Primitive with exact Dimensions?

lina.catfish

I wanted to create a primitive. That worked well. After that, I wanted to change the measurements - which worked fine as long as I'm not really interested in the exact size. But now I want to create a plane as a rectangle (or change the created square to a rectangle) with full control over the exact size. Is there a way to do this in the DS?

 

Thank you for all suggestions!

crosswind

A primitive plane in DS is just a square as default but can be created with exact measurement. So if you want to make it as a rectangle with exact size, it'll be still easy.

For instance, you firstly create a primitive plane with 20 feet, then you need it to be a rectangle of 18 x 12.5 feet. You just calcualte 18 / 20 = 0.9 and 12.5 / 20 = 0.625. Then change primitive's X Scale to 90% and Z Scale to 62.5%.

barbult

To add to crosswind's instructions, you can change the primitive's X, Y, and Z scale factors individually in the Parameters pane. I like to start with a primitive sized in multiples of 10, to make it easy to figure out what scale factor I want. Here is an example with a 1 meter primitive cube.

chris-2599934

Create your primitive cubes as 1 metre cubes. That way the X, Y and Z scale factors become the width, height and depth values measured in centimetres. Similarly, make your planes 1 metre square and the scale factors (in whatever orientation you create it) will be in centimetres.

If you insist on measuring in feet or cubits or other bits of dead kings, you'll have to convert those measurements into something more sane before using this method.

You can also use this approach to get the right proportions regardless of the actual measurements. Suppose you have an image that you want to use as a poster in your scene. Suppose it is 1234 pixels wide by 2345 pixels tall. Create a plane primitive, 1 metre square, primary axis Z positive. Apply your image to its surface, and set the X scale to 1234 and the Y scale to 2345. Then use the overall Scale parameter to grow or shrink it to the size you actually want.

crosswind

barbult said:

To add to crosswind's instructions, you can change the primitive's X, Y, and Z scale factors individually in the Parameters pane. I like to start with a primitive sized in multiples of 10, to make it easy to figure out what scale factor I want. Here is an example with a 1 meter primitive cube.

@barbult Yeah, thanks barbult ! 

@lina.catfish

Bersides, any calculation if needed can be done in DS without a calculator, i.e. type in the numbers into the fields of Transforms in Parameters pane.

For instance, based on barbult's exemple, in case if you want to make a 1 x 1 x 1 meters cube into 5.5 x 5.5 x 7.5 feet cube, you can type in 5.5/3.28084*100 into X Scale, copy it to Z Scale and Y Scale, then change the one in Y Scale into 7.5/3.28084*100.

If you want to change the measurements of an existing Prop / Figure from any product, you can measure it firstly with Measure Metrics plugin or any usable Props like "measurement panels" before calculation.

BTW, the grid in DS Viewport is based on 1 x 1 meter. They can be also used as a reference if possible.

lina.catfish

Hello!

Many thanks to everyone for the explanations. Once explained, it becomes a bit obvious.

Additional note to chris-2599934's: I had great fun discovering that "Bits of Dead Kings" are included in the "Measure Metrics for DAZ Studio" :)