Finish 3d viewer improvements

content/blog/2020/development-highlight-3d-viewer-improvements/index.adoc

@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 +++
-title = "Development Highlight: V6 3D Viewer Improvements"
-date = "2020-09-23"
-draft = true
+title = "Development Highlight: 3D Viewer Improvements"
+date = "2020-09-26"
+draft = false
 "blog/categories" = [
     "Development Highlight"
 ]
@@ -10,22 +10,24 @@ draft = true
 :icons:
 :iconsdir: /img/icons/
 
-Not all changes to KiCad have to large by themselves, and this development highlight aims to showcase smaller improvements made 
-so far to the 3D Viewer by a few contributors and are available in the nightly builds.
+The 3D Viewer has seen a few incremental improvements during the course of V6 development. 
+Not all changes to KiCad have to large by themselves to improve KiCad.
 <!--more-->
 
 == Populate Silkscreen and Soldermask Colors from PCBNew board properties
-A small quality of life improvement (but appreciated nonetheless 👍), https://gitlab.com/Drinausaur[Fabien Corona] in https://gitlab.com/kicad/code/kicad/-/merge_requests/63[MR#63] added the ability
+A small quality of life improvement, https://gitlab.com/Drinausaur[Fabien Corona] in https://gitlab.com/kicad/code/kicad/-/merge_requests/63[MR#63] added the ability
 for the 3D viewer to use the board soldermask and silkscreen colors as defined in PCBNew just like the title of the merge request implies 😀
 
 image::physical-stackup.png[align=center, alt="Physical stackup page in Board Setup shown with color options circled", link=physical-stackup.png]
 
-== Plated and Non-Plated Copper pads
+== Plated and Non-Plated Copper
 A subtle change has been made in 
-https://gitlab.com/kicad/code/kicad/-/merge_requests/405[MR#405]  by https://gitlab.com/KammutierSpule[Mario Luzeiro] that affects how copper colors.
-The visual difference between plated copper pads and non-plated copper pads will now be visible.
+https://gitlab.com/kicad/code/kicad/-/merge_requests/405[MR#405]  by https://gitlab.com/KammutierSpule[Mario Luzeiro] that affects how copper is rendered.
+The visual difference between plated copper pads and non-plated copper pads will now be visible as well as copper in general.
 
-<Insert image>
+This image shows a ENIG plated copper hole compared to the surrounding copper traces when the soldermask was turned off.
+
+image::plating.png[align=center, alt="Image showing plated ENIG pad with exposed copper traces (soldermask layer disabled)", link=plating.png]
 
 == Model Opacity
 A utility feature was added to adjust the opacity of 3D models that can aid in mechanical design previews with a simple slider
@@ -36,7 +38,7 @@ image::opacity.png[align=center, alt="Raytrace Lights Configuration", link=opaci
 
 == Configurable Raytracing Lighting
 Up until now, raytracing used a fixed light source during rendering. 
-https://gitlab.com/kicad/code/kicad/-/merge_requests/349[MR#188] by https://gitlab.com/KammutierSpule[Mario Luzeiro] moves the light source configuration to the options dialog that allows easy customization.
+https://gitlab.com/kicad/code/kicad/-/merge_requests/349[MR#188] by https://gitlab.com/KammutierSpule[Mario Luzeiro] adds light source configuration to the options dialog that allows  customization.
 
 image::raytrace-light-options.png[align=center, alt="Raytrace Lights Configuration", link=raytrace-light-options.png]
 
@@ -45,23 +47,18 @@ https://gitlab.com/oleg.endo[Oleg Endo] was unhappy with the rendering performan
 frames per second rendering times as slow as 10 FPS. After his changes in https://gitlab.com/kicad/code/kicad/-/merge_requests/145[MR#145]
 rendering speeds may be up to 8x faster as before.
 
-<Insert image>
-
-== Anti aliasing and while moving
-https://gitlab.com/KammutierSpule[Mario Luzeiro] in https://gitlab.com/kicad/code/kicad/-/merge_requests/141[MR#141] 
-
-<Insert image>
 
 == Lighting improvement with floors
 The floor plane object that is optional to add in the 3D Viewer previously cast a shadow onto the bottom side of the board.
 https://gitlab.com/burhanemre[Emery Burhan] in https://gitlab.com/kicad/code/kicad/-/merge_requests/170[MR#170] submitted a patch
 to disable the casting of shadow by the floor object to give the PCB a more uniform look.
 
-
-image::lighting-org.front.png[align=center, alt="Top layer lighting before floors added", link=lighting-org.front.png]
-image::lighting-fixed.front.png[align=center, alt="New floor reflected lighting on top layer", link=lighting-fixed.front.png]
+Bottom of board before floor reflection:
 
 image::lighting-org.back.png[align=center, alt="Bottom layer lighting before floors added", link=lighting-org.back.png]
+
+Bottom of board after floor reflection:
+
 image::lighting-fixed.back.png[align=center, alt="New floor reflected lighting on bottom layer", link=lighting-fixed.back.png]
 
 == Configurable View Change Speed
@@ -78,4 +75,9 @@ image::animation-1.gif[align=center, alt="Clip of animation speed 1", width="300
 
 The fastest speed of 5 looks like this
 
-image::animation-5.gif[align=center, alt="Clip of animation speed 5", width="300"]
+image::animation-5.gif[align=center, alt="Clip of animation speed 5", width="300"]
+
+
+
+
+NOTE: These features are only present in nightly builds, please only use them for testing and experimentation