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Curves in "converting to line"


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When I render a drawing in "Final Hidden Line" and then "Convert to Lines" those parts of the drawing that have curves are converted with all the facets showing. Erasing those facets is very time consuming.Is there a command or work around that only shows the outline of curved parts when Convert to Line" is used.

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  • 2 months later...

Same problem (with facet lines), so I downloaded the Hidden Line Smoothing plug-in. Results: same as without the plug-in. Some users write about changing the 'angle' setting, but after spending a lot of frustrating time in fromt of my computer, I still can't find a setting that gets rid of the facet lines.

Any guidance would be greatly appreciated.

Steve F.

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  • Vectorworks, Inc Employee

In the newly released 10.5, facet line removal is significantly improved. As long as the smoothing angle value is greater than zero, most surfaces that are curved by definition (spheres, extruded cylinders, swept circles, extrude along path objects, etc.) will have their facet lines removed. No more guessing as to what a good angle value is to remove the lines you want and not the ones you don't.

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I should have mentioned that I'm using VW 9.5.2. Interestingly, I received a VW file in which the facets are invisible. When I copy an object from that file to one of my files the facet line reappear. When I drop my object into that file the facets go away. I've looked all over their preferences and can find nothing that I'm not already doing. Yet, I still get facet lines. I installed the plug-in, Hidden Line Smoothing Angle.vsm,and still get the facets. [Confused]

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  • Vectorworks, Inc Employee

quote:

Originally posted by Steve Frushour:

I should have mentioned that I'm using VW 9.5.2.

Now you have even more reason to upgrade, don't you? :-)

quote:

Interestingly, I received a VW file in which the facets are invisible. When I copy an object from that file to one of my files the facet line reappear. When I drop my object into that file the facets go away.

The smoothing angle is a Document Preference, which means it is actually stored with the active file. You'll need to set it for each new document you create, or create a template file with your preferred value and use that when you create new documents.

Note that the .vsm file is a menu command, which you need to add to your workspace via the workspace editor. Then run that command, and it will ask you for an angle value, which is your smoothing angle. That angle is the maximum angle between faces for which it will remove the surface line, so you would need a higher value the lower your 3-D conversion resolution is. The .vsm file does not actually add any defaceting code to VectorWorks, the code is already in the program. Thus if someone sends you a file for which they've set that smoothing angle, it will render with facet lines removed even if you don't have the plug-in.

[ 09-11-2003, 09:27 AM: Message edited by: Andrew Bell@NNA ]

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  • Vectorworks, Inc Employee

quote:

Originally posted by Steve Frushour:

Thanks for all your help. I'm now facet free. Now, on to the next item on my wish list: Bitmap Render Tool. Where is it? How do I get it if it's not already in my VW folder?

It shows up in the workspace editor among the 3-D tools. I'm never sure how my workspaces compare the ones that come with the release versions of VectorWorks, but most of the time I've seen a Rendering palette among the palettes, with that as the only tool. It may be you need to have RenderWorks in order to have that tool.

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