There have been many times when working in an orthographic view that I would simply like to roll the view into 3D to get a better perspective of what I am working on (using the orthographic view as a starting point). As it is now, I must click on the "3D" button - and this changes the entire angle of view (not based on my existing orthographic view) - requiring lots of adjustments to get the perspective I need.

Any who are familiar with Blender have also experienced the great convenience and speed at which views can be changed and how the perspective 3D view is available at all times, by means of the middle mouse "rotate" button.

As a counterpart to this suggested function - it would be very convenient to simply hit 1, 2, 3, etc. (as it is in Blender) to obtain a precise orthographic view from the 3D view. Mainly, I would just need the Top, Front and Left views (as their opposite views can be obtained by clicking the right mouse button on view button in question).

I know there is a script for "stepping" through the various views - one at a time until you get the one you want - but no instant view (by number) that I can find. I don't believe there is a script to immediately "roll" right into 3D space from an orthographic view, however.

Does anyone know of a way this can be done - and is there any other interest in this functionality?


Greg Smith

Hi Greg,

Would going into a quad window view be sufficient? Ctrl+alt+Q
That way one view is set to perspective and the others are always ortho.
You can use 0 on the keypad to switch between ortho and perspective.
Or you could just split one window if you are trying to save screen space.
You can use 1, 3, and 7 on the keypad to switch between the front, right and top views.
You can also hold down the Ctrl key in conjunction with the keypad to get the opposite view.

Or perhaps I have totally misunderstood.

Scott

Hi Greg,

> There have been many times when working in an orthographic view that I would simply
> like to roll the view into 3D to get a better perspective of what I am working on (using
> the orthographic view as a starting point).

I think it should be possible to set up some scripts that do this, I'll give it a try and post a bit later on about that part.


> As a counterpart to this suggested function - it would be very convenient to simply hit 1, 2, 3, etc.
> (as it is in Blender) to obtain a precise orthographic view from the 3D view. Mainly, I would just need the
> Top, Front and Left views (as their opposite views can be obtained by clicking the right mouse button
> on view button in question).

I'm sorry I don't quite understand this part - if your 3D view is at some odd angle how do you want the orthographic view to be formed from that? I think I need some additional explanation for what you're looking for on this one.


> but no instant view (by number) that I can find.

I'm not sure if this is what you are asking for with this part, but check out here for some scripts which you can set on a shortcut key for going into a particular view mode on a single keystroke:
http://moi3d.com/forum/index.php?webtag=MOI&msg=3808.2

You should be able to set those on number keys if you want as well.

- Michael

Hi Greg, for this first part:

> I would simply like to roll the view into 3D to get a better perspective of what I
> am working on (using the orthographic view as a starting point).

Try setting the following script on a shortcut key. Then when you trigger the key, the 3d view will get set to the same view position and scale as the current 2D viewport, and the view mode will switch to be the full screen 3D view. So after you trigger it you will be switched to the 3D view but it will look the same as the 2D view that you were just in but since it is actually the 3D viewport you are in now, you will be able to freely rotate the view.

script: /* Set 3D view from current 2D view */ var v2d = moi.ui.getActiveViewport(); if ( v2d && !v2d.is3DView ) { var v3d = moi.ui.mainWindow.viewpanel.getViewport('3D'); v3d.projection = 'Parallel'; v3d.setCameraAndTarget( v2d.camerapt, v2d.targetpt ); v3d.fieldOfViewAngle = v2d.fieldOfViewAngle; moi.ui.mainWindow.viewpanel.mode = '3D'; }


Also note that this will switch the 3D view to be a parallel projection which is needed in order for it to be able to match the starting 2D view. A perspective view works pretty differently than an ortho view and can't match up exactly to a 2D view very easily. If you want to switch back to perspective in the 3D view later on, you can switch that by going to Options > View > "3D view projection" dropdown.


Hope this is what you were looking for.

- Michael

Michael:

Thank you for your work on this - and your direction to existing scripts.

After a very long wait - I finally became a bone fide owner of Moi, mainly due to the improvements with .dxf import functions and learning that I could change the interface to a darker scheme to relieve my tired, aging and damaged eyes (from 30 years of gazing into monitors of every description for too many hours per day). I only wish the forum had this option, as well. (it's never enough, is it?)

Of course, your interface and ease of use philosophy has always corresponded with my own - and, for these reasons and for the potential of using MoI as a replacement for so many other modeling techniques - as well as the beauty of the viewport while modeling (anti-aliasing and soft shading transitions) - I hope to do most of my practical modeling using MoI, in the future.

I still cannot achieve some of the on-screen rendering techniques (the ones exhibited for .pdf output) - or, for that matter, the step-by-step means to output to .pdf with no lines at all, only shading - with only outlines and shading - and only outlines by themselves.

Knowing how to achieve these - step-by-step - would probably help a great many owners and potential owners, as well. (he says dangling a wilted carrot).


Thanks again, for everything,

Greg Smith

Hi Greg,

> I still cannot achieve some of the on-screen rendering techniques (the ones exhibited for .pdf output)

Which particular exhibited .pdf outputs do you mean?


> - or, for that matter, the step-by-step means to output to .pdf with no lines at all, only
> shading - with only outlines and shading - and only outlines by themselves.

The PDF output assumes that you will always want to generate the regular visible lines so there isn't any built in way to disable that for the generated PDF but it is possible to configure it so that they are easily disabled later on.

To do that, push the "Line style options" button in the PDF options dialog here:



Then in the Line style options, set the layer for "Visible lines" to be a custom layer named "Visible lines" rather than the default which is to use the style name. With it configured in this way all the visible lines will be clustered together in one PDF layer and will be easier to turn off later on:




Then when you open the PDF in Adobe Reader, go to the layers pane which is here:




Inside the Adobe Reader layers pane, there will be a layer for "Visible lines" there, click the eye icon on the left side to turn it off and it won't be displayed and should not print when you do a printout:




re: "with only outlines and shading - and only outlines by themselves."

It's probably easiest to just make one single PDF with everything enabled in it and then use the layer pane as shown above to disable or enable any specific thing you want for a particular printout.

Hope this helps!

- Michael