(1) How to … start out in thortspace

Andrew Bindon
#Social #3D #VR #MR #mind_mapping #app
6 min readMar 19, 2017

Andrew’s partner, Jenny, has asked him to organise a family holiday.

Tap (or click) this button for Think mode.

Tap (or click) this button to add a sphere.

Enter a name for your sphere.

Tap (or click) this button to add a thort.

Note: On desktop platforms (Mac, Windows and Linux) you can also press the spacebar to add a thort. Hold down the spacebar to add a series of thorts. Any thort that sets off towards the sphere before the previous one lands gets added to the same group. Emily demonstrates using the spacebar to add thorts here.

You can also add thorts by double-clicking (with your mouse) or double-tapping with your finger on (on touchscreens) on the surface of the sphere. Do this on the place where you want the thort to land.

Tap (or click) the thort once to select it.

Tap (or click) the thort again to edit it.

Tap (or click) outside the thort to stop editing.

Note: On desktop platforms (Mac, Windows and Linux) you can also press the Tab key on the keyboard to put down the currently editing thort and pick up the next one in the group in turn. So a series of thorts can be rapidly entered in quick succession by pressing the Tab key between entering each thort text. Press Shift+Tab to reverse the sequence of lifting each thort in turn. If you have a thort lifted, you can press the Return key to put that thort down without lifting up another one. If you have a thort selected and no thort lifted for editing, you can press the Return key to lift the selected thort up for editing.

Add more thorts.

Drag a thort from one place to another.

By the way, lets mention the reverse process of the one shown in the graphic below: When you drag a thort into a group, it automatically becomes a member of that group of thorts.

Note that when you touch a thort to another thort they automatically create a group.

Or drag a whole group.

Tap (or click) the group to select it.

Tap (or click) the group again to edit the group text.

Add more group names.

Open the Paths tab.

Tap (or click) on a Path swatch.

Then:

Either: The “click-click” method of creating path-steps

Tap (or click) the first thort.

Tap (or click) the second thort.

Or: The “mouse-down-drag-mouse-up” method of creating path-steps (a.k.a. “press-drag-release”)

Press on the first thort and …

… drag to the second thort.

Groups and Thorts are interchangeable in any of the above Path-step creation operations

For example:

Tap (or click) a thort … and then a group.

Tap (or click) a group…

… and then another group.

You now know everything you need to get started with thortspace, but thinking about the family holiday is just the beginning.

A user asked me: “How do you get a thort-to-thort link to pass though the middle of a sphere?” [Side note: in this documentaion, a “thort-to-thort link” (or thort-to-group or group-to-group) is referred to as a “path-step”.]

One way would be create paths between thorts or groups that are close to each other, and then drag those thorts or groups so as to be in places that are distant from each other.

Another way would be to use the “click-click” method of creating path-steps, instead of the “mouse-down-drag-mouse-up” (aka “press-drag-release”) method. (Both these methods are described above.)

(If you use the “click-click” method you can click on a thort or group and then click on another thort or group anywhere, and do any amount of dragging of the sphere between the first click and the second click.)

The steps above are demonstrated in the video below:

Thort Attraction and Repulsion, Grouping and Dragging

The basics of dragging Thorts in Thortspace

Add and delete path-steps

Add and delete path-steps

Edit Path-types

Edit Path-types
Andrew is a Product Designer at Thortspace, the world’s first collaborative 3D mind mapping software. More stories here.

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Andrew Bindon
#Social #3D #VR #MR #mind_mapping #app

Andrew is a Product Designer at https://medium.com/thortspace - #3D #VR #collaborative #thought_mapping #app. See it more than one way!