DriveWorks Pro 21

Geometries

Geometries

Geometries are shown here to give the opportunity to remove the texture coordinates applied to the Drive3D file when it was exported from the CAD system. Texture coordinates determine how a texture wraps onto your model.

Entering a texture mapping mode will tell DriveWorks to use that texture projection type.

Information Panel

With a Geometry selected in the Feature Panel the following will be displayed in the Information Panel:

A preview of the selected geometry is also displayed in the Information Panel.

Texture Mapping Mode

Texture Mapping Modes can be better than using the coordinates saved by your CAD package. Models can look better with these texture mapping modes applied to the geometry.

• Select from the following options:
  • "Source" will use the texture mapping coordinates from the original source file.

    This uses the default texture coordinates that were saved with the model.

  • "BoxMap" will use DriveWorks texture mapping (planar mapping).

    This wraps the texture to the model as if a cube was surrounding the model and the texture was projected onto the model.

  • "CylindricalUncapped" will use DriveWorks texture mapping (cylindrical uncapped mapping).

    This wraps the texture to the model as if a cylinder was surrounding the model and the texture was projected onto the model.

    This is an uncapped texture mapping mode. This means that the top and bottom of the model could end up having no texture. This results in black areas on the model. If this is the case you will need to select another mapping mode.

  • "Spherical" will use DriveWorks texture mapping (spherical mapping).

    This wraps the texture to the model as if a sphere was surrounding the model and the texture was projected onto the model.

Normal Smoothing

For geometries that have a relatively low triangle count, normal smoothing will blend areas that should appear as a smooth surface, without adversely affecting performance.

Enabling or disabling normal smoothing on geometries will immediately update the geometry preview and any instances of the geometry in the scene.

Threshold

The threshold in degrees to smooth normals between adjacent faces on the geometry.

Threshold values are between 0 and 180.

Adjusting the slider for normal smoothing threshold will immediately update the geometry.

Performance Statistics

Clicking the icon on the top left of the geometry preview window will display performance statistics of the selected geometry.

This will show the following statistics:

• Appearances
• Sub Geometries
• Vertices

Multi-Select

Items from the Feature Panel can be multi-selected by:

• Shift + Left Mouse Click to multi-select consecutive items
• Ctrl + Left Mouse Click to multi-select individual items

Selected items will have common properties displayed in the Information Panel.

Values entered will be be applied to all selected items.

Parameter Panel

With a Geometry checked in the Feature Panel the following will be displayed in the Parameter Panel:

• Texture Mapping Mode
  • Source will use the texture mapping information from the source the file was created.
  • BoxMap will use DriveWorks texture mapping (planar mapping).
  • CylindricalUncapped will use DriveWorks texture mapping (cylindrical uncapped mapping).
  • Spherical will use DriveWorks texture mapping (spherical mapping).
• Enable Normal Smoothing

  True to enable or False to disable.

• Normal Smoothing Threshold

  Threshold values are between 0 and 180.

  We do not recommend changing the normal smoothing threshold via rules on a live project, this can be a performance intensive and slow process especially on large models.

Import Resource

Import Resource allows you to import Geometry and Appearances without adding the files Node structure to your DriveWorks 3D Document. This gives you the ability to build your own Node structure and lets you place models where you need them.

1. Right click the Geometries folder.
2. Select Import Resource.
3. Choose a DriveWorks 3D File to import data from.
4. Select Open.

The DriveWorks 3D File will be added as a source file and the Geometries and Appearances will be added to the DriveWorks 3D Document.