Editing Object Properties

The Object Type dialog edits the current object. One can leave this dialog open and change the current object. Its settings will be changed to reflect the new object. The object number is shown in the upper right.

Object Name: Enter a name for the object.
Draw: Turns drawing on/off in image windows.
Copy from Object: Press this button to copy all of the properties shown in this dialog from another object. Select the object number to copy from in the spin box. Turn on Copy color to copy the color from the other object as well, and turn of Copy name to copy the name from the other object.
Object type: Open/Closed/Scattered radio buttons: Set how points in an object are connected, as well as several other features. Closed contour objects are drawn with lines between the points and have a line connecting the last point back to the first one, although this can be omitted for individual contours; they are designed for modeling contours that lie in planes. Open contour also have lines drawn between the points, but no line connecting the endpoints; they can be used to model lines within planes or between planes. Scattered point objects have no connecting lines and are usually used to draw a sphere at each point.
Start new contour at new Z: When this option is selected, a new contour will be started whenever you switch to a different section from the one with the current contour and start inserting points. This is the standard behavior with closed contour objects since it is assumed that they consist of contours that should be confined to planes. This option is thus enabled only for open contour objects. Select it whenever you want to use an open contour object to model structures within planes rather than between planes.
Points per contour: When this spin box is set to a number rather than to No limit, then a new contour will be started automatically whenever the current contour reaches this limit. Specifically, the new contour is started when you add a point that would push the current contour over the limit.
Front Face: Outside and Inside buttons select which side of the contours will be brightly lit after the object is meshed. This feature can also be used to select an area of interest as inside or outside the contours, for some programs.
Symbols: Chooses how symbols are drawn. Open or filled symbols of three shapes may be drawn at each model point. Symbol size is governed by the Size slider. Independent of whether symbols are drawn at each point, if Mark Ends is selected, green and red crosses are drawn over the first and last points of a contour. If Arrow at end is turned on, an arrowhead is drawn at the last point, with the same color as the contour, as if the last segment of the contour was an arrow. (This arrow is drawn only in the Zap and Xyz windows, not in the Slicer.) With this feature, together with limiting the Points per contour to 2, you can draw multiple arrows. The arrowhead replaces the red cross if Mark ends is also selected.
Sphere drawing: If the Sphere radius for points is nonzero, then spheres will be drawn in 3-D at every point of the object. These spheres appear in the model view window and appear in cross-section on one or more slices of the image display. The units are pixels in the image file, i.e., unbinned pixels if images are loaded in binned. By default, spherical points are drawn in the Zap and XYZ windows on all sections that the spheres intersect. Turn Show spheres on-section only on to inhibit this behavior and have them drawn only on the central section where the point is located. This could be useful if you want to have a circle around the point that is a fixed size in image pixels regardless of zoom, but do not want the point to show up off-section.
Line Width: Sets the width for lines drawn on images, but not for lines in 3D.
Draw labels: Turns on the drawing of text labels in the Zap and Slicer windows for each point that has a label, in any contour. Labels can be added in the Contour/Surface/Point dialog. The label will be drawn to the right of the point.
Size: Sets the size of text labels drawn in the Zap window, in points. When the spin box shows Default, the font size of the application, the one used in dialogs, will be used. Sizes can range from 6 to 36. Enter 5 or step below 6 to get back to the default.
Time data: If multiple image files are loaded, the Contours have time values button controls whether time information is encoded in contours as they are drawn. If the button is on, then each new contour that is created will be assigned to the currently displayed time, and it will appear only over images at that time. In addition, the Time Index text box in the Contour/Surface/Point window can be used to adjust the time value of a contour. If the button is off, then new contours will not be assigned to the current time but rather will have a time value of 0 and will appear over images at all times.
> Filled contours in Zap: If you set the Transparency slider to a value above 0, the area enclosed by contours will be drawn with a transparent color in the Zap Window. Specifically, this will happen with closed contours and open contours that lie entirely in the plane. Low transparencies are fairly opaque, so you will generally need values above 50. Select Draw contour outline also to have the contour lines drawn around the filled area; if this option is off, lines will be only for the current contour and other selected contours. Nested contours should be handled properly for any level of nesting with a closed contour object, but nesting is not handled for open contour objects. This filling can fail for very convoluted contours, and it may take several seconds on a contour where it fails.
Default properties: Press Set as Defaults to save all of the properties controlled in this dialog as defaults for creating new objects. These defaults are stored in your 3dmod settings. Press the Restore button to return to the built-in default properties for new objects, which specify closed contours with no symbol display or other special features.
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