You can use keyboard as well as mouse as an input to create and interact with simulation. Mouse/ touch offers an extremely easy way to interact with simulation, while the keyboard makes the process faster and reduces efforts in creating simulation.

Using mouse as input: With Simphy you can use a mouse or touch as an input. long press in touch screen enabled monitor behaves as right click in mouse. Main tasks performed by mouse are

1. Select tool from object creation toolbar and Press and drag to create objects
2. Move already created objects or scene itself by dragging with mouse.
3. Click on the object to select it.
4. Drag with Ctrl pressed on the keyboard to perform multiple selection.
5. Right click on the object to open the edit pop up menu for the object.
6. Right click on the empty canvas to open the popup menu to edit the world.
7. Double click to abandon current object creation and allow moving objects/scenes.

Navigation Panel:

At the central bottom of canvas Simphy has this navigation panel to run the simulations. These are

1. Move tool icon: To get the cursor easily as it is used at every next step while creating and running simulation.
2. Restart button: To reload or restart simulation at its initial or saved state. If you take a ‘snapshot’ by using the File and Preference toolbar at any point of the new simulation, that state gets saved and you can reload it with the help of this tool.
3. Undo button: To undo latest changes added in simulation while creating it or otherwise. As Simphy perform calculations behind the scene sometimes undo tool doesn't work in such cases. It is better to take a snapshot to save some changes and then tweak the simulation so that work is not lost.
4. Play/Pause button: To play or pause simulation any time
5. Redo button: To redo latest changes.
6. Step simulation button: If we keep this button pressed by mouse, the simulation runs slowly and smoothly so that we can gather information even if the simulation is too fast. It is very useful button to visualize and explain what is happening. Also we can change simulation speed with the help of a slider just above this panel which controls the speed at which simulation renders itself on canvas.

See the below video to get idea about navigation panel

Paint/Pen tool:

To write, paint, rub and brush on canvas, SimPHY has this tool at central upper part of canvas. When clicked it opens up small toolbar as shown

Keyboard Controls and Shortcuts

With Simphy you can use keyboard shortcuts to do things faster and easier. Although initially it is difficult to remember keyboard shortcuts, it becomes extremely handy once you are used to them. We tried to make shortcuts as intuitive as possible.

These shortcuts are application wide shortcuts and work whenever application has focus.

Keyboard ShortCut Functioning

Ctrl + N Creates new simulation

Ctrl + O Shows file dialog to open already saved simulation

Ctrl + I Shows file dialog to import objects from saved simulation to current simulation

Ctrl + S Shows dialog to save current simulation to file

Ctrl + T show/hide property table

Ctrl + R Resets simulation to initial state (state when it was opened or previously saved)