CompuServe Messages

Mike, excuse me for butting in, but I've used GIFDXF several times to build terrain for 3ds and I've had the same problem. As you probably found out, you can turn on ALL LINES in the 3d editor, and see what is going on. Unfortunately, since the ALL LINES option doesn't seem to exist in the keyframer, you are working in the dark, so to speak, when animating. The problem comes from the way the author of GIFDXF wrote the program: all lines, including diagonals, are coded as HIDDEN (negative) in the DXF file, with the exception of the lines around the edge of the object. No matter which way you flip the normals, unify, or mess with the backface mode, your object will remain hidden in the keyframer. One workaround, ugly as it is, is to create several key dummy objects and place them at various points in your object. Use the dummys to align the views while moving the camera, preview a lot at low resolutions, then hide the dummy objects before rendering. I know, I don't like it either! I may have a better solution tomorrow. I'm going to write a program which will take the DXF file from GIFDXF and process it, unhiding ALL the lines. It's a simple matter of finding all the negatives in the right places and making them positive. While it will unhide the diagonals also, I don't think it should be a problem. If you are interested, let me know, and I'll send it to you. JKJ