Hi Michael.


<<Hi Martin, I'm sorry I'm still not entirely sure if I understand you correctly.
** Well I know what I think I want, but it's not always easy for me to get that across :) **


<<Ok, so you're saying that when "Display hidden lines" was turned off, there would still be some hidden edge display being shown?
** ONLY on the part that is selected and along with 'Hidden edges on selected only' being turned ON. **


<<If so then that's problematic that the setting would seem to say that no hidden lines would be shown yet you are talking about showing some...
** Yes, but only in line with what seems possible under Options i.e. 'Hidden edges on selected only' is still shown as enabled. So as it stands, we can disable 'Display hidden lines' and still have 'Hidden edges on selected only' ticked, yet that option doesn't seem to work without the former being selected. **


<<I think it's pretty important to be able to turn off the hidden line display entirely, that's what happens with the first "Display hidden lines" checkbox being on or off. There is also a shortcut for that under the View palette. It's useful to be able to totally turn off the hidden line display in just one spot because if you have some hidden lines cluttering up your display it lets you definitely clear them all by going to just one control and clicking it.

That's why the new "hidden edges on selected only" only modifies how edges are displayed _if_ hidden edge display is enabled, it allows you to still totally disable all hidden lines by using the other "Display hidden lines" checkbox the same as before.

Hopefully the new option for also controlling the hidden-line display of edges only on selected objects will help to manage them in some situations without needing to do a full on or off, but I think it's still a good idea to have a sort of master on/off switch still though.

- Michael

** Basically, my thought was to remove the link between 'Display hidden lines' and 'Hidden edges on selected only', so that disabling 'Display hidden lines' doesn't stop 'Hidden edges on selected only' from working on its own with selected objects. My hope was that this would allow complex geometry to exist behind solids and surfaces without them getting in the way by being selectable.

Whilst my suggestion would need both options to be off to disable viewing of all hidden lines - and I do take on-board what you say about hiding things - I think It'd still be a useful option for isolating the object where the scene is busy with curves that can't necessarily be conveniently hidden and are hampering the workflow.

I've staged a rather unconvincing video of how some mock-complex curves show through a 3d shape and 'obstructs' me when all I really want to do is access the hidden edges of the selected solid. I hope you get the idea though **


http://screencast.com/t/4ubg7Rjr



Martin(2).