Blender Caliper script 1.3 (for 2.42 plus more functions)

[macouno]

Hola folks.

I'm pleased to announce the release of the blender caliper script.

It allows you to measure between certain points in your scene (between objects/ in meshes)

It also creates 3d objects to display the measurement.

It was developed commercially for: Render Reality LCC
Thankfully the company was all for GPL release!



Find the script here:
http://www.alienhelpdesk.com/python_scripts/caliper

[Jedrzej_s]

I remember discussion about this script . THX for made this and posted here !!! And of course thankfully the company was all for GPL release !!!

P.S. I noticed that not everything working correctly...
For example colors and layers.

I hope that you will work still on this script.

I have feature request: select measure position (front or top). Now all measure generate only in front view...

[karpov]

Excellent script !

Just one little thing : it would be perfect if you could ajust level of precision :
eg. 28 cm instead of 28,567 cm ( not possible in real world construction ....)

[macouno]

Jerdzej_s: I need more information than "not working correctly". Remember the material is only created once! Thus the first time you run the script you'll have to set the color. I'll have a look at the layers.

And yes... measurements align to the front... that was a choice. I didn't want to overcomplicate it.

karpov: in the output style settings, all the way on the right, you can set the ammount of detail you want.

edit: Though I'm at work I had a quick look, there was a small error in the layers, where the text was concerned... the colors and "rounding" seem to work correct to me. I'll get a fixed version online tonight.

[Jedrzej_s]

Originally Posted by macouno Remember the material is only created once! Thus the first time you run the script you'll have to set the color.

OK. Now I understand why I thought that make colors have bug...

Originally Posted by macouno And yes... measurements align to the front... that was a choice. I didn't want to overcomplicate it.

measurements align choose (top or front) would be very handy... In my opinion this wouldn't complicate this script...

Another feature request: menu for choose font.

Regards .

[pildanovak]

really a nice one thx

[macouno]

Fixed the layer bug for the 3d text. Version 1.1 also available from the site:

http://www.alienhelpdesk.com/index.php?id=38

jerdzej_s: Yes those could be quite helpfull, but right now I have a few jobs to do, thus creating more functions is not a priority for me.

[reaper]

I just wanted to take a moment to thank macouno for his hard work on this script. I am Render Reality and funded the script, tested a few versions along the way and provided input as to what I wanted to see. However, macouno put in a lot of effort and was solely responsible in making this script a reality. It has already become a part of my work flow. I can take measurements of meshes or object distances now. In the past, i would have to add a cube and scale it to a size and then convert the blender units to measurements by hand. This has taken all of that pain away and left me with professional, renderable results.

So, thanks macouno for going above and beyond on this project. If anyone is considering commercially developing a script, I highly recommend working with macouno. He is very professional, timely and easy to work with. I hope the community get as much use out of this work as I will.

reaper
Joseph Schrand
Render Reality LLC

[Jedrzej_s]

Originally Posted by macouno jerdzej_s: Yes those could be quite helpfull, but right now I have a few jobs to do, thus creating more functions is not a priority for me.

OK. I hope that in future you will do this .

reaper <- Can you show us any example (screenshot / render) of your usage this script ???

And again: BIG THX for GPL release of this script .

[patricks]

Just want to give a big THANK YOU to macouno for his work , not only on this script but also on all the other scripts hi has realest so far . All of them are very useful and in my opinion a great ad on to Blender.
(Wonder what kind of script you cam up next? )

Patrick

[reaper]

Here's a new thought I just had. Say you know you always use this script with certain defaults, would it be easy to modify the script to set these as permanent? Is there a section of variables that are well named and easy to identify that would let me set my input measurement style, output measurement style, etc. I don't care so much about the arrows and such because I like your defaults there. But it might be nice to allow users (myself included) to indicate in the script that I always want it to come up with Feet.inches to 1/16 of an inch and that my scale is in inches and 10 scale factor etc. Not a big deal, just a nicety.

Joe

[macouno]

reaper: if you look in the code of the script... right near the top there's the GLOBALS section. In there is the DATAHASH.

In the DATAHASH are all the defaults. You can change the values in there.. in most cases it shouldn't be hard to figure out what's what.

For instance

'TEXTSIZE': Draw.Create(0.3),
is the default size for the created text.

'MOUT': Draw.Create(1),
is the default output for a measurement (1 = millimeters 2 = centimeters and so forth, according to the order in the dropdown box)

Just make sure you keep them in the current format... so if it's a text string like "a" don't change it to a nr... and if it's a float like 0.01 don't change it to 1 but 1.00

[reaper]

Awesome. It wasn't too hard to figure out. I now have all my defaults set.

Thanks!

[reaper]

In using your script, I recently thought I found a bug. I later realized the script was working properly and it was a user error. I was essentially trying to measure the horizontal distance between two objects. But since it mesures face to face and the objects were not vertically aligned, I was getting a distance that was at an angle between the two faces and thus longer than expected.

Is there a way in your script to measure the horizontal distance between two objects that are not vertically aligned? If not, how much effort would be required to add this feature?

[macouno]

That's exactly why I use a DATAHASH type thing in all my scripts.

BTW: I did receive a bug report... but I haven't gotten the details yet, so a bugfix is on the way sometime this weekend.

[reaper]

Any thoughts on the previous question, macouno? Not sure if you missed it.

[macouno]

ah yeah I overlooked that.

There is no way currently, but it's doable.

Right now basicly the script gets the two locations (whatever the method or mode is) and then gets the distance. Finding the distance along only one axis between two locations isn't that hard... just discard the other bits.

It might be tricky to make the arrow & text display properly though. The positioning by doing what I suggest below should be fine, but the length of the arrow would be wrong (too short). So you'd want to get the length of the arrow once, then get the distance in that direction as well (add an extra bit to the DATAHASH)

If you want to try something yourself:
Look for the EDGE LENGTH FUNCTION section
in there is: def vertDist(v1, v2):

v1 and v2 are basicly lists like [0.0, 0.0, 0.0]

So if you only want the distance in the x direction this version should work:

 
## Function for getting the distance between two points.
def vertDist(v1, v2):
  
 length = Mathutils.Vector(v1[0]-v2[0], 0.0, 0.0).length 
 
 return length

BTW: if coding of extra features is required I am of course for hire

[reaper]

Originally Posted by macouno ah yeah I overlooked that. There is no way currently, but it's doable. Right now basicly the script gets the two locations (whatever the method or mode is) and then gets the distance. Finding the distance along only one axis between two locations isn't that hard... just discard the other bits. It might be tricky to make the arrow & text display properly though. The positioning by doing what I suggest below should be fine, but the length of the arrow would be wrong (too short). So you'd want to get the length of the arrow once, then get the distance in that direction as well (add an extra bit to the DATAHASH) If you want to try something yourself: Look for the EDGE LENGTH FUNCTION section in there is: def vertDist(v1, v2): v1 and v2 are basicly lists like [0.0, 0.0, 0.0] So if you only want the distance in the x direction this version should work: ## Function for getting the distance between two points. def vertDist(v1, v2): length = Mathutils.Vector(v1[0]-v2[0], 0.0, 0.0).length return length BTW: if coding of extra features is required I am of course for hire

Thanks for the response. I will take a look at doing it myself, evaluate the difficulty and necessity of this functionality and decide what to do from there. If I decide I want it and cannot code it myself, I will seek your help first. Of course, now that the code is open source, anyone in the community is welcome to add this function for me for free too . *hint hint* *nudge nudge*

[youngbatcat]

stupid question.. It's like very cool tool. But silly me I see potential for it to do something else...

two things, Like counting updateings,,

So as I move something around it will adjust it's length and number value.
And
when something is reaching a destination it could count down the time it reaches it's destinated keyframe....

It's a very neat abstract design art tool as well :P

[macouno]

Yeah it's possible to update each measurement as a scene is animated or edited, if the clean function works for those measurements (cause that means it can find the measurement). It tries to store the object names, edge/face/vert id's and method of measurement in the measurement.

I was actually thinking of experimenting with something like that for fun but I'm working on something a bit more nuts and experimental for myself now