While beta versions, release candidates were announced, Richard illustrated some new features in 3DC.
In think that it is interesting to gather this in one topic (I wondered where to insert this and though this is not an "amabilis announcement", I put it here).
… then obviously, you won't want to use 3DC 6.5 anymore.

Improvement to the "Group Selection Tool".
Holding down the Ctrl key while dragging selects all edges within the selection rectangle.



Modified Edge operation so that it can connect the centers of selected edges.

For example in the next picture I've used the new function from above to select edges creating a loop around the cylinder. Applying the Edge operation creates a new cylinder cross section. This, of course, can be used on any object. I think this will be handy for cross section modelling when you need a new cross section. It saves dividing each the edges manually and then connecting up the points individually with the Edge operation.



Another example:

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Modified Edge operation so that it can now connect multiple edges in a single operation.

In the following example I created edges on three faces with one operation.



I have completely re-written the Edge operation to take advantage of the new features of the 3D Canvas Scene Graph. The result is a much faster operation.


Unlink operation
I've made something of a fundamental change in 3D Canvas. In previous releases all points were automatically linked to each other if they were located in the same location. This won't be the case in the new release.

In the first of the following pictures I used the "Unlink" operation to unlink the points. In the second picture I moved the faces.



In previous releases moving the face would have stretched the object. You won't see much difference normally because most operations optimize points so this won't happen. If you find a case where the points are not linked you can use the Optimize operation to correct it.

This change was made to provide flexibility and to speed up the selection of points and edges.

Improvement to importing.
There are now consistent import options for all imports (bvh excluded) that I think are very useful for importing a model.

Following is a screen capture of the new import options screen:



The imported model is previewed on the import options window. As you change an option, you can see the changes made to the import. There are options for creasing, centering, resizing etc. In the example above the imported model has its Y and Z axes reversed. This is a relatively common problem.

In the following screen capture I have made a few changes to the imported model, including swapping the Y and Z axes, creasing and resizing.



The following screen capture shows the new "Default Textures" option. When a texture is missing 3D Canvas replaces it with a default texture. This is especially useful for models where there is texture mapping, but no texture associated. It is relatively easy to swap the defualt texture with an appropriate texture.



Improved rendering of concave and severely deformed faces. The following screen capture shows the rendering of a cylinder with a concave face in version 6.5.1.0 (on the left) and on version 6.6.5.x.



This feature is generally useful, but is really useful for cross-section modelling since it will now be possible to have a concave cross section that does not need to be triangulated.

Improvement to 3D Canvas' backdrops.
Backdrops now retain their proportions and the user can specify the actual dimensions that the backdrop represents.

In the following picture I drew the red line and indicated that this is 20.00 meters long in the real world model. I could have chosen a shorter line starting at any point and ending at any point. This allows users to enter any known distance and 3D Canvas creates the backdrops appropriately.



Here's an example in 3D Canvas:



I've also changed 3D Canvas to properly support textures that are not square.

I the following example I am cropping a non-square texture:



Here is a texture library expanded I:



A poor example, but if you look very closely you can see the textures have retained their proportions.

Improvement to the 3D Canvas Plug-in interface to include additional support for UV mapping.


New "hover" information to the status bar (at the bottom of the 3D Canvas window) .

If you hover over an object, the name, dimensions, number of faces/points and texture is displayed.

As you move the cursor through the scene, the position under the cursor is displayed in world coordinates and in model relative coordinates.

If you select a point on a face, and hover over another point it will tell you the distance between the points.