BINedit Basics

BINedit Menu Commands - The View Menu

As it's name suggests, the View menu holds the commands that effect what you see when using BINedit. Most of these are applicable to the 3D-view (see the notes on Work Area for more information).

Zoom to Fit - Will zoom the model view to fit the 3D window. This operation is carried out automatically whenever a .BIN model is loaded. This command is mirrored in the Shortcut Buttons.

Change Background Color - Brings up a window like that found in Window's Paint program, that allows you to select the colour of the background of all the views. The default is a lovely sky blue, but you can change it to just about anything you like. It makes sense to choose a colour that isn't too hard on the eyes, but that contrasts well with the model you are working with.

Wireframe/Solid Untextured/Textured - These three commands change what you see in the 3D view. Wireframe renders the 3D model as a series of lines bounding each face:

Solid Untextured renders the 3D model in flat faces which are shaded according to their facing toward a light source. Unfortunately there is no way to move this light source, so one side of the model is always brightly lit and the other side is pitch dark!

Textured renders the 3D model fully mapped to its textures. Unlike the other two modes which run quite fast, Textured mode requires a lot of computing power and can make your computer run slow and unresponsive, so it's best not to work in this view mode all the time - switch to a faster view mode until you need it.

These three commands are mirrored in the Shortcut Buttons.

Follow Current Face - When checked the 3D view will center to the currently selected face, so as you cycle through faces the view will change to centre on the selected face. This command is mirrored in the Shortcut Buttons.

Show Only 3D View - When checked, switches from this...

To this...

...And back again when unchecked.

Show Axes - When checked the location of the vertical and horizontal axes is shown in the 3D view. See the Working in 3D Space page for more information on axes.

These axes are displayed differently depending on what mode the 3D view is set to - they are rendered in colour when the 3D view is set to Solid Untextured or Wireframe, and revert to black when in Textured mode.

Note the use of colour on the axes - red is the x-axis (left-right), green is the y-axis (up-down) and blue is the z-axis (forward-backward).

Show Vertices in 3D view - When checked, vertices are shown in the 3D view as black dots.

High Quality 3D textures - When checked, if you are in textured mode the 3D textures are brought to a higher quality.

Toggle Vertex Status - Toggles a small floating window with information on the currently selected vertex on and off. This window lists the vertex number and coordinates (in editor units).

This 'child' window's status is set to 'always on top', so whenever you display its 'parent' window (ie. BINedit) the Vertex Status window will overlay itself on top. You can drag it around the screen like any other window, but to hide it you will have to toggle it off again.

Toggle Browse Window - Toggles the browse window for selecting bin files. Click on one to view it in BINedit.

Like the Vertex Status window, the Browse BINs window is a 'child' window set to 'always on top', so again it overlays itself over the program. Like the Vertex Status window, you can drag it around the screen but to hide it you will have to toggle it off again.

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