Almathera Ten Pack 3: CDPD 3

home *** CD-ROM | disk | FTP | other *** search

/ Almathera Ten Pack 3: CDPD 3 / Almathera Ten on Ten - Disc 3: CDPD3.iso / fish / 726-750 / 727 / vertex / docs / changes.doc next >

Wrap

Text File | 1995-03-18 | 46KB | 972 lines

Changes.doc UpDated: 7/23/92 This is a quick list of the changes in this version of Vertex. If this is an update version for you, then you can bypass re-reading the entire manual, if you wish, unless specific details are mentioned which are only present in the updated manual. Changes to version 1.62 Interim Update (7/23/92) . Multitasking! . The color set-up has been changed to better represent AmigaDos 2.0. The edges are now drawn in blue. This was done so people using the pull-down menus could read whatever menu item they have highlighted. (The old orange edges totally washed out the menus in WB 1.3) . All Imagine objects are saved as fastdraw objects. As a result of this there are now 2 menu options under save - Imagine and Turbo, which were previously combined as one. If your target software is TurboSilver, then choose the Turbo file format to maintain compatability. . You can turn the point indicators on and off by pressing the \ key (This is the key just to the left of the backspace key.) Also, once point indicators are turned off in this fasion, or by setting the indicator size to 0, you will not be able to change anything besides the current view. It seemed rather odd changing objects when you can't see what is selected. . Added the Transform-Location function. This will move your objects to the new centroid you specify. For example, after creating a basic cube, choosing this function will tell you the centroid of your cube is at 0,0,0. Changing these values to 0,0,10 will move the cube so it is centered on the point 0,0,10, or move it 10 units along the Z axis. These are actual coordinates, not dependant, nor relative to the hot-spot. . The ` key (at the far left of the top row of the keyboard) is the repeat last function key. This will repeat the the last menu operation you chose, but will not repeat the interface buttons (such as PICK, UPCK, etc.) . Basic Circle added to primitives menu. Also, a bug fixed in Basic-Arc which caused a wierd edge to come out of no-where. Basic shape diameters are now more accurate, and the basic Ring has been enhanced by reformatting the requester. The Major Radius is the radius across the whole ring, and the Minor Radius is the radius across the ring cross section. . The space bar will abort all input modes, regardless of menu set up. There is no abort for some of the long functions, like delete duplicate edges, yet. . Zoom will handle up to 64x now, to better balance with the .01x for zooming out. . All transform requesters will remember their values. If you want to start with fresh values, remember to hit the CLEAR button. . As a reminder to people trying to use the Face-Fill routine - Objects must be closed for this function to operate sucessfully. For example, a Basic-Arc created within Vertex is not a closed object, while the newly added Basic-Circle IS a closed object. . Box shape added to the Shape-Creator. . The Shape creator will count the newly created points. . I'll probably catch hell for this one, but I've added some very wierd key-strokes to the editor. This will stretch objects along the current axes. (ie. in FRONT mode it will affect the X and Y axes) , <comma) Shrink by 50% across the screen . (period) Expand by 200% across the screen < Srink by 50% up the screen > Expand by 200% up the screen To help you remember which key does which, just remember that in this instance the shift key will operate up and down. This is handy when you go to fill planar shapes. It is sometimes handy to strecth an object along an axis before you attempt to fill it, as this helps the fill function decide which direction to fill. The BUSY WAIT pointer will be cleared if you try to save a combined object in Imagine format. . An extra delay has been added to mouse/menu selection. Hopefully, this will eliminate the double-click problems with the pop-up menus. . I've added a new doc file called Tips.doc. This is a collection of small, undocumented features, which may save some of you the time of discovering yourselves. . Bugs fixed: Delete Dup faces would lock the machine up if no faces were available. You will be alerted if you try this. Also, this function will delete illegal faces, ie. a face defined by only 2 points. If you tried to bevel an object and saw that some edges didn't bevel, try this function first. You should see better results. Select expand fixed - it used to let you select hidden vertices. Lightwave files are now saved with diffuse settings of 256, meaning they will not render as black shapes in Lightwave. Also, these files were read backwards along the Z axis, this has been fixed so objects are orientated correctly. The "shadow" pointer in add-shape has been toned down a bit. The view will not be recalcuated after deleting vertices Transform-Trust has been altered so it will work on all objects, not just the first 40. Selecting by name will not select hidden objects Probelms with the Wavefront loader were fixed. Extra spaces at the end of each line were confusing the converter. Positioning the hot-spot onto a point is more forgiving now. The BUSY WAIT pointer will be cleared if you try to save a combined object in Imagine format. Some file errors originated with write-protected floppies, added a fix for this. I was unable to reproduce the problem, but someone mentioned it, so I put a double check in. Both shift keys will effect the return key inside requesters. Remember, a shift-return will take you to the first line of a requester. . Please see the following documents for updates: 3-Modify The newly added Store and Restore names 4-Transform Describing the new Location function Tips.doc Some helpful tips on using Vertex Changes to version 1.53.1 Preferred User Update (6/17/92) . Sorry about the long delay getting this version out. This is a pretty large update, and took some time to debug. . PAL displays are now supported. This is accomplished automatically. Unfortunately, I did not have the opportunity to physically test this on a PAL machine. I have successfully tried it using the PD Degrader utility, which forces NTSC machines to PAL mode. To be safe, I've included a manual switch to turn PAL mode on. When starting the software, use the shell. Include the screen type you want after "vertex": vertex PAL - or - vertex NTSC . You can now save render screens by pressing 's' while the screen is being displayed. You must have the iff.library in your libs: directory. I've included iff.library in this distribution for those who do not have a copy of it. I'd like to thank Christian A. Weber for supplying this library to the Amiga Public Domain. Also, from Arexx, send this info along with a render command: 'render wire save your.filename.here' If nothing happens, then the iff.library is not available. If you do not know how to install the iff.library included on this disk, then here's a quick run down. 1. Activate a shell 2. Type "copy vertex:iff.library libs:", not including the quotes. Please note, this picture saving function is not very important, but I have found it useful, and I am aware that some users are "rendering" scenes with Vertex. I made a nice anim of an exploding cube by saving about 35 wireframe renders and using makeanim. . Thrust Function added. This command will move whole objects on a vector eminating from the HotSpot. Enter the amount to move, positive or negative, and all selected object will be moved either closer to, or farther from, the hot spot. . I've tried to slow down the mouse clicking. This problem is deeply tied to Vertex's sore multitasking capabilities, and I hope to have this fixed by the next version. . Starting the software will now bring up a requester asking for a buffer size. This requester will be filled with a value which Vertex "thinks" is a good buffer size. The title bar of the requester will hold the amount of memory which will be left to the system. You may increase or decrease the number in the requester to suit your needs. Normally, you can press return, and everything should be fine. But, if you notice you need more vertices, edges or faces in your object, save what you have and restart the program, then increase this number. . Speed: I've gone through the assembly language subroutines one more time, trying to get more speed out of some of the slower functions. So far, Delete Duplicate Edges should be about 30% faster, Fuse should be about 35% faster, and Delete Duplicate Faces should be about 45% faster. Sorry, no math coprocessor support yet. I was forced to invest in a hard drive so I could actually compile the code. . The scalemap feature has been supplied in the Apply-Curve tool. When you select SCALE as the application method, your shape will be scaled according to the curve. Where the curve touches the bottom of the definer grid the scale will be 0. When then the curve touches the top of the definer grid, the scale will be 2. Currently, this is not a very smart routine. For best results, use it on objects which are "normal" size - say about 200 x 200 units. A quick grid, with the default values should work fine. Remember to select a BASE axis, which the curve is referenced against. As coordinates of selected points change along this axis, the curve will be mapped to the AFFECT axis. This may seem like a limitation, but it allows you to apply 2 different scale maps to 2 different axis. This enables complex cross sections which would be extremely difficult to do by other methods. My best suggestion is to try this option on an extruded tube with as many sections as possible. Also, remember that the HotSpot will be the reference point for the scaling, just as normal scales work. (That is, if the HotSpot is on) . Wrap to ring function added. This tool requires the hot spot to be active. Ideally, the object should be some distance from the hot spot, since this distance will determine the radius of the curve. A requester appears asking for the angle of the curve to create, from 1 to 360. Objects are only "wrapped" around the Z axis, so you'll want to try this function from the front view. The distance from the object to the HotSpot will be the radius of the wrapped object. . Taper function added. This tool will taper an object on the axis you select from the requester. The scale value is a normal Vertex scale factor, ie. 1=no change, >1 gets larger, <1 gets smaller. . Twist function added. Will only twist on the Y axis by the angle you specify. . The memory model has been further enhanced. This includes a new set of assembly language subroutines. The net effect should be anywhere from 10 to 20% decrease in some functions (Extrude, Lathe, Select Exterior, etc.) . A couple of bugs have been fixed in the Lightwave file reader. Sometimes, if the ladder type of polygon filling was chosen, the system would crash if certain conditions were not met. This has been taken care of. Also, the duplicate edges created during the conversion process will now be cut down to a minimum. This may take a bit longer to read the file, but it will be shorter than the older solution of executing a Delete Duplicate Edges function. I recently converted a fairly large object composed of roughly 24,000 edges and the conversion process took about a half hour. This was done on an unaccelerated system, reading the file off a floppy. I'll see what I can do about speeding this stuff up. . The fractal creator has been modified to create true 3D fractals. This is accomplished by turning the Hotspot on. When this happens, the hot spot will be the center of whatever object you have selected, and the fractal effect will radiate from this point. The normal way of creating a fractal works on one axis at a time, say up or down, or left to right. This mode is still available, just turn the Hotspot off. Also, the height factor of the fractal tool has been modified a bit. Yo may need to enter larger values to get the same effect as before. This gives the fractal tool more "resolution" and finer control. . Fractals can now be aborted by pressing any key while they are being created. This is only available between recursion steps. ie. the function will not abort until it starts the next recursion level after you have pressed a key. . The shape creator has an Undo feature now. Whenever you click on a mode, the Undo buffer is stored. Pressing undo will restore the shape to its previous design. You may not undo 1 point at a time by pressing the U key, but this should be ready for the next version. . Pressing the space bar before the edges are drawn will abort the drawing. On slower systems, a major amount of time is spent drawing edges, and sometimes you just don't need to see all the edges. However, vertices are always drawn, unless they are hidden. If you want to see the entire wire frame drawn, then don't press the space bar. (This only applies while Vertex is generating the view - that is Calculating... and Drawing Edges...) Likewise, pressing the DEL key will redraw the screen without having to recalculate. . A new "render" mode has been added, which is only accessible by pressing the '5' key. This will give you a non-hidden line wire frame on a full black and white screen, which is suitable for capturing with a screen capture program. . The basic sphere has been re-done. This object used to be created with extra points at the top and bottom of the sphere. It is now a solid object. For a really nice effect, create a simple sphere (say with resoultion of 4x4), turn the hot spot on, and then generate a fractal from this. . A new set of selection modes, expand and shrink have been added. Expand will search for any edge that is half selected, meaning only one of its points is selected, and then select the other half. Shrink, likewise, will deselect any point which is connected to a deselected point. These are handy tools for grids, spheres, etc., which have a large number of connected points. . The hot spot may be "clicked on" by clicking the mouse pointer on the small circle which appears above the "PERSP" button. I noticed sometimes, when moving around the view space, the hot spot would be on, but not visible. This makes it easy to reposition the hot spot at any time. . The Arexx render routines can be timed now. This is only possible with the 'START' command. You can pass Vertex the amount of time, in 50ths of a second, directly behind the start command. ex: 'START 1000' This will put Vertex in it's special Arexx fast mode, and tell Vertex to hold all renderings on the screen for 1000 50ths of a second, or 20 seconds. The default value is 300, or 6 seconds. You can send this command anytime you like - it doesn't have to be at the beginning of a script. If you save the render using the new save option, this value is meaningless. More tools were added to the Arexx port, including: HOTT forces the hot spot on NOTT forces the hot spot off Also, the Arexx port allows you to select objects based on number. So, if you know your file has 3 objects in it, but you don't know the names of each object, you can issue the command(s) 'select objs 1' /* or 2 or 3 for this example */ . Shape creator now handles different views for overlays, and will adjust newly created objects for zoom and pan. You cannot currently alter the view while in the Shape Creator, but the view you had before entering this tool will take effect. Perspective views will be forced into the FRONT view. . Bugs fixed: The Vertex screen will now force topaz 8 to be the default font. The Arexx Basic-Sphere command has been respelled correctly. It used to be spelled SHPERE, it is now spelled SPHERE. Sorry 'bout that one. Also, Arexx will accept "RENDER SOLID" to draw a solid model without outlines, and "RENDER OUTLINE" will draw a shaded model with the outlines. Also, the command 'RENDER WIRE' will give you the solid model wireframe view. The Select-Name scroll has been sped up. 'CHOT' added to Arexx to center the hot spot on all selected points. Useful for the Fractal tool. The ABS() function should always work in the Multiply command. The lathe tool will now select all points which compose the lathe. Before, a few points were not selected. Lightwave reading error was fixed (see above) The recurring / character at the end of the directory in the ARP file requester has been taken out. Also, the allowable size of the Arp file requester has been increased to the full 256 characters. The Arexx bevel command will now work correctly. Also, all new commands have been included into the Arexx interface. The Delete-Internal command will only operate on selected faces, rather than all objects in memory. . See the following updated documents: Arexx.Doc The new functions available and the Render Delay 3-Modify Twist, Wrap to Ring, Taper 4-Transform Thrust function Changes to Version 1.4 Preferred User Update (4/20/92) . The entire memory setup has been completely changed. Vertex used to be limited to 32,000 points, edges and faces. I've since increased this limit to 1,000,000. That *should* be enough to appease even the largest power user. (I think you'd need 52+ megs of ram for that much data!) There are some side-effects to this. Older versions will not load Compressed files created by this (and future) version. However, this version will load older Compressed files. Also, right now it is up to you to guarantee that Imagine and Lightwave objects do not have more than 64,000 points each. This is on a per-object basis, not all the objects. Also, you may notice, especially on lower memory systems, that your maximum number of Vertices, Edges and Faces has decreased. This is why. (You can find the maximums by doing a Global-About. . For anyone having problems with Imagine files ending up as only 12 bytes, here's the solution: Objects must have names! Creating objects from Arexx may cause objects to be nameless, so make sure and do a Modify-Points-Name Selected, giving the objects any name you wish. . The Modify menu has changed, by necessity. The new setup includes Distort, Point and Face sub menus. This will doubtlessly be a little confusing to users who are used to the old fast key set up, but the menu was just too long after adding some more features. Also, the modifications I've got lined up will mostly appear under this menu, so I had to make room for expansion. . The Duplicate tool now remembers all object names after duplicating them. . All requesters now have a way to get back to the first line of the requester by holding the shift key, then pressing return. You can do this instead of having to reach for the mouse to get back to the first line. Also added to all requesters is the CLEAR button, which will clear all requesters to default values. . This version supports the ARP file requester. If the arp.library is available in your LIBS: directory, then this file requester will automatically be used. If you do not have the library available, then the old default requester will be used. I strongly suggest getting arp.library if you can. I'll see what I can do about distributing the library with future versions of Vertex. . When you press one of the non-perspective view buttons, the current view rotations will be stored. Pressing F1 will put you back in perspective view, restoring the rotations. . Move, Edit, Scale and Size buttons have been added to the main display window. This should make them easier to get at. I must mention that while in any of these modes, say EDIT, you will not be able to jump to any of the other modes, like Move Free. You'll have to exit the function mode then click the button for the mode you want to get to. . Also, EDIT mode will normalize your view rotations before starting. Edit works in Front, Side and Top, and thats it. No rotations are allowed (yet). . I've tried to further speed up screen drawing. When you add anything new only the new components will be drawn. Before, everything was re-calculated and re-drawn. . Some of the Transform Free functions have changed in subtle ways. SIZE FREE should operate a little smoother now, as should MOVE FREE. . More information has been added to the Arexx port. Generally, commands have been added that will dump requested information to files on the ram: disk. Also, 2 commands to force the status of the hot-spot were added: HOTT to force it on, and NOTT to force it off. . Radial fill option added to the Modify-Face menu. This will add a new point to the unfilled polygon and create radial faces to the rest of the object. . A new tool, Delete Internal Faces, has been added. This is a dangersous command since it will delete ALL faces. You are left with the "outline" of the object. . Be-Sphere tool has been added to the Modify-Distort sub menu. . The Name Selected tool, for re-naming points, is now accessible with a single key press - n. I made this easily accessible becuase my modelling technique calls for frequent naming and renaming of sub parts of objects. . The last version went out with some bugs, sorry about that. First, the GEO loader would print certain lines of the object file to the screen. This was a leftover from a debug session - sorry. Second, I think the menu system was messed up for traditional menu users. Anyways, it's fixed now. . The following documents have been updated: Arexx.doc (update for the new INFO commands) 3-Modify (update for new menu set-up and new functions) 5-Delete (update for delete internal - a must read) Vertex.Help (please read with each new update.) Changes to Version 1.36.1 Preferred User Update (3/19/92) . Traditional menus are now offered, as an option. Under the global menu is an entry entitled 'Menus'. Selecting this will toggle the state of the menus from pop-up to pull down. Set these up how you prefer, and Save Config under the globals menu. Now whenever you start the software the menus will be set up however you like. There are side effects to this new menu system. Most functions used to be aborted by pressing the right mouse button. This may or may not work, depending on how the menus are set up. To guarantee exit from any function, just press any key, like the space bar. Also, the function menus (which used to appear in Apply Curve, Add-Polygon, etc) have been taken out. All these functions have been re-fitted with button interfaces. . The next big change has to do with the shape designer. Both the Polygon and Lathe definers have been taken out. They have both been replaced by the Shape Designer. This is a button based tool without a menu, and some extra features. You can now easily add arcs and lines with settable resolution, clicking on the first point will close off a polygon and there is also an edit mode. The "face painter" is not finished yet, but it's getting there... . A fractal creator has been included in this version. It's under the modify menu. This will Edge-Subdivide a face(s) and randomly create a fractal style terrain out of it. The requester will ask for an iteration value, a height value and a seed. Be careful not to enter too high of an iteration value, or you may run out of memory. Each iteration will quadruple the face count. I'd suggest starting at levels of 3 or 4 to get an idea of how it works. Using the same seed will let you repeat previously created terrains. . More basic shapes have been added, by request, along with a new idea. I've included a special tool under the Basic Shape menu to bring up a file requester of a special directory. If you'd like to build a library of interesting shapes and have them available at a moments notice, put them in this special directory. After loading, a requester will appear asking for scaling values on the X Y and Z axis. Now, how do you get it to work? A (fairly) simple 3 step process: 1. Make sure you have ENV: mounted or assigned. If you don't have an ENV: device (you can tell if you run Vertex and a system request appears asking to insert volume ENV: - just ckick cancel), bring up a shell and type: assign ENV: ram: <RETURN> This will tell your Amiga to use the ramdisk as your ENV: device. 2. Your ENV: device should have a file/entry called PRIMS. This "variable" will point to your primitives directory. An easy way to do this is, while still in the shell, type: setenv PRIMS dh0:3d/objects/primitives <RETURN> ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ This can be any directory you want. The directory you use for this may be anything you like, I just happened to use dh0:3d/objects/primitives as an example. If you get a directory listing of your ramdisk (or wherever your ENV: device is) you will see a file named PRIMS. Vertex will read this file to see where your primitives directory is. 3. Make sure all this is done BEFORE you run Vertex. If you have problems with this, I'd suggest reading up in the 1.3 or 2.0 User manuals to see how to do this stuff. The best way to do this is to set it all up in your start-up sequence. . Face smoothing is now supported by the software. This is done on an object by object basis, not with selected faces. I was forced to do it this way to maintain campatability with some software. Only Lightwave, Imagine and Sculpt work with this new feature. Under the modify menu is the Smoothing tool. Selecting it will bring up a requester. Each object that is smooth will be highlighted, and each object that is faceted will not be highlighted. To change an object simply click on it once. . I went through some great pains trying to speed up/make better the transform free functions. Moving, scaling and sizing will not have to re-compute the whole scene any more, just the points you are moving. Also, when TRANS FAST is on, the default, if you move less than 100 points only those points will be re-drawn. This should greatly speed up these functions. . The bug that caused Vertex to crash when loading GEO files has been fixed. Sorry about this. To my surprise I never knew so many people still used VideoScape any more. If anyone has any more problems with these files, PLEASE let me know. I can't fix problems unless I know about them... . Adding edges will not hang when done on large objects. It was actually performing a Delete Dulpicate Edges, but I've since made the routine find these before they are created. . The defaults file has changed. It is now called s:vertex1.config. Many more options are saved, including: Menu Status (pop-up or pull-down) Rotate Anim Defualt Value Selector Size Undo Status Perspective Value (viewing distance) Fast Draw On/Off Transform Fast Draw On/Off Overwrite Protect On/Off Delete All Protect On/Off Remember to set Vertex up how you like it and re-save this file, under the global menu - Save Defaults. . The Edit mode will now allow pan and zoom, but only with keyboard controls. Use the -=_+ keys to zoom in/out and the arrow keys to pan around. . The bevel tool now offers both inset and depth controls. This may be a good idea and it may be a bad one. What you must remeber is that the Z axis moves away from you when in the front view, so you have to enter a negative value for bevel if you want the bevel to come out towards you. . System requests will now appear on Vertex's screen, and not the Workbench screen. . 2 New functions have been added to Arexx START and ENDD. By sending the command START to Vertex from Arexx, you will put Vertex in a faster multitasking mode, where it will only wait for messages from Arexx. At the end of your script you should put the message ENDD (with 2 D's) and this will take Vertex out of the special multitasking mode. This *should* speed up Arexx programs, but Arexx is usually pretty slow in the first place. If you mess up and don't send Vertex the ENDD message, the program will seem to have locked up. To remedy this, create a simple aress program: /* Free Up Vertex */ address 'VERTEX1' 'ENDD' This will bring the program back, if you omitted this from the end of your script. There is no real need to use this pair of functions, but it should make Arexx faster when used with Vertex. Also, the Arexx.doc file has been modified to reflect this, and some other changes. i'd like to thank Brian R. for his input/ideas about the Arexx port. . A bug has been discovered and remedied in the Imagine/Turbo Silver save options. Vertex would not save these files correctly if the objects had no faces, or no edges. Should work correctly now. If anyone notices problems with this (I have tested it on about a 1/2 dozen objects, but one can never be too sure), please let me know right away. . These documents have been changed/altered for this version: Vertex.Help Arexx.doc QuickRef.doc 0-Intro 1-Add 3-Modify Changes to Version 1.34 Interim Version (3/9/92) . Added a new selection function called Select Layer. A requester appears asking for a 3D bounding box, denoted by Low X, Hi X, Low Y, Hi Y, Low Z and Hi Z. This will select or deselect the region you specify. Entering A Low/Hi pair of 0 will stretch the box to +-100000 for that axis. . The Arexx Read operation no longer causes the File Requester to appear. . Okay, the traditional pull-down menus are almost done. Once implimented there will be an option to choose either style. This change has ramifications throughout the program, so it'll take a little longer to finish/test. Also, the new polygon mode is tied into the solution, so one will have to wait for the other to be completed. Changes to Version 1.33.8 Interim Version (3/5/92) . A new function, Seperate, has been added to the Modify menu. This will take your any set of selected vertices and seperate them from the rest of the object. You'll end up with 2 objects, one will be the original with a hole in it the same shape as your selected vertices, and the other will be your selected vertices as a seperate object. Check out the manual. . Coordinates are supplied for in all but the Edit mode. You can turn them on and off under the Globals menu. (By user request) . An option to turn off the grid snap while the grid is still visible has been added to the Polygon and Lathe designers. . The bug that caused the Move pointer to re-appear, even when you were not in the Move function, has been taken care of. . Also, a function called Delete Useless Points has been added to the delete menu. A useless point is one which is not connected to any edges. Changes to Version 1.33.6 Preferred user update (2/27/92) . The big news is that I've started my company, The Art Machine. Vertex will continued to be supported and updated, and I've got some other projects in the works... . The manual is now broken down by chapter, and placed in its own directory. Modifying it in the whole state took forever. Also, the intro part has changed, so you may want to check it out. . All my line clipping routines have been re-written. There used to be problems with zooming in real close while in perspective - this should be taken care of. Also, you shouldn't see any points which should have edges without them. If you have any problems with this, please let me know. The FastDraw box which appears when you rotate, position or zoom the view does respond better, but if it gets too large, you will see it cross itself in the middle. It's a little confusing, but I don't have a fix for this problem yet. . Extrude and Duplicate have been expanded to include rotations, scaling, positions and steps. All values will be divided by the step value, so to get 5 divisions, each 100 units apart, you'd have to enter 500 as a position, and 5 as the number of steps. (see the manual) . As a result of the expanded options in the Extrude and Duplicate menus, I've decided to clear all the requesters to default values. . Since the newer select exterior function can take such a long time to execute on complex objects, I've added an abort feature to it - just press any key. . A new polygon filling function has been added. It's smarter than the older version, but it still isn't perfect. It should, however, fill all but the most random shapes. (see the manual) . As a result of this new filling tool, the Lightwave file format will use it. The load menu will ask for one of 3 possiblities, Circular, Radial or Ladder. Ladder is the new type, and it should handle filling some polygons better. . Added a lathing tool under the modify menu to lathe any shape. With this tool you can have faces in the cross-section of a lathe which is less than 360 degrees. (see the manual) . Caught the Arexx interface up to date. Also included the Quick-Reference sheet for command uses and basic Arexx prototype templates for all supported functions (Align menu not supported yet.) . Added the Cut Window function. This one is cool. Select a set of vertices and the interior edges will be deleted, the faces will be deleted and the whole set will be extruded and scaled 50%. This is like cutting a hole right into the object the same as the original shape. Great for cutting square windows in the side of a cube, etc. . Also included a name requester for selecteing/deselecting objects by name. You can choose multiple names from the scrolling requester. Drag-select is supplied, and it will auto-scroll when you move above or below the window. . A "set undo" is now performed before reading objects. This will enable you to undo the loading of an object. . Aborting a render is now accomplished by pressing any key. I had to do this, since trying to capture a screen with ScreenX caused the render to go away after clicking on the ScreenX window. All renders require keyboard interaction to be halted now - Anim renders, "solid" models, and wire frames. . I'm in the process of totally re-doing the polygon creation interface. While this is not in the current version yet, I'm looking for input from everyone. Currently, I'm going to make it so you can add points and edges, they will auto-close when you re-click on an existing point, there will be an arc tool with a settable resolution and a line tool with settable resolution. I'm also experimenting with some fast face creation routines. One of these is the idea of "painting in faces" - the program figures out what the most reasonable face you are pointing at is and high-lights it. Clicking the button will create the face. More on this in later versions. Changes to Version 1.31.2 (2/12/92) . Added the Back Hide function under the view menu. This will hide all the vertices which are farthest away from you. While it is similar to hidden line removal, it's not perfect. See the manual, under the View Menu. . Added a switch under the Delete menu to turn off the Delete-All requester. (added by user request) . Fixed a bug in the Vertex-Info command under Modify. Previously, it would not correctly re-sort the face list when the user changed the number of the Vertex. Changes to Version 1.31 Preferred User Update (2/1/92) . Colors are now supported by the software. I've included a simple color palette which will fake 262,000 colors. Not perfect, but you can adjust the RGB values from 0 to 255. Colors will be saved with these file formats: Compressed, Sculpt, Imagine and Lightwave. GEO will not save colors at this time. . A new Modify Info requestor has been added. Simply click on a vertex, (it must be selected), and a requester will appear with the vertices number and X,Y,Z coordinates. You may alter the number or the coordinates. Changing the number enables you to affect the order of vertices in memory. . Steps have been added to the Extrude and Duplicate functions. These will be divided into the total length of the extrusion or duplication. If, for example, you extrude to length 100 along the Z axis with 5 steps, each section of the extrusion will be 20 units. . The bug while selecting/deslecting vertices has been fixed. It used to cause a system lock out. . Contours have been cleaned up a bit. . Sometimes Undo would not work, ie. after adding a primitive. This error has been fixed. . Edit mode will remember movements after changing the view. . FastKeys have been added to the transform menu, by user request. . The Arexx port now registers with the system. In past versions it would not appear for some reason unbeknowenst to me. . The multiply command will now register 9's in the formula. Formerly, it would pass over the nines. . The Transform FastDraw stuff has been changed. When this mode is off, only the moved points will be redrawn. Before, the entire view was re-drawn. Changes to Version 1.26 (1/1/92) . Objects saved in Turbo Silver/Imagine will be created on their centroid, instead of all the objects overlapping one another. . Sped-up the Turbo Silver/Imagine save routine. It only loops through the faces once now. . Optimized view calculations when Front, Top and Side views are chosen, and no view rotations need to be calculated. . Tried to optimize the extrude and bevel commands. They should work somewhat faster now. . Added the select exterior edges routine. See the manual. . Added the Delete useless routine - see the manual. . Added the ability to hide vertices. Hidden verticies may not be selected or modified. . Greatly sped-up the add-face command. It won't delay after exiting the function. . I made sure the unselected vertices are drawn first, and then the selected vertices are drawn. Should make it easier to see selected vertices now. . A command was added to find the distance from one vertex to another. . Pick and Unpk buttons were added to the main window. Once selected, you may select vertices by clicking right on them or stretching a selector box. Changes to Version 1.24 (12/29/91) . Added a gravity (magnet) interface. The gravity will attract or repell vertices based on their distance from the centroid of the selected vertices. Also, the newly included Hot Spot can become the center of gravity. . Added a Hot Spot which replaces the center of everything. Formerly, Vertex relied on the centroid (or average) of all selected vertices to perform certain transformations. Now you can place a moveable hot spot to replace this. The hot spot is sticky - in that it will attach itself to a vertex if you place it over one. . Added the Overlay Fuse command. This will attempt to do a fuse of all vertices which are on top of one another. With it, you can connect objects. Also, the command will delete any "garbage", such as faces and edges, which reside between the 2 connected objects. . Object names in Turbo Silver and Imagine are now saved with the file. (Former versions didn't even attempt to do this) There are important side effects of this new feature, so make sure and read the documentation on the Impulse Save command. (See the manual!) . Bugs fixed: - Transform Point-Move will now correctly handle the view positions. (Before it didn't take them into account) - Subdivide Edges will name the new vertex the same as the other two vertices at the endpoints. - Planar fill works now! (Sorry about that one, I completely forgot to repair it after changing another routine) - Fuse Vertices will always work, unless you specifically cancel it. - I made some changes to the File writing routines to better capture errors.