In 3D Settings, you can customise the appearance and performance of the 3D view. You can manipulate rendering, camera and performance settings. You can also set the background color and set the info shown in the 3D view pop-up.
To access the settings, click File > Settings > 3D.
The article covers the following topics:
Restore Default Settings
To restore the settings in this dialog to default values, click the Restore Default Settings dialog and confirm your action. This action affects the settings in the dialog. Note that this action can't be undone.
On the Rendering tab, you can control rendering settings. Note that Component Order Transparency and Component Edge Line settings are only available in Solibri v9.12.9 and newer.
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Polygon Mode: Switch between Shaded, Flat and Wireframe.
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Light Mode: Switch between Point Light and Directional Light. Point light follows the camera position. Directional light is fixed in one position.
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Light Intensity: Set light brightness. Increase or decrease the value depending on the model.
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Back Face Culling: When checked, triangle back faces are not rendered.
For example, when facing a wall component, only some of the face is visible to the camera. The ones that are not visible are not rendered, which speeds up navigation and redraw time.
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Back Face Lighting: When checked, triangle back faces are lit. This helps to illuminate internal areas of the model.
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Enable Component Order Transparency: When checked, Solibri can order components in the model so that the order is based on the proximity to the camera. This helps in having a clearer display of transparent components in the 3D view. This setting is on by default.
Below is an example of how transparent components are displayed, when the setting enabled:
Below is an example of how transparent components are displayed, when the setting is disabled:
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Default Transparency: Set the default transparency level for components. The setting affects component transparency and the Transparent tool.
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Show Component Edge Lines: When checked, the edge lines of components are components are clearly defined.
You can define the color, thickness and transparency of the lines. This setting is on by default, and it improves the way components are rendered and visualized in the 3D view by clearly displaying the component outline.
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Component Edge Line Color: Set component edge line color. To change the color, click the color box, select a color and click OK:
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Component Edge Line Thickness: Set component edge line thickness.
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Component Edge Line Transparency: Set transparency level for component edge lines.
On the Camera tab, you can control the distance, eye height and field of view.
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Front/Back clip distance: Set the front and back clip distances, which determine the area that is shown in the 3D view. Beyond the clip boundaries, nothing is shown.
It is useful to add a front clip distance to avoid being trapped inside components when navigating or adding slides inside a building model.
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Eye height: Set the eyesight level for walk and game modes.
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Field of view: Set the angle (width) the camera is showing. The normal field of view angle for digital cameras is 60 degrees.
On the Info tab, you can set the information shown in the 3D view pop-up.
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Show pop-up in 3D view: When checked, component information is shown in the 3D view when you hover the mouse over a component and you're using the Info tool.
You can define the data you want see in the info pop-up in the filter table below.
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To add a new row, click .
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If property data is only required for a subset of components then load a predefined filter, otherwise using the * wildcard the property will show for all components.
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To select the property value, click the Property field and select one from the drop-down list or click and select from the dialog.
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Modify the display name as required. To edit the name, double-click the field.
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Presentation time in seconds: Set the time the component information pop-up is visible (in seconds).
On the Performance tab, you can control performance settings.
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Anti-aliasing: Number of samples used to reduce jagged lines. You can select between Off (fastest), 2 Samples, 4 Samples and 8 Samples (smoothest result). Increasing the number of samples used will improve the appearance of the model, but it will reduce the performance of model navigation.
Note
Some hardware does not support this. In this case, set to Off (fastest).
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Line anti-aliasing: When checked, any linear annotations added to the 3D view have a smoother appearance.
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Use hardware accelerated culling: This option allows you to use a dedicated hardware card to provide the rendering function in the 3D view. If the option is checked, the GPU (Graphics processing unit) will be used. If unchecked, the CPU (Central Processing Unit) will be used. For more information on supported graphic cards, see System Requirements.
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Objects drawn in navigation: This allows the number (numeric value) of objects drawn to be controlled, when the camera is moving (when panning, spinning, zooming or using the walk or game mode). This is useful when working with very large models or using older hardware that is struggling to process the model.
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Objects drawn: This allows the total number of objects (numeric value) to be controlled. The maximum is 200,000. This is useful when working with very large models or using older hardware that is struggling to process the model.
The value is view-dependent. Setting it to a lower value while viewing the whole model may restrict the visibility of certain smaller components. Large construction components remain visible allowing the user to see the buildings context. Components such as pipe fittings at this wide viewing position may show as missing. Zooming in restricts the field of view reducing the number of elements to be drawn and as such the components that were omitted from the view should then be seen.
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Optimize rendering speed: Defines how fast the model finishes rendering the components.
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Optimize 3D memory: When checked, 3D memory consumption is reduced.
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Save 3D representations with model: When checked, saves the 3D representations with the models. Reduces the opening time of a model, but increases the file size.
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Retain 3D context: When checked, retains the 3D (OpenGL) context when possible.