I have been using design cad 3D for at least fifteen years and started using this far better software about two years ago. I use cad software for many things from designing tables for trade shows to high end jewelry. I am in the process of designing some new tables for an upcoming trade show and need help if possible.
In design cad 3D when you click on an item such as a 2X4 and then use Ctrl and I on the keyboard a box opens up and shows the properties of the object one being length width and height. This said I have just spent enough time searching help and such in Rhino that I am desperate for an answer.
My question, is there a command that I can either click or open that will give me the dimensions of a rectangular object such as a 2X4 or a sheet of ply wood, this makes it quite easy to make a list of materials needed so any help would be more than welcome.
Danny, I think BoundingBox will do what you want. The limitation is that if the 2x4 isn’t aligned with the axes then it won’t be accurate. I think Pascal has a script for non-aligned object bounding boxes.
I will go try this right now I pretty much knew there was an easy way to do this and I am 99% sure you two are right. Thanks for the quick feedback John and Nick
Hey Danny, I kind of like boxedit (be) for stuff like this if I just need to read the box volume. Perfect for objects that are aligned with the cplane, just easy click and see the numbers in the fields. No way to export the data from boxedit though. Find a script or use bounding box for that.
For non-aligned objects, set cplane to object. That will align the cplane to simple rectilinear shapes and give correct volume dimensions in boxedit (and bounding box too of course).
Thanks much for this information I found that bounding box is too confusing and I am most likely doing it wrong. When I fire up the drawing later I will try box edit and let you all know the results.
choose whether you want to base it on the World coordinate system, good for objects aligned with the axes, or the current cplane, which you might set up if the objects are not aligned.
Whether or not you use the world coordinates will come up whether you use boxedit or boundingbox.
Nick
Nick,
I had no problem putting the box around say my table leg but I do not see anywhere that shows the dimensions of the piece.Although I did just notice that I spelled dimension wrong in the header of this thread.
if your command line is too small you may not see the text readout. commandhistory will pop up a big window showing the full list of prior commands and data output.
As carvecream says you can use CommandHistory, but in any case I would recommend that you expand your command line to at least 3 lines. Then you will see all the data on the BoundingBox. If the command window is at the top of the interface, slowly move the cursor down until a double arrow appears. Then you drag like expanding any window.
Thank all of you for your patience. Just made the command line longer and lo and behold there were the measurements.
Thanks again
All my best … Danny
P.S. Love rhino and am now in the process of learning texture mapping. I do high end jewelry and need to be able to do designs that look as near photo quality as possible, thus saving me having to make an actual piece then showing it to a customer. I have Brazil for rendering so expect I will be going to that forum next.
