The control shows three-dimensional geometry through the view direction, the Rendering property and the entities in the drawing. The same methods that set the view also apply to geometry created in code and to geometry read from a file.
Predefined views
DisplayPredefinedView
DisplayPredefinedView sets the view direction of the active viewport. The figures below use RenderingType.ShadedEdges.
Front — PredefinedViewType.Front, looking along −Y.
Right — PredefinedViewType.Right, looking along +X.
Top — PredefinedViewType.Top, looking along the Z axis.
NE Isometric — PredefinedViewType.NE_Isometric.
| PredefinedViewType | View direction |
|---|
| Top |
Z axis |
| Bottom |
−Z |
| Left |
−X |
| Right |
+X |
| Front |
−Y |
| Back |
+Y |
| SW_Isometric, SE_Isometric, NE_Isometric, NW_Isometric |
the four isometric directions |
A named view stored in the drawing is recalled with DisplayView. ZoomCenter frames the geometry in the current view.
dxfReaderNETControl1.DisplayPredefinedView(PredefinedViewType.NE_Isometric);
dxfReaderNETControl1.ZoomCenter();
Orbit
Orbit
Orbit rotates the current view about its target. Pass the current pointer position as StartPoint and the position where the drag began as TargetPoint. Both points use one coordinate system, with Y increasing upward. A drag across the control rotates the view by half a turn, and the rotation does not stop at the vertical poles.
dxfReaderNETControl1.Orbit(currentPoint, anchorPoint);
Rendering
Rendering
The Rendering property selects how faces and edges are drawn. The figures below are all in the SW isometric view. Light is in view space, from the upper left toward the observer. 3D faces are lit on one side. Meshes are lit on both sides, so they stay visible when the vertex order is mixed.
Wireframe — RenderingType.WireFrame. Edges only. Hidden faces stay visible. This is the default.
Shaded — RenderingType.Shaded. Filled faces, depth-sorted and lit.
Shaded edges — RenderingType.ShadedEdges. Filled faces with their edges drawn on top.
Hidden — RenderingType.Hidden. Visible edges only. The rest is covered by the background.
Glazed surfaces stay semi-transparent and leave the geometry behind them visible. Frames stay opaque.
dxfReaderNETControl1.Rendering = RenderingType.ShadedEdges;
3D entities
Creating and reading solid geometry
DXF and DWG entities are drawn with the current view and rendering mode. The same entities can be added to the drawing from code.
| Entity | How to add it |
|---|
| Face 3D |
AddFace3D — four vertices of one face |
| Solid |
AddSolid — three or four vertices |
| Helix |
AddHelix — axis, start point, radius and number of turns |
| 3D polyline |
AddPolyline with vertices that carry a Z coordinate |
| Polyface mesh |
read from the DXF as a PolyfaceMesh |
| Mesh |
read from the DXF, or produced by ReadIFC (one mesh per product) |
| 3D solid (ACIS) |
read from the DXF as a Solid3D. The proprietary body data is available in the drawing information |
dxfReaderNETControl1.AddFace3D(first, second, third, fourth);
dxfReaderNETControl1.AddHelix(axisBase, startPoint, radius, turns);
dxfReaderNETControl1.Rendering = RenderingType.ShadedEdges;
dxfReaderNETControl1.DisplayPredefinedView(PredefinedViewType.SW_Isometric);
Import
ReadSTEP, ReadOBJ and ReadIFC
These methods replace the current drawing with the geometry of the file, then display it with the active view and rendering mode.
STEP — ReadSTEP reads AP214 and AP203 edge curves as wireframe entities: lines, circles and 3D polylines, grouped by part name. CircleSegments is the number of segments used for arcs (minimum 8, default 36).
IFC — ReadIFC tessellates extruded solids, profiles, mapped items, faceted BREP and face sets into one Mesh per product. Layers follow the IFC class. Groups follow the building storeys. TessellationQuality is the number of segments on curves (minimum 8, default 16). When DisplayAfterRead is true and the current mode is wireframe, the control switches to ShadedEdges and sets a south-east isometric view.
OBJ — ReadOBJ reads the vertices and faces of a Wavefront file.
dxfReaderNETControl1.ReadSTEP(@"C:\models\part.stp");
dxfReaderNETControl1.ReadOBJ(@"C:\models\mesh.obj");
dxfReaderNETControl1.Rendering = RenderingType.ShadedEdges;
dxfReaderNETControl1.ReadIFC(@"C:\models\building.ifc");
Printing and export
PlotRendering and Image
PlotRendering decides how the colors of the current view reach the paper when Plot is called.
- PlotRenderingType.Color — the shaded colors are printed.
- PlotRenderingType.GrayScale — each color becomes the matching gray.
- PlotRenderingType.Monochrome — black and white only. This is the default.
The Image property is the bitmap of the view currently drawn in the control.
dxfReaderNETControl1.Rendering = RenderingType.ShadedEdges;
dxfReaderNETControl1.PlotRendering = PlotRenderingType.Color;
dxfReaderNETControl1.Plot();
Editing the geometry
NormalizeEntities and FlattenEntities
NormalizeEntities moves entities whose normal is not Z onto the XY plane, along that normal. FlattenEntities sets Z to zero on lines, points, circles, ellipses, text, polylines, arcs and splines.