topic Betreff: The PRINT_PACK for Bifrost: Print Text and Values in 3D - FAST in Bifrost Forum

The PRINT_PACK for Bifrost: Print Text and Values in 3D - FAST

Roland.Reyer — Sun, 07 Jan 2024 09:31:33 GMT

*** UPDATE *** Version 2.9 is available here:

https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/bifrost-forum/print-pack-version-2-9/m-p/12368334?search-action-id=841984558952&search-result-uid=12368334

When programming in Bifrost, I always come to the point where I have to output values and messages or look at the contents of arrays, for example. Although the Bifrost's watchpoints are always a great help, I still miss the good old "print" statement from classical programming.

Therefore, I have started to experiment with the output of so-called line fonts. The letters and numbers are created as strands in 3D, and if you position them correctly, a readable text is created.

In the beginning, the whole thing was very slow, but after thorough optimisation, I was able to increase the performance SIGNIFICANTLY.

I have built four different compounds from my system, which are suitable for different tasks.

Print_Static: creates a static display of strings and values, for comparison, control, information.
Print_Scrolling outputs texts and values like on a screen. New text is output at the bottom, existing text is scrolled up.
Print_Array: prints the content of a whole 1-dimensional array.
Print_Points displays values at point positions. The positions and the values are specified separately, so there are many possibilities. In addition, the values can be colored individually. In order to deal with a very large number of points, the compound offers possibilities to define the desired points and regions in a simple way.

All compounds contain so-called terminal nodes, which are output points that can be easily switched on and off at the node.

In addition, the generated text is output as strand (lines) objects.

Betreff: The PRINT_PACK for Bifrost: Print Text and Values in 3D - FAST

Roland.Reyer — Wed, 13 Apr 2022 10:58:09 GMT

I just uploaded version 1.1 of the print_pack.

Download it above in the main post.

New/fixed things are:

fixed floating point conversion
"Float Precision" setting in print_array and print_points
fixed update in print_points
a new example scene: points data probe (see image)

Download it above in the main post.

Betreff: The PRINT_PACK for Bifrost: Print Text and Values in 3D - FAST

mcw0 — Mon, 13 Feb 2023 01:28:26 GMT

ROLAND!!! This is GENIUS!!! My biggest gripe with Bifrost is not being able to print any feedback. This is a HUGE help! Might I make 1 request? For the print_array, instead of having "Print Array" at the top, put the name of the node connected to the array port. When I have a few side by side, I forget which array I'm looking at. So it's me, not you. LOL.

PS. This might be valid for the other print nodes, I've just used the print_array.

Betreff: The PRINT_PACK for Bifrost: Print Text and Values in 3D - FAST

Roland.Reyer — Mon, 13 Feb 2023 09:41:37 GMT

Hey @mcw0,

thank you very much for your feedback.

I really wish it was possible to query the name of the connected node/port somehow, but unfortunately there's no way.

You have to set the name manually.

If you need to look at arrays side by side then print_table is the much better choice.

Here you can also set the names of the columns manually.

**** The Print Pack has been UPDATED to version 2.5:
https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/bifrost-forum/print-pack-2-5-colors-and-styles/m-p/11522451?search-action-id=767627001422&search-result-uid=11522451

Betreff: The PRINT_PACK for Bifrost: Print Text and Values in 3D - FAST

mcw0 — Mon, 13 Feb 2023 14:31:33 GMT

Thank you for the suggestion of print_table. One last thing I just thought of is your offset is nice but it only offsets from the head of the array. Why not have bracketing so you can cut off the tail and only see a middle block. Currently, I think you can maybe achieve this with a combination of offset and number of lines? Just a thought.

Danke

Betreff: The PRINT_PACK for Bifrost: Print Text and Values in 3D - FAST

Roland.Reyer — Mon, 13 Feb 2023 14:38:18 GMT

Offset and Number of Lines is exactly how it should be used (same in print_table).

If you like to move a "window" over the array you then in Bifrost 2.6 you can select both values and shift them at the same time.

print_array tries to display columns - set the columns to 1 and then use Offset and Number of Lines.

Betreff: The PRINT_PACK for Bifrost: Print Text and Values in 3D - FAST

mcw0 — Wed, 15 Feb 2023 18:35:26 GMT

I got a curious result where the min value is greater than the max value. But yet, the min value doesn't exist in my array.

Betreff: The PRINT_PACK for Bifrost: Print Text and Values in 3D - FAST

mcw0 — Wed, 15 Feb 2023 20:33:42 GMT

A follow up on my above post. Any idea why the print_array would return incorrect values? This is another post that shows the issue.

https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/bifrost-forum/dot-product-error/m-p/11757674/highlight/false#M7869

Betreff: The PRINT_PACK for Bifrost: Print Text and Values in 3D - FAST

Roland.Reyer — Thu, 16 Feb 2023 07:34:17 GMT

Which version are you using?

I remember that I had to fix the min/max display.