Autodesk LIGHTSCAPE, Manual

Page: 104 / 362

Refining Geometry 6
96
Lightscape
Identifying Reversed Surfaces
There are two ways to know if you are looking at the
front or the back of a surface: using backface culling
or using the Surface Orientation dialog.
When backface culling is enabled, surfaces are invis-
ible when seen from behind. If a surface that you
expect to see does not appear in your model, it is
probably oriented incorrectly.
When you use the Surface Orientation dialog, the
backs of surfaces appear in bright green.
To enable backface culling:
Choose Display | Culling or click the Culling
button
.
To display the backs of surfaces in green:
1.
Choose Tools | Orient Surface, or select a sur-
face, right-click, and choose Orientation from the
menu that appears.
2.
If Display |Enhancement is on, turn it off.
The Surface Orientation dialog appears. Backfacing
surfaces are no longer culled; instead, they appear
bright green.
3.
To help you see the surfaces that are hidden by
the backfacing surfaces, you can use the Near Clip
Plane slider in the Surface Orientation dialog.
Sections of the model are “cut away” so that you can
access surfaces as required.
Other ways of managing the complexity of a model,
such as isolating layers and blocks and using an
isolated view, also facilitate the orientation process.
For more information, see “Turning Layers On or
Off” on page 83.
Changing Surface Orientation
Use one of the following methods to change a
surface’s orientation:
• Reverse surfaces
•
Orient selected surfaces toward or away from a fo-
cus point.
• Make a surface double-sided
Backfacing surface that
should be reversed Backfacing surface