Aligning Images

 From:  Michael Gibson
7725.2 In reply to 7725.1 
Hi Wlawton, there are a few demos of image alignment functions here:
http://moi3d.com/forum/index.php?webtag=MOI&msg=1982.9
http://moi3d.com/forum/index.php?webtag=MOI&msg=1982.6
http://moi3d.com/forum/index.php?webtag=MOI&msg=2501.14

Probably the easiest way to start before you place any images is to draw in a few lines which match the lengths you have in the bitmaps.

So for your case, draw in a line 28.5 meters long in the Front view, another line 7.87 meters long in the Right view, and another line 29.39 meters long in the Top view.

To draw a line of a certain length, start the Draw curve > Line command, and then place the first point of the line, and before placing the second point type in your desired length and hit Enter. That will activate "Distance constraint" and the next point will be placed at that speciifed distance away from the first point. After you have drawn a line if you wish to center it, grab it by its midpoint and drag it to the center axis line.

Now the next step is to place the images in - place each image in to the corresponding Top, Front, and Right views by using the View > Image command, push the "Add" button in the command options area to pick an image and place it in the proper viewport. Just place it at a rough size for now, the proper sizing will come in the next step.

Once the images are in the viewports, let's now size them to the proper sizes. To do this stay in the View > Image command, and use the "Align" function, there's a button for it in the command options area in the upper right corner of the main window, and the first link above shows a demo of it being used. The way the Image Align works is you first select which image you want to manipulate by clicking it in the list of images that is shown above the buttons, do that before you actually launch the Align function. Then once you are doing the Align you will pick 2 points on the image right on the registration line in the image that shows the distance. Then pick 2 points snapped on to the line in the model that you drew previously. If the side-view silhouette lines of the other images are getting in your way and confusing you then hide the other images before doing the align of that particular image. To hide an image select it in the list and then use the Hide button below the list.

Once you have used the View > Align function like that, the images are all now at the proper size with the distance marked in the image matching up to the same distance in the model space.

Now you need to position each image - you do that by staying in the View > Image command and clicking and dragging on an image, that will move it around. You can click on a corner, edge midpoint, or center of an image to drag from those key points or otherwise if those don't match to a good point on the image you will instead just drag right on a spot of the image like on the bottom of the wheel and move that until it is visually right above the x axis line, or possibly some other reference line that you can draw in before going into the View > Image command.

For your case here, maybe position the Front and Right views dragging the bottom of a wheel to the x-axis line, and then place a line or a circle would be good at the tip of the nose cone (I drew a circle by placing the first point of the circle in the Right viewport at the tip of the nose, then finished the circle in the Front view, that now gives you a common reference you can see in 2 views and you can then drag the Top view image to match the nose up to it.

If you need to rotate an image, when you are inside the view > Image command move your mouse over the rotation grip control that is part of the "Edit frame" that surrounds the image and drag it to rotate it.

Hope this helps, let me know if you get stuck on any step.

- Michael