Scale and size dimensions

[detbear]

Hey,

 

When I model an object, there doesn't seem to be a means of seeing it's dimensions in any system...Inches, centemeters, feet...etc. The "Scale" settings in the properties panel is not adequate. Why is there no numeric system display for this???

 

William

[robcat2075]

You can turn on the rulers.

 

 

Also, the "pivot" property of any CP will give you a physical placement in your current units.

[detbear]

You can turn on the rulers.

 

 

Also, the "pivot" property of any CP will give you a physical placement in your current units.

 

But the rulers don't have a display box for the object itself does it?? I mean something like this:

 

Scale/Size

x: 10.5m

y: 7.2m

z: 12.6m

 

Thus you cannot type in a quick and precise adjustment.

 

 

William

[robcat2075]

You'd have to eyeball physical dimensions with the rulers, or build the model using things like snap to grid and the CP properties for exact plaement.

 

 

I recall Martin saying that CAD/CAM wasn't something A:M tried to do.

 

 

A little experimenting reminded me that spline models are a bit harder to keep tabs on for things like exact dimensions

 

 

[jakerupert]

See picture please

xx.bmp

[robcat2075]

See picture please

 

scale % wont' help him, he needs explicit dimensions.

[HomeSlice]

One thing you have to keep in mind is that AM is a tool designed primarily for artistic expression and not for engineering.

This philosophy has shaped the development of AM from its birth, it is at the heart of AM.

It is because of this philosophy that the interface and workflow are much more simple and efficient (for artistic expression), while providing equal power or better (for artistic expression) than any other package available at any price.

You have to step away from all this "exactly" business when you open AM. Instead, you must ask yourself, "Does this convey the idea I'm trying to get across?" Totally different paradigm.

 

In light of all that, you can get a decent idea of an object's dimensions by turning on the rulers and setting markers at the object's extremities.

[Rodney]

Another 'A:M can't do this?' (sigh)

In v15 we can get some pretty precise measurements of a spline.

Perfect? Never. But perhaps we can discover enough to get by.

 

Take these two example of the same spline (one smooth and one peaked).

Using Snap to Grid on the model first helps us get a little more precise. (All measurements must have an origin... a standard to begin from... something we can use to determine 'precise')

 

Measuring a spline is simple enough to test.

When peaking a spline that is snapped to a grid one would expect the numbers to get all rounded and nice.

...and when we measure the peaked spline we find out it does so quite precisely.

 

So, how do you get scale and size dimensions in A:M.

If you need precision... build it to scale from the beginning.

Scale is just a percentage of the original. (So build the original really precise)

 

To measure a spline:

- Select the desired spline

- Hit comma key to select the whole spline

- Right Click

- Select 'Measure Spline'

[steve392]

Just thinking here but ,could you make it or part of it in AI then bring it into AM.I don't know if this would work as I don't us AI

[detbear]

Hey Everyone,

 

Thank you for your input and help with this. It would be nice to have a scale to display/ manipulate dimensions, but it's not the end of the world. I thought maybe I had missed something and had just never turned the feature on or something. I have found the export features in A:M to work quite fantastic(hats off to staff for continuing to support the export features). In order to make these exports match up easier, numeric values would help, but it's not the only working solution.

 

Hey....yeah ...the spline measurement tool is a great feature. I use it sometimes myself like a measuring tape while I'm modeling.

 

William