Setting Pen to Transparent

[derekjackson]

Yet another GDL question...

I'll be creating a Fire Exit sign as a GDL object. It'll take the variables inputted by the user and draw a block in 3D with a series of relevant textures (arrow, man running, etc.) Depending on the parameters picked, the textures used will be different.

Although this'll look fine in 3D, when I view the sign in Elevation, I'll get the outline of the sign with a series of rectangular outlines within it, for the edges of the textures.

Is there any way to tell the Pen to be transparent (0) when it comes to the textures? It seems to limit me to picking a value between 1 and 255, for some reason.

(I've just thought of another solution - accessing GLOB_CONTEXT to only draw the textures in 3D, but it'd still be handy to know about the pen!)

[Anonymous]

Hi Derek,

I presume you are using the 'picture' GDL command to create the sign text? It doesn't specifically have any settings to hide the edge lines, but I would guess that writing a 'pen' command shortly before the 'picture', then setting this to a white pen in your penset would be one way to do it.

An alternative which avoids pictures completely is to use very thin 3d letters, if you know the font the signs use. Any symbols on the signs can be constructed from 'prisms' or planar 'polys'. This also has the advantage of correctly displaying in elevations too.

Hope that helps.