how should I go about moving, rotating, & aligning large imported STEP objects? I’ve tried Move, Rotate, Rotate3D, Align, Bounding Box, Grouping, Gum Ball, … and have gotten nowhere! the STEP objects seem to have none of the features the Rhino tools are looking for. the attached image is representative of the objects I’m attempting to “assemble” in Rhino world
thanks
align 3 points may be useful.
I find hole centers are useful for alignment… if your step file doesn’t pick on osnap centers, remake them by snapping a 3pt circle to the edges of your holes. then drop a point in the center of that circle… do this for 3 points that will align and use align3pt using the points your created.
Hello- it’s possible that the objects are block instances - if you select one, what does Properties show?
-Pascal
Hello- ExplodeBlock will make a ‘normal’ object(s) from the block instance.
-Pascal
Pascal-
thanks. tried “Explode Block” on both the cylinder block and front cover objects. main caps are now individually selectable and Properties are no longer available for the cylinder block… Properties are no longer available for the front cover… both “objects” started life as laser scans if that’s any help. can Rhino7’s software be tricked by “grouping” primitives (circles or lines) or surfaces to the objects I’d like to align/assemble?
Hi Art - please post the step file or send to tech@mcneel.com to my attention, with a link back to this topic in your comments.
-Pascal
Pascal-
both objects are on the order of 120MB each; well beyond my e-mail limits. any other ideas or should I just mail you a thumb drive after the holiday?
Hi Art - you can upload to Rhino - Upload to Support, to my attention.
-Pascal
If you’d like to give something a try, I started an open beta this morning for a tool that lets you browse (tree and table view) through objects including nested block instances.
This might be able to at least let you see what it’s built up from. If you’re interested, I’ll shoot you a license invite. (food4rhino isn’t the latest, but the package manager has it- 1.03 is the latest)
An example (note: the nesting only places objects properly in V8, for V7 you need to ExplodeBlock or the reported positions of the deeper items will be wrong):
