IMEdit™
`
`Polygon-editing Software
`
`Reference Guide Version 8.0 for Windows
`July 2003
`
`InnovMetric Software Inc.
`2014 Jean-Talon Nord, Suite 310
`Ste-Foy, Québec, Canada, G1N 4N6
`Tel.: (418) 688-2061 Fax: (418) 688-3001
`
`IMEdit is a trademark of InnovMetric Software Inc.
`
`Copyright © 1995-2003 by InnovMetric Software Inc. All rights
`reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part in any way without written
`permission from InnovMetric Software is strictly prohibited.
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`Yita v. MacNeil
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`Contents
`
`Introduction
`
`Contents of the IMEdit Reference Guide 8.0 ................................................................. xiv
`Related documentation .................................................................................................. xvi
`Technical support .......................................................................................................... xvii
`
`1. Overview of IMEdit
`
`1.1 Starting IMEdit ......................................................................................................... 1-1
`1.2 Type of models processed by IMEdit ...................................................................... 1-3
`1.2.1 Definitions ................................................................................................. 1-3
`1.2.2 Information extracted from polygonal files ................................................ 1-4
`1.3 IMEdit: An object-oriented polygon-editing tool ....................................................... 1-4
`1.4 Navigating in IMEdit ................................................................................................ 1-6
`1.5 Modes for visualizing, selecting, and editing ........................................................... 1-6
`1.5.1 Basic visualization mode .......................................................................... 1-6
`1.5.2 Entering the Model Selection mode ......................................................... 1-7
`1.5.3 Editing operations performed on triangles and vertices ........................... 1-7
`1.5.4 Performing interactive operations ............................................................. 1-8
`1.6 IMEdit’s user interface ............................................................................................. 1-8
`1.6.1 Using the Tree View ................................................................................. 1-9
`1.6.2 Overview of the main menu bar ............................................................. 1-10
`1.6.3 Command Center ................................................................................... 1-10
`1.6.4 The Creation/Editing toolbar and the Customizable toolbar ................... 1-11
`1.7 Creating a batch process ...................................................................................... 1-11
`1.8 Personalizing IMEdit’s configuration ..................................................................... 1-12
`1.8.1 Specifying a path for IMEdit’s browsers ................................................. 1-13
`1.8.2 Specifying floating keys options ............................................................. 1-13
`1.8.3 Specifying values for IMEdit’s operational parameters .......................... 1-14
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`1.8.4 Enabling IMEdit’s wizard ........................................................................ 1-15
`1.8.5 Saving the current configuration to the default configuration ................. 1-16
`1.9 Undoing operations ............................................................................................... 1-16
`1.10 Using IMEdit’s “Window” menu ........................................................................... 1-17
`1.10.1 Using the Customizable toolbar ........................................................... 1-18
`1.10.2 Generating snapshots of the 3D rendering window ............................. 1-18
`1.11 Accessing the on-line help and documentation ................................................... 1-18
`1.12 Exiting IMEdit ...................................................................................................... 1-19
`
`2. Importing and Exporting Objects and IMEdit Projects
`
`2.1 Importing and exporting polygonal model files ........................................................ 2-1
`2.1.1 Importing polygonal model files ................................................................ 2-1
`2.1.2 Exporting polygonal model files ................................................................ 2-1
`2.2 Opening and saving IMEdit project directories ........................................................ 2-3
`2.2.1 Opening IMEdit project directories ........................................................... 2-3
`2.2.2 Saving IMEdit project directories .............................................................. 2-3
`2.3 Importing recent polygonal models and IMEdit projects ......................................... 2-4
`2.4 Importing objects from an IMEdit project directory .................................................. 2-4
`2.5 Importing point cloud datasets ................................................................................ 2-5
`2.6 Importing curves and primitives from text files ........................................................ 2-6
`2.7 Importing feature information .................................................................................. 2-7
`2.8 Exporting objects to an IMEdit project directory ...................................................... 2-7
`2.9 Exporting Cross-Sections ........................................................................................ 2-7
`2.10 Exporting Curves ................................................................................................... 2-8
`2.11 Exporting Surfaces ................................................................................................ 2-9
`2.12 Exporting tangent curve circles ........................................................................... 2-10
`2.13 Exporting fitted NURBS surfaces ........................................................................ 2-10
`2.14 Exporting Planes and Points ............................................................................... 2-10
`
`3. Manipulating Objects
`
`3.1 Overview of the Tree View ...................................................................................... 3-1
`3.1.1 Using the Tree View’s context-sensitive popup menu .............................. 3-1
`3.1.2 Recognizing object properties in the Tree View ....................................... 3-2
`3.2 Selecting objects ..................................................................................................... 3-4
`3.2.1 Manually selecting objects in the Tree View ............................................ 3-4
`3.2.2 Selection operations available through menus ......................................... 3-4
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`3.3 Basic object-editing operations ............................................................................... 3-5
`3.3.1 Visualizing and modifying properties of objects of the same category ..... 3-6
`3.3.2 Properties common to all objects ............................................................. 3-6
`3.3.3 The properties of a Cross-Section object ................................................. 3-6
`3.3.4 The properties of a Curve object .............................................................. 3-7
`3.3.5 The properties of a Curve Network object ................................................ 3-7
`3.3.6 The properties of a polygonal model ........................................................ 3-7
`3.3.7 The properties of a Plane object .............................................................. 3-8
`3.3.8 The properties of a Point object ............................................................... 3-8
`3.3.9 The properties of a Point Cloud object ..................................................... 3-8
`3.3.10 The properties of a Surface object ......................................................... 3-9
`
`4. Visualizing Polygons and Objects
`
`4.1 The Static and Dynamic display modes .................................................................. 4-1
`4.2 Setting the display and color modes of the polygonal model .................................. 4-1
`4.2.1 Setting the Dynamic and Static display modes ........................................ 4-1
`4.2.2 Setting the color mode of the polygonal model ........................................ 4-2
`4.2.3 Setting the curvature display options of the polygonal model .................. 4-4
`4.2.4 Displaying the sharp edges in the model ................................................. 4-4
`4.3 Setting the display and color modes of the point cloud ........................................... 4-4
`4.4 Setting the display mode of other 3D objects .......................................................... 4-5
`4.4.1 Understanding the display mode of other 3D objects ............................... 4-5
`4.4.2 The default display modes of Curves, Curve Networks, Planes, and Surfaces
`4-6
`4.4.3 Modifying the default display modes of Curves, Curve Networks, Planes, and
`Surfaces ............................................................................................................ 4-6
`4.4.4 Modifying the display modes of a set of Curves, Curve Networks, Planes, or
`Surfaces ............................................................................................................ 4-7
`4.4.5 Setting the global display mode of Cross-Sections .................................. 4-7
`4.5 Controlling the graphical contents ........................................................................... 4-8
`4.6 Using environment mapping ................................................................................... 4-9
`4.7 Controlling the visibility of model and object elements, and Tree View objects .... 4-10
`4.7.1 Controlling the visibility of model triangles and vertices ......................... 4-10
`4.7.2 Controlling the visibility of Tree View objects ......................................... 4-10
`4.7.3 Controlling the visibility of object elements ............................................. 4-11
`4.7.4 Controlling the visibility of groups of triangles ........................................ 4-11
`4.8 Using the Highlight mode ...................................................................................... 4-12
`4.9 Setting default material properties and interface colors ........................................ 4-12
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`4.9.1 Setting default material properties .......................................................... 4-12
`4.9.2 Setting default interface colors ............................................................... 4-13
`4.10 Changing a model’s position, orientation, and projection .................................... 4-15
`4.10.1 Rotating about the x, and the y axes .................................................... 4-15
`4.10.2 Translating along the x, and the y axes ................................................ 4-15
`4.10.3 Translating along the z axis .................................................................. 4-16
`4.10.4 Rotating about the z axis ...................................................................... 4-16
`4.10.5 Zooming by delimiting a rectangular area ............................................ 4-16
`4.10.6 Remaining in Dynamic display mode for several transformations ........ 4-17
`4.10.7 IMEdit’s “Pose” submenu ..................................................................... 4-17
`4.10.8 Undoing transformations ...................................................................... 4-18
`
`5. Selecting Model and Object Elements
`
`5.1 Overview of the interactive model selection methods in IMEdit .............................. 5-1
`5.2 The Selection Context window ................................................................................ 5-2
`5.3 Selecting triangles using the right mouse button .................................................... 5-4
`5.4 Selecting vertices using the left mouse button ........................................................ 5-5
`5.5 Selecting regions using the middle mouse button ................................................... 5-6
`5.6 Selection stack ........................................................................................................ 5-7
`5.7 Using the Select Object Elements mode ................................................................. 5-8
`5.7.1 Selecting individual object elements by using the left mouse button ....... 5-9
`5.7.2 Selecting object element regions using the middle mouse button ........... 5-9
`5.7.3 Performing context-sensitive operations using the right mouse button .. 5-10
`5.8 Global selection operations ................................................................................... 5-11
`5.8.1 Global selection operations for triangles, vertices, and object elements 5-11
`5.8.2 Triangle and vertex selection operations ................................................ 5-11
`5.8.3 Triangle selection operations ................................................................. 5-12
`5.8.4 Vertex selection operations .................................................................... 5-13
`5.8.5 Vertex selection operations using Curves .............................................. 5-13
`5.8.6 Vertex selection operations using Surfaces ........................................... 5-14
`5.9 Advanced object, triangle, and vertex selection techniques ................................. 5-14
`5.9.1 Advanced object selection techniques ................................................... 5-15
`5.9.2 Advanced triangle selection techniques ................................................. 5-16
`5.9.3 Advanced vertex selection techniques ................................................... 5-18
`5.10 Information window ............................................................................................. 5-19
`5.11 Controlling the selection process ........................................................................ 5-19
`5.12 Undoing selections .............................................................................................. 5-21
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`6. Overview of IMEdit’s Editing Operations
`
`6.1 Classification of the editing operations .................................................................... 6-1
`6.2 Undoing editing operations ..................................................................................... 6-2
`
`7. Plane and Point Primitives
`
`7.1 Creating Planes ....................................................................................................... 7-1
`7.1.1 Creating Planes by picking three points ................................................... 7-1
`7.1.2 Creating Planes normal to a Curve .......................................................... 7-1
`7.1.3 Creating a Plane parallel to another Plane ............................................... 7-2
`7.1.4 Creating Planes from two user-picked points ........................................... 7-3
`7.1.5 Creating a Plane coplanar with three vertices .......................................... 7-3
`7.1.6 Creating a Plane coplanar with a triangle ................................................. 7-4
`7.1.7 Fitting a Plane on a set of vertices/triangles ............................................. 7-4
`7.1.8 Creating Planes aligned with the coordinate system ................................ 7-4
`7.1.9 Creating a Plane by specifying its equation ............................................. 7-5
`7.2 Selecting and editing an existing Plane .................................................................. 7-5
`7.2.1 Selecting Planes in the Tree View ............................................................ 7-6
`7.2.2 Editing plane parameters ......................................................................... 7-7
`7.2.3 Rotating a Plane ....................................................................................... 7-7
`7.2.4 Translating a Plane .................................................................................. 7-7
`7.3 Inverting the orientation of Planes ........................................................................... 7-7
`7.4 Rendering Planes .................................................................................................... 7-8
`7.4.1 Setting the default display mode for Planes ............................................. 7-8
`7.4.2 Setting the display mode for a set of Planes ............................................ 7-8
`7.5 Selecting triangles and vertices using Planes ......................................................... 7-9
`7.6 Plane properties .................................................................................................... 7-10
`7.7 Axis properties ...................................................................................................... 7-10
`7.8 Menus specific to Plane objects ............................................................................ 7-10
`7.8.1 Tree View context-sensitive popup menu for Planes ............................. 7-10
`7.8.2 3D window context-sensitive popup menu for Planes ............................ 7-11
`7.9 Creating Points ...................................................................................................... 7-12
`7.9.1 Creating Points by picking in the 3D scene ............................................ 7-12
`7.9.2 Creating a Point from three intersecting Planes ..................................... 7-13
`7.9.3 Creating Points from vertices ................................................................. 7-13
`7.9.4 Creating Points from point cloud data points .......................................... 7-14
`7.9.5 Creating a Point by specifying its coordinates ........................................ 7-14
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`7.10 Selecting and editing an existing Point ............................................................... 7-14
`7.10.1 Selecting Points in the Tree View ......................................................... 7-14
`7.10.2 Editing point parameters ...................................................................... 7-15
`7.11 Point properties ................................................................................................... 7-15
`7.12 Menus specific to Point objects ........................................................................... 7-15
`7.12.1 Tree View context-sensitive popup menu for Points ............................ 7-15
`7.12.2 3D window context-sensitive popup menu for Points ........................... 7-15
`7.13 Menus specific to primitive objects ...................................................................... 7-16
`
`8. Basic Triangle-editing Operations
`
`8.1 Deleting triangles .................................................................................................... 8-1
`8.1.1 Deleting the last selection ........................................................................ 8-2
`8.1.2 Deleting all selected model elements ....................................................... 8-2
`8.1.3 Deleting all topology errors ....................................................................... 8-3
`8.1.4 Deleting degenerate and duplicate triangles ............................................ 8-3
`8.2 Reorienting inverted surface normals ..................................................................... 8-3
`8.2.1 Inverting the orientation of a set of triangles ............................................ 8-4
`8.2.2 Propagating the orientation of a set of triangles ....................................... 8-4
`8.2.3 Automatic correction of inverted surface normals .................................... 8-5
`8.3 Basic operations for triangle-editing ........................................................................ 8-5
`8.3.1 Creating a triangle from three vertices ..................................................... 8-6
`8.3.2 Creating a triangle from two vertices and a curve .................................... 8-6
`8.3.3 Creating a triangle from two vertices and a surface ................................. 8-7
`8.3.4 Merging two close vertices ....................................................................... 8-8
`8.3.5 Permuting the edge between two adjacent triangles ................................ 8-8
`
`9. Advanced Triangle-editing Operations
`
`9.1 Meshing an unorganized point cloud dataset .......................................................... 9-2
`9.1.1 Quickly building a polygonal mesh on a point cloud ................................. 9-2
`9.1.2 Wrapping a polygonal mesh onto a Point Cloud ...................................... 9-2
`9.1.3 Additional tools for Point Cloud objects .................................................... 9-3
`9.2 Hole-filling methods in the Triangles (Advanced) submenu .................................... 9-5
`9.2.1 Creating walls between two opposite surfaces ........................................ 9-5
`9.2.2 Filling in holes and gaps automatically ..................................................... 9-5
`9.2.3 Manually triangulating an area containing holes ...................................... 9-6
`9.2.4 Filling in holes left by optical markers ....................................................... 9-7
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`9.3 Optimizing triangles for better curvature descriptions ........................................... 9-10
`9.4 Using the IMCompress polygon reduction tool ..................................................... 9-12
`9.5 Subdividing the triangles of a selected area ......................................................... 9-13
`9.5.1 Setting the subdivision type and related parameters ............................. 9-13
`9.5.2 Generating new vertices using Linear or Cubic algorithms .................... 9-16
`9.5.3 Understanding equiangularity optimization ............................................ 9-16
`9.5.4 Application 1: Machining a small object at a larger scale ....................... 9-17
`9.5.5 Application 2: Improving the aspect ratio of a triangulation .................... 9-17
`9.6 Extruding boundaries ............................................................................................ 9-18
`9.6.1 Specifying the extrusion direction for the Parallel to Plane type ............ 9-21
`9.7 Generating polygonal fillets using a rolling-ball ..................................................... 9-22
`9.8 Creating a mirrored copy of a selected area ......................................................... 9-23
`9.8.1 Using the mirror operation to model a symmetrical part ......................... 9-24
`9.9 Offsetting a polygonal surface ............................................................................... 9-24
`9.9.1 Creating a thin shell object ..................................................................... 9-27
`9.9.2 Solidifying a surface ............................................................................... 9-27
`9.10 Slicing a polygonal surface with a Plane ............................................................. 9-28
`9.10.1 Slicing and capping .............................................................................. 9-29
`9.10.2 Slicing and adding dowels to the capped area ..................................... 9-29
`9.10.3 Slicing and extruding along the slicing plane ....................................... 9-33
`9.10.4 Slicing and inserting the intersection .................................................... 9-35
`
`10. Vertex-editing Operations
`
`10.1 Deleting vertices .................................................................................................. 10-1
`10.1.1 Deleting the most recent selection ....................................................... 10-1
`10.1.2 Deleting selected model elements ....................................................... 10-2
`10.2 Merging close vertices ........................................................................................ 10-2
`10.3 Moving vertices along a plane normal ................................................................. 10-2
`10.4 Moving vertices along a surface .......................................................................... 10-3
`10.5 Projecting vertices onto a plane .......................................................................... 10-3
`10.6 Projecting vertices onto Surfaces ........................................................................ 10-3
`10.7 Smoothing vertices .............................................................................................. 10-5
`10.7.1 Parameters of the smoothing algorithm ............................................... 10-5
`10.7.2 Additional information about the smoothing results .............................. 10-6
`10.7.3 Interactive smoothing method .............................................................. 10-6
`10.8 Editing vertex colors ............................................................................................ 10-7
`10.8.1 Editing the vertex colors of the last selection ....................................... 10-7
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`10.8.2 Copying a vertex color .......................................................................... 10-8
`10.8.3 Pasting a color onto the last selection .................................................. 10-8
`
`11. Group-editing Operations
`
`11.1 Manipulating groups in the Tree View ................................................................. 11-1
`11.1.1 Using the Tree View’s popup menu ..................................................... 11-1
`11.1.2 Visualizing a group Properties window ................................................. 11-2
`11.2 Group-rendering operations ................................................................................ 11-2
`11.3 Group selection operations ................................................................................. 11-3
`11.4 Editing groups ..................................................................................................... 11-4
`11.4.1 Adding triangles to a group .................................................................. 11-4
`11.4.2 Creating a new group of triangles ........................................................ 11-4
`11.4.3 Editing a group’s name ......................................................................... 11-4
`11.4.4 Editing a group’s material ..................................................................... 11-5
`11.4.5 Copying and pasting group materials ................................................... 11-6
`11.5 Resetting grouping information ........................................................................... 11-6
`
`12. Texture-editing Operations
`
`12.1 Optimizing texture-mapped models for polygon reduction .................................. 12-1
`12.2 Resetting texture information .............................................................................. 12-1
`
`13. Modifying the Model’s Coordinate System
`
`13.1 Rotating a set of polygons ................................................................................... 13-1
`13.1.1 Interactively rotating about the x, the y, and the z axes ....................... 13-1
`13.1.2 Using two planes to define a rotation ................................................... 13-3
`13.2 Translating a set of polygons .............................................................................. 13-3
`13.2.1 Using the generic translation interface ................................................. 13-3
`13.2.2 Translating polygons to a plane ........................................................... 13-5
`13.3 Scaling a set of polygons .................................................................................... 13-5
`13.4 Mirroring a set of polygons .................................................................................. 13-6
`13.5 Applying a transformation matrix to a set of polygons ........................................ 13-6
`
`14. Using Curves
`
`14.1 Curves used in IMEdit ......................................................................................... 14-3
`14.1.1 Bézier and Hermite representations of a cubic curve ........................... 14-3
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`14.1.2 Normal vectors at curve control points ................................................. 14-3
`14.2 Creating Curves .................................................................................................. 14-4
`14.2.1 Curves and Curve Networks ................................................................ 14-5
`14.2.2 Anchoring an open Curve ..................................................................... 14-5
`14.2.3 Anchoring a closed Curve .................................................................... 14-7
`14.2.4 Creating Curves from two user-picked points ...................................... 14-7
`14.2.5 Converting Cross-Sections to Curves .................................................. 14-9
`14.2.6 Converting boundary vertices to Curves .............................................. 14-9
`14.2.7 Automatically converting sharp edges to Curves ............................... 14-11
`14.2.8 Automatically extracting edge Curves (Edge Wizard) ........................ 14-12
`14.2.9 Converting approximate edge Curves to accurate sharp edges ........ 14-16
`14.2.10 Creating Curves from an ordered text file ........................................ 14-21
`14.3 Rendering Curves and control points ................................................................ 14-22
`14.3.1 Specifying the default rendering of Curves and control points ........... 14-22
`14.3.2 Editing the rendering of existing Curves and control points ............... 14-23
`14.3.3 Customizing the interface colors related to Curves and control points .. 14-
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`14.4 Selecting Curves and control points .................................................................. 14-25
`14.4.1 Selecting Curves in the Tree View ..................................................... 14-25
`14.4.2 Selecting curve control points ............................................................ 14-25
`14.5 Performing the main curve-editing operations .................................................. 14-26
`14.5.1 Basic concepts ................................................................................... 14-26
`14.5.2 Optimizing the number of control points of Curves ............................ 14-27
`14.5.3 Reducing the number of control points of Curves .............................. 14-27
`14.5.4 Fitting Curves to a polygonal mesh .................................................... 14-27
`14.5.5 Inserting Curves into a polygonal mesh ............................................. 14-29
`14.5.6 Slicing the polygonal mesh with Curves ............................................. 14-31
`14.6 Editing existing Curves ...................................................................................... 14-31
`14.6.1 Closing open Curves .......................................................................... 14-31
`14.6.2 Opening closed Curves ...................................................................... 14-32
`14.6.3 Extending open Curves ...................................................................... 14-32
`14.6.4 Extrapolating open Curves ................................................................. 14-32
`14.6.5 Splitting Curves .................................................................................. 14-33
`14.6.6 Cutting Curves .................................................................................... 14-34
`14.6.7 Joining Curves .................................................................................... 14-34
`14.6.8 Inverting curve direction ..................................................................... 14-35
`14.6.9 Inverting curve orientation .................................................................. 14-35
`14.7 Manipulating the curve control points ................................................................ 14-35
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`14.7.1 Hermite vs Bézier curve control points ............................................... 14-35
`14.7.2 Entering the Pick Objects mode ......................................................... 14-35
`14.7.3 Visualizing curve control point status ................................................. 14-36
`14.7.4 Selecting desired curve control points ................................................ 14-36
`14.7.5 Anchoring and releasing curve control points .................................... 14-37
`14.7.6 Deleting curve control points .............................................................. 14-37
`14.7.7 Interactively deleting curve control points ..........