GEO STUDO PRO 4.0.1 RELEASE NOTES

⦁ The application and Geo Format VERSION have increased to 4010 (4.0.1)

⦁ Added a MakeTriLists on load preference for Geo, OpenFlight & DWB file formats. This is enabled by default. The MakeTriLists plugin is no longer available as a Post load plugin execution preference as this file format preference is automatically executed if the new preference is set. Be aware that this option will triangulate and merge all polygons in the original format into a single Mesh Node. If you load a file that has been compiled to triangle meshes but want to work with the original source geometry then you can simply do File->Undo to undo the conversion and return the model to the original polygons (i.e. quads and N-gons are recovered). In general, Mesh Tri lists can be quickly and easily converted to/from discrete triangles & Mesh Nodes using the Strip, Unstrip & MakeTriLists plugins. The input conversion omits polygons with behaviors, special properties etc but if you need access to the original geometry (or would rather not have this optimization) then uncheck the MakeTriLists preference and reload.

⦁ Added TempString - a new Internal Var to Geo's list of intenally managed variables.

⦁ Geo String Vars can now be defined with Multi-Line String values. Previously String Vars could only have single line defaults and values.

⦁ Added a Label property to the file Header and all Group and Group-derived Node types (RenderGroup, LOD, Switch etc). A Label is a multi-line string that can annotate different parts of a model. Labels can, for example, be used to highlight important aspects of the model or show model copyright.

if Show Label property is set the label is displayed as below (a line is also drawn from the label box to the center of the Group Node or file - if the label is on a Header node).

In addition you can specify the Label's Corner Location and Distance from the Node's centroid. These can be useful if multiple labels are overlapping when you rotate the model using the trackball.

The file Header Node has three new properties to set the Label Background and Label Text colors as well as the Label Size. These will be used for all labels in the model. The image below shows the property panel section and the Color Chooser for changing the colors.

⦁ To turbo-charge the label annotation system we have added two new Display Actions to the Behavior system. The first is a ShowLabelAction which displays a Group Node's label if the action's input variable value is non-zero. The second is a LabelContentAction which allows you to replace a Group Node's label dynamically. You can configure the LabelContentAction so that either the Input Var's value is used for the Group Node's label directly (assuming the input Var is a String Var) or the action will use the LabelContentAction's selected String Var as the Group Node's label if the Input Var matches a particular value. The following image shows a Group Node's behavior with one ShowLabel and three LabelContentActions...

The first & secons LabelContentAction's are...

LabelContents1 and LabelContents2 are user-defined Local Vars that are both Multi-Line String Vars. ShowLabel is a user-defined Int var which default to zero (and is also used as the Input Var for the ShowLabelAction). When the ShowLabel variable is incremented to 1, then 2 - the Group Node's label changes to the value the LabelContents1 and LabelContents2 string vars...

⦁ Geo's Behavior system including the new ShowLabelAction and LabelContentAction additions are fully supported in Geo's native .geo file format with a subset being supported in Designer's Workbench .dwb file format. There is also an OpenFlight exporter preference to export Geo's behavior information as OpenFlight comments. Our plan is to export Geo's behavior information in Khronos .gltf as a Geo custom extensions. Let us know if this might be important to you and we will prioritize that feature.

⦁ Previously, if you selected the Header or a Group node in the tree view (i.e. an LOD, Switch, or any non RenderGroup Node) then the Selection Statistics dialog (invoked from the Select->Statistics menu) failed to report selection information from that starting point. This has been fixed.

⦁ Fixed a Scene Graph traversal bug in the MakeTriLists plugin which could result in either RenderGroups not being visited (and converted) or many more recursive traversals being instantiated than needed (and impacting performance).

⦁ Undoing a Delete of sibling nodes (i.e. either sibling poly-type nodes of a RenderGroup or sibling Group-type nodes in a hierarchy level) did not work and could even result in other geometry or nodes disappearing! This severe bug has now been fixed.

⦁ There was a similar bug when Undoing a (File) Cut of sibling nodes - this has also now been fixed.

⦁ Added a new Rotate About Edge tool. You can select an edge by holding the SHIFT key down and clicking on an existing edge or dragging the two Edge point grabbers and moving them onto existing vertices. Rotate by clicking on the 'Rotate' grabber and dragging the left-mouse up or down the 3D viewport. Rotation values will be positive or negative depending on the direction and values will snap to logical rotation increments. This is also possible using the existing Rotate Tool but this new dedicated tool makes rotation about an edge much simpler - especially if the edge is not aligned with a major axes. Finally, you're not restricted to edges! The "edge" can be the edge defined by the 2 Edge Pt grabbers. In the images below the cube is rotated 180 degrees around the diagonal line...

⦁ With the is release (and going forward) there are now two installer options.

(A) The FULL Installer

The FULL installer should be used if it is your FIRST INSTALL of the 64-bit version of Geo STUDIO Pro (i.e. new users or users of any Geo STUDIO 2.X or 3.X versions should use this installer).

Use the FULL installer if you want version 4.0.1 to co-exist alongside an existing install of Geo STUDIO version 4.0. Please note that the default installation folder used in the Setup Program is C:\Program Files\GeoSTUDIO Pro 4.0, so if you want side-by-side versions - change the installation folder to C:\Program Files\GeoSTUDIO Pro 4.0.1 during the installation process.

(B) The PATCH Installer

The PATCH installer copies only modified program files to your existing Geo STUDIO Pro version 4.0 installation folder. This means that the Patch installer is much smaller, will install faster and wont result  in multiple Geo STUDIO version installations in your Add Remove Programs list (which was previously the case).

Using the Patch installer will not effect your Product License.