I have added a ShadowMaker mode to the LOD Display & Edit window. In this mode you can draw the shadow model polys on top of a top view of the full model. When you done, LE will automatically build the model, generate and open a new model, paste the shadow nodes to the Root node and save it. Sorry, couldn’t figure out an easy way to generate the polys automatically. :^)

To turn on ShadowMaker, select "Make Shadow Model" in the "Tools" listbox. The Edit area buttons will be enabled and the "Edit" button turned on. The model will be put in Top View and the other view buttons inactivated. You can still Pan and Zoom.

To draw the shadow polys, hold down the "CTL" key and left-click the mouse button (CTL-LMB) at the coordinates for the first vertex. Do the same for the second vertex. A magenta line will be drawn from vertex to vertex. Also a small circle is displayed on the currently selected vertex. A blue line is used for previously generated polys. When you have completed placing the vertices, SHIFT-Left-click the mouse button (SHF-LMB). The progress of the generation is displayed in the Clipboard editbox as <node#>-<Vector#>, e.g., 5-14 4^th node and 14^th vector. If a vertex is placed within a foot of a previously generated vertex, that vertex’s vector will be used. NOTE: Be sure to places the vertices in a CCW direction for each poly.

Click the "undo" button in the Edit area, or click SHF-RMB, to delete the last vertex and move the indicate to the previous vertex. To edit a previous vertex, either select it by clicking CTL-LMB on the vertex (indicator circle will be displayed on vertex to edit), or click on the back (<<V) and forward (V>>) buttons in the Edit area. To change the vertex placement, CTL-LMB click on the correct location.

When the shadow model is completed, click on the Edit mode "On/Off" button, the automtic

generation of the shadow model will start. You will need to enter the name of the shadow model file when requested. When the generating process is completed (few seconds), you will need to use the shadow scaling function described below to scale the dimension to within +/-1.

While in Edit mode the model window "click to view" areas can be used to change views quickly. (See table below)

To start drawing nodes, click on the Edit mode "off" button to place it in the "on" position, then click on the "Add" button to add polys.

To draw the polys, hold down the "CTL" key and left-click the mouse button (CTL-LMB) at the coordinates for the first vertex. Do the same for the second vertex. A magenta line will be drawn from vertex to vertex. Also a small circle is displayed on the currently selected (last placed) vertex. A blue line is used for previously generated polys.

Since placing a vertex in any one view can define only 2 of the 3 vertex coordinates, the first placement will define one of the coordinates as 0.000. This will result in the polys undefined coordinate placing the poly at the zero position.

The suggested procedure for adding a poly is to define all the vertices for a poly in one view, for example the Right View. Then go to the Front View and select each of the vertices (CTL-RMB) and drag them from their Y = 0.000 position to the correct location. LE has been coded to select the vertex nearest to you, so that, in this example, the most positive X vertex in the selection box will be selected. To select the back vertex, change your view to the Back View and select the vertex. (In a future enhancement to the this function, I will let the user select an adjacent node’s vertex to use its X, Y or Z coordinate for the missing poly coordinate.)

When you have completed placing the vertices for a single poly, SHIFT-Left-click the mouse button (SHF-LMB) to commit this poly and get ready for the next poly generation. The progress of the generation is displayed in the Clipboard editbox as <node#>-<Vector#>, e.g., 5-14 4^th node and 14^th vector.

NOTE: Be sure to draw the vertices in a CounterClockWise direction for each poly.

Click the "undo" button in the Edit area, or click SHF-RMB, to delete the last vertex added, if selected, and move the indicate to the previous vertex. If other than the last vertex is selected, "undo" will restore the coordinates prior to the last move.

To edit a previous vertex, either select it by clicking CTL-RMB on the vertex (indicator circle will be displayed on vertex to edit), or click on the back (<<V) and forward (V>>) buttons in the Edit area. To change the vertex placement, CTL-LMB click on the correct location, or hold the CTL-LMB down and drag the vertex to the correct location.

When all the polys have been drawn and you are ready to place them in the model, click on the "Add" button to turn it off. The nodes will be generated and placed under a Subtree and put into the Clipboard. You can then Paste them into the Node Tree.

Note: After placing your new nodes, select "Action/Calculate Model Normals" to set the new

nodes’ view normals.

To exit Edit mode, click on the "On/Off" button.