Alias - Wavefront Evalviewer

Evalviewer.
book Page 1 Thursday, February 3, 2000 10:08 AM
EvalViewer
StudioTools 9.5
Evalviewer.book Page 2 Thursday, February 3, 2000 10:08 AM
EvalViewer 9.5.
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O v e rv i e w Overview 2
Introduction 3
Using EvalViewer as a Cloud Tool 12
An EvalViewer Workflow 26
Using View Meshes for Cloud Data Processing 29
EvalViewer Cloud Workflow Example 1 35
Using EvalViewer as a Surface Evaluation Tool 42
Using EvalViewer as a Comparison Tool 55
Overview of Other EvalViewer Tools 64
R e f e re nce The User Interface 81

Starting EvalViewer 82
The EvalViewer Interface 83
Menus 88
File menu 89
Edit menu 100
Delete menu 103
View menu 104
Xform menu 108
Display menu 115
Clouds menu 120
Lines menu 125
Curves menu 135
Polygons menu 138
Surfaces menu 143

Objects menu 148
Misc menu 151
Examples menu 154
Compare menu 155
Help menu 160
Tabs 161
Query tab 162
View tab 164
Display tab 166
Subset tab 168
Line tab 170
Surfaces tab 172
Reflect tab 174
Light tab 176
Color tab 178
Edit tab 180
Diagnostics tab 184
Mesh tab 189
Temporary View tab 199
Transform tab 200
A p p e ndix Appendix 204

Hotkey Summary 205
Net Session Testing 209

Cloud Data Questions 211
Supported Scanner Vendors 222
Glossary 225
Ov erview
Overview
In This Section: Introduction 3

Using EvalViewer as a Cloud Tool 12
An EvalViewer Workflow 26
Using View Meshes for Cloud Data Processing 29
Using EvalViewer as a Surface Evaluation Tool 42
Using EvalViewer as a Comparison Tool 55
Overview of Other EvalViewer Tools 64
Introduction
Availability EvalViewer is an included utility with AutoStudio and

SurfaceStudio and is also available as a stand-alone product.
In addition, the Highlight Analysis, Curvature Analysis and
other Surface Evaluation tools of EvalViewer are available as
part of the Studio Advanced Evaluation option. Claymate (in
AutoStudio), Cloud-Fit (in AutoStudio), and the Cloud-data
processing tools of EvalViewer are available as part of the
Studio Advanced Modeling option.
Purpose EvalViewer is a stand-alone utility that works as a Cloud Data

tool, a Surface Evaluation tool, and a Cloud to Surface
comparison tool that complements the traditional design
process:
● As a Cloud Data tool EvalViewer can preprocess large
amounts of “cloud data” from rapid point data acquisition
systems, such as 3D laser scanners, in order to create
traditional section data for surface development, or
reasonably sized polygon meshes for other uses.
● As a Surface Evaluation tool EvalViewer allows you to
interactively evaluate surface quality details using cross-
sections, color curvature maps, reflection maps, and
highlight lines, and to view the effects of control vertex
editing during evaluation.
● As a Cloud to Surface Comparison tool, EvalViewer
allows you to compare the surfaces that you create in
Surface Studio (or any other system) with the cloud data
or line data that was used to create those surfaces. In
addition, if a surface model were used to create real parts
and those parts are digitized with optical or touch
measurement machines, EvalViewer will let you evaluate
how well those points match the given surface by creating
a color error mapped display as well as a deviation vector
display.
Overview
3
Introduction
Cloud Tool Overview Despite all the advances in modeling directly from concepts
and criteria, it is still often necessary to digitize existing 3D
models and transfer that point data into the computer so that
it can be used as part of the design process. This is especially
necessary when free-form shapes are involved. Traditionally,
3D point data from existing models was acquired solely
through touch-probe coordinate measuring machines
(CMMs), which run at a rate of no more than one point per
second. In recent years, it has become useful to acquire 3D
points using optical measurement sensors. These types of
sensors can measure points without touching the physical
object, at rates up to 10,000,000 times faster than touch-probe
CMMs, with most current commercial 3D scanners running
over 1000 times faster. The entire surface area of an object can
be digitized very quickly without even touching the object,
creating a virtual 3D copy of its shape in the computer.
The following image shows a two-arm CMM with a touch-

probe tip digitizing a single point on a portrait sculpture, and
a laser scanner digitizing a complete scan line with 500 points.
The problem with the new laser scanner technology is that

most design software cannot accept the huge amounts of data
produced by the scanners. File sizes range from 120 kilobytes
for 10,000 points to 120 megabytes for 10 million points or
more.
Overview
4
Introduction
Note Typically, each point requires at least 12 bytes of

information, so multiply the number of points by 12 to
determine the total number of bytes that a point data
set requires.
Not only is file size a concern, but cloud data points are not
usually ordered in any specific way to make them directly
useful in applications.
To further compound the problem, there are currently no

standards for portable binary data file formats for cloud data.
That is, there are only a few text file formats, such as IGES,
VDAFS, or simple ASCII XYZ which cause files to occupy 2.5
to 7 times more disk space than comparable binary file
containing the same information. They also take about 6 to 12
times longer to read or write. As a result, each 3D scanner
vendor tends to have its own binary format for point data.
EvalViewer provides the following functions to make cloud

data useful to you:
● Cloud Input from 6 different binary vendor-specific file
formats (ATOS/GOM, CATIA-CPT, Cyberware Echo,
Cyrax Ascii, EOIS XYZ, Hymarc, Kreon CBK, Sharnoa,
Steinbichler AC)
● Cloud Input from 4 different generic point formats (IGES
106 Copious Data, IGES 116 Points, VDAFS PS/PointSet,
generic Ascii XYZ/RGB, ASCII XYZ / 3 coordinates per
line of text). These options provide additional input
capability from Digibotics, 3D-Scanners, Laser Design,
Lemoine, and almost all other scanners.
● Cloud Input from Alias wire files
● Cloud Input from Alias Pix, SGI RGB, or JPEG/JFIF, so
that 2D paint packages can be used to create Intensity =
Depth surfaces
● Cloud Output to IGES 106, ASCII XYZ, or Alias wire file
● Line/Section Output to IGES 106, DES, DXF, or Alias wire
file
● Polygon Output to Wavefront OBJ, STL (stereo
lithography format) (ASCII or binary), Inventor, DXF,
Unigraphics FAC File, Alias (Object-Separated) Triangle
File, or Alias Wire File
Overview
5
Introduction
● Cloud Quick-Render, View Mesh or Voxel Mesh shaded

image visualization
● Cloud XYZ Cross-Sections: direct cloud processing or via
View or Voxel Meshes
● Cloud to Polygons Conversion: Quick-Render, View Mesh
or Voxel Mesh Polygons
● Cloud to Reduced Polygon Count Models via View
Meshes or Voxel Meshes
● Cloud to Lines Conversion
● Line and Polygonal data conversion back to Cloud
● Line Editing Tools: Delete Point, Line, Break, Join
● Line Smoothing Filters
● Line Chordal Deviation Point Count Reduction
● Line Resampling (Uniform by Point Count or Segment
Length)
● Support for Arbitrary Line/Radial Sections
● Support for Interactive Feature Line Definition
● Perform Plane Fit, Sphere Fit, or Surface Fit to
unstructured cloud data.
● Fit B-Spline curves to lines for reverse engineering
applications using Hull Fit or standard Least Squares.
● Build quick polygonal and NURBS surfaces (via skin or
square) using line data to test the quality of the cloud data
sections.
● Compute a color error map or deviation vector plot of the
distances between clouds and other objects, such as
polygon meshes created from other clouds or CAD
surfaces that specify the idealized shape of a part.
All these functions are located in a Studio-like 3D viewing

environment, with a fixed set of tabs along the bottom of the
graphics window to allow quick access to the various tools.
Please refer to the sections in the remainder of this document.

You will find a section on Using EvalViewer as a Cloud Tool as
well as an EvalViewer Reference section describing all Menu
Picks and Tab Buttons. Other relevant sections include a
Overview
6
Introduction
HotKeys Summary, Frequently Asked Cloud Data Questions, a

Glossary, and a List of Supported Scanner Vendors for EvalViewer.
Surface Evaluation Tool If you have ever had the experience of designing a part,
Overview sending it out to be produced, and then getting back a
prototype or verification model with subtle surface features
you may not have wanted, then the surface evaluation tools in
EvalViewer should be extremely useful to you.
Note This section assumes that you are familiar with

surface design and associated terms, such as surface
patch boundaries, control vertices (CVs), trim curves,
patch-to-patch continuity, and light source reflection.
If you encounter an unfamiliar term, please refer to
the manuals Learning Studio and NURBS Modeling.
Studio, AutoStudio, and SurfaceStudio provide numerous

advanced evaluation tool options to assist you in visualizing
subtle surface behavior issues. EvalViewer was designed to
provide many of these functions in a manner that could take
advantage of graphics hardware capabilities, rather than
relying solely on complex spline computations. The result is
that EvalViewer provides some functions based only on spline
definitions, but provides most of its functions using polygonal
meshes that are created by tessellating surfaces. (Surfaces are
converted to polygons by a process known as tessellation.)
You can retessellate all visible surfaces by either increasing the
surface tolerance to get fewer polygons and more display
speed, or by decreasing the surface tolerance to get more
polygons and a more accurate mesh approximation.
You can set the 3D surface tolerance parameter as necessary. A

value of 0.05 millimeters generally yields very few polygonal
artifacts (non-smooth geometry). Note that the smaller the
tolerance, the longer the tessellation process will take.
EvalViewer provides the following surface evaluation

functions to help you create the highest quality surfaces:
● View Surfaces from Alias Wire Files, IGES Files, VDA
Files, DXF Files, STEP Files, or CATIA CAI (CATIA-Alias
Interoperability) Files, STL Files, Inventor Files,
Unigraphics PRT files. (A Studio “Direct Connect”
product converts SDRC files to the Alias wire file format.)
Overview
7
Introduction
● View Active Surfaces from within AutoStudio

● Easy-to-Use Reflection Maps
● Apply any Alias Pix file, SGI RGB file, or JPEG file as a
Painted Surface or Chrome Reflection
● XYZ Surface Sections / Radial Sections / User-Drawn
Arbitrary Sections
● Surface Curvature Color Mapping: Visualize Subtle
Surface Variations
● Curvature combs to analyse curvature oscillations and
inflection points.
● Non-Proportional Horizontal Scaling of the view to detect
small oscillations in curves
● Draft Angle Color Mapping and Parting Line estimate.
● Four Directional Hardware Light Controls with
Longitude/Latitude Controls
● Pick Surface Point for Maximum Highlight
● Interactive ColorBar Range Adjustment for Color
Curvature, Error, or Draft Angle displays.
● Edit One or More Surface CVs in Screen, World, or
Normal-UV coordinates
● Adjustable Gain factor on CV movements
● Save Wire, IGES, DXF, CAI, STEP, Inventor, Unigraphics-
PRT, Unigraphics FAC, ASCII or Binary STL, Wavefront
OBJ Files with Selected Modified Surfaces
● Save Section Lines as IGES, DES, DXF, or Wire
● Moving Highlight Lines / Fixed Highlight Lines (auto-
update during CV-Edit)
● Diagnostic Sections (auto-update during CV-Edit)
● Saddle Lines (convex/concave/saddle separation lines)
(auto-update during CV-Edit)
● Random Colors for Surface Patch Layout Visualization
● A single Draw Mirror Half switch for NURBS and
polygons.
● Compute a color error map of distances between surfaces
and other objects, such as point cloud data.
Overview
8
Introduction
All these functions are provided in a Studio-like 3D viewing

environment, with a fixed set of tabs along the bottom of the
graphics window to give you quick access to the various
functions.

You will find a section on Using EvalViewer as a Surface
Evaluation Tool as well as an EvalViewer Reference section
describing all Menu Picks and Tab Buttons. Other relevant
sections include a HotKeys Summary and a Glossary.
Compare Tools Overview EvalViewer now provides a set of menu options to allow you
to compute comparison information for cloud, lines, curves,
polygons, and surfaces. The tools are intended for two main
applications:
● Verifying that a surface design meets any dimensional
criteria defined in the raw data used to build the surfaces
in reverse engineering applications.
● Validating inspection data acquired from a part that was
created from a given surface model in computer aided
validation applications.
The comparison functions in the Compare menu allow

comparisons of the following types:
● Clouds to Clouds
● Clouds to Lines
● Clouds to Polygons
● Clouds to Surfaces
● Lines to Lines
● Lines to Curves
● Lines to Polygons
● Lines to Surfaces
● Polygons to Polygons
● Polygons to Surfaces.
All options create deviation vector information as output. In

addition, the Clouds to Polygons and Clouds to Surfaces
create color error maps that provide informative visuals
Overview
9
Introduction
showing the dimensional trends in cloud data that are hard to

assess otherwise.

You will find a section on Using EvalViewer as a Comparison Tool
as well as an EvalViewer Reference section describing all Menu
Picks and Tab Buttons.
Common Tools Overview EvalViewer has a set of common user interface features that
are used for both Cloud Data and Surface Evaluation. Some of
these features are summarized below:
● At any time, save the graphics window as an SGI RGB, an
Alias Pix, or a JPEG/JFIF file by selecting File→Save Image
As...
● Share JPEG images over the Internet using the Snap JPEG
menu selection to automatically format an HTML page
that you can link to a home page to graphically document
your work.
● The graphics window can be printed to the default lp
printer at any time.
● Select from six standard views and four isometric upper
oblique views.
● Any view can be Orthographic or Perspective.
● The Studio Camera→LookAt and Camera→Multi-View
(Tumble/Track/Dolly) functions are always accessible.
● A 1:1 View option is provided so that the viewed objects

will appear in actual size on conventional 21 inch
monitors.
● The display of most geometry types (points, lines,
polygons, CVs, or hulls) can be activated or deactivated
independently.
● Point Coordinate Query functions are available for
Clouds, Lines, Polygon vertices, CVs, Polygon centers and
Object centers.
● Exact Point-to-Point distances can be measured.
● An interactive screen-based Tape Measure and Protractor are
available from any viewing angle.
Overview
10
Introduction
● A brief help statement is available for all user-interface

elements via the F1 Key or Shift+F1.
● The Multiple File Selector tells you immediately the number
of selected kilobytes of data prior to reading in the data
files.
● Perform Turntable or Rotisserie viewing.
● Set the Eye Point and the LookAt point to exact analytic
values.
● Specify exact view parameters (field of view, near and far
clipping planes, rotation angles, etc.).
● Switch interactively between ZUp and YUp viewing.
● Set the view orthogonal or tangent to a polygon or planar
section/curve.
● Move, Scale, and Rotate Options: either keyboard or
mouse-driven input.
● Box, Polygon, Trace/Lasso, Circle – Point Editing /
Subsetting / Cropping Tools for all types of geometry.
● Align objects using various techniques.
● Backdrop images are supported for SGI RGB, Alias Pix, or
JPEG/JFIF.
● Use hardware transparency rendering for simulating glass
surfaces (Note: glass objects must be placed last in the
object list).
● Run EvalViewer session on a local (master) machine and a
remote (slave) machine simultaneously for demo
purposes.
● Replay previous EvalViewer session logs.
Overview
11
Introduction
Using EvalViewer as a Cloud Tool
This section describes how to use EvalViewer for

preprocessing cloud data. After completing the EvalViewer
installation procedure, you can start EvalViewer.
Accessing your Cloud You should already have some cloud data from one of the
Data following sources: your own scanner, the network, DAT tape,
or CD-ROM. (If you don’t, there is an example data set in the
Examples menu.)
In general, the Multiple File Selector box allows you to access

your cloud data anywhere on your mounted filesystems.
Start EvalViewer as a
stand-alone program for
Cloud Data Processing
If you are using EvalViewer, 1 If EvalViewer is installed, type the following in the
you can access EvalViewer promptline:
from the Utilities menu.
evalview
Alternatively, select the evalview icon from the desktop.
Overview
12
Note If EvalViewer is not installed, consult the installation

guide to install it. Basically, you will insert the CD-
ROM and run the ‘swmgr’ (Software Manager)
command as root on an SGI computer.
Type the following path in the promptline if evalview
is not found as a valid command even after
installation:
/usr/aw/evalviewer/bin/evalview
If you are a csh shell user, you need only type ev to
start the program if you add the following line to your
.cshrc file and log in again:
alias ev /usr/aw/evalviewer/bin/evalview
If you are not a csh shell user, then perform similar
tasks in the shell of your choice.
2 Read in the Cloud Data. Once EvalViewer is launched, go

to the top menu bar and select File > Open or File > Open As
> Open Clouds.
It is only necessary to select File > Open for most binary
cloud data formats. The generic cloud formats are an
exception to this rule. IGES format files by default are
assumed to be CAD data and Clouds can be read as curve
data which creates some confusion. You must select
File > Open As > Open Clouds > IGES 106
OR
File > Open As > Open Clouds > IGES 116
depending on what format you wish to read. Similarly, for
VDA files, you should select the VDA Cloud option. For
ASCII XYZ files, you must also explicitly select
File > Open As > Open Clouds > Ascii XYZ
unless the file name extension is ‘.asc’ or ‘.xyz’.
Overview
13
If you select the Open Clouds menu choice, then you must
select the appropriate format option.
For the rest of these steps, the Cyberware option will be

used in our example.
Note Motif tear-off menus were used to hold the menus on

the screen while the above snapshot was taken. The
appearance of the menus is slightly different when
used as normal pulldown cascading (roll-off) menus.
For tear-off menus, every menu from the menu bar
has a perforation line at the top of each menu pane. If
you click the perforation, the menu becomes detached
as a separate window that you can place anywhere on
the screen.
To close the tear-off menu, click the Motif window
menu with the right mouse button and select Close. If
you want to turn off the tear-off feature, type the
following line in the.Xdefaults file in your home
directory:
*EvalView*XmMenuShell*TearOffModel:
tear_off_disabled
Overview
14
3 After a Cloud data file type is selected, the Multiple File

Selector appears. It appears for all of the Open selections,
and shows the files in your current directory in the
scrollbox on the left, and the subdirectories in your current
directory in the smaller scrollbox on the right.
Navigation Buttons
Display arrangement of files
Size of selected files
Selection of files
You can select any number of files from one directory. Files
can be sorted by last access Time (the default), Alphabetic
order, or by file Size. In addition, you can Reverse the order
of the files for any of these sorting methods.
Note The numbers to the left of each filename indicate the

file size in kilobytes (1024 8-bit bytes). The total
number of files and kilobytes is shown below the
scrollboxes as data files are selected.
You may select All files in a given subdirectory, or you can
toggle (or Flip) the selection status. You can clear the
selection status of the files with the None button.
Once a set of files has been selected, choose the OK button.
If you do not want to make a selection at this time, choose
Cancel.
Overview
15
4 To look through the disks available for your system, type

the name of any valid directory in the Current Directory text
field. You can then go Up 1 Directory (..), Up 2
Directories(../..), to your Home directory, or go to the Root
Directory of your file system (/) using buttons directly
above the Current Directory text field. Select subdirectories
of the current directory by pointing and clicking on the
appropriate subdirectory name in the subdirectory
scrollbox.
5 For this example, select the file vase and click OK.
Note that, although only one file is used in this example,
many cloud data processing jobs involve more than one
file. For some types of scanners, it is not unusual for one
job to have over 200 separate files on the disk to process.
The cloud from the vase file should appear as shown. The
vase (of about 68,000 points) looks like it is lying on its
side.
Overview
16
There are many scanning situations where the Y and Z

axes are interchanged. Alias|wavefront Studio uses Z as
the Up axis by default.
(If your data does not need to be flipped, skip this step
and continue.) To switch the Y and Z axes, select Xform >
Switch Y & Z to change the orientation of the cloud (the
result is shown below). Alternatively, select View > Y-Up or
flip data through the Y=0 center plane or the Z=0 ground
plane.
Interactive Viewing EvalViewer uses the default mouse button assignments when
you press Shift + Alt:
Left Mouse Press and Move to Tumble (Rotate)

Middle Mouse Press and Move to Track (Translate)
Right Mouse Press and Move to Dolly (Move In
and Out)
1 To view the cloud in a shaded representation, select Clouds

> Quick-Render Cloud. The example should now appear as
shown in the diagram.
If you tumble the display while holding the left mouse
button down, the display reverts back to points.
Note Quick Render does not use up memory to show a

shaded display because the polygons used to shade
the cloud do not remain. If you use Clouds > Cloud to
Polygons (discussed in the next step), the polygons do
persist and require additional memory on your
computer. This is necessary to tumble a shaded
display of cloud data in shaded mode.
Alternatively, you can use view meshes or voxel meshes to
polygonize cloud data. In most instances, these features
can provide a superior polygon mesh. View Meshes can be
smoothed, reduced, and compressed.
Overview
17
For more information, see:

◆ Using View Meshes for Cloud Data Processing on page 29
◆ The Cloud to Voxel Mesh tool in the Clouds menu on
page 120.
2 Cloud datasets come in many different sizes. For huge sets

of data, it may not be possible to convert cloud data to
polygonal form given the memory constraints of the
computer that you are running on. The appropriate
options for very large datasets are covered in the section
Overview of Other EvalViewer Tools on page 64.
In this example (which is a small cloud data set without
overlapping scans), you are able to convert the cloud data
to shadeable polygons. Select Clouds > Cloud to Polygons.
You should see the same graphics as you did previously,
but the polygonal shading persists even after tumbling the
model. The cloud now has a “raw data” surface. (See also
the section on Using View Meshes for Cloud Data Processing
on page 29).
3 To achieve a smoother appearance, select Clouds > Smooth

Cloud, and then Surfaces > Smooth Shading. Smooth shading
takes a little longer to compute than default flat shading.
All optical scanners will produce raw data with a ‘speckly’
appearance, as shown in the previous step. These speckles
are removed by smoothing, as shown in this diagram.
(If the data from your optical scanner does not have this
speckly noise, then the data has already been smoothed
and processed within the scanner.)
Note You can try Display > Reflection Mapping on the vase
using the Flowers reflection map (on the Reflect tab). If
your computer supports texture mapping in
hardware, you should quickly see a shiny vase.
Otherwise, it may take some time to see the picture.
For parts that are not rotationally symmetrical,
EvalViewer can compute orthogonal cross-sections in the
X, Y, and Z directions. For polygonized parts that possess
rotational symmetry, EvalViewer can compute radial
cross-sections about an axis through a point. In addition,
polygonized clouds can also be cross-sectioned via
arbitrary lines drawn using the Line Cut operator.
Overview
18
Cross Section Operators To generate orthogonal XYZ sections on polygonized data,

in EvalViewer select Surfaces > XYZ Section Cuts. The following window
appears:
Direction Selection
Space Between Sections
Start and Stop Positions
Select the section cut spacings, the Start value (minimum) and
the Stop value (maximum). You may choose any combination
of X, Y, and/or Z sections. The execution time is influenced by
the section spacing. The larger the spacing, the quicker the
operation time will be. Smaller spacing takes considerably
longer.
Overview
19
Once the XYZ Sections are computed, the points are linked
together to create section lines. The lines should look like the
ones shown in the following picture:
The X Y & Z sections

are shown in color:
X - Red
Y - Green
Z - Blue
You can export these sections to other systems using the IGES
format. Studio users can write an Alias wire file directly using
File > Save As > Save Lines As > Alias Wire.
The lines are written as degree-1 linear splines. This is the

fastest option.
Note You can also just Copy to the clipboard to move your
data into Studio (Ctrl+C, or Edit>Copy).
Another export option for line data is the DES file. The DES
format is a simple ASCII text file format that is generally
smaller than the corresponding IGES files.
If you wish to take the lines from EvalViewer into Studio as

preprocessed cloud data (with fewer points than the original
cloud), the IGES option is necessary. The IGES option also
passes the line data to a very wide range of other systems if
Overview
20
openness and transferability are important to your

application.
Note When using IGES, lines are written as IGES 106

Copious Data Entities. When using sectioning and
point reduction in EvalViewer to thin out cloud data
for use in Studio, you must always use IGES. Then
you may import your cloud sections into Studio as a
lightweight cloud and proceed to use Blend Curves,
Clouds...Gridded Surface and/or Square to build
surfaces with your data. If the data files are small
enough, you can import them directly into Studio
with the Cloud Fit option and proceed without
performing the sectioning in EvalViewer.
Line Editing EvalViewer lets you delete lines computed from a cloud.
Using EvalViewer’s Lines tab you can:
● delete points on a given section;
● delete an entire section;
● split a given line in two, by deleting a given segment of
the line;
● join two lines into one.
Note For very high quality data, you should not need to use
these options very often. The noisier the data is, the
noisier the sections will be, and more work with these
options will subsequently be required.
Should you accidentally delete a line, you can recover the last
one you deleted by using the Undo button. You can recover all
deleted lines (since the last confirm or file write) using the
Undo All button. To confirm that you have deleted everything
correctly so far, select the Confirm button. It eliminates all the
lines that might otherwise come back should you select Undo
All.
If two lines are not joined and you need to join them, use the
tab Lines > Join. Join and the Delete Segment effectively provide
Undo functions for each other. The tab is shown below.
Overview
21
Note You must choose the Multi-View button in order to quit

the Del Pt, Del Seg, Del PolyLine, and Join functions.
You can select and visually analyze a single line within the set
of lines displayed. Using the tab Lines > Select, place the cursor
over a line and select it. It becomes the only visible line at that
point. You can smooth it without affecting the other lines by
using the tab Lines > Smooth Selected. Repeatedly selecting the
button increases smoothing. The tab Lines > Show All restores
the display and program operation to its normal state.
Poly Line keys
You can also select lines with these keyboard options:

● Page Up selects the next line on any visible objects that
have lines (other lines are not drawn).
● Page Down selects the previous line on any visible objects
that have lines (other lines are not drawn).
● Home reinitializes all objects to the first line.
● End performs the same function as the Show All button on

the tab, and resumes a normal state.
● Delete deletes the selected line(s) visible on the screen. Use
this option when you go through a set of lines and do not
see any significant line content for a selected line.
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The following image displays the graphics window after

selecting one line from the Z sections of the vase used in the
example:
Select the tab Lines > Show All or the End key to resume normal
line viewing.
Radial Sections
To generate radial sections, select the menu Surfaces > Radial

Section Cuts. The following window appears:
This window lets you specify a number of equally angular-

spaced sections whose section planes rotate about the axis at
the given point.
When you apply this operator to the polygonized cloud data,

section cuts appear as shown in the diagram in the margin.
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Arbitrary Plane / Line Cut To cut an arbitrary section through a polygonized surface,
select the tab Surf > LineCut.
When the cursor changes shape, you can draw a rubber-

banded line on the screen and the corresponding plane will
cut through the shaded geometry and generate a section cut,
as shown in the diagram in the margin.
Defining Feature Lines A tool is available within EvalViewer for creating basic feature
lines on a point cloud. For a complete tool set to mark curves
on clouds, use Blend Curves in Studio (with the Cloud Fit
option).
1 Using the vase example, select Delete all. Read in the vase
again and switch the Y and Z axes.
2 Select the tab View > Top and then the tab View > Look At
(the camera with the blue sphere).
The display should look like the image in the margin.
3 Select the tab Subset > In then tab Subset > Box to keep half
the vase.
Since this particular object wraps around, it is more
convenient to work with just half of it while picking points
on the cloud to define a curve.
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24
By dragging the box around the upper half, you will keep
all the points in that box and crop off the bottom half so
that only half of the object remains visible.
The graphics display from an oblique view should look
like the image in the margin.
4 Select the tab Subset > Tgl to swap the cropped volume.
(The term crop is synonymous with subset.)
Undo will make the entire cloud visible again.
5 Use the Confirm button to clean out any points that are not
visible. After you select Confirm, Undo and Tgl will have
different effects.
For an overview of other Make sure you select Confirm with half of the data visible.
subsetting tools see Then select the menu Clouds > Cloud to Polygons.
Subsetting on page 72.
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Example An EvalViewer Workflow
Creating a line that outlines the rose on the side of the

vase
1 Arrange your view of the vase so that you see a picture

similar to the one shown in the margin.
2 Select the tab Query > Cloud Pt. Now if you pick points in
the graphics window, you will see the XYZ coordinates
printed in the text field (promptline) above the graphics
window.
For example, you might see the following in the
promptline:
0: Object ‘vase.cyber’ : Point 11389 : (
19.380 , 42.315 , -54.705 )
3 Select the tab Subset → Create Line. Pick points along the
entire periphery of the rose. (The Query function tells you
each point you select.)
Note You can press Shift-Alt and use the 3 mouse buttons to
change your view (as in EvalViewer) during the
definition of the line. (Make sure your cursor is in the
graphics window before pressing Shift-Alt.)
4 When you are finished defining the line, you must select
the tab Subset > Multi-View to indicate that you are finished.
Remember that you can select the tab Lines> Del Line to
delete any lines that you create and do not want to keep.
When you are finished you should have a line that looks
like the one shown in the margin.
Note An object called Line_from_Cloud_N is created.

This object can be grouped with other lines and saved
as IGES or DES.
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An EvalViewer Workflow
Checkpointing your created line to the disk
When finished, select the menu File > Save EV-Geo to

checkpoint your created line to the disk.
If you retrieve the Z-Section Cuts, the Radials and the Feature
Line so they are all visible simultaneously, the data can be
packaged into one object and one export file.
1 Select the menu Lines > Group Visible Lines and enter a
name for the complete set of lines (for example, vasejob).
All the lines become one object in the object list on the left
hand side of the screen.
2 There are always too many points on the sections at this

phase. To find out how many points and lines you have,
select the menu Lines > Line Info. You should see a printout
in the text field above the graphics indicating the number
of points:
131 Visible Lines with 118022 Points on 1
Visible Object.
Reduce the number of points with the menu Lines > Filter >
Smooth Lines[1,2,1], and then Lines > Reduce > Reduce Points
on Lines.
(If you check Line Info now, you will see that there has been
a big reduction in the number of points.)
Note You can use the Smooth Lines option as many times as
necessary to get good smooth lines.
3 Now save the data to a file in the wire subdirectory of

your project. Use File > Save As > Save Lines As > IGES-
Lines.
The default location is in your current wire directory:
/usr/people/pbesl/user_data/demo/wire/
vasejob.iges
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This file is accessible from Studio using the Open

command.
4 To view the individual points on lines, select Display > Line

Points. The default setting of this switch is Off.
The picture in the margin shows an example of an output
data set consisting of Z-Sections, Radial Sections, and one
Feature Curve.
Tip You may encounter datasets that will not quick render
because the data was not scanned in a conventional scan line
order. If this is the case, you will probably want to skip to
the View Mesh section below. If your data will not shade
using the menu Clouds > Quick-Render Cloud, try using the
menu Clouds > Section Cuts-Unordered Points.
This processing path, however, can yield very
“unruly” sections. If you have Hymarc Hyscan data,
Steinbichler Comet data, EOIS data, or Cyberware
Echo data obtained directly from the scanner, your
clouds will always quick render and will have
reasonably good sections.
See also Cloud Sections- This concludes the basic introduction to using EvalViewer as a
Multiple Clouds: on page 75. cloud data processing tool. The Clouds > Section Cuts > Multiple
Clouds tool wasn’t explained here but is used in the example
on page 35.
The next section covers the View Mesh method, which is an

alternative method for cloud data processing.
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Mesh Tab Using View Meshes for Cloud Data

Processing
The Quick Render Cloud and Cloud Sections - Multiple Clouds

functions are fast and view-independent, but don’t work on all
clouds due to Point Order Dependencies in the cloud data.
Even when these functions work, the quality of the display
and the sections may not always have as high quality as you
might want.
View Meshes have no Point Order Dependencies whatsoever,

but are somewhat view-dependent. They can be smoothed in
two directions, whereas Smooth Cloud only smooths in one
direction. They support reasonably quick surface curvature
computations, boundary curve extraction, and fast quadtree-
based polygon reduction. Access them from the Mesh button
tab.
Example of View Meshes View meshes can be best described using an example. In the
picture below are the results of a Cloud Quick Render on a
head that is difficult to scan.
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Using View Meshes for Cloud Data Processing
In this example, there are

dropouts in several areas
due to the shininess of parts
of the model. Moreover, the
cloud contains 1.3 million
points, and it would be
advantageous to be able to
communicate this shape
with less data.
The front view of this quick-

rendered data set makes it
easier to see some of the
missing areas.
Creating View Meshes To create a view mesh, start with a set of cloud data.
Imagine you have a piece of door screen or cheesecloth or

gauze. The wires or fibers form a dense mesh with a
characteristic distance or spacing between them. This distance
is called the View Mesh Sample Size. Imagine also that the cloth
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30
or screen can stretch over any object, but if it stretches too far
— larger than the S(ide)-Filter Size — it will tear.
Next, imagine that the cloud points have some size so that you
cannot push the cloth or screen through the points. The
process of creating the view mesh is then very similar to
draping or pushing the cloth/screen onto the cloud.
Unfortunately, you can only create view meshes from one

direction at a time. In the following example, we use front,
bottom, right, left, and top views to create five view meshes.
This arrangement of views is not the best for this particular
data set because of the surface shapes and orientations, but it
works well as a general recipe for getting started.
1 Divide the data in half along its center plane. You can then
mesh each half separately.
2 Click the Make button. The meshing process creates a

shaded surface.
3 Click the Smooth button. This suppresses the roughness in

the data from the scanner.
4 Click the Reduce button to simplify the mesh in flat areas.
5 Click the Compress button to finalize the process and

modify the View Mesh Object permanently. It is now just a
conventional polygonal object, with as few polygons as
possible.
The figure below shows the results of creating, smoothing,

reducing, compressing, and manually cropping the mesh
created from a side view:
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31
Carrying out the same procedure for the other four views
(there is no surface data for the back of the head), we obtain
the following model:
Notice the difference in the view-mesh front view compared to

the quick-render front view.
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32
As the previous pictures show, view meshes simply fill in

areas where no data exists. You can control this filling ability
with the Maximum Fill Size parameter, which is specified in
units of samples.
The number of polygons corresponding to the two view mesh

images is under 300,000 quadrilaterals, even though the
original data set contained 1.3 million points. There are still
large overlapping areas that can be eliminated manually with
further effort.
Polygon reduction can occur in various ways. In this case,

since view meshes are regularly spaced quadrilateral meshes,
a “quadtree” simplification process is used. Each view mesh is
cohesive and “water-tight” except for the visible holes that
you can detect using Mesh > Boundary. (You can only use
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33
Boundary prior to Compress.) The picture below shows a close-

up of the view mesh on the nose region of the head.
You can export compressed View Meshes as Wavefront OBJ,

STL (stereo-lithography), Inventor, or DXF files, or an Alias
wire file by using File > Save As > Save Polygons As. We
recommend that you keep your polygon count below 100,000
whenever you write an Alias wire file.
After you create view meshes, section them using the surface
sectioning operators. Do not use the cloud sectioning tools. The
amount of overlap in the sections corresponds to the amount
of overlap in the view meshes. If you use sections directly for
building surfaces, you should find that, even though you
spend more time creating the polygonal model, you spend less
time “cleaning up” sections — that is, you won’t need to join
unconnected sections, delete bad points and bad sections, or
apply other operators on the sections tab.
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34
Example EvalViewer Cloud Workflow Example 1
You are a designer. Someone gives you a file from a 3D scanner

and says, “Here...create a finished product design that closely
represents this shape (with a prescribed list of criteria or
modifications).”
This example will show you how to get section data you can
work with. (Explanations of menu choices are found in the
reference section of this book.)
A Basic Steinbichler/Hymarc Workflow for Converting

Clouds to XYZ Sections:
1 Double-click the EvalViewer icon.
2 Select File > Open. Select all the relevant files for the job.
Check the Memory Total. This total must be less than the
capacity of your machine. (To determine this capacity on
an SGI workstation, type hinv and look at Main Memory
Size.)
3 Select OK.
4 Autoscale your display to the graphics window using the

Look At button. Holding the left mouse button down,
rotate the cloud data to see how it looks. Select the menu
Clouds > Quick-Render Cloud. View the cloud from various
angles to check its integrity.
Note If the cloud does not quick-render into a recognizable

picture of your part, use Cloud Sections > Unordered
Points. Do not compute sections using Cloud > Sections
Cuts-Multiple Clouds, because being able to quick-
render is a necessary condition for Multiple Cloud
Sectioning.
5 If you need to edit out portions of the data set, perform the
steps in the next section.
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35
EvalViewer Cloud Workflow Example 1
Editing out Portions of the Data Set

1 Remove unwanted data with the tabs Subset > Box and
Subset > Trace (make sure that tab Subset > Out is selected).
2 When you have finished removing all unwanted data,

click the Confirm button. Perform another quick-render to
verify that you have a good data set. You should now be
reasonably satisfied with the data you see.
3 Select the menu Clouds > Section Cuts > Multiple Clouds. The
computer take some time to create the three new section
objects. When they appear, hold down the left mouse
button and rotate the Section Data to see how it looks.
4 Turn all objects Off with the None button over the Object
List. Turn on X sections only by clicking on X Section
Object in the object list. Edit the X sections as follows:
◆ To delete any bad points that do not correspond to the
shape of the object, use tab Line > Del Pt.
◆ To break lines if they are misconnected or if you
mistakenly join two lines that shouldn’t be joined, use
tab Line > Del Seg (Delete Segment).
◆ To completely delete any undesired sections or
fragments, use tab Line > Del Line.
◆ To connect lines manually, use tab Line > Join. To
connect lines automatically, use menu Lines > Combine
> Multiple Pass Combine Lines.
When you are finished editing lines, use menu Lines >
Reduce Points on Lines.
5 Repeat step 4 for Y sections and Z sections.
Converting Clouds to XYZ Sections

1 Turn on the X Sections, followed by Y and Z. Use only one
set at a time by clicking on its name in the object list.
2 Select the tab Color > Ran (Random Colors). Each connected
line is a single color.
3 Remove unsatisfactory fragments, points, or lines by

selecting the Sections tab:
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◆ To remove any line fragments that are noisy or have

zig-zags, use Del Seg. (Use Alt + Shift with the mouse to
change the view while in this mode.) Click the Multi-
View button when you have finished.
◆ To remove any points that are misconnected or appear
spiky on otherwise smooth lines, use Del Pt. (Use Alt +
Shift with the mouse to change the view while in this
mode.) Click the Multi-View button when you’re
finished.
◆ To delete any lines that seem unnecessary, use Del Line.
(Use Alt + Shift with the mouse to change the view
while in this mode.) Click the Multi-View button when
you have finished.
4 Using the colored lines to distinguish the location of line

breaks, use Join to join lines that are broken. (Use Alt + Shift
and the mouse to change the view while in this mode.)
With Join, you need to press the mouse button down on
one line and then release on the line to join to. Click the
Multi-View button to indicate that you have finished.
5 Select the menu Lines > Filter > Smooth [1,2,1]. Press the
spacebar to repeat this operation until the data looks very
smooth. You should not be able to see any significant
changes in your lines during the smoothing operations.
6 Select the menu Lines > Reduce Points on Lines. Point

reduction uses 3D chordal deviation tests when
determining which points to keep. Continue with Y and Z
Sections of the same part. Go back to Start of X Sections.
7 Select the menu Lines > Group Visible Lines to group all your
XYZ sections into one object (if this is desired).
8 Select File > Save As > Save Lines As > IGES. Give your
Output File a name. Click OK.
9 To quit EvalViewer, use File > Exit.
10 Start AutoStudio or SurfaceStudio. Use File > Open or

Import > Cloud.
If you are using any other system, go the IGES import
section of your program and import the IGES file.
The above workflow could take anywhere from half an hour

to three hours (after accessing your cloud data files) to get
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37
very clean lines, depending on the quality and amount of your

cloud data. Different scanners may require different cleanup
operations.
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38
Example EvalViewer Cloud Workflow Example 2
View Meshes are not dependent on the ordering of cloud

points, but they do depend on the view and on your ability to
select views and partition the data. The cloud sections that
result from Clouds > Section Cuts-MultipleClouds (which are
based on the cloud Quick Render algorithm) do depend on the
ordering of points in the cloud, but do not depend on the
view; you must spend time cleaning up the sections.
When you are finished with the view meshing process, you
typically have a reasonable polygonal model and sections as
opposed to sections only.
A Basic View Mesh Workflow for Converting Clouds to

Polygonal Meshes and then to XYZ Sections:
1 Double-click the EvalViewer icon.
2 Select File > Open. Select all the relevant files for the job
and click OK.
3 Use the Look At button to autoscale your display to the

graphics window. Holding the left mouse button down,
rotate the Cloud Data to see how it looks.
4 Select the menu Clouds > Quick-Render Cloud. View the

cloud from various angles to check its integrity. If you
need to edit out portions of the data set, perform the cloud
cropping procedure as explained in the previous chapter
— Example #1.
Converting Clouds to View Meshes
If you personally scanned the data you are processing, we

recommend creating one view mesh for each orientation of the
optical scanner. This is a fairly natural process, as you will be
creating a raw-data surface representation for each cloud set
you scanned. If you did not scan the part yourself and the data
is no longer partitioned into the acquisition views, the view
mesh method will require some work. In particular, if your
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39
data came from a computed tomography scanner, the amount

of work may be significant, but the process can still work.
1 Crop your cloud data into regions that can be surfaced
from a given view without having the surface fold back on
you.
2 Select the tab Mesh > Make to mesh each surface.
3 Select the tab Mesh > Smooth to smooth each mesh.
4 Select the tab Mesh > Boundary to compute the boundary of

the visible surface, if useful.
5 Select the tab Mesh > CurvMap to compute the curvature

map of the raw-data surface. If it is too noisy, reapply
Smooth. Repeat as needed. Mark curvature transitions
using the tab Subset > Create Line. Select the tab Surf > None
to resume normal shading.
6 Select the tab Mesh > Reduce to reduce the mesh. Select the
tab Disp > Outlines to view the reduction results. If you are
not getting good reduction, select the tab Mesh > Reset and
then perform additional smoothing.
7 When you are satisfied with the amount of smoothing and

reduction, select tab Mesh > Compress. Now you have a
simple polygonal object.
8 Repeat the previous steps for each cloud data subset.
9 Select the tab Color > Ran to display your polygonal objects
together using random colors.
10 You may use the Subset tab cropping tools on the

polygonal mesh to further refine the meshes from each
view.
Converting Clouds to XYZ Sections

1 Select the menus Surface > XYZ Section Cuts or Surface >
Radial Section Cuts or the tab Surf > Line Cut.
2 Select the menu Sections > Reduce > Reduce Points on Lines.
Point reduction uses 3D chordal deviation tests when
deciding which points to keep.
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Note You should always apply point reduction to any Line

Section data prior to exporting that data to Studio or
any other system. The tolerance used for the chordal
deviation test is found under Misc > Preferences > Line
Tolerances > Chordal Deviation in mm.
3 Select File > Save As > Save Lines As > Alias Wire. Give
your output file a name. Click OK.
4 Use File > Exit to quit.
5 Start AutoStudio or SurfaceStudio and use File > Open.
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Using EvalViewer as a Surface

Evaluation Tool
EvalViewer provides functions for surface evaluation as well

as cloud data preprocessing. It can be used in the current
version either:
● From within Studio using Utilities→ EvalViewer, after
having picked active geometry to view using Pick Object,
or
● As a stand-alone utility that allows you to view and
analyze the contents of Alias wire files, IGES files, STEP
files, CATIA CAI files, UG PRT or UG FAC files, or DXF
files directly.
Using EvalViewer from 1 Start AutoStudio in the usual manner and Open a wire
within AutoStudio: file, or create some geometry in AutoStudio using
modeling functions.
Method 1
2 Select surfaces on the model to view in EvalViewer.
As an example, consider the sport utility model in the
following image which shows what the model looks like
in Studio after it has been Quick-Rendered. A Quick-
Render for this particular model needs about 18 seconds
on an R10K Max Impact for each view that you want to
see. Toggle Shade is much faster after its initial
polygonization phase but provides a different display
quality. Fast Render requires about 30 seconds to start up.
Thereafter, it renders at the maximum hardware speed,
but you cannot interact with the geometry using section
cutting, CV editing, switching between reflection maps,
color curvature maps, highlight lines, and so on.
EvalViewer complements these existing Studio
capabilities with another alternative for viewing your
geometry. Currently, EvalViewer requires about 6 seconds
for startup, about 2 seconds to read the wire file, and
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Using EvalViewer as a Surface Evaluation Tool
about 6 seconds to tessellate the surfaces into triangles.

Thereafter, the display speed is as fast as RRFR for most
purposes.
3 In Studio, select Utilities > EvalViewer. EvalViewer starts up

and loads the selected surfaces. Unlike Fast Render, no
polygons are sent to the viewer. Only spline information
such as control points, knot vectors, and trim curve splines
are sent. This data transfer process is typically very fast.
The spline geometry for curves and surfaces appears in
EvalViewer as Hulls. To convert the hulls to polygons for
faster display, EvalViewer uses a tessellation algorithm
from OpenGL Optimizer to perform the conversion. The
display in EvalViewer is shown below.
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Note Most of EvalViewer’s surface evaluation tools require

a polygonal surface representation. Select the
tessellation process by using the Surfaces to Polygons
button.
You are prompted for a 3D Surface Deviation tolerance,
which is measured in your current units, for which the
default is millimeters. The Default value is the last value
entered; the preferred value for high quality displays is
0.15 mm. (The tessellation process is fast enough that you
can retessellate if any polygonal artifacts are visible
during surface evaluation functions.)
To give you an idea of the variance between the Number of
polygons and the Input tolerance value, here are a few
numbers based on a simple untrimmed NURBS surface in
the Examples menu:
◆ the Input tolerance of 1.0 mm yields 242 polygons
◆ the value 0.75 yields 338 polygons
◆ the value 0.5 yields to 450 polygons
◆ the value 0.1 yields 2178 polygons from one surface.
These numbers should always be the same regardless of
the view or any other factors.
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Using EvalViewer from within AutoStudio: Method 2

1 Start Studio in the usual manner and open a wire file, or
create some geometry in Studio using modeling functions.
2 Select surfaces on the model for viewing in EvalViewer.

Press Ctrl-C in Studio to Copy the active geometry to the
Clipboard.
3 Either:
◆ Start EvalViewer with Nothing Picked or
◆ Have a copy of EvalViewer already running after
starting it from its Icon.
4 Press Ctrl-V in EvalViewer to bring in the active geometry

from the Clipboard.
5 Select Surfaces to Polygons as above (Method 1) to tessellate

the surface data.
Using EvalViewer as a 1 You can start EvalViewer from the Unix shell command
stand alone utility line by either:
◆ typing evalview
◆ typing /usr/aw/evalviewer/bin/evalview
◆ double-clicking the DeskTop icon for EvalViewer.
(See the Using EvalViewer as a Cloud Tool section above for
more information on starting EvalViewer.)
2 Once the program is running, you can import surface data

from an Alias wire file, an IGES file, a VDA file, a STEP
file, a DXF file, a CATIA CAI file, an Inventor file, or a
Unigraphics-PRT file.
Select File > Open to bring up the Multiple File Selector.
Select a Wire file. For example, if you select File > Open >
Open Surfaces > Alias Wire File, EvalViewer opens an Alias
wire file and reads surface, curves, polysets, and clouds.
When the file is read into EvalViewer, each geometric
entity from the Scene Block Diagram (SBD) in Studio will
become a separate EvalViewer object. The shader
information is used to set the color of the objects.
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Each object has either one surface, one curve, one polyset,
or one cloud. This is different than viewing picked
surfaces with Utilities > EvalViewer.
Surface Evaluation Functions
EvalViewer has one window. To view your model from

various angles, you can tumble the object using the left mouse
button, or use the View tab (shown below) for standard views.
The six primary views are included along with four upper
quarter views. You can familiarize yourself with everything on
this tab with some quick experimentation.
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46
Reflection Maps
You can use reflection maps at the touch of a button. The

following picture shows the horizontal black and white line
reflection map.
The vertical reflection map of the same image looks like the
following:
Combining horizontal and vertical stripe reflection maps lets

you pick up very subtle surface variations that you might not
notice otherwise.
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47
Color stripes are useful for detecting surface normal

discontinuities because the stripe alignment would have to
jump 6 stripes rather than 2 to go unnoticed.
You can also reflect environments off the surfaces. In the

picture below, an environment map lets you quickly visualize
what your surfaces would look like with a chrome or mirror
finish.
Curvature Maps
When surface triangle vertices are created with the knowledge

of the (u,v) spline domain values of the underlying surfaces,
you can produce interactive color curvature maps and adjust
curvature viewing ranges.
For example, once the polygons have been created for the
model above, a color curvature map for the Gaussian
curvature of all the surfaces can be obtained fairly quickly.
This map can be rotated interactively and the range of color
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48
values can be adjusted. The following picture shows the

curvature map for a selected range.
Using the tab Surf > Incr, the tab Surf > Decr, or the Up and
Down arrow keys, you can adjust the range of colors used. The
following picture shows the same information as the previous
picture but with a different color bar range.
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The ability to change the color values for each of the curvature
types makes EvalViewer a sensitive tool for visualizing and
evaluating every nuance of surface shape.
Highlight Lines
EvalViewer can also compute dynamic or static highlight lines

by computing a simulation of an infinitely long linear light
source reflecting off a surface model. The maximum reflection
line is computed and converted to line form.
To compute highlight lines in EvalViewer, view a shaded

object (which has polygons) and choose a viewing direction.
Select the tab Surf > HiLites. Up to 11 highlight lines are
computed.
Note that highlight lines can be either dynamic (Moving)

highlights or static (Hold) highlights. (See the following
Diagnostics tab section). When static highlights (Hold-Highlights)
are being used, you can Increment or Decrement the 3D
position of the linear lights.
To raise the highlights, select the tab Surf > Incr or the Up arrow
key. To lower the highlights, select the tab Surf > Decr or the
Down arrow key. It takes only a few seconds to compute a set
of lines on a model this size.
All the capabilities for cutting sections that are mentioned in

the Cloud Tools section above are also applicable to cutting
sections on surfaces. Be aware that there may be some
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50
polygonal artifacts in these sections, but that they can be

computed quickly. The 50 mm sections in X,Y, and Z shown in
the image below can be computed either via XYZ Sections in
the Surfaces menu or by pressing the X Y Z diagnostic sections
on the Diag tab (see Diagnostics Tab on page 52).
EvalViewer makes it easy to compute Radial Sections on

surface data. Around wheel wells, this tool is useful when
combined with the tab Line > Del Seg and Del Line. These two
tools let you split the line and trim off the portion you do not
want.
You can, of course, draw lines, group them together, and

export them via IGES or DES or write them directly to an Alias
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51
wire file as degree-1 linear splines. The picture below shows

several arbitrary line cuts from the Line Cut button.
Diagnostics Tab
Refer to the >>Diag(nostics) The Diag(nostics) tab contains additional functions that are
tab<< in the reference section most useful when you are editing surface CVs. However, you
for complete details. can turn these options on or off without doing any surface CV
editing.
First, there are the independent toggle switches for X, Y, and Z

sections. These sections are drawn “on-the-fly” and are not
stored as objects as are other XYZ sections. The advantage of
these sections is that they do not require additional memory
(only CPU cycles), and they update automatically as surface
CVs are edited. To specify parameters for these cutting planes,
select Misc > Diag -Sections.
There are also toggle switches for Curvature Vectors

(Porcupines) for X, Y, or Z surface curvature (abbreviated
CrvVecs). Each switch activates the appropriate surface
curvature and then places curvature porcupine vectors at each
relevant polygon section point. You can control the length of
the porcupines using the menu Misc > CrvVecLength.
Highlight lines are also on the Diag(nostics) tab. The Hold-

HiLites option updates highlight lines only when either surface
CVs are updated or when the light source is moved with the
Incr/Decr buttons on the tab Surfaces. The Moving-HiLites option
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updates highlight lines when the view is changed or when

CVs move.
The Saddle Lines button is mutually exclusive with the

highlight options. When pressed, surface CV editing
automatically recomputes Gauss surface curvature and
delineates transitions between convex/concave surface
regions and saddle-shaped surface regions. If you have an
isolated bump or depression in a surface, this button allows
you to detect it even if the curvature variations are very small
and do not show up on the color curvature map.
Edit Tab
Refer to the >>Edit tab<< in The Edit tab provides options for you to select CVs, change
the reference section for their position in a given coordinate system, and specify mouse
complete details. sensitivity.
It is assumed that you are somewhat familiar with CV editing.

The most useful thing to know is that CVs do not generally lie
on a surface (except at boundary corners), but they cause the
surface to move when they are moved. You can develop an
intuitive sense for this without a great deal of
experimentation.
The ability to edit surface CVs duplicates functions that are

already in Studio and most other CAD systems. The added
benefit in EvalViewer is that you can view reflection maps,
color curvature maps, diagnostic sections, highlight lines,
and/or saddle lines updated automatically during CV
movement.
Tip When you select File > Save As > Save Surfaces As > Alias
Wire, EvalViewer saves an Alias wire file containing only
surfaces and curves. It allows you to import modified
surfaces back into Studio.
Summary This concludes the introduction to surface evaluation. The key

tools are Cross-sections, Curvature maps, Highlight lines, and
Reflection maps.
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Reflection maps are the only tool that can be used prior to or
without polygonization.
Studio, AutoStudio and SurfaceStudio products have similar

cross-section, surface curvature and highlights evaluation
tools, where the results are computed directly from surface
splines. The intent of EvalViewer is to provide you with the
benefit of improved interactivity with the slight disadvantage
that you may see some polygonal artifacts (non-smooth
geometry). The polygonal artifacts can be reduced by making
the tolerance smaller.
For manufacturing applications, we recommend tolerances in

the range of 0.15 mm through 0.05 mm. At 0.15 mm the model
will draw more quickly than at 0.05 mm. At 0.05 mm
(approximately 0.002 inches) the model will appear as it
would if it were manufactured at that same tolerance.
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Using EvalViewer as a Comparison

Tool
Quantifying Differences Reverse Engineering and Computer-Aided Verification/

in Different Types of Validation/Inspection applications both require functions that
involve comparing shapes quantitatively in order to make
Geometry acceptability decisions. For example, is the surface model I
created within acceptable limits of the input data I was given?
Or, does the data digitized from this designed part indicate
that the manufacturing process is acceptable or not? These
questions are difficult to answer without the appropriate
software tools. This section of the manual will given an
example of each of EvalViewer’s compare functions.
Cloud to Cloud
The most basic comparison function is computing the distance

between two points. The Distance function on the Query tab
allows you to measure between two picked points. If you have
a set of points, or a cloud of points, and you want to compare
all the points on set A to the comparable closest points on set
B, it would be very tedious to calculate the average (bias)
difference vector for all the points along with the Root Mean
Square Error and the Maximum Error. For this reason,
EvalViewer offers the Cloud to Cloud comparison function for
sets of points.
In the picture below, a cloud and an offset cloud are compared

to find differences. A total of 432 points were compared. The
searchsize that was used resulted in an average distance
computation of 2.2 points on set B for every point on set A.
The large the searchsize parameter, the larger the number in
parenthesis will be, and the more computation will be
required.
The RmsDist parameter is the Root Mean Square deviation of

the one point set from the other. RMS distance is basically a
special kind of average number that is computed by squaring
all the distances, computing the average of the squared
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Using EvalViewer as a Comparison Tool
distances, and then taking the square root of that average of

squares. The maximum distance is the maximum distance
actually computed in the given run for the given searchsize.
You will find that the MaxDist (maximum distance) value will
usually be close to the searchsize distance. The average
distance vector, known as the Bias between the two point sets,
is given as an XYZ vector.
When the comparison computation is performed, a set of

deviation vectors is computed for display after the
comparison function is completed. To increase the length of
the Deviation Vectors for visualization purposes, use the
Deviation Factor option in the Compare menu.
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Cloud to Line
The next comparison function that EvalViewer provides is the
Cloud to Line function. This function produces Deviation

Vectors of the type shown in the picture above. The user must
exercise some care and judgement in evaluating this number.
The reason is apparent in the picture above. While all
deviation vectors are perpendicular to the lines, the RMS and
Maximum distance values will be larger than the distance of
the lines from the surface represented by the cloud data. The
values in the bias vector are probably the most meaningful
statistic when looking at cloud-to-line displays.
Cloud to Polygons
The Clouds to Polygons function is useful when working
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directly with polygonal models, but also when working with

View Meshes from cloud data. The cloud data points are
mapped directly to polygonal mesh via the shortest 3d
distance. The vertices of that polygon are set to the color value
of the computed distance. You can then see trends in the cloud
data relative to the polygon mesh as color variations. The
example above shows a set of points that lies primarily above
the given surface.
If you have line data or polygon data that you wish to

compare to a given polygon mesh, you should use either the
Lines>Convert Lines to Clouds menu option or the Polygons>
Convert Polygons to Clouds menu option first and then set the
Cloud to Polygons switch and then execute the Compute
Comparison option.
Clouds to Surfaces
The Clouds to Surfaces option allows you to compute the 3D

distances between points in a cloud and B-spline (NURBS)
surfaces. The point to surface deviations are output both as a
set of deviation vectors and as a color error map.
If you are interested in speed more than accuracy, you may

select the Approximate Chk to Pgns option rather than the Exact
Chk to Surfs option. For small models you may not see much
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difference between the two. But for large models, the

differences may run into minutes.
You can choose the Acceptable Range option in the Compare

menu to set the color bar range to an exact value range rather
than using the Up and Down arrows. Constant deviation
contours are also computed to show where error exceeds the
given limits.

compare to a given polygon mesh, you should use either the
Lines>Convert Lines to Clouds menu option or the Polygons>
Convert Polygons to Clouds menu option first and then set the
Cloud to Surfaces switch and then execute the Compute
Comparison option.
Lines to Lines
Since you are often working with section data in EvalViewer, it

is important to be able to compare sections directly that are
computed from different sources: different clouds, different
view meshes, different polygon sets, and different surfaces.
The picture above shows the differences in sections through a

surface before a set of CVs is moved and after a set of CVs is
moved. In this case, the simple example surface in the
Examples menu was sectioned first and then sectioned again,
after the 4 interior patch control points were moved in Z by
exactly 1 mm using the (+,-) keys and the CV Incr(ement)
option. This shows that sections through the surface vary by
as much as 0.523 mm when 4 CVs on a cubic (16 CV) surface
patch are moved by 1 mm.
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Lines to Curves
EvalViewer is able to fit curves to line data. Certain statistics

are computed during the fitting process. Those statistics are
not necessarily the final result. You can check your curve fits
back against the line data using the Lines to Curves comparison
option.
In the picture below, we show the difference between the

shapes of sections cut through a bicubic patch and the shapes
of parabolic/quadratic curve fits to this cubic section data. A
least squares fit states that the maximum deviation was over 5
mm, but here we see that the true 3D distance between the
curve and data is only 2.628 mm. This discrepancy occurs
because least squares fit must use parameter values that are
not directly given by the raw data being fitted.
Lines to Polygons and Lines to Surfaces
If you have section data that corresponds to particular surfaces

or polygon meshes, and you would like to compare those lines
to those surfaces or polygon meshes after either one has been
modified or processed, then the Line to Surfaces or Line to
Polygons options are the logical choice. A set of deviation
vectors is computed and draw at the deviation factor scale.
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The picture below shows an example of three sections and a

the surface after the surface has been slightly modified.

compare to a given polygon mesh or surface, you should use
either the Lines>Convert Lines to Clouds menu option or the
Polygons> Convert Polygons to Clouds menu option first and then
set the Cloud to Polygons or Cloud to Surfaces switch and finally
execute the Compute Comparison option.
Polygons to Polygons and Polygons to Surfaces
If you have polygon data that you wish to compare to a given

polygon mesh or surface set and obtain a color error map, you
should use the Polygons> Convert Polygons to Clouds menu
option first and then set the Cloud to Polygons or Clouds to
Surfaces switch and then execute the Compute Comparison
option.
The Polygons to Polygons and Polygons to Surfaces options are

designed to supply a slightly different comparison function.
Sometimes you have polygon meshes or surfaces for shapes
that are adjacent to each other, or come near each other in
space. If there is a gap between two parts, you can check the
minimum distance, or the closest approach, of those two
shaded parts using the Clearance Check comparison function.
An example of the Clearance Check function is shown in the
picture below.
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Note When you perform the Compute Comparison function,

you will be prompted for a searchsize parameter (just
as you are prompted for all comparison functions).
You must give an approximate distance that is slightly
larger than the distance that you would expect. To get
a reasonable value for the approximate distance, use
the Tape Measure from the Query tab, or the Distance
function from the Query tab, or tear off the Compare
menu and run the check repeatedly working from
smaller guesses up to bigger guesses. A guess that is
very large will take significant time to compute.
The other capability of the Polygon to Polygon and Polygon to

Surface comparison functions is that they will compute the
intersection curve of two objects with polygon meshes if the
polygon meshes intersect. An example of the intersection of
two simple surfaces is shown below.
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Note The closest approach of these two objects is shown as

0.0 millimeters, which implies that they either just
touch or they interpenetrate each other. Many
intersections of this type can be detected visually, but
the more complicated your part is and the more
surfaces you have, the more likely it is that two parts
designed by different people will have some type of
detectable interference.
In summary, the Polygon to Polygon comparison and Polygon to

Surface comparison functions provide clearance and
interference information.
Compute as Needed
If you have reasonably small data sets, and if you compute a

comparison function and it executes quickly, you may be able
to select the compute as needed function. This will execute a
comparison check on every redraw. Do not click this option
without experimenting with small data sets first.
The Compute as Needed option will allow you to execute any of

the above functions while you are transforming objects in
space, or while you are modifying control points on curves or
surfaces.
Generate Report File
This option allows you to log comparison information to a file.
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Overview of Other EvalViewer Tools
The previous sections described the basic use of EvalViewer

for both Cloud Data preprocessing and Surface Evaluation.
This section will cover some other tools provided by the
program.
Light Sources EvalViewer offers a simple interface to control up to four of

the directional light sources that are implemented in graphics
hardware. There is a switch for each light source and two
sliders that control the Horizontal/Longitudinal and the
Vertical/Latitudinal coordinates of the current light source.
The current light source is the last one that was turned on, or
the one that you explicitly chose to move.
To see the effects of the light sources:

1 Choose the menu Examples > Polygonal Sphere.
2 Select the tab Light and then all of the buttons Light 1, Light
2, Light 3 and Light 4 to switch on all four lights. You should
see the following picture that shows four light sources
illuminating the sphere.
The default lighting

configuration is Light 1 (near
your eye) turned on, with all
others off. Light 2 defaults to
your right, Light 3 above,
and Light 4 defaults to your
left.
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Color Modification To modify the colors of a geometry type:

1 Select the Color tab.
2 Select the type of objects you want to change. Choose from

Back (background), Pts (point cloud), Lns (lines), or Pgns
(polygons).
3 To modify the color of the object, use the Red/Green/Blue

sliders.
Alternatively:
● To restore the default colors (except background), use the
Def (default) color button.
● To assign random colors to everything, use the Ran

(random) color button.
The image below shows some of the objects available from the
Examples menu so that you do not need data files to learn how
to use the system.
Polygonal
Sphere
Point Cloud
Polygonal
Block
NURBS Surface
Saving Images The Save as > Save Image as menu lets you save an image as
either an SGI-RGB, Alias Pix, or JPEG file. All three options let
you assign an arbitrary name to the image file.
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Printing Images When you select the Print Image choice, the image is captured
from the screen and written to an SGI-RGB file without
prompting you for a name. The program tops is then invoked
on the file and the PostScript output is piped to the lp
program, which then takes the output and prints to the default
printer.
There are several points to consider when printing:

● If you do not have a PostScript printer capable of printing
images, do not use this option.
● If you have a PostScript printer but it is hooked up via a
serial line, this option will work, but it will take so long to
print that it may not be useful.
◆ Try to hook up your printer with a parallel port.
(Advanced Unix users and system administrators
may want to consult the UNIX online manual. On an
SGI workstation, type man plp and refer to the
manual pages on lp and /dev/plp.)
● If you have a PostScript printer and it is hooked up on a
parallel port, but it is not the default printer, you should
set the environment variable LPDEST in your .cshrc file
to change your personal choice for the default printer:
setenv LPDEST newprinter # set default printer
to ‘newprinter’
● If a printer is available on the network, but is not set up on
your computer, you need to use the Printer Manager from
the system tool chest and add access to the network
printer. Once that is defined, you can choose your LPDEST
printer as mentioned above.
Sharing JPEG images In EvalViewer, you can snap JPEG images and save them.
over the Internet When you snap a JPEG, EvalViewer captures the main
graphics window of the EvalViewer application and asks for a
project and image name where the image can be saved.
Not only can this feature save JPEG images to disk, but it can
also write a JPEG image gallery HTML file that contains small
versions of the saved images (“thumbnails”). You can click a
thumbnail to see its full-resolution image. An HTML index file
(called index.html) is created if it does not already exist. The
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references to saved images are automatically appended to the

index file as you proceed.
If you have a home page as a part of the networked

environment in your organization, you can refer to the file
$HOME/.evalview/JpegHtml/index.html from your
home page to allow others to view your JPEG compressed
images using a standard Web browser such as Netscape.
Running remote You can now initiate networked slave sessions on other
sessions machines using File > Spawn Net-Session. In a slave session, the
remote machine is controlled by the machine that initiated the
session. Users at the remote machine cannot perform actions;
they can only watch the display while you interact with the
model.
This new feature allows you to demonstrate your EvalViewer

geometry to colleagues or customers at remote locations.
Because there is data transfer involved, this feature may take a

long time to invoke — particularly if the data in the
EvalViewer is large or if your LAN connection is slow.
Requirements
The remote session feature has the following requirements:

● EvalViewer must be installed on both machines.
● Remote shell (rsh) must work on both machines.
● Remote copy (rcp) must work on both machines.
Replaying previous EvalViewer stores a log of all actions performed for each of its
sessions sessions. Each log starts when you invoke EvalViewer, and
ends when you exit EvalViewer.
EvalViewer now lets you replay these logs using menu File >
EVScript. This feature is useful for members of design teams
who want to let colleagues know about their workflow by
relaying the sequence of actions they followed.
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View Options Any view in EvalViewer can be orthographic or perspective.

There are ten standard views available from the View >
Standard Views menu or the View tab: Front, Back, Left, Right, Top,
Under, Right-Front, Right-Back, Left-Front, Left-Back.
The menu View > TurnTable will tumble the model around the
Z-axis. To use it you must specify the number of degrees per
rotation increment. To stop the turntable, press the Space Bar.
The menu View > Rotisserie lets you tumble the model about
the horizontal axis of the screen.
There are four View > Rotate tools that rotate the view of a
model up, down, right, or left by exactly 90 degrees relative to
any viewing direction.
The View menu also provides tools that will set your view
orthogonal or tangent to a polygonal surface, or to the plane
containing a planar curve or section. They are: Set Normal to
Pgn, Set Tangent to Pgn, Set Normal to Line and Set View Along
Line.
TmpVu Options You can also set up temporary views using the TmpVu
(Temporary View) tab. This tab is located to the far right of the
tab deck.
It provides buttons for six temporary views. S1,...,S6 save the

views, while R1,...,R6 restore the views. You can save to file
any number of named views with the Save button, and restore
them again with the Restore button.
You can also select the exact point that you would like to rotate
around with the Pivot button.
Deleting Files File management is an important aspect for any computer

user. Cloud data processing is particularly difficult, because
EvalViewer can create a large number of files without your
even being aware of it. You can run out of disk space unless
you are very organized.
To manage your files better, use menu File > Delete Files...,
which provides the Multiple File Selector window where you
can select and delete files, and be notified how many files were
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deleted. As with any tool that allows you to delete files, be

careful when using this tool.
Opening and Saving Files

The various types of Cloud File > Open lets you open basic file types: Clouds, Lines,
file formats are listed in the Polygons, and Surfaces.
Appendix.
Sections can be read or written as DES, IGES, or EV-Line. The
EV-Line format is a very simple binary format used to handle
line data files internal to EvalViewer.
The Save As... menu options allow you to specify a file name.
You can save Cloud data, Lines, Polygons, Surfaces, or Images.
For more information on the Save Clouds As...offers ASCII, IGES, EV–Geo, EV–Cloud, or
different file formats see Alias–Wire formats. Save Lines As... offers DES, IGES,EV–Geo,
Open As > on page 89 and EV-Lines, Alias Wire, DXF, or CATIA-CAI formats. Surfaces
Save As > on page 93.
can be saved in several formats including IGES, STEP, DXF,
Inventor, Catia and Unigraphics.
File > Save as > Save Polygons As > Wavefront OBJ saves a
polygonal file in OBJ format and lets you take it back to
Alias|Wavefront packages. EvalViewer files are typically very
heavy with lots of polygons. If you select File > Save as > Save
Polygons As >you can choose from the following formats: STL
(binary or ASCII), Inventor, IGES, DXF, VRML, ASCII PLY,
binary PLY, EV–Geo, EV–Cloud, Unigraphics, and Alias
(Object-Separated) Triangle files.
Delete Options
EvalViewer’s Delete > Delete > Delete All deletes all objects in the current session.
Delete All differs from
Studio’s Delete All function Delete > Delete Visible deletes all visible objects (that is, those
in that the viewport does not drawn in the modeling window and highlighted in the object
get deleted.
list).
To use Delete > Delete Visible, highlight all the objects in the
object list scrollbox that you want to delete. They will be
drawn in the viewport. Make sure that the objects you want to
keep are not highlighted in the object list, otherwise they will
be deleted when you invoke the Delete > Delete Visible tool.
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Note Since most objects come from files, it is important to

note that these Delete options apply only to “in
memory” versions of data. Delete All and Delete Visible
do not affect files on the disk.
Transforming Options Key-In Options

● To translate an object relative to its current position, use
Xform > Move.
● To scale an object relative to its current scale in the 3 axes

independently (as referenced to the origin), use Xform >
Scale. To scale an object one number at a time, use Xform >
Equal Scale
● To rotate an object about a pivot point around a vector by
a given number of degrees, use Xform > Rotate about Axis.
Mouse-based Options
Mouse-based transform options are located on the Xform tab.

Operations performed using this set of buttons are applied to
the set of selected objects.
The Object List is on the left Visible objects are selected unless specifically deselected from
side of the EvalViewer the Object List or via cursor picking. Use the Sel (Select) check
window. Rearrange the list box above the Object List to put the entire Object List into a
from the Objects menu.
Selected/Deselected state. The MinMaxBoxes toggle in the
Display options menu allows you to put a bounding box
around the selected objects.
Xform options act on the ● Xform > Rot rotates an object around a pivot point relative
selected objects. to its current position. Use the Left Mouse button for
rotation about the X direction, the Middle Mouse button
for rotation about the Y direction, and the Right Mouse
button for rotation about the Z direction.
● Xform > Trans translates an object relative to its current
position. Use the Left Mouse button for the X direction,
the Middle Mouse button for the Y direction, and the
Right Mouse button for the Z direction.
● Xform > Scale scales an object relative to its current scale in
each of the 3 axes (as referenced to the origin). Use the left
mouse button for the X direction, the middle mouse
button for the Y direction, and the right mouse button for
the Z direction.
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● Xform > Scrn provides convenience functions:

◆ The left mouse button rotates around the X and Y
screen axes.
◆ The middle mouse button translates along the X and Y
screen axes.
◆ The right mouse button does interactive equal scaling.
● Xform > Pivot allows you to select the exact point that you
would like to rotate the selected object around.
● Xform > Save allows you to save the current transforms for
all objects into a named file.
● Xform > Restore allows you to restore saved transforms for
all objects from a named file.
● Xform > MoveTo allows you to move the selected objects
along the vector from one cursor-picked point to another
cursor-picked point.
● Xform > Reset allows you to reset all transforms for
selected objects back to the state of No Xform.
● Xform > Apply applies the current transform to all selected
objects. If you perform further transforms, the Reset
button will undo all transforms since the last Apply.
● Xform > Select allows you to cursor pick objects that you
would like to be selected objects.
● Xform > Deselect allows you to cursor pick objects that you
would like to be deselected objects.
Display Options EvalViewer deals with Points (in Point Clouds), Lines,
Polygons, Curves, and Surfaces.
There are various toggle switches to control the forms of the

data that is being displayed:
For a complete list of display ● Display > Surface Normals only activates normals if surfaces
options, see the reference have been polygonized
section.
● Display > Outlines shows polygon outlines both before and
after surfaces have been polygonized
● Display > Line ShowThru can help you visualize your lines
even though relevant surfaces would normally hide parts
of the lines.
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Note In EvalViewer, NURBS surfaces must be tessellated

using the Surfaces to Polygons tool (found in the
Surfaces menu, Surf Tab, as well as in the Button Box).
There are also two menu choices that let you select any SGI/
RGB, Alias Pix, or JPEG image as a reflection map:
● Display > Select Chrome Reflection Image simulates a perfect
mirror finish
● Display > Select Paint Reflection Image simulates a shiny
painted surface.
Alternatively, use the Reflect tab to access other useful texture

maps.
Subsetting Just as you crop photographs with scissors or a knife, you can
crop off bad data in any data set (cloud, polygon, surface)
using EvalViewer’s subset options.
Perform the following operations from the Subset tab:

● Keep points In or Out of a drawn Box
● Keep points In or Out of a drawn Polygon
● Keep points In or Out of a drawn Circle
● Keep points In or Out of a traced contour.
To keep those points located inside the region to be selected,

select In before invoking one of the subsetting tools. To keep
the points on the outside, select Out instead. The default is Out.
Next, select one of Box, Ngon (Polygon), Trace or Circle to

invoke subsetting. As always, be sure to select the geometry
you want to subset before you select any of these functions.
Once you have toggled data as visible or invisible with a

subset operation, the tab Subset > Tgl will reverse the current
visibility of the points on the geometry: currently invisible (not
displayed) points will become visible (that is, displayed on the
screen), and currently visible points will not be displayed (that
is, they will become invisible).
For example, if you used the Box button to crop the left half of
a data set and keep only the right half, clicking Tgl will cause
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only the left half of the data set to be displayed. Clicking Tgl
again will cause only the right half to be displayed.
The tab Subset > Undo will undo all subset operations since the
last confirmed subset. The tab Subset > Confirm will fix the
status of the data.
SepVis+Tgl stands for You can also group visible geometry from subsetting
Separate Visible Geometry operations into a single visible object and eliminate the data
and Toggle (invisible from the original objects. To use this feature, subset some data
geometry back on).
and then select the SepVis+Tgl button in the Subset tab. The
visible geometry splits off into a separate object and the
invisible geometry is toggled back to visible. As a side effect,
previously blanked geometry is turned back on.
If you are using cloud data, this feature lets you partition the
data that is used for sphere fits, plane fits, and surface fits into
separate objects.
The images below show the results of keeping the points

outside the regions selected by the Box, Trace and Circle subset
tools, as well as the Tgl operation.
The following picture shows an unedited cloud of about a

million points:
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The next picture shows the results of some subsetting

operations.
The Tgl button has the following effect:
The examples above show the capabilities of the subset tools,

which are typically used to get rid of bad data picked up in
areas surrounding the surfaces to be modeled.
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Cloud Sections-Multiple The following image shows a Quick-Render of 219 cloud data
Clouds: files containing over 3 million points.
The simple methods described in the previous sections are not

recommended on datasets of this type for two reasons:
● If you convert Clouds to Polygons, you will likely run out
of memory unless you have 256 MB of RAM (or more),
even though it can be fully processed on computers with
128 MB of RAM (or less) using the operator about to be
described.
● The sections from each individual cloud file would look
satisfactory, but there would be a mess of overlapping
lines rather than integrated sections ready to pass on to
Studio for surfacing.
For both of these reasons, always use the Cloud Sections-Multiple

Clouds operator unless you have a specific reason not to use it.
Once the Cloud data has been read into EvalViewer (the
previous sample data takes about 90 seconds), select Clouds >
Section Cuts > Multiple Clouds. In a short while, a set of XYZ
sections appears on the screen. After some manual cleanup
and line joining with the operators on the Lines tab, the
following data set is produced:
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Note The functions on the Subset tab can also be used with
Polygons from View Meshes.
Curve Approximation Although EvalViewer is not a modeler per se, reverse

engineering applications often require B-spline curves rather
than lines. You can now use EvalViewer to fit B-spline curves
to line data, and to perform curve approximation or
interpolation on all visible lines or cursor-selected lines.
The tool can deal with any number of CVs, and with degrees
up to 23.
Use the following workflow for the best curve approximation

results.
See Curves menu on page 135 1 Specify the type of approximation you would like to use
for more information on the for curve generation, by selecting one of the following
different tools and options from the Curves > Curve Fit Methods menu: Hull fit, Least
mentioned in the workflow
on the right. Square:N-CVs, or Interpolate curve. The default method is
Hull fit.
2 Specify any other curve generation options you may need.

◆ Select Curves > Curve FitParameters to specify the spline
curve fit degree, curve fit tolerance and maximum
number of spans.
Overview
76
◆ Select Display > Curve Normals to view curvature combs

for analyzing the curve data, and Curves > Curve Comb
Size to specify the appearance of the combs.
3 Perform the curve fit. You can either:

◆ Fit all lines by using Curves > Fit All Lines.
◆ Select the lines you want to fit, using Curves > Select
Lines to Fit. When using this tool, select the lines with
the left or middle mouse button. When you are
finished, click the right mouse button.
Surfacing Tools These tools allow you to build “quick and dirty” spline
surfaces over sets of lines. This can help you arrange and test-
fit your cloud data sections before exporting your geometry to
other modeling software.
● Polygons > Skin all Lines builds a skin surface over all
selected lines.
● Polygons > Select Lines to Skin uses only lines individually
selected with the mouse.
● Polygons > Square creates a polygonal square surface from
a set of four lines or curves.
Note If you consider these surfaces accurate enough for

your purposes, you can also write them out to a file
and use them directly in a modeling package such as
AutoStudio or SurfaceStudio.
Creating Planes You can now create planes, which you can move around to
help evaluate and visualize objects.
Planes assist you with:

● Constructing models at angles (similar to construction
planes in Studio).
● Checking draft angles
● Assessing whether or not it is possible to manufacture a
model. For example, you can move them around a model
to double-check that die locking won’t occur.
Overview
77
For more information, see The Polygons > Plane Menu choices provide a variety of ways to
Plane Menu on page 141. construct planes.
Overview
78
R eference
The User Interface
In This Section: Starting EvalViewer 82

The EvalViewer Interface 83
See Also: Menus 88

Tabs 161
Hotkey Summary 205
The User Interface

81
Starting EvalViewer
Starting EvalViewer After using Pick Object to select geometry for viewing, select
Utilities > EvalViewer.
Inside Studio
Note A single EvalViewer session is maintained in

conjunction with Studio. If Utilities > EvalViewer is
reinvoked, active objects are imported into that single
EvalViewer session (with the option to delete all
currently existing objects).
Starting EvalViewer as a
stand-alone program
From the Unix Shell command line, type:
evalview
Or, select the evalview icon from the desktop.
The User Interface

82
Starting EvalViewer
The EvalViewer Interface
Once you have launched EvalViewer you will see the

following interface:
Button Box Text Info Line Menu Bar
Object List Tabs or Palette Bar Model View Window
Object List The Object List is located at the bottom left of the EvalViewer
interface. It lists the names of all objects in the current session,
indicates whether objects are visible or invisible and selected
or not selected, and lets you change the visibility state and
selected state of any object.
The User Interface

83
Visible Objects
Invisible Objects
Vis
When this box is selected (indicated by a check mark), the
Object List indicates whether objects are visible or invisible.
Visible objects are listed with gray letters on a black
background. Invisible objects are listed with black letters
on a gray background.
By clicking on object names in the Object List with the
cursor, you can change each object’s visibility state. (To
make more than one object visible, click and drag over
object names in the Object List, or hold down SHIFT or
CTRL while clicking object names.) You can also use the
Tgl, All and None buttons in the button box to change the
visibility state of objects when the Vis box is selected (see
Button Box below). Only visible objects can be selected (see
Sel below).
Note You can make a visible object invisible by selecting the

tab Query > Obj Invis and then clicking on the object in
the model view window (see Query tab on page 162).
You cannot make an invisible object visible by clicking
on the object in the model view window because you
cannot see the object.
Sel
When the Sel box is selected (indicated by a check mark),
the Object List indicates whether visible objects are selected
or not selected. Only visible objects can be selected, so
only visible objects are listed. Selected objects are listed
with gray letters on a black background. Un-selected
objects are listed with black letters on a gray background.
The User Interface

84
By clicking on object names in the Object List with the

cursor, you can change each object’s selected state. (To
select more than one object, click and drag over object
names in the Object List, or hold down SHIFT or CTRL
while clicking object names.) You can also use the Tgl, All,
and None buttons in the button box to change the select state
of objects when the Sel box is selected (see Button Box
below).
Note Clouds must be selected to be operated on by meshing

tools on the Mesh tab. Any object must be selected to
be operated on by tools on the Xform tab or Subset
tab. In general, most operators apply only to selected
objects, which are by definition also visible.
Note You can make an un-selected object selected by using

the tab Xform > Select and then clicking on the object in
the model view window. You can make a selected
object un-selected by using the tab Xform > Deselect
and then clicking on the object in the model view
window.
Button Box There are six buttons in the button box, located at the top left
of the EvalViewer interface.
Surfaces to Polygons
Look At
Multi-View (Tumble/Track/Dolly)
Tgl
Toggles items based on the check box selected in the
Object List, namely:
◆ Toggles all items from visible to invisible (and vice
versa) if the Vis check box is selected.
◆ Toggles all items from selected to not selected (and
vice versa) if the Sel check box is selected.
The User Interface

85
All
Makes all objects visible if the Vis check box in the Object
List is selected. Makes all visible objects selected if the Sel
check box is selected.
None
Makes all objects invisible if the Vis check box in the Object
List is selected. Deselects all objects if the Sel check box in
the Object List is selected.
Creates a polygon mesh over the visible surfaces. Also
found in the Surfaces menu and the Surfaces tab.
Look At
Centers and automatically zooms in on the visible objects.
Also found in the View tab.
Multi-View
Performs the following viewing operations according to
the mouse button pressed:
Left: tumbles (rotates) around the origin.
Middle: tracks (translates) left, right, up and down.
Right: dollies (moves the camera forward or backward).
Simply clicking this button will stop any continuous tool

by deselecting it.
Also found in the View tab.
Menu Bar
The description of each menu is given starting on page 88.
The User Interface

86
Tab Bar
The description of each tab button is given starting on

page 161.
The User Interface

87
Menus
The menus are at the ● File menu on page 89

top of the EvalViewer ● Edit menu on page 100
interface.
● Delete menu on page 103
● View menu on page 104
● Xform menu on page 108
● Display menu on page 115
● Clouds menu on page 120
● Lines menu on page 125
● Curves menu on page 135
● Polygons menu on page 138
● Surfaces menu on page 143
● Objects menu on page 148
● Misc menu on page 151
● Examples menu on page 154
● Compare menu on page 155
● Help menu on page 160.
Menus
88
File > File menu
Open Opens any file type provided that correct extensions are used.
If you have any difficulty, use the Open As menu.
Open As > Open As > Open Clouds >

EvalViewer reads the following formats: Arius3D Ascii,
ATOS/GOM, Cyberware Echo File format, EOIS XYZ file
format, Hymarc Hyscan binary file format, Kreon CBK
binary file, Sharnoa Binary, and Steinbichler AC (Absolute
Coordinate) binary files.
File > Open should automatically recognize these file
types. You should only need these menu options if your
files have the wrong file extension.
Note Ensure that you use the appropriate extension when

you open cloud data in these file formats: CATIA–CPT
(.model), Cyrax Ascii (.pts), and ATOS/GOM (.surf).
Ascii–XYZ
Generic ASCII XYZ Data Sets with One Point per Text Line
(allows import from Digibotics, GE Tomo scanner, and
most other scanners not explicitly listed).
Menus
89
File menu
Ascii–XYZ/RGB
Generic ASCII RGB/XYZ Data Sets with one XYZ point
and one RGB color per Text Line. This option is to be used
with color 3D scanners.
Note Ensure that you use the appropriate extension when

you open cloud data in the Ascii–XYZ/RGB file
format (.3dc).
IGES–106
IGES–106 Copious Data: IGES V5.1 (allows import from
Laser Design, Hymarc, and most other scanners not
explicitly listed).
IGES–116
Choose this format if you have an IGES file containing
IGES-116 Point Entities that should be read as cloud data.
This can be ascertained by looking at the first twenty lines
of the file. (You can also try this if you have an IGES file
and none of the other options work.) IGES 116 is NOT the
preferred IGES format for communicating point data since
it requires three separate 80 character lines of text per
point (240 bytes per point) so you should not see this on a
regular basis.
VDA–PSet
VDA-FS 2.0 PSET Point Sets (allows import from
European scanners, including Steinbichler).
Image
A color image is converted to a 3D cloud by mapping the
pixels to XYZ points in space. This is done so that each
pixel has an X and Y spacing of 0.5 mm. It also maps the Z
value as a proportion of the image size and the pixel color
value in RGB.
Alias–Wire
Raw cloud data can now be stored in the Alias wire file
due to improvements in the OpenModel API.
Menus
90
File menu
EV–Cloud
A simple binary file format used to store the results of
cloud cropping operations, cloud grouping operations, or
just to store Ascii Text Cloud Files (IGES, VDA, ASCII
XYZ) so that they do not take so long to read in. For
example, a 51.5 MB IGES file that was output from
Imageware took 38 seconds to read in. The same data in
the EV-Cloud format occupied 7.5 MB and took under 3
seconds to read in.
EV–Geo
The preferred file format for all EvalViewer file saves. EV-
Geo allows you to save clouds, sections, curves, polygons,
or surfaces in a compact binary file.
Although this format potentially can handle very large
cloud data sets (over 20 million points), use it only when a
cloud will not Quick Render.
Open As > Open Lines > DES–Lines

ASCII text format containing lines can be used as a
transfer mechanism to Studio. DES files are always
smaller than the comparable IGES file.
Note You should look for DES files in the wire directory.
IGES–Lines
IGES format, containing lines, can be used as a transfer
mechanism to Studio.
Note You should look for IGES files in the wire directory.
EV–Lines
EV-Line format is a very simple binary format used to
handle section data files internal to EvalViewer.
EV–Geo
The preferred format for saving and retrieving EvalViewer
geometry in the form of clouds, sections/lines, curves,
polygons, or surfaces.
Menus
91
File menu
Alias–Wire
Alias wire files can be used to store sections as degree-1
linear splines. When imported into EvalViewer, degree-1
splines from Alias wire files are automatically converted
to EvalViewer lines.
CNC–Files
Computerized Numerical Control (CNC) files can be used
to control milling machines. They contain polylines (lines).
It can be beneficial to read lines from this type of file.
Open As > Open EvalViewer reads polygons from STL files, DXF files, and
Polygons > Alias wire polysets. It also reads Unigraphics Facet Pattern
(FAC) files, Alias (Object-Separated) Triangle files, Wavefront
OBJ files (Vertex and Face data only), Wavefront OBJ files, PLY
ASCII files, IGES-106 Pgns (for those systems that recognize
IGES-106 Copious Data entities as Polygons i.e closed curves
on plane), EV-Geo files, and Textured Inventor files.
Note Opening polygons from DXF files is now much faster.
Note Alias object-separated triangle files are created from

Studio with File > Export > Polygons > Triangles + Object-
Separated. The ‘name.tri’ file that is created when you
export a Stereo Lithography File (STL File) is not an
Alias object-separated triangle file. However, the
preferred extension for EvalViewer for such files is
‘.tri’.
Open As > Open To access surfaces stored in Alias wire files, IGES files, STEP
Surfaces > files, DXF files, VDA files, or EV–Geo files, select File > Open >
Open Surfaces.
EvalViewer’s File Selector appears. When you select a file and

then select OK, EvalViewer will read the surface data and
display it on the screen. The initial displays will occur using
the default NURBS Surface display mode, similar to
EvalViewer 1.0.
EvalViewer reads all curve, surface, polyset and shell

geometry from the wire file using this method. This method is
Menus
92
File menu
different from Utilities > EvalViewer, where only selected curves

and surfaces are shown.
EvalViewer also supports STEP, Inventor and CAI files, and

allows you to read Unigraphics part (PRT) files.
Save As > All of these options prompt for file names.
Save As > Save Clouds As >
Ascii–XYZ
ASCII text format can be used as a transfer mechanism to
some other systems.
IGES–Cloud
Saves an IGES cloud in your current wire directory. This is
the required format for transferring cloud data into Studio
and many other systems.
EV–Cloud
A simple binary file format used to store the results of
cloud cropping operations, cloud grouping operations, or
simply for storing ASCII Clouds to reduce the read time
and file size.
EV–Geo
Saves cloud data in an EV-Geo file.
Alias–Wire
Saves cloud data directly into a wire file.
Save As > Save Lines As >
IGES–Lines
Saves IGES sections as 106 Copious Data Type 2 Form 12
entities in your current wire directory.
DES–Lines
Saves DES sections in your current wire directory for
input into Studio.
Menus
93
File menu
EV–Lines
Internal binary line format used for section data in
EvalViewer.
EV–Geo
Saves sections in an EV-Geo file.
Alias Wire
Saves sections/lines from EvalViewer as degree-1 splines
in an Alias wire file.
DXF
Saves lines in a DXF file.
CATIA–CAI
Saves lines in a CATIA CAI file.
Save Lines as Clouds >

Saves lines in an IGES–Cloud or EV–Cloud file.
Save As > Save Polygons As >
Binary STL
Saves a binary polygonal file in STL format and allows
you to take it into many other packages.
Ascii STL
Saves an ASCII polygonal file in STL format and allows
you to take it into many other packages.
Wavefront OBJ
Saves a polygonal file in Wavefront OBJ format and allows
you to take it into Alias|wavefront packages as well as
into many other packages.
Caution: EvalViewer files with more than a hundred
thousand polygons are cumbersome to use in Studio or
Maya.
Inventor 2.1
Saves a polygonal file in the SGI Inventor format and
allows you to take it into Alias|wavefront packages as
well as many other packages.
Menus
94
File menu
VRML 1.0
Saves a polygonal file in VRML 1.0 format.
Ascii PLY
Saves a polygonal file in ASCII PLY format.
Binary PLY
Saves a polygonal file in Binary PLY format.
UG–FAC
Writes Unigraphics Facet Pattern files.
Alias–Wire
Saves polyset entities in Alias wire format and allows you
to take the polygons into Studio directly.
Alias Obj–Sep Tri

Saves polyset entities in Alias object-separated triangle
Files, allowing you to send triangles to other applications.
IGES 106 Pgns

Saves polyset entities in an IGES file.
DXF
Saves a polygonal file in DXF format and allows you to
take it into Alias|wavefront packages as well as many
other packages.
EV–Geo
Saves polyset entities in a EV–Geo file.
EV–Cloud
Saves polyset entities in a EV–Cloud file.
Save As > Save Surfaces As >
Alias–Wire
Saves an Alias wire file containing only surfaces and
curves. Allows you to import modified surfaces back into
Studio.
Menus
95
File menu
IGES
Saves surfaces and curves in an IGES file.
STEP
Saves surfaces and curves in a STEP file.
DXF
Saves surfaces and curves in a DXF file.
Inventor
Saves surfaces and curves in the SGI Inventor format and
allows you to take them into Alias|wavefront packages as
well as many other packages.
CATIA–CAI
Saves surfaces and curves in a CATIA–CAI file.
UG–PRT
Writes Unigraphics part files.
EV–Geo
Saves surfaces and curves in an EV–Geo file.
Save As > Save Image As >
SGI–RGB
Saves an SGI–RGB format image of the Model view (that
is, the graphics window).
Alias–Pix
Saves an Alias pix format image of the Model view (that
is, the graphics window).
JPEG
Saves a JPEG/JFIF format image of the Model view (that
is, the graphics window). JPEGs are much smaller than
most other image files due to their elaborate compression
process. The images can be directly embedded in HTML
Web documents using the line:
<img src=yourfile.jpg>
Menus
96
File menu
Save EV–Geo
Saves the current visible geometry (clouds, lines/sections,

curves, polygons, and surfaces) in EvalViewer.
Snap JPEG
Captures the main graphic window of the EvalViewer

application and saves it as a JPEG image after prompting for a
project and image name.
The project subdirectories will be found under $HOME/

.evalview/JpegHtml along with an index HTML file (index.html)
where each image will be appended. See Sharing JPEG images
over the Internet on page 66 for more details.
If your JpegHtml directory becomes filled with images, you

can rename the JpegHtml directory to another name. For
example, you can rename the directory myoldimages by
using the command mv JpegHtml myoldimages.
EvalViewer will automatically create a new directory as
needed. You can also enter names like myprojectname/
myimagename. Images will then be organized into
subdirectories of the of the JpegHtml directory. Do not use
spaces in your project name or image name.
View JPEGs
Brings up a Web Browser to view the file:
$HOME/.evalview/JpegHtml/index.html.
Print Image
Captures the image from the screen and prints it as a

PostScript file on the default printer using the utility ‘tops’.
Delete Files...
Displays the Multiple File Selector window, which lets you

select files for deletion and tells you how many files were
deleted.
As with any tool that allows you to delete files, be careful.
Menus
97
File menu
Spawn Net–Session
Starts a single remote net session on another computer which

is slaved to your current EvalViewer session. You are
prompted to type in the remote computer’s host name. If a
network connection to the remote computer is established, the
visible contents of your EvalViewer session is sent to the
remote computer. A remote copy of EvalViewer is started and
the data is read in. A network connection from your local EV
(EvalViewer) is established with the remote EV so that mouse
movements and menu commands can be sent across the
connection. You may have to perform some simple mouse
motions to flush the data in the connection across to the
remote computer. Once the connection is established, it will
stay synchronized as well as possible given the computational
and graphical capabilities of both machines. For this reason,
Net Session functions work better when the remote computer
is equal to or better than the local computer in its capabilities.
Note If you do not have an account on the remote machine,

have the remote user update the .rhosts file to
allow you to ‘rsh’ and ‘rcp’ to the remote machine
without supplying a password. If you cannot use
‘rsh’ and ‘rcp’ with the remote machine, you will not
be able to use Net Sessions. When you specify the
remote computer name for another user, type:
otherusername@remote-computer.other-
org.com
Note Some large organizations have networks where use of

‘rcp’ and ‘rsh’ are prohibited. In this situation, it is not
possible for Net Sessions to be used.
Reminder: EvalViewer must be installed on both
machines. Moreover, when you login to each
computer and open a new shell, the command
‘evalview’ must be recognizable to the system. If you
get the message:
evalview: Command not found
then Net Sessions will not work either. See the
Appendix on Net Session requirements to see if Net
Sessions can be used in your environment.
Menus
98
File menu
Release Net–Session
Releases the slave process for a remote session. Users at the

remote machine can continue to work on the same model from
their EvalViewer installation. This option releases the slave
process to the control of the remote user. They are now free to
start a Net Session on your computer if they choose.
Kill Net–Session
Kills a remote net session. The EvalViewer installation at the

remote machine is shut down and the model and all data
related to it are removed from the machine. This option is
useful, for example, if nobody remains at the remote location,
or if the data is of a confidential nature.
Run EV–Script
Replays a session log. The Multiple File Selector appears

where you can select the file you want to want to run. (The
entry at the top of the list is the most recent.)
The EVScripts can be run from the command line using the
following options:
evalview -script your-evscript
To add a comment line that will appear during the replay of

the script, hit <backspace> and a text widget will appear to
accept your comment. You can add a 2 second pause to the
replay process with Ctrl+P.
Rename EV–Script
The default name of a session log is SessionLog.xxxx.

EvalViewer gives you the option of renaming your script files
to something more intuitive. Pick the file(s) you want to
rename from the File Selector, click OK, then type the new
name for each file as you are prompted.
Exit
Quits EvalViewer.
Menus
99
File menu
Edit > Edit menu
Undo
Cancels the effects of the last action that you performed.
To cancel an action, choose Undo immediately. To change
the number of steps that you want to undo, select Edit >
Number of Undo Steps.
Redo
Reinvokes an action that you have canceled by choosing
Undo.
Note Undo-Redo requires significant amounts of memory

when it is turned on. You can turn off the Undo-Redo
options by setting the number of undo steps to zero.
On the SGI platform, you will know that you need to
turn off the Undo-Redo option if you get the message
"Process killed due to insufficient swap space".
Repeat Last
Repeats your previous action. This feature is useful for
performing repetitive actions. Alternatively, use the space
bar.
Duplicate Selected Objs

Creates copies of objects that you have selected.
Copy
Copies selected geometry to the Studio clipboard. Use this
function to duplicate geometry in the EvalViewer
window, or to paste geometry into the Studio windows.
Alternatively, use Ctrl+C.
Menus
100
Edit menu
Note If the selected geometry contains spline curves or

spline surfaces, then only spline entities will be
written to the clipboard wire file. Also, if no curves or
surfaces are selected, then cloud data, line data, and
polygon data will be written to the wire file.
Paste
Pastes the contents of the clipboard into the EvalViewer
window. Use this function to duplicate geometry in the
EvalViewer window, or to paste geometry from the Studio
product. Alternatively, use Ctrl+V.
Select All Objs

Selects all geometry in the EvalViewer window. This is
equivalent to pressing the All button when the Select
button is operative.
Visible All Objs

Makes all geometry visible, including any hidden
geometry. This is equivalent to pressing the All button
when the Visible button is operative.
Select None
De-selects all geometry in the EvalViewer window. This is
equivalent to pressing the None button when the Select
Visible None
Hides all geometry in the EvalViewer window. This is
equivalent to pressing the None button when the Visible
Toggle Selected Objs

Toggles the selected state of all geometry in the
EvalViewer list window. This is equivalent to pressing the
Tgl (Toggle) button when the Select button is operative.
Toggle Visible Objs

Toggles the visible state of all geometry in the EvalViewer
list window. This is equivalent to pressing the Tgl (Toggle)
button when the Visible button is operative.
Menus
101
Edit menu
Number of Undo Steps

Displays the number of undo steps to keep. You can
control this number. Setting Number of Undo Steps to zero
shuts off Undo and its memory consumption.
Menus
102
Edit menu
Delete > Delete menu
Delete Visible
Deletes all visible objects (that is, those drawn in the
modeling window and highlighted in the object list).
Delete Invisible
Deletes all invisible objects.
Delete Clouds
Deletes all objects with clouds.
Delete Lines
Deletes all objects with sections.
Delete Curves
Deletes all objects with curves.
Delete Polygons
Deletes all objects with polygons.
Delete Surfaces
Deletes all objects with surfaces.
Delete All
Deletes all objects in the current session.
Menus
103
Delete menu
View > View menu
Several of these choices are also available in the View tab at the
bottom of the EvalViewer interface.
Look At
Centers and automatically zooms in on the visible objects.
Also in the View tab.
Zoom
Zooms in or out of the view by changing the camera’s
field of view. Also in the View tab.
Twist
Turns the view of the viewing plane. It gives the
impression of watching the model while tilting your head.
Perspective
Toggles the view from orthographic projection to
Perspective. Also in the View tab.
Orthographic
Toggles the view from perspective projection to
Orthographic. Also in the View tab.
Standard Views... >

Shows an orthographic or oblique view of the visible
objects.
Choose from the following orthographic views: Front, Left,
Top, Back, Right, Under.
Choose from the following oblique views: Right Front, Right
Back, Left Front, Left Back.
These views are also available from the View tab. (Choose
from one of the pictures of an automobile.)
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104
View menu
1:1 View
Displays the visible objects at actual size on the screen.
That is, the on-screen size is equal to the real-world size.
Your computer must be using a standard SGI monitor.
This is not correct on projected displays.
TurnTable
Allows you to rotate the model around the Z-axis in Z-Up
mode and the Y-axis in Y-Up mode. To use this tool, you
must specify the number of degrees per rotation
increment. To end it, press the Esc key.
Rotisserie
Allows you to rotate the model around the horizontal axis
of the screen. To use this tool, you must specify the
number of degrees per rotation increment. To end it, press
the Esc key on your keyboard.
Z-Up
Sets the Z-Axis as the up axis. This is the default.
Y-Up
Sets the Y-Axis as the up axis.
Set Eye Point

Sets the Eye Point and the LookAt point (View Pivot)
explicitly via the keyboard.
Set Normal to Pgn

Allows you to set your view to be orthogonal to a
polygonal surface. Select this tool, then pick the polygon.
The view is centered on the polygon and the viewing
angles are set so that you are looking straight at the
polygon.
Set Tangent to Pgn

Allows you to set your view to be tangent to a polygonal
surface. Select this tool, then pick the polygon. The view is
centered on the polygon and the viewing angles are set so
that you are looking edgewise at the polygon.
Menus
105
View menu
Set Normal to Line

Allows you to set your view to be orthogonal to the plane
containing a planar curve or line. Select this tool, then pick
the curve or line. The view is centered near the picked line
point and the viewing angles are set so that you are
exactly orthogonal to the plane containing the line.
Note For the Line View tool above, the line you select must
be slightly curved. Perfectly straight lines will not
allow the system to establish a plane.
Set View Along Line

Allows you to set your view to be tangent to the plane
containing a planar curve or line. Select this tool, then pick
the curve or line. The view is centered near the picked line
point and the viewing angles are set so that you are
looking tangent to the line. This menu selection is very
handy in ‘gunsighting’ curves.
Rotate 90 Up/Down/Right/Left
These four tools allow you to rotate your current view of a
model up, down, right or left by exactly 90 degrees
relative to any viewing direction. This feature is useful for:
● Section cutting (using the Surfaces menu).
● Parting line visualization.
For more information see Key in View Params

Draft–Angle/Parting–Line on Allows you to specify an exact view by keying in the view
page 139 coordinates. This feature is useful when used in
conjunction with the parting line analysis tool, since that
tool defaults the die pull vector to the current viewing
direction. The parameters assume Z-Up.
When selecting this tool, a window appears where you
can specify the following parameters:
● Rotation angles (in degrees, for each of the X-, Y-, and Z-
axes), which allow you to specify the tip angles in a di-
pole direction.
● Field of view (in degrees)
● Eye point location (in millimeters, for each of the X-, Y-,
and Z- directions).
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View menu
● Look-at point (in millimeters, for each of the X-, Y-, and Z-
directions)
● Near Z-clip plane (in millimeters)
● Far Z-clip plane (in millimeters)
● Horizontal stretch factor.
Non–Pro Horiz Scale

The Non-Proportional Horizontal Scaling tool suppresses or
accentuates variations in curves, which are not easily seen
in standard views, by stretching or shrinking a picture in
the horizontal direction.
This tool is used by designers and modelers to check the
extended quality on long sections. Small oscillations are
much easier to see in a “scrunched” view than in a
geometrically correct view.
After selecting this tool, use the left mouse button to
change the horizontal scale factor for a given view. You
can scrunch or stretch the current view in two dimensions
by moving the cursor horizontally across the screen.
To reset the view to proportional scaling, select the Track/
Dolly/Tumble button, click in the view and move the mouse
slightly. The view will pop back to normal. If you want
objects temporarily scaled so that you can fully rotate
them, use the scale options in the Xform tab.
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View menu
Xform > Xform menu
These options transform objects, but you must type the

information into the promptlines in the windows. If you want
to use the mouse, use the Xform tab. (See Transform tab on
page 200.)
Move
Translates an object relative to its current position. When
you select this tool, a window appears where you can type
in distances for X, Y and Z.
Scale
Scales an object relative to its current scale for each of the 3
axes (relative to the origin). When you select this tool, a
window appears where you can type in scale values for X,
Y and Z.
Rotate about Axis

Rotates an object around a specified pivot point and vector
(rotation axis) by a given number of degrees. When you
select this tool, a window appears where you can type in
values for the pivot position, rotation axis orientation, and
the degrees of rotation.
Equal Scale
Scales an object relative to its current scale. When you
select this tool, a window appears where you can type in
scale values for one of the axes X, Y or Z.
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Xform menu
Units Conversions >

Allows you to convert to the units that you want to use in
EvalViewer.You can convert from millimeters to inches,
feet, or meters, and from inches, feet, or meters to
millimeters.,
Switch X&Y
Flips an object so that the old X-axis of the object lines up
with the Y-axis of the world and vice versa.
Switch Y&Z
Flips an object so that the old Y-axis of the object lines up
with the Z-axis of the world and vice versa.
Switch Z&X
Flips an object so that the old Z-axis of the object lines up
with the X-axis of the world and vice versa.
Switch X to -X
Flips the object so that it faces the opposite direction along
the X-axis.
Switch Y to -Y
the Y-axis.
Switch Z to -Z
the Z-axis.
Move to +++ Octant

Moves selected objects to the positive (+,+,+) octant.
Many rapid prototyping machines require data in the
positive octant, that is, no negative coordinates are
allowed. This option helps meet this requirement.
Align Tools You can align cloud data, surface data, polygonal data, or
curve/line data using a variety of Xform menu items, which
are described below.
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Xform menu
Note For all methods below, you must first select only those
objects you want to move. Make sure the object you
want them aligned to (the object containing the
stationary points) is not selected. Any objects not
selected will not be moved.
Align with 2 Point Pairs

Aligns two points on a selected (moving) object (the
“from” object”) with two points on an unselected
(stationary) object (the “to” object).
The following steps and diagram show how to use this
method:
1 Select the two base points (one on a selected “from” object
that will move and then one on an unselected “to” object
that will remain stationary).
2 Select the two points to define the rotation (again one on a

selected “from” object that will move and one on an
unselected “to” object that will remain stationary).
In the following pictures the block on the left is the
stationary moving (“from”) object. (“to”) object. The block
on the right is the moving (“from”) object.
Before: After:
The two points on the rotating object will align with the
line extending from the base point to the point selected
third. All other selected (moving) objects are also
translated and rotated by this same amount. Selected
objects stay in the same relative position to each other, but
are rotated in world space.
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Xform menu
Align with 3 Point Pairs

Aligns three points on a selected (moving) object (the
“from” object) with three points on an unselected
stationary object (the “to” object).
The following steps and diagram show how to use this
method:
1 Select the two base points (one on a selected object that
will move and then one on an unselected object that will
remain stationary).
2 Select two more corresponding points that determine an

axis of alignment (similar to the 2 point pair alignment
above.)
3 Select two more points that determine which

corresponding planes will be brought into alignment.
In the following pictures, the block on the left is the
stationary (“to”) object. The block on the right is the
moving (“from”) object. After the alignment, the first pair
of points coincides, the second pair is colinear with the
first pair. Moreover, the 3 “from” points are coplanar with
the 3 “to” points.
Before: After:
All other selected objects are translated and rotated in the

same way as the align points. Selected objects stay in the
same relative position to each other, but are rotated in
world space.
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Xform menu
Align with N Point Pairs

Lines up any number of points on a selected object with
any number of points on a base object. The algorithm
minimizes the total squared distance between all
corresponding points. The least square fit method is used,
with no relative weighting considered.
This method can be useful, for example, for centering an
object over another, or for obtaining the best fit given a set
of slightly incompatible constraints.
The following steps and diagram (using 4 points) show
how to use this method:
1 Select a point (preferably on an unselected object).
2 Select a point on a selected object you want aligned to it.
3 Repeat the first two steps for the number of points you
want. When you are finished, click the right mouse button
to proceed.
In the following pictures the block on the left is the stationary

(“to”) object. The block on the right is the moving (“from”)
object. When the blocks are aligned, the four distances
(A,B,C,D) are minimized together with equal importance.
Before: After:
Align with 3 Planes

This option lets you align objects using three planes that
intersect at a specific alignment point. This method
requires plane fits to be computed for the cloud points
scanned from planes that meet at a corner point on a
block.
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Xform menu
This method can be useful, for example, when a part is

mounted to a base whose planar sides have enough
scanned information to register the part to a global
coordinate system.
The following steps show how to use this method:
1 Choose the cloud points you want to fit: in the Subset tab,
select In and then Box, or In and then Ngon.
2 Separate the chosen cloud points into a separate object by

selecting SepVis+Tgl in the Subset tab.
3 Fit a plane to the data with Clouds > Plane Fit.
4 Repeat the first three steps as necessary to create three

(and only three) orthogonal planes.
5 Select Xform > Align with 3 Planes.
6 Choose three planes and then specify the desired point

location for the intersection of the three planes.
The selected objects will be transformed using the
computed transformation.
Align with N Spheres

This option works the same way as the option to align
with N pairs of points, except that spheres are fitted to
cloud points and their centers are used as the point
locations rather than picked points.
This method can be useful, for example, when tooling
spheres are mounted to a part that has been scanned with
a 3D optical scanner. Each surface area may well be
scanned best in a view different from the other surface
areas. You can use this method to register data sets by
selecting three or more corresponding spheres that are
visible from the various views containing surfaces you
need to align.
The following steps show how to use this method:
1 Choose the cloud points you want to fit: in the Subset tab,
select In and then Circle.
2 Separate the chosen cloud points into a separate object by

choosing SepVis + Tgl in the Subset tab.
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Xform menu
3 Fit a sphere to the data in that object by selecting Clouds >

Sphere Fit.
4 Repeat the first three steps again to create three or more

registration spheres.
5 Select Xform > Align with N Spheres.
6 Choose first a “From” sphere and then the corresponding

“To” Sphere. Repeat for the number of sphere pairs you
want (similar to the N point pair process mentioned
above).
7 Click the right mouse button when you are finished. The
selected objects are transformed using the computed
transformation.
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Xform menu
Display > Display menu
The Display menu allows you to display items or remove them

from the modeling window.
A red check mark beside a toggle indicates that it is turned ON.
Some of these items are also available from the Display tab.
(See Display tab on page 166.)
Always Draw All

Draws all selected objects in the current display mode at
all times. This toggle prevents EvalViewer from drawing
the default interactive decimated display, which increases
drawing speed but sometimes prevents you from seeing
what you need.
Draw Mirror Half

Draws the other half of an object without using additional
memory. This tool is very useful with many automotive
models. It is still limited to reflections across the Y=0
plane.
Point Clouds
Turns on or off the display of any Point Clouds.
Lines
Turns on or off the display of any PolyLines. They must be
displayed to see the Vector Maps. Also in the Display tab.
Line Points
Turns on or off the display of Points on a Line. The default
is OFF.
Line ShowThru
Helps you visualize your sections even though relevant
surfaces would normally hide parts of the section.
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Display menu
Polygons
Turns on or off the display of Polygons. Also in the Disp
tab.
Polygon Outlines
Turns on or off the display of Polygon Outlines. It works
both before and after surfaces have been polygonized.
Also in the Disp tab.
Polygon Vertices
Turns on or off the display of Polygon Vertices.
Polygon Centers
Turns on or off the display of Polygon Centers.
T&QStrips
Turns on or off the usage of triangle or quadrilateral strips
for faster displays. The default value is ON.
Point Shading
Turns on or off the display of Shaded Points. The default is
Off. This tool is useful for very dense point clouds that
have been converted to polygons.
Curve Normals
Toggles on or off the display of curvature combs for curves
and lines.
These combs highlight curvature oscillations and
inflection points, and assist you in analyzing the raw data
before you attempt to approximate a curve. To control
their appearance, which is consistent for all objects,
splines, and lines, use Curves > Curve Comb Size.
Surface Normals
Toggles on or off the display of surface normals.
CVs
Turns on or off the display of control vertices (CVs). Also
in the Disp tab.
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Display menu
Each CV is a 3D point. When CVs are displayed, they are

drawn as small red-green-blue coordinate axes; the red
line is aligned with the world X-axis, the green axis line is
aligned with the world Y-axis, and the blue axis line is
aligned with the world Z-axis. (These colored axes can be
very helpful when you are zoomed in and are not sure
which direction is which.)
Hulls
Turns on or off the display of Hulls. Hulls are drawn to
indicate the U and V directions. Hulls must be turned off
to display Vector Maps. Also in the Disp tab.
MinMaxBoxes on Sel Objs

Turns on or off the display of minmax boxes (axis-aligned
bounding boxes) on the Selected objects. The default is
OFF.
A minmax box, or bounding box, is the smallest box that
completely contains an object and whose edges are
aligned with the coordinate system of the object. That is, a
box whose orientation is defined by the object’s coordinate
system, and whose edges are defined by the object’s
minimum and maximum X, Y, and Z coordinates.
Grid
Turns on or off the display of the background grid. Also in the

Disp tab.
Look At Pivot
Turns on or off the Look At Pivot function.
Color Bar
Turns on or off the display of the Curvature Color Bar.
Reflection Mapping
Turns on or off the display of Reflection Mapping.
Reflection Mapping works best with machines that
support hardware texture mapping. It does nothing unless
a Reflection Map has been loaded. Also in the Disp tab.
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Display menu
Select Chrome Reflection Image

Opens the File Selector for you to select any image (SGI-
RGB or Alias pix) for use as a Mirror-like Reflection. This
simulates a perfect mirror or chrome finish.
The Reflect tab contains buttons for easy access to some of
these texture maps.
Select Paint Reflection Image

Opens the File Selector for you to select any image (SGI-
RGB or Alias pix) for use as a Paint Finish type Reflection.
This simulates a shiny painted surface.
The Reflect tab does not contain buttons that provide this
effect.
Transparency
Turns on or off the ability to display transparency. Setting
transparency turns this switch on automatically.
Otherwise, it defaults to OFF.
Set Transparency
Sets the numerical value for the transparency of the
material on the selected objects. A value between 0.4 and
0.6 is recommended for simulating glass.
You may need to use Objects > Visible Last to move
transparent objects to the end of the object list to enable a
more realistic view. Do not put transparent objects at the
top of the object list.
Backdrop Image
Turns on or off the default sky texture.
Alternatively, use the F3 key to turn on the sky texture.
(Pressing the key again toggles the texture back off.)
Select Backdrop Image

Allows you to put a backdrop image behind your 3D
graphics display. You can select any image from the File
Selector.
Floor Tile
Turns on or off a default floor tile.
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Display menu
Alternatively, use the F4 key to turn on the default floor

tile. (Pressing the key again toggles the tile back off.)
Select Floor Tile

Allows you to put a floor tile on the z=0 plane along the
grid. You can select any image from the File Selector.
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Display menu
Clouds > Clouds menu
Provides various cloud tools. For additional cloud tools, go to

the Clouds tab.
Cloud Info
Displays information on the visible cloud(s) on the
promptline; for example:
65341 Visible Cloud Points on 1 Cloud Objects
Quick–Render Cloud
Lets you view the cloud in a Quick-Rendered (temporarily
shaded) view. This view disappears when you click in it.
If your cloud data does not Quick-Render, then it will not
section with the Multiple Cloud option (the default). In this
case, you will have to use the Unordered Point option for
sectioning. This option usually requires significantly more
editing.
Cloud to Polygons
Creates polygon meshes for all the visible clouds, and
allows them to remain shaded as you rotate your view. For
huge sets of data, it may not be possible to convert cloud
data to this persistent polygonal form because your
workstation only has a certain amount of RAM.
Cloud to Lines
Creates lines from cloud data.
This tool is useful for doing data compression on cloud
data sets when the goal is to use cloud scans directly, as
might be the case with computed tomography type data.
Typically, the same shape information is maintained and
the file size may shrink by a factor of 5 to 10 times.
To compress cloud data sets:
1 Import the cloud.
2 Select Clouds to Lines.
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Clouds menu
3 Select Lines > Reduce.
Cloud to Voxel Mesh

Converts clouds to 3D polygonal meshes based on a
volume algorithm that subdivides space into a discrete set
of voxels.
● Viewing direction is not required (as opposed to existing
view meshes, where it is required).
● Point order doesn’t matter (as opposed to the existing
cloud quick render methods).
After selecting this tool, a window appears where you can
specify the average voxel count in one dimension. Typical
work requires testing various input values from too coarse
(blocky looking output) to too fine (too many holes).
For more information on Dense cloud data is required to obtain reasonable shape
View Meshes see EvalViewer definition. If the data is not dense enough, you will obtain
Cloud Workflow Example 2 on better results using View Meshes. In general, we still
page 39 and Mesh tab on
page 189. recommend View Meshes for production work.
If you do use voxel meshes and then use Surfaces > XYZ
Section Cuts, you can now use Lines > Combine > Reconnect
Lines to create better quality lines. Voxel meshes can also
be used with Curves > Create Curve on Polygons.
Smooth Cloud
Creates a smoother cloud and reduces any unevenness in
the cloud. Repeated use will smooth the cloud. Smoothing
does not reduce the number of points, but changes the
positions of points. Use this option sparingly to maintain
the dimensional integrity of the cloud.
Section Cuts–MultipleClouds
This option is intended for cases where View Meshes do
not produce satisfactory results. Note that this option can
only produce reasonable data if the cloud data will quick
render faithfully. This method is still preferred by some
users for very large data sets.
Tries to create integrated sections over multiple clouds
with overlapped scans. This tool opens a window where
you can enter the section axes, spacing and the Start and
Stop positions.
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Clouds menu
When you click OK, EvalViewer will shade the visible

clouds and section them by color according to axis:
◆ The X-axis is in red
◆ The Y-axis is in green
◆ The Z-axis is in blue
Section Cuts–UnorderedPoints
This method is not used much any more, but has not been
removed pending user feedback.
Creates point sections over all visible clouds. This tool
opens the same window as for Section Cuts-Multiple Clouds,
and requires the same values.
When you click OK, EvalViewer creates the sections (they
are not colored).
Note You should use this tool only as a last resort on clouds
that do not Quick Render cleanly. For these clouds,
you also have an additional (preferred) option (See
Using View Meshes for Cloud Data Processing on
page 29).
Group Clouds
Takes all visible clouds and copies them into one single
cloud. The previous cloud objects are deleted. You are
prompted to enter a name for the new single cloud object.
Cloud Fits for Data When working with cloud data from various scanners, it is
Quality Evaluation difficult to know the detailed properties of your data without
doing some analytical approximations of the cloud data.
EvalViewer provides tools to analyze the noise properties of a

scanner by providing planar fit, spherical fit, and surface fit
capabilities. The sphere fit center can be used to compute the
correct transform for a set of data not properly registered with
a known coordinate system. The RMS Error properties can be
used to set the appropriate tolerances for subsequent section
data processing.
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Clouds menu
Plane Fit
Lets you fit a plane to selected visible data points. The
RMS Error is Reported, and a Surface Spline
representation of a plane is generated.
Inputs: All visible points on all objects that are visible and
selected are used as input.
Outputs: The RMS Error is computed and a Surface Spline
representation of the plane is generated.
Sphere Fit
Lets you fit a sphere to selected visible data points. The
RMS Error and Max Error are Reported, and a Polygonal
Sphere representation is generated.
Outputs: The RMS Error is computed and a Polygonal
Sphere representation is generated.
Surface Fit
Lets you fit a curved surface to selected visible data
points. The RMS Error is reported, and a Surface Spline
representation is generated.
Outputs: The RMS Error is computed and a Surface Spline
representation is generated.
Fit to Picked Points >

Fits a line, circle, conic, plane, sphere, quadratic, or
cylinder to picked cloud data points.
Previously, you could only fit a surface to all visible data
points of selected cloud data. For example, if you wanted
to fit a surface only to a portion of cloud data, you would
first have to create a subset. Now, you can simply pick the
data points to which you want to fit a surface.
Cloud Point Size

Lets you adjust the pixel size of the cloud data points to
improve visibility (for example, when looking at a
cluttered model, or when standing far from the screen).
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Clouds menu
Cloud Decimation
Controls how many cloud data points are drawn. When
selecting this tool, a window appears where you can enter
a value. The default is 1, which draws all the points. A
value of 2 will draw every other point, a value of 3 every
third point, etc. (This method of speeding up the display is
preferred over the previous release method of using the
key commands for ‘<‘ and ‘>’.)
Note the cloud decimation parameter is using in the
Compare function for Comparing Clouds to Surfaces. Only
the points being drawn subject to the decimation
parameter are checked against surfaces.
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Clouds menu
Lines > Lines menu
Line Info
Displays information on visible lines on the promptline,
for example:
3 Visible PolyLines with 15 Points on 1 Visible
Objects
Split >
Split Lines using Angle+Length

Makes a single pass through the visible section lines and
cuts out any misconnected lines. The new criteria consider
inappropriate angles as well as lengths.
Use this tool to disconnect misconnected lines in a set of
data taken by a touch probe or laser probe.
You are prompted to give a name to the group of split
lines. This name appears in the object list in the left-hand
side of the EvalViewer window.
Single Pass Split

Takes a single pass of the visible joined section lines to cut
any misconnected lines. This single pass may be enough
and should be tried before the Multiple Pass Split. If you
reselect this option, it splits the visible data again.
Multiple Pass Split

Takes multiple passes of the visible, joined section lines to
cut any misconnected lines, and keeps cutting them (to a
maximum of 12 passes). Use this option only with badly
joined lines.
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Lines menu
The Split Process:
Single Pass Break Longest

Takes a single pass of the visible joined section lines to cut
the longest misconnection on each line. This single pass
may be enough and should be tried before the Multiple
Pass Split. If you reselect this option, it splits the visible
data again.
Multiple Pass Break Longest

Takes multiple passes of the visible joined section lines to
cut the longest misconnections on lines, and keeps
breaking the lines until there are no abnormally long lines
(to a maximum of 12 passes). Use this option only with
badly joined lines.
The Break Longest Process
Combine >
Single Pass Combine Lines
Combines any two lines (that have their ends close
together) into one line. The distance between the lines’
ends must be less than Combine Tolerance (see Misc >
Preferences > Line Tolerances).
Multiple Pass Combine Lines

Combines pairs of lines (that have their ends close together)
into single lines. The distance between the lines’ ends
must be less than Combine Tolerance (see Misc > Preferences
> Line Tolerances).
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Lines menu
Snap Curves at End Points

Snaps the end points of any 2 lines (that have their ends
close together) to one point, but does not combine the two
lines into one entity. The distance between the lines’ ends
must be less than Combine Tolerance (see Misc > Preferences
>Line Tolerances).
Reconnect Lines
An alternative to Combine all lines. Reconnects lines (that
have their ends close together) into one line. The distance
between the lines’ ends must be less than Combine
Tolerance (see Misc > Preferences > Line Tolerances). You
should use this option for sections created by XYZ section
cuts through voxel meshes.
The Combine Process
Filter >
Smooth Lines [1,2,1]

Smooths all visible lines by replacing each point on each
line with the weighted average of it and its two
neighboring points. The weight applied to any point is
twice that applied to each of its two neighboring points
(that is, 25%, 50%, 25%). This gives an overall minimum
change.
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Lines menu
2 50% weight New Position after Filter
1 1
A Smoothed PolyLine
25% weight
The [1,2,1] Smoothing Filter

equal to that applied to each of its two neighboring points
(that is, 33.3%, 33.3%, 33.3%). This gives more change than
the [1,2,1] filter, but less than the [1,0,1] filter.
1 33.3% weight New Position after Filter
1 1
A Smoother PolyLine
33.3% weight
The [1,1,1] Smoothing Filter

zero; equal weight is applied to each of its two neighboring
points (that is, 50%, 0%, 50%). This gives an overall
maximum change.
0% weight 0 New Position after Filter
1 1
The Smoothest PolyLine

50% weight
The [1,0,1] Smooth Filter
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Lines menu
Note This filter has a large smoothing effect and can hurt
the dimensional integrity of your section data. Use it
only on data that is very noisy.
Spike Filter
Smooths all visible lines by removing points, where any
one point is moved to line up with its 2 neighbors if the
angle between them is less than 15 degrees. Tends to
preserve the shape of lines.
Median Filter
Smooths all visible lines by moving points, where any one
point is moved to the median of itself and its 2 neighbors.
Tends to preserve the shape of lines while eliminating
spikes in the data. It can also eliminate sharp corners.
Spike Angle
Threshold = 15 degrees
The Spike Filter Based on Angular Measure
Avg MinMax Filter

Smooths all visible lines by moving points, where any one
point is moved to the average position of itself and its 2
neighbors. This tool is intended for really noisy data. It is
like a median filter, but it replaces a point with the average
of the Min and the Max in the 3x1 neighborhood of the
point.
Spike-Smooth
Smooths all visible lines by moving only the points that
are spikes, and smoothing them towards the curve.
Preserves an otherwise clean line exactly.
Spike-Median
Smooths all visible lines by moving only the points that
are spikes, and smoothing them towards the median of itself
and its 2 neighbors. Preserves an otherwise clean line
exactly.
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Lines menu
Line Index Swap

Reorders the points in all visible section lines to shorten
the length of the lines between the points. It has no effect
on good lines.
Fine Smooth
While the Filter > Smooth options provide a quick way to
smooth a rough line, there may be times when you want
to finely smooth a line to maintain its dimensional
integrity, particularly if fillets and radii depend on the
line. Use this tool for this kind of fine-tuning.
For noisy data, you will have to invoke this tool many
times. (For accelerated smoothing in this situation, the
Filter > Smooth options are more appropriate.)
Clean >
Blank Short Lines
Hides short lines so you can determine if they are
unnecessary.
Blank Lines w/Few Pts

Hides lines with only a few points so you can determine if
they are unnecessary.
Delete Bad Lines

Deletes bad lines. Bad lines are ones that are either single
points or long lines and have been compressed into a
small space.
Clean Out Blanked Lines

Deletes all hidden (blanked) lines.
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Lines menu
Reduce Points on Lines

Reduces the number of points on the visible lines, by
deleting those points that do not significantly change the
shape of the line.
C If d < 10 microns, discard point C.

If d > 10 microns, keep point C.
d
A B
A B
Chordal Deviation Point Reduction
Note Don’t forget to apply Chordal Deviation Reduction

prior to sending your sections to your surfacing
system.
Resample >
Segment Length Resampling
Resamples all visible lines to give a standard distance
between points. The process attempts to maintain sharp
corners, but does not guarantee it.
Number of Points Resampling

Resamples all visible lines to give each line a specified
number of points. This process attempts to maintain sharp
corners, but does not guarantee it.
You will want to use this option prior to using any of the
skin options from the Polygon menu.
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Lines menu
Sort >
For XYZ section cuts, this tool sorts all short section lines
in a given plane and combines them into a single line.
You will find that the line joins across a section. To clean it,
you should use the Split tools described above. Because
this cleaning process has already been done on most cloud
section data, typically you should not need to use this tool.
Uniform Resampling Process
Auto Process
Automatically performs the following functions (in the
following order) on all visible sections:
◆ Sort
◆ Multiple split
◆ Multiple break at longest
◆ Line Index swap
◆ Spike median
◆ Spike smooth
◆ Regular smooth
◆ Curve chordal deviation reduction
◆ Delete bad lines
Group Visible Lines

Groups all visible line objects to make them a single object,
and prompts you to provide a new name for the object.
Group Lines by Type

Groups lines together into sets of naturally associated
lines. This helps in picking out X-sections or other features
in unorganized raw line data files.
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Lines menu
When invoked, this tool will group all visible lines on

visible selected objects, after prompting you to enter a
base name that will be included as part of the name given
to each of the line type groups.
Visible lines are separated into the following types: X-
sections, Y-sections, Z-sections, planar curves (P), feature/
space curves (S), and straight lines (L). These sets will
appear as independent objects in the object list located at
the left-hand side of the EvalViewer window, using the
name you specified appended with the suffixes X, Y, Z, P,
S, or L.
Convert LinePts to CVs

Converts the selected lines into spline curves by
converting their points to CVs. This is a quick method for
smoothing out sections. For better ways of fitting a curve
to a line, see Curve Fit Methods on page 135.
Convert CVs to LinePts
Converts the selected curves into lines by converting their CVs

to line points.This is the reverse operation of LinePts to CVs
above.
Convert LinePts to Clouds

Sub-samples lines and reformats the set of points as a
point cloud.
Circle Fit
Fits circles to section data that is sufficiently circular. The
result is a new object with circles in a NURBS format
suitable for export to a modeling system such as Studio.
Line Fit
Fits lines to section data that is sufficiently straight. The
result is a new object with lines in a NURBS format
suitable for export to a modeling system such as Studio.
Line Width
Lets you adjust the width of lines in pixels to improve
visibility (for example, when looking at a cluttered model,
or when standing far from the screen).
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Lines menu
Keep NonAligned Data Only

Lets you keep data on sections that are not aligned with a
given vector.
Looking at Individual You can perform Line Selection with keyboard options if you
Line Sections prefer this approach:
● Page Up goes to the next section.
● Page Down goes to the previous section.
● Home reinitializes all objects to the first line selection.
● End does the same thing as the Show all button on the tab,
and resumes a normal state.
● Delete deletes the selected line(s) visible on the screen.
If you are concerned that sections are missing, select the tab
Lines > Show All or the End key to resume normal section
viewing.
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Lines menu
Curves > Curves menu
Curve Info
Displays information about the visible curve(s) on the
promptline, for example:
1 Lines & 61 Points on 1 Curves w/ 6 CV’s on
1 Visible Objects
Curve Fit Parameters

Opens a window where you can specify the following
parameters used by the curve fitting tools (See Fit All Lines
and Select Lines to Fit below.)
◆ Curve Fit Tolerance: maximum distance, in millimeters,
between the original line and the fitted curve.
◆ Spline Curve Degree: degree of the resulting curve,
from 1 to 23. The default is 3.
◆ Maximum Spans: maximum number of spans used in
the fitting process. The default value is set so that the
maximum number of spans is not really constrained.
If you set this option to 1 (one), then only Bezier
curves will be produced.
Curve Fit Methods >

Interpolate Curve
Generates a curve with a CV for every data point. Because
the resulting curve will have a large number of CVs, this
method is not generally recommended, unless you need a
curve that passes exactly through every data point. Please
note that interpolated curves may vary quite a bit in shape
in the regions between points.
LS Approximate: N-CVs
Generates an approximation of the curve using a given
number of CVs. This option is recommended if you have
constraints on the number of CVs you can use. You are
asked to specify the number of CVs after you request the
curve fit.
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Curves menu
LS Approximate: Variable
Generates a rough approximation of the curve. The
resulting curve will have a limited number of CVs, but
more than the Hull Fit option (see below). It uses a simple
doubling algorithm similar to what is used in Square and
Skin in the Polygons menu. We recommend Hull Fit over
this option. This curve fitting algorithm is included
because it parallels the logic in the current surface fitting
algorithm used in the current Skin and Square algorithms.
Hull Fit
Approximates the curve with a reasonably small number
of CVs. The resulting curve will be a smoothed
approximation, with an attempt made to minimize the
number of CVs, the number of oscillations, and the
number of inflection points. This method is recommended
for the highest quality fit possible in EvalViewer with the
fewest control points, but it does require more
computation time than the other methods. This is the
default. The same method is available in Surface Studio.
Fit All Lines

Performs the curve approximation or interpolation on all
visible lines, according to the Curve Fit Method and Curve Fit
Parameters already selected.
Select Lines to Fit

Performs the curve approximation or interpolation on all
cursor-selected lines, according to the Curve Fit Method and
Curve Fit Parameters already selected. Select the lines with
the left mouse button. When you are finished, click the
right mouse button.
Curve Comb Size

Sets the appearance of curvature combs. In the window
that appears, type a value. The sign of the value (+ or -)
determines on which side of the curve the comb appears.
The numerical part of the value determines the size of the
comb. The scale is in arbitrary units where the default is 1.
Note that curvature combs can be displayed on lines that
have not been fitted with curves.
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Curves menu
Create Curve on Active Plane

Creates spline curves on active planes.
Click the left mouse button or the middle mouse button to
create curve points. Click the right mouse button to
complete the curve. Double-click the right mouse button
to exit the Create Curve On Active Plane tool.
Create Curve on Polygons

Creates curves on polygon meshes. (For example, you
may want to use curves on polygon meshes to represent
surface boundaries for reverse engineering.)
create curve points. Click the right mouse button to
complete the curve. Double-click the right mouse button
to exit the Create Curve On Polygon tool.
Create Trace on Polygons

Creates traces on polygon meshes.
draw strokes. Double-click the right mouse button to exit
the Create Trace On Polygons tool.
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Curves menu
Polygons > Polygons menu
Polygon Info
Displays information about the visible polygon(s) on the
0 Visible Quads of 0, 240 Visible Triangles
of 240, 720 Vertices,1 Visible Objects
Select Lines to Skin

Builds an approximate spline surface from a set of selected
lines. For the surface to be meaningful, the lines must lie
more or less parallel to each other. You are prompted to
use the left or middle mouse button to select the lines (or
curves). When you are finished click the right mouse
button. An intermediate polygonal skin surface is
produced and a window appears where you can specify
the fit tolerance as well as U and V degrees for a spline
surface. If the polygonal surface is incorrect, click Cancel.
If you click OK, a spline surface is built.
In typical usage, you will get 3 new objects after each Skin.
The first object is a copy of the selected lines in the order
you selected them. The second object is a polygonal object
that shades like a surface, but is a polygon-only object. The
third object is created when you select OK and it contains
the surface fit. To lighten up the surfaces and produce
fewer CVs, increase the error tolerance as much as
possible.
Skin All Lines

This tools behaves as Select Lines to Skin above but acts on
all currently selected curves. This option is often handy
after the first attempt at skinning some data since you can
edit the copy of the selected lines only and reskin.
Square
Builds an approximate spline surface from four lines. You
are prompted to pick four lines (or curves) in turn. You are
then prompted to map square mesh vertices to data
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Polygons menu
surfaces. If you click OK, EvalViewer will try to create a

surface (based on the four curves) that closely matches the
nearest other polygonal mesh. You are then prompted to
enter a vertex update search size distance. This value
controls the speed of the surface-to-mesh mapping. The
smaller the value, the faster the mapping takes place.
For example, if you have a polygonal mesh and want to
create a surface over a part of the mesh, you would first
create four curves on the mesh representing the borders of
the surface (Curves > Create Curve On Polygons). You would
then create a square surface based on those four curves,
and map the square mesh vertices to data surfaces.
Combine/Weld Vertices
Gives you the option to combine duplicate polygonal
vertices. This is handy after reading an STL file.
(Previously, vertices were automatically combined when
read in from an STL file but this took too long.)
Check Polygons as Solid

Verifies that polygons are solids. This tool displays green
lines around holes or non-manifold geometry (such as
polygon flaps) to highlight problem areas.
Polygon Center Size

Adjusts the pixel size of polygon centers for improved
visibility.
Draft–Angle/Parting–Line
For downstream processes such as plastic injection
molding and sheet metal stamping, it is helpful to see the
variations in surface normal direction relative to a die pull
or mold vector direction (draft angle variations).
To view a color map showing draft angle variations, along
with the estimate of a parting line, select Polygons > Draft
Angle/Parting Line. A window appears where you can enter
the X-, Y-, and Z- coordinates for the die-pull vector, and
the minimum allowable draft angle. The given angle is
used to compute lines on the shape showing the parting
line and any draft angle violations.
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Polygons menu
For information, see Key in To use this tool effectively, you may want to view the
View Params on page 106. model from the die pull direction. To do this from
specified tip angles, select View > Key in View Parameters.
Polygon Offset
Produces an offset surface from an existing polygonal
surface. Offset surfaces are required for Numerical
Control (NC) manufacturing techniques such as milling.
After selecting this tool, you are prompted to enter the
offset distance in millimeters.
The offsets appear on one side of the surface. This side is
the same as the side that is shaded for one-sided shading.
(To see one-sided shading, select Surfaces > One-sided
shading.)
Polygon Deform
Deforms a region of space. Any polygon meshes within
this region are then deformed the same amount.
When you select Polygons > Polygon Deform, an option box
appears containing the following options.
X, Y, Z of Deform Center: the location of the center of the
deformation region.
X, Y, Z of Deform Amount: the magnitude of the deformation
at the Deform Center. The magnitude of the deformation
decreases toward the edges of the deformation region.
X, Y, Z of Deform Extent: the distances from the Deform Center
to the edges of the deformation region.
Convert Polygons to Clouds

Sub-samples polygons and reformats the set of points as a
point cloud. If you enter 1, you get one cloud point per
polygon vertex. If you enter 2, you additionally get the
polygon centers as cloud data.
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Polygons menu
Plane Menu >

XY-Plane
Creates an XY plane through a Z-coordinate that you are
prompted for.
YZ-Plane
Creates a YZ plane through a X-coordinate that you are
prompted for.
ZX-Plane
Creates a ZX plane through a Y-coordinate that you are
prompted for.
Three (3)-Point Plane

Creates a plane from three points. You are prompted to
click each of the three points. Cloud points, line points,
curve CVs, polygon points (vertices) and surface CVs are
all valid choices.
Two (2)-Point Plane

Creates a plane from two points. You are prompted to
click each of the two points. The plane will pass through
the first point and will be normal to the line defined by
both points.
ABCD-Plane
This tool is useful if you know the mathematical
specification of a plane and want to plug it in. Most
designers will not want to use this option.
You are prompted to specify A, B, C, and D values to meet
the mathematical formula: Ax+By+Cz=D. (A, B, and C
values determine the vector that the plane is normal to,
and D represents its offset from the origin.)
Polygon Plane
Extends a plane from a polygon. You are prompted to click
the polygon’s center.
Vertex Plane
Creates a plane at a polygon’s vertex. You are prompted to
click a vertex of a smooth shaded polygon. The smooth
shaded (Gourand) normal at the vertex is used to define
the plane’s normal. In the case of a polygon created from
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Polygons menu
tessellating a surface, this normal corresponds to the

normal of the underlying surface. Otherwise, it is
computed as the equally weighted average of the
surrounding facets normals.
Plane of Line
Creates a plane based on the picked line. You are
prompted to click the line. If the line is not planar, the
plane that best fits all the points on the line is used.
Plane Normal to Line

Creates a plane normal to the tangent of the line at the
point where you selected the line. You are prompted to
click the line.
Select Active Plane

Allows you to select active plane. You are prompted to use
the left or middle mouse button to select the active plane
and to use the right mouse button to cancel the procedure.
Smooth Triangles
Smooths a polygon mesh. This tool similar to the Vertex
Smooth tool in EvalViewer.
You can now smooth a polygon mesh (without increasing
the number of triangles) or reduce the number of triangles
in a polygon mesh. For example, you may want to first
smooth a polygon mesh, then reduce the number of
triangles, then smooth it again, and so on.
Reduce Triangles
Reduces the number of triangles in a polygon mesh. This
tool is similar to the Polygon Reduction tool in Studio.
When you select Polygons > Reduce Triangles, a Polygon
Decimation Tolerance option box appears. Polygon
decimation tolerance is the maximum acceptable
difference between the reduced polygon mesh and the
original polygon mesh at any point.
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Polygons menu
Surfaces > Surfaces menu
Surface Info
Displays information about the visible surface(s) on the
0 Polygons and 0 Vertices on 0 Surfaces on
1 Visible Objects
XYZ Section Cuts

Opens a window where you choose the section cut
spacings, the Start value (minimum) and the Stop value
(maximum). The minimum value must be less than the
maximum value. If not, you will find that you don’t get
any sections.
You may choose any combination of X, Y, and/or Z
sections. Bear in mind that execution time is heavily
influenced by the section spacing, because smaller spacing
require more sections.
Once the XYZ Sections are computed, the points are
linked together to create section lines, and are selectable
separately in the text list and in the Surf tab as Cross
Sections.
Radial Section Cuts

Opens a window where you choose the section cut center
(XYZ), axis orientation (XYZ Vector), and the number of
equally-angular-spaced sections.
Once the Sections are computed, the points are linked
together to create section lines, and are selectable
separately in the text list.
One-Sided Shading
Shades only the positive side of the visible surfaces. The
other side will be black. You will need to polygonize these
surfaces first.
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Surfaces menu
Two-Sided Shading
Shades both sides of the visible surfaces. This is the
default.
Flat Shading
The default for cloud data polygonization. This form of
shading is faster than Smooth Shading.
Smooth Shading
Smooth Shading takes a little longer to compute than Flat
Shading. It is the default for surface polygonization or
tessellation. The normal at each vertex is computed as the
equally weighted average of the normals of the
surrounding polygons, giving the object a smooth, rather
than faceted, appearance.
Flip Normals
Flips the surface normals for all visible surfaces. To flip
individual surface normals, use the Flip Normal button on
the Edit tab.
Flip Connectivity
Flips the ordering of the polygons in relation to the
polygon normal when the polyset displays in black with
two-sided display. This will redisplay the polyset with the
normals oriented correctly.
Creates polygon meshes over surfaces to allow continuous
shading, while you manipulate the view. Also in the Surf
tab. Otherwise, Surfaces appear only as Hulls and CVs.
Note You must use this tool before using any of the
curvature map tools.
Make T-Strips
Reorders the existing polygon mesh to make the drawing
faster, and is most effective with the higher end machines.
You may find that a few of the polygons are drawn in
black with this faster display.
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Surfaces menu
Curvature Color Maps >
No Curvature
removes any curvature maps displayed on the visible
surfaces. Also in the Surf tab.
U Curvature, V Curvature, X Curvature, Y Curvature, Z Curvature,

Gauss Curvature, Mean Curvature, Max Curvature, Min Curvature,
Total Curvature
Display a color, shaded representation of the specified
curvature, the color curvature values in the model
window, and a title of the type of curvature in the
promptline. Work only on surfaces that have been
converted to polygons. Also in the Surf tab.
Color Bar Options >

Control the number of colors that are used on the surface
in the Curvature display. Choose from three, five, or seven
colors. Seven is the default.
These tools are useful for users who have color perception
problems, or are used to color maps with a limited range
in other systems.
You should set the color range choice before selecting the
curvature, because these tools only affect subsequent
maps — you can, of course, recalculate existing curvature
maps.
Vector Maps >
U,V-Vectors
Samples the visible surfaces, and creates line geometry for
each of the U tangent, V tangent, and Surface normals,
which can be displayed independently.
Note Vector maps will only be displayed if Display > Lines is

on.
Min,Max-Vectors
Samples the visible surfaces, and creates line geometry for
each of Minimum tangent, Maximum tangent, and Surface
normals, which can be displayed independently.
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Surfaces menu
HiLite Lines
Creates highlight lines over all the visible surfaces. You
will need to polygonize the surfaces first. These are
separate lines generated from the view with a horizontal
light source behind the viewer’s head, and may be
selected individually and saved out. Also in the Surf tab.
To raise and lower the light source to create additional
lines, use Incr and Decr in the Surf tab.
Group Pgns/Surfs
Groups multiple surfaces on multiple objects into one list
of surfaces on one object.
Reset CVs
Resets the location of edited CVs to the state when they
were read in or last saved with Save CVs.
Save CVs
Saves the position of all selected CVs in your model.
Further edits can later be undone by selecting Reset CVs.
Surface Offset
Creates surface offsets within tolerance. With Surface
Offset, you can create a new surface by duplicating and
offsetting each point on the original surface by some
distance. When you select Surface Offset, an option box
called Spline Surface Offset Distance appears containing the
following options.
Enter Offset Distance

The distance that the new surface will be offset from the
original surface.
Enter Surface Tolerance

The maximum acceptable distance between the offset
surface and the original surface at any point.
Surface Simplify
Simplifies surfaces within tolerance. When you select
Surface Simplify, an option box called Spline Surface
Simplification Tolerance appears containing the following
option.
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Surfaces menu
Enter Maximum Deviation

The maximum acceptable difference between the
simplified surface and the original surface at any point.
Rational Surface Convert

Achieves non-rational surfaces within a tolerance. The
Surface Offset option requires non-rational surfaces.
Rational Surface Convert ensures that this option works on
all NURBS surfaces.
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Surfaces menu
Objects > Objects menu
Note When you import EvalViewer wire files, all layer

information is now maintained in EvalViewer. If you
then export the wire file from EvalViewer, the wire file
will contain the original layer information.
Object Info
A dialog box showing the contents of EvalViewer appears.
In order to provide a cut and paste text string, we have
concentrated all the status information from the other Info
commands in one string and added the basic Object count
information.
2/2/2 Sel/Vis/Tot: [1 P/S] Q0/0, T19602/19602, V19800,
S1/Cv16:[1 L/C] L3, P15, C0/Cv0: [0 C] P0/0
The first three numbers state how many objects are visible
in the object list, how many are selected, and how many
objects total. Most of the time, that is all you might be
interested in. However, to summarize the state of EV more
info is provided.
● [P/S] is the number of Polygon or Surface Objects
● Q is the number of Quadrilateral Polygons that are visible
out of the total number of Quadrilateral Polygons.
● T is the number of visible triangles out of the total number
of triangles.
● V is the number of vertices in the vertex list used by the
triangle and quadrilateral polygon arrays.
● S is the number of spline surfaces.
● The CV immediately following the S is the total number of
control vertices on all the spline surfaces.
● [L/C] is the number of Lines or Curve Objects
● L is the number of the total number of lines.
● The P after the L is the total number of points on lines.
● The C is the number of spline curves.
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Objects menu
● The Cv after the C is the number of control vertices on the

spline curves.
● [C] is the number of Cloud objects.
● The P after the [C] is the number of visible points out of
the total number of points.
It is not necessary for you to pay attention to anything
after the Sel/Vis/Tot part of the text. Advanced users who
are curious about the total amount of data in the viewer
can use the above guide to interpret the numbers if they
are interested.
For more information Bounding Box Info

about bounding boxes, Displays the current bounding box information in the
see MinMaxBoxes on Sel promptline.
Objs on page 117.
Sort by Name
Sorts objects in alphabetical order.
Sort by Volume
Sorts objects so that the largest boxed objects occur first in
the object list.
Sort by Size
Sorts objects so that the ones with the most CVs occur first
in the object list.
Rename Object
Allows you to rename selected objects.
Visible Last
This option is critical for good transparency displays.
Select the transparent objects in the object list and then
select Objects > Visible Last.
Selected First
Moves the selected group of objects to the top of the list.
Solid Primitives >

Inserts one of the following primitives into the EvalViewer
window: sphere, cylinder, block, cone, or torus.
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Objects menu
Group Objs by Layers

Combines all objects in each layer into a single object. For
example, if you have twenty surfaces on five layers, you
have twenty EvalViewer objects by default. Using this
menu option, you will get five objects, one for each layer.
This option is only useful if you use layers in Studio.
Layer Info
Displays layer information for selected objects.
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Objects menu
Misc > Misc menu
Default Units >
Allows you to set the units that you want to use in EvalViewer.
In addition to millimeters (mm), you can select the following
units: inches (in), centimeters (cm), meters (m), kilometers
(km), feet (ft), yards (yd), miles (mi), microns (um),
nanometers (nm), thousandths of an inch (th), and
microInches (ui).
To display the current default unit setting, select Misc> Default

Units> Show Default Units.
Note You should select one of these units before you open
any files at the beginning of your EvalViewer session.
Preferences >
Cloud Tolerances
Opens a window that allows you to set the Connection
Tolerance in mm and the Input Sampling, which defaults
to 1. The max scan line length is also prompted for which
controls the length of the search in the QuickRender
algorithm.
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Misc menu
Line Tolerances
Opens a window that allows you to set the Line Deviation
in mm. This tool controls tolerances used for the end gap
calculations in the Line Combine tools as well as several
other parameters.
Surface Tolerances
Opens a window that allows you to set the Surface
Tolerance. The default is 0.09. Surface Tolerance affects the
polygonization of surfaces to polygons.
A smaller tolerance yields a greater number of smaller
polygons. A larger tolerance yields a fewer number of
bigger polygons. We recommend 0.09 for high quality
displays and up to 1.2 for lower quality (but fewer
polygon) displays. This number has no dimension.
Interact Tolerance
Opens a window that allows you to set the Max Draw
time in seconds. The default is 0.1.
Object List Size
Motif is the standard X Window manager on UNIX systems.

The object list is a scrolled Motif list widget. It gets very slow
when you have too many objects in the object list. For this
reason, EvalViewer only shows the top 200 objects by default
even though it can handle as many objects as your computer
can handle.
To change the number of objects that can be listed, use this

option. Enter the number of objects that you wish to have
displayed in the list. The length of time for object list
operations will increase substantially as the number of objects
increases to more than 1000.
Surface Display
Allows you to change the default parametric tolerance value

used when the tab Disp > Surfaces switch is turned on.
Diag–Sections
Allows you to set all the parameters for the real-time

diagnostic sections you activate on the Diag tab.
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Misc menu
CrvVec Length
The Diagnostics (Diag) tab allows you to turn on or off

Curvature Vectors (CrvVecs) on a surface. The CrvVec Length
controls the relative length of the curvature vectors.
Hilite Increment
Adjusts the relative spacing of the horizontal light sources that

are located at the front of the display (behind your eye). They
are simulated when you select Moving-HiLites or Hold-HiLites
from the Diag tab. A value of 1.0 does not change this spacing.
Larger factors space the light sources further apart.
Unix Shell
Opens a UNIX window for you to enter UNIX commands to

the operating system. This option can be useful for opening a
shell window when the application window fills the entire
screen.
About EvalViewer
Displays a window with information about the current

version of EvalViewer.
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Misc menu
Examples > Examples menu
Point Cloud
Creates a sample Point Cloud for you to practice cloud
operations.
Lines
Creates 3 Lines for you to practice line operations.
Polygonal Block
Creates a Polygonal Cuboid with 1:2:3 proportions for you to
practice polygonal operations.
Polygonal Sphere
Creates a Polygonal Sphere with a unit radius for you to
practice polygonal operations.
Nurbs Curves
Creates 3 NURBS Curves for you to practice curve
operations.
Nurbs Surface
Creates a Deformed NURBS Plane for you to practice surface
operations.
Trimmed Nurbs Surface

Creates a Deformed NURBS Plane (that is Trimmed) for you
to practice surface operations.
NurbsTorus
Creates a NURBS Torus for you to practice surface
operations.
Nurbs Circles
Creates 5 NURBS Circles for you to practice curve
operations.
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Examples menu
Compare > Compare menu
Clouds To Clouds
This option enables Cloud to Cloud distance checking
whenever you subsequently select the Compute Comparison
option. You should always select the type of comparison
you wish to make prior to computing the comparison
information.
The compare computation will compute the distances
from the points in one point cloud to the nearest points in
the other point cloud. Since there is no concept of surface
normal in a point cloud, the association of points may or
may not be meaningful. Since point cloud samplings can
vary in density, the reported statistics may reflect
sampling differences rather than geometry differences.
An object containing a special geometry type, called
Deviation Vectors, is produced by the comparison
computation.
Clouds To Lines
This option enables Cloud to Line distance checking
information.
An object containing Deviation Vectors is created to show
the cloud points are related to the line data.
Clouds To Polygons
This option enables Cloud to Polygon distance checking
information.
The compare computation will compute the true 3D
distance from the points in the cloud data to the polygons
that make up the objects being drawn. This computation is
always well behaved. Points that do not project
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Compare menu
approximately normal to the polygon mesh are not

included in the final statistics and deviation vector are not
drawn.
This option provides a color error map and deviation
vectors. The color error map range can be adjusted with
Incr & Decr on the Surf tab, or by using the Up and Down
arrow keys.
Clouds To Surfaces
This option enables Cloud to Surface distance checking
option. You should select the type of comparison you wish
to make prior to computing the comparison information.
The compare computation will attempt to compute the
true 3D distance from the points in the cloud to the
underlying B-Spline surfaces. Points that are nearby but
do not project normal to the surface are not included in the
final statistics and deviation vectors are not drawn. If any
mathematical problems occur with the B-Spline
computation, the polygonal distance estimate is used.
This option provides a color error map and deviation
vectors. The color error map range can be adjusted with
Incr & Decr on the Surf tab, or by using the Up and Down
arrow keys.
Lines To Lines
This option enables Line to Line distance checking
This comparison is useful if you wish to compare groups
of sections from one surface with a similar group of
sections from a similar surface.
Lines To Curves
This option enables Line to Curve distance checking
This comparison function is useful if you wish to compare
a group of lines to a group of B-Spline curves that are
similar in shape.
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Compare menu
Lines To Polygons
This option enables Line to Polygons distance checking
This comparison function maps the line segments of lines
to a set of polygons and draws deviation vectors for the
closest approach of each line segment.
Lines To Surfaces
This option enables Lines to Surfaces distance checking
to do prior to computing the comparison information.
This comparison function maps the line segments of lines
to a surface and draws deviation vectors for the closest
approach of each line segment. The computation checks
points against B-Spline surfaces.
Polygons To Polygons
This option enables Polygon to Polygon distance checking
This comparison function combines gap and interference
checking functions. For two sets of polygons on two
separate objects, it tests every polygon on the first object
against every polygon on the second object and computes
the distance between them if they are sufficiently close to
each other. If any of the polygons intersect each other, the
minimum distance between the objects is zero. If the
objects do not intersect, the minimum distance between
the objects is computed.
Polygons To Surfaces
This option enables Polygon to Surface distance checking
The polygons to surfaces computation is identical to
polygon to polygon computation with the exception that
the minimum distance computations are updated using
the spline information on the surfaces.
Menus
157
Compare menu
Show Possible Types

Examines the object list and displays the types of visible
object geometry (and hence possible comparisons) on the
promptline. Check marks are also automatically added to
the corresponding items in the Compare menu. This can be
the first step in a Compare workflow.
Color Map
When the compare menu is operated as a tear-off menu,
this toggle switch provides a convenient way to turn off
the color error mapping function when needed rather than
using the ColorBar option in the Display menu.
Acceptable Range
When you need to see the regions where deviations
exceed a particular magnitude, you can type in an upper
and lower limit of acceptability. The color bar range is
automatically adjusted, and two line data sets are
computed which approximately outline the areas which
are out of tolerance.
Deviation Vectors
If at any point you do not want to see Deviation Vectors,
this toggle switch controls whether or not the Deviation
Vectors are displayed.
Deviation Factor
When deviations are very small, it is difficult to
graphically interpret trends in the deviation vectors. This
option allows you to type in a factor which will exaggerate
the length of the deviation vectors.
Exact Check to Surfs

When using a surface in a Compare operation, the Exact
Check uses the corresponding polygonal mesh to compute
an initial estimate of the (u,v) surface spline domain
coordinates of the closest point, then does a non-linear
Newton iteration to get the exact distance between a point
and the surface. Currently, Exact Check is only a
meaningful distinction when Clouds to Surfaces, or Lines to
Surfaces, Polygons to Surfaces, or Lines to Curves is checked.
Menus
158
Compare menu
If it is not one of these options, there is no distinction

between Exact and Approximate so it does not make any
difference which option is checked.
Approx Check to Pgns

The Approximate Check is faster than the Exact Check,
but not as accurate, since it only computes an estimate
using the polygonal mesh. In theory, if you tessellate
surfaces to 0.1 mm precision, the results of the
approximate check will only be accurate to plus or minus
0.2 mm. Currently, Approximate Check is only a
meaningful distinction when Clouds to Surfaces, Lines to
Surfaces, Polygons to Surfaces, or Lines to Curves is checked.
Compute as Needed
When this toggle switch is on, the Compute Comparison
option is invoked during every redraw of the screen. This
option is only useful when you have limited size data sets.
You should always run the Compute Comparison option
first to see how long the comparison function takes before
invoking it on every redraw with this option.
Compute Comparison
You will use this option most often when doing compare
functions.
When you select this option, you are prompted for the
search size distance. The search size distance specifies the
maximum distance that you are interested in knowing
about. For example, in Cloud to Surface checking, the
search size distance is the maximum distance a point can
be from a surface and still contribute to the statistics and
the Deviation Vector set.
For large data sets, you will not want to use the Compute
As Needed function which updates on every draw.
Generate Report File

The generate report function is the same as the Compute
Comparison function except that you are prompted for a
filename in which to write the comparison data.
Menus
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Compare menu
Help > Help menu
Click for Help

Turns the cursor into a question mark. You may then click
any user interface (UI) element (for example, a button or
menu pick) and a brief help message will appear
describing that item.
Alternatively, you can point the mouse pointer at an item
and press F1.
Overview
Refer to the Overview section in this document for more
information about EvalViewer.
Index
Refer to the index in this document for more information.
Keys & Shortcuts

Refer to the Appendix in this document for more
information.
Product Information
Gives the name of the executable for EvalViewer.
Menus
160
Help menu
Tabs
The tabs are at the bottom of the EvalViewer interface.
In this section: Query tab on page 162

View tab on page 164
Display tab on page 166
Subset tab on page 168
Line tab on page 170
Surfaces tab on page 172
Reflect tab on page 174
Light tab on page 176
Color tab on page 178
Edit tab on page 180
Diagnostics tab on page 184
Mesh tab on page 189
Temporary View tab on page 199
Transform tab on page 200
Tabs
161
Query > Query tab
Multi-View (Pick Nothing)

Stops any continuous tool by deselecting it. It does not
deselect objects. To deselect objects, select None from the
palette box.
Tape
Displays an approximate linear measure on the screen.
Click first on some geometry and then hold and drag with
the mouse. The measure will update interactively. The
measure is accurate in screen resolution in the
orthographic views, and approximate in oblique views.
Protractor
Displays an approximate angular measure on the screen.
Click first on some geometry to define a datum line, and
then hold and drag with the mouse. The angular measure
will update interactively.
When querying a Cloud Pt, Cloud Pt (Cloud Point)

Line Pt, Pgn Vtx, Pgn Ctr, When you pick a cloud point in the graphics window, you
Obj Ctr, CV or Distance, the
selected points are indicated will see its XYZ coordinates displayed on the promptline.
on the screen by red boxes. If For example, the promptline might read:
you pick another point 0: Object ‘vase.cyber’: Point 11389:
without changing the
display or your 3D view, (19.380, 42.315, -54.705)
previously queried points
are indicated by grey boxes. Line Pt (Line Point)
When you pick a line point in the graphics window, you
will see its XYZ coordinates displayed on the promptline.
For example, the promptline might read:
0: Object ‘PolyLines’: PolyLine 1, Point 3:
(150.000, 0.000, 20.000)
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162
Query tab
Pgn-Vtx (Polygon Vertex)

When you pick a polygon vertex point in the graphics
window, you will see its XYZ coordinates displayed on the
promptline. For example, the promptline might read:
1: Object ‘Block’: Surface 0, Vertex 0: (-
25.000, 50.000, 50.000)
Pgn-Ctr (Polygon Center)

When you click a polygon in the graphics window, you
will see the XYZ coordinates of its center displayed on the
1: Obj Block’: Surf 1, Quad 0: ( -
175.000, 0.000, 25.000 )
Obj-Ctr (Object Center)

When you click an object in the graphics window, you will
see the XYZ coordinates of its center displayed on the
1: Object ‘Sphere’ : ( 0.000 , 100.000
, 100.000 )
CV (Control Vertex)
As you pick a CV point in the graphics window, you will
see its XYZ coordinates displayed on the promptline. For
example, the promptline might read:
1: Object ‘NurbsSurface’: Surface 1, CV 1:
(-50.000, 100.000, 50.000)
Distance
As you pick two points in the graphics window, you will
see their XYZ coordinates displayed on the promptline as
well as the distance between the two points. For example,
the promptline might read:
Distance From ( 290.143, -190.163, 143.292
) To ( 139.862, -103.846, 141.470 ) =
173.316 mm
Obj Invis (Object Invisibility)

As you pick objects, they become invisible.
Tabs
163
Query tab
View > View tab
The items in this tab let you change the view of objects in your
display.
Look At
Centers on and fills the view with the visible objects. Also
in the View menu.
Dolly
Moves the camera forward or backward to enlarge or
shrink the view.
Front
Displays the Front view of the visible objects. Also in the
View menu.
Left
Displays the Left view of the visible objects. Also in the
View menu.
Top
Displays the top view of the visible objects. Also in the
View menu.
Back
Displays the back view of the visible objects. Also in the
View menu.
Right
Displays the right view of the visible objects. Also in the
View menu.
Under
Displays the bottom view of the visible objects. Also in the
View menu.
Standard Views > Left-Front

Displays an oblique view of the visible objects looking
down at the Left Front corner. Also in the View menu.
Tabs
164
View tab
Standard Views > Right-Front

down at the Right Front corner. Also in the View menu.
Standard Views > Right-Back/Rear

down at the Right Back (Rear) corner. Also in the View
menu.
Standard Views > Left-Back/Rear

down at the Left Back (Rear) corner. Also in the View
menu.
Orthographic
Toggles the view from perspective projection to
Orthographic. Also in the View menu.
Perspective
Toggles the view from orthographic projection to
Perspective. Also in the View menu.
Interactive Viewing With EvalViewer uses the default mouse button assignments for
Shift - Alt Shift - Alt:
Shift-Alt Left Mouse Press and Move = Tumble (Rotate)

Middle Press and Move = Track (Translate)
Right Press and Move = Dolly (Move In and Out)
Tabs
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View tab
Disp > Display tab
The Disp tab toggles on and off the display of items in the
modeling window. The state of the toggle is displayed by a
marker. Yellow indicates that the toggle is ON.
Outlines
Toggles on or off the display of polygon outlines. Also in
the Display menu.
Pts (Points)
Toggles on or off the display of points. Also in the Display
menu.
Lns (Lines)
Toggles on or off the display of lines. Also in the Display
menu.
Pgns (Polygons)
Toggles the display of polygons. Also in the Display menu.
CVs (Control Vertices)

Toggles on or off the display of NURBS Control Vertices.
Also in the Display menu.
Hulls
Toggles on or off the display of Hulls. Also in the Display
menu.
Grid
Toggles on or off the display of the ground plane grid.
Also in the Display menu.
Reflect
Toggles on or off the display of reflection lines. Also in the
Display menu.
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Display tab
Backdrop
Toggles on or off the display of a backdrop image (default
sky). Also in the Display menu.
Tabs
167
Display tab
Subset > Subset tab
In
When toggled on (yellow box), allows you to keep the
selected points of a cloud or the selected polygons of a
surface or view mesh.
Out
When toggled on, allows you to delete the selected points
of a cloud or the selected polygons of a surface or view
mesh.
Box
Allows you to select points on a cloud or polygons on a
surface or view mesh using a bounding box.
Ngon (Polygon)
surface or view mesh using a polygon with an arbitrary
number of sides. Click down with the left or middle
mouse button to specify the polygon’s vertices. Click
down with the right mouse button when you’re finished.
Trace
surface or view mesh using a traced contour.
Circle
surface or view mesh by drawing a circle.
Undo
Undoes all subsetting (cropping) operations since the last
confirmed one.
Tabs
168
Subset tab
Tgl (Toggle)
Swaps the subsetted (cropped) volume, making the visible
subsetted (cropped) data invisible and the invisible
subsetted data visible.
Confirm
Deletes any cropped points that are not visible. This will
fix the status of the data and Undo functions. Future
subsetting operations will start on the subsetted object
from this point.
SepVis+Tgl (Separate Visible Geometry and Toggle)

The Separate Visible Geometry and Toggle tool splits off the
visible geometry (resulting from subsetting operations)
into a separate object and toggles the invisible cropped
piece(s) back to visible. You are prompted for a name for
the new object.
If you are using cloud data, this feature lets you partition
the data that is used for sphere fits, plane fits, and surface
fits into separate objects.

deselect objects. To deselect objects select None from the
palette box.
CreateLine
Allows you to trace a polyline onto a cloud of points or a
surface or view mesh to use as a feature curve. You can
also trace on line data or on polygon data.
Tabs
169
Subset tab
Line > Line tab

palette box.
Del Pt (Delete Point)

Allows you to select and delete points on a line. This is a
continuous tool; you must select Pick > Nothing to finish the
operation.
Del Seg (Delete Segment)

Allows you to select and break a line by deleting the
selected segment. This is a continuous tool; you must
select Pick > Nothing to finish the operation.
Del Line (Delete Line)

Allows you to select and delete a line. This is a continuous
tool; you must select Lines > Multi-View to finish the
operation.
Undo
Restores the last deleted line. Works back until you reach
your last confirmed Delete.
Undo All
Restores all lines deleted since your last confirm
operation.
Confirm
Confirms all lines deleted since your last confirm
operation. You will not be able to undo these deletions
after you use this command.
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170
Line tab
Select
Allows you to select a line and perform a function on it.
The selected line becomes the only visible line.
Smooth Selected
Smooths the selected line. Repeated use will increase
smoothness.
Show All
Displays all lines. Used in conjunction with Select Line.
Join
Allows you to select and join two polylines at the
indicated point. This is a continuous tool; you must select
Lines > MultiView to finish the operation.
Note You can also select polylines with keyboard options.
Page Up selects the next section

Page Down selects the previous section
Home reinitializes all objects to the first line
selection.
End does the same thing as the Show all button on
the tab, and resumes a normal state.
Delete deletes the selected line(s) visible on the
screen.
Tabs
171
Line tab
Surf > Surfaces tab
Cross Section
Opens a window where you can choose the section cut
spacings, the start value (minimum) and the stop value
(maximum). You may choose any combination of X, Y,
and/or Z sections.
Bear in mind that execution time is heavily influenced by
the section spacing, because smaller spacing requires more
sectioning. Once the XYZ sections are computed, the
points are linked together to create section polylines, and
are selectable separately in the text list and in Surfaces >
XYZ Section Cuts.
Creates a polygon mesh over the surface to allow
continuous faster shading while you manipulate the view.
Also in the Surfaces menu.
Note You should use this tool before trying any of the curvature
map tools
U, V, X, Y, Z, Gauss, Mean, Max, Min, Tot(al)

These choices display a color shaded representation of
their respective curvature, along with a curvature value
color bar in the right hand side of the modeling window.
The type of curvature in displayed on the promptline.
These choices work only on surfaces that have been
converted to polygons, and are also available in the
Surfaces menu.
Tabs
172
Surfaces tab
Incr (Increase)
Increases the curvature radius value that corresponds to
the “maximum color” (black or magenta). Other curvature
radius values are then mapped through the color
spectrum. In HiLite mode, this choice increases the height
of the set of linear light lines relative to your eye.
Decr (Decrease)
Decreases the curvature radius value that corresponds to
the “maximum color” (black or magenta). Other curvature
radius values are then mapped through the color
spectrum. In HiLite mode, Decr decreases the height of the
set of linear light lines relative to your eye.
None
Removes any curvature maps displayed on the visible
surfaces. Also in the Surfaces menu.
HiLites
Creates static highlight lines over all the visible surfaces
(you will need to polygonize the surfaces first). Highlight
lines are separate lines generated from the view with a
horizontal light source behind the viewer’s head, and may
be selected individually and saved out. Incr and Decr (in
the Surfaces tab) raise and lower the light source to create
additional lines. Also available in the Surfaces menu.
LineCut
Allows you to draw a rubber-banded line on the screen
and cut a corresponding section through the shaded
geometry. The orientation of the plane used to cut the
geometry is determined by the view window in which
you draw the Line Cut line.
If you draw the line drawn in an orthographic window,
then the intersecting plane is perpendicular to the
window.
If you draw the line in the perspective window, then the
intersecting plane passes through the eye point (see the
menu View > Set Eye Point).
When viewed from above, parallel line cut lines drawn in
an orthographic window generate parallel section cuts.
The same lines drawn in the perspective window generate
section cuts that fan out when viewed from above.
Tabs
173
Surfaces tab
Reflect > Reflect tab
These choices let you specify how mirror reflections will

appear. Note that all of these tools are used as a mirror
reflection without blending.
Reflect Horizontal Black & White Bars

Sets a mirror reflection on all the visible surfaces, using
horizontal black and white bars.
Vertical Black & White Bars

vertical black and white bars.
Horizontal Color Bars

horizontal colored bars.
Vertical Color Bars

vertical colored bars.
Sky with Clouds

Sets a sky with clouds reflection on all visible surfaces.
Sunset Scene
Sets a mirror reflection on all the visible surfaces, using a
sunset over a seascape.
Sky & Mountains 1

spherically corrected Studio Utah picture.
Sky & Mountains 2

Sets a mirror reflection on all the visible surfaces.
Grid Black & White

black and white grid.
Tabs
174
Reflect tab
Cafe Scene
spherically-corrected SGI cafe scene image.
Flowers
spherically-corrected SGI flowers image.
Black Line on White Background Grid

Set a reflection map with narrow black lines on a white
background. This roughly simulates the reflected
appearance that you would see in some design studios.
User 1
Sets a user customized reflection map. A default map is
provided if you do not have one defined. The filename of
the User 1 custom reflection map is the following:
$HOME/.evalview/CustomRefMaps/UserImage1
You can set three different images that are customized for
your login. The default uUser 1 image is a single horizon
line image.
User 2
your login. The default User 2 image is a double horizon
line image.
User 3
your login. The default User 3 image is a marble texture
image.
None
Removes all reflection maps from the visible surfaces.
Tabs
175
Reflect tab
Light > Light tab
Lets you control lighting.
Note The default lighting configuration consists of one light near

your eye. The lights always move with the camera.
On: 1, 2, 3, 4
Turns Light 1, 2, 3, 4 on or off. A yellow box beside the
number shows the light is on.
Move
Radio buttons that let you select the light to be edited. The
check mark shows which light you are working on.
2 sliders (Horizontal and Vertical)

Let you set the horizontal and vertical movement of the
light in relation to your view. You can rotate the light from
-90 to 90 degrees.
Pick HiLite
Allows you to select points on any surface so that the
specular highlight appears on or near the point you pick.
Dim
Allows you to control the brightness of surface highlights
without affecting the brightness of overall illumination.
For example, if surface highlights are obscuring details
that you want to see, you can reduce the brightness of the
highlight.
The Dim option on the Light tab controls the brightness of
all surface highlights produced by the current light
Tabs
176
Light tab
Note To familiarize yourself with light sources, select the menu

Examples > Polygonal Sphere. Then select one of the
choices 1, 2, 3, or 4 in this tab. The default lighting
configuration is one light near your eye. Try selecting and
moving each of the lights in turn.
Tabs
177
Light tab
Color > Color tab
Lets you set the colors used by EvalViewer.
Def (Default)
Resets all the colors in the tab window (except the
background color) to their default values.
Ran (Random)
Assigns different random colors to all objects.
Back
Selects the background and allows you to edit its color
with the 3 adjacent RGB sliders.
Pts (Points)
Selects all visible points and allows you to edit their color
Lns (Lines)
Selects visible lines and allows you to edit their color with
the 3 adjacent RGB Sliders.
Pgns (Polygons)
Selects visible Polygons and allows you to edit their color
3 sliders
These sliders show current RBG values for the selected
object type and let you change them from 0 to 255. Use
these sliders in conjunction with the above selection
buttons to adjust the color values of objects in the view.
Tabs
178
Color tab
Lights
Allows you to control the color of each light. When the
Lights option in the Color tab is on, the RGB settings on the
Color tab control the color of the current light.
If you modify the colors of various objects in EvalViewer and

would like to use those same colors in your next session, you
can save an EVGeo file using File > Save EVGeo.
Note EvalViewer reads the diffuse shader colors when you access
a wire file. Shaders are not set when you save a wire file to
disk.
Tabs
179
Color tab
Edit > Edit tab
The Edit tab provides tools for editing Surface Control Vertices
(CVs). You can either:
● select CVs either one at a time, in a box, or along a U-hull
or V-hull line using either the All, None, or Toggle switches
● edit CVs with mouse motions using the left, middle, and
right mouse buttons to control either X, Y, Z world
coordinates movements, W(idth), H(eight), and O(ut)
screen coordinate movements, or N(ormal), U, and V
surface coordinate movements
● select an appropriate control factor for mouse motions by
clicking the CV-Incr button and typing a value for the CV
sensitivity in the window.

palette box
1CV
Allows you to select a single CV at a time.
Box
Allows you to select CVs using the conventional rubber-
banded box.
U-Hull
Allows you to select an entire row of CVs.
V-Hull
Allows you to select an entire column of CVs.
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180
Edit tab
All
Selects all CVs.
None
Deselects all CVs.
Tgl (Toggle)
Toggles the current selection state of all CVs on the
selected surfaces.
Moving CVs
Once you have selected the CVs you want to move, select one
of the following three checkboxes to specify the directions of
movement:
XYZ
Enables movement of CVs in the XYZ directions (world
coordinates):
◆ left mouse button — for Screen Width Motion
◆ middle button — for Y motion
◆ right button — for Z motion
WHO
Enables movement of CVs relative to the screen:
◆ left mouse button — for Screen Width motion
◆ middle button — for Screen Height motion
◆ right button — for Out-of-the-Screen motion.
Every change in view results in a different coordinate
system.
NUV
Enables movement of CVs
◆ left mouse button — for Normal-to-Surface motion
◆ middle button — for surface U-direction motion
◆ right button — for surface V-direction motion.
Each CV moves relative to its own NUV coordinate
system, so it is recommended that you use a finer motion
control for this mode by selecting an appropriate CV
increment value and/or using the hot keys (see CV-Incr
below).
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181
Edit tab
CV-Incr (Increment)
Adjusts the CV motion sensitivity. Enter a value (in mm)
in the window which is displayed. The default is 0.1 mm.
When using the mouse, a smaller value causes finer
motion, and a larger value causes coarser motion.
Keyboard keys can also be used to move CVs by the given
increment distance as follows:
◆ - and + (or - and =) : along Normal direction
◆ [ and ] : along U direction
◆ { and } : along V direction
Flip Norm (Flip Normal)

If the NUV coordinate system option is used and the
normal direction seems backward, you can flip the surface
normal direction 180 degrees.
The figure below shows an example trimmed surface with a

U-hull line selected:
This image shows the result of moving the CVs normal to the
surface with the X, Y and Z diagnostic sections turned on.
Tabs
182
Edit tab
Tabs
183
Edit tab
Diag > Diagnostics tab
The Diagnostics tab provides tools for setting the following

options for surface diagnostic viewing during control vertex
editing:
● X, Y, and/or Z sections that are updated automatically
during CV editing
● X-curvature, Y-curvature, or Z-curvature porcupines that
automatically update during CV editing
● Highlight lines that automatically update during CV
editing and either move with the viewing angle or stay
independent of it.
Saddle regions are ● Saddle Lines that update during CV editing and delineate
characterized by those surface regions at the location of isolated convexities,
regions where principal concavities and transitions to saddle-shaped surface
curvatures have opposite
signs. regions.
The combination of the new CV editing ability with the

existing curvature and reflection map capabilities provides a
useful set of tools for detecting subtle surface behavior and
experimenting with possible solutions in difficult areas.
Surface CV Editing with Subtle surface variations are sometimes difficult to detect with
Diagnostics conventional shaded displays. EvalViewer includes a variety
of tools to assist in the detection of unwanted surface
variations, allowing you to experiment with local surface CV
editing to determine the most effective surface modifications
for eliminating a given problem.
There are 3 basic types of diagnostic curves that you can use:
● cross-sections (orthogonal to the world coordinate axes)
● highlight lines (idealized reflection lines of multiple linear
light sources)
● saddle lines (lines delineating primary convexity/
concavity surface changes).
Tabs
184
Diagnostics tab
These diagnostic curves are generated during the drawing

process. They do not clutter the object list and they do not
require any additional memory (only CPU cycles). They are
also generated faster than any comparable functions. All
diagnostic curves are automatically updated during any
surface CV editing functions. In addition, moving highlights are
even updated during viewing changes.
You can activate diagnostics independent of surface CV

editing. The buttons on the Diag tab are shown below:
Lines
You can select X, Y, or Z diagnostic sections completely

independently of each other.
To control sectioning parameters, select Misc > Diag_Sections to

bring up the same type of section specification tool used in
other EvalViewer options.
The figure below shows all three diagnostic sections activated

on the example trimmed surface.
CrvVecs
If you want Curvature Vectors (Porcupines), select one of the

three world coordinate directions (X, Y or Z) as shown in the
figure below:
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185
Diagnostics tab
Curvature Vectors will show any surface curvature from the

Surfaces tab as porcupines on the specified sections. To
deactivate the Section Diagnostics, click the None button on the
Diag tab.
Highlight Line Diagnostics
Moving-HiLites
Moving highlights are updated on every redraw using the
current eye position.
Hold-HiLites
“Holds” the current highlight configuration during
viewing changes. Use this check box if there is a particular
set of highlight lines that you want to view from other
angles
When you want the highlights to update with view
changes, simply select Moving-HiLites again.
The figure below shows the simple example surface with

moving highlights on:
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186
Diagnostics tab
After you select Hold-HiLites and then rotate the view, the
following display is generated:
When you reactivate Moving-HiLites, the display will be

updated as follows:
Highlight lines and sections are independent of one another,

although you cannot view Saddle Lines and Curvature Vectors
while Highlights are turned on.
Saddle Line Diagnostics
Mathematicians refer to the lines that separate convex and

concave regions from saddle-shaped regions as “parabolic”
curves, or the curves of “zero Gaussian” curvature. In an
attempt to avoid confusion with parabolas and other shapes,
we use the term “saddle lines” to denote the curves (or lines)
that separate saddle-shaped surface regions from non-saddle-
shaped regions (that is, convex and concave regions).
In a saddle-shaped surface region, the principal curvatures

occur in opposite directions. In the figure below a saddle-
Tabs
187
Diagnostics tab
shaped region is shown limited by a white saddle line with

surface sections (for a simple example surface):
Saddle Line diagnostics are useful in monitoring the

inadvertent creation of isolated shape regions that may not fit
in with the overall theme of the local surface. The information
displayed by such lines is shown in the Gauss curvature
display, but sometimes the magnitude of surface curvatures in
a color curvature map may hide the existence of unwanted
surface transitions.
There are numerous combinations of the options on the Edit

and the Diag tabs for visualizing most of the surface details
that designers want to monitor. The best way to learn the
system is to experiment with it on some simple surfaces.
Other Buttons
None
Turns off all diagnostics.
Capture
Captures diagnostic lines in a line file and then makes a
single object out of them.
XYZ sections and highlight lines or saddle lines can be
captured for export to Studio or another CAD system.
Tabs
188
Diagnostics tab
Mesh > Mesh tab
Lets you work with meshes.
Make a View Mesh The Make button converts visible cloud points on selected
cloud point objects into a fine mesh of small quadrilateral grid
elements. Each mesh is a single surface description despite
any type of cloud point ordering or cloud overlap.
Inputs
When you click the Make button, EvalViewer makes a view

mesh using input information that you must modify
separately beforehand.
To set parameters, use Mesh > Params. The default parameter

settings should work well for most situations.
The parameters relevant to the Make View Mesh process are

the following:
The default sample size is ● Sample Size

0.375 mm.
The U and V dimension of the rectangular grid element
used by the View Mesh.
The default number of ● Maximum Samples

maximum samples is 1280.
If the Sample Size is small, this number will control the
sample size so that an exorbitant amount of memory is not
used.
The default Z-Buffer ● Z-Buffer Tolerance

tolerance is 0.75 mm.
Tabs
189
Mesh tab
When the selected visible cloud points are Z-buffered into

the View Mesh grid structure, the Z-buffer tolerance
determines whether new points replace existing points or
whether they are averaged with existing points that are
within the given tolerance of the given point.
This number is set based on the expected noise levels of
the scanner.
The default maximum fill ● Maximum Fill Size

size is 12 pixels.
Once the View Mesh is populated with all the visible
selected cloud points, unoccupied elements of the grid are
filled in by checking for defined elements of the grid
within the given “Fill Size”. The unoccupied elements are
filled in by linearly interpolating the horizontal and
vertical neighbors in the grid that are already filled in.
Other considerations when making a view mesh include:

● The current View (the 3D viewing parameters)
You can save your current view settings as either a Named
View or as a Temporary View using the TmpV tab. Saving a
view is helpful in a variety of different situations. In the
case of view meshes, saving a view allows you to
document and redo the Make View Mesh procedure later.
● The selected switches from the Object List: which cloud
objects are selected?
EvalViewer allows objects to be either visible or invisible,
and either selected or not selected. All objects are visible
and selected by default (see Object List on page 83).
● The visibility flags on each cloud point as influenced by
the Subset Tab operators.
You can subset cloud data before converting it to a view
mesh to control what gets meshed. Only visible points are
meshed.
Outputs
The shaded View Mesh is a polygonized surface organized as

a regular grid structure that allows for undefined
(unoccupied) elements.
A View Mesh is exactly mathematically equivalent to a

trimmed degree 1 (non-rational) B-Spline surface and could
easily be converted to such an entity. However, very few
Tabs
190
Mesh tab
systems are capable of dealing with B-Spline surfaces with

500x500 control point grids.
Smooth a View Mesh

A mesh of small Use the Smooth button to smooth a View Mesh any number of
quadrilaterals is very much times, although the geometry of the shape will change slightly
like a digital image and can with each smoothing operation. Surface Normals are
be smoothed with the basic
digital filters that recomputed during each smooth operation.
EvalViewer provides.
Inputs
All view mesh objects that are visible and selected are used as
input.
The smooth limit default is The parameter relevant to the Smooth View Mesh function is
0.75 mm. the Smooth Limit, accessible from the Mesh > Params button,
which limits the amount of smoothing that can happen to a
mesh. It should be set to a value that is as large as the amount
of noise that is present, but small enough to ensure that no
modifications are too large.
Outputs
All view mesh objects that are visible and selected are
modified with a single 3x3 binomial smoothing filter. Each
point location could be modified slightly. Each quadrilateral
polygon normal is also modified slightly. The surface appears
smoother.
Curvature Map a View The CurvMap operator computes curvature on the view mesh
Mesh grid structure. Finite difference methods are used to estimate
derivatives, and derivative estimates are used in standard
curvature formulas to estimate curvatures. The default
curvature map is the Mean Curvature map. Other curvatures
are selected using the Surf tab. In the current version, you must
also use the Surf > None button to turn the color curvature map
off.
Tabs
191
Mesh tab
Inputs
All View Mesh Objects that are visible and selected are used as
input.
Outputs
All View Mesh Objects that are visible and selected are
displayed as color-mapped curvature objects. You can adjust
the color bar range using the Incr and Decr buttons or the Up
and Down arrow keys.
Boundary Curve/Line of a The Boundary button creates line boundary curves from View
View Mesh Mesh Objects.
Inputs
input.
Outputs
A boundary line set is computed for each View Mesh object

that is visible and selected.
You can define your own view mesh boundaries using the
subsetting/cropping operators in the Subset tab with the
Boundary button. Once boundary lines are computed, you can
use all the operators on the Line tab to edit/modify/filter the
shape of the boundary curves.
Reduce a View Mesh (to a The number of polygons in a view mesh is usually large! To
smaller number of query the number of polygons and the number of points in a
view mesh, select the menu item Surface > Surface Info.
polygons)
The polygon mesh derived from cloud data can often be
directly used for various applications. The Reduce option
allows you to reduce the number of polygons while remaining
faithful to the original geometry by using a chordal deviation
test.
Tabs
192
Mesh tab
Inputs
The Mesh Reduction The Mesh Reduction Tolerance in the dialog box invoked from
Tolerance default is 0.040 the Params button. All view mesh objects that are visible and
mm. selected are used as input.
Outputs
The output of the reduce operator is a new topological

arrangement of quadrilateral polygons. To see this topological
arrangement, use the tab button Display > PgnOutlines. Note
that all the polygons and all the points are still present after
the Reduce button is applied. However, some of the quads and
some of the points are hidden.
Use the Reset button to go back to the original densely-spaced

quad mesh topology. For example, if you smoothed the mesh
but did not get as much reduction as you might like, you can
Reset the topology, smooth some more and then reduce again
until you are happy with the results. The Reset button does not
reset the actual point locations.
Once you are happy with the results, use the Compress button
to get rid of any internal details that are not being drawn or
used. You will notice that if you select the menu Surface >
Surface Info, the number of polygons and points is drastically
reduced. Typically, you can get rid of 90% of the original data
and the surface will still look very good. Moreover, any XYZ
sections that are cut through the surface will be very light with
points.
Erode a View Mesh at The Erode button blanks out polygons near the boundary of a
Boundaries view mesh.
It is not unusual to have the surface represented by a point

cloud turn away from your view near the boundaries of a
view mesh. Imagine how the earth’s surface at the equator
looks if you are directly over the north pole. If this part of the
surface is not suitable for further processing, you can strip it
away by “eroding” the edge of the mesh.
Tabs
193
Mesh tab
Inputs
input.
Outputs
Each mesh is maintained on output to be identical to the input

mesh except that one layer of “sample size” polygons has been
stripped away.
Dilate a View Mesh at The Dilate button is the logical opposite of erode, and is used to
Boundaries expand a view mesh to fill small holes. Try this button if you
do not get the view mesh results that you expect.
Inputs
input.
Outputs:
Each mesh is maintained on output to be identical to the input

mesh except that one layer of “sample size” polygons has been
added.
M-Filter (Maximum Filter) Consider ideal cloud data from a sphere. This data can be
categorized as belonging to the front hemisphere that is
visible, and the back hemisphere that is not visible. In general,
you should use the Cloud tab operators to subset the data
points into these two hemispheres before making a mesh.
However, in typical processing it is sometimes difficult to

prevent the cloud data from front and back surfaces from
“mixing together” in the mesh. The M-Filter (Maximum Filter)
button looks in small neighborhoods and tries to make sure
that only points associated with the front surface are used in
the view mesh.
The Max Filter is not fool-proof. Sometimes, multiple

applications of the filter can improve the results.
Tabs
194
Mesh tab
Inputs
The M-Filter Size default is The M-Filter Size in the dialog box invoked from the Params
7.5 mm. button sets the distance between the front cloud and the back
cloud surface.
input.
Outputs
Better looking surfaces with less mixing between the front

cloud and back cloud (if present).
N-Filter (Normal Filter) Blanks out polygons with normals orthogonal to the sight line
used in view mesh creation.
The Normal Filter provides another criteria for getting rid of

polygons that do not belong in a high quality model. Each
polygon’s normal is tested against the sight line and if it falls
with a certain number of degrees orthogonal to the sight line,
the polygon is blanked.
Inputs
The N-Filter Angle default is The N-Filter Angle threshold in the dialog box invoked from the
7.5 degrees. Params button.
input.
Outputs
Each mesh is identical on output to the input mesh, except that

polygons with normals orthogonal to the Z-direction of the
view mesh are removed.
S-Filter (Size Filter) The S-Filter button blanks out polygons with long sides.
The size filter provides yet another criteria for getting rid of
polygons that do not belong in a high quality model. This filter
Tabs
195
Mesh tab
uses a criterion that all polygons must have a side length that
is smaller than a given threshold.
Inputs
The S-Filter Length default is The S-Filter Length threshold in the dialog box invoked from
7.5 mm. the Params button.
input.
Outputs
Each mesh is identical on output to the input mesh, except that

polygons with sides longer than the given maximum length
are removed.
Set View Mesh The dialog box invoked from the Params button sets the
Parameters parameters used by the following view mesh operators:
Enter Sample Size [mm]

The U and V (horizontal and vertical) dimension of the
rectangular grid element used by the View Mesh.
Enter Maximum Samples

Sets the maximum number of samples (polygons) per U,V
direction that EvalViewer will generate.
The smaller the sample size, the more polygons
EvalViewer generates. If the sample size is so small that
this value would be exceeded, EvalViewer adjusts the
sample size to generate only the maximum number of
samples.
Enter Smooth Limit [mm]

Limits the amount of smoothing that can happen to a
mesh.
Enter M-Filter Size [mm]

Sets the minimum distance between the front cloud and
the back cloud surfaces.
Tabs
196
Mesh tab
Enter N-Filter Angle [dgs]

Each polygon’s normal is tested against the sight line and
if it falls with a certain number of degrees orthogonal to
the sight line (the N-Filter Angle), the polygon is removed.
Enter S-Filter Size [mm]

Polygons with sides longer than the given maximum
length are removed.
Enter Z-Buffer Tolerance [mm]

Determines whether new points replace existing points or
whether they are averaged with existing points that are
within the given tolerance of the given point. Used during
View Mesh creation.
Enter Maximum Fill Size

Limits the size of holes that are filled in during the view
mesh creation process. Pixels and grid elements are
synonymous.
Enter Mesh Reduction Tol [mm]

The chordal deviation tolerance used to decide whether a
collection of 4 quadrangles in the view mesh is really just a
single flat quad.
Reset a View Mesh The Reset button resets a View Mesh to an “almost-like-the-
original” View mesh if it has not been compressed. Undoes the
topological changes done by “Reduce.”
Inputs
input.
Outputs
Resets the polygon topology to the state it was in after the

mesh was created. Minor point movements within the Mesh
Reduction tolerance are not reset.
Tabs
197
Mesh tab
Compress a View Mesh

This operation can reduce The Compress button compresses a view mesh to the actual
object sizes and file sizes by number of vertices and polygons needed to represent the
a factor of 8-12. shape. You cannot reset a view mesh once it has been
compressed.
Inputs
input.
Outputs
Polygonal objects with quadrilateral polygons.
Notes on View Meshes ● View meshes can be cropped using the subsetting tools
(see Subset tab on page 168).
● View meshes that are being worked on can be saved to
EVGeo files.
● View meshes can be grouped together by selecting the
menu Surfaces > Group Pgns/Surfs.
Tabs
198
Mesh tab
TmpVu > Temporary View tab
Lets you work with temporary views.
Pivot
Allows you to select any point to use as a pivot point for
temporary views.
Save
Saves a temporary view. Any number of named
temporary views can be saved.
Restore
Restores a saved temporary view.
S1, S2...S6
Saves the current view to a numbered temporary view.
You can save up to six of these views and access them
again easily with the R1, R2... R6 buttons.
R1, R2...R6
Restores one of the six respective temporary views.
Tabs
199
Temporary View tab
Xform > Transform tab
Lets you transform objects.

palette box
Rot (Rotate)
Rotates an object about a pivot point relative to its current
position. Use the Left Mouse button for rotation about the
X direction, the Middle Mouse button for rotation about
the Y direction, and the Right Mouse button for rotation
about the Z direction.
Trans (Translate)
Translates an object relative to its current position. Use the
Left Mouse button for the X direction, the Middle Mouse
button for the Y direction, and the Right Mouse button for
the Z direction.
Scale
Scales an object relative to its current scale in each of the 3
axes (as referenced to the origin). Use the Left Mouse
button for the X direction, the Middle Mouse button for
the Y direction, and the Right Mouse button for the Z
direction.
Scrn (Screen)
Provides 3 convenience functions. The Left Mouse button
rotates about the X and Y screen axes. The Middle Mouse
button translates along the X and Y screen axes. The Left
Mouse button does interactive Equal Scaling.
Tabs
200
Transform tab
Pivot
Allows you to select the exact point that you would like to
rotate the selected object around.
Save
Allows you to save the current transforms for all objects
into a named file.
Restore
Allows you to restore saved transforms for all objects from
a named file.
Move To
Allows you to move the selected objects along the vector
from one cursor-picked point to another cursor-picked
point.
Reset
Allows you to reset all transforms for selected objects back
to the state of No Xform.
Apply
Allows you to apply the current transform on all the
selected objects to the selected objects. If you apply further
transforms, the Reset button will bring you back to the
point after the last Apply.
To Select or Deselect a line, Select

you must pick it on a point. Allows you to select objects with the cursor. Transform
Use menu Display > PolyLine
Points to display the points. options will only act on Selected Objects.
Deselect
Allows you to select objects with the cursor. Transform
options will only act on Selected Objects.
Tabs
201
Transform tab
Tabs
202
Transform tab
A p p end ix
Appendix
In This Section: Hotkey Summary 205

Net Session Testing 209
Cloud Data Questions 211
Supported Scanner Vendors 222
Glossary 225
Hotkey Summary
Some keys on the keyboard are mapped to functions in

EvalViewer. In this version, the hotkeys are not remappable.
< reduce the default display decimation by half

(useful for cloud data)
> double the default display decimation
(undoes the effects of <)
s create a line cut section
<space-bar> perform the last action again
F3 backdrop toggle
F4 floor tile toggle
A Copy contents to Clipboard, and Pop Alias to

the front if running.
Viewing
1 Set View 1 to 1 (Screen Millimeters = Object
Millimeters)
v zoom in to view by specifying box
V zoom out of view by specifying box
i zoom in (small step size)
o zoom out (small step size)
I zoom in (large step size)
O zoom out (large step size)
a look at (fill display/autoscale/fit-to-view)
p select view pivot point
M view the tape measure
Appendix
205
Hotkey Summary
<Enter> redraw the screen

<Escape> attempt to abort the draw or function
currently in progress
F9 and F10 View-Previous and View-Next: access
previous views without storing them
explicitly as temporary views
’ (back- Toggle a curvature map or color error map on
quote key) and off
Orthographic views
f front
b back
l left
r right
t top / plan
u under (underneath)
Perspective Views
w right front quarter
x right back quarter
y left back quarter
z left front quarter
Line Data
<page up> index upward through line data
<page index downward through line data
down>
<home> set first section current in single line mode
<end> resume normal viewing of all section data
<delete> delete the current section
Appendix
206
Hotkey Summary
<up arrow increase surface curvature radius range

key>
<down decrease surface curvature radius range
arrow key>
Ctrl-A delete line point under the cursor
Ctrl-C join 2 lines (must press the key twice to join)
Ctrl-X delete the line segment under the cursor,
splitting the line in two
Cloud Operations
q quick render cloud
c cloud point query
Subset Operations
K keep inside box
k keep outside of box
CV Editing Operations
F5 go to previous CV in u direction
F6 go to next CV in u direction
F7 go to previous CV in v direction
F8 go to next CV in v direction
+,= move normal to surface outward by CV-Incr
- move normal to surface inward by CV-Incr
[ move in decreasing U direction by CV-Incr
] move in increasing U direction by CV-Incr
{ move in decreasing V direction by CV-Incr
} move in increasing V direction by CV-Incr
Appendix
207
Hotkey Summary
General Operations
Ctrl-Z Undo
Ctrl-Y Redo
( Previous object in list
) Next object in list
Ctrl-N Alternative accurate tessellator
<delete> Delete visible objects
Note The value of CV-Incr is 0.1 mm by default. See CV-Incr

(Increment) on page 182 for more information.
Appendix
208
Hotkey Summary
Net Session Testing
CheckList: This list only has to be checked once by your

system administrator. System administrators would have to
be responsible for the basic requirements in real installation.
● Computer_A switched on and running
(Hostname: compa)
● Computer_B switched on and running
(Hostname: compb)
● Computer_A on network (able to ping Computer_B).
compa and compb should be mentioned in /etc/hosts
file on both systems or name service should be
operational. To test if compa can talk to compb over the
network, type the following command on Computer_A:
/usr/etc/ping compb
● Computer_B on network (able to ping Computer_A).
compa and compb should be mentioned in /etc/hosts
file on both systems or name service should be
operational. To test if compb can talk to compa over the
network, type the following command on Computer_B:
/usr/etc/ping compa
● EvalViewer installed on Computer_A on network
● EvalViewer installed on Computer_B on network
● You must have a login account with the given username
on Computer_A
● You must have a login account with the given username
on Computer_B
● You must be able to run ‘evalview’ from the command line
on Computer_A directly after login. If you can’t, create a
script to run evalview from wherever it is. The contents
of the script could look like this:
EVLOC=/a/b/c/bin/evalview
$EVLOC/evalview $*
Appendix
209
Net Session Testing
● You must be able to run evalview from the command

line on Computer_B. If you can’t, create a script to run
evalview from wherever it is. The contents of the script
could look like this:
EVLOC=/a/b/c/bin/evalview
$EVLOC/evalview $*
● You must be able to remote shell without passwd from A
to B.
To test this, type the following command on computer_A:
rsh compb df
This command must run in the customer environment. (If
that doesn’t work, add compa username to .rhosts file
on compb.)
● You must be able to remote shell without passwd from B
to A.
To test this, type the following command on Computer_B:
rsh compa df
This command must run in the customer environment. (If
doesn’t work, add compb username to .rhosts file on
compa.)
● You must be able to remote copy from A to B.
To test this, type the following command on Computer_A:
% rcp testfile compb:
This command must run in the customer environment.
● You must be able to remote copy from B to A.
To test this, type the following command on Computer_B:
rcp testfile compa:
This must run in the customer environment.
● You are ready to try ’EvalViewer Net Sessions’: %
evalview (read in file or create some data) File > Spawn Net
Session> --> hostname Force a Redraw to occur after some
time by moving the mouse or hitting Enter.
● A separate copy of EvalViewer should be running on the
other computer.
● Select File > Release Net Session again on master session to
release slave session.
Appendix
210
Net Session Testing
Cloud Data Questions
This section contains answers to a number of frequently asked

questions regarding the Cloud Data functionality in both
EvalViewer and the Point Cloud toolset in Studio/
Autostudio/SurfaceStudio/Power Animator.
What is “Point Cloud Data”?
Point Cloud Data is 3D digitized data defining a part or object.

It is obtained with some type of measurement device.
How is “Point Cloud Data” obtained?
Point Cloud Data can be obtained in a number of different

ways, using a number of different technologies. In general,
data can be obtained using two methods:
● contact
● non-contact.
In the contact method, a device such as a touch probe, Faro/

Romer/Immersion arm, or coordinate measuring machine is
placed on or travels across the object, stopping at predefined
points along a set of axes to take an X, Y, Z measurement.
The non-contact method uses devices such as line or scanning

point lasers, and photogrammetric systems. A type of light
“beam” is reflected back to the measuring device, and through
the laws of trigonometry the X, Y, Z point in space is
determined.
Why would I want to use this data in Alias/Wavefront?
This data is useful to the designer or engineer using Studio/

Autostudio/SurfaceStudio who needs to obtain meaningful
digital information from an existing part or object when no
such information may exist. For example, a sculptor may have
created a model head for an action figure. This model was
created by manual/analog means and no digital database for
211
this form exists. For accurate duplication and reproduction of

this part a database of this form will need to be obtained.
A shoe designer may need to have existing foot forms or lasts

digitized into surface data so that this information can be
shared among many design/development and engineering
locations. A digital file can be transmitted from location to
location and between CAD technologies much more easily
than a physical model. In addition, only one master of an
object may exist, and if it is damaged it will have to be
regenerated at a substantial cost.
In another situation, a clay modeler may have made some

changes to an existing car model for a design “facelift”. This
may take the form of adding some details to an existing part/
object from which this data will have to be extracted in order
to be manufactured.
In all of these situations and more, having the cloud point data
of the object will be the “starting point” to reverse-engineer a
database and/or a manufacturable part from the master
analog model.
What cloud input file formats are supported within the

Alias/Wavefront software?
The point cloud functionality within Studio/AutoStudio/

SurfaceStudio currently supports 4 cloud data formats. These
include Cyberware, Hymarc, IGES (as entity 106, type 2,
copious data) as well as the Alias wire file (which now
supports Cloud data).
The stand-alone EvalViewer supports Cyberware, EOIS,

Hymarc, Kreon, Sharnoa, Steinbichler, IGES (106/116), ASCII
(X,Y,Z), VDA (P Set), and the Alias wire file as well as the EV-
Geo (EvalViewer Geometry) file.
With the ability to move clouds back and forth to Studio using
the clipboard’s copy and paste functions, the workflow
between EvalViewer and Studio is greatly enhanced. The new
EV-Geo file replaces the EV-Cloud and EV-Line files since it
holds cloud, line, curve, polygon, and surface data, including
view meshes.
212
What cloud output file formats are supported within the

Alias/Wavefront software?
EvalViewer currently exports IGES and ASCII XYZ as cloud

data file output formats as well as Alias Wire and EV-Geo files.
EvalViewer has the ability to export line section data as IGES,
DES, DXF or Catia-CAI as well as Alias Wire or EV-Geo.
EvalViewer can export polygonal data as either:
● Wavefront OBJ *.obj files
● STL files (StereoLithography)
● Inventor files
● Alias wire files
● Alias Object-Separated Triangle files.
● IGES 106 Polygons
● DXF files.
● Unigraphics Facet Pattern (FAC) files.
● EV-Geo files.
Are the files displayed within the Studio File Lister in any
unique way?
No, presently a cloud data file is displayed within the file lister
like any other binary format file. In EvalViewer, there is a
single File > Open option. The multiple file selector reads the
various cloud data file formats available and is able to discern
between one vendor file and another.
How do I know I have a cloud data file vs. some other file?
Currently you will have to actually attempt to load the file into
EvalViewer or Studio/AutoStudio in order to confirm that
you actually have cloud data. However, some vendors apply
an extension to their actual cloud data file which may aid in
identifying the file as an actual cloud data set. Some
extensions are:
● Hymarc: .hym
● Steinbichler: .ac
● Sharnoa: .m
● Kreon: .cbk
213
● EOIS: .xyz
Can I output the data for rapid prototyping files (for

example, STL) from this data?
This is not a recommended practice at the present time for a

number of reasons. It may be logical that if a dataset can be
converted to polygons and exported to Studio as an .obj
format file, then an STL format file could subsequently be
output. However, the quality of the polymeshes from Clouds
to Polygons that EvalViewer outputs are not STL quality. This
means that there may be gaps, holes and improperly
orientated polygons, all of which would cause problems for an
RP process accepting this low quality file.
EvalViewer supports view meshes. View meshes are “water-

tight” and single-valued except at visible holes unlike, the
“Clouds to Polygons” meshes. After compression, some rapid
prototyping systems may accept the View mesh, but you will
have to build the enclosing surfaces because EvalViewer does
not automatically create a single mesh from multiple view
meshes.
What tools within Alias/Wavefront handle this data?
Tools within the Alias/Wavefront family that support cloud

data include the stand-alone EvalViewer and the Point Cloud/
Cloud Fit functionality within Studio/AutoStudio/
SurfaceStudio.
Can I make surfaces directly from this data?
It is possible to create surfaces directly from cloud data using

the Point Cloud tools within Studio/AutoStudio/Surface
Studio. The most robust means of creating elegant (Class A)
surfaces is through a process of sectioning the data within
EvalViewer, exporting this section data as DES to Studio/
AutoStudio/SurfaceStudio, and then creating/fitting spline
geometry in Alias with this data. In EvalViewer, a tool allows
you to test-fit the cloud section data (before exporting) by
building a “quick and dirty” surface over it.
In EvalViewer, there is a Cloud > Surface Fit option that can be

used for evaluating the quality of cloud data and for very
214
simple surface fits of smooth slab surfaces. The surface that is

created can be copied to the clipboard and pasted into Studio.
How much data can be handled by these tools?
The amount of data that can be handled by EvalViewer is

limited by the amount of RAM your machine has. One rule of
thumb to use is this:
Maximum Number of Points = 83,000*(Amount of RAM in MB

on Your Computer - 70)
Total Cloud Data File Size = (Amount of RAM in MB on Your

Computer - 70) megabytes.
For example, if you have 128 MB of RAM, then 128-70 =58

megabytes of Cloud data can be processed, which would be
about 4.8 million points.
12 times the number of data points you want to process is the

actual minimum amount of RAM you will need for your data.
If you want to process a cloud data file containing 1 million
points you will need 12 MB of RAM above the normal system
overhead requirements at the time.
If I increase my swap space, will that help?
Generally, increasing swap only makes things run very slowly.

You can usually tailor your work process to avoid overflowing
your real memory. When processing cloud data, every visible
point is examined on each pass through the data. When
swapping begins, it is usually faster to kill the job and start
over, adopting a new data processing sequence that prevents
you from having so much data in memory at once. In other
words, you can process two halves of the job at full speed
much more quickly than you can if you try to process the
whole job at once and you begin to start swapping.
What can be done with these tools?
EvalViewer was designed and is best suited at present as a

cloud data preprocessor. It has the ability to filter, smooth and
reduce extraneous data by both automatic and manual means.
This allows you to eliminate noisy and unwanted data rapidly
and easily. You can then use this “optimized” data set as a
215
reference for section lines and the determination of character

lines for modeling. The section data can then be exported from
EvalViewer and imported to Studio/AutoStudio/Surface
Studio for subsequent surface development.
In these packages, the Point Cloud / Cloud Fit functionality

was designed to fit surfaces to cloud data sets. This
functionality is complementary to EvalViewer when
EvalViewer is used as the preprocessor.
What file formats are used between EvalViewer and

Studio/AutoStudio/SurfaceStudio?
The file format best suited for data exchange between the two
applications is the Alias wire file itself. All data from
EvalViewer can be sent to Studio using the wire file and
almost all geometry from Studio can be sent to EvalViewer via
the wire file. Moreover, EvalViewer now supports copy (Ctrl-C)
and paste (Ctrl-V) to/from the clipboard. Cloud data can also
be transferred via IGES. For section cuts, the DES or IGES
options may also be used.
One caveat is that EvalViewer sends lines to the Alias wire file
as degree-1 splines. However, degree-1 splines from Studio are
now automatically converted to lines when imported into
EvalViewer. This minimizes the number of points on the lines,
makes it possible to use EvalViewer’s line tools, and improves
interactive response.
Can EvalViewer be used with other systems?
Yes, if you output your sections as IGES, that data should go

into almost any other CAD system. If you want to import
surface data into EvalViewer, you can export IGES or VDA
from your CAD system. If you have SDRC, an SDRC plug-in
option is available from Alias/Wavefront to convert directly to
an Alias wire file, which EvalViewer will read. If you have
CATIA, the Alias/Wavefront CAI interface also provides
utilities to convert CATIA data to the Alias wire file format.
What are the critical steps in working with this data?
See EvalViewer Cloud Workflow Example 1 on page 35 and

EvalViewer Cloud Workflow Example 2 on page 39.
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This sounds like a lot of work. How easy is it?
EvalViewer is not yet a “push-a-button-and-the-data-is-

processed-and-a-model-gets-created technology.” EvalViewer
is a focused tool for preprocessing a wide range of cloud data
vendor formats from 3D laser scanners, in order to create cross
section and feature curve data for import to Alias for
subsequent surface development. You will have to develop
your own practices based on an experience with your
particular datasets and an understanding of the tolerances
within which they must work. You should have an
understanding of the tools and practices recommended for
processing the data as well as experience with the suite of
surfacing tools provided within Studio/AutoStudio/
SurfaceStudio.
The key advantages of cloud data are that it can be digitized

relatively quickly and that it can almost completely capture
the outer surfaces of any object. The ability to easily visualize
the cloud data offers you a way to keep the object (for
measurements and visual comparisons) no matter where the
physical part goes. Conventional CMM-touch probe data
cannot provide this option.
In regard to the Point Cloud functionality, you should know

what is possible and reasonable to accomplish with the cloud
surfacing tools in order to achieve expected results.
Why are there two types of Cloud Functions available in

Studio?
One group of functions known as Cloud Fit is integral to Alias

Studio. This group of functions has the following properties:
● can read Cyberware, Hymarc, and IGES Cloud data
● is designed primarily for datasets with less than a million
points
● allows the creation of blend curves directly from cloud
data
● allows direct surfacing of cloud data and direct definition
of curves
● allows XYZ cross sectioning of cloud data.
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Another group of functions is in the EvalViewer program. This

group of functions has the following properties:
● can read Cyberware, Hymarc, IGES Cloud, as well as
Sharnoa, EOIS, Kreon, Steinbichler, VDA, and any Raw
ASCII file with one XYZ point per text line
● is designed for large data set processing with more than a
million points but will work on smaller files as well
● allows orthogonal XYZ cross sectioning of cloud data
● allows radial cross sectioning of polygonized cloud data
● allows the creation of feature lines via user point picking.
Section data must be exported from EvalViewer either as IGES

data or DES data. Data from Sharnoa, EOIS, Kreon,
Steinbichler, and VDA can be sent through EvalViewer to get it
into an IGES cloud format suitable for Studio.
Why have yet another stand alone Utility program?
By packaging Cloud functions with the EvalViewer stand alone

program, you can interactively process over a half a million
more points in a given job than you could do otherwise (given
that your computer only has a fixed amount of RAM).
Why does the stand alone read more formats than Alias
Studio does?
Some cloud formats do not have sufficient header information

to seamlessly integrate them into StudioTools’ data browser.
Therefore, only some vendors were selected for the direct
Studio Open/Retrieve mechanism. The choice was also based on
customer requests and available resources.
Why doesn’t the stand–alone have direct surfacing tools?
Direct surfacing of large datasets is something that is being

discussed for future versions. The stand-alone currently
provides one surface generation function under Clouds >
Surface Fit, as well as Skin and Square tools (in the Polygons
menu) that build quick NURBS surfaces over a set of lines to
test-fit cloud data sections before exporting to a modeling
package. Surfaces can also be modified and written back out to
Alias wire files.
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Cloud Function The most-used cloud functions in EvalViewer, such as Quick-

Limitations Render Cloud and Section Cuts > Multiple Clouds, are based on the
assumption that the data points are acquired in what one
might call “optical scanner order.”
For example, most Hymarc files, all Cyberware files, all

Steinbichler.ac files, all EOIS.xyz files, most Kreon files, and
most Sharnoa files are compatible with this assumption.
However, it is not true that all cloud data files are compatible.
The following list documents a few of the limitations we’ve
encountered:
Hymarc limitations
Hymarc users should be aware that the Hymarc scanner can

be run in a forward mode, a backward mode, and a forward-
backward mode. EvalViewer is designed for cloud data from
the Hymarc scanner that is acquired in either the forward
mode or the backward mode. It will not quick-render or
section clouds correctly with cloud data that is acquired in the
forward-backward mode. This applies also to Sharnoa
scanners that may acquire data in a CNC lace cut or snake
mode.
You have the option of using view meshes or voxel meshes for
data that won’t quick-render. View meshes work well for
processing any cloud data as long as the view-dependent
aspects are not a burden, while voxel meshes do not depend
on viewing direction. Both view meshes and voxel meshes are
completely independent of point order so that forward-
backward Hymarc data is not a problem.
Cloud Data is preprocessed in Imageware
If you preprocess most types of Cloud data in Imageware and

then write a thinned-out file, these points will not be the same
as when they come directly from the scanner. EvalViewer
prefers point clouds directly from the optical scanners.
Owing to the number of service bureaus that already have

Imageware, it is likely that you may receive an IGES file from a
service organization. Now that you have EvalViewer, you
should explicitly request that you want the raw data in the
scanner format if they use one of the scanners that we support.
219
In addition, view meshes and voxel meshes are not dependent

on point ordering so these methods of cloud processing are a
good option even when the data does not come directly from
the scanner.
PixSys from Integrated Image Technologies
The PixSys scanner does not create “optical scanner data.” It is

similar to data from touch-probe scanners like the Faro, the
Romer, or the Immersion. If you acquire data with a touch-
probe either in a section format or a surface boundary format,
you will be able to process the data directly in your surfacing
package. If you are going to acquire dense data with a touch
probe for use in EvalViewer, you should stick with a right-left,
right-left ordering (or a left-right, left-right ordering), but do
not do random scribble lines or alternate right-left, left-right.
If you use view meshes or voxel meshes in EvalViewer, you

can acquire Pixsys data in any order you want. It is not
sensitive to point ordering.
Computed Tomography (CT) Data
Data from some computed tomography systems does not

come in optical scanner order. It comes in a “closed contour”
“constant depth” format. EvalViewer can convert pure cloud
data from CT scanners into lines (using the Clouds > Cloud to
Lines tool) that can then be smoothed and data reduced.
However, Cloud QuickRender does not usually work, and

therefore Multiple Cloud - Cloud sections does not work well
either.
View meshes are not as easy to use with CT data as they are
with optical scanner data, but they can be used. You must use
the cloud cropping tools to crop out the appropriate points
prior to meshing. However, do not confirm before view
meshing (it is not necessary, and you will have to read in a
fresh copy of the file each time).
Miscellaneous Interaction Advice
If you start drawing a line cut and you do not want to

complete it, complete the drawing of the line and make sure it
is very short (that is, less than 10 pixels). This will cause the
220
system to ignore it. When screen overlay entities are drawn

that are smaller than 10 pixels, no operation is performed.
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Supported Scanner Vendors
The following scanner vendors have been tested for

compatibility with the Alias EvalViewer Cloud readers.
Primary EvalViewer Vendor Support
The following primary vendors are supported by EvalViewer.

The list is in alphabetic order.
● Arius3D Ascii
● ATOS/GOM/Capture3D
● Cyberware
● Cyrax PTS
● EOIS
● Hymarc
● Kreon
● Sharnoa
● Steinbichler
Generic File Format Support

● Generic ASCII XYZ, ASCII XYZ/RGB Data Sets with One
Point per Text Line
(Allows Input from Digibotics, GE Tomo scanner, and
many other scanners.)
● IGES-106 Copious Data (IGES V5.0)
(Allows Import from Laser Design, 3D Scanner’s
ModelMaker, Hymarc, and other scanners.)
● IGES-116 Copious Data
(Allows Import from Laser Design, 3D Scanner’s
ModelMaker, Hymarc, and other scanners.)
● VDA-FS 2.0 PSET Point Sets
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(Allows Input from European scanners, including

Steinbichler.)
Image File Format Support

● SGI/RGB files (.rgb)
● Alias Pix files (.pix)
● JPEG / JFIF files (.jpg)
You might be puzzled about image file formats going into a

cloud data preprocessor. This means that color image data can
be imported as 3D information. Assume that you get 0.5
millimeters per pixel in the X and Y directions and that the Z
value of the coordinate is computed as follows: Convert 8-bit
per color RGB to Grayscale and also z-Depth via the
expression:
z = 0.05*(image_width+image_height)*(32*red +
58*green + 10*blue)/25500
The Xform menu can be used to map the shape into any desired
prescribed dimensions. This option lets you do 3D sculpting
operations in image editors.
EvalViewer Native Cloud File Format
EV–Geo - This is the preferred format for all EvalViewer

geometry. Cloud data can be represented as well as lines,
curve, polygons, and surfaces.
EV–Cloud - This is a simple binary file format used to store the

results of cloud cropping operations, cloud grouping
operations, or just to store ASCII Clouds in IGES, VDA, or
ASCII XYZ format, so that they don’t take so long to read in.
Optical Measurement For those new to the field of reverse engineering from cloud
Systems data, the following list will help you research the various
scanner vendors.
Note The following 3D optical measurement systems

manufacturers output data files that are known to be
compatible with Alias/Wavefront software at the time
of this writing. Alias/Wavefront, Inc. does not
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endorse any specific 3D scanner system over any

other system, or any 3D scanning service bureau over
any other. You should evaluate available systems and
service bureaus in light of your particular needs. (This
list is limited to systems available in North America.)
● Arius3D, Inc., 90 Burnhamthorpe Rd. West, Mississauga,
ON, Canada L5B 3C3 http://www.arius3d.com
● Cyra Technologies Inc., 8000 Capwell Dr., Oakland, CA,
USA 94621
● GOM (Gesellschaft fur Optische MeBtechnik mbH)
http://www.gom.com, Capture3D Inc., 1525 Mesa Verde
Drive East, Suite 103, Costa Mesa, CA, USA 92626
http://www.capture3d.com
● 3D-Scanners, Ltd., 12 Cambridge Dr., Trumbull, CT, USA
06611, 203-371-8500 http://www.3dscanners.com
● Cyberware, 2110 Del Monte Ave., Monterey CA, USA
93940-3797, 408-657-1450 http://www.cyberware.com
● Digibotics, Inc., 2800 Longhorn Blvd., Suite 102, Austin
Texas, USA 78759, 512-832-6544
http://www.digibotics.com
● EOIS, 710 Wilshire Blvd., Suite 501, Santa Monica, CA,
USA 90401, 310-451-8566
● Hymarc Ltd., 5-38 Auriga Drive, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
K2E 8A5, 613-727-1584 http://www.hymarc.com
● Kreon Industries, Inc., 1361 East Big Beaver Road, Troy,
MI, USA 48083, 810-740-2260 http://www.kreon.com
● Laser Design, Inc., 9401 James Ave South, Suite 162,
Minneapolis, MN, USA 55431, 612-884-9648
http://www.laserdesign.com
● Sharnoa, 45901 5-Mile Road, Plymouth, MI, USA 48170,
313-454-7192, http://www.sharnoa.com
● Steinbichler Optical Technologies, 40000 Grand River
Ave, Suite 101, Novi, MI, USA, 48375, 248-426-0638
http://www.steinbichler.com
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Glossary
Alias Object Separated Triangle File

Alias Studio products can File>Export>Polygons as either
triangles or quads. When triangles are exported, they can
be exported as Object-Separated or not. EvalViewer can
import and export Alias Object Separated Triangle files.
The default extension used by EvalViewer for these files is
‘.tri’. Several organizations use these files for
Visualization purposes. In the EvalViewer menu, this file
type is abbreviated as Alias Obj-Sep Tri.
Note: The ‘.tri’ file created when exporting STL files from
Alias Studio products is NOT an Alias Object Separated
Triangle file.
Alias Pix Image Files

The Alias Pix Image file format is a common image format
used on Silicon Graphics computers, especially those
running software from Alias/Wavefront.
Alias Wire File

The compressed proprietary file format used by Alias/
Wavefront Studio, AutoStudio, Designer, Power
Animator, and other products. Programmers can access
wire files via the Alias OpenModel library. Supported
entities include surfaces, curves, and poly(gon) sets.
ASCII XYZ File

A loosely defined de facto ASCII text file standard for
point data. It is defined only as each text line that contains
point data contains 3 numbers (XYZ). It is preferred that
text lines that do not contain XYZ data start with the # sign
character.
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Glossary
ATOS/GOM
A 3D scanner whose proprietary format is supported by
EvalViewer. ATOS stands for Advanced Topometric
Optical Sensor. GOM stands for Gesellschaft fur Optische
MeBtechnik mbH.
CAI
The CATIA - Alias Interoperability file format. CATIA is a
widespread CAD program used by most of the world’s
automotive companies. It is developed by Dassault
Systems of France and marketed in North America by
IBM. The CAI file format is a specialized STEP format
designed to enable enhanced data communication
between Studio and CATIA.
Cloud Data
A nebulous term for 3D geometric point data that usually
indicates that the data is sampled densely and that it was
not produced by traditional coordinate measuring
machines, but rather by an optical scanning device. The
term “cloud data” originated about 1990. Cloud data can
come in many forms (scan-lines, grids, scribble lines, etc.),
in many formats (vendor-specific from dozens of vendors,
IGES, VDA, ASCII XYZ), and in many sizes (a kilobyte to
a gigabyte).
Coordinate Measuring Machine (CMM)

A device for digitizing 3D points from physical shapes
using a touch-probe. Often has a huge granite block as a
base.
Cyberware
A 3D laser scanner vendor based in Monterey, CA. Known
for several different types of scanners including the
famous Whole Body Scanner.
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Glossary
DES
Design Exchange Specification. A simple line format only,
DES is commonly used at General Motors and its body-
related suppliers. Supported by Alias, this format was
developed when mainframes were common. Polylines in
DES format require less disk space than the same data in
IGES format.
Deviation Vectors
Deviation Vectors are a special type of EvalViewer
geometry that are generated and displayed when compare
functions are executed. Deviation Vectors can be drawn at
any length by modifying the deviation factor. The default
deviation factor is one.
Digibotics
Digibotics is a 3D scanner that is capable of generating
STL files directly from 3D objects that fit on an 18 inch
turntable.
DXF
The Drawing eXchange Format from AutoDesk is a
verbose ASCII geometry format capable of representing
lines, simply defined surfaces, and polygons (3D faces).
This format is very well-accepted, especially in PC
software.
EOIS
Electro-Optical Instrumentation Systems, Inc. - a white
light moire scanner vendor. Sensor head mounts on CMM
or Faro arm.
EVGeo
The EVGeo file format is a simple portable binary file
format with ASCII entity tags. It supports clouds, lines,
curves, polygons, and surfaces for EvalViewer only. These
files allow users to save work-in-progress on View Meshes
(see View Mesh below).
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Glossary
EVScript
An EVScript file is an ASCII text script file that allows you
to replay most EvalViewer functions after running a given
session. It is not intended as a programming or a scripting
language, but rather as a simple way to log and transmit
EV commands.
Hymarc, Ltd.
A 3D laser scanner vendor. The Hyscan unit mounts on
CMM (see Coordinate Measuring Machine).
IGES
The Initial Graphics Exchange Specification, with versions
through 5.3. A verbose text format for geometry, first
adopted when mainframe computers were prevalent in
1981. It is still the most portable format, and the most
likely to be readable by other systems. The STEP standard
is supposed to “replace” IGES, but it is not yet as
widespread as IGES.
Inventor
An SGI file format for surfaces and polygons.
JPEG - Joint Photographic Expert Group format.

The JPEG image compression scheme is used in JPEG/
JFIF image format files. JPEG images are used on PC’s and
Unix systems and are used in HTML documents.
Kreon Industries, Inc.

A vendor of 3D laser scanners. The scanner head is often
mounted on a Faro arm.
Line (Polyline)
In EvalViewer, curves are usually drawn as lines. A line is
a B-Spline curve of degree 1 with N-1 spans for N points
and N+2 non-uniformly spaced knots. There is no
computational benefit from representing lines as B-
Splines, so EvalViewer represents lines as a simple array
of points.
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Glossary
Net Session
EvalViewer is capable of controlling a slave copy of
EvalViewer on a remote computer over a low bandwidth
network connection. ‘rcp’ (unix remote copy) and ‘rsh’
(unix remote shell) must be supported on local and remote
systems.
Pixsys
An optical touch probe from Image Guided Technologies.
Polhemus
Polhemus recently introduced a hand-held scanner that
can output 3D meshes in OBJ or DXF file formats directly.
Polygon
In EvalViewer, a polygon is either a 4-sided quadrilateral
(such as a rectangle) or a 3-sided triangle.
SDRC (Structural Dynamics Research Corporation)

SDRC I-DEAS is used at Ford, Mazda, Nissan, and
Renault as well as in many other industries.
Alias|Wavefront provides a Direct Connect Interface
(DCI) that plugs into SDRC to allow I-DEAS to generate
Alias wire files that Studio and EvalViewer can read.
Sharnoa
A 3D laser scanner vendor that mounts CyberOptics
probes on CNC tools.
STEP
An international standard for the exchange of geometric
product definitions. STEP formats that are relevant to
EvalViewer are AP203 (general mechanical CAD) and
AP214 (automotive CAD).
Steinbichler
A 3D optical measurement system vendor with several
different optical measurement products.
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Glossary
SGI-RGB Image Files

SGI-RGB is a common image format used on Silicon
Graphics computers.
STL (Stereo Lithography triangle file)

The STL format is the de facto file format for triangles in
the rapid prototyping arena. It is often also the best lowest
common denominator file transfer mechanism for
polygon information in general. This format was
introduced by 3D Systems, Inc. to provide an interface to
their stereo lithography machines.
UG FAC File
The Unigraphics Facet file, also known as a Unigraphics
Pattern file. It is very, very similar to STL files and Alias
Object-Separated Triangle files. It contains only triangles
and does not change from release to release.
UG PRT File
The Unigraphics Part file. This is the binary proprietary
primary preferred format for all UG data. It changes from
release to release. It is similar to an Alias wire file and an
SDRC model file. It contains surface and solid
information.
Unigraphics
A 3D Solid/Hybrid Modeling system used by GM and
many aerospace organizations.
VDA-FS
VDA-FS is a German/European text file standard for the
communication of geometry. The format is able to
represent point sets, polylines, curves, and surfaces.
EvalViewer considers VDA point sets as a cloud data
format. VDA stands for Verband der Autobilindustrie e.V,
which is the German Automobile Manufacturers
Association.
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Glossary
VRML (Virtual Reality Markup Language)

EvalViewer can export VRML 1.0 files. EvalViewer does
not currently import VRML 1.0/2.0 files. VRML files
contain polygon information that is often textured. VRML
files use the .wrl extension.
View Mesh
Polygonal meshes derived from cloud data as viewed
from a particular viewing direction. View meshes have
lower memory requirements than some of the other
alternatives for deriving meshes from clouds.
Voxel Mesh
A voxel mesh is a view-independent polygon mesh that is
computed with the assistance of a memory intensive voxel
gridded data structure. Just as a pixel is a small square
element that pictures are made of, a voxel is a small
cubicle element that 3D volumes are made of.
Wavefront OBJ File

The Wavefront OBJ file is a well accepted file capable of
representing polygons and curve and surface data.
EvalViewer writes an OBJ file with v/Vertex and f/Facet
commands only. EvalViewer can read many types of OBJ
files, but it only pays attention to v/Vertex and f/Facet
commands in the file.
3D Scanners, Ltd.
A 3D scanner vendor that sell several different types of
3D scanning equipment. Their software is capable of
generating OBJ files.
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Glossary
232
Glossary
Index
Numerics on cursor-selected lines 136

on visible lines 136
view mesh 192
Bounding Box Info 149
arbitrary sections 24 boxes, minmax 117
1 to 1 View 105 ASCII-XYZ 89 breaking
3D Surface Deviation saving 93 lines 170
Tolerance 44 ATOS/GOM scanner 89 misconnected lines 36
3D surface tolerance parameter 7 Auto Process 132 B-Spline curves
automatic section processing 132 representation in lines 228
AutoStudio, using EvalViewer B-spline curves
A within 42, 45
average minmax filter 129
fitting to line data 76
Button Box
All 85
About EvalViewer 153 axes None 85
Acceptable Range 158 switching 109 Tgl 85
accessing axis
cloud data 12 setting Y as up axis 17, 105
setting Z as up axis 17, 105
adjusting
line width 133
polygon center size 139
switching Y&Z 17, 125
C
Alias 90 CAD, using EvalViewer with 216
Alias Pix format
image, saving 96
B camera
moving 104
moving forward and
Alias wire back view, switching to 164 backward 164
polygons, saving 95 backdrop image 118
saving 93 capturing diagnostic lines 188
displaying 167
Alias wire file 20, 90, 92 CATIA-CAI
background 178 defining 226
defining 225 color 178
sections, saving 94 sections, saving 94
grid 117 surfaces, saving 96
surfaces, saving 95
bad points CATIA-CPT scanner 89
aligning tools 109–114 deleting 36
all center
bars of object, determining
deleting 103 adding as mirror reflection 174
objects, drawing 115 coordinates 163
selecting visible objects 86 binary cloud data formats 13 of polygon, determining
Blank Lines w/Few Pts 130 coordinates 163
Always Draw All 115
Blank Short Lines 130 changing colors 178
analyzing
lines 22 blanked lines check
deleting 130 approximate
angles, measuring 162
blanking Check Polygons as Solid 139
Apply 71
lines with few points 130 checking draft angles 77
applying transforms 71, 201 short lines 130 checkpointing 27
Approx Check to Pgns bottom view
see Exact Check chordal deviation tolerance,
switching to 164 setting 197
approximate check boundary curve/line chrome reflection image 118
approximating curves 76
chrome reflection map 48 confirming crops 73 tracing with lines 169

chrome reflection converting to 3D polygonal undoing cropping 120
mapping 118 meshes 121 using in Alias 211
creating lines from 26, 120 viewing XYZ coordinates of
Circle Fit 133 creating polygon mesh points 162
circles from 18, 120 workflow example 26
fitting to section data 133 cropping 72, 73, 168 Clouds menu
NURBS 154 data limits 215 Clouds to Lines 120
Clean 130 decimation 124
defining feature lines 24 Clouds tab
Clean Out Blanked Lines 130 In 168
definition 211, 226
cleaning deleting 103 Clouds to Clouds 155
blank lines 130 digitizing 4, 211 Clouds to Polygons 155
Click for Help/Shift+F1 160 displaying 115
Clouds to Surfaces 156
cloud data displaying information 120
evaluating 4, 12 CMM, defining 226
arranging and test-fitting 77
input 5 example workflow 26, 35, 41 CNC lace cut mode in Sharnoa
output 5 FAQs 211 scanners, limitations 219
polygonize 17 file formats 212, 216 color
tools 64 fitting 122 for maximum curvature
grouping 122 radius 173
cloud data formats hot keys 207
binary 13 limitations 219 Color Bar 117
generic 13 lines, creating 26, 120 color curvature map 48
cloud data tool 3 multiple clouds, section color error mapping
Cloud Decimation 124 cuts 121 function 158
obtaining 211
Cloud Info 120 opening 13, 89 color error maps 9
Cloud menu 120–124 plane fitting 123 Color Map 158
Cloud Point 26 point size 123 color reflection maps 48, 172
points, querying 26
cloud point Color tab 65
points, XYZ coordinates 26
viewing coordinates 162 3 sliders (RGB sliders) 178
polygon mesh, creating 18,
Cloud Point Size 123 Back 178
120
Def 178
Cloud Pt 26 querying points 26
Lns 178
cloud to cloud quick-rendering 17, 28, 120
Pgns 178
comparing 155 rendering, quick 17, 28, 120
Pts 178
distance checking 155 sample 154
Ran 178
saving 93
cloud to line scan line order 28 colors
comparing 155 section cuts-multiple background 178
distance checking 155 clouds 121 changing 178
cloud to polygon section cuts-unordered default 178
comparing 155 points 122 line 178
distance checking 155 sections, sorting 132 object 178
separating hemispheres 194 points 178
Cloud to Polygons 17, 18, 120
setting distance between polygon 178
cloud to surface surfaces 196 random 178
distance checking 156 shading 120 resetting 178
cloud to surface comparison smoothing 18, 121 saving 179
tool 3 sorting section cuts 132 setting 178
Cloud Tolerances 151 sorting sections 132 Combine 126
sphere fitting 123 Combine/Weld Vertices 139
clouds
surface fitting 123
Alias tools 214 combining
tolerance 151
lines 126, 127 lines to clouds 133 curvature combs 136

multiple pass lines 126 lines to curves 133 curvature mapping a view
objects by layers 150 polygons to clouds 140 mesh 191
sections 126, 152 units 109
single pass lines 126 curvature maps 48
coordinate measuring removing 173
vertices 139 machine 211
Compare menu 155, 155–159 defining 226 curvature radius
decreasing 173
comparing coordinates increasing 173
cloud to cloud 155 cloud points 162
cloud to line 155 CVs 163 curvature vector
cloud to polygon 155 line points 162 length 52, 153
line to curve 156 object center 163 porcupine 52, 185
line to line 156 polygon center 163 curvature, displaying 172
line to polygons 157 polygon vertex 163 curve
lines to surfaces 157 copying snapping at end points 127
polygon to polygon 157 See Pasting curve approximation 76
polygon to surface 157
tools 9 Create Line 26 Curve Comb Size 136
compressing a view mesh 198 CreateLine 169 curve fit methods 135
Compute as Needed creating curve fit parameters 135
see Compute Comparison curves on active planes 137
Curve Info 135
curves on polygon
Compute Comparison 159 meshes 137 Curve Normals 116
compute comparison highlight lines 146, 173 curve/line
option 159 lines 26 boundary of a view mesh 192
computed tomography (CT) lines from clouds 120 Curves 116
data, limitations 220 lines, highlight 146
mesh, polygon 17, 120, 144, curves
computing radial sections 51 172 boundary, creating 192
Confirm 73 mesh, view 189 creating on active planes 137
polygon mesh 17, 120, 144, creating on polygon
confirming
172 meshes 137
crops 73
polygon meshes 144 deleting 103
deleted lines 170
sample objects 154 displaying 116
connecting lines manually 36 information 135
surface offset 146
constructing models at traces on polygon meshes 137 interpolating 76
angles 77 view mesh 189 sample 154
continuous shading 144 creating planes 77 Curves menu 135–137
control vertices cropped data cutting
displaying 166 toggling 169 lines, longest
control vertices (see CVs) misconnection 126
cropping sections 125
Convert CVs to LinePts 133 clouds 168 surfaces 173
Convert LinePts to Clouds 133 clouds, undoing 120
CV editing
Convert LinePts to CVs 133 cropping clouds 72, 168 diagnostic viewing 184
Convert Polygons to cross sections 19 CVs
Clouds 140 specifying 172 displaying 116, 166
converting CrvVec Length 52, 153 editing 53, 180
clouds to 3D polygonal Curvature 52 editing, with diagnostics 184
meshes 121 hot keys for editing 207
curvature color bar 117
curves into lines 133 moving 181
Curvature Color Maps resetting 146
CVs into line points 133
removing 145 saving 146
line points to CVs 133
sorting objects by number misconnected points 37 display

of 149 objects 103 changing with mouse 165
toggling 181 points 170 Display menu 115, 115–119
viewing XYZ coordinates 163 polygons 103 Always Draw All 115
CyberOptics probes 229 segments 170 Backdrop Image 118
surfaces 103 Color Bar 117
Cyberware scanner 89 undesired sections or
defining 226 Curve Normals 116
fragments 36 CVs 116
unnecessary lines 37 Draw Mirror Half 115
DES format Floor Tile 118
D defining 227
Deselect 71
Grid 117
Hulls 117
Line Points 115
data deselecting Lines 115
quality evaluation 122 all 101 Look At Pivot 117
toggling as visible or objects 71, 201 MinMaxBoxes 117
invisible 72 tools 162, 169 Point Clouds 115
datasets that will not quick Design Exchange Specification Point Shading 116
render 28 defining 227 Polygon Outlines 116
See also DES Polygons 116
decimation, clouds 124
DES-Lines 91 Reflection Mapping 117
decreasing curvature sections, saving 93 Select Backdrop Image 118
radius 173 Select Chrome Reflection
Deviation Factor 158
default Image 118
colors 178 deviation vector Select Floor Tile 119
units 151 information 9 Select Paint Reflection
switching off 158 Image 118
deforming
polygon meshes 140 Deviation Vectors 158 Surface Normals 116
regions of space 140 deviation, line 152 T&QStrips 116
Transparency 118
Delete 22 Diag Sections 152
Display tab 71
Delete Bad Lines 130 diagnostic curves Backdrop 167
Delete key basic types 184 Control Vertices (CVs) 166
use with lines 171 diagnostic lines 188 CreateLine 169
Delete menu diagnostic sections Grid 166
Delete All 103 parameters 152 Hulls 166
Delete Clouds 103 Lines 166
diagnostics Outlines 166
Delete Curves 103 CV editing with 184
Delete Lines 103 Points 166
highlight line 186 Polygons 166
Delete Polygons 103 saddle lines 187
Delete Surfaces 103 Reflect 166
turning off 188
Delete Polygons 103 displaying
Diagnostics tab all lines 171
deleting 69 overview 52 backdrop image 118
all 103 Diagnostics tag 184 background grid 117
bad lines 130 bounding box
bad points 36 Dilate 194
information 149
blanked lines 130 dilating a view mesh 194
cloud information 120
clouds 103 dimensional criteria color bar, curvature 117
curves 103 surface design 9 curvature 145
files 68, 97 curvature color bar 117
dimensional trends in cloud
hidden lines 130 curve information 135
data 10
line fragments 37 curves 116
lines 21, 22, 103, 170, 171 disk space, retrieving 68
CVs 116
EvalViewer information 153 drawing evaluation functions

floor tile 119 all objects 115 surface 7
grid, background 117 drawing mirror half 115 evalview icon 12, 82
hulls 117
layer information 150 duplicating selected EvalViewer
line information 125 objects 100 cloud data tool 3
line points 115 DXF exiting 99
lines 115, 171 polygons, saving 95 starting stand-alone
mapping, reflection 117 sections, saving 94 version 82
minmaxboxes 117 surfaces, saving 96 starting within Alias 42, 45
normals, surface 116 EV-Cloud 91
NURBS curves 116 polygons, saving 95
object information 148 saving 93
options 71
outlines of polygons 166
E sections, saving 94
EV-Geo 91
point clouds 115 defining 227
Edit menu 100, 100–102
polygon information 138 files, saving 198
Copy 100
polygon outlines 116 polygons, saving 95
Duplicate Selected Objs 100
polygons 116 saving 93, 97
Paste 101
quadrilateral strips 116 sections, saving 94
Redo 100
reflection map 47 surfaces, saving 96
Repeat Last 100
reflection mapping 117
Select All Objs 101 EV-Lines 91
shaded points 116
Select None 101 sections, saving 94
shaded points shaded 116
Toggle Selected Objs 101 exact check 158
surface information 143
Toggle Visible Objs 101
surface normals 116 examining object list 158
Undo 100
tab 71 examples
Undo Stack Size 102
tile, floor 119 cloud and view mesh
Visible All Objs 101
transparency 118 workflow 35
Visible None 101
triangle strips 116 cloud workflow 26, 41
visible object geometry 158 Edit tab 180, 183
overview 53 objects 154
distance vase 16
measuring 162 editing view mesh workflow 41
measuring between CVs 53, 181
lines 21 Examples Menu 154
points 163
surface control vertices 180 Examples menu 154
distance checking Lines 154
tab 183
cloud to cloud 155
with diagnostics 184 exiting
cloud to line 155
cloud to polygon 155 Electro-Optical Instrumenta- EvalViewer 99
cloud to surface 156 tion Systems, Inc. 227 expanding
line to curve 156 End key 171 a view mesh 194
line to line 156 environment reflection map 48 exporting
line to polygons 157 compressed view mesh 34
lines to surfaces 157 EOIS scanner 89
defining 227 diagnostic lines 188
polygon to polygon 157 sections 20
polygon to surface 157 equal scaling 108
eye point
Dolly button 86 Erode 193 cutting sections from
dollying 164 eroding surfaces 173
draft angles a view mesh 193 setting 105
checking 77 evaluating
Draft-Angle/Parting-Line 139 cloud data quality 122
clouds 4, 12
Draw Mirror Half 115 surfaces 7, 42
F curve parameters 135

lines to section data 133
plane 123
grouping
clouds 122
lines by type 132
Faro/Romer/Immersion sphere 123 objects by layers 150
arm 211 surface 123 polygons 146
fitting B-spline curves to line surfaces 146
feature lines
data 76 visible lines 132
defining 24
field of view fitting to fixed points 123
changing 104 Flat Shading 144
file
management 68
Flip Connectivity 144
Flip Normals 144
H
opening 13
flipping Help menu 160
File menu 89 axes 109 hidden lines
Delete 68, 97, 103 surface connectivity 144 deleting 130
Edit 100 surface normals 144
Exit 99 hiding
Kill Net-Session 99 Floor Tile 118 all objects 101
Open 89 floor tile 119 blank lines 130
Open As 89 lines with few points 130
flowers
Opening 69 short lines 130
adding as mirror
Print Image 97 reflection 175 highlight line diagnostics 186
Release Net-Session 99 highlight lines 50, 52, 146
Rename EV-Script 99 forward-backward Hymarc
scanner data automatic update during CV
Run EV-Script 99 editing 186
Save Clouds As 93 limitation 219
creating 173
Save EV-Geo 97 fragments
Save Image As 65, 96 deleting 36 highlights
Save Surfaces As 95 holding 186
front view
Snap JPEG 97 moving 186
switching to 164
Spawn Net-Session 98 spacing 153
View JPEGs 97 Hilite Increment 153
file selector 15 Hi-Lite Lines 146
fill size, maximum 197 G Hold-HiLites 52
Filter 127 Home key
filter Gaussian curvature use in line selection 171
average minmax 129 displaying 172 horizontal black & white
maximum 194 Generate Report File reflection map 47
normal 195 See Compute Comparison horizontal position of lights
size 195 generic cloud formats 13 moving 176
smooth lines 128
Grid 117 hotkeys
spike 129
spike median 129 grid line data 206
adding as mirror summary 205
filter, median 129 viewing 205
reflection 174
filter, spike-smooth 129 background 117 Hulls 117
Fine Smooth 130 displaying 166 hulls
fit all lines 136 Group Clouds 122 displaying 117, 166
Fit to Picked Points 123 Group Lines by Type 132 Hymarc scanner 89
fitting Group Objs by Layers 150 describing 228
circles to section data 133 limitation 219
Group Pgns/Surfs 146
cloud 122 workflow 35
Group Visible Lines 132
I interactive viewing 17, 165

interface, EvalViewer 83–87
Lights tab 64
line
interpolating curves 76, 135 editing 21
icon, evalview 12, 82 on cursor-selected lines 136 line boundary curves
IGES on visible lines 136 creating 192
polygons, saving 95 Inventor line cut sections 24
surfaces, saving 96 polygons, saving 94 line data
IGES format invisible hot keys 206
describing 228 making all objects 101 Line Fit 133
IGES-106 90 making objects 163
line fragments
IGES-Cloud invoking compute comparison deleting 37
saving 93 option 159 removing 37
sections, saving 94 joining Line Index Swap 130
IGES-Lines 91 broken lines 37
sections, saving 93 lines 171 Line Info 27, 125
Image 90 JPEG format Line Points 115
image saving 96 line points
backdrop 118, 167 JPEG image 10 viewing XYZ coordinates 162
chrome reflection 118 snapping 97 Line tab
paint reflection 118 viewing 97 Confirm 170
printing 66, 97 Key in View Params 106 Del Line 170
saving 65, 96 Del Pt 170
keyboard options Del Seg 170
image format Delete key 171
Alias-Pix 96 Multi-View (Pick
End key 171 Nothing) 170
JPEG 96 Home key 171
SGI-RGB 96 Select 171
Page Down key 171 Show All 171
Image Guided Page Up key 171 Smooth Selected 171
Technologies 229 selecting lines 134 Undo 170
Imageware killing net session 99 Undo All 170
limitations 219 Kreon Industries, Inc. line to curve
increasing curvature describing 228 comparing 156
radius 173 Kreon scanner 89 distance checking 156
information Layer Info 150 line to line
curve 135 comparing 156
EvalViewer 153 layers distance checking 156
layer 150 information 150
line to polygon
line 27, 125 left back view, switching distance checking 157
objects 148 to 165
polygons 138 line to polygons
left front view, switching comparing 157
surface 143 to 164, 165
inserting Line Tolerances 152
left view, switching to 164
solid primitives 149 line width
light sources adjusting 133
inspection data sampling 177
validating 9 LineCut 173
lights
installation guide 13 default 64 Lines 115, 154
Integrated Image Technolo- example 64 lines 178
gies, PixSys moving 176 blanking 130
limitations 220 positioning 176 blanking short 130
Interact Tolerance 152 sample 64 breaking 170
sources 64 breaking misconnected 36
color 178 smoothing by using spike displaying 172

combining 127 filter 129 maximum draw time,
confirming deleted 170 smoothing using line index setting 152
connecting manually 36 swap 130
converting to clouds 133 snapping end points 127 maximum fill size 197
creating 26, 169 tolerance 152 mean curvature,
creating from clouds 120 undoing deleted 170 displaying 172
cutting longest lines computed from a cloud measuring
misconnection 126 deleting 21 angles 162
deleting 21, 22, 103, 170 distance 162
deleting bad 130 Lines menu 125–134
Clean 130 distance between points 163
deleting hidden 130
Convert CVs to LinePts 133 Median Filter 129
deleting points 170
deleting unnecessary 37 Convert LinePts to median, spike
deleting with keyboard 171 Clouds 133 smoothing 129
determining distance between Convert LinePts to CVs 133
Menu Bar 86
points 131 Line Info 27, 125
Reconnect Lines 127 menus
determining number of overview 86
points 131 Lines to Curves 156
tear-off 14
deviation 152 Lines to Lines 156
displaying 115, 166, 171 mesh reduction tolerance 197
Lines to Polygons 157
displaying all 171 Mesh tab 189
displaying points 115 Lines to Surfaces 157 Make 189
displaying reflection 166 lines to surfaces mesh, polygon
editing 22 comparing 157 creating for clouds 18, 120
fine smooth 130 distance checking 157 creating over a surface 144
fitting to section data 133 lines, diagnostic re-ordering 144
grouping 132 capturing 188
hiding 130 mesh, polygons
hiding short 130 lines, highlight 50, 52, 146, 173 creating over a surface 172
information 27, 125 lines, saddle 187 mesh, view 29, 30
joining 171 listing objects 83 resetting 197
joining broken 37 selected first 149 setting parameters 196
misconnected, cutting 125 M-Filter 194
opening 91 loading EvalViewer 82
Look At 104 M-filter
reconnecting 127
size 196
reducing number of Look At button 86
points 131 minimum curvature,
Look At Pivot 117 displaying 172
reinitializing selection of 171
removing 130 looking at objects 164 minmax box
resampling 131 Make T-Strips 144 sorting objects by 149
sample 154 making a view mesh 189 minmax filter, average 129
segments, deleting 170
selecting 22, 171 manufacturing applications MinMaxBoxes 117
selecting sections with tolerance 54 minmaxboxes 117
keyboard 134 mapping, curvature of a view mirror half, drawing 115
showing 171 mesh 191
showing all 22 mirror reflection 47, 48
mapping, reflection 117 applying to visible
smoothing 127, 128, 129, 171
smoothing by re-ordering maps, curvature 48, 172 surface 174
points 130 removing 145, 173 selecting image 118
smoothing by using average maximum color Misc menu 151
minmax filter 129 curvature radius for 173 default units 151
smoothing by using median maximum curvature Preferences 151
filter 129
misconnected lines object center producing 140

breaking 36 determining coordinates 163 one to one view 105
cutting 125 object geometry One-Sided Shading 143
models displaying 158
constructing at angles 77 Open 13
Object Info 148
Motif Open As 93
Object List 83–85
object list 152 Open Clouds 13, 14
tear-off menus 14 object list
examining 158 Open Lines 91
mouse, changing view Open Polygons 92
with 165 Object List Size 152
objects Open Surfaces 92
MoveTo 71
applying transformations 201 opening
moving color 178 clouds 13, 89
CVs 181 deleting 103 file 13
objects 70, 108, 200 deselecting 71, 201 files 69, 89, 93
objects along a vector 71, 201 displaying 71 lines 91
moving objects 108 information 148 polygons 92
Moving-HiLites option 52 list size 152 shell window 153
listing 83 surfaces 92
Multiple File Selector 15 listing selected first 149 UNIX shell 153
Multiple Pass Break looking at 164 operations
Longest 126 making all visible 101 undoing 73
Multiple Pass Combine making invisible 163
optical measurement systems,
Lines 126 modifying color 65
researching 223
Motif list size 152
Multiple Pass Split 125 orthographic view
moving 108, 200
net session moving along a vector 201 hotkeys 206
killing 99 moving and translating 70 switching to 104, 165
releasing 99 reinitializing 22 orthographic window
spawning 98 renaming 149 cutting sections from surfaces
starting, remote 98 resetting transformations 201 in 173
network connection re-sizing 200 outlines of polygons
from local Evalviewer to slave restoring transformations 201 displaying 166
computer 98 rotating 70, 200, 201
releasing slave process 99 rotating about axis 108 Page Down key
saving transformations 201 selecting previous
network slave sessions 67 sections 171
scaling 70, 108, 200
N-Filter Angle 197 selecting 71, 84, 201 Page Up key
None 86 sorting 149 selecting sections 171
normal filter 195 sorting by number of paint reflection image 118
CVs 149
normals translating 70, 200 parameters
displaying 71 transparent 149 curve fit 135
flipping 144 visibility 84 diagnostic sections 152
polygon, testing 197 visualizing 77 view mesh 196
surface 116 pasting
Objects menu 148, 148–150
nothing, picking 169 Solid Primitives 149 See cutting
Number of Points oblique view perspective view
Resampling 131 left back 165 hotkeys for 206
NURBS examples 154 left front 164, 165 switching to 104, 165
NURBS surface 154 right back 165 perspective window, cutting
right front 165 sections from surfaces
OBJ in 173
polygons, saving 94 offset surfaces
Pick Nothing 170 defining 229 opening 92

picked points reduction 33 reducing number 192
fitting 123 setting maximum saving 94
number 196 selecting on a surface 168
Pivot 71 testing normals 197 selecting on a view mesh 168
pivot point 71 polygon center size, setting 151
selecting 199, 201 determining coordinates 163 sub-sampling 140
PixSys Polygon Center Size 139 Polygons menu 138–142
describing 229 Polygons to Polygons 157
limitations 220 Polygon Deform 140
Polygon Info 138 Polygons to Surfaces 157
plane
ABCD-Plane 141 polygon mesh 17 PolyLine ShowThru 71
normal to line 141 creating for clouds 18, 120 porcupine
of line 141 creating over a surface 144 curvature vector 52, 185
polygon 141 re-ordering 144 Preferences 151
three point 141 smoothing 142
turning 104 previous sections
Polygon Offset 140 selecting 171
two point 141
vertex 141 Polygon Outlines 116 previous sessions
XY 141 polygon outlines replaying 67
YZ 141 displaying 71 primitives
ZX 141 polygon to polygon solid 149
Plane Fit 123 comparing 157 printing images 66, 97
Plane Menu 141 distance checking 157
producing
planes polygon to surface offset surfaces 140
creating 77 comparing 157
distance checking 157 prototyping, rapid 214
Point Cloud quadrilateral strips
See clouds Polygonal Block 154
displaying 116
Point Clouds 115 Polygonal Sphere 154
quadrilaterals, mesh of 191
point sets (VDA-PSet) 90 polygonize
cloud data 17 Query tab
Point Shading 116 Back 164
Polygons 116 Cloud Point 162
point size
clouds 123 polygons CV 163
as solids 139 Distance 163
point, eye, cutting sections blanking out by size 195 Line Point 162
from surfaces 173 color 178 Multi-View (Pick
point, pivot 71 converting 140 Nothing) 162
selecting 199, 201 creating mesh 172 Object Center 163
points 162 creating mesh from Object Invisibility 163
color 178 surfaces 172 Polygon Center 163
deleting 37, 170 deleting 103 Polygon Vertex 163
displaying 166 determining coordinates 163 Protractor 162
line, re-ordering 130 displaying 116, 166 Right 164
measuring distance displaying Tape Measure 162
between 163 116 Top 164
removing 37 displaying outlines 166 querying
selecting on a cloud 168 filtering by normals 195 cloud points 26
shaded 116 filtering those above maxi-
mum length 197 quick render
points on lines grouping 146 datasets that will not 28
viewing 28 information 138 Quick-Render Cloud 17, 28,
polygon mesh 172 120
quitting EvalViewer 99 rendering, quick 28 point cloud

Radial Section Cuts 143 clouds 17, 120 polygonal block 154
re-ordering polygonal sphere 154
radial sections 23, 51 setting maximum
line points 130
radius, curvature polygon mesh 144 number 196
increasing 173 trimmed NURBS surface 154
repeating last action 100
random colors 178 Save 71
replaying
rapid prototyping 214 a session log 99 Save As 93–96
Rational 147 previous sessions 67 Save CVs 146
Reconnect Lines 127 Resample 131 Save Polygons As 94
redo 100 resampling lines Save Sections As 93
Reduce 131 distance between points 131 saving
number of points 131 clouds 93
Reduce Points on Lines 131
Reset 71 colors 179
Reduce Triangles 142
Reset CVs 146 CVs 146
reducing EV-Geo 97
number of points 27 resetting files 93–96
number of points on lines 131 colors 178 images 65, 96
number of polygons 33 CVs 146 polygons 94
number of polygons in a view transforms 71, 201 sections 93
mesh 192 view mesh 197 surfaces 95
reflection image re-sizing objects 200 temporary view 199
chrome 118 Restore 71 to EV-Geo files 198
paint 118 transformations 201
restoring
reflection lines transforms 71
temporary view 199
displaying 166 transforms 71, 201 scaling
reflection map equal 108
reverse engineering
chrome 48 objects 70, 108, 200
applications 9
color stripes 48 scan line order 28
right back view, switching
environment 48 to 165 scanner
horizontal black & white limitation 219
line 47 right front view, switching
to 165 scanner vendors 222
mirror 47, 48
vertical black & white line 47 right view, switching to 164 Screen button (Xform tab) 200
Reflection Mapping 18, 117 Rotate 70 section cuts
radial 143
reinitializing Rotate 90 Up/Down/Right/
sorting 132
line selections 171 Left 106
XYZ 143
objects 22 rotating objects 70, 108, 200
Section Cuts-Multiple
releasing selecting pivot point 201
Clouds 121
net session 99 rotisserie view 105
slave process 99 Section Cuts-
run EV-Script 99 UnorderedPts 122
removing
boundary polygons 193 running sections
curvature maps 145, 173 remote sessions 67 arbitrary 24
line fragments 37 slave sessions 67 automatic processing 132
lines 130 saddle line diagnostics 187 breaking longest
SaddleLines 53 misconnection 126
removing misconnected
combining 126, 152
points 37 sample cutting 125
rename EV-Script 99 lines 154 cutting from surfaces 173
Rename Object 149 NURBS 154 deleting 36, 103
diagnostic parameters 152 lines to skin 138 setting 197

exporting 20 lines with keyboard 134 Single Pass Break Longest 126
line cut 24 mirror reflection image 118
multiple pass break nothing 101 Single Pass Combine
longest 126 objects 71, 84, 201 Lines 126
multiple pass splitting 125 paint reflection image 118 size
processing, automatic 132 pivot point 71 sorting objects by 149
radial 23, 51 points on a cloud 168 size filter 195
saving 93 polygons on a surface or view
Skin 138
selecting next 171 mesh 168
selecting with keyboard 134 reflection image, chrome 118 sky and mountains
selecting with keys 171 reflection image, paint 118 adding as mirror
single pass break longest 126 tile, floor 119 reflection 174
smoothing 133 selector, file 15 slave process
sorting 132 releasing 99
splitting 125 session log
replaying 99 slave sessions 67
splitting multiple pass 125
switching Y&Z axes 125 Set Transparency 118 slaving computer to Eval-
visualizing 71 viewer session 98
setting
XYZ 50, 52 color 178 Smooth Cloud 18, 121
Sections menu 125 maximum draw time 152 Smooth Lines (n1,n2,n3) 128
Sections tab polygon size 151 Smooth Shading 18, 144
Join 171 sight line 197
transparency 118 Smooth Triangle 142
sections, cross 172 smoothing
S-Filter 195
Segment Length clouds 18, 121
Resampling 131 SGI-RGB format limiting 196
image, saving 96 lines 127, 128, 171
segments
deleting 170 shaded points 116 lines by using median
shading filter 129
Sel 84 lines by using spike filter 129
clouds 120
Select 71 continuous 144 lines using average minmax
Select Backdrop Image 118 flat 144 filter 129
one-sided surfaces 143 lines using Line Index
Select Chrome Reflection
smooth surfaces 18, 144 Swap 130
Image 118
two-sided surfaces 144 polygon mesh 142
Select Floor Tile 119 sections 133
Sharnoa scanner 89
Select Lines to fit 136 spike median lines 129
describing 229
Select Lines to Skin 138 view mesh 191
limitation 219
Select Paint Reflection limitations smoothing lines 128
Image 118 219 snake mode in Sharnoa scan-
snake mode 219 ner
Selected First 149
shell window 153 limitations 219
selecting
all objects 101 Shift-Alt mouse button Snap Curves at End Points 127
backdrop image 118 assignments 165 snapping JPEGs 97
chrome reflection image 118 Show All 171 Solid Primitives 149
CVs 181 Show Possible Types 158 Sort 132, 149
floor tile 119
image, backdrop 118 showing Sort by Size 149
image, chrome reflection 118 lines 171 Sort by Volume 149
image, paint reflection 118 shutting down Sort Cloud Sections 132
lines 22, 171 net session 99
lines to fit 136 sorting
sight line
cloud sections 132 evaluating 42 Surfaces to Polygons button 86

objects 149 sample NURBS surfaces 154 surfacing tools 77
section cuts 132 surface control vertices swap space 215
spacing highlights 153 editing 180
Switch Y&Z 125
spawning net session 98 surface data
computing radial sections 51 switching
sphere axes 17, 109
polygonal sample 154 surface design
dimensional criteria 9 T&QStrips 116
Sphere Fit 123
Surface Display 152 Tab Bar 87
Spike Filter 129
surface evaluation functions 7, tabs 87
Spike-Median 129
46 Tape measure
Spike-Smooth 129 in Query tab 162
surface evaluation tool 3
spline surfaces tear-off menus 14
building over sets of lines 77 Surface Fit 123
Surface Info 143 temporary view
Split 125 restoring 199
splitting sections 125 surface normal direction 139 saving 199
multiple pass 125 Surface Normals 116 selecting pivot point 199
Square 138 Surface Offset 146 Temporary View tab 199
stand-alone EvalViewer Surface Simplify 146 tessellation 7
starting 82 Surface Tolerances 152 Tgl 72
standard views 104 surfaces Tgl button 85
starting EvalViewer 82 applying mirror reflections tile, floor, selecting 119
inside Alias 42, 45 to 174
stand-alone 12, 45 creating polygon mesh 144 tilting
cross section 172 the view 104
Steinbichler scanner 89
describing 229 cutting sections 173 TmpVu tab 68
workflow 35 deleting 103 Toggle 181
evaluating 7
STEP toggle switch
flat shading 144
defining 229 color map 158
flipping connectivity 144
surfaces, saving 96 grouping 146 toggling
stripes one-sided shading 143 CV selection 181
adding as mirror opening 92 data as visible or invisible 72
reflection 174 polygon mesh, creating selected objects 101
Subset tab from 172 visible objects 101
Box 168 radial section cuts 143 tolerance
Circle 168 saving 95 cloud 151
Create Line 26 setting minimum distance interact 152
Multi-View (Pick between 196 line 152
Nothing) 169 shading 144 manufacturing
Ngon (Polygon) 168 splines 77 applications 54
Out 168 tolerance 152 maximum draw time 152
Tgl 72 two-sided shading 144 surfaces 152
Tgl Crop 169 vector maps 145 tools
Trace 168 XYZ section cuts 143 curve fitting 135
Undo 73, 168 Surfaces menu 143–147 deselecting 169
sunset Surface Info 143 overview 64
adding as mirror Surfaces tab surfacing 77
reflection 174 Cross Section 172 tools, deselecting 162
surface Surfaces to Polygons 44, 144, top view, switching to 164
creating polygon mesh 172 172
total curvature displaying 172 vendors, scanner 222

displaying 172 U,V-Vectors 145 verifying
touch-probe scanner 211 UI (see interface) polygons are solids 139
tips 220 vertex, polygon, determining
uncompressing a view
traces mesh 197 coordinates 163
creating on polygon vertical black & white reflec-
meshes 137 underneath view
switching to 164 tion map 47
tracing clouds with lines 169 vertical position of lights
Undo 73
Transform menu (see Xform moving 176
menu) Undo Crop 120
vertices
Transform tab 200 undoing 168 combining 139
all deleted lines 170 welding 139
transformations cloud cropping 120
restoring 201 deleted lines 170 vertices, control (see CVs)
saving 201 operations 73 view
transforming stack size 102 1 to 1 105
scaling in one axis 200 undoing See also Undo Stack interactive 17
using keyboard 70 Size orthographic 104
using mouse 70 perspective 104
units
transforming objects 71, 108– default 151 View menu 104–107
114 Look At 104
applying 71, 201 units conversion 109 Non-Pro Horiz Scale 107
moving along a vector 201 UNIX Shell 153 Orthographic View 104
resetting 71, 201 UNIX shell overview 68
restoring 71, 201 starting EvalViewer 82 Perspective 104
rotating 200 Rotate 90 Up/Down/Right/
unordered points, section
saving 71, 201 Left 106
cuts 122
scaling 200 Rotisserie 105
translating 200 user interface (see interface) Set Eye Point 105
transforms V curvature Set Normal to Line 106
applying 201 displaying 172 Set Normal to Pgn 105
resetting 201 variations Set Tangent to Pgn 105
in surface normal Set View Along Line 106
translating objects 70, 200 Standard View 104
direction 139
Transparency 118 TurnTable 105
vase example 16 Twist 104
transparency 149
displaying 118 VDA-FS Y-Up 105
setting 118 defining 230 Zoom 104
VDA-PSet 90 Z-Up 105
transparent objects 149
vector view mesh 29
triangle strips
curvature 185 boundary curve/line 192
displaying 116
deviation factor 158 compressing 198
triangles creating 30
reducing number 142 Vector Maps 145 curvature mapping 191
Trimmed NURBS Surface 154 vector, deviation definition 231
switching off 158 dilating 194
tumbling model 105
vector, moving objects eroding 193
turn table view 105 example workflow 35, 41
along 201
twisting expanding 194
vectors
the view 104 exporting compressed 34
U,V 145
Two-Sided Shading 144 making 189
vectors, curvature mesh reduction tolerance 197
U curvature length 153 reducing number of
polygons 192 vertices 139

resetting and wire file
uncompressing 197 defining 225
sample size 30
setting parameters 196 workflow examples
setting tolerance for creating clouds 26
points 197 X curvature
size of holes during displaying 172
creation 197 X sections
smoothing 191 toggling 52
View tab 164 Xform menu 70, 108, 108–114
Dolly 164 Equal Scale 108
Front 164 Move 70, 108
Left 164 Move to +++Octant 109
Left Back 165 Rotate 108
Left Front 165 Scale 108
Left-Front 164 Units Conversions 109
Look At 164
Xform tab 70
Orthographic 165
overview 70
overview 68
Perspective 165 x-sections (see cross sections)
Right Back 165 XYZ coordinates
Right-Front 165 cloud points 162
Under 164 CVs 163
viewing lines 162
hotkeys 205 object center 163
JPEGs 97 polygon center 163
points on lines 28 polygon vertex 163
standard 104 XYZ Section Cuts 19, 143
visible objects 86 XYZ sections 50
viewing visible objects 104 converting clouds to 35
viewing, diagnostic 184 Y axis
views setting as up axis 105
orthographic, hotkeys 206 switching with Z axis 17
perspective, hotkeys 206 Y curvature
temporary 68 displaying 172
Vis 84 Y sections
visibility 84 toggling 52
visible cloud Z axis
information 120 setting as up axis 105
switching with Y axis 17
Visible Last 149
Z curvature
visible objects 101
displaying 172
visible objects, viewing 104
Z sections
visualizing toggling 52
objects 77
Z-buffer tolerance 197
sections 71
zooming 104
volume, sorting objects by 149
in and out of a view 164
weighted average, smoothing in on objects 164
lines with 128
welding

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Evalviewer.

book Page 1 Thursday, February 3, 2000 10:08 AM

The following are trademarks of Alias|Wavefront:

Maya is a registered trademark of Silicon Graphics, Inc. exclusively used by Alias|Wavefront.

Not all features described are available in all products.

Alias|Wavefront, 210 King Street East, Toronto, Canada M5A 1J7

Using EvalViewer as a Cloud Tool 12

Using View Meshes for Cloud Data Processing 29

EvalViewer Cloud Workflow Example 1 35

EvalViewer Cloud Workflow Example 2 39

Using EvalViewer as a Surface Evaluation Tool 42

Using EvalViewer as a Comparison Tool 55

Overview of Other EvalViewer Tools 64

R e f e re nce The User Interface 81

The EvalViewer Interface 83

Edit menu 100

Delete menu 103

View menu 104

Xform menu 108

Display menu 115

Clouds menu 120

Lines menu 125

Curves menu 135

Polygons menu 138

Surfaces menu 143

Objects menu 148

Misc menu 151

Examples menu 154

Compare menu 155

Help menu 160

View tab 164

Display tab 166

Subset tab 168

Line tab 170

Surfaces tab 172

Reflect tab 174

Light tab 176

Color tab 178

Edit tab 180

Diagnostics tab 184

Mesh tab 189

Temporary View tab 199

Transform tab 200

A p p e ndix Appendix 204

Net Session Testing 209

In This Section: Introduction 3

Availability EvalViewer is an included utility with AutoStudio and

Purpose EvalViewer is a stand-alone utility that works as a Cloud Data

The following image shows a two-arm CMM with a touch-

The problem with the new laser scanner technology is that

Note Typically, each point requires at least 12 bytes of

To further compound the problem, there are currently no

EvalViewer provides the following functions to make cloud

● Cloud Quick-Render, View Mesh or Voxel Mesh shaded

All these functions are located in a Studio-like 3D viewing

Please refer to the sections in the remainder of this document.

HotKeys Summary, Frequently Asked Cloud Data Questions, a

Note This section assumes that you are familiar with

Studio, AutoStudio, and SurfaceStudio provide numerous

You can set the 3D surface tolerance parameter as necessary. A

EvalViewer provides the following surface evaluation

● View Active Surfaces from within AutoStudio

All these functions are provided in a Studio-like 3D viewing