Controls#

ElectroSim uses a single-button mouse workflow combined with a handful of keyboard shortcuts. Modifiers can be combined: for example, holding Shift+Ctrl while placing creates a fixed negative particle.

Mouse#

  • Left click + release on empty space: Start and finish a particle placement. Drag before release to set initial velocity based on drag vector.

    • Hold Shift while clicking to place a negative (blue) particle.

    • Hold Alt or Ctrl to place the particle as fixed. Modifiers stack with Shift.

  • Left click on a particle: Select the closest particle under the cursor.

  • Drag a selected particle: Reposition it; ElectroSim temporarily fixes the particle while you drag and restores its previous fixed/velocity state on release.

Keyboard#

Simulation Flow#

  • P: Pause or resume integration.

  • R: Reset to the default single-particle scene.

  • C: Clear all particles.

  • Esc: Quit ElectroSim.

Speed Control#

  • 1 / 2 / 3 / 4: Switch to 0.5× / 1× / 2× / 4× simulation speed multipliers.

Visualization Toggles#

  • E: Toggle electric field visualization.

  • M: Switch field mode between brightness and length scaling.

  • F: Toggle force vectors.

  • V: Toggle velocity vectors.

  • T: Toggle trajectory trails.

  • G: Toggle the metric grid overlay.

  • B: Toggle glow rendering.

  • O: Toggle the main overlay (HUD + profiling panel).

  • I: Toggle the hover tooltip.

Particle Editing#

  • Space: Toggle the fixed/mobile state on the selected particle.

  • Delete / Backspace: Remove the selected particle.

  • Q / W: Decrease or increase charge by 1 µC (CHARGE_STEP_C).

  • A / S: Decrease or increase mass by 0.005 kg (MASS_STEP_KG).

  • Z / X: Decrease or increase radius by 0.005 m (RADIUS_STEP_M).

Validation#

  • U: Start the uniform electric-field validation harness (replaces the current scene until it finishes).

The hover tooltip (toggled with I) reports world coordinates, the local electric field (E and |E|), and nearest-particle properties to help with debugging and measurement.