Project Freewheel: navigation wheels included

Back when I was authoring Beyond the Paper, I wrote an article entitled Autodesk Design Review 2008: 2D Navigation Wheel. I depicted the 4 wheels available in Autodesk Design Review 2008: 2D Navigation, 3D View Object, 3D Tour Building, and 3D Full Navigation. To provide an application-like navigation experience using just a web browser, Project Freewheel 1.0.1 includes the 3D View Object Wheel for a 3D model:

and the 2D Navigation Wheel for a 2D sheet.

Wheels are off by default but can be toggled on (or back off) using the wheel icon . The wheels are divided into sections referred to as wedges. Clicking in a wedge activates functionality identified for that wedge.

Use	Wheel Name	Appearance	Usage
2D	2D Navigation		The 2D Navigation Wheel is a tracking menu that contains Pan and Zoom wedges with the same functionality provided by the Pan and Zoom tools on the toolbar. The 2D Navigation Wheel saves you time and clicks by combining these two tools in a single interface.
3D	View Object		The View Object Wheel contains wedges for Center, Zoom, Rewind, and Orbit. Center allows you to reposition the center of a model. Orbits then orbit around the repositioned center. Zoom and Orbit provide the same functionality as the Zoom and Orbit tools on the toolbar. Rewind displays a filmstrip of previous views and allows you to return to one by selecting it

Bringing you powerful navigation capabilities without the need to install additional software is alive in the lab. Do you like the wheels? Please tell us what you think: labs.freewheel@autodesk.com.