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Measure between tool not working properly


allanjl

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Greetings,

 

Support: I have two smooth objects. When I measure between their faces formZ tells me they are 1.9m apart. But in reality, those faces are 2m apart. I created two 2d rectangles over their faces, when I measure between those, the distance is correct at 2m. 

 

I'm using the measure between tool found at the measure palette.

 

I'm sure this has something to do with the objects being smooth and complex. Still, this tool should work correctly.

 

Allan.

Measure between.zip

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hi Allan,

 

the distance from top to top is 2,00m

but the "Measure Between" tool measures from top to bottom

and because the thickness of the upper object is 0,10m you get 1,90m between the objects.

 

vva 

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Hi Vva,

 

The measure between measures from top to bottom? You mean it measures in between objects, not faces? I specifically selected faces. Isn't that the way one should measure, face to face, not object to object?

 

Something doesn't seem right to me here. I have created two slabs. Each 1' thick. I move one 10' away from another. I pick the faces that are 10' apart. It works as expected; giving me a result of 10', not 11'

 

So if that works, why would it work any differently with two slabs that are more complex with rounded corners and holes. Both of the these complex objects are well formed.

 

I guess Support is too busy to look into this?

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Allan,

I think your objects have some problems.

I did the following: derive the top faces of the objects,

use Object Doctor and give them the height again with the Reshape tool.

 

i'm on iMac 10.13.5; fZ 8.6.2 (10099)

 

vva

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Hi Allan, I checked your file and the distance between the slabs is 190,000389 cm with 6 decimal of accuracy, that's the way I usually work, not 2,0 meters as you say, and the most high slab have 6 zero length segments and 4 duplicate points.

 

I recommend you change your accuracy settings in Project Settings.

 

Best,

 

Marcelo

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Vva,

 

Yes you're right, one of the objects did have some problems. But after fixing it with object doctor, and measuring between the faces, the distance is still 1.900m, which is still 10 cm off.

 

Thanks Marcelo. In architecture,  0.000389 cm is too small to be signficant. Regardless of the high accuracy, the distance is still wrong. 

 

Please see the attached screen captures. It's obvious something is not working right.

 

Thank you all for your input.

Measure.zip

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Thanks Vva,

 

Obviously you recreated the object. What still baffles me though is why wasn't it working properly to begin with? I rely on this tool on an everyday basis, and it's scary to think that it may not give me the right result depending on the object's integrity. As I said before, I ran the object doctor on the previous object, it fixed it, and yet, the tool was still producing the wrong output.

 

Thank you all again for helping.

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Hi Allan,

 

Working with 6 decimals is part of my work method, just to not have problems of this type. It doesn't mean any difference to my performance or the performance of formZ, and it allows me to detect minimal errors that later can turn into bigger issues.

 
On your file, the Object Doctor tool doesn't fix the object "brep_4-Document 4", as you express, it only corrects the problem of the 0 length segments, but it can't correct the 4 duplicated points, so that's why the measurement tool continues to fail.
 
One test you can do is to convert your object "brep_4-Document 4" to faceted first and then take the measurement between faces and you will see that it's correct (200,00041 cm).
 
Best,
 
Marcelo
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Thanks for the information Marcelo. I didn't know that duplicate points could be so nefarious! I suppose I need to check my model constantly to make sure there aren't even duplicate points so that when I use that tool it outputs the correct information. Of course this is easier said than done, especially given the fact that I share models with other people who use other 3d programs.

 

Allan.

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A good way to avoid these sorts of issues is to use your Snaps.  Point snap is pretty much always On for me.  Grid snap is set to common intervals.  In metric projects, I find 5cm to be great, and in 'Merican projects, I find .75" to work well because my common construction is 3/4" plywood.

 

If you use your snaps to make sure objects are actually placed where intended, I believe you will be way less frustrated. 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Thanks Justin, but I think my point is not the objects were placed inaccurately. It's that some smooth objects, that have planar, parallel geometry, are not measured accurately by the measure between tool. 

 

In my work, it is a fact of life that I must work in models created in other software; in this case rhino. The fact that the object was placed .000389 cm off, should not yield a 10cm error by the tool above.

 

I know I have found other smooth objects with faces that are not reported correctly by the measure between tool. Since I'm always in a hurry and jumping from project to project, I haven't been able to take the time to report them as an issue, but I will in the future.

 

Thanks again for taking the time to respond.

 

Allan

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