Version 1.7.6.1 adds the ability to filter data within closed surfaces, even when these surfaces are closely spaced and sub-parallel. Other improvements are interface response and stability improvements. Many thanks for the feedback from AJ, SF, RT, KB, KdP, RC, LH, KD, BB, JP, MD, DR, BE, JS, IS, JV, KL, KM, FB, MC, JdS, GS, GB, TN, AM, EJ, BO, JV, FN and AB.
New functionality
Filtering on polygon orientation with "Ribbon => Marker => Marker filters => Manual => Relative to meshes". See discussion below as some knowledge on polygon orientations are required to use this filter.
More robust loading of Marker and Mapping data. In previous versions, empty cells and format anomalies resulted in program failure or lost data rows. The new version should be able to accommodate empty cells and inconsistent data formats. The first line of data determines the expected format, so ensure this line is correctly formatted.
Surpac import improvements. The Surpac importer works fine on nearly all data sets now, but the occasional rogue file will still not be loaded and corrections were made to supports the rogue files forwarded by users.
Changes
The logic when mouse picking lines in a scene was changed, as the old version picked the wrong line in some data sets.
The general mouse picking logic was changed, please let me know how it goes.
Bug fixes
When filtering resulted in zero data rows, the data was unloaded and had to be reloaded - fixed.
Mouse picking onto points and lines occasionally resulted in program failure - fixed.
When creating Mark cubes with "Top toolbar => Geometric shapes icon => Create mark points => Selection form => Mark type => Cube", the cube had zero height - fixed.
Discussion: Filtering in complex scenes
Mesh polygons have direction and only one visible side, but graphics software packages typically duplicate the polygons to make them visible from both sides. Under normal circumstances this is not a problem, as the visible side is unimportant for visualisation purposed if both sides are shown. See below two examples of meshes with different sides of their polygons visible. To reproduce this in GEM4D, use "Ribbon => Mesh => Mesh settings => Backface culling" to only only show the visible side of polygons. The polygon direction can be flipped with "Ribbon => Mesh => Mesh settings => Flip poly normals".
The polygon orientations can be useful when filtering data, especially when many meshes exist in close vicinity. A normal filter based on interactions with meshes could then fail, as interaction with the inside and outside of mesh polygons has the same filtering result.
In the example shown below, the meshes represent a different rock type, and the data has to be separated within and outside the meshes.
Step 1: Ensure the normals of all the meshes are showing outwards. This is done by separably making each mesh object visible, then flip the poly normals if require. As in all GEM4D functionality, the normal flipping will only affect the visible mesh(es).
Step 2: When all the mesh polygon normals are showing outwards, make all the meshes visible and save as a new file for future use with "Ribbon => Mesh => Save DXF-files => Save Load", which will save the corrected objects in a new file, clean the scene, and reload the corrected meshes.
Step 3: Load the Marker or Mapping data of interest as a CSV-file with "Ribbon => Marker => Text (CSV)".
Step 4: Filter the data within the closed meshes with "Ribbon => Marker => Marker filters => Manual => Relative to meshes => Type of search filter => Keep data inside closed meshes".
Step 5: Save the extracted data by right clicking in the data grid and select "Save data as CSV-file" from the drop-down list.
