1.3.4. Render Tab

1.3.4.1. Draw Faces

If the Draw Faces check box is selected, the faces that make up an object are drawn. The faces are colored using the settings on the Color tab.

To change the transparency of an object, type in the transparency value or use the embedded slider (which has a maximum value of 1 and a minimum value of 0). A transparency of 0 means the shading is opaque (or having no transparency) and a transparency of 1 means the shading is invisible (completely transparent).

Shading properties can be changed to either None, Flat Shading or Smooth Shading.

Select None so that no shading is applied to the object; it appears black.
Select Flat Shading so that each rendered element is colored a constant color. Color interpolation is not used across or between rendered elements.
Select Smooth Shading so that color interpolation is applied that results in color variation across a rendered element based on the color of surrounding rendered elements.

Lighting can be turned on and off by selecting/clearing the Lighting check box.

Specular lighting can be turned on and off by selecting/clearing the Specular check box. When selected, objects appear to reflect light.

Face culling turns off visibility of rendered element faces of objects that either face the viewer or point away from the viewer. Domain boundaries always have a normal vector that points out of the domain. Face Culling options are:

Front Faces
Selecting Front Faces turns off visibility of all outward-facing rendered element faces (the faces on the same side as the normal vector). This would, for example, turn off visibility of one side of a plane or the outward facing rendered elements of a cylinder locator. When applied to a volume object, the first layer of rendered element faces that point outwards are rendered invisible.
Back Faces
Selecting Back Faces turns off visibility of inward-facing rendered element faces (the faces on the opposite side to the normal vector). When applied to volume objects, the effect of back culling is not always visible in the viewer, since the object-rendered elements that face the outward direction obscure the culled faces. It can, however, reduce the render time when further actions are performed on the object. The effect of this would be most noticeable for large volume objects. In the same way as for front face culling, it turns off visibility of one side of surface locators.
No Culling
No Culling turns on the visibility of all rendered element faces.

1.3.4.2. Draw Lines

If the Draw Lines check box is selected, the lines that make up the object’s surface are drawn. To change the line width, type in the line-width value, increase or decrease the value by 1 by clicking the up and down arrows, or use the embedded slider (which has a maximum value of 10 and a minimum value of 1). Line color can be changed by clicking on the icon to the right of the Color box.

The Edge Angle setting is used to limit the number of visible edges in a plot. The edge angle is considered to be the angle between two faceted faces of a surface that are connected by an edge. If the angle between two adjacent faces is greater than the Edge Angle setting, then the edge shared by the faces is drawn. If the edge angle is 0°, the entire surface is drawn. If the edge angle is large, then only the most significant corner edges of the surface are drawn.

A sensible setting for Edge Angle depends on the geometry. Experiment to get a value that clearly shows where the surface is located, without displaying too much of the surface mesh. Too many lines can make it confusing when more objects are added to the geometry.

Setting an edge angle defines a minimum angle for drawing parts of the surface mesh. For example, if an edge angle of 30° is chosen, any edges shared by faces with an angle between them of 30° or more are drawn.

Reducing the edge angle shows more of the surface mesh in the viewer. When the edge angle is 0°, all of the surface mesh is shown.

1.3.4.3. Applying Instance Transforms to Objects

Instance transforms are created separately using Insert > User Defined > Instance Transform. For details, see Instance Transform Command. The Apply Instancing check box is selected by default, and Default Transform is selected. To apply a different transform, it must be created and then selected from the list of existing instance transforms.