Better Hidden Line Renderer

[DDDesign]

I'd love to see a better HLR. The current method makes lots of errors. In particular, it often fails to draw internal 90deg. corners - and it handles filleted edges badly.

[Kaare Baekgaard]

I second that - filleted corners ought to render with a solid line placed right in the middle of the fillet.

For a present version fix, I ungroup the rendered viewports and edit the resulting content by hand.

[DDDesign]

Thanks for the tip, I didn't realize you could ungroup the viewport. I've somtimes been using Artistic Renderworks (tapered lines with taper & wobble =0) with mixed results. Your method is better.

However, for what seems to be an important tool for 3D work, HLR is not good enough. It sure beats me why it won't work with some internal angles.

[mike m oz]

For Live Sections and Elevations to work properly hidden line rendering (HLR) definately needs to be improved.

As well as showing internal corners correctly there is also a need to get rid of the lines that shouldn't be there, such as junction lines between walls in the same plane.

Great tip Karre about ungrouping Viewports so that all you have is the linework. Now if only it could remain 'Live". I leave the Viewports as they are and resort to drawing white lines over the lines I don't want to see and manually add in the lines that should be there but aren't.

[Ramon PG]

quote:

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Originally posted by mike m oz:

Great tip Karre about ungrouping Viewports so that all you have is the linework. Now if only it could remain 'Live". I leave the Viewports as they are and resort to drawing white lines over the lines I don't want to see and manually add in the lines that should be there but aren't.

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I used to erase (subtract) the unwanted lines but then I read it was easier to retrace (add) the main elements in the drawing and was really convinced when I tried it. It was much faster.

As to HLR, I sincerely hope this issue got fixed in v12's "live" sections because it is the main time waster in final sections and elevations. With proper hidden line you could just retrace the borders you want to show with a thicker line, add drawing markers and (hopefully) Presto!, you have a drawing.

[mike m oz]

Ramon - Hidden Line Rendering has been improved, and the unwanted lines between floors will no longer be there. An example of this is shown on page 26 of the Whats New in 12 PDF.

[ 10-24-2005, 07:54 PM: Message edited by: mike m oz ]

[Andrew Bell@NV]

quote:

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Originally posted by DDDesign:

However, for what seems to be an important tool for 3D work, HLR is not good enough. It sure beats me why it won't work with some internal angles.

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Are you referring to intersection lines when polygons intersect, or are these lines in the wireframe that don't show up in the hidden line? If the latter, please send me a sample file at the address below.

[propstuff]

quote:

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Originally posted by Andrew Bell@NNA:

Are you referring to intersection lines when polygons intersect, or are these lines in the wireframe that don't show up in the hidden line? If the latter, please send me a sample file at the address below.

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Hi Andrew I've certainly had the latter on curved things like cones and spheres. I'll send you something.

With the polygon intersects: has this been fixed with VW12?

cheers

[ 10-25-2005, 04:22 PM: Message edited by: propstuff ]

[DDDesign]

I'm referring to polygon intersections. Wireframe lines are OK, although some lines are often there that shouldn't be. I've heard that the implementation of polygon intersections hasn't been included in V12, as it is a difficult task. Notwithstanding, I'd still put my request for it - I work completely from 3D models, and HLR is the chief tool in presenting construction drawings (or in my case "production" drawings).

The second thing I'd add as far as working in the way I do is the apparent lack of accuracy in snapping in 3D compared 2D. Often I've snapped something together with the appropriate cue, only to find it's out with a zoom in inspection.

[Andrew Bell@NV]

quote:

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Originally posted by propstuff:

With the polygon intersects: has this been fixed with VW12?

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No, this is unchanged for 12.0.

[propstuff]

Bummer. :-(

Is this somewhere on the list of to-dos?

regards,

N.

[Ramon PG]

quote:

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Originally posted by mike m oz:

Ramon - Hidden Line Rendering has been improved, and the unwanted lines between floors will no longer be there. An example of this is shown on page 26 of the Whats New in 12 PDF.

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Sounds great. What about adjoining walls? It really bugs me when I have existing walls next to new walls and they are supposed to "blend" in the final construction, but don't in HLR.

[Andrew Bell@NV]

quote:

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Originally posted by Ramon PG:

Sounds great. What about adjoining walls? It really bugs me when I have existing walls next to new walls and they are supposed to "blend" in the final construction, but don't in HLR.

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Adjoining walls also blend, as long as their faces align very closely. (That way if you want the edge, you can move it a small fraction -- say 1/100 of an inch -- and it won't blend on you.)

[DDDesign]

Does the blending of adjoining walls also apply to other solids? If so, I see this as a disadvantage for me. I often want to be able to show the interface between two aligned, but separate components in HLR. I don't want to make my drawings less accurate to be able to do this. If this really is the case, coupled with the lack of polygon intersects, HLR in V12 will be a great annoyance.

[Andrew Bell@NV]

quote:

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Originally posted by DDDesign:

Does the blending of adjoining walls also apply to other solids? If so, I see this as a disadvantage for me. I often want to be able to show the interface between two aligned, but separate components in HLR. I don't want to make my drawings less accurate to be able to do this. If this really is the case, coupled with the lack of polygon intersects, HLR in V12 will be a great annoyance.

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No, it only applies to walls, floors, and columns, and edges that they share. If a wall shares an edge with a 3-D polygon, the edge will still show in hidden line. So there should be no annoyance.

[Andrew Bell@NV]

quote:

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Originally posted by propstuff:

Bummer. :-(

Is somewhere on the list of to-dos?

regards,

N.

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It's certainly been wishlisted. As always, no promises (at least not from me) about what NNA will do in the future and when.