Shaded Display Mode Showing Objects Behind Other Objects

Rhino Rhino for Windows
1

While using shaded display mode, if I zoom out objects behind other objects are displayed. If I zoom in everything is displayed as it should. Any ideas on how to fix this so when I zoom out it appears the same as when I zoom in?

Zoomed out
Zoomed out956×616 37 KB

Zoomed in
Zoomed in891×588 20.5 KB

2

Hi Mike -

You’ll run into that behavior when the distance between those objects is very small compared to the overall size of the model.

Other than changing the z-bias factor with the TestZBiasFactor command to try to make this better, there’s nothing you can do.
-wim

1 Like
3

Thanks Wim. It’s interesting. I used TestZBiasFactor. I tried extremely small numbers and it did not help at all. Then at a value of 8 I could see more objects behind the front object in shaded display mode. If I increased the value to a huge number, say 132,000, then the objects “behind” disappeared as the should, so this worked except for one major side effect. When selecting objects with the mouse the mouse clicks acted as if the display mode was set to x-ray, not shaded. Very odd. Maybe to solve this issue the developers could set the `TestZBiasFactor to 132,000 when redrawing the model and then set it back to 1 when the redraw is done, awaiting for the next command or mouse click.

Also if anyone else is having display issues I found this

4

When I run TestZBiasFactor the command line says if running this helps then to send the model to McNeel tech support so it can help them solve the issue. What’s the best way to do this? Can I post it here and then can you contact the developers so they can grab the model here and read my comment above, or is there an email address I can send it to?

5

If I need a shaded model that does not show objects that are behind other objects to a client, what do others do? Since the TestZBiasFactor seems to have been a factor for quite some time. I’m sure there are other Rhino users that are having to produce ‘true’ shaded models for 3rd party presentations. Do they export their models to another product like AutoCAD or Sketchup? I really dislike having to do this because I want to keep everything in Rhino, but I need to figure out a solution.

6

I figure for a quick presentation during the prototyping phase I will just add paint materials to each type of object and then apply actual materials and textures to the final rendering. This will be good enough duing the initial prototyping phase. Let me know if there is a better way. Thanks.