60001900 New Properties to handle offset in Section Clips

Article 60001900
Type Wish
Product Engine
Date Added 2/1/2013 12:00:00 AM
Fixed (2/8/2013 12:00:00 AM)
Submitted by Peter Chanios

Summary

New Properties to handle offset in Section Clips

Solution

We added some new properties to the vdSectionClip object.
First of all we added 2 properties that handle the draw of a sectionclip.

System.Drawing.Color SectionColor
byte SectionAlphaBlending
These two properties indicate the color and the transparency of the section clip if drawn. The default value of the SectionColor is Color.Empty which means it is not drawn. If you set any color then the SectionClip is drawable (a Redraw is required).
The draw of the sectionclip is a solid filled plane which passes from the OriginPoint and extends to the extends of the drawing. So in order to see a sectionclip the drawing must at least have some entities in order to have a 3D BoundingBox.

We added 4 more properties to the vdSectionClip object
double OffsetDistance : The offsetDistance indicates how many drawing units will be drawn additionally at the hidden side of the SectionClip.
SectionOffsetDrawTypeEnum OffsetDrawType : This property takes two values

  • NoList : This option uses no Opengl lists and also uses the following properties in order to render the extra offset figures.

    • vdColor OffsetEntitiesColor
    vdLineType OffsetEntitiesLinetype
    The OffsetEntitiesColor indicates the locked color that the entities will have. The additional draw will use this color.
    The OffserEntitiesLinetype indicates the Linetype that lines are going to use. Note that Linetypes are not supported in list OpenGL draw in which Solid Linetype will be used.
  • HighLight : This option uses opengl lists and highlights the extra offset figures using the same color of the figure. If the above Linetype is not Solid then the lines are also highlighted.

    • At the below example we have added a horizontal Section Clip to which cuts the red sphere , line and circle. We provided a Blue OffsetColor with Distance 2.0 Drawing units. Also note that the Sectionclip is drawable with Grey Transparent color.
    Note that using Nolist option while using opengl lists dispite the fact that will provide you a colorfull visual effect it will slow down a lot your drawing and it will be like using no lists.
    This option can be used to export a nice effect image but not be used while the user interacts with the drawing.

    Below you can see the same drawing using Opengl lists
    Unfortunately using Opengl lists we cannot provide a different color for the same object so we provide the semy transparent highlight effect to highlight the difference.

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