Hi Michael. thank you -
thats how I am doing it so, far to get a real size impression of my objects,
but I thought there maybe was a non-analogue method ...
Hi Tom, as far as I know there isn't any way for a program to know the physical size of the display screen. So I don't think there would be a way for MoI to do that automatically.
You could place an image of a ruler as the backdrop to each viewport and size it to match the correct dimension.
I don't really understand the need because in 3D modelling size is either very specific, or can be relative and changed. So if I am making a real car I will be absolutely specific about size. If I am making a model car I can size it at perhaps one tenth of the size of the real thing and change my mind at any time and scale it up or down. If I make a vase, proportions may be more important than size because it may work well at different sizes.
If you want the grid to match your monitor you will be modelling small things and what about zooming in and out for precise placement?
Back when I made jewellery & needed a bezel for oddball shaped stones, I'd take a photo of the stone with a ruler beside it.
I'd take the photo as a "top view" then crop the image to just include the stone & whatever amount of the ruler would fit.
In MoI's top view I'd create a line of 10mm then import image & keep scaling it until 10mm on the ruler matched my 10mm line.
From there on you could create what you needed to without being concerned of dimensions being off.
And remember when first importing your image to click the "Properties" button & tick the "Embed image data in 3DM file".
It has "calibration" of pixels to the units you wanted, but i dont remember that it holds that calibration if you "zoom" the screen. If not, you would have to calibrate every time you reset your screen to some different level.
Putting your known dimension in each view (front, left etc.) You can get pretty quick at a recalibration every time you change viewpoint.
It is perfect for my needs - thank you for that golden tip, Burrman !
As I am currently designing small scale objects with an emphasis on their aesthetical
values, it helps me to evaluate them under their exact size on screen - and such a virtual
Caliper is definitely easier to handle than to hold one against the monitor.
re:
> "as far as I know there isn't any way for a program"
> Have a look at it, Michael" !
I did and it doesn't do that either. It measures pixels and shows inches just by a fixed conversion factor of 96 dpi. On my system here when it says 5 inches it's actually around 4 1/2 inches.
So it doesn't know your physical screen size automatically, but looks like it has a calibration method so you can get it set up for your environment.
Hi Tom, also you can calibrate MoI in a similar way like Colin describes above.
Something like - draw a 10 inch line, then zoom until your line matches 10 inches on a ruler and now you're calibrated and any dimensions that you draw will be at real size until you alter the zoom or viewport size.
This is similar in concept, but adds some bells and whistles.
It's Free
IC Measure provides powerful tools for the manual measurement of circles, lines, polygons and angles. The convenient user interface enables the easy measurement of lengths, angles and surfaces directly from the image displayed on the monitor. Measurement data can be exported as CSV file.
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