2 small settings questions

Bill Mays

Howdy,
I have 2 hopefully easy things to ask.

1. When i switch between 2d, 3d and Sheet metal the grid resets and I have to click it off.
2. same thing for shading... would prefer to have it in wire frame or hidden most of the time.

Hopefully I'm just overwhelmed by the amount of settings and missed something obvious?
Would prefer to have these settings stick.
Thanks,
B

Joe Dunfee

I don't actually use sheet metal, so I am not clear about your needs.  But, if the switching can be done with the command line, then you can type a simple macro. Here is one macro I created to switch back to 2D wireframe, when I have earlier set the view to be shaded.

^c^cShademode;2d;

The ^c is the euivalent of pressing Esc, adn having it twice will guarantee that if you are in the middle fo a command, that it will get canceled first.  Then, the ; is the equivalent of a carriage return.

To get started go to any of the tool bars, and right-click and open the customize menu.  Switch to the Toolbar tab, then browse to where you want the new tool created.  Right click and choose Insert Tool.  You can browse to any existing command, and when you choose it, it will automatically create the macro text.

The reason for editing the macro text is that you can add more commands.  So, if you want to do something like switch to 2D Wireframe, and then zoom extents, you would type

^c^cShademode;2d;-zoom;e;

-Joe

Richard Webb

I  believe that Bill is looking for a setting to suppress the automatic display of the grid when switching into 3D model space from 2D. If so, I can sympathize completely. It's nice on occasion but virtually every time I click into 3D mode, my finger is already on its way to the F7 key to get rid of the grid.

There doesn't seem to be a setting prevent the automatic grid display from the button click or _3DCONTEXT at the command line. There may be a deep variable, somewhere but I'm guessing it's just a default part of the script.

Bill Mays

@Richard Webb:

I  believe that Bill is looking for a setting to suppress the automatic display of the grid when switching into 3D model space from 2D. If so, I can sympathize completely. It's nice on occasion but virtually every time I click into 3D mode, my finger is already on its way to the F7 key to get rid of the grid.

There doesn't seem to be a setting prevent the automatic grid display from the button click or _3DCONTEXT at the command line. There may be a deep variable, somewhere but I'm guessing it's just a default part of the script.

Exactly Richard.
I was tired and could have worded my question a tad better but you nailed it.
I hesitate to call these bugs but rather they feel more like small oversights that could be made more smooth.

•  I would love to have the grid display settings hold globally regardless of which space I'm in.

• As far as the shading aspect, its a similar situation. Would love to just declare the best shading or wire frame that works for the mission (or my eyes) and have it stick until changed.

Maybe a dev will read this and add these to a point update.

Jason Bourhill

Hi Bill,

Attach a LISP workaround to allow you to customise the functionality of the 3DCONTEXT command. This undefines the built-in command, then replaces with a LISP function of the same name. If you don't want the grid to change, then you can comment those lines out.

[code](command "._UNDEFINE" "_3DCONTEXT")

(defun C:3DCONTEXT ()
    (if (tblsearch "VIEW" "HOME")
        (progn
            (command "._VIEW" "_Restore" "HOME")
            (while (/= (getvar 'CMDACTIVE) 0)) ; wait for VIEW command to complete befor proceeding
            (command "._ZOOM" "_Extents")
        )
        (progn
            ;3D Context actually creates the HOME view if it doesn't exist using Home background settings
            (command "._VPOINT" '(-4 -7 4))
            (command "._SHADEMODE" "_Modeling")
            (command "._VIEW" "_SAVE" "HOME")
        )
    )
    ; Set Grid settings
    (setvar 'GRIDDISPLAY 2)
    (setvar 'GRIDMODE 1)
    (prin1)
)
[/code]

BricsCAD's 3DCONTEXT command does have some configurable options. The command uses a VIEW called "HOME" when switching. If the "HOME" view already exists, then its background colours, VPOINT, and SHADEPLOT values will be used. If the "HOME" view doesn't already exist, then 3DCONTEXT creates it, and uses the default background colours. You can change this by going to SETTINGS, and searching for "Home background". I'm not aware of any settings that control SHADEPLOT, or GRIDDISPLAY.

Hope this is of some help.

Regards,

Jason Bourhill

CAD Concepts

3DContext.lsp