how to plot dashed or dotted lines in a gizmo plot

Maybe easy, but I dont know...helps will be appreciated. Thanks!
I suggest trying two approaches. (1) Represent the line as a path object, and use the tube mode with radius wave 0 or >0 between groups of vertices, or (2) use a path color wave with transparency set to 0 in the "dashed" regions (corresponding to previous 0 radius). For details
DisplayHelpTopic "ModifyGizmo for Path Objects"

PS: dotted lines are easy using a scatter plot with vertices along your constructed line.
Looking for a dashed line in Gizmo is equivalent to asking for a rotary-dial cell phone. If you absolutely have to, you can fake it as suggested above. Instead you should examine what you are trying to display and how you accomplish the task using OpenGL.

A.G.
WaveMetrics, Inc.
s.r.chinn wrote:
I suggest trying two approaches. (1) Represent the line as a path object, and use the tube mode with radius wave 0 or >0 between groups of vertices, or (2) use a path color wave with transparency set to 0 in the "dashed" regions (corresponding to previous 0 radius). For details
DisplayHelpTopic "ModifyGizmo for Path Objects"

PS: dotted lines are easy using a scatter plot with vertices along your constructed line.


great, thanks!
Igor wrote:
Looking for a dashed line in Gizmo is equivalent to asking for a rotary-dial cell phone. If you absolutely have to, you can fake it as suggested above. Instead you should examine of what you are trying to display and how you accomplish the task using OpenGL.

A.G.
WaveMetrics, Inc.

Thanks.
However,I dont think drawing dahed lines in gizmo plot is out of date. I see a lot of 3d graphs in the published papers having dashed lines(of course,they may be drawn by other tools, and the dashed lines may be faked). My question is also of other igor users: they are preparing their scientific graphs and want to add dashed lines.

Though one can do better with knowledge of opengl, I dont think this should be a prerequisite for a general user to prepare 3d graphs, especialy for those just use igor for data analyzing and presentation. Many of them never heard of opengl.

I searched in the internet and find the following opengl functions may draw dashed line(I am not sure, because i dont have programming experience of opengl):
glLineStipple(1, 0x3F07);
glEnable(GL_LINE_STIPPLE);
I agree that you should not be required to know or understand OpenGL.

In general Gizmo is intended to generate modern looking graphics. The only concession that I made in the design is to allow old-timers to produce grid-line surfaces. Dashed lines are inherently 2D objects that you can find in a graph window but not in Gizmo.

FWIW, OpenGL deprecated GL_LINE_STIPPLE a long time ago.

A.G.
WaveMetrics, Inc.