I’m filling some relatively simple vector shapes and want to see the effects of different fill settings. If I set the scan angle (that really should be Fill Angle shouldn’t it?) to anything but 0 or 90, I get some really weird shading results. At first I thought that is was a bug, then after playing around with the settings I concluded it’s a Moire effect caused by interaction with the monitor refresh. Is there a way of avoiding this?
I am trying to visualise what the engraving would look like at different settings and the interaction with the monitor refresh makes it impossible.
The settings for this preview were - Lines per Inch 100, Scan Angle 45 degrees
If you’re getting Moire effect, does the magnitude change with a change in zoom level? Also, you can see the fill results if you set the view options in the non-preview (edit/work) screen.
Yes it does change with zoom and also, it seems. the phase of the moon! Trying it today it was still slightly apparent, but much less of an issue. I just had ‘pin stripes’ which were regular and could be virtually tuned-out by changing the zoom amount. Then for no reason that I can discern, it went back to how it was last night, i.e. the psuedo random patterns and zooming just moves the pattern around.
I thought it might be my monitor ‘warming up’ so I dragged the preview window onto my second (identical) monitor and the moire pattern is exactly the same on the second screen. My monitors are 1920x1080 60Hz displays.
You can see filled shapes using the Window / View Style / Filled/Smooth option, but it doesn’t change with the Lines per Inch or Scan Angle settings.
After a bit more playing around I’ve found that I can turn the Moire effect on/off by selecting/deselecting antialiasing in Edit / Settings. This setting does get set/reset by changing between smooth and coarse options in the Window / View Style menu.
Does anybody else see these Moire effects during preview? A simple filled rectangle will show it if I have antialiasing turned on and the Lines per Inch set between about 80 and 150.
I’ve cut stuff using wide spacing on the scan/engrave lines and noted the Moire effect, but recognized it, as you have, as an inconvenience. When the zoom is sufficient to remove the Moire, the scale is accurate. Unfortunately, if you need the “big picture,” and get the Moire, all is lost.
