Surface Normals

[Namliek_J@TheeCircle™]

I need to get all of my surface normals facing the same way. My problems is the part I am looking at is pretty complicated and when not shaded, it is hard to tell which surface is which, etc...

 

Is there a way to shade the solid but also tell which was the surface normal is pointed?? thanks

[billystein]

try analyze

test surfaces and solids

[Colin Gilchrist]

J,

 

Surface normals really only exist on surfaces, not solids. If you meant "how do I tell surface normal when the Surface model is shaded", you can use Edit - Set normal, and pick your surfaces. The other technique I like to use is, pre-select the surfaces you want to check, then press Alt + E for the hide function (this will keep only the surfaces you pre-selected on the screen temporarily), now you can flip the normal direction arrow or press the "select" button on the ribbon bar to select only the surfaces you want to manipulate, don't forget to press Alt + E when you are done to unhide your hidden surfaces.

 

The only way to see a surface normal is to view the surface in the unshaded display mode. The positive normal direction will always be the color of the surface, and the back side of the normal will be a dark gray wireframe display.

 

You can change the density of the surface display grid lines (U,V curves) by selecting the surfaces and Right-clicking on the "Attributes" button on the secondary menu. Then change the density number (scale from 1-15, 1 being not very many lines, 15 being lots of grid lines). When you are looking in wireframe display mode this will make it easier to see which surface you are looking at.

 

HTH,

[billystein]

in version 9 you could do

analyze

surfaces

set normals

and it would flip all normals to out and up

i don't see the same function in x.

does snyone know if there is a reason to set normals ( or not to) in x?

[Colin Gilchrist]

How about Edit - Set Normals...

 

FYI, it doesn't necessarily set them all to out, but normal to the Z axis of your current construction plane.

 

HTH,

[Justin Beebe at Folsom Tool]

You can tell which way the surface normal is pointed on a shaded surface by using analyze dynamic then clicking on the shaded surface. The arrow will show you the direction of the surface normal. If you need to flip the surface normal for a particular surface just use analyze, click on the surface, set edit to "yes", then click reverse normal. I've also noticed that analyze dynamic works similar on a solid model although I have never seen the arrow pointing in the wrong direction on a solid, and I don't think you would have the option to reverse it if it was. I could be wrong about this. The information I have provided is for V9.

 

Justin

[Verisurf - Ernie Husted]

I agree, when working with a busy surface model, having to zoom in looking at the wireframe colors to flip surface normals can be tedious.

 

Back in the good old Pre-X days Mastercam had Studio Shading that allowed the shaded model to display a different color on the back side of surfaces, this was a nice tool when you had 100’s of surfaces and you needed to spot the ones that needed to get it's normal flipped.

 

(X2MR2)

Clicking on each surface to see the dynamic surface normal doesn’t help much.

 

It sure would be nice to have a fulltime shading option in X3 that could show the back of surfaces in a different color.

 

 

Ernie

[Mick]

In a similar kind of note:

 

That is one thing I really wanted in Mastercam, that I had when I used to run Unigraphics.

 

Any surface or face selected for machining, showed up as a different color (like it was highlighted). That way, it was easy to select certain faces for machining, and clearly see if they were correctly selected.

 

Currently, Mastercam only highlights the edges of selected faces, which can be a bit confusing when there is a complex model on the screen...

 

Ok, maybe I need to get off my a** and send an enhancement request in