Draw Guide

7

Chapter
Working with 3D Objects

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separatel y.)CopyrightThis document is Copyright © 2005–2010 by its contributors as listed
in the section titled Authors. You may distribute it and/or modify it
under the terms of either the GNU General Public License, version 3 orlate r, or the Creative Commons Attribution License, version 3.0 orlate r.
All trademarks within this guide belong to their legitimate owners.

Authors
Agnes Belzunce
Martin Fox
Bernd Schukat
Jean Hollis Weber
Linda Worthington
Hazel Russman

Daniel Carrera
Regina HenschelWolfgang Uhlig
Martin Fox
Claire Wood

Feedback
Please direct any comments or suggestions about this document to:authors@documentation.openoffice.org

Acknowledgments
This chapter is based on an original French document written for
OpenOffice.org 1.x by Michel Pinquier (translated to English by Alex
Thurgood) and previous content revised by Jim Taylo r. The chapter
was revised for OpenOffice.org 2.0 by Linda, Daniel, Jean and Agnes,
and later translated into German by Bernd, Regina and Wolfgang; theGerman revisions were then translated into English and updated for
OpenOffice.org 3.2 by Martin Fox.

Publication date and software version
Published 28 July 2010. Based on OpenOffice.org 3.2.

You can download
an editable version of this document fromhttp://oooauthors.org/english/userguide3/published/

Contents
Copyright.................................................................................................2
Creating 3D objects.................................................................................4
Creating 3D bodies...............................................................................4
Variation 1: Extrusion.......................................................................4
Variation 2: Body rotation.................................................................5
Variation 3: Using ready-made objects.............................................6
3D scenes..............................................................................................6
Producing 3D shapes............................................................................6
Variation 4: Extrusion of shapes.......................................................7
Variation 5: Fontwork.......................................................................7
Editing 3D objects....................................................................................8
Rotating 3D objects..............................................................................8
Procedure for 3D bodies....................................................................8
Procedure for 3D shapes.................................................................10
3D settings for 3D bodies...................................................................10
3D Effects dialog – general buttons................................................10
3D Effects - Geometry.....................................................................12
3D Effects - Shading........................................................................18
3D Effects - Illumination.................................................................21
3D Effects - Te xtures.......................................................................24
3D Effects - Material.......................................................................27
3D settings for 3D shapes..................................................................28
Combining objects in 3D scenes............................................................31
Examples for your own experiments..................................................32

Working with 3D Objects

3Creating 3D objects
Although Draw does not match the functionality of leading drawing or
picture editing programs, it is capable of producing and editing very
good 3D drawings and pictures.
Draw offers two different types of 3D objects: 3D bodies and 3D
shapes. Depending on which type you choose, there are different
possibilities for further editing of the object (rotation, illumination,
perspective). 3D shapes are simpler to set up and edit than 3D bodies,but 3D bodies currently allow for more customization.

Creating 3D bodies
You can produce 3D bodies in three ways: extrusion, body rotation, andusing ready made objects. In this chapte r, these methods are called
Variation 1, 2, and 3.

Variation 1: Extrusion
First, draw one of the common Draw objects, for example asquare/rectangle, circle/ellipse or a text box using theoricons on the Drawing toolba r. Next, choose Modify > Convert > To
3D (or right-click on the object and choose Convert > To 3D, or clicktheicon) to produce a 3D object from the 2D surface.

Theicon is not usually visible on the Drawing toolba r. To make itvisible, select Visible Buttons from the toolbar menu at the righthand end of the toolbar and click on the icon to make it visible.

Figure 1: Extruding 3D objects from 2D surfaces
The procedure by which parallel surfaces are moved to create a 3D
object is known as extrusion. In this case the 2D surface is moved
forwards “out of ” the drawing level. At the same time the object isslightly tilted and central projection turned on so that one can better
recognize the object. Draw uses a default value for the extrusion (thebody depth) based on the size of the 2D object. The value can bechanged after the extrusion; see “Editing 3D objects” on page 8).

4Working with 3D Objects

Variation 2: Body rotation
Choose a common drawing object, for example a (non-black) line. Thenchange this into a rotation bod y. Draw provides two methods to do
this.
Method 1. Click the iconin the Drawing toolbar (this icon is also
usually not visible) or choose Modify > Convert > To 3D Rotation
object. With this rotation method, the axis of rotation coincides withthe left edge of the enclosing selection rectangle, through the green
rectangle handles.

Figure 2: Rotation body created using variation 2.1
Method 2. Click the iconon the Effects pulldown menu on the
Drawing toolba r. This icon can also be accessed from the Mode menu,
accessible from View > Toolbars > Mode. Notice that this icon lacks
the curved red arrow of the fixed-axis rotation icon.
With this method, you can change the location of the rotation axis,
which appears as a dotted line with two white circular endpoints.

Figure 3: Rotation body created using variation 2.2
Click one of the white endpoints and drag it so that the axis moves tothe desired position. You may need to move both ends to achieve this.
The outline shows how the figure will be rotated. When you click on
the figure again, the rotation is carried out and the new 3D body is
produced.
Creating 3D objects

5Variation 3: Using ready-made objects
Use the 3D Objects toolbar/pulldown menu (Figure 4). To activate thistoolba r, click View > Toolbars > 3D Objects).

Figure 4: The 3D Objects toolbar
If you add the icon
to the Drawing toolba r, the 3D Object bar will
be available as a pulldown menu or as a floating toolba r.
After choosing the type of object, left-click on the starting point anddrag the mouse diagonally until the outline of the object is the size youwant.
After releasing the mouse button, the 3D object appears. To change
the height:width ratio of the object, keep the Shift key pressed whiledragging the mouse. Most of these objects are constructed by rotation.
Cubes and spheres are special types of 3D objects that are directly
defined in the OOo program code.

3D scenes
Variations 1–3 all produce a result known as a 3D scene. If you click on
a 3D scene, the status bar text shows 3D scene selected. Such a scene
is actually a group of objects.
If you constructed the scene using one of the above methods, itconsists of the 3D body as a single element. 3D scenes can, howeve r,
be extended to include other 3D objects, as described in “Combining
objects in 3D scenes” on page 31.
As mentioned in Chapter 6 (Editing Pictures), you can access individual
elements of the group using Modify > Enter group or the context
menu. The status bar text then changes and shows the type of eachindividual element selected, for example Sphere selected or Extrusion
object selected.

Producing 3D shapes
Since the release of Version 2.0 of OpenOffice.org, Draw contains atype of drawing object known as a Shape. A special method of
extrusion exists for these shapes.
6

Working with 3D Objects

Variation 4: Extrusion of shapes

Figure 5: The Basic Shapes toolbar
You use the Basic Shapes toolbar (or another shape toolbar) to produce
2D surfaces. Shapes such as cylinders or cubes are technically possible
but not very useful, because they produce curiously curved images. If
you have drawn a shape, the last iconon the Drawing toolbar is
active. A click on this icon can transform a 2D surface into a 3D object(see Figure 6).
Extrusion of a shape does not create a new object type but justchanges the shape’s appearance. All the object’s properties andsettings are retained. You can use this button to toggle between a 2D
and a 3D vie w. The actual object properties and settings are not lost in
the switching operation from one view to anothe r.

Figure 6: 3D objects from basic shapes
If you click on such an object, the 3D-Settings toolbar is available. If
this is not automatically opened, switch it on with View > Toolbars >3D-Settings.

Figure 7: 3D-Settings toolbar
The first icon
corresponds to the icon on the Drawing toolba r. Thisicon also works as a toggle switch. After changing to 2D, the 3DSettings toolbar is again hidden. To change the object back to 3D, youmust use the iconon the Drawing toolba r.

Variation 5: Fontwork
For text you can also use the shapes from the Fontwork Galler y. These
produce a similar type of extrusion objects to those from Variation 4.
Creating 3D objects

7

To open the Fontwork Galler y, use the iconon the Drawing toolba r.

Figure 8: Extrusion Shapes from the Fontwork Gallery

Note

Draw objects of the type “Shape” cannot be viewed with
OpenOffice.org Version 1.x. They are simply missing from thedrawing. If you save a document with extruded shapes in theolder *.sxw format, the shapes will be converted to 3D scenes.

Editing 3D objects
Rotating 3D objects
Procedure for 3D bodies
The Rotation command used for 2D objects also works with 3D objects,
but due to the additional axis, there are a few differences with theediting of 3D objects (see Figure 9). The procedure for selecting theobject is identical to that used for a 2D object.
8

Working with 3D Objects

Figure 9: 3D object rotation
You can rotate the object about each axis (X, Y,Z). The X and Y axes arethose parallel to the edges of the drawing laye r, while the Z axis comesout of the page. It is not possible to change the axis orientation.
The three axes are not shown directl y, but thetheir intersection point.

symbol indicates

You want to …

You must ...

... rotate the object
about the X or Y axis.

... put the mouse cursor over the object.
With the left mouse key pressed you can
now rotate the object as you wish. Moving
one of the red points at the middle of anedge allows you to rotate the object about
only one axis. Note that the cursor initiallyhas the shape for a (2D) shearing
movement but pressing the mouse buttonchanges it to a rotation curso r.

... rotate the object
about the Z axis.

... move the handle on one of the corner
points with the left mouse button pressed.
Rotation about the Z axis is independent of
the setting of the rotation angle in the
dialog Position and Size.

... move the axis
intersection point.

... simply drag the Symbol to the desired
location. The point is located by default inthe middle of the object.

These rotations can be carried out on a 3D scene as a whole or on
individual objects within a 3D scene.

Editing 3D objects

9Procedure for 3D shapes
Objects produced using variations 4 and 5 (see above) can only berotated about the Z axis when using the three methods described in
the previous section. This rotation is carried out on the underlying 2D
object. It is also possible to rotate the 3D object in the same way aswith a 2D object using Format > Position and Size > Rotation(shortcut key for Position and Size is F4) and specifying the pivot point
location and the number of degrees of rotation desired.
Shape objects have their own procedure for rotation about the X and Y
axes. If you have activated the 3D-Settings toolbar (under View >Toolbars), this becomes active when you select the 3D object; icons 2
to 5 on this toolbar (see Figure 10) rotate the object in 5 degreeincrements about the X and Y axes.

Figure 10: 3D-Settings toolbar withrotation icons indicated

3D settings for 3D bodies
3D Effects dialog – general buttons
The 3D Effects dialog offers a wide range of possible settings for 3D
objects produced with variations 1 to 3 (see previous sections). To
open the dialog, right-click on the object and choose 3D Effects fromthe pop-up menu. You can also activate a 3D Effects iconon theStandard toolbar or add it to another toolbar using Customize
Toolbar > Add > Category Options > 3D Effects.
The dialog can be docked in a similar manner to the Navigator or
Template windows.
The possible settings are arranged in various thematic categories on
separate pages, accessible through the buttons at the top of thewindo w, which act in a similar way to tabs. To apply the settings you
have altered, click the Assign button. This applies all the changes
you have made to the object on the other pages of the dialog as well as
the current one.

10

Working with 3D Objects

Figure 11: Upper part of the 3D Effects dialog

Note

Only the selected effects are assigned to the object. There isno object conversion; thus a cylinder cannot be transformed
into a ring through the application of a 3D effect. However, it
is possible to change the appearance to a wooden or metal
body. By the assignment of a 3D effect, 2D objects aretransformed into 3D objects.

In order for the Effects dialog to take over all the current properties ofthe object, you must click the
button. If you deactivate this button
before you leave an object and click on it again when you open the
Effects dialog for another object, the settings are carried over from thefirst object to the second object. You can use this to transfer favorite
settings from one object to anothe r, as all the settings are brought overto the new object. In normal use, howeve r, the icon should be left
activated.
At the bottom left of the dialog is another row of buttons (see Figure12), which are available on each page.

Figure 12: Buttons for geometric transformations
The first two buttons correspond to the menu commands Modify >Convert > To 3D / To 3D Rotation Object. When the Effects dialog
for a 3D object is called up, these buttons are inactive. The third icon
switches on or off a perspective view of the object.
Converts the selected 2D object to an extrusion bod y.
Converts the selected 2D object to a rotation bod y.
Switches between a central projection and a perspective
projection.
With a central projection parallel edges are shown as meeting at somecommon point in the distance, as shown on the button symbol. Parallel
projection retains all parallel edges as parallel, as is often used to
produce oblique figures in school. The switching process is carried out
on the entire 3D scene.

Editing 3D objects

11

With central projection (see Figure 13), Draw creates the object withthree vanishing points. The parameters for central projection are set(indirectly) through the camera settings on the Shading dialog page.

Figure 13: Figure shown using
central projection. For clarity the
projection lines have been added.

3D Effects - Geometry
On the Geometry page, you can make changes to the geometry of a 3D
object. This page is opened with the Geometry buttonpart of the 3D Effects dialog.

12in the upper

Working with 3D Objects

Figure 14: Geometry pageIn the first example, the depth (length) of a body is to be changed. Thisis possible only if you created it through extrusion. To illustrate: draw
a circle and convert it according to Variation 1 into a 3D object (a flat
cylinder); see Figure 15 a and b.
If necessar y, select the cylinde r, open the 3D Effects dialog, make surethe Geometry page is active, change the parameter Depth to 3.5cm
and click on the Assign icon
. The cylinder should now resemble thefigure in Figure 15c.

Figure 15: Conversion by extrusion of
a 2D object (a) into a 3D object (b)and then changing its depth (c)This parameter has no effect on a rotation body or on ready-made 3D
objects, although the input field remains active.
With the Rounding parameter you can specify how strongly the edgesof the 3D object are rounded. Select (if necessary) the lengthened

Editing 3D objects

13cylinder again and use the 3D Effects dialog to change the rounding to30%. The cylinder should now resemble that in Figure 16.

Figure 16: Edge rounding of
10% (a) and 30% (b)This parameter also has interesting effects when you convert text into
a 3D object.
The Scaled Depth parameter sets the size ratio of the front to the backfor a 3D object produced by extrusion. The front side of such an object
always protrudes out from the original surface; the rear side is theoriginal surface of the 2D object (that is, the 2D exit surface) even if
the object has been rotated in the meantime.
By default the scaling is set to 100%, which results in both surfaces
being scaled by the same amount. If you set this scaling to 50% thecylinder becomes a truncated cone (see Figure 17).

Figure 17: Cylinder with 50% scaling
The diameter of the front side is 50% that of the rear side. It is also
possible to create the reverse effect, with the rear side smaller than
the front, by using a scaling depth greater than 100%.
With rotation bodies this parameter influences the width of the surface
parallel to the axis of rotation. At the end of the rotation the surface
width of the figure is given by the scaling depth. The distance to therotation axis remains unchanged. In Figure 18 a line is rotated tocreate a 3D object with a scaling depth figure of 0%.

14

Working with 3D Objects

Figure 18: Scaling depth of arotation body
The Rotation Angle parameter is only available for rotation bodies.
With this parameter you can create a segment of a complete rotationbody by choosing an angle less than 360 degrees. Figure 19 shows ahemisphere with a rotation angle of 270°.

Figure 19: Hemisphere witha rotation angle of 270°
The Horizontal and Vertical Segments parameters define the numberof segments out of which Draw builds spheres and rotation objects 1.
For rotation objects, the horizontal segments are more important. The
vertical segments influence the degree of edge rounding.
In Figure 20 the left sphere is made up of 10 horizontal and verticalsegments while the right sphere has 25 segments. More segments givea smoother surface, but it will take longer to generate the figure on thescreen. By default, spheres and hemispheres are constructed with 24
segments. For a square pyramid you need four horizontal segments.

1 To reduce both calculation time and data storage, circles are often constructed as regularpolygons. If you cut a sphere or cylinder of 10 segments through the middle you end up with a
20-cornered cut section (10-cornered for a hemisphere).

Editing 3D objects

15Figure 20: Sphere from 10 segments (left)
and 25 segments (right)
These are properties belonging to individual objects. If you use thesetting for segments on a 3D scene, all the objects contained in thescene are modified accordingl y.
If you extrude an unfilled circle or intersecting lines with a filling theresult may not be what you expect. In this case the Double-Sided
tool, on the lower part of the dialog page, may be able to help. Itchanges the line properties of an object from invisible to continuousand so enables all edges to be seen. Otherwise it may happen thatsome surfaces receive no filling (see Figure 21). For lines without
filling the effect is switched on by default and cannot be switched off.
This is also a property of single objects.

Figure 21: Left: without “Double-Sided”
Middle: with continuous lines but without“Double-Sided”
Right: with “Double-Sided”
Use the buttons in the section Normals to modify the normals of a 3D
object.
A Normal is a straight line which is perpendicular to the surface of an
object (in the same way that a vecto r, starting from an inner point andextending outwards, is at right angles to the surface of the object at
the point where it exits). Figure 22 shows some normals extending
outwards from a sphere made up of 10 segments.

16

Working with 3D Objects

Figure 22: Normals (vectors) of a
3D sphere with 10 segments
Using normals, the display of the object surface and the variation incolors, textures and lighting can be controlled, influencing directly how
the surface of the object is rendered.
The first three icons in Figure 14) work as “either-or” switches. Only
one of the effects can be active at a given time; an effect can beswitched off by clicking on one of the other icons.
The settings belong to individual objects, not scenes; every object canhave its own setting. The rest of the icons are normal toggle “on-off ”
switches. The following effects are available:
Object specific: The object is rendered to produce the best
result independent of its shape. Single segments are changed
but their “edges” will hardly be visible.
Flat: The surface of the 3D object will be divided into single
polygons, whose edges are clearly recognizable. Every polygon
is generated with a uniform colo r.
Spherical: The enclosing sphere is calculated for the object andthen projected onto the object. This form of calculation
produces an object with a smoother surface; the edges ofindividual segments are more smoothly rounded than with the
Object-specific effect (see Figure 23). However surfaces thatmeet at a point do not show a realistic lighting effect.
Invert Normals: This results in a reversal of the lighting
direction. The inside of the body then becomes the outside. This
property is particular to each individual object.
Double sided illumination: The lighting is also computed for theinside of the object. In other cases the lighting value for theoutside is simply transferred to the inner side. This property isof interest for open objects. It is a property of the 3D scene andaffects all objects in the scene.

Editing 3D objects

17Figure 23: Cylinder with 10 segments
a= Object-specific b=Flat, c=Spherical
The following table shows the linkage between double-sided
illumination and inverted normals.
The light source is on theright.

Normals
not inverted

Normals inverted

No double sided
illumination

With double sided
illumination

3D Effects - Shading
The Shading page offers functions for shading the object surface,adding shadows and choosing camera settings.
Shading is a rendering method involving a consideration of lighting
ratios, which is used to produce curved 3D surfaces. The surfaces arebroken down into small triangular segments. Draw offers threemethods to produce this effect: Flat, Phong and Gouraud. The setting
selected applies to all objects in the 3D scene.
• Flat is the fastest and simplest method. For every individual

segment a special color tone is determined, based on the lighting
ratio and the direction of the segment area. This tone is used forthe whole area of the segment. The segmentation is clearly visible.
• Phong is the most time-consuming method. With this method, foreach pixel the associated normal is determined by interpolation,
based on the normals of the segment edges. This causes thesegment area to appear curved and the segment intersections are
no longer visible.
18

Working with 3D Objects

Figure 24: Shading page
• Gouraud is a relatively quick method. It determines the color value

for the segment corners and calculates the color value for every
pixel through linear interpolation. The segment edges are stillrecognizable, but importantly are less so than with the flat
method. The Gouraud method considers only light reflection on
diffuse, reflecting surfaces (dispersal).

Figure 25: Flat, Phong and Gouraud shading
In Figure 25 the left sphere was rendered with flat shading, the middle
with Phong and the right with Gouraud. The quality of the flat method
is clearly inferior to the other two. The difference between Phong and
Gouraud is small. With the Gouraud method the segments can be very
faintly seen and rendered objects have a slightly less “shine” than with
the Phong method.
All three methods function at the pixel level and as such, shadowing
and mirroring inside the 3D scene is not possible in the way that ray
tracing methods permit.

Editing 3D objects

19With the the Shadow button
you can provide a 3D object with ashado w. By changing the Surface angle you can influence the form of
the shadow (see Figure 26). The left sphere has a surface angle of 0°(the paper represents a perpendicular surface behind the object) while
the right sphere has a surface angle of 45°. With 90° the paper would
be directly under the object.

Figure 26: Shadows using
different surface angles
The shape and size of the the shadow are also influenced by thelighting properties. These can be adjusted on the Illumination page ofthe dialog. Multiple light sources for shadows are not yet supported.
The shadow properties can be set for individual objects in a drawing
but where objects form part of a 3D scene, the shadow produced isthat of the entire scene.
It is possible to set the shadow property for single objects using the
Area propert y. The shadow is then shown with the color selected in the
shadow dialog, but again the representation of the lighting of the scene
determines the end result of the entire scene. In this wa y, coloredshadows, with different distances to the object, and different color andtransparency effects can be created.
In the Camera field of the shading dialog the settings of the virtual
camera can be changed. These settings relate only to the view incentral projection and apply to the entire 3D scene. The Distanceparameter is used to adjust the spacing between the camera andscene. The default value for an extruded body is equal to the depth orlength of the bod y. With equal length edges front and rea r, the effectat large distances is quite small. The standard value of Focal length is10cm. It has the same significance as with a real camera. Larger focal
lengths simulate a telephoto lens, smaller ones a wide-angle lens. The
effect that changes in the camera settings have on an object are shownin Figure 27.

20

Working with 3D Objects

Figure 27: Effect of camera settings
Picture a shows a 3D object with the standard settings. The individualchanges are listed in the following table.
a

b

c

d

Distance:

0.81 cm

3.81 cm

0.81 cm

0.81 cm

Focal length:

10 cm

10 cm

5 cm

15 cm

3D Effects - Illumination
On the Illumination page (see Figure 28) you define how a 3D object islit. The settings apply to all objects in a scene.

Figure 28: Illumination (lighting) page

Editing 3D objects

21You can light a scene with a maximum of eight individual Light sourcesat the same time. For each of these sources the light color and position
relative to the scene can be set. The light sources are represented byeight small light bulbs. When you select this page, the first bulb “lightsup”. At least one light source must be active; otherwise, therendering and shading functions cannot function correctl y.
Each symbol functions like a multi-function press switch. With the firstmouse click the bulb is selected and with the second click the settingsmode for this light source is activated (see Figure 29). A third click
deactivates the light source.

Figure 29: Adjustment of light source
In the selection list next to the symbols you can choose the color of theactive light source. If desired, click the
button to open a color
palette dialog, where you can define your own color and also adjust thebrightness. For the first light source, it is best to retain the neutral
color value (default is white); with several light sources it is advisable
to reduce the brightness.
In the lower right corner of the menu the light source location andorientation is depicted. With the vertical slider bar you can adjust thelighting angle; with the horizontal bar the light is rotated about theobject. Alternatively you can click on the light point and drag the point
as you please (see Figure 30). Click on the small square in the bottom
right (circled) to change the preview image from a sphere to a cube.

22

Working with 3D Objects

Figure 30: Moving the light source
To apply the changed settings to the selected object, click on the theAssign button.
The use of additional light sources can result in some interesting
effects.

Figure 31: Lighting with three independent light sources
In Figure 31 the ring has the lighting settings from Figure 30 with thestandard color white. In addition it was lit with magenta, and also fromthe left underside with yello w. The number and position of the lightsources is shown in the window at the lower right. The three lightsources in use can be recognized by the “lit” symbols.

To see the effect of a particular lighting effect you can also temporarily
turn it off. With an object selected, clicking on a “lit” symbol turns it
off. This new setting must then be applied (assigned) to the scene.

Editing 3D objects

23With a further mouse click on the light source the effect can beswitched back on and then re-assigned.
You can also change the settings for the Ambient lighting. The
selection of properties (lighting colo r, brightness, and so on) is carriedout in same way as for light sources.

3D Effects - Textures
Textures are raster graphics (bitmaps) which can be used as an object
property for the surface of an object. Every object in a 3D scene canhave its own texture.
You can set a raster graphic as a texture for a 3D object in the same
way as for a 2D object (Format > Area > Bitmaps or right-click on
the object > Area > Bitmaps) – as is the case for Gradient andHatching. More details are found in Chapter 4 (Changing Object
Attributes).
If the Fill setting on the Area dialog is Color, then the Te xture page isinactive. Change it to Bitmap to activate the Te xture page for 3D
objects. If the texture is not tiled or stretched and is smaller than theobject, then the remainder of the area will have the color of the Object
color property on the Material page.

Figure 32: Textures page

24

Working with 3D Objects

In the first row of the page (Figure 32) are two switches ( Type) withwhich you can choose between black and white or color for the texture(see Figure 33).

Figure 33: a - standard color setting, b - texture(color), c - texture (black and white)
With the two switches in the row Mode you can control whether the
texture of the selected objects is rendered with light and shadows(Switch 2) or not (Switch 1); see Figure 34. By means of appropriate
lighting and shading adjustments, the graphic object is more
realistically rendered.

Figure 34: Texture without (a) and with(b) lighting and shadow effects
Projection X / Y
With one of the three buttons you can determine how the texture forthis coordinate axis should be projected onto the object. The default
setting, Object specific, in general gives the best result. Examples of
the use of each button are shown belo w.
Object specific

The texture is automatically adjusted to best fit
with the form and size of the object.

Parallel

The texture is projected parallel to the axis of theobject. It is mirrored on the rear side of the object.

Circular

The axis of the texture pattern is wrapped aroundthe object.

Editing 3D objects

25

For a rotation bod y, the turning axis is the Z axis and the wrapping is
the X direction; for an extrusion bod y, the extrusion direction is the Z
axis and the extruded surface is the X direction. Depending on how theobject was produced, different positions of the texture result.
OpenOffice.org

Projection X

Projection X

Projection X

Area fill without
tiling, withadjustments
Projection Y

Projection Y(Difference issmall)

Front and rear side

Figure 35: Cylinder as a rotation body
OpenOffice.org

Projection X

Projection X

Projection X

Area fill without
tiling, withadjustments
Projection Y

Projection Y(Difference issmall)

Upper and undersides

Figure 36: Cylinder as an extrusion object
The Filter button
switches on and off a soft-focus filte r. It can often
remove slight faults and errors in the texture.
26

Working with 3D Objects

3D Effects - Material
On this page you can assign the appearance of different materials to
the 3D object.

Figure 37: Material menu
In the selection list under Favorites are the most commonly usedmaterials (see Figure 38).

Figure 38: The favorites (from left to right):
Metal, Gold, Chrome, Plastic and Wood
With the individual color parameters, additional effects can beproduced. The meaning of these parameters corresponds to those on
the Illumination dialog page.
Materials and textures can be combined with one anothe r. Settings
only simulate materials and it is sometimes a matter of trial and error
to achieve the desired result.
Tip

Do not use too high a brightness value for individual colors.
These are all additive and it is easy to end up with a totallywhite “colored” area.

Editing 3D objects

27

The Illumination color brightens
those parts of the object which lie
in shadow making the body seem
more illuminated.
When textures are used as well, theIllumination color is combined withthe white color part of the texture.
On the left the object has a black
Illumination colo r, on the rightbright green.
The Specular color simulates thereflecting capacity of the surface.
The position of the illuminated point
is determined by the setting of thefirst light source.
Left: Set the Specular color thesame as the object color and theillumination point intensity to a low
value, in order to give theimpression of a matt bod y.
Right: Set the Illumination pointcolor the same as the light sourcecolo r, in order to give a shiny
appearance to the object surface.
Metallic surfaces and glass are not so well simulated, because theimpression of these materials is produced through reflection. Suchsimulation cannot (at the moment) be calculated by OpenOffice.org.

3D settings for 3D shapes
3D shapes are handled quite differently from objects in 3D scenes. The
appearance of a shape object is changed using the 3D-Settings toolbar(see Figure 39). The 3D Effects dialog described above should not be
used for shape objects as it will not give the correct formatting results.

28

Working with 3D Objects

Figure 39: 3D-Settings toolbar, indicating icons
for formatting 3D shapes
If you have used it in erro r, you can remove the incorrect formattingwith Format > Default Formatting.
With the buttons on this toolbar you can adjust the extrusion depth andperspective, lighting and material properties as well as the extrusioncolo r. There are tear-off bars, which you open by clicking on the small
black triangle. The purpose of each individual button is described by
its tool tip. You do not need to assign the result of any of the functions
to the object as you do with the 3D Effects dialog used with 3D scenes;
every action is immediately applied and you can see its effect on theobject in the main Draw windo w.

Note

The program may sometimes seem to generate the wrong
formatting with shape objects. The exact cause is not known,
but you can undo the action with Format > Default
Formatting. One reason for bad formatting can be that you
have used a function from the 3D Effect dialog on a 3D shape.

Here are some examples of formatting of 3D shapes:
Depth
left: 0.3cm (user defined)
right: 1cm (selection)
Direction
The examples show “columns” at rightangles to the drawing surface.
left: 5 cm depth, Parallel projection
Middle: 10 cm depth, Perspective
right: Infinit y, Perspective

Editing 3D objects

29Illumination
The light color cannot be changed, thebrightness can be changed only in threelevels, and some effects may not be
totally correctly rendered.
left: from left unde r, dim
middle: from left unde r, bright
right: from right unde r, normal

Surface
Only four built-in variations are
possible. At present only Wireframe andMatt are correctly rendered.
left: Wireframe
right: Matt
You can also choose a gradient,hatching, or bitmap for the surface;these are only applied to the extruded
surface—the sides remain in the color of
the object.
3D Color
Here you can choose the color of thesides of the extruded surface.
The symbol shows the color of the mostrecently chosen shape object.

30

Working with 3D Objects

Combining objects in 3D scenes
3D objects produced by extrusion or rotation are shown in the statusbar as a 3D scene. You can group together several of these objects.
Other object types cannot be so grouped. Management of the group iscarried out in the same way as described in other parts of this guide(Modify > Enter Group, or Modify > Exit Group), see also
“Grouping Objects” in Chapter 5 (Combining Multiple Objects).
As an example, we will produce a game piece.
First produce both objects independentlyof each othe r. The subsequent combination
is made easier if you use parallel
projection and rotate the objects into an
upright, straight position.

Click on the sphere and use Edit > Copy
to take over the scene and put the sphereon the clipboard. If you are sure that you
do not need the original anymore you can
use Edit > Cut. In any case move thesphere a little to the side.
Click now on the cone. The status bar willshow 3D Scene selected. Right-click andenter the group. You will see that, as
usual, elements that do not belong to thegroup are less bright.
Use Edit > Paste. Now the objects (notthe whole scene) from the clipboard are
pasted into this scene.
The original position of the sphere now
contains a new sphere that belongs to thescene. This new sphere can be draggedover to the cone. Exit the group after
moving the sphere.

Combining objects in 3D scenes

31Notice that combining 3D objects resultsin them being more or less “fused”
together – there is no stacking or layering
as with 2D objects.
Adjust the position of the objects as you
wish. You cannot arrange objects in front
or behind others, as with 2D objects, but
can only move them parallel to thedrawing plane.
Enter the group again and adjust theobjects. The status bar indicates which
object is marked. Use the Tab key tochange from one object to the next in thegroup, if it is not possible to do so with themouse. Exit the group.
Now you can rotate the entire 3D scene
and view your game piece from all sides.

Examples for your own experiments
All examples use objects in 3D scenes.

Hello Jean32

Extruding a 2D object with text
generates letters as separate objects
and they have a larger extrusion
depth than the background.

Working with 3D Objects

3D objects of the Shape type can berendered as wireframe models. Thiseffect can be produced in other 3D
objects by setting the Area fill toNone and the line style to Continuous.

If you select several 2D objects—
without grouping them—and extrude
the selection, they are transformed,
according to their stacking order,
with different extrusion depths. The
object previously on top will be
uppermost on the extruded object.
For 2D objects use Modify > Shapes> Merge/Subtract/Intersect toproduce complex objects. The
resulting figures can be also
extruded, rotated and so on.
Rotation of lines produces concave
bodies. Use a bright line color. With ahigh number of vertical segments, thetransition to the ground is relatively
sharp-edged. Remember to switch on
two-sided illumination.
The transparency of the platter isadjusted in the surface properties ofthe body. The best effect is obtained
only when the transparent body is
combined with other objects.
The color shadow of the fruit isproduced by the use of multiple lightsources – they are not “real” and do
not rotate and change as the scene isrotated.

Combining objects in 3D scenes

33