Require HALOGAP for overlapping 3D lines ? Is there such a thing ?

[kennycad]

Drawing 3D pipe layouts in 3D. Using lines only. Need to be able to hide overlapping sections furtherest to the back of drawing automatically.

Exactly the same as HIDE and HALOGAP using wireframes except with standard lines in 3D.

Anyone have any idea's ?

 

[TCARPENTER]

Hi kennycad,

I'm not real sure what you're tyring to accomplish but regular lines will be hidden by solid objects when you use the hide command/hide plot. But if you need the lines themselves to hide other lines, you'll need to assign a thickness to each line - but, this option is going to turn your lines into rectangles so you might try a thickness of something like .005".

If you are trying to hide background piping, you might just construct 3D faces at known section lines to hide any and all items you don't want displayed. Another option might be the xclip command.

Finally, you might play with either dview or orbit and make use of clipping planes to get the view you want.

HTH
Todd

 

[kennycad]

Thanks for your response.

The scenario is as follows:

I am drawing building services piping in 3D, however using standard lines only. Imagine the following: 2 standard lines. Crossing each other but on different planes. Line 1 start point (0,0,0) end point (100,0,0). Line 2 start point (50,50,100) end point (50,-50,100). If these 2 lines were 3DSOLID Cylinders, and i used the HALOGAP and HIDE commands, the cylinder running (0,0,0) to (100,0,0) would appear below the second cyliner with an additional gap due to the HALOGAP variable. I want to do this exact same thing, except with standard lines.

Any ideas would be greatly appreciated !

 

[TCARPENTER]

Hi kennycad,

Ok, that's what I thought. Just for grins I tried converting the lines to regular polylines and assigned them a width, halogap and hide did produce the gap you were looking for, however, the single line now appeared as double. My gues is, unless you can convert your lines into solid objects, the polyline option will probably be the only way you'll be able to do what you want without having to create either 3D faces, regions, or solids (or wipeout objects?).

Sorry I couldn't come up with any more.
Todd

 

[kennycad]

Todd

Liked the polyline idea, i assigned a minimal width, which could be an option. However, when i set the view to SW or random orbit view and use the HIDE and HALOGAP commands the gap no longer appears.

Any thoughts ?

 

[TCARPENTER]

Hi kennycad,

I actually had the same problem. The trick is HALOGAP is a percentage, so if you zoom in, you'll see the gap but when you zoom farther out, the gap is really just too small to see. I guess you'd have to play with the line width and HALOGAP variable until you get what you want.

I have to admit, I set it to 100 and still didn't have real satisfactory gap, but I didn't play much with the line width itself.

HTH
Todd