Patch Display Settings Dialog

Used to set the parameters for the various rendering modes available to display patches.

Isophotes are a form of rendering which aids in the detection and correction of non-fair surfaces. They can be thought of as the product of a special light that produces coloured bands on the surface which shows up irregularities. A light direction is chosen and at each point of the surface the angle between the surface normal and the light direction is calculated. All points on the surface are assigned a colour depending which band their angle falls in.

The value entered into the Precision edit field, controls the level of how accurately the surface is rendered, a lower resolution increases the speed of the application but produced a less precise image. Values range between 4 and 16. The Transparency (%age) value controls how transparent that surface appears, a value of 100 produces no visible surface and 0 an entirely opaque surface. It is useful to have a semi-transparent surface while manipulating control vertices as they can be behind the surface and hidden from view and therefore unavailable for selection.