9.2.10 The (Plot Details) Lighting Tab

In the 3D graph layer, you can control the lighting on 3D graphs, including the light position and light colors with the Lighting tab in the Plot Details dialog.

To use this tab, double click on the layer of the 3D plot to open the Plot Details dialog and go to the Lighting tab and change the setting of lights.

Lighting tab 01.png

Lighting Mode

To specify if directional lighting is applied to 3D graphs. If the Directional radio button is chosen, the lighting effect will be enabled.

Direction

The Horizontal (degrees) combo box is used to define the direction for the light source in the horizontal plane. The default value is 0, the possible range is from 0 to 360.

Note: A horizontal angles of 0 and 360 are equivalent.

The Vertical (degrees) combo box is used to specify the direction for the light source in the vertical plane, the default value is 90 degrees, and can be changed between -90 to 90 degrees.

The Dynamic Light Source check box is used to specify if the light source is dynamic relative to the surface.

Press the "S" key while hovering on a 3D openGL graph. The cursor will change modes. Drag with your mouse or use arrow keys to change lighting source direction.

Light Color

It is possible to modify the light color effect by setting ambient, diffuse, and specular color individually and obtain a combined effect.

  • The default of ambient color is Black.
  • The default of diffuse color is White.
  • The default of specular color is Black with a default shininess at 64, and the range of shininess is from 0 to 128.
Notes: It is also possible to change the lighting effect in the lighting control dialog.