Normals and Shading

[Slick]

Does anyone know of a way you could set up MasterCAM so that when you shaded your surfaces you could view them the same as when they are not shaded.

 

i.e. When shading is on, one side of the surface is it's color, and the other is gray.

 

If you can, please let me know.

If you can't, what does anyone sle think about making it to where you can?

[Ocean Lacky™]

I can think of a time or two when that might come in handy!

[Guest]

How can a single surface have 2 sides of color?

[Pete Rimkus from CNC Software Inc.]

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"...Does anyone know of a way you could set up MasterCAM so that when you shaded your surfaces you could view them the same as when they are not shaded..."

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Nope, sorry - I don't believe this is possible. Since that coloring is view based, it would be changing as you rotate your part (or just change views) which doesn't fit in with the way we shade surfaces.

It has been requested in the past, though, so its worth thinking about.

[b_daddy]

Slick,

 

Are you in 9 or X?

 

In 9, go to Screen,Surf disp, Show back.

Is this like something you are looking for?

 

 

HTH

[Slick]

We're running V10 now, but I checked out what you suggested b_daddy. Close, but no cigar. That's the function I'm looking for (well not even me, it's a co-worker, but I thought it was a cool idea) only in the shaded function. I understand where the trouble would be, like you said John, how can you shade one thing with two colors.

I figured if enough people thought it was a good idea, it might get looked at. Sometimes we get models in with a ton of really small patches that you can hardly zoom in enough to see, let alone change their normal.

 

But like I said, just a thought. Thanks for the replies!

[bellyup]

if mc has the logic to distinguish colors of back and front of surfaces(wireframe), or normals (wireframe or solid), it seems that distinguishing colors of back and front of surfaces(solid) isn't too far a strech to ask for.

[BernieT]

In ver 9.1 - 'Screen-Surf Display-Studio-Settings' check 'Back color' like b-daddy says will show the surface directions, you can even change Normals by using the tool bar icon. Not reliable though, here the normal can be changed but still show the back color or flip back and forth. Maybe a 'regenerate' function could be added to update the normals direction.

 

This would be a huge improvement to shading - to be able to have a different color for the back side of a surface.