Strata 3D has several palettes: the Information palette, the main Tool palette, the Extensions palette, Resource palette, Environment palette, and Object Properties palette.
These palettes contain information, tools and resources. They can be displayed in a condensed or full format.
· The Information palette contains the Statistics (Stats) tab, and the 3D.COM tab. The Stats tab lets you gather information about your model and view: how many objects, light sources, spline patches, and polygons are in your model, as well as a list of shapes. This information can be saved as a text file. The 3D.COM tab gives you access to all of the resources of the 3D.COM website: textures, shapes, tutorials, articles, games, etc.
· The Tool Palette contains view management and object manipulation tools; modeling drawing and construction tools; and a rendering tool.
· The Extension Tool Palette has two tabs. The Commands tab contains shortcuts for several modeling menu functions. The Extensions tab contains Path Extrude, and Convert to Path. This palette will change depending on which extensions are loaded on your machine.
· The Resource Palette manages your shapes, textures, special effects, gels and backgrounds.
· The Environment Palette allows you to create unique environments for your model. You can control the ambient light, set a ground plane, add a background or even make the wind blow.
· The Object properties palette lets you edit an object's size, complexity, location, texture, etc. The options available depend on the type of object you have selected.