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Format Display - Style The Style area of the Overlays tab in the Format Display dialog |
Overlays Tab - Style
To access this dialog:
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With the Design window active, select the View ribbon and Format | Overlays followed by the Overlays tab. Click the Style sub-tab.
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Type 'fdd' in the Design window followed by the Overlays tab. Click the Style sub-tab.
The Style tab, a sub-section of the Overlays tab (Format Display dialog), is used to determine the method by which the geometry of a selected object is to be displayed, or it can be used to define display settings for a particular Data Display Template.
Select an overlay or data display template from the Overlays list to show the current format settings (the list can be swapped between actual overlays and templates using the Show Templates check box).
Find out more about the Style tab:
The Style tab has the following fields:
Visible: this check box controls if an overlay is to be viewed or not. If cleared, the Display As options (see below) are disabled.
Enable 3D Rendering: determines whether to use OpenGL® for graphics rendering. This enables a number of shading and draw mode options if enabled. If disabled, the default Windows Graphics Device Interface (GDI) will be used for rendering.
Display As: specify the drawing style for the geometry of the currently selected overlay. The following options are available:
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Description |
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Points |
Display selected overlay in point style with or without labels in the current view. |
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Labels Only |
Display selected overlay with point labels only in the current view. |
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Lines |
Display selected overlay in line style in the current view. This option is only available if a strings overlay is selected. |
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Display selected overlay in face style in the current view. |
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Blocks |
Display selected overlay in block style in the current view. |
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Arrows |
Displays selected overlay as arrows (line data only). |
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Intersection |
In addition to the above display styles, display the intersection profile with the section plane.
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Drillholes |
If the currently selected overlay relates to a static drillhole, this option will display the drillhole data as a formatted downhole column. |
Shading and Draw Mode: It is possible to display more than one object in 3D rendering e.g. a wireframe and a block model. There are, however, limitations when plotting or printing - Only one object may be plotted and, if other data is required, it should be rendered normally with the drawing order set to draw after the 3D rendered object.
The following table outlines some of the affects that can be achieved with specific Shading and Drawing Mode combinations when drawing a wireframe object. With some combinations (e.g. if Points is selected) the 3D rendering options will not be available. Objects will be drawn in the currently specified color (fixed or legend):
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Display As |
Shading |
Draw
Mode |
Example (click to enlarge) |
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Points |
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The selected overlay will be shown as point data only, if this type of data exists within the selected database table. |
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Labels Only |
- |
Normal |
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If labels have been defined, this option will show the overlay as a series of labels only. |
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Lines |
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Display the current overlay as lines. Note that this option only applies to string objects, and is not available for other data types. 3D rendering options and draw modes are disabled with this option. |
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Faces |
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Display a wireframe as a two-dimensional colored area. This selection is only available for wireframe objects. |
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Faces |
None |
Highlighted Edges |
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Display outlines of wireframe triangles in the selected, fixed or legend color. This selection is only available for wireframe objects. The Highlighted edges option is only available if the Filled option is selected on the Color tab. |
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Faces |
None |
Display Hull |
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Display perimeter of wireframe in the selected or legend color. This selection is only available for wireframe objects. |
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Faces |
Flat |
Normal |
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Display each face as a single shade of the selected or legend color. Each face is a different shade from an adjacent one. This selection is only available for wireframe objects. Note that with the 3D Rendering option enabled, you can also change the light source. |
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Faces |
Smooth |
Normal |
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Display faces with graduated shading between one face and the next. This selection is only available for wireframe objects. The smooth option is best appreciated when the wireframe triangles are Filled, as specified on the Color tab (as in the example image). This option is best appreciated when the wireframe triangles are Filled, as specified on the Color tab (as in the example image), and compared with the Smooth option below. |
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Faces |
Smooth |
Highlighted Edges |
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Display faces with graduated shading and with triangle outlines superimposed. This selection is only available for wireframe objects. |
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Blocks |
None |
Normal |
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Display blocks in selected or legend color. This option is only available if a block model object has been selected. |
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Blocks |
None |
Highlighted Edges |
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Display outline of the maximum extent of the block model in selected or legend color. This option is only available if a block model object has been selected. |
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Blocks |
Flat |
Normal |
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Display each face as a single shade of the selected or legend color. Each face is a different shade from an adjacent one. This option is only available if a block model object has been selected. |
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Blocks |
Smooth |
Normal |
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Display faces with graduated shading between one face and the next. This option is only available if a block model object has been selected. |
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Arrows |
- |
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Applies to string data types only. This will display the selected string with arrow heads to indicate the start and end of the string. |
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Intersection |
None |
Normal |
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Displays the intersection profile with the section plane. Only applies to wireframe object selections. |
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Intersection |
None |
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Displays the outline of the intersection profile with the section plane. Only applies to wireframe object selections. Two objects must exist in memory that pass through the perimeters of another object for this setting to display any data on screen. |
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Intersection |
Flat |
Normal |
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Displays the intersection in a single shade of the selected color or legend. Only applies to wireframe object selections. Two objects must exist in memory that pass through the perimeters of another object for this setting to display any data on screen. |
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Intersection |
Smooth |
Normal |
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Displays the intersection in a graduated (3D) color. Only applies to wireframe object selections. Two objects must exist in memory that pass through the perimeters of another object for this setting to display any data on screen. |
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Drillholes |
Smooth |
Normal |
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Displays the selected object (if appropriate) as a formatted downhole column. This setting is normally used in conjunction with the Format Traces dialog to ensure the require lithological/geological information is portrayed along the length of each borehole. Note that no 3d rendering options are supported for the display of drillhole data. |
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Snap Points: if the Points style is being displayed, this option is available and allows you to display snap points when digitizing 3D features.
Model Intersection Plane
Bias:
where the intersection of a block model and a plane is being
displayed, an ambiguity can occur when the plane falls exactly on
a cell boundary. This is caused by the fact that the two adjacent
cells will intersect the plane at the same point, so it is not clear
which should be used to dictate drawing attributes. To resolve this
ambiguity, your application detects the case where a plane falls on
a major cell boundary, and then offsets the plane by a small amount
so that it falls into either one cell, or the other.
To control how this issue is handled, theModel
Intersection Plane Biasoption exists,
which allows control over whether the intersection plane is biased
forwards (in the direction
of the plane normal), or backwards.
The offset amount is preset at 1E-6 in block coordinates (i.e 1E-6*block
width/height/length, as appropriate). In addition to the application
option, individual overlays can override the default option with overlay-specific
preferences.
The default value for the Model Intersection
Plane Bias can be overridden for an individual overlay. The
Model Intersection Plane Bias
will be enabled when a block model is being displayed as Intersection,
and allows the overlay to be forced to a Backwards
or Forwards bias, or left
using the application Default.
The default setting for your system can be configured using the Data Options
dialog.
Template: apply a data display template - see Data Display Templates, below, for more information.
Apply to all overlays displaying...: if the currently selected object is represented by more than one overlay, you can elect to apply the current settings to all overlays for the specified object by enabling this check box. If cleared, the settings will apply to the currently selected overlay only. For more information on overlays, views, sheets and objects, see Related Topics.
Data Display Templates allow you separate style and content in your projects; a template contains all the data display instructions (simple or complex), and can be stored either in memory for use within the current project, or can be transferred to an external file for use in another project (although there are implications for this approach, which is discussed below).
Data display templates are saved with the current project file, so will be available the next time a project file is loaded. You can also elect to save template information to an external template (.tpl) file for subsequent import into any project.
Data display templates can be used to:
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apply the same display format to multiple objects in memory (subject to limitations, see below)
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apply the same display format to objects in different projects (subject to limitations)
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automatically create an overlay or overlays each time data of a particular type is loaded into memory
If the Show Templates check box on the right of the dialog is disabled, the following fields are shown:
Depending upon the data type associated with the selected item, the available display styles will be enabled or disabled as appropriate.
Template: use this drop-down list to select a previously created template. This template can either be the one you wish to store the current formatting details in (see 'Set', below) or it can be the template that you wish to apply to the currently highlighted overlay in the Overlay Objects list (see 'Use', below).
Apply: clicking this button will load the template shown in the Template drop-down list and apply it to the selected overlay in the Overlay Objects list.
Save: clicking this button will store the current settings of the Format Display dialog (all settings, including symbols, downhole column formatting, color, annotation etc.) in the currently selected template. This will overwrite any settings are currently associated with the selected template.
Using Data Templates
A data display templates can contain variety of information. In a simple form, a template could be used to, say, color an object red, and rendered in 3D. This type of display template is relatively generic and can easily be transferred to other object overlays of the same object type (it is not possible to apply, say, a wireframe display template to a block model, for example).
Data Display Template Restrictions
However, a different situation occurs when a display template includes information that is specific to a type of data, or a specific data object. This could be the case if, for example, a block model display template is set up so that a particular legend is used to display the presence of a particular g/t of gold. This type of template could be re-used with the same object, of course, but if an attempt were made to apply it to another block model file, with no AU data column, data would not be drawn as expected - in fact, the default display method would be used for drawing the second block model. This is because it was not possible to match the information in the default template with the contents of the incoming file, resulting in a display format 'failure'.
The same applies when using a template within a range of objects
of the same data type. As Studio3
There are ways around this situation: you can define your legend values in terms of percentages of a total range, or you can create a 'master' legend that will more than cope with grades across a multitude of block model files. The extent to which you standardize your display templates depends very much on your requirements - if you wish to adopt a standard display format for all current projects, it may be necessary to devise an all-encompassing display template beforehand by studying the underlying data of data objects across the range.
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For more information on Data Display Templates - see Data Display Format Overview.
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For more information on legends, consult your online Legends Help.
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Related Topics |
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Overlays,
views, sheets and objects |
