Sometimes old school still reigns supreme. I love the feel of a stone model that can be held in my hand and evaluated. Virtual models are great and I am sure that younger practitioners feel about them, the way I feel about stone. It’s a generational thing. That being said, I would never go back to the old way. The rare times when I need to pour models make me think of all that can go wrong from distortion of the impression, to air bubbles in critical locations, to expansion or contraction of the stone itself. Don’t even get me started on the mess and noise of trimming models. You always have to remember your beginnings though and stone models were a big part of it.

I think somewhere there was a little bit of that thought when the software designers gave us the ability to change the color of our proposal yellow just like the virtual model. I use this function once in a while on cases that need that little extra esthetic evaluation before hitting mill. It gives the proposal the ability to blend in with the arch and allows us to be a bit more critical of our design. The tools still work perfectly when the proposal is yellow and sometimes it’s just what you need to go from good to great.

It’s a subtle thing, kind of like the shiny spots on a proposal or the shadow below the virtual model. Somewhere someone is thinking about the way our mind works and how it is interpreting what we see in a virtual model. Thank you for that attention to detail. So, the restoration color, which is accessed through the Analyzing Tools, is just a user defined option that may help us out. Here are screen shots each way. You decide. For me I like it. Control is good.