Option

Description

Render mode

Select the render mode from the dropdown list. This affects how entities are displayed. The options are:

• 2D

• Wireframe

• Hidden line

• Flat shading

• Smooth shading

• Flat shading + wireframe

• Smooth shading + wireframe

Lighting

Ambient colour

Click to select a colour to be used for ambient (general) light in a rendered view.

Light colour

Click to select a colour to be used for the default light in a rendered view.

Background

Colour

Click to select a colour for the background of the rendered view. This colour is also used as the fog colour.

Image

Select this checkbox to use an image as the background of the rendered view. The image is stretched to fit the render window.

Load button

Click to select the image file to be used for the background image.

Textures

Enable textures

Enable the rendering of texture images on 3D faces and meshes, for those faces/meshes which have had a textured material applied to them.

Max texture size

Select the maximum texture size in pixels to be generated when drawing images in the rendered view. Larger texture sizes result in better quality images but reduce performance.

Texture quality

Select the required texture quality from the dropdown list. Nicer texture quality results in better quality images but reduces performance.

Visual Effects

Fog/haze

Select this checkbox to apply a fog or haze effect to the rendered view. The further an object is from the camera/eye position, the more it will blend into the background.

Fog distance

Enter the distance in drawing units from the camera/eye position at which objects will fully merge with the background i.e. disappear from view. The appropriate distance depends on the scene being rendered, and should initially be set to the approximate diameter of the drawing in drawing units.

View

Vertical Exaggeration

Set the exaggeration factor for the vertical scale over the horizontal scale. Valid values are from 0.0001 to 10000.

Setting the vertical exaggeration to a fractional scale value will “shrink” or scale down the drawing, e.g. 0.5 will show the original drawing at half its vertical height.

Animation

Circle Around Time

Enter the number of seconds it takes for the Circle Around function to complete a full 360 degrees.

Maximise Render View area

If this option is checked, the Control Centre, Output Bar and Properties Bar panels are hidden when switching to Render View, to maximise the size of the Render View.