Settings (Editor)
The Settings editor covers application-wide settings.
General Tab
Patchwork 3D Design supports English, French, Japanese and Chinese. Choose your preferred language for the interface here.
When the Remember size of windows option is checked, Patchwork 3D Design memorizes the size and position of its window when you close the application.
On the next startup, the main window of the application resumes the size and position previously memorized.
The Undo/Redo zone combines all the options concerning the undo/redo system of the application. If the Limit to box is not checked, then the number of memorized operations is infinite. When the box is checked, the number of operations is limited to the value given on the right. You can change this value by clicking in the editable field or by using the two arrowhead buttons on the right. A limit of 20 operations is generally sufficient. The changes made to the undo/redo system will not be taken into account when the application is restarted. For more information, see the section on the Undo/Redo Mechanism.
The Controllers zone offers a selection of additional controllers. Check the box to the left of the additional controller you wish to select. The name of the controller is a button that allows access to the window for setting the speed and sensitivity for various actions. You can choose to add the following additional controllers:
Use the keyboard to enter numerical values in order to increase/decrease the speed/sensitivity of the mouse.
In the Tessellation zone, the Stitch tolerance zone allows you to personalize the stitch tolerance criteria for scene geometry. By default, when the box is not checked, the setting is calculated automatically depending on the size of geometry.
With certain objects, this automatic calculation may not produce the desired stitched result; thus, by checking this box, you can specify a tolerance in the unit of your choice, which is fixed and not dependent on the size of the objects.
The Image Resolution zone allows you to constrain all the models to be displayed in the same way.
File Tab
The recent Databases zone allows you to indicate the maximum number of files that will be available in the File > Recent menu. The default value is 9; you can change it to any value from 0 to 99.
The Opening Behavior zone allows you to specify which objects should be loaded into memory when a database is opened. If loading a database is very slow, it is often possible to speed up the initial loading to be able to open your database more quickly.
The Reset loading warnings button enables the warnings for which you might have previously checked Do not tell me again.
The Matter Explorer zone allows you to specify the directory from which you will be able to search for the material, texture, background, environment or overlay files. It functions like a standard file explorer.
The Color Books zone allows you to specify the Adobe directory from which Patchwork 3D Design will be able to find color books in Adobe Color Book file format (*.acb) that are used in Photoshop. It functions like a standard file explorer.
The Exporters zone groups together required information for certain exporters such as the exporter for P3DXml that has an option to Export ACIS files in binary mode. This option is enabled by default.
If Let Matter library elements have the same name is checked this allows resources (Material, Texture, Background, etc...) in Matter libraries to have the same name.
Conversely, if the parameter is unchecked, you will be invited to change the name because two resources can have the same name.
Three choices are then possible:
- Keep asking: Patchwork 3D will suggest a new name each time, which you must then validate by clicking on Rename button. If you tick Do not ask again, Patchwork 3D will remember your choice the next time.
- Rename: Patchwork 3D will automatically rename the resource as Microsoft Windows does when you have two files with the same name.
- Ignore Patchwork 3D will cancel the renaming if there is a conflict.
User Interface (UI) Tab
The UI tab provides controls for elements of the user interface.
In the 3D viewport in Shaper, you can:
- Force Patchwork 3D Design to Switch to isometric in orbit. This option is disabled by default. When enabled, the 3D viewport switches automatically to isometric mode when the Orbit navigation mode (Mode > Orbit or the C keyboard shortcut) is selected.
- Flip image vertically in all of the open viewports. This option, which is disabled by default, is not compatible with the Head Up display (Visualization > Head Up).
In the main interface of Shaper, you can:
- Show head up display at startup. This option is enabled by default.
- Use same viewport configuration for all models, if your database includes several. This option is disabled by default.
- Use custom interface color. This color is used for the background of the menu bar and for the background of the information bar at the bottom of the interface. Click on the color thumbnail in order to choose a different color.
- Indicate the colors to use for the border around the active 3D viewport and for the background when the option Show Selected Only is enabled. Click on the color thumbnail in order to choose a different color.
- Indicate the colors to use for the border around the active 3D viewport and for the background when the option Lock Selection is active. Click on the color thumbnail in order to choose a different color.
In the main interface of Matter, you can:
- Automatically update product thumbnail in the right-hand sidebar. This option is enabled by default.
- User multilayer material as default material. This option is disabled by default.
- Use stylized material thumbnail.
- Use custom interface color. This color is used for the background of the menu bar and for the background of the information bar at the bottom of the interface. Click on the color thumbnail in order to choose a different color.
- Set the product tab policy for the 3D viewports. In the Show product tabs drop-down menu, choose one of the three options:
- Always: tabs will always be shown in viewports, even when there is only one product loaded in the viewport.
- When needed: tabs will be visible when several products are assigned to the same 3D viewport. Otherwise, tabs will not be show in viewports.
- Never: tabs in viewports will never be show. Several products may still be assigned to the same 3D viewport, but the interface does not provide a clickable means of navigating among them.
You also have control over certain properties of the main monitor. You can correct the values calculated by default for the Width of the main screen and its Resolution.
Import Tab
The Import tab provides general options for importers, as well as various options specific to the importers for Parasolid (IGES), ACIS, and Alias Studio.
In the General Import Options, the Define default units button gives you access to the window for configuring the units used by default during the importing of the 3D models.
The default measurement units for formats 3DS, DXF, WAVEFRONT OBJ, and STL can be defined by using the associated drop-down menu. By choosing the User-defined entry of the scroll-down menu, you have the possibility of entering an arbitrary value in the editable field on the right.
The Ignore files already imported zone allows you to optimize your imports by not repeating the import of files which have already been imported. For example if you regularly import all the files from a given directory, you don’t need to worry about choosing only the new files the next time you import.
Access the options specific to the Parasolid (IGES), ACIS, and Alias Studio importers by clicking on the name of the format that you wish to set up.
Here is an example with IGES file option selected, which makes it possible to manage parameters during the import of an Iges Parasolid model, which differ depending on the format.
Lighting Tab
The lighting engine powers the lighting in Patchwork 3D Design. Depending on the configuration of your computer and the settings in this tab, the lighting engine may require a lot of resources. The default values, however, are generally sufficient, though you have to option to disable the engine by unchecking the box Enabled.
By default, the Render configuration is limited to:
| Option | Default value |
|---|---|
| Max shadowmap size | 2048px |
| Max lightmap size | 1024px |
The Preview mode, available in the Lighting tab
| Option | Default value |
|---|---|
| Interactive degradation | enabled |
| Restrict refinement to shadow integrity | enabled |
| Also visible in Surface tab (when the Surface sidebar tab is active) | disabled |
| Activate on first created light | enabled |
| Preview in color | disabled |
If you use Distributed Lightmap Rendering, you also have the choice to set the UDP port used to discover units used for rendering.
To manage the memory resources required by the use of a real-time sun, provide the max size for hard and soft shadow buffers. The values by default are sufficient in most cases.
Color Tab
Color Management is responsible for many of the strong points in the render quality. The color management profile defines the interpretation of the color values (RVB, CMYK or LAB) by matching them with measurable physical quantities (expressed in the space CIE XYZ or LAB).
Rendering Tab
This tab is composed of two zone grouping the settings for OpenGL engine and the raytracing engine.
OpenGL Engine Options
The Hardware Antialiasing controls the behavior of the antialiasing system of the application used to delete image aliasing effects. Depending on the video card used, it is also possible to disable the hardware antialiasing, or to enable it with different qualities (2x, 4x, 8x, 16x, 32x, 64x).
The antialiasing is enabled
The Default Depth Policy sets the depth buffer. If the default policy Frustrum based does not meet your needs, you can choose between the options Look-At point based and Fixed depth range . This latter option allows you to provide personalized values for the minimum (ZMin) and maximum (ZMax) depths.
The Display Zone sets the default maximum resolution for viewports. Three options are available: Main screen, Max dimensions, or Cover all screens. Respectively, these options apply the resolution for the main screen, the greatest height and greatest width of the available screens, or allow for the creation of a viewport spanning all screens. When a viewport is displayed in a zone larger than its maximum resolution, black bars are added to compensate for the difference between the maximum resolution and the larger display resolution.
Raytracing Engine Options
This zone permits the CPU resources to be allocated to the raytracing engine to be defined. Three options are available: Use all CPU cores, Use all CPU cores but one, and Manual thread count.
The Tile size in pixels can also be set. During the calculation of a rendering via raytracing, the image is rendered and displayed tile by tile in the viewport. The smaller the blocks are, the more fluid the display will be, but the rendering time will also be longer. The height and width of these square tiles corresponds to the number of pixels provided in this field.
User Preset Tab
Patchwork 3D Design provides the ability to add your own preset values to certain lists in the interface.
Modifications to preset values are reflected in the list of presets as soon as they are entered. The preset lists are then saved in the Windows registry when you click OK and close the Settings editor.
Fresnel Value Presets
Used as shortcuts to load Fresnel values when setting up standard or multilayer materials, these values are listed by name in the preset list found in the Reflection tab of the Materials editor. You can access this list by clicking on the 
button next to the Fresnel values.
To create a new preset, click on 
.
To modify an existing preset, click on the corresponding line in the list of presets. Then, modify the Name, Refraction index, and Extinction coefficient values, or delete the preset by clicking on 
.
Deleting or modifying a Fresnel preset has no effect on the materials whose Fresnel values were initialized using a preset.
For additional information on the use of the Fresnel effect, see:
Snapshot Dimension Presets
Used to define the size of a snapshot created with the Snapshot editors, these presets appear at the end of the list of available snapshot formats in any of the Snapshot editors.
To create a new preset, click on .
To modify an existing preset, click on the corresponding line in the list of presets. Then, modify the Name, width, height, and units (available for modification if you have ticked the checkbox Defined with units), or delete the preset by clicking on the button.
Deleting or modifying a snapshot dimension preset has no effect on snapshots added to the Snapshot Batcher whose dimensions were initialized using a preset. If the preset used was deleted or modified, the original values of the preset will be applied using the format User defined or the format User defined with units.
For additional information on snapshot dimensions, see:
