PLANT 3D Ribbon, View panel, unknown functions

[Anonymous]

In the Plant 3D 2012 Ribbon, the pull-down for the View panel, there are three options. The first is Lens Length (white-out). The second shows a camera icon, and the third shows an icon that looks like a bullseye; both have XYZ coordinates. There is no F1 option to view their description, and I have searched Help and the internet and can find absolutely no information about the View panel or their functions. Just what are they?

[dave.wolfe]

Can you post a screen shot of what you are looking at?  I can't tell from your descriptions.

[Anonymous]

Here's the screen clip of the View panel. The ones in question are the three at the bottom when the panel is extended.

[dave.wolfe · Accepted solution]

The bulls eye is the view target, or point the view focuses on.

The camera is the camera position, or the origin of the view.

The lens lenth determines how much of the picture is in view (field of view).  So a larger lens lengths uses more horizontal space.

http://docs.autodesk.com/PLNT3D/2012/ENU/filesACR/WS1a9193826455f5ffa23ce210c4a30acaf-5264.htm

Also check out the CAMERA command to create your own cameras.

[Anonymous · Accepted solution]

Thanks for the clarification, Dave. I should have guessed that one. Having been a professional photographer at one point in my career, I totally understand.

One point of clarification, though. Like in photography, the "normal" lens depends on the type of camera. I noticed that the default was 50mm, which is for a 35mm camera (medium format is 80mm). The smaller the number, the wider the view. Wide-angle would be 28mm; smaller than that would be classified as "fisheye" with greater distortion. A telephoto would be something like 120mm.

While I'm on the subject, FYI, when the view is set to Perspective, it may look distorted, but that is the correct view from an elevation. In the real world, when we view things from an elevation we actually see perspective, but out brains reject that because sides of buildings and columns are "suppose to be vertical"; Parallel is actually the distorted view, but it looks normal to us.

[dave.wolfe]

Yea, I don't mess with the Lens length myself, thanks for the tip.