3DCONFIG (-3DCONFIG)

Sets options that affect 3D display performance.

Summary

Enter -3dconfig at the Command prompt to use this command.

List of Prompts

The following prompts are displayed.

Enter option [Dynamic tessellation/General options/acceLeration/Plot emulation/eXit] <Adaptive degradation>:

Dynamic Tessellation

Sets the options that determine the smoothness of the objects in a drawing. Objects are drawn using many short lines (or triangles when drawing spheres). These lines are called tessellation lines. Objects in your drawing appear smoother when you use more tessellation lines.

Surface Tessellation

Determines the amount of detail for surfaces in your drawing. A higher setting provides more detail but uses more tessellation lines and more memory.

Curve Tessellation

Determines the amount of detail for curves in your drawing. A higher setting provides more detail but uses more tessellation lines and more memory.

Number of Tessellations to Cache

Configures your system according to memory and performance requirements. The 3D cache always stores at least one tessellation. When this option is set to 1, the tessellation for all viewports is the same; some objects in the drawing may be regenerated as you zoom in and out. Setting this option to 2 or more is useful when you have more than one viewport with different views. Increasing the number requires more memory.

General Options

Sets performance-related options that are not hardware dependent.

Discard Back Faces

Discards back faces when drawing objects. You cannot see the effect of discarding back faces on some objects, such as spheres, because you cannot see the back face even when it is present. The effect of discarding back faces is visible on objects such as those that don't have a top. Discarding back faces enhances performance.

Transparency Quality

Adjusts the transparency quality. At the Low setting, a screen-door effect achieves transparency without sacrificing speed. At the Medium setting, the default in software mode, blending improves image quality. The High setting, the default in hardware mode, produces an image free of visual artifacts at the cost of drawing speed. Materials must also be turned on for transparency to be visible.

The General Options prompt is redisplayed.

Acceleration

Specifies whether to use software or hardware acceleration in 3D.

If you select Hardware, you can also specify whether geometry acceleration are turned on or off.

Hardware

Specifies hardware acceleration. The hardware graphics card performs most of the drawing tasks in 3D to increase performance.

• Driver Name. You can select a driver from a list of available hardware-accelerated drivers found in the Drv directory. If you want to use a hardware driver from another vendor, it must be supported by the Heidi ^® Graphics System.
• • Enhanced 3D Performance. Enables a more efficient use of the graphic card when working with 3D objects.
    Note: If you experience problems with precision, turn this option off.
  • Smooth display. Controls the status of the full screen anti-aliasing effect. This option removes the jagged effect on the display of diagonal line and curved edges.
  • Advanced material effects. Controls the status of the advanced materials effect on screen.
  • Gooch hardware shader. Enables the use of Gooch shading. With this option on the details of a 3D object are shown by softening the contrast between lighted areas and shadowed areas by using warm and cool colors as a substitute to light and dark colors.
  • Per-pixel lighting. Enables the computation of colors for individual pixels. With this option on the 3D objects and lighting effects appear smoother in the viewport.
  • Full shadow display. Enables shadows to be displayed in the viewport.
    Note: Enhanced 3D performance effect must be turned on.
  • Texture compression. Enables the use of texture compression to reduce the amount of video memory required to open and display a drawing that contains materials with images or has attached images.
    Note: With this option turned on, the time it takes to load the images might increase the first time that they are accessed, and there is a reduction in the quality of the images when they are displayed in the viewport or plotted.

Software

Feature is not supported and is provided for scripting compatibility only.

Plot Emulation

Feature is not supported and is provided for scripting compatibility only.