SMS:General Display Options

The General Display options control display of general graphical control. It includes three tabs including:

Display Options dialog showing the General tab

General Tab

• Drawing Options:

• Z magnification – Exaggerates the z scale so that the variation in the z value is more apparent.
• Background color – Set the background color of the Graphics Window.
• Erase behind labels

• Triad – SMS can display a coordinate triad at the lower left of the screen to display the orientation of the data in the display window. The size and color of this triad can be specified.
• Texture mapping: Currently SMS supports images displayed in the background and texture maps draped over TINS, grids, and meshes.
• Drawing Grid: SMS can display a grid (in plan view) behind all data on the graphics window.

• Grid Spacing: Specifies the increment between grid points. Remember that the grid can be used for both snapping and display, and not all grid lines need to be displayed.
• Snap to Grid: If this toggle is on, newly created points, nodes and vertices are moved to the nearest point on the grid.
• Display grid lines every $n$ spaces: Specifies how many grid lines to between displayed grid lines. The line style is also selected.
• Display grid points every $m$ spaces: Enables the display of a point at selected intervals along with the symbol attributes for the points.

Lighting Tab

The Lighting tab accesses the Lighting Options in SMS.

View Tab

Display Options dialog showing the View tab

The View tab in the general display options allows editing the current view parameters. This includes the specification of the type of view (plan or 3D) and the range of the data that is displayed on the screen.

The view parameters can be set in two ways: View bounds or View angle.

View bounds is used for 2D viewing. The minimum and maximum X (left/right) and Y (top/bottom) dimensions for the for display in the graphics window can be set. The dimension that can be set depends on which of the following options are set:

• Specify width with height dependent on aspect ratio
• Specify height with width dependent on aspect ratio
• Specify width and height bounds

View angle is used for 3D viewing. It allows setting the following options:

• Bearing
• Dip
• Looking at point – This section allows defining a point for the center of the display. Set the X, Y, and Z values for this point.
• Define view bounds size – This section allows defining the viewing bounds of the display. Set the Width and Height of the boundary area.

Related Topics

• Display Options