Column contour line missing in 3D view

[Gerald Hoffman]

I have always noticed that in a 3D view round columns consistently do not have contour lines. I have tried everything I could think of. This has been on many versions of AC. See attached screen shot. The contour lines are present in Elevation and Section views. The base contour shows properly but not the sides.

Operating system used: Mac Intel-based Ventura 13.6.3

[Barry Kelly · Accepted solution]

Not when your 3D window is set to use the hardware acceleration engine.

Only when the vectorial (basic) engine is chosen do you see the contour lines.

Of course then you will not see the texture images.

I think there should still be an edge contour.

Barry.

[Gerald Hoffman]

Thanks Barry. It's not the answer I was looking for but it does work as you suggested. So for some reason curved surfaces won't show contours in OpenGL, only in Vectorial. It is very slow on my computer even with hardware acceleration.

[Barry Kelly]

Yes, OpenGL (or hardware acceleration) engine is much quicker in the 3D window.

The surface material texture used for the round columns can sometimes make them easier to see, but I don't really understand why there can not be an edge contour or silhouette of the curved surface.

I am sure there is some technical reason.

Barry.