World Scale?

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World Scale? // TS6 and Older

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Post by SlothPaladin // Mar 20, 2006, 1:33pm

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Hi, first post...


I was wondering if there is anyway to change the world scale of Truespace, I have 5.2. I'm asking because I want to model something that is say 2 inches by 2 inches, when you make something of this sized in Truespace it seems to be to small to work with. What I'm doing this for is I make stop motion animation and I wanted to make a pre-visualization for storyboarding and figuring out how to best make a set that fits in the aspect ratio without going out and buying the materials to build the real thing and find out that it does not work on camera.

Post by ronrn // Mar 20, 2006, 2:16pm

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Welcome to the forum.
Right click on the object tool (the white arrow)to open the "object info panel". Then click on the red triangle at the top of it to expand the panel. There you will see scale settings that you are looking for ie: meters,feet, inches,etc.

Post by splinters // Mar 20, 2006, 2:19pm

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I like your claymation by the way...:D

Post by SlothPaladin // Mar 20, 2006, 2:36pm

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Thanks for the reply ronrn, but that's not what I was after. When you work in the world with very small objects work becomes hard and obscured, and I was wondering if there is a way to make on scene for making small objects, like where a 1"x1"x1" cube is a normal size compared to a microscopic size, then you just load those objects into a different scene with the normal Truespace scale, is this imposable, is the best solution just to say 1 foot = 1 inch in my head?


I'm glad you like my clay stuff splinters, it's what I am most proud of, I'm not a very good CGI modeler but I seem to be ok at 3D modeling in the real world. (but I guess it's one of the practice makes perfect, and because I enjoy clay more it's easer for me to practice)

Post by bill // Mar 20, 2006, 3:29pm

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My suggestion...if you aren't exporting out to another 3d program just work in meters and pretend they are inches. It all works the same whether you call them inches, feet, meters, etc. Then if you do need to export to another program scale everything down before you export. Or, adjust the scale in the other program after importing.

Post by W!ZARD // Mar 21, 2006, 8:04pm

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You could try joining the rest of the world and getting rid of those ancient imperial measurements - feet and inches? So last century/millennium.


If you switch to using metric measurments the conversion to your desired size is so much easier - just a matter of moving the decimal place.


1 inch equals (roughly) 25 millimetres equals 2.5 centimetres equals 0.25 decimetres equals .025 metres


HTH

Post by Alien // Mar 21, 2006, 8:51pm

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You could try joining the rest of the world and getting rid of those ancient imperial measurements - feet and inches? So last century/millennium.

Maybe he's an American? It's ironic that each July the US celebrates the anniversary of becoming independant from the British empire, yet they seem to have a deathgrip on our old way of measuring things! You'd think they'd jump at the chance to switch.

If you switch to using metric measurments the conversion to your desired size is so much easier - just a matter of moving the decimal place.

So true, which is why I prefer metric for anything that needs to be accurate. Sadly, I seem to be unable to shake the habit of using feet & inches for a few things, like people's height.


1 inch equals (roughly) 25 millimetres equals 2.5 centimetres equals 0.25 decimetres equals .025 metres

...or 25.4mm if you wanna be exact. :D

Post by GraySho // Mar 21, 2006, 10:27pm

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As a mechanic the whole inch stuff makes me headache. "Give me that 3/32" tap please...." sounds just ridiculous :D. I hope that soon everything is metric :p

Post by Bobbins // Mar 21, 2006, 10:57pm

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It's simplest just to say in your head "1 foot equals 1 inch". Unless you are using the dimensioning tool, physical simulation or empiric lighting properties then there is no real difference or disadvantage.


As shown, anything that looks too small at 1:1 scale (tiny compared to lights, solid view seperating from wire etc.) will be exactly the same whether it was modelled in inches, centimetres, furlongs or whatever.

Post by Emmanuel // Mar 22, 2006, 2:03am

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I am having the same problem when working with very small objects (less than 10 cm) : the tS workspace is not designed for that scale.

I simply work with a wrong scale : 1 mm in reality becomes 10 cm in tS. That way, I can model and work more easily.

When my objects/scene are done, I select all the objects and scale them down (just enter a "divide by 100" operation in each x,y,z fields of Object Info panel). They are ready for export.

Post by stan // Mar 22, 2006, 5:15am

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thought the brits are still all messed up like us canucks..metric this, imperial that..just saw it on the news

I always worked in imperial, alway will..our milling machine and lathe dials all were imperial..when some one wanted metric..hope you had the metric micrometer that size..two sets of pitch guages..spanners, allen keys..etc..
heck in the house construction ..the measurements of material is metric the new stud spacing etc..metric, but based on imperial..very nutty..

for scale one thing to consider..in truespace..some tools have a 1000 limit..

also the program can get really sluggish ....there are some conversations about it in old forum..

Post by Johny // Mar 22, 2006, 5:50am

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Say it with picture ;)

Post by Johny // Mar 22, 2006, 6:41am

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I am having the same problem when working with very small objects (less than 10 cm) : the tS workspace is not designed for that scale.

I simply work with a wrong scale : 1 mm in reality becomes 10 cm in tS. That way, I can model and work more easily.

When my objects/scene are done, I select all the objects and scale them down (just enter a "divide by 100" operation in each x,y,z fields of Object Info panel). They are ready for export.


:p Are you sure ?


look at below image. HTH.

Post by jamesmc // Mar 22, 2006, 7:48am

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The problem with working with pixels per inch is that no matter how you scale them you will inevitably end up with some sort of artifact in 2D viewing.


Not sure what you are trying to make and maybe this is more suited for an engineering guru than myself, but using DXF/G in a CAD program for design to test it might be best for resolving your concept. Maybe the CAD plug-ins for tS?


Of course if you want to work in tiny detail, then we are talking dots per inch rather than pixels terminology. There are monitors that engineers and high resolution photographers use, but they are extremely expensive ($10,000 and up.)


DPI is a different matter all together and I'm not sure tS can provide that, although I've never used their CAD plug-ins.


The DPI thing is used by security/cartography agencies as well for very high resolution imagery from satellite (map and image interpretation.)


They also use vector based graphics which is different from rasterizing stuff.


But that's another subject.

Post by Alien // Mar 22, 2006, 2:21pm

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thought the brits are still all messed up like us canucks..metric this, imperial that..just saw it on the news

Well.... kinda...sorta... maybe... a bit. :)

We mostly use miles for speed & distance [eg for a journey], metric for stuff that needs to be precise, & feet & inches for rough measurements. Having said that, IIRC it's now illegal to sell stuff in imperial measurements over here [some EU directive I think].


I always worked in imperial, alway will..our milling machine and lathe dials all were imperial..when some one wanted metric..hope you had the metric micrometer that size..two sets of pitch guages..spanners, allen keys..etc..

heck in the house construction ..the measurements of material is metric the new stud spacing etc..metric, but based on imperial..very nutty..

I have a nice 6"/150mm digital vernier that switches/converts between metric & imperial at the press of a button. If I'm working on anything, I have to do it in metric, as I tend to think in metric for precise stuff.

Post by KeithC // Mar 22, 2006, 2:58pm

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As a mechanic the whole inch stuff makes me headache. "Give me that 3/32" tap please...." sounds just ridiculous :D. I hope that soon everything is metric :p


I'm with you on that one. I got so tired of working on trucks with both SAE and Metric tools (3/4=19mm;) ). Of course, later, I realized I was just plain tired of working on trucks:D


-Keith

Post by SlothPaladin // Mar 22, 2006, 8:37pm

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Um, this topic kind of took off, the problem with metric is I do live in the US and the only metric measuring devise I have is a ruler, which has 30 cm on it, I really wish I had a meter stick and a metric measuring tape because when I'm trying to set the focus on my cameras to stop motion puppets it can be a real pain as it only displays the focal distance in cm. I don’t really mind metric, it’s just that if not everything is switched it’s hard to get in a metric mindset.

Post by Alien // Mar 22, 2006, 8:51pm

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SlothPaladin: maybe this (http://www.microsoft.com/globaldev/outreach/dnloads/calcplus.mspx) will help. If you select View -> Conversion you can convert between all sorts of stuff.

Post by SlothPaladin // Mar 22, 2006, 9:02pm

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It's not that I can't find a calculator, I'm sure I could even create a program on my TI-83 to do the job for me, it's about the mindset, and when I'm setting up the camera and lighting for a shot in stop motion it would be much nice to have a real physical ruler, I know preferring to use tangible objects may seem weird to you CGI guys but I like it.

Post by Alien // Mar 22, 2006, 9:19pm

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Don't they sell tape measures with both systems on over there - inches along 1 edge, centimetres along the other?

Post by SlothPaladin // Mar 22, 2006, 9:24pm

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I'm sure they do, but right now I'm a bit tight on cash... guess that makes it my fault

Post by Alien // Mar 23, 2006, 7:27am

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Either you're really short on cash, or else tape measures cost more over there than they do here [even allowing for the exchange rate]. A good old fashioned basic 1 can be had for less than £2 [as opposed to a powered/motorised 1 I saw, which goes for around £25].

Post by spacekdet // Mar 23, 2006, 7:41am

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You might want to bookmark this one:
http://www.digitaldutch.com/unitconverter/
My tape measure is in inches and feet, can't recall seeing one with both metric and standard on it. Yardsticks, yeah, but not tape measures.
So, if a ruler is a meter long, do they still call it a yardstick?

Post by Alien // Mar 23, 2006, 8:19am

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My tape measure is in inches and feet, can't recall seeing one with both metric and standard on it. Yardsticks, yeah, but not tape measures.

Really? I can only vaguely remember seeing ones that didn't.

So, if a ruler is a meter long, do they still call it a yardstick?


Nope, a yard [imperial] is 3 feet, a meter [metric] is 3.28 feet. A meter ruler, AFAIK, is just called.... a meter ruler. :)

Post by W!ZARD // Mar 24, 2006, 1:07am

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SNIP. I don’t really mind metric, it’s just that if not everything is switched it’s hard to get in a metric mindset.


Yes SlothPaladin (interesting handle) - it is a mindset sort of thing. Here in New Zealand we have been fully metric since the late 1960's so everyone talks about kilometres and millimetres and so on but you still get that imperial mindset when people mix both reference systems and talk about 'half' a kilometre and cola in two and a half litre bottles!

Our wooden rulers almost always have both metric and imperial measurements but this is slowly changing to metric only.


You can still get beer in pints but they are not 'real' pints they are metric pints (600mL) - metric pints, sounds a bit like an oxymoron to me!
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