Object Properties in General

The objects that are used to create an extrusion set — points, edges, blocks, and images — have properties. These properties are used to define and refine the extrusion, as needed. The two principal methods for accessing the properties of an object are through the Control Panel, and through the Popup Property Editor. The properties accessible from one are, in almost all cases, identical to those accessible from the other — meaning the choice of which to use is a matter of personal preference. (One exception is that the Popup Property Editor is not available for imported images.)

Figure 1: The popup property editor on the left, the Object Properties control set on the right

Property Editing With the Popup Property Editor

Select the object(s) whose properties are to be edited. Press spacebar. The Popup Property Editor for that object type appears in the view. The Popup Property Editor will provide access to one or more properties of the object, depending on object type, one property at a time. To move from one property to the next in the editor, press Ctrl + ← or Ctrl + → or click the arrows that appear on the top left corner of the editor. The arrows are directional, meaning they indicate forward or backward progression through the property set — the properties in the set are presented in a fixed, repeating order.

Both spacebar and Ctrl + left-arrow or Ctrl + right-arrow will access the editor when a valid selection has been made. The difference is that spacebar will access whichever property was active when the popup editor was last closed, if that property is available for the currently selected object(s). Pressing Ctrl + right-arrow will access the first property and successive uses will cycle “forward” through the properties. Pressing Ctrl + left-arrow will access the last property and successive uses will cycle “backward” through the properties.

Right-clicking a selected object will bring up a context menu, the first choice of which will be “Edit [Object] Properties” (where [Object] is the name of the currently selected object type). This is another way to access the Popup Property Editor.

Property Editing via the Control Panel

Select the object(s) of interest. If the Control Panel is visible and the Object Properties control set is visible, the properties for that object will be displayed. The edit fields displayed are dynamic — that is, the properties displayed will change as the type of object selected is changed. If the selection is a group, only properties that may sensibly be applied to all object members of the group are shown.