Specifying Line Style

Changes the way lines are displayed, or the style of bones used. This tool is particularly useful when you want to identify specific curves or surfaces.

How to Use

1

Pick an object (for example, a curve, curve-on-surface, surface, or a skeleton joint node).

2

To change the display of the object to current settings, select ObjectDisplay > Line style.

Line Style Display Options

Select Object Display > Line style- to display the Line Style Display Options box.

Objects

Click All to affect all objects, or Active to affect only active objects.

Display Type

Click Solid for solid lines, or Dashed for dashed lines. This setting applies to curves (including curves-on-surface), and surfaces.

The diagram in the margin shows two primitive cylinders, one constructed with solid lines and the other with dashed lines.

Bone Styl e is available in Alias PowerAnimator and AutoStudio, and is a purchasable Advanced Animation for Studio option.

See Draw skeleton in the Animating in Alias manual for information on how to create bones.

Bone Style

Line-draws bones with connecting lines between joints.

Round-draws bones with rounded shapes.

Pyramid-draws bones with symmetric triangular shapes. The bones have a fixed width, so the longer the bones are, the more slender they appear. (This style becomes Proportional when the bone length is less than 1.5 units.)

Proportional-draws bones in symmetric triangular shapes, with their width proportional to their length.

Triangular-draws asymmetric triangular shaped bones. This style makes it easier to detect 90 or 180 degree rotation or flipping along the bone axis.

Bone Tab

Toggle this option ON to attach a tab bar to the bone axis. It also helps you to detect if the bone is flipped.

Hints and Tips

For information on trimming, see NURBS Modeling.

• You can use the line style of curve-on-surface elements to control which will be used in a trim operation.

• When you perform a trim operation, you can ensure that all of the curves-on-surface will be used in the trim operation no matter what line style they have: edit your Alias preferences (Preferences > User Options > Alias preferences) so that the Trim dashed CoS option (under the Modeling Options > Trim Options heading) is set ON. (If the Trim dashed COS option is set OFF, then only the curves-on-surface displayed with the Solid line style are used in trim operations. If you change some of the curves-on-surface to the Dashed line style, they will not be used in the trim operation.)