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A Newbie Graphics Problem With Hex

CathyMCathyM Posts: 261
edited December 1969 in Hexagon Discussion

Hi! So glad the forums are back! Just starting out in Hexagon - haven't even gotten very much further than opening the program, and have been searching all afternoon to try to figure out what I'm doing wrong.

I have a Windows 7 64 bit system, i7 CPU, 860 GHZ 2.8 GHZ 8 GB ram, with an ATI Radeon HD 5700 series graphics card - I believe it's supposed to have Open GL support. I've tried turning the Aero desktop off, I am running as administrator, it is installed in Program Files (x86) and it's Hexagon verson 2.5.1.79 .

All the tutorials I've been watching and trying to follow have been showing people picking the faces of an object, or the edges, while the object is solid - even drawing a box that selects all the faces (or whatever) that are in the box. For some reason this doesn't show up on my hexagon screen. I can't see what I have selected, it's as if I don't have anything selected, the entire object is still colored as if nothing is selected. However, if I pick the "transparent display of sub-selection" and press it so that my object is transparent, THEN I can see the faint light blue selected faces. In all the tutorials, when their object is solid, there is a bright blue indicating the selection. Sorry this is so confusing and long-winded, but I was really excited to get started with this! So anyway I am hoping I am just missing some way to turn on the option to get the selection to show on the solid object as well as the transparent object? Or, is it as I am dreading to find out, my graphics card doesn't get along with Hexagon?

Thanks for any help or advice you can offer! Cathy

Comments

  • ds-mail_2e0cb9c256ds-mail_2e0cb9c256 Posts: 70
    edited December 1969

    Sounds like you have always only selected the whole object.

    To select something within an object you need the correct selection tool...for vertex point, edge, or face

    Two places to get the tool are in upper left of screen window or right click on screen and a sub menu should pop up to select the right selection tool.

    Or read help file/user manual for help about selecting...using the different selection tools.

    If still need help ask again, maybe we can post .jpg to help point you to tools. (new forum rules = unknown to me so far)

  • CathyMCathyM Posts: 261
    edited May 2012

    Hi Doug! Thanks so much for your reply. I think I understand what you're saying but I think I have selected the correct feature - the "select faces" under the second group of tools at the top of the program - I have taken some screen shots and will try to add them - hope they are ok and don't break anything - the first shows what I've selected - the second shows the transparent display of subsection being on, the 3rd shows that there is a faint blue coloration to the selected faces...

    After those, I have added a screen shot of how my screen looks if I have the transparent display of subsection as being off (solid) - even though I have selected faces, it doesn't show anything as selected (none of the selected faces are colored blue). And the last picture is from a screen shot of a tutorial showing how his object displays selected faces as blue even when solid.

    Using this program, and using small things like this sphere - I suppose it wouldn't matter if this feature doesn't work correctly for me. But if I ever actually got into something complicated and couldn't select faces in solid mode, I think that could cause a problem. Thanks again for reading! Cathy

    no_selection.jpg
    500 x 423 - 27K
    transparent_selected.jpg
    500 x 383 - 29K
    tutorial_solid.jpg
    500 x 361 - 35K
    transp_setting.jpg
    410 x 186 - 13K
    select.jpg
    598 x 355 - 44K
    Post edited by CathyM on
  • CathyMCathyM Posts: 261
    edited December 1969

    Argh - okay the pictures are in the wrong order - had to edit my post due to them being too big - so now they show the setting for using the selection - then the 2nd picture is a screenshot from a tutorial showing how they have a solid object with highlighted blue faces showing selected - the next picture shows how I have transparent picked and with that setting I can see a faint light blue highlight, but with my object solid, it shows no highlighted areas even though I have selected faces (if I turn the object transparent, the faces I have selected will show as faint blue). But I have noticed that in the tutorials, when he is selecting by dragging a box, you can see a red box show up, and the selected faces become highlighted. This doesn't show up for me in solid mode - and in the tutorial he expains that in solid mode, only the faces you can see are selected, but if you are in transparent mode, the faces on both sides of the sphere are selected. I can see that this could be a problem when working with a complex model. I was hoping there was a setting I was missing somewhere but I can't seem to find one. Thanks again for any help! Cathy

  • RedSquareRedSquare Posts: 0
    edited May 2012

    Right young lady try viewing this ~ 

    http://screencast.com/t/N3thzv8L
    Sorry about the rather loud cough at the beginning. Also, as there doesn't appear to be a way to insert ULR tags and you can't select the ulr I posted above; just copy it and select a new browser tab and paste it into the address line not the Goggle search bar; then press Enter and it will bring up my short explanatory video. I hope. :)
    Post edited by RedSquare on
  • CathyMCathyM Posts: 261
    edited December 1969

    RedSquare bless your heart! Thanks so much for going to the trouble to make that video - I truly wish that would have solved my problem - alas I've tried again and again and it's just not working for me - it doesn't matter that I've got the object highlighted or not, it just will not show any selection on it when it's solid. It looks so nice and solid and colorful when you run the mouse across yours, but I get nothing at all in my program unless it's set on transparent - it doesn't highlight when I mouse across or when I select. Next I guess I will try uninstalling/reinstalling - I hate to have to give up on it now, I've just started and it hasn't seemed too difficult for me to understand, which is what I was expecting. Oh well! Thanks so much for making an effort! Best Wishes, Cathy

  • de3ande3an Posts: 915
    edited December 1969

    If you are still having trouble with the display, you might want to open Hexagon's Preference editor (under the Edit menu) and try the different options for "OpenGL optimization".


    Hexagon has been known to be somewhat demanding when it comes to the OpenGL specs.

    OpenGL_prefs.png
    621 x 501 - 57K
  • jangus1_2321381095jangus1_2321381095 Posts: 4
    edited May 2012

    Yes, that was very helpful from RedSquare and Hexagon SHOULD be working that way.
    Also, in transparent mode, they SHOULD select all the way through.

    However, your problem about not SEEING what has been selected SOMETIMES, reminds me of times when I have had the same problem. It still occasionally happens for me too. I have found that if I toggle the various views at the bottom like from solid to flat, etc. the selected items re-appear. Also... if that didn't work, I had to resort to resetting the Hexagon preferences, and restarting Hexagon, and then THAT seemed to help.

    For me it still happens occasionally and I use Hex on Mac & PC as well as many other graphic apps. and display glitches just become a part of daily life.
    So, when all else fails, make a note of any special settings you may have, and try to do a reset of the prefs.

    angus

    EDIT; added this later, Toggle-ing between Shadows & ambient occlusion at the bottom seems to fix it all the time.
    At least on my Mac version , this is the case. Try that before you do a reset.

    Post edited by jangus1_2321381095 on
  • CathyMCathyM Posts: 261
    edited December 1969

    Thanks De3an and Gerald Angus for your help! I spent a large part of the afternoon trying to tweak Hexagon on my machine, uninstalled, reinstalled, changed settings, but still no luck. I then installed it on an old computer I don't use anymore, and what do you know, but it worked fine on that! So I knew it's not me doing something wrong, and it's not my copy of Hexagon.

    I then checked the forum and found Gerald Angus' wonderful advice, and have just tried that on my machine, and hurray! The shadows and ambient occlusion switching worked! :-) Thanks everyone for the help, very excited to be able to continue on with my learning! Cathy

  • de3ande3an Posts: 915
    edited December 1969

    Cathy_Mod said:
    I then checked the forum and found Gerald Angus' wonderful advice, and have just tried that on my machine, and hurray! The shadows and ambient occlusion switching worked! :-) Thanks everyone for the help, very excited to be able to continue on with my learning! Cathy

    Hurrah! :lol:

  • PoserMagicPoserMagic Posts: 0
    edited December 1969

    RedSquare said:
    Right young lady try viewing this ~ 
    http://screencast.com/t/N3thzv8L
    Sorry about the rather loud cough at the beginning. Also, as there doesn't appear to be a way to insert ULR tags and you can't select the ulr I posted above; just copy it and select a new browser tab and paste it into the address line not the Goggle search bar; then press Enter and it will bring up my short explanatory video. I hope. :)


    Thanks so much, I watched your cast, and it helped me a lot! I am new and was trying to figure out how to get lost of faces without having to click each one. I can not find a cheat sheet for keyboard short cuts. I tried looking at it in help but it didn't work! Not really a key cut, but handy none the less! ty

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