The magnify tool

When you drag the cursor along the positive direction while in magnify mode, your view of the model or plot expands within the viewport, and a rubberband line indicates the relative magnification. Similarly, when you drag the cursor along the negative direction, your view of the model or plot contracts, and a rubberband line indicates the relative reduction.

Related Topics
The view manipulation tools
Magnifying or reducing the view
Understanding camera modes and view options

When you select the magnify tool and the viewport in which to work, Abaqus/CAE enters magnify mode, as indicated by the magnify cursor . The positive and negative directions depend on your settings in the view manipulation options (see Using view manipulation shortcuts). If you are using the default Abaqus/CAE configuration for view manipulations, the positive direction is to the right and the negative direction is to the left. If you are using a nondefault configuration for view manipulations, the positive direction is upward and the negative direction is downward. To reflect the configuration settings, the rubberband line is horizontal for the default configuration and vertical for nondefault configurations.

The dragging action must start in the viewport, but you can continue to drag within the limits of your monitor. You can also drag repeatedly to achieve the desired view. The magnify tool recognizes only the horizontal (for the default configuration) or vertical (for nondefault configurations) component of your dragging motion, as indicated by the rubberband line. Consequently, you can achieve finer control by dragging diagonally across the screen, since this results in a smaller component of the cursor's motion in the effective direction than dragging the same distance along the effective direction.

Using the default mode of the magnify tool, as its name suggests, magnifies the view; as shown in Figure 1, the camera does not move with respect to the objects in the view. The magnification is caused by changing the field-of-view angle, the same method you use when changing the zoom on a stationary camera.

Figure 1. Magnifying the view.

The alternate mode of the magnify tool, accessed by holding Shift while performing the manipulation, keeps the field of view constant and moves the camera towards or away from the objects in the view, as shown in Figure 2.

Figure 2. Moving the camera closer to the model.

Moving the camera in this manner is most useful when movie mode is on. Then your view is not limited; you can move the camera through the model such that any parts that you do not want to see are removed by the near or far planes or are actually behind the camera. If you are not using movie mode, the camera can move forward only until it reaches the outer limits of the model.

When an X–Y plot is displayed in the viewport, you can magnify your view of the data to focus in on a particular component of an X–Y curve. Abaqus/CAE updates the values in the axes as you change the magnification of the X–Y plot.

If you lose track of your position, you can use the auto-fit tool to rescale the view to fit the viewport. Using the auto-fit tool also resets the camera target to the center of the model.