Scandy's New Mesh Measuring Tool

September 23, 2020

A few months ago, we published a blog post about how to take a full body scan using Scandy Pro. In that post, we showed how to take measurements in Scandy Pro’s AR View. While the Scandy Pro AR Measurement Tool is a great way to measure the distance between two points, it can be a bit tedious when calculating the perimeter of an object. We wanted to make that process simpler -- 


Introducing the Mesh Measurement Tool by Scandy!

Features:

  • Supports STL, OBJ and PLY files
  • Adjustable measurement plane
  • Add and remove multiple color-coded and named measurements
  • Convert measurements to preferred unit (mm, cm, m, in, ft)
  • Save measurements as simple json file


Let’s walk through the app and review all the features!


1. Uploading a model


The Mesh Measurement Tool currently supports STL, OBJ and PLY files. Import an existing model or create a new one using Scandy Pro or STL Maker. When uploading, you must indicate the Scale of your model. STL Maker models are always in meters. Scandy Pro models are exported in meters by default unless otherwise specified by the user on export. 


Unsure of the scale of your model? Try uploading it in meters first. If the scale is wrong, the measurements will be very obviously wrong (think hundreds of meters off). You can continue changing the model scale until the measurements look appropriate.


2. Interacting with the model & scene


There are two modes for interacting with the model: Translate and Rotate. To switch modes, select the desired mode from the left-hand menu under Mesh Controls. Or, press the ‘T’ and ‘R’ keys for translate and rotate, respectively. 


Rotating model:


In rotate mode, you will see three curved lines - the colors of these lines indicate the corresponding axis that will be rotated around (ie. red line rotates around the red axis). Click and drag the line to rotate the model.


Translating model:


In translate mode, you will see three arrows corresponding with each axis along with three squares between each perpendicular set of arrows. Click and drag the arrows to drag straight along the corresponding axis. The squares will translate the model along the plane created by its two bounding arrows.


Rotating camera:


Drag anywhere away from the model to rotate the camera.


Zooming camera:


Scroll up/down or pinch fingers to zoom in and out.


Panning camera:


Hold Shift, Control or CMD while dragging anywhere away from the model, or use the arrow keys, to pan the camera.


3. Adjusting the measuring plane


The flat gray plane is the measuring plane. When calculating the perimeter, only the points intersecting this plane will be included in the calculation. The measuring plane always remains centered at the intersection of the X & Z planes, but can be moved up and down the Y-axis. You can adjust its height, width, and depth using the sliders at the bottom of the screen.


With a combination of resizing the plane and rotating/translating your model, you can grab the perimeter at almost any part of your model!


4. Calculating Perimeter


Once you’ve set the measuring plane exactly where you’d like to calculate the perimeter, click ‘Calculate Perimeter’. A line will be wrapped around the model at that point, and the measurement will be listed under the Measurements tab.


Have some holes in your mesh? Not a problem!

The algorithm used for calculating perimeter will stretch over any holes, bumps or irregularities. Think of this tool like a virtual tape measure - it will wrap around the object without necessarily following the exact curve of the model.

5. Reading measurements


Each measurement is initially named with a timestamp. You should change this to a label that’s easier to understand by clicking on the text field, entering the desired name and hitting enter. Don’t like a measurement? Just double click it to remove it from the model.


Use the unit drop-down to change the measurement units.

If you want to save these measurements for future reference, click ‘Export JSON’.



Have fun!


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