Background and Lighting

The Lighting and Background Settings function enables you to define the background for the sheet and model area and to optimally illuminate your 3-D model with a minimum of input - based on OpenGL.

You can use wallpaper or colour gradients as the drawing background here and also optimally illuminate the 3-D model temporarily with very few slider movements.

• Background
• Lighting

Example

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Background

You can select a colour, a colour gradient or a BMP file as a screen background - separately for the Drawing and View tab.

Colour gradient 

1. Activate the On/Off checkbox.
2. If applicable, deactivate the Background image checkbox.
3. Define the RGB colour (RGB) for the four corners of the screen. To do this, drag the colour slider to the corresponding position or click the colour symbol and enter the colour explicitly.

Background image

1. Activate the On/Off checkbox.
2. Activate the Background image checkbox.
3. In the list box, choose the background file you want. The background files need to have been stored in BMP format in the HiCAD subdirectory BACKGROUND. Various background files are shipped with HiCAD.

Monochrome

1. Deactivate the On/Off checkbox.
2. Deactivate the Background image checkbox.

The background colour from the HiCAD Basic Settings is used for the background. Depending on the background colour you choose, you may need to change the line/edge colour. This can also be changed in the HiCAD Basic Settings.

Lighting

Use the Lighting tab to define three light sources and stray light (as global light source). Optimal illumination is based on the definition and assignment of materials. The relevant material properties define how an object reacts to light. These material properties are defined using the HiCAD colour editor and specify, for example, the amount of reflection provided by each light sort.

Light source

Select the required light source from the listbox. If you do not want a light source to be used, switch it off by deactivating the On/Off checkbox on the tab in question.

Use the sliders in the Position field to determine the position of each light source. For each change of position an immediate preview will be provided in the drawing. Moreover, you can specify for each light source the diffuse and the specular portion of light. To do this, specify the light colour and determine the brightness, either via the slider or via direct entry in the Brightness input field.

Light Position

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Stray light

In addition to the three light sources you can define the stray light (as global light source) properties. To do this, select the Stray light option from the list box, then specify colour and brightness for Stray Light and Skylight. If you do not want to use Stray Light, deactivate the On/Off checkbox.

 Related Topics

File Formats • Viewer Window • Context Menus