Dual colors

[Dinogeorge]

I could use a "color dual compound same" option in Stella4D for coloring dual compounds: color the components of the dual compound the same colors as the corresponding components of the original compound. In the current version, the colors of a dual come out oddly--sometimes they're random, and sometimes they're colored as above, but usually they're some kind of oddball mix of both.

For example, I just did a nice five-coloring of the scrunched compound of 25 icositetrachora, but when I dualized it to the strewn compound, one color was missing and one color appeared twice as many times as the others (so there were just four colors total). I have other examples, with more ico components.

[robertw]

Hmm, not sure what that's about. When I try, it always colours duals of compounds with one colour per component. They are not inherited from the original model. I wonder what you're doing differently. Can you find a simple reproducable example?

Oh hang on, here's a thought. What do you use to change the colour of a part in the compound? If you just hit "c" (same as "Color->Replace Cell Color Throughout") it will only change colours in the base model, not the dual. But if you use "Color->Set Color of One Part in Compound" (no keyboard shortcut) then it will affect the colour in both the base and the dual. Maybe you use a mix of these methods and this has something to do with the behaviour you see? I guess if you stick to the latter method it will always produce the results you're after.

Rob.

[Dinogeorge]

What do you use to change the colour of a part in the compound? If you just hit "c" (same as "Color->Replace Cell Color Throughout") it will only change colours in the base model, not the dual. But if you use "Color->Set Color of One Part in Compound" (no keyboard shortcut) then it will affect the colour in both the base and the dual. Maybe you use a mix of these methods and this has something to do with the behaviour you see? I guess if you stick to the latter method it will always produce the results you're after.

Thanks I usually use "replace cell color throughout" to get the first color, then change the others using "set color of one part in compound." The first color seems to be the one whose dual component gets screwed up. Keeping this in mind, I'll play around a bit and see what happens.

[robertw]

Now that I think about it, Replace Throughout should probably apply to base and dual together. Stella won't normally give base/dual faces any of the same colours unless it's a compound, so it would mostly only make a difference for compounds, and in that case you probably want the colour changed in both.

I think I'll make it that way. Then it won't matter which method you use.

Rob.