The present invention discloses a creation of a virtual hand, body part, or tool in a virtual environment, controlled by a new 3-D haptic interface for virtual environments. There is also the provision of a method and arrangement applicable to computer systems for creating a virtual environment, which facilitates a user to touch, feel, edit, and interact with data about the objects, surfaces, and textures in the environment. There is also a provision for multiple virtual hands operating in the same virtual world, so that users can work collaboratively in the virtual world; they can touch, feel and edit the data in the virtual world, including data about the other users' virtual hands.