DeskArtes
Industrial Design System
Update Manual
for version 4.0, update #7
Update Manual
for the release of DeskArtes v. 4.0.7, July 1998.
Copyright
© 1998 DeskArtes
Oy. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, transmitted, transcribed, stored in a retrieval system, or translated into any language in any form by any means without the written permission of DeskArtes Oy.DeskArtes
Oy reserves the right to revise this publication and to make changes from time to time without the obligation to notify any person of such revisions and changes.Trade Marks
DeskArtes
and the DA symbol are trademarks of DeskArtes Oy. Other brand and product names are trademarks and registered trademarks of their respective owners.Credits
Written by Charles Woodward.
Address
DeskArtes Oy
Kalevankatu 3 A
FIN-00100 Helsinki
Tel. +358–9–644335
Fax +358–9–644330
Contents
Foreword
*New Functionality
*New command SYSTEM
Þ Version Info *New command SYSTEM
Þ Screen Size *DISPLAY commands enabled with DRAW: None
*Option REFR simplified
*Clipping control with CLIP: On/Off
*Faster display of point clouds (*)
*Copying curve sets with OBJECT
Þ Copy *Keeping copies with SELECT
Þ Collect: Display *3D curves with SELECT
Þ Collect: Selection *New command SELECT
Þ Collect: Points (*) *Refining Bezier curves (*)
*New command CURVE
Þ Design: Surf Spiral (*) *Building with arbitrary cross-sections (*)
*Revolve and Direction for Section Sets (*)
*Improved Section Placement (*)
*Improved Creating of Sections (*)
*Changing from 2D projections to 3D projections
*Interpolation method with 3D Building
*Improved accuracy with 3D Building
*Easier 3D Build interaction (*)
*Improved Surface Offsetting interaction (*)
*New command SURFACE
Þ Deform: Stretch (*) *New command SURFACE
Þ Deform: Bend (*) *New command SURFACE
Þ Deform: Taper (*) *New command SURFACE
Þ Deform: Twist (*) *New command SURFACE
Þ Deform Project to Surf (*) *New command SURFACE
Þ Deform: Paste to Surf (*) *Improved SURFACE
Þ Change: Faceted Model (*) *Object dimensions shown after TRANSF commands
*New command TRANSF
Þ Preferences (*) *Curve radius dimensioning generalized(*)
*New command with DIMENS
Þ Preferences (*) *Improvements with DIMENS
Þ Faceted: Dimensions *Learn mode with updating trims
*Adaptive TRIM tolerance
*Closing of trim curves improved
*Renaming of some TRIM commands (*)
*New command TRIM
Þ Intersect: Parting Lines (*) *Variable Blend improvements (*)
*New command TRIM
Þ Blend: Multiple Rball (*) *New command TRIM
Þ Blend: Trim with Blend (*) *New command TRIM
Þ Change: Delete Trims (*) *Numeric setting with DISPLAY
Þ View: Eye Point *Numeric setting with DISPLAY
Þ View: Define Clips *Single sided shading color
*Explicit tolerance with DISPLAY
Þ Preferences *New command DISPLAY
Þ Print *Shading of CATIA models (touching trims)
*Antialiasing in GL Window
*Easier interaction with environment mapping
*Command EXTRACE
Þ Render Turntable (*) *No scaling when storing primitives
*Moving between disks
*Converting images to 3D Bumps (*)
*BMP image format
*Gzipped files
*DXF output
*Notes on the NT version
*
This Update Manual describes the changes of the DeskArtes Industrial Design System from the original release of the version 4.0 of March 1997 to the update 4.0.7 in July 1998.
In this document, only those functional changes are reported that significantly change the operation or add new features to the system. Additionally there are numerous speed-ups and other performance improvements, which are not mentioned separately.
To help the reader to find the most recent changes, those which have been implemented in the most recent release (after update 4.0.6) are marked with asterisk (*) below.
Changes which relate specifically to the DeskArtes Rapid Tools System are reported in a separate document.
Þ Version InfoThis new command gives information of the DeskArtes software version, as well as the system identification number of the hardware where DeskArtes is installed.
The system id number is required for obtaining the license code for the software. Thus, the user can first install the software, then launch it (verifying the installation was performed correctly), and check the system id number with
Version Info. To finally obtain the license code for the software, the system id number is reported to the customer's DeskArtes distributor. Þ Screen SizeThis new command is implemented only for the Windows NT platform, replacing the similar command
Store Layout on UNIX. The command allows for selecting between two different screen sizes, small and large.DISPLAY commands enabled with DRAW: None
The Settings Window option
DRAW: None used to prevent all displaying, even if a command from the DISPLAY menu was specifically issued. This has been changed so that the DISPLAY commands will actually work under DRAW: None.The difference with the
DRAW: Menu mode remains such that the Menu mode additionally displays new objects as they are created, or read into the system.The
REFR: Single option has been removed from the Settings Window, as screen refresh with the double buffering technique is in practice always a better choice. Thus, the REFR options are now simply ON/OFF, to enable and disable the display refreshing.Clipping control with CLIP: On/Off
The new option in the Settings Window,
CLIP: On/Off has been implemented to set clipping temporarily on or off, without affecting the actual definitions and positions of the clipping planes.Faster display of point clouds (*)
The display of point clouds has generally been speeded up. However, displaying large amound of data can still be rather slow. For this reason, the pointwise representation is shown only, if the user first selects
CURVEÞ Knots: Show. Otherwise point clouds are shown as simple polylines.Copying curve sets with OBJECT
Þ CopyThe command
OBJECTÞ Copy previously refused to copy curve sets at all – now it asks more politely if the user really wishes to copy the curve set (or just one curve instead). Þ Collect: DisplayThe command
SELECTÞ Collect Display has a new parameter option for separating (not copying) of the collected objects. Þ Collect: SelectionThe command
SELECTÞ Collect Selection used to apply to surfaces only, now it can be used equally to collect 3D curves, too. Þ Collect: Points (*)This new command collects a set of points from the target object into a single polyline. The special use for the command is to deal with data of point clouds. When reading in a point cloud object, it comes in as one polyline containing all the (digitized) points. Instead of that, the user may wish to separate the data into smaller sets.
As interaction, the user draws a polygon on the screen using the left moue button (middle to cancel, right to close the polygon). Those points on the target object that fall inside the draw polygon are copied into a separate point cloud. The order of the points will remain the same as in the original data.
Function 'D' for doubling the number of control points has been added to Bezier curve editing. Refining Bezier curves is often a useful operation for improving the accuracy of 3D Building.
Þ Design: Surf Spiral (*)This new command creates a spiral-like curve which goes around the target surface.
For instance, this way one could design a telephone wire by calling for a spiral curve along a tube-shaped surface. There are many other applications too.
The spiral curve is given as a 3D Bezier curve, whose accuracy is asked as parameter. The spiral curve is then ready for use for 3D Building, as soon as the section shape is defined by the user.
Building with arbitrary cross-sections (*)
Building now works even if the sections don't have the same number of knot points.
In such case, the result is approximated the same way than if the user would separately set an equal number of points to the sections using
CURVEÞ Approximate. The number of knot points to be used on the sections is asked as a parameter.This feature applies to 2D Building only, not 3D.
Revolve and Direction for Section Sets (*)
Curve commands
Revolve and Change Direction now operate for a whole curve set, not just one curve.The commands then go through each curve, allowing the user to change the direction/start point of each of them separately.
Improved Section Placement (*)
In Build Parameters, section placement can now be done either at object center, or at the Fix Points. The fix point may be set independently for each section curve. This replaces the previous centering method at the origin.
Improved Creating of Sections (*)
The parameter query for
Create Section(s) has been improved so that there's now a separate option to tell the system when all desired sections are done.Changing from 2D projections to 3D projections
The command
CURVEÞ Change Dimension has been added a new feature, to combine the primary and secondary projection curves in 2D into 3D projections.This way the user can first start his design using 2D projections as usual, and if desired switch to 3D projections automatically without loosing previous modeling information.
The primary projection must be selected as target to apply this new feature. Otherwise the command
CURVEÞ Change Dimension works just as before.Interpolation method with 3D Building
A new "interpolation method" parameter has been added to 3D building. It allows the user to choose between Bezier and B-spline methods.
B-spline interpolation produces generally more smooth surfaces, while Bezier interpolation guarantees better overall following of the projection curves' shapes. Which method to use depends on the application, and may finally be decided by trial-and-error.
Improved accuracy with 3D Building
3D building with closed sections has been improved so much that it will now produce the same accuracy as with open sections.
Easier 3D Build interaction (*)
3D Building now accepts a general 3D curve set for projections, so the user does not have to remember to change the type to 3D projections separately.
Improved Surface Offsetting interaction (*)
The result of offsetting a set of surfaces is now stored into a separate element, which makes it considerably easier than before to analyze the results.
Further, offsetting now ask confirmation from the user of whether all the surfaces are oriented consistently or not.
Þ Deform: Stretch (*)The old command of release 3.x,
TRANSFÞ Deform: Stretch has been brought back, now in SURFACE menu. Þ Deform: Bend (*)This new command bends a surface or a set of surfaces around a cylinder. For example, you could this way design a ring first flat, which is easier, then do the bending to right shape. The command also works for bending faceted models.
The bending is done either around the X or Y axis direction. In other words, the surface will always bend "downwards".
It is possible to bend the surface only on part of the cylinder, or even many times around the same cylinder, by defining the bending degree as parameter.
The accuracy of bending depends on how dense the patch structure is on the surfaces. It is therefore often required to refine the surfaces before bending using command
SURFACEÞ Change: Refine.As a side effect, all trim curves and the textures of the bent surfaces will be lost, so it is better to do trimming only after bending.
Bending may violate tangent continuity of Bezier surfaces. It is better to design the surfaces as B-splines it they are to be bent.
Þ Deform: Taper (*)This new command scales (tapers) the target object so that parts close to the scaling center will keep as they are, while more remote parts will be scaled according to their distance from the center.
As parameters, the system first asks in which axis direction the growing of scale should take place. This is called the "tapering direction". As second parameter, you are asked to give the maximum scaling factors for the other two axis directions.
The scaling center can be set either to the object's fix point, or the minimum/maximum values in the tapering direction.
As with the
Bend command (above), tapering works better for B-spline surfaces than Bezier, and trimming is more reliably done after tapering than before it. Þ Deform: Twist (*)This new command twists the target object around an axis. The parameters are similar to the command
Taper (above).The system first asks in which axis direction the twisting should take place. The other parameters are twist angle and the placement if the twist center axis.
As with command
Bend (above), twisting works better for B-spline surfaces than Bezier, and trimming is more reliably done after twisting than before it. Further, the result may be improved by refining the surfaces before twisting. Þ Deform Project to Surf (*)This new command drops a surface to another surface. The command can also be applied to dropping several surfaces at once, as well as for projecting faceted models. However, the surface where the other(s) are projected to must be a B-Spline or Bezier surface.
The projection direction is given as parameter, in the same way as with the
CURVEÞ Change: Project command.The center point of the projection, i.e. the level that will match the target surface, is defined by the fix point of the projected surfaces.
The command provides a powerful means to design 3D decors on a base surface. This way one can for instance project a digitized "3D bump map" on a surface.
Þ Deform: Paste to Surf (*)This new command transforms a surface to the normal direction at a point on another surface. As possible applications you could think of placing the stones on a piece of jewelry, or buttons on an electronic device, for example.
The surface to be transformed is defined by applying the
OBJECTÞ Cut command to it first. It will remain in the paste buffer till the time of the next Cut command is performed, thus it is also possible to paste the same objects several times.The place where the object will be pasted is pointed on the other surface by mouse. As result, the fix point of the pasted surface will match that point exactly.
Þ Change: Faceted Model (*)The "check gaps" option with the command
SURFACEÞ Change Faceted Model has been added an option to specify the size of gaps to fill. All gaps between the surfaces which are narrower than the given gap size will be automatically stitched together. Previously the system set this value internally to 0.1 units.Further, normal/gap checking is now always asked when changing a surface to Faceted Model. Previously it was asked only when changing several surfaces at once, but in order to avoid inverted facets it is better to do so always.
Object dimensions shown after TRANSF commands
The transformation commands now show the object's new dimensions in the message lines after the transformation has been completed. This helps positioning objects to desired exact values.
Þ Preferences (*)This new command contains ways to generally affect how some 3D transformations work.
The first option, "freeze 3D fixpoint", stabilizes the fix point so that the same fix point will be used for all transformations to follow. This is useful if the same fix point should be applied to transformations with several objects. The default value for the freezed fix point is taken as the current target object's local fix point.
The second parameter option, "transform projections with elements", decides if 2D projection curves within an element should be transformed too when the element is being moved or scaled. Previously this was asked with every element transformation, which could be irritating when performing several transformations.
Curve radius dimensioning generalized(*)
Dimensioning curve radii with the command
DIMENSÞ Curve Dimensions, function r, has been generalized so, that the radius may be asked at any point on the curve. Previously this was possible only at exactly defined fillets.The system first tries to see if there exists a exactly defined radius. If not, the system asks the user to locate two other points on the curve. The program then computes and displays a circular arc which passes through the three points shown, and reports the radius of that.
Þ Preferences (*)This new command determines, how many decimals should be used for curve dimensioning. Previously this was asked as a parameter each time when entering curve dimensioning.
Þ Faceted: DimensionsInteraction with the command
DIMENSÞ Faceted Dimensions has been changed, from mouse driven functions to keyboard shortcuts. The command has also been added new functionality, in particular to display object information and to store raster images.The new functions and their shortcuts are analogous to those of
Curve Dimensions, as follows:p
point value (was left mouse button before)d
distance (was middle mouse button before)r
radius (was right mouse button before)a
angle (angle between three points locates)b
bounding box (and other object info, i.e., number of facets, extents, center, area, volume)w
write exit storing raster image to fileq
quit exit without storing imageLearn mode with updating trims
When deleting trim curves with
OBJECTÞ Delete, the system asks if the trim curves with the other associated surfaces should be updated, too. When deleting several trims in a sequence, however, answering this parameter query each time can become irritating.For this reason, there is now a new parameter option "learn" with deleting trim curves. Setting "learn" to YES, this parameter query will not appear anymore, but trim updating is always performed according to the last chosen parameter selection.
Changing this mode later can be done through the corresponding parameter with
TRIMÞ Preferences.The commands in the
TRIM menu have been enhanced with an adaptive trim tolerance for small objects. The actually used trim tolerance is computed as the minimum of the user-defined trim tolerance (in TRIMÞ Preferences), and a value which is obtained from the actual object's and the intersection curve's size.This way the user does not necessarily have to remember to change the trim tolerance himself, when dealing with small objects.
Closing of trim curves improved
When the parameter "force closed intersections" in
TRIMÞ Preferences is set on, the system always closes the trim curves so that a part of the surface will "drop away". This closing method has been improved so that open intersections are now extended to the surface boundary, not just closed inside the parameter space as before. This generally leads to much more natural results than before.Renaming of some TRIM commands (*)
Command
TRIMÞ Intersect: Slice renamed to 3D Slice, to better indicate its function.Command
TRIMÞ Intersect: Planes renamed to Plane Slices, to better indicate its function. Þ Intersect: Parting Lines (*)This new command cuts a surface or surfaces in an element at the parting line(s) of the surface. The surface(s) are split into two pieces, one where all surface normals are pointing downwards, and another one with normals up. Additionally, the 3D parting line is generated.
The program asks as parameters the computation tolerance ("normal tolerance"), as well as the joining accuracy for the resulting 3D parting line pieces. Small normal tolerance gives accurate results, while a large joining accuracy may help the system to better construct the 3D parting line.
As the third parameter the system asks, whether just the top or bottom part of the surfaces should be kept, or both.
In order for the system to recognize the top and bottom parts, the normal directions of the surfaces must be oriented consistently inside or outside to the model. This may most conveniently be done using command
SURFACEÞ Normals Change for each inverted surface, using the single sided shading mode.The command will have trouble computing the parting line if there are vertical walls in the model, even small ones. In such cases, the resulting parting line will typically not cut out anything of the model (result being an open trim curve).
The system colors the result surfaces which were processed without problems as blue, or green. Surfaces with non-closed parting lines are colored yellow. Surfaces with other problems are colored red.
Variable Blend improvements (*)
The new implementation of Variable Radius Blends makes it possible to compute blends even over tight corners where the corresponding blend ball would not "fit".
NOTE, however, that the blend radii cannot be defined (pointed with the mouse) inside such tight corners. Instead, you must define the required radius values just outside the corners, and the blends will then work.
Þ Blend: Multiple Rball (*)This new command blends the target surfaces with all other surfaces shown on the screen.
In order for the blends to be computed on the right side of the other surfaces, their normal directions must be oriented consistently inside or outside to the model. This may most conveniently be done using command
SURFACEÞ Normals Change for each inverted surface, with the single sided shading mode.The parameters of the command are then similar to the ordinary rolling ball command: 1) blend radius, 2) blend direction away from the target surface, and 3) blend direction relative to the other surfaces' normal direction.
All the other commands will be trimmed with the blends, just like with the single rolling ball command. The target surface will be trimmed, too, provided that the blends define closed loop(s) on it.
However, the actual blends are computed on the whole of the other surfaces, not accounting how they are trimmed. The resulting blend surfaces will thus typically intersect with each others. The required blending result may be completed by a clean-up phase using the command
TRIMÞ Blend: Trim with Blend (see next).If the resulting blend surfaces do not intersect each other, but only some other surfaces in the model, the extra parts may be cut out simply by trimming them against the other surfaces.
Note: the blending routines may get into trouble, if a blend is computed through another blend that has exactly the same radius. Computing a multiple blend with larger radii than the other blends may produce bad results too. It may therefore be necessary to reduce the multiple blend radius slightly smaller compared to the others.
Þ Blend: Trim with Blend (*)This command makes it possible to trim the target blend with another blend, which is meeting the target blend tangent continuously. This situation typically arises as the result of the command
TRIMÞ Blend: Multiple Real.After
TRIMÞ Blend: Multiple Real, use command OBJECTÞ Cut to separate all the blends into their own element. Then select each of the blends which needs cutting as target, and do the following:• if the target is an open blend, trim it with each of the other blends by pointing at the corresponding end of the other blend with the mouse LEFT button.
• if the target is a closed blend, it should typically meet other blends at least two different points. Use the RIGHT mouse button to locate two such points, and the part between will be trimmed away.
Learning the efficient use of trimming the blends may take some practice. But after that, it will make the computing of multiple blends quite automatic, and a hundred times faster than before.
Þ Change: Delete Trims (*)This new command deletes all trim curves and blends inside the target element.
Þ View: Eye PointThe command
DISPLAYÞ View Eye Point has been added an option to numerically set the viewing direction: click any KEY on the keyboard to get the corresponding X/Y/Z values shown. Þ View: Define ClipsThe command
DISPLAYÞ View Define Clips has been 1) slightly renamed , and 2) added an option to enable and/or numerically set the clipping planes.The latter is accomplished by clicking any KEY on the keyboard. A parameter box pops up, where each clip plane can be set on or off individually. In the next parameter box the active clipping planes can be assigned numerical co-ordinate values.
When the "single sided shading" mode has been chosen from
DISPLAYÞ Preferences, all those surfaces whose normal direction is away from the viewer are shaded in dark blue color.This way the user can quickly see which surfaces are in the wrong direction, for example if the command
SURFACEÞ Design Offset is to be applied to a whole element of surfaces. The "inverted" surfaces can then be picked graphically, and normal side changed with command SURFACEÞ Direction Change.To facilitate this interaction, command
SURFACEÞ Direction Change will not anymore ask any parameters, when issued to a single surface.Explicit tolerance with DISPLAY
Þ PreferencesThe command
DISPLAYÞ Preferences has been added a new option: the explicit shading tolerance. Using it, the user can specify a numerical value for the tolerance which is used to triangulate the surface model for shading. This may be required in particular if the fine option is not accurate enough to smoothly render small details of the model. Þ PrintA new command
DISPLAYÞ Print has been implemented for the NT version. It prints the contents of the graphic display (vector graphics only) to the PC's default printer, according to the user-given parameters.Shading of CATIA models (touching trims)
Shading of surfaces which have two trim curves (faces) has been improved. This affects especially the shading of CATIA and NAPA models, which often represent the touching trims feature.
Note: The command
FORMATÞ Check Touching Trims still reports these trim curves, even though they won't cause problems.A new option has been added to the GL Window's pop-up menu, to enable or disable antialiasing.
Note that antialiasing will only work on high-end graphic cards which support this feature. On some machines antialiasing is performed by software, which can lead to poor speed performance.
Easier interaction with environment mapping
The option "environment mapping" has been removed from command
DISPLAYÞ Preferences. Now environment maps are automatically shown on mirroring surfaces, just as long as the option "textures" is set on. Þ Render Turntable (*)This command has now been implemented for the NT platform too. Further instructions are provided on request.
No scaling when storing primitives
When storing primitives with command
FILE WRITE, the option to "scale the primitive to unit box" has been removed. The reason is that it could deform the object and seemed only cause confusion among the users.The NT version has a new command in the directory field of the File Window, called
MY COMPUTER. This command allows for moving between any disk or device attached to the computer., such as C:, D: and so on.Converting images to 3D Bumps (*)
The new file window option
CONVERT/3D Bump converts an rgb file into a cobj file, that contains a faceted representation for a 3D bump map of the image.The number of facets in the horizontal direction is asked as a parameter, default being according to the number of pixels in the image.
The Z heights in the bump maps are taken from the pixel intensities in the image. Once the cobj file is read into DeskArtes, it can be further scaled and transformed.
One way to apply such 3D bumps then is projecting them as decorations on other surfaces; see command
Project to Surf above.The BMP image format has been added as an option when writing an picture file with
FILE WRITE. Furthermore, BMP images can now be converted from other formats and back with the File Window command CONVERT.The (UN)COMPRESS command in the File Window now allows for dealing with gzipped (.gz) files. Further, on the NT platform ExTrace image files are automatically gzipped (not UNIX compressed).
DXF output has been added a new parameter option: whether or not to include the tables section or not. Note: for data exchange to AutoCAD r. 13/14, do not include either the tables or the header.
The polyface mesh representation of DXF output has been improved so as to include only three points per facet, instead of the previous four. This also has a positive impact in output to AutoCAD, among other systems.
TextPaint
has been implemented slightly differently on NT than on the UNIX platforms:• Background Image
A scanned in image can now be imported as a background image into
TextPaint.When exiting TextPaint, the user is asked if a background image should be created. The reason it is not automatically created is to save memory.
The command
TEXTUREÞ Refresh (Use Background Image YES) keeps the Background Image on the screen until TEXTUREÞ Refresh is disabled.•
Read Image TextPaintis faster now than in previous NT versions. In rare occasions, however, some of the colors in the image are mapped incorrectly.
A couple of functions still remain to be implemented on the NT. These are:
• Rendering textures by
RENDERÞ Camera ViewRendering of texture areas with the GL window is planned to be implemented on NT later in 1998. (Note: background textures and environment maps were already implemented with version 4.0.6.)
• Command
SYSTEMÞ Set ColorsThis command is not considered as a very important one, and its implementation on the NT will not have the highest priority.
• Commands
TO TAPE in File WindowStoring data to different devices on the NT platform is best handled through the PC's operating system. The
TO TAPE commands will be removed from the DeskArtes menus in the future.• Command
PRINT PIC in File WindowThis command will be implemented on the NT in the course of 1998.