Transform feature is not the same as camera motion achieved by mouse and keyboard interaction. Camera motion changes observer’s position and orientation in space (all motions are around observer), but it doesn’t change figures position. Camera motion is done in projected space model, so it is limited to at most 3 dimensional motions (the maximal OpenGL dimension). At the other hand, transform keeps the camera position and orientation and actually changes figure points coordinates (all motions are around origin). All possible motions are available via transform feature. It is very usefull when you work with spaces of dimension more then 3. You can use camera motion and figure motion simultaneously. However, please note that while camera motion is done in specialized graphics hardware (GPU + graphic memory), figure motion is done in main hardware (CPU + main memory). It is very probable that motion of large figures is less efficient then camera motion.
Transform Dialog (Figure 6) allows you to copy or move selected piece of geometry. First, you have to select figures you want to copy / move using Face Chooser (see Figure 6, top). If you plan to copy selected figures, check Keep original chechbox. If you want to move them, leave it unchecked. When you are sure figures are selected correctly, press Start button. Face Chooser becomes inactive and Lineal Chooser becomes active, so you are able to select the transform (Figure 6, bottom). While transform matrix is changing, the current transform is immediatly applied to selected figures and you can see the resulting geometry.
While selected figures are transformed, you can observe that original points stand on their positions, even if they are not associated with a face. Same point names are used also in transformed figure. So you can watch how the current transform changes their position even if you are opted to move the figure. If you want to reset figure to its original position, you can press Reset button.
When you finish transforming, press Stop button. Once it is pressed, face selection is cleared and transformed points get new names in order to keep them unique. The Close button in Transform Dialog is disabled until you stop the transform. If you close Transform Dialog (by pressing Esc key or × button from Transform Dialog), the transform stops before dialog closes.
You can start several transform actions simultaneously. Sometimes it is usefull. The only idea to keep in mind is that Transform Dialog grabs mobile figure parts so they are not available for selection in the second dialog and so on.