Hi Martin,

> > <<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. **

Ok, but wouldn't that be weird to have a control that say "Display hidden lines" and you have it unchecked, yet still some hidden lines are being displayed somewhere? That's what could happen if it worked like you described.

It's just far more simple if the control that says "Display hidden lines" when turned off means that there are not any hidden lines being shown...


> ** 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. **

Yes, that's correct and how it's intended to be set up right now - the "Hidden edges on selected only" checkbox only has any effect on the hidden line display (and only on edges in there as well), so if the hidden line display is turned off (Display hidden lines unchecked) then it won't do anything at that moment. I guess I could hide or gray out the second control when hidden lines are actually turned off, but that's a pretty small cosmetic detail and sometimes that can actually be fairly annoying to have UI that is displayed but not able to actually be set until you go somewhere else.


> Whilst my suggestion would need both options to be off to disable
> viewing of all hidden lines - <....>

From my point of view this is a very significant drawback... Enough so that the negatives of what you are proposing to me seem to outweigh the positives, sorry.


> 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 **

If you have a whole bunch of stuff getting in your way you fundamentally have to hide some of it so that it won't be in your way... This new setting is not some cure-all to totally avoid that - having stuff littering your view is more of a demo of not doing enough object visibility management really.

When I first watched your video I thought that you were actually trying to draw some things on the front of the solid and getting snaps onto the hidden-line curves behind it by accident instead - that kind of problem is precisely why it's good to have a single control that can globally disable hidden lines...


Maybe in the future I could add another setting yet that would control whether curves will be part of the hidden-line display or not, I guess that would do what you are describing. But I also don't really like having too many zillions of options for people to have to wade through as well, when things get to a certain level people end up not being able to find anything in the mess.


- Michael