'Interactive booleans', do they work? how?

[Jill]

Does anyone know how to do the "interactive booleans" [or if they work] as mentioned with the picture of the double decker bus, here:
http://www.caligari.com/Products/trueSp ... /intro.asp
where it states: "trueSpace7.6 features interactive booleans. These work like a history stack, allowing you to move the objects around even after the boolean is performed, or even change the boolean from a subtraction to an intersection!"
The caption of the bus picture also states "Edit a boolean in real time to get the effect you want, or even keyframe it...", it links to/provides a video, however it looks like a procedural recording and not real time,.. is this the case? Is it only demonstrating the keyframe aspect? What about the real time edit it specifies?
Can this be used as a real time way of viewing a cutaway to examine the insides of a model? Or is this just like some scripted procedure that requires a lot of setup?

[stan]

It works like that if you want..look in the boolean panel..mode of operation

[Jill]

It works like that if you want..look in the boolean panel..mode of operation

Obviously there is more to it than that as I have already tried changing these settings including the mode of operation to each setting and cannot seem to achieve this effect, so the cryptic nature of your response is insufficient as there is clearly more to it than just the settings for the mode of operation.

Please do keep in mind that I have only been using tS for a couple of weeks and am still unaware of the majority of the tools and capabilities of tS [e.g. while I have the full version I have had no real use of the model side as of yet.]

I am requesting more detail as to HOW it works, how do things have to be set up, what are the types of objects required, and are there any special procedures required [e.g. order and types of clicks or drags on which things] to get this feature to function.

[clintonman]

Mode of operation "Keep History". Iit results in a Boolean object containing the original objects. There's no special setup and it works just fine here. I think we need more specific info because it really is that simple unless your using it in some unexpected way. Can you post a scene?

[Draise]

Hah! I didn't know TS could do that! HANDY!

1. Add two meshes, or multiple meshes, to the scene
2. RMB on Boolean to get the boolean options.

3.PNG (12.63 KiB) Viewed 5607 times

3. Change settings to "Keep History" (optional: quadrify ON - this connects the join line by triangulation so you don't get Ngons and cleaner meshes.)

4.PNG (4.51 KiB) Viewed 5607 times

4. Select the mother object and activate the boolean tool.
5. The object you wish to boolean to the parent object will highlight when you mouse over it.
6. Select the child boolean mesh
7. Right click to close the boolean operation
8. Press "down" to enter the hyrachy.
9. Select the child object.
10. move the child object and enjoy the new interactive boolean.

Made an example with two spheres and those settings with those steps.

!	Boolean Mesh is different to Boolean. Why? Cause one joins meshes together without changing their orginal meshes. This creates multiple meshes set as one. Handy to keep computing power and hyrachies low. Boolean will modify both meshes to create a new one.

Snapping threshold is also handy to clean up the meshes. So depending on the distance between verticies, they will snap together as a new one, between the booleaned objects.

[trueBlue]

I replicated what Wizard did shown in the video.
1.) Opened the Workspace Material Editor and created a Transparent D3D Material enabling AlphaTest with a value of 0.800 and applied it to a Cylinder (drill object).

Capture3.PNG (22.11 KiB) Viewed 5569 times

2.) Selected the Bus and the Boolean Subtraction tool and applied to the Cylinder with the below settings.
Select the Bus and your keyboard Arrow keys Down and Right until the Cylinder is selected. You can Move, Rotate, and Scale as wished. In order to change the Operation mode you have to enter inside the object from within the Link Editor. Look for the Csg operation panel as shown below.

Example scene included:

[Jill]

8. Press "down" to enter the hyrachy.

Select the Bus and your keyboard Arrow keys Down and Right until the Cylinder is selected.

Well that is something new, keyboard keys to enter the hierarchy... I was unaware of this hierarchy, is there a way to view this hierarchy? {just curious.} it looks as though you are on the model side, does it only work on the model side, or can this also be done on the workspace side [as that is what I am used to]?

I will have to try this out and see if I can get it to work now. This is much more informative, thank you .

I am hoping to create a screen shot of the guts of my mechanical device [which I will be printing at Shapeways, 3D printer] with a cutaway view. If I get it I will post it here [if not I will likely have more questions.]

[edit] P.S. I am also hoping this will allow me to inspect internal details and clearances of my model as it has internal parts that you cannot see without 'hiding' multiple/different other parts.

[trueBlue]

You can see the hierarchy of an object in the Link Editor or Scene View.
I created this example in Workspace.
Model and Workspace have their own Boolean tools.
Workspace's Booleans are superior and interactive.
Just discovered you can Point Edit an existing Boolean drill object as well.
Should mention in this example it is a bit slow on my machine.

[clintonman]

Well that is something new, keyboard keys to enter the hierarchy... ....

You can find a good list of workspace shortcuts in chapter 2 of the manual pg 52.

Edit: Oops, forgot to mention booleans are covered in chapter3 pg 145

[Jill]

Well it worked, albeit slow and sometimes it locks up like it is in an inf loop even on simple geometry, but other than those periodic issues, it works. Here are some screen shots of my [unfinished] device with the interactive boolean working:

Sphere [drill] at 140 degrees

Sphere [drill] at 100 degrees

The extra detail provided on achieving this effect made all the difference , thank you all for your help on this.