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:
- Hold down the
left
mouse
button
- Move the mouse in the direction you want the cube to rotate
- 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.
- Move the mouse cursor inside the section you wish to
move
- Hold the right mouse button down
- Move the mouse in the direction you want to rotate the section
- 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.
- Hold down the CTRL key
- Move mouse left to zoom in, right to zoom out
- 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.