To effectively create 3D objects, you should know the measurements of the environment in which they will be used.

Units

Measurement in RenderWare and Active Worlds is based off the metric system of units, specifically the meter. For reference, other unit abbreviations/symbols and conversions are listed:

Metric m: meter mm: millimeter cm: centimeter dm: decameter km: kilometer Standard (United States) " (in): inch(es) ' (ft): foot/feet yd: yard mi: mi le
Conversions
Metric-to-Metric millimeter centimeter meter kilometer 1 = 1/10 = 1/1,000 = 1/1,000,000 10 = 1 = 1/100 = 1/100,000 1000 = 100 = 1 = 1/1,000 1,000,000 = 100,000 = 1,000 = 1	Metric-to-Standard .0254m = 1" 1m = 39.37" 1.8288m = 6' 1.609km = 1 mile	Standard-to-Standard inch foot yard mile 1 = 1/12 = 1/36 = 1/63,360 12 = 1 = 1/3 = 1/5,280 36 = 3 = 1 = 1/1,760 63,360 = 5,280 = 1,760 = 1

Unit Converter mm cm m dm km " ' yd mi = mm cm m dm km " ' yd mi (dm = RWX scale)

Scale

Scale is referencing measurement of one thing against measurement of another thing. The relationship between the 2 things is scale. If the scale of an object is off, the object will look too big or small in relation to the surrounding objects. Keeping your objects' scales consistent will reduce disorientation and awkwardness while moving among them.

Conversion

RWX	=	AW	=	VRML 3D Studio (+Max) trueSpace
.1m		1m		10m

1/10th (one-tenth) of a meter in a RenderWare script (RWX) file equals 1 (one) meter in an Active Worlds world equals 10 (ten) meters in a normally-scaled VRML (WRL), 3D Studio/Max (3DS/MAX), or trueSpace (COB) object.
Note: DXF (AutoCAD) format scale varies, according to Casay.

Keep scale in mind when creating objects so they are not off-scale and when converting from other 3D object file formats to RWX.

Scene/World

In most 3D environments, the scene or world is where the objects (and other things like light, which is also an object, but usually hidden) reside. In RenderWare, this place is the scene ("a collection of clumps and lights"), but in Active Worlds it's the world. Scenes and worlds are like the spatial and temporal dimensions that make up our own reality.

Zone & Sector

In Active Worlds, zones and sectors divide the world up. I won't go into these since you probably won't need to worry about them and Roland does a good enough job of explaining them anyway. All we need to worry about are cells, which divide the world up even more.

Cell

In Active Worlds, a world is made up of cells. Like plant and animal cells, or bee honeycombs, cells are a way to split up the world into more manageable chunks/divisions/modules/parts/pieces/sections.
cell: 10m x "full vertical" x 10m

full vertical: -327.67m to +327.67m (655.34m); current building depth/height (hopefully this will be increased in the future, considering you can move beyond these limits from -350m to +2000m)

In other words, a cell is 10 meters wide by the full vertical height of a world by 10 meters deep.

So a 400m x 400m world would have 1,600 cells. AlphaWorld has 4,290,250,000 cells.

Although cells aren't perfect cubes or two-dimensional, they should probably be called columns, but I will call them cells in any case because that is the common term. Hopefully Active Worlds will use 10m x 10m x 10m (10m³) cells someday.

Note: each cell is one (1) coordinate in Active Worlds.

Object

Within cells are the objects. RWX/COB files are Active Worlds' objects.

Object Manipulation

Knowing how objects can be moved and manipulated within Active Worlds will help you design better objects that will be easier to build with. AW objects can be manipulated via keyboard and/or mouse (while it can be odd at first--and irritating after you right-click an object and accidentally move it--it can be helpful).

Keyboard °: degree(s) symbol %: percent symbol ½: 1/2, half, one-half; .5 ("point five") ¼: 1/4, fourth, one-forth; .25 ("point two-five" or "point twentyfive") movement: one press of an arrow (left, right, up, down) or [+] (plus)/[-] (minus) key(s) 1 movement = .5m (50cm) rotation: one press of either the [Page Up] or [Page Down] key(s); rotation occurs around any axis 1 rotation = 15° (1/24, one-twenty-fourth of a circle) 3 rotations = 45° (1/8, one-eigth of a circle) 6 rotations = 90° (¼ circle) 12 rotations = 180° (½ circle) 24 rotations = 360° (full circle) [Shift]: holding down the [Shift] key with either a movement or rotation 1 [Shift] movement = .05m (5cm, 10% of a movement) 1 [Shift] rotation = 1.5° (10% of a rotation) [Ctrl]+[Shift]: holding down the [Ctrl] ("Control") key and (+) the [Shift] key with either a movement or rotation 1 [Control]+[Shift] movement = .01m (1cm, 1% of a movement) 1 [Control]+[Shift] rotation = .1° (1/150 or .006% of a rotation)

Movement movement [Shift] [Ctrl]+[Shift] 1 = 10 = 50 1/10 = 1 = 5 1/50 = 1/5 = 1 Rotation rotation [Shift] [Ctrl]+[Shift] 1 = 10 = 50 1/10 = 1 = 15 1/150 = 1/10 = 1

Note: keyboard controls may vary depending on how you have them configured.

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