Contours > Edit Contours allows the addition and removal of contour lines, and the repositioning of contour lines that were generated by means of the Extract button of Contours > Detect Contours. (Contour lines will become patch lines and panel demarcation lines when patches are drawn in a later step.)
If you created yellow (extendable) contour lines with Contours > Detect Contours, this editing function maintains their extendability but shows them as orange while this function is active. When you close the function, yellow (extendable) contours revert to yellow.
Operation set of icon buttons -
Draw icon button (or keyboard key D) - In this mode, you will click points on the object to create and manipulate contour lines.
To draw a contour line, click a point, then click subsequent points. A green corner point or yellow non-corner control point appears at the location of every mouse-click.
A clicked point turns green, indicating the corner of a four-sided patch, if:
the angle of incidence of the new segment and the previous segment is Crease Angle or sharper, or
it is the endpoint of a contour line. To force a point to be the endpoint of a contour line, double-click the mouse at that location or press the Esc key.
A clicked point turns yellow, indicating continuity of the curve (not a corner), if the angle of incidence of the new segment and the previous segment is less than Crease Angle.
To move existing contour segments or points, drag them.
To delete existing contour segments or points, Ctrl-Click them.
Segment Length is applicable in a special situation. If you created a contour line with a function such as Contours > Detect Contours or Patches > Construct Patches, and therefore that contour existed on this polygon object when you started this function, that contour line will not have any yellow control points. But if you want to adjust the position of the pre-existing contour, you will need yellow control points to use as handles for dragging. In this case, set the Segment Length to specify the distance between handles, then click a pre-existing contour line. A number of yellow control points will appear, and you can use them as handles for dragging the line to a different position. You can add and delete handles (yellow control points) as follows:
To add a single handle to a pre-existing contour line, click a point on that line and then press the Esc key.
To delete a single handle from a pre-existing contour line, Ctrl-Click it.
Extract icon button (or keyboard key E) - In this mode, you will click a single point to draw one contour line onto the surface. A contour line appears where you click the mouse, extending in two directions along a ridge of noticeable curvature. If the mouse click is not on a ridge of noticeable curvature, Extract has no effect.
Segment Length specifies the distance between yellow control points (which can be used as handles for dragging the contour while in Draw mode).
Relax icon button (or keyboard key R) - (like Patches > Relax Patches > Linear) - applies a degree of straightening to the line that you click in the Viewing Area. Additional clicking causes more straightening. The amount of relaxation per click is proportional to the Tolerance value.
Split/Merge icon button (or keyboard key S) - behaves exactly like the Split/Merge icon button at Patches > Draw Patch Layout.
Contract icon button (or keyboard key C) - eliminates a contour line and pulls its ends to a user-selected point on that contour line. In the diagram, contour line “a” will be contracted.
The user clicks it at point “b”. Immediately, the line disappears and its endpoints are pulled to point “b”.
Modify Separator icon button (or keyboard key M) - creates a new separator band under all newly drawn valid contour lines, and allows red region separators to be increased and decreased by use of a paintbrush. To add traiangles to a separator, paint them red. To remove red triangles from a separator, Ctrl-Click to paint them blue.
Brush Size integer field - specifies the width of the paintbrush stroke.
Update Separator button - saves the effect of the paintbrush on the red separators, and optimizes all separators. Optimization includes creating new separators under newly drawn valid contour lines.
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The following two checkboxes exist in the control group for all six operations. Setting or clearing a checkbox inside one operation has the same effect on that checkbox in the other five operations.
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OK button - saves changes to the object in the Model Manager.
Cancel button - terminates the function without saving changes to the object.