Surface edges visible when they shouldn't be

[Pipouille]

Hi,
I’m having a problem with some display modes (shaded/technical/rendered). The edges of a closed polysurface are always visible through a small closed polysurface or an extrusion. Even though it should be in the background.
Is there a parameter that can be adjusted? Or is this a general problem with display modes?
This seems to vary according to the zoom factor.

It’s difficult to make certain designs visible when exporting. When I print a pdf, edges that shouldn’t be visible are also visible. Here’s a simple example:

Page 1.pdf (169.2 KB)
ApparentCurveThroughTheSurface.3dm (4.0 MB)

Thanks for your help in this

[wim (Wim Dekeyser)]

Hi Benoît -

@Pipouille

Is there a parameter that can be adjusted? Or is this a general problem with display modes?

This is a general problem with display modes. To make sure that wires are not hidden by display meshes of surfaces, they are slightly drawn in front of the surfaces. When an object that is in front of those wires isn’t thick enough to occlude those wires, the wires will be seen. In some cases, you can make those disappear by using the TestZBiasFactor command, but that’s not the case in your example.

We have this issue on the list as RH-56674 [ZBiasFactor - not enough] but it’s not something that can be easily fixed.

In technical display modes, you’ll still see those wires in the viewport, but not when printing to vector PDF.

-wim

[Pipouille]

Hi Wim,
Thanks for your explanations. Hope it can be improved soon.

@wim

To make sure that wires are not hidden by display meshes of surfaces, they are slightly drawn in front of the surfaces.

It might be nice just to be able to disable that if you need to. To have an option not to redraw the wires in front of the surfaces. (I don’t know if this is possible. Like this maybe more ZBiasFactor will be not needed.)

@wim

In technical display modes, you’ll still see those wires in the viewport, but not when printing to vector PDF.

Thanks, that helps a bit. But how is it possible to keep the solid colours of the surfaces at the same time? I have a technical display mode that shows the colour of the surfaces, but once I print it in vector, the colours disappear. And if I print in raster, this hidden line reappears. I can’t find a setting that allows me to keep the colours while making these famous lines disappear.

Here’s an example of the type of graphic output needed. (second one: Technicolor.ini)

Share your custom viewport modes here

My settings look the same, and as mentioned I’m on a 3090 (desktop). Never used “advanced GPU lighting” either, because honestly it looks so bad I think it’s broken. Have you tried enabling it on the default “shaded” view mode, for example? That can’t be right. Btw, this is my most used viewport display mode: [image] It’s basically just isolines and tangent edges hidden (and the “ambient occlusion” lighting method)… I’m very surprised this isn’t a built-in mode because it is in…

[wim (Wim Dekeyser)]

Hi Benoît -

@Pipouille

But how is it possible to keep the solid colours of the surfaces at the same time?

I’m afraid that’s not possible.
For the time being, you could turn off edges in the display modes that you want and create curves for the edges that you need to show. If this is only for illustrations, making that front object thicker might be an option. Finally, you could use Make2D and use the output to create hatches with solid colors.
-wim