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vRigger Learning Center

This also applies to cable, chain, and webbing.

Gear that is anchored includes anchors, rocks, trees, tripods, trucks, etc.

A "bight" is a simple loop in a rope that does not cross itself.

A "bend" is a knot that joins two ropes together. Bends can only be attached to the end of a rope.

A "hitch" is a type of knot that must be tied around another object.

"Descending devices" (e.g., ATCs, Brake Bar Racks, Figure 8s, Rescue 8s, etc) create friction as their primary purpose. The friction in descending devices is always considered when calculating forces.

The "Safety Factor" is the ratio between the gear's breaking strength and the maximum load applied to the gear (e.g., 5:1).

Tips & Keyboard Shortcuts

These tips will help you get the most from vRigger.

General

  • Watch the free training videos. It will take an hour, but you will save many more.
  • Click your right mouse button on everything! The mouse right-click displays a relevant shortcut menu.
  • Avoid changing the size of individual pieces of gear. Instead, change the zooming.
  • Watch the message bar above the workspace for helpful instructions. 

Alignment

  • Press Ctrl+Alt+L to align the Left edges of the selected items.
  • Press Ctrl+Alt+C to align the horizontal Centers of the selected items.
  • Press Ctrl+Alt+R to align the Right edges of the selected items.
  • Press Ctrl+Alt+T to align the Top edges of the selected items.
  • Press Ctrl+Alt+M to align the vertical Middle of the selected items.
  • Press Ctrl+Alt+B to align the Bottom edges of the selected items.

Clipboard

  • Press Ctrl+C to copy the selected gear to the clipboard.
  • Press Ctrl+X to copy the selected items to the clipboard and then delete them.
  • Press Ctrl+V to paste gear from the clipboard into the workspace. 
  • Press Ctrl+Shift+C to copy a medium-sized image to the clipboard.

Force Calculations

Gear Finder

  • Type the first few letters of any gear name and then select it from the Gear Finder.
  • Pressing Enter when there is only one item in the Gear Finder's list, or when you've typed the entire name of the gear (e.g., type "rope"), will insert that item and close the Gear Finder.
  • If the Gear Finder doesn't appear when you start to type, click on the workspace and then resume typing.
  • Click the Gear Manager at the bottom of the Gear Finder to select which gear appears in the list.

Gear Manager

Gear Report

  • The easily-overlooked Gear Report displays a list of all of the gear that is on the workspace.

Grid

Moving Gear (using your mouse)

  • Press Ctrl and then click-and-drag on gear to drag connected gear.
  • Press Shift when dragging gear to keep it vertically/horizontally aligned with the gear's starting location.
  • Press Shift when rotating gear to constrain the rotation to 15° increments.

Moving Gear (using the Arrow keys to nudge the selected items)

  • Press Ctrl while nudging to move the connected gear.
  • Press Shift while nudging to move the item faster.
  • Press Enter after nudging to connect overlapping gear.

Ropes

Scrolling

  • Click-and-drag while pressing Space to scroll the entire workspace.
  • Roll your mouse wheel forward (to scroll up) or backward (to scroll down).
  • Press Shift and roll your mouse wheel forward (to scroll left) or backward (to scroll right).

Selecting

  • Click on gear to select it.
  • Press Ctrl+A to select all of the items on the workspace.
  • Press Ctrl+U to unselect all of the gear.
  • Use the Tab and Shift+Tab keys to select gear.

Undo/Redo

  • Press Ctrl+Z to undo your last command. 
  • Press Ctrl+Y to redo the last command you undid.

Zooming