View Control While Interrupting a Journal

[kfraysur]

I am looking to create a journal that will turn on specific layers for the user, allow the user to view the model at different angles, advance to a next step with new layers turned on, and repeat until the user has reviewed all necessary layers.

As an example, when the user runs the journal:

1. Only layers 1 and 2 are displayed
2. The user has full camera control to view what is on layers 1 and 2 at their leisure
3. The user can advance the journal to the next step (via a button or something)
4. Only layers 3 and 4 are displayed
5. The user has full camera control to view what is on layers 3 and 4 at their leisure
6. The user can advance the journal to the next step (via a button or something)
.
.
.
X. All required layers have been viewed and the journal ends.

I know how to control the layer settings, and I know from previous journal experience that you can create a user-specified pause length between journal steps. I have previously used a message box pop-up with the MsgBox function to allow the user to pause the journal until they press 'OK'. This has been helpful in the past when I needed a journal to pause while a .stp file is exported prior to loading a new .prt. Unfortunately, while the message box pop-up is displayed the user does not retain camera control.

Is there some way to allow a journal to pause for a user-specified amount of time prior to advancing to the next journal step while still allowing the user view control?

Thanks for any help.

 

[cowski]

Try the NX message box.

www.nxjournaling.com

 

[kfraysur]

Thanks for the response, cowski. I see that you have an entry about NX message boxes on nxjournaling.com (a great site that everyone should visit!). I will take a look and see if I can use that to create the journal I need.

 

[kfraysur]

Unfortunately, both the NX message box and the .Net message box both take complete control away from the user until the message box is cleared. I don't believe that either will be a solution to this problem.

 

[cowski]

You won't be able to navigate with the mouse when the messagebox is shown. But if you have a spaceball, you can manipulate the view while the NX message box is shown (but not when a windows message box is shown).

www.nxjournaling.com