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Object Display

The Object Display menu allows you to define how objects are displayed in the N-Geometry window.

Figure 6.1 Object Display menu

The commands on this menu are described later in this chapter in alphabetical order.

Changing Display Parameters for a Single Object

When you click on most operations in the Object Display section of the menu, N-Geometry displays a menu of all existing objects. If you want to toggle a display parameter for one object, (CLICK-L) on the appropriate Object Display operation.

For example, suppose you had a cube and a sphere object in your scene, and wanted to display the sphere in shaded mode. If you were to (CLICK-L) on GeoMenus>Object Display>Shading, you'd get a menu that looked like this:

Figure 6.2 Select the object you want to shade

Note that the Cube and Sphere objects are gray; this means that they are currently not shaded.

If you wanted to make the sphere shaded, you would (CLICK-L) on Sphere, and the object would be shaded:

Figure 6.3 The selected object is shaded in the N-Geometry window

If an object is already shaded (or visible, sensitive, etc.) it appears in black text in the object list:

Figure 6.4 Objects with the selected parameter turned on appear in black text in an object list

Note. Using the item All Objects at the top of the object list affects all objects loaded into N-Geometry.

Changing Display Parameters for Several Objects

If you want to set a display parameter for several objects (e.g., shade several objects at once), (CLICK-R) on the operation.

For example, if you wanted to toggle the sensitivity of several objects at once, you would (CLICK-R) on Sensitivity. An object list would appear:

Figure 6.5 Objects with the selected parameter turned on appear in black text in an object list

As above, you should (CLICK-L) on an object to toggle its state. Objects listed in black have the selected parameter (e.g., they are shaded, or visible). Once the selection of objects has been made, (CLICK-L) on Do It to make your changes.

Note. You can also collect several objects in N-Geometry and use the Utilities portion of the object menu to change the display parameters of several objects at once.

Backfacing

If turned on, displays only the faces that are facing toward the camera. (See Figure 6.6.) N-Geometry knows which way a face is oriented by the order of the vertices in that face.

Figure 6.6 Left, backfacing off; right, backfacing on

Hard Edging

The Hard Edging command displays the boundaries of faces when faces meet at an angle greater than a specified amount, that is, at hard edges. This option is useful when animating (with N-Dynamics) if you want to turn off the display of edges with edges harder than the specified value.

Figure 6.7 shows an object in its original state, and with hard edging turned on to reduce the number of displayed edges:

Figure 6.7 Left, original object; right, with hard edging of 10 degrees

Local Axes

The Local Axes command toggles the display labeled local axes of terminal objects. Displaying local axes makes it easy to see where an object's origin is (see Figure 6.8.) This feature makes it easier to visualize transformations, many of which are relative to the local axes.

Figure 6.8 Displaying local axes makes it easy to see how a transform operation will work

In addition, the local axes are displayed regardless of which element type you have selected: points, segments, bodies, or objects.

Normals

Vertices, edges, faces

Toggles the display of normals for points, edges, faces-after clicking on the command, you are prompted to select the object whose normals you wish to display.

Figure 6.9 Left, cube with point normals displayed; middle, edge normals; right, face normals

Points

The Points command shows the object with all its nodes, or points, displayed as dots. (See Figure 6.10.) This type of presentation is especially useful with wires or with objects that have many vertices with only two adjacent edges, which might appear to blend together if the angle between them is fairly small.

The size of the displayed points is defined by the parameters defined in Utilities>Preferences>Objects>Point Display Radius.

Figure 6.10 Example of point display

Sensitivity

You can specify mouse sensitivity by object. This capability enables you to use background objects for reference without making it difficult to select elements on the object you are actively using. (In addition, bounding boxes are by default not mouse-sensitive.)

Shading

The Shading command displays the objects as smooth shaded.

Figure 6.11 Original and shaded object

Stand-ins

The Stand-ins command displays a "substitute" box instead of the object itself whenever you move the camera or transform the object.

The substitute is essentially a bounding box which encompasses the object. The use of substitute boxes greatly increases the speed with which camera movements and transformations for more complicated objects are performed, because fewer lines need to be drawn.

If you want any objects for which stand-ins are assigned to always display as a stand-in, see the section "Sticky Standin Bodies," on page 5-4.

Visibility

The Visibility command determines what objects can be seen in the view window.

Note. An object that has been marked visible is not visible when it is not within the camera's field of view.


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