Cube Manipulation


The Rubic's Cube model can be manipulated in various ways with the mouse and keyboard.

Orienting the Cube
Rotating a Cube Section
Zooming
Undoing Rotations
Resetting All Rotations
Scrambling the Cube


Orienting the Cube

The cube is oriented using the mouse as a virtual 3D trackball.   To activate this movement mode:
  1. Hold down the left mouse button
  2. Move the mouse in the direction you want the cube to rotate
  3. Release the left mouse button
The trackball actually has two modes and it's a little hard to explain, but the basic idea is that if you drag/rotate on or near the cube you're going to get a single or multiple axis rotation like the cube is encased in a crystal trackball centered at the cube's center (i.e the origin.)   If you drag/rotate out near the screen's corners, you'll get a single Z axis rotation, like the cube was sitting on a frisbee, and you're looking down on the frisbee and spinning the side.


Rotating a Cube Section

Sections/stripes of the cube can be moved using the right mouse button.  
  1. Move the mouse cursor inside the section you wish to move 
  2. Hold the right mouse button down
  3. Move the mouse in the direction you want to rotate the section
  4. Release the right mouse button.   
The mouse does not have to be inside the section when the button is released.   The direction you  move the mouse does not have to be exactly  parallel to the rotation direction (i.e. you can be a little sloppy with the mouse movement.)   Currently you have to be within 40 degrees of the rotation direction for the movement to register.


Zooming

Zoom is controlled by holding down the CTRL key and moving the mouse left or right.
  1. Hold down the CTRL key
  2. Move mouse left to zoom in, right to zoom out
  3. Release the CTRL key


Undo Rotations

To undo a section rotation, use the Edit/Undo menu option or ^Z.  
Multiple rotations can be undone by repeating the menu option or keystroke.

Once a move is undone, it cannot be redone.
Scrambling the cube cannot be undone.


Resetting All Rotations

The cube section rotations and entire cube orientation can be reset using the "File/New" menu item.


Scrambling the Cube

You can scramble the cube using the Edit/Scramble menu option.  
This option lets you specify how many random rotations should be applied to the cube.