The Display menu contains commands for turning on and off items displayed in the graphics windows.
The Net display shows the complete control point net for all visible and unlocked surfaces.
The net can be manipulated by clicking on a control point vertex and dragging it about the window. Once you are familiar with the results of modifying the net directly, it is an extremely efficient way of modifying a shape to effect global changes.
Control points may be moved in any drawing window, but in the Perspective window the movement is limited to the plane that is most perpendicular to the angle of view. An indicator showing the most perpendicular plane is displayed in the lower right hand corner of the window.
For symmetrical surfaces, the control point net exists only for one half of the symmetrical surface. The Half function controls whether the surface's mirror image is displayed across the longitudinal centreline.
By choosing the 'Split Surface Display' option in the surface Properties dialog, the Body Plan window will display the forward half of a surface on the right hand side and the aft half on the left hand side, when the Half function is selected.
The vertical and transverse axes are increased by a factor of four relative to the longitudinal axis. This is useful for fairing longitudinal curvature.
Displays curvature porcupines for any edge, section, waterline, buttock, diagonal or feature line by clicking on the curve and selecting Show Curvature. Porcupines are displayed perpendicular to the curve and their lengths are inversely proportional to the square root of the radius of curvature at that point on the curve. Note that the smallest radius on a given curve is displayed at the end of the porcupine corresponding to its position on the curve.
Turns on or off the trimming option in Maxsurf. This command also lets you trim surfaces Invisible or Gray.
Maxsurf has five levels of calculation and display precision. The appropriate precision may be set at any time depending on the performance of your computer, the complexity of the design and the level of detail required. Also see Surface Precision on page 89.
Displays the arrows which show the surface's current outside normal direction. All surfaces should point outwards. The direction of the surface normal may be flipped by clicking in the circle at the end of the arrowhead. This is important for rendering, skin thickness direction and correct interpretation of the design when it is loaded into Hydromax or Workshop.
You can choose to display all markers or no markers, or you may choose to only show those markers whose station number is the same as the current station. The Connect Marker Stations command displays a connecting line between markers on the same station. See Sorting Markers on page 73 for more information.
Controls whether the background DXF construction lines and the background images are displayed or not. The background may be loaded from an existing DXF file using the Import function in the File menu. Tools for positioning and scaling the background image are also here.
The commands in the submenu are only available when a background image or DXF has been imported. See:
§ Importing DXF background on page 179
§ Importing Background Images on page 174
Hides the DXF background.
Shows the DXF background.
Deletes the DXF background.
Hide Image
Hides the background image in the current view window.
Show Image
Shows the image in the current view window.
Set Image Zero Point
Sets the image zero point. This command is not available for images in the perspective window.
Set Image Reference Point
Sets the image reference point. This scales the image, see Importing Background Images on page 174.
Delete Image
Deletes the background image in the current view window.
When Show Grid Only is selected, the positions of the Sections, Waterlines, Buttocks and Diagonals as specified by the Grid Spacing function from the Data menu, will be drawn.
When Show Grid and Labels is selected, the names assigned to each grid line in the Grid Spacing option will also be shown on the screen and hardcopy.
The Contours option allows you to select which contours are drawn on the screen at any given time. Any combination of contours may be chosen from the contours dialog.
Render may only be selected when the Perspective window is active. Selecting Render performs hidden line removal on the design with a choice of surface shading and false colouring.
Animate may only be selected when the Perspective window is active. Maxsurf will attempt to draw as many views as possible with the available memory, up to the maximum number specified in the animate dialog.
When these views have all been drawn they can be played back as a moving picture by moving the mouse from side to side. Clicking the mouse button will terminate the animation.
Animations may be saved to AVI files for playback at a later time.