Main Window

The main window of the program consists of the menu bar, the toolbar, tabs with project settings and the preview area (see the picture below).



Main Menu Commands

File menu:
New Creates a new project.
Open Opens the dialog box for opening a project from a file.
Save Saves the project to the file.
Save As Opens the dialog box for saving the project to a file with a different name.
Exit Exits the program.
 
View menu:
Toolbar Shows or hides the toolbar.
Project Settings Shows or hides the tabs with project settings.
Language Selects a language for the program.
 
Render menu:
Render Opens the Rendering window (and starts rendering process).
 
Help menu:
Contents Opens the help system.
Cover Professional Web Site Opens the program’s web site: http://www.indasoftware.com/coverpro/
Cover Professional Forum Opens the web page with program discussion: http://www.indasoftware.com/forums/?showforum=11
Contact Us Opens the web page for feedback: http://www.indasoftware.com/contact.php
Register Opens a dialog box for program registration
About Opens a dialog box with information about program, its version number and copyright.
 
Toolbar

The toolbar contains buttons for quick access to the most important functions: creating, opening and saving the project, rendering, and opening the help system.

Project Settings

The project settings are separated by four tabs.

The Object tab contains settings related to the object — its type, occurrence of the disc and the position of the disc.

To choose an object, a DVD Box for example, just select it from the list. You can change the object at any time, even when textures of the sides, object position, scale, etc, are defined. When you change the object all these settings will be kept.

The Add CD check box adds a disc to the project. The drop-down list to the right of the check box allows to determine the position of the disc relative to the object: front left, front right, back left, back right. You can also assign a custom texture for the disc (see the Textures and Colors tab).
The Textures and Colors tab contains settings related to texturing the object sides (assigning images). Here you can also specify a color for the sides as well as the color of the scene background.

Each of the object sides is presented by a field with a button. Click the button to open the Image Editor dialog and to select an image for the object side. If the image is assigned, the field contains the text “Image”, or else — “no image”. Similarly, you can assign a custom texture for a CD. All images are stored inside the project file.

Tip. You can drag image files from the Windows Explorer and drop them directly into the corresponding fields.

The scene background can be transparent or colored. Transparent background is supported in PNG, BMP, TGA, JPEG2000 and PSD (Photoshop) file formats.
The Position tab contains settings which define a position of the camera, the scene scale, the placement of the object, as well as the width, the height and the depth of the object.

To set up the camera position relative to the object, use the Horizontal Rotation and the Vertical Rotation settings in the Camera group. Specify the necessary values by using the sliders or by entering them manually to the corresponding fields. The Zoom parameter allows you to zoom in or zoom out the view the object.

The Back — Front Incline and Left — Right Incline settings define the incline of the object in corresponding directions.

The Width, Height and Depth settings let you change dimensions of the object. These settings are measured in the percentage of the original sizes of the object.
The Other tab contains lightning, shadow and reflection settings.

The Intensity parameter in the Light group defines the intensity of a light source.

The Opacity parameter in the Shadow group determines the opacity level of a shadow cast by the object. You can turn off the shadow by removing the corresponding check box.

There are two setting for controlling the object reflection: the Intensity setting defines the amount of fading, the Opacity setting determines the transparency of the reflection. If you do not need the reflection in the scene, uncheck the corresponding check box.

Preview Area

The preview area occupies the largest part of the main window. Its purpose is to show how the object will look in the final image. The preview area also lets you zoom in and zoom out the view of the object and to free rotate the object using the mouse. Use the left or middle mouse button to rotate around the object, and the right mouse button or the wheel scrolling to zoom in or zoom out the view of the object.