lines on curved objects in hidden line rendering

[Don@Black Dog]

Is there a way to not have the lines indicating the curvature of an object such as a column when rendering in hidden line? All I want is the profile of the columns. I would prefer not to have to convert to lines, since the columns may be changed or adjusted and a global setting would be more effective.

Thanks. Don

[mike m oz]

View Menu: Rendering / Line Render Options.... Set the Smoothing Angle to 30?.

[Guest Frank Brault]

To complement Mike's advice: The Smoothing Angle value is the largest angle between adjacent faces when the edge line will not be drawn by the hidden line renderer. Hidden line rendering is a polygon renderer, so the process starts by breaking any non-planar surfaces into polygons and then deciding whether to draw the edge line between faces according to the threshold that you enter into the Smoothing Angle value field.

So, 30 might be too large a value if you have anything besides a rectangular based design.

[Don@Black Dog]

Thank you both for the clarification and suggestions. Tech at Nemetschek sent the following, which would work as well:

"Unfortunately there is no such setting or feature within VectorWorks. However if you make the changes first, then convert them to lines and ungroup you should get the desired result. You could also make the changes and create a symbol out of the modified column and use the new symbol in place of your current column choice."

Sounds like an opportunity for some enterprising sort, to make a series of tapered classical column symbols in typical widths and heights.

[panthony]

Don,

Doesn't final shaded polygon show curvature lines when rendered?

I've used that option before because it gives you hidden lines and the curvature affect you are looking for. You can modify the viewport setting to display in black and white only for on screen image export or change the doc setting to black and white prior to export or print.

Pete A

[Don@Black Dog]

Thanks, Peter. I don't want the curvature lines, unless you mean in a shadow area.

Actually, I just found my answer. In the Hidden Lines Background Render Settings, set the Smoothing Angle to greater than 10 or 15 degrees and the lines disappear. I should mention this to Tech...

Edited August 30, 2008 by blackdogarch