Kris Geisberger
05-04-2009, 10:29 AM
No longer should you worry about how your wrl shape was created.
The attached user library adds an "Auto" button to the General tab of Flexsim object properties for automatically fitting a wrl 3D shape inside the yellow bounding box of a Flexsim object. After browsing/opening your custom wrl 3D shape file to represent the Flexsim object, click the Auto button to open a small dialog to specify the scale that the 3D shape was drawn in relative to Flexsim's grid unit. Then press the "Auto Shape Factor" button.
Scale = shape units / Flexsim model grid units
examples:
1 = shape drawn in meters (or the same units as Flexsim grid)
0.001 = shape drawn in millimeters
0.0254 = shape drawn in inches
1/12 = shape drawn in inches, and Flexsim grid represents feet
Unfortunately this only works with VRML files (.wrl) because they are text based. I have noticed that Caligari's trueSpace sometimes uses MatrixTransform{} that I did not address, you should be able to open the wrl with notepad and place a # at the start of all lines of the MatrixTransform to comment then out. Please reply to this post if you have a wrl file that fools the Auto Shape Factor.
I believe this could be especially handy for new users and importing custom shapes for flowitems. There are times when you don't want the shape to fit inside the bounding box, but when you do, this is your "EASY" button.
The attached user library adds an "Auto" button to the General tab of Flexsim object properties for automatically fitting a wrl 3D shape inside the yellow bounding box of a Flexsim object. After browsing/opening your custom wrl 3D shape file to represent the Flexsim object, click the Auto button to open a small dialog to specify the scale that the 3D shape was drawn in relative to Flexsim's grid unit. Then press the "Auto Shape Factor" button.
Scale = shape units / Flexsim model grid units
examples:
1 = shape drawn in meters (or the same units as Flexsim grid)
0.001 = shape drawn in millimeters
0.0254 = shape drawn in inches
1/12 = shape drawn in inches, and Flexsim grid represents feet
Unfortunately this only works with VRML files (.wrl) because they are text based. I have noticed that Caligari's trueSpace sometimes uses MatrixTransform{} that I did not address, you should be able to open the wrl with notepad and place a # at the start of all lines of the MatrixTransform to comment then out. Please reply to this post if you have a wrl file that fools the Auto Shape Factor.
I believe this could be especially handy for new users and importing custom shapes for flowitems. There are times when you don't want the shape to fit inside the bounding box, but when you do, this is your "EASY" button.