[Bf-committers] Feature Idea- cad like info display.

Campbell Barton bf-committers@blender.org
Wed, 21 Jul 2004 21:47:23 +1000


Hi Ton, I agree with the features intruding bit, and I think they could 
be added without being a problem.

Im not with you on the use for blender, Im probably speaking out of line 
here but Im using blender to make BVH's from video for a commercial project.
Making buildings is not unuseual thing to have to do, even if its for an 
artistic use (not cad) you may well need to work with dimensions.
Havind all the numerical info off by default is a must since it would 
only be usefull for spesific tasks, but having them as an option would 
be good.

About the face select modes, I personally find them usefull and disagree 
that there are that many combinations of properties (I think I just 
about covered all but co-planer) thats 7 in total.
They could be implimented in python, adding select face option would be 
trivial however Id be worried that it would be no where near as fast as 
in C.

In Gimp you can select by later (Like Sel Same Image), Colour (like sel 
same UV), Wand (Like sel same normal)- as I say I make large buildings 
and uv map them, and these features realy speed up selecting spesific 
parts of a building- Cam.



Ton Roosendaal wrote:

> Hi,
>
> Blender was meant as an intuitive (non exact) modeler for visualizing  
> in the first place, so being able to create monkey heads and such  
> remains an important focus. But I can well imagine that anyone - at  
> least occasional - would like more exact measurement tools or 
> display.  For as long it won't intrude with the workflow that's no 
> real problem  to add.
>
> For some things, like your very long selection menu proposal (same  
> normal, same area, same vertexcol, same etc.) I think we should rely 
> on  Python more. There's been a wild growth of selection options in 
> the  past releases, and there's just no end in possible combinations 
> you can  imagine of being of use. Having it not only as scripts (so 
> you can  automate or modify) but also being able to use macro 
> combinations  (hotkeys or so) then can help best to assist in custom 
> tasks you're  doing, without adding an overload of options by default.
>
> Options for measuring edge lengths, face areas, and angles we should  
> look at a bit further. I can imagine that drawing it by default on 
> the  full mesh is too confusing... maybe do it for selection only? Or 
> only  while doing transform? Something to explore.
>
> -Ton-
>
>
> On Wednesday, Jul 21, 2004, at 07:07 Europe/Amsterdam, Campbell 
> Barton  wrote:
>
>> Hi, I was in the bank today when I had this idea an the back of a  
>> deposit slip.
>>
>> I was thinking about what kind of cad features could be implemented 
>> in  blender to make it better for designing thangs that useually 
>> require  cad type features.
>> came up with and idea where edge/face lengths could be displayed in  
>> the 3d view as well as angles inbetween faces/edges.
>>
>> This would be usless on a mesh like the monkey but it you were using  
>> blender to create an edge in the shape of a floor plan having the  
>> extra info would be good.
>>
>> Would add a button to the edit win where Draw Normals.. faces.. etc  
>> are now. It would be called "Draw Geometry Info" or some such name.
>>
>> * Edge/Face Length (draw a number in the middle of the 2 verts 
>> showing  there length)
>> * Face area- Draw the face area in the middle of the face (where the  
>> normal is displayed)
>> * Angle- if a vert shares 2 edges then display the angle between 
>> them  with a nice semi circle (like in geom diagrams), A square would 
>> be  drawn and No angle number if the angle is a right angle.
>>
>> As I sead, this would be utterly usless on a humen head mesh but for  
>> making a template for a house it would be usefull.
>>
>> None of the math is that hard to do this, its just a matter of 
>> adding  it and fiddling  with the draw code etc.
>>
>> There is also are enough room in the Draw buttons win that it could 
>> be  split up into 2 colums so Draw Length/Area and Angle could be 3  
>> seperate options.
>>
>> Am I posting in the wrong place for this? if so where  should I post  
>> it.
>>
>> Its not exactly a feature request since Im willing to code it.
>>
>> - Cam
>>
>>
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>>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 
> -- 
> Ton Roosendaal  Blender Foundation ton@blender.org  
> http://www.blender.org
>
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Campbell J Barton

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