drawing

To have the layout travel with the drawing (to another computer, or to someone you send it to), tick Save the 3D layout in the drawing in File › Drawing Properties… (Drawing Properties). It is offered for a drawing with a 3D page. The layout is then written into the file, on each 3D page's line (PAGE "3D","Page 1",LAYOUT="variables,timeline;split=0.5", see PAGE), as it is each time the drawing is saved, and when the drawing is opened it is laid out as its file says, before what the app remembers. Ticking or clearing it is one step to undo. Cleared (as it is to start with), nothing of the layout is written into the file.

Example

L=200,"Length"
W=150,"Width"
D=100,"Depth"
FLAP=60,"Flap"
LID=90,"Lid angle"
FL=CLAMP(FLAP,20,D)

On a 3D page of a box drawn from these, the Variables panel shows Length, Width, Depth and Lid angle as boxes, and Flap as a slider from 20 to 100 (the range FL keeps it in). With the lid's crease written RULE FOLD=LID, dragging the lid open to 120° sets LID=120.

Help: ParametriQ CAD - Live Editing in 3D