Interrogating a Model for Genealogy
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| Figure 1 |
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I need to find out what features are related to -- are children of -- a curve in my model.
How?
There are several tools to find relationships:
First is the old standby: Info > Feature >
then pick the feature . . . (or via the Right Mouse Button in the model tree -- see Figure 1).
The output contains feature information including the two lines shown in Figure 2. Every feature that
"descends from", or more accurately "is dependent on" the selected feature is listed. There is
no indication, however, of relationship. They could reference the feature directly, or they could be several
times removed. Before deleting or drastically changing a feature, this can give you an idea of how much of an
impact may be in store.
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| Figure 3 |
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Second is a graphical tool
found at Info > Parent/Child. The dialog box looks like Figure 3.
Select a feature, then pick a Parent or Child from the column window and see it highlight on the model.
This method sort-of shows the genealogy though it's only the immediate parents and children. Double clicking
on any of these will interrogate or "drill down" from there. Also, on the Parents side, using the [+] signs
will show the part of the parent the feature references (like an edge, a surface, a vertex, etc.). See the edge shown.
Note: this is the same tool accessed in Resolve mode using Investigate > Show Refs.
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| Figure 4 |
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The Third tool is a more complicated model tree
style window found at Info > Global Ref Viewer that gives more options for information.
Figure 4 shows the viewer in a "looking for children" mode. In the tree it can be easily seen that
Feature 4 (see arrow) does not have children, as it does not appear in the list.
By double clicking curve feature 9, the lower portion of the window (Figure 4) populates with basically same
Parent/Child info as above (without the +'s). The right mouse button provides other methods for displaying
more information about the feature. See the circled areas.
So, from Info > Feature we learn that curve # 9 has 20 dependents or "children".
But with either graphical tool we learn it has only 2 direct dependents. -- That is, only 2 features look
directly at curve # 9 for references -- meaning the other 18 are children of children, or further down
the genealogy.
Please Note that all of this works for suppressed features as well.
Obviously there is more information to be gleaned, but this can serve as a good introduction. If you need to
delete, suppress or greatly change a feature, looking first at the potential impact is a good idea.
Hope you're having a great summer!
See you next month.
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