In this tutorial we will explain how you can open a model in Model Lab. We will also introduce the Overview and Selection dropdown menus.

Opening up a Model

1. Download the above chair model file.
2. Open Fika Chair (basic).cmsym by using File->Open
   You can also open a file by dragging and dropping the file into Model Lab.
3. Now you should be able to see the model in Model Lab:

   

   Here, you can Click and hold the right mouse button in the model view, then – while holding the button down – move the mouse to rotate the camera around the model.

Overview

On the left side of the window, expand the Overview drop down menu by clicking on it.
You can minimize it by clicking on the dropdown again. Under Overview, you get a better understanding about the topology of the model:

You can choose to view the nodes by using the Layer overview or the Hierarchy overview.
Let's click on the Hierarchy button, then click on a specific part of the model, also known as node.

Once selected, you should see an orange frame around the selected node, notice that the node is both marked in the model view and in the Overview:

Click on the button labeled Layer to view the layers of the mode.

Select one of the layers by clicking on it under the Layer overview.
Notice that all nodes that belong to the layer is selected in the model view.

Selection

Expand the Selection drop down menu:

The Select All geometry selects all the nodes in the model.

If you have a node selected on the model, clicking on Select inverse geometry will select everything else that's currently not selected, while unselecting what's currently selected.

Next, you'll see the region select controls. A dropdown menu that shows either Box or Sphere, under the dropdown is another 2 buttons: Select and Deselect. These are tools to help you select regions of the model, here's how:

1. We'll use the Box select as the example, so make sure Box is selected under the dropdown.
2. Then click Select, and move your mouse to the model view. You should now see an orange circle on your mouse cursor:
   
   
   
3. Left-click once and you'll now see a rectangle selection forming wherever you're moving the mouse:
   
   
   
4. Left-click again and your selecting box now expands vertically from the rectangle area from step 3:
   
   
   
5. Finally, left-clicking again will now end the region select:
   
   
   
6. Using Deselect will instead deselect from the selection region:
   

The slider under Select by size selects the nodes by their size.
Drag the slider further to the right to select more nodes. This can be useful to select and then remove small nodes of a model that do not contribute much to the appearance.

That’s it! Now you should know:

• How to import a model.
• Simple navigation in Model Lab.
• How to select different nodes, both in the 3D-view, in the Overview and from the Selection controller.