6.8.4   3D Plot Mode

Clicking activates an interactive 3D plot mode. It displays meaningful information for height field images, such as images that encode height information as gray values. The greater the gray value, the higher the corresponding image point. Figure 6.19 shows a height field image of a solder ball and the corresponding 3D plot .

The 3D plot mode uses OpenGL and benefits from hardware acceleration.

Figure 6.19: Default vs. 3D plot mode.

Default image display

3D plot mode

Using the mouse you can alter the view of the 3D image (select mode must be active for this to work, click in the tool bar):

• Drag the image to rotate the view.
• Hold Shift and drag the image up and down to zoom out and in, respectively. Alternatively, use the mouse wheel.
• Hold Ctrl and drag the image to translate the view.

There are four different rendering methods (texture, shaded, hidden_lines, and contour_lines) which can be selected from the drop-down menu in the tool bar. See set_paint for detailed information about the different methods. The display quality can be fine-tuned in the tool bar of the graphics window or in the visualization parameters of the graphics window (right-click into the graphics window, select Set Parameters, and open the tab card Paint).

Figure 6.20: 3D plot mode settings.

Visualization parameters

Tool bar

Mode

Quality

Step

Axes

Grid

Mode  

sets the rendering mode just like the drop-down menu in the graphics window.

Plot Quality  

allows setting the rendering quality in four steps. On systems without proper display hardware acceleration a lower quality should be selected to speed up the display.

Step  

sets the level of detail. In general, the lower the step value, the higher the level of detail. However, if the rendering mode is set to contour_lines, increasing the step value increases the level of detail.

Display Axes  

If this is enabled, the axes of the 3D coordinate system are displayed in the 3D view.

Display Grid  

If this is enabled, the “floor” of the 3D plot is painted as a grid.

See also section “Paint settings” for the other paint modes that can be selected in this window.