Feature BoundBox

Feature (document object)

BoundBox feature can make bounding boxes of shapes. Bounding boxes being made are solids, that can be used as sketch attachment, array referencing, and boolean operations with other solids.

BoundBox can make a bounding box for a shape as a whole, or for each child of a compound. BoundBox also has 'ScaleFactor' and 'Padding' properties to enlarge bounding boxes, which is very handy when exploding ParaSeries.

Properties

CompoundTraversal

Sets how to deal with compounds.

• Use as a whole: the shape is used as a whole, no matter if it is a compound or not. Output is one bounding box, a solid.
• Direct children only: subcompounds are treated as whole objects. Output is a compound of bounding boxes of each direct child.
• Recursive: subcompounds are unpacked, to obtain every leaf in a compounding tree. Output is a (non-nested) compound of bounding boxes of each child.

OrientLink

Link to a placement or an array of placements, orientations of which set orientations of bounding boxes to be made.

If links to one placement, it is used for all bounding boxes. If links to an array, orientation of placement corresponding to the child is used (correspondence is by sequence order); there must be no less placements in the array, than number of children in compound 'ShapeLink'.

This property is only active, when 'OrientMode' is set to use OrientLink.

OrientMode

Sets, in what orientation to compute the bounding boxes. Possible values:

• global (default): all bounding boxes are along global axes.
• local of compound: all bounding boxes are along local axes of 'ShapeLink's Placement property.
• local of child: each bounding boxes is built in local axes of the child. They are extracted from within the compound.
• use OrientLink (default if placement/array was preselected): use externally supplied placement/array of placements (see 'OrientLink' property)

Padding

Sets the size of gap between the shape and the bounding box. 0 is for tight fit. Positive values expand the box; negative values shrink the box.

Padding is applied after the scaling (see 'ScaleFactor' property)

Precision

If true (default), precise algorithm is used for computing the bounding box. It may be slow for complex shapes.

If false, approximate but fast algorithm is used. It uses triangulation of the shape, and may cause bounding box to be a bit smaller, if it is defined by tangent touch (for example, it happens for bounding box for a sphere). In case bounding box is defined by vertices of shape, this bounding box is as precise as if 'Precision' is true.

ScaleFactor

Allows to sale bounding box with respect to its center. 'ScaleFactor' is the scaling multiplier: 1.0 is for leaving the bounding box as is; below 1.0 is for shrinking, above 1.0 is for expanding.

Scaling is applied before padding (see 'Padding' property).

Center (read-only)

Coordinates of center of bounding box, in local coordinates of BoundBox's Placement property (typically, equivalent to global). That is, global coordinates of center of bouding of 'ShapeLink'.

This property is active only if only one bounding box is made by the feature.

Size (read-only)

Extents of bounding box (X extents, Y extents, Z extents, in the space the bounding box is computed for). That is, the diagonal vector of the bounding box (if 'OrientMode' is global).

This property is active only if only one bounding box is made by the feature.

GUI Command (toolbar button)

There are 2 bounding box commands: for whole object, and for children. They are different in that they set different values to 'CompoundTraversal' property; otherwise, they behave the same.

Select an object to make bounding box for, and invoke the command. Bounding box(es) is created, with DisplayMode set to wireframe. Although bounding boxes look like they are just edges - they are in fact solids (or faces, if one of the dimensions is fully collapsed).

If, additionally, a placement/array of placements was selected, it is linked as 'OrientLink', and 'OrinetMode' is set to use OrientLink - bounding boxes are constructed in local coordinate spaces of the placement(s).