Gesture-based manipulator for rotation

A computer program product, comprising:

• a non-transitory computer-readable data-storage medium (M1-M4), storing computer-executable instructions that cause a computer system to manipulate a 3D object in a 3D scene of computer aided design system;
• the computer-executable instructions including instructions for:
• a) displaying a 3D object having a center of rotation in the 3D scene on a screen;
• b) displaying in the 3D scene a rotation manipulator (RM) having three areas (RA1, RA2, RA3) perpendicular to each other, the rotation manipulator (RM) following a cursor (C) on the screen, each area (RA1, RA2, RA3) corresponding to a rotation plane;
• c) activating the rotation manipulator by locking its location on the screen on an initial press point (PP), said locking comprising:
• locking the rotation manipulator on the screen at a current position of the cursor (C) upon depression of a mouse button by the user;
• while the user maintains the depression of the mouse button:
• d) selecting one rotation plane by performing a displacement of the cursor (C) to the area (RA1, RA2, RA3) corresponding to said plane;
• and
• e) performing a rotation manipulation of the 3D object by a determined angle within the selected rotation plane according to the displacement of the cursor (C) on the screen away from the initial press point (PP).

A non-transitory computer-readable data-storage medium (M1-M4) comprising:

• a memory area;
• and
• computer-executable instructions (EXP) held in the memory area that cause a computer system to manipulate a 3D object in a 3D scene of a computer aided design system by:
• a) displaying a 3D object having a center of rotation in the 3D scene on a screen;
• b) displaying in the 3D scene a rotation manipulator (RM) having three areas (RA1, RA2, RA3) perpendicular to each other, the rotation manipulator (RM) following a cursor (C) on the screen, each area (RA1, RA2, RA3) corresponding to a rotation plane;
• c) activating the rotation manipulator by locking its location on the screen on an initial press point (PP), said locking comprising:
• locking the rotation manipulator on the screen at a current position of the cursor (C) upon depression of a mouse button by the user;
• while the user maintains the depression of the mouse button:
• d) selecting one rotation plane by performing a displacement of the cursor (C) to the area (RA1, RA2, RA3) corresponding to said plane;
• and
• e) performing a rotation manipulation of the 3D object by a determined angle within the selected rotation plane according to the displacement of the cursor (C) on the screen away from the initial press point (PP).

A computer system comprising:

• a processor (P) coupled to a memory (M1-M4) and a graphical user interface (KB, PD, DC, DY),
• the memory storing computer-executable instructions (EXP) that cause the computer system to manipulate a 3D object in a 3D scene of a computer aided design system by:
• a) displaying a 3D object having a center of rotation in the 3D scene on a screen;
• b) displaying in the 3D scene a rotation manipulator (RM) having three areas (RA1, RA2, RA3) perpendicular to each other, the rotation manipulator (RM) following a cursor (C) on the screen, each area (RA1, RA2, RA3) corresponding to a rotation plane;
• c) activating the rotation manipulator by locking its location on the screen on an initial press point (PP), said locking comprising:
• locking the rotation manipulator on the screen at a current position of the cursor (C) upon depression of a mouse button by the user;
• while the user maintains the depression of the mouse button:
• d) selecting one rotation plane by performing a displacement of the cursor (C) to the area (RA1, RA2, RA3) corresponding to said plane;
• and
• e) performing a rotation manipulation of the 3D object by a determined angle within the selected rotation plane according to the displacement of the cursor (C) on the screen away from the initial press point (PP).