VRML export settings

[Chris Pencis]

Where can I set any variables which control the settings for VRML export (things like inch vs metric). It appears that some large parts which I export to vrml get scaled by 1/25.4 to be quite small. Yes you can zoom in, to a point. Then things get down to the resolution of the vrml (start to see straight edges as triangles etc). Any advice? Chris

[Claus Brod]

Chris,<p> you could try the (undocumented and unsupported) command<br> <pre> (vrml-export :coordinate-unit :meter) </pre> or <pre> (vrml-export :coordinate-unit :millimeter) </pre><p> There is no setting for inches, however. The reason is that VRML data are essentially unitless in the standard, or at least that's what I've been told. Some VRML viewers expect coordinates in millimeters, and this might be a part of your problem.<p> If you are dealing with very small geometry which is close to the minimum resolution, you could also try<p> <pre> (set-vrml-mode :precision 10) </pre> to increase the number of digits (to 10 in this particular case) for each coordinate in a VRML file. Note that this will also increase the file size considerably.<p> Hope this helps,<p> Claus

[Claus Brod]

Chris,<p> sorry, I screwed up in at least two ways in my previous message:<p> <ol> <li>Use <tt>set-vrml-mode</tt> to set the coordinate units rather than <tt>vrml-export</tt> <li>The <tt>set-vrml-mode</tt> is in the <tt>VRML</tt> package, so you have to qualify the command:<br> <pre> (vrml:set-vrml-mode :precision 10) </pre> </ol> Sorry for this,<p> Claus

[Volker Banzhaf]

Hi Chris, SolidDesigner exports its VRML models in meter coordinates because this is the standard unit of VRML! As Claus mentioned VRML files are unitless, but to keep the models compatible with other models it is highly recommended to use meter as the output unit! Actually there are some tools which rely on the coordinate units in meter. Do you need your files for publishing or for data transfer? If you want to publish them, the (set-vrml-mode ...) may be a short term solution. But be aware that you change your geometric information in the VRML files so that you can't combine your files with those written by other applications and that other applications which want to load your VRML file may fail. Best regards, Volker