5.4 Viewpoint

When viewing objects in the 3D display, there is always a center to the scene where the virtual ``camera" is pointing. When the first molecule or grid is loaded into the application, the center of that object becomes the center of the scene where the camera is pointing. By default, the center does not change automatically with changes to the scene. The center can be changed explicitly using the Visualization Toolbar (see section 5.6) or with the scripting commands ViewerCenterSet or ViewerCenterAndRadiusSet (for more details please refer to the scripting API documentation). Furthermore, the center can also be translated using the mouse interactions described above. The center can be made to change automatically if the ``Auto-Center" or ``Auto-Fit" preferences are set to true (the default is false). The ``Auto-Center" preference directs the window to always recenter the scene after any changes are made to that scene. The ``Auto-Fit" preference directs the window to not only recenter the scene after any changes are made but to also ensure that everything in the scene is comletely visible in the window. These preferences can be edited in the Preferences dialog (see chapter 12).