Sean (Mar 18 2023 at 16:55): Sean (Mar 18 2023 at 16:55):I've been working on developing view manipulation iconography (aka a "view gizmo") for quickly switching views and exploring using a rhombicuboctahedron: rhombicuboctahedron.png
Sean (Mar 18 2023 at 17:06):General idea is it would be displayed in a corner of the graphics window and switches views when you click on faces or drag it around. There are 26 faces including all 45 off-angle views. If the vertices are made selectable, that adds 24 more views at elevations 35, 70, -35, and -75. and azimuths 25, 65, 115, 155, -25, -65, -115, and -155 for a total of 50 view orientations.
Sean (Mar 18 2023 at 17:07):If edges are made selectable, that brings the total to 96 views.
Erik (Mar 18 2023 at 17:10):need (heh, bevelbox) any thought to indicating 0 x/y/z for orientation?
Sean (Mar 18 2023 at 17:10):Even without edges, I believe that covers all 32 standard analysis views. Only issue is whether to try and pack face names (e.g., "front", "top", "left", "45/45" etc, and whether to display any other graphical components like the xyz axes extending out or planar rotation discs.
Erik (Mar 18 2023 at 17:11):maybe lines sticking out of the three with the letter by the end?
Sean (Mar 18 2023 at 17:11):Yeah, that image is just the shape -- I'm thinking the faces can be color-coded with red/green/blue for x/y/z with + being prominent and - being lighter color
Sean (Mar 18 2023 at 17:12):Or maybe that it shows axes, but then as you mouse over, the axes disappear so it's more clear that you're interacting with the rhombicuboctahedron and not grabbing the axes lines
Sean (Mar 18 2023 at 17:57):The only thing we'll have to be wary of is Autodesk has a couple patents related to this, though the one most relevant (https://patents.google.com/patent/US7782319) specifically calls out using a cube. A rhombicuboctahedron should not only avoids patent infringement but arguably be a better fit for our standard views (specifically wanting to cater to 35/25 offset views) and the construction is actually a beautiful collection of arb5's and arb4's. That means we'll be able to do some novel things like highlight view selections by extruding faces/edges/vertices during mouse over.
Last updated: Feb 12 2025 at 00:46 UTC