topic Re: Saving view position in Meshmixer Forum

Saving view position

Anonymous — Wed, 04 Dec 2019 09:49:04 GMT

Hello to the group!

It is any way to save a view of an object in Meshmixer, that we can come again after closing the file, restoring the position, zooming, etc. that we save before?

Thanks!

Re: Saving view position

Anonymous — Wed, 04 Dec 2019 11:37:56 GMT

Within a session of MM you can store a certain view as Home position:

Hover over the ViewCube and expand the cube's option menu (dropdown arrow at bottom-right) and use SetCurrentViewAsHome. Now hitting the cube's Home button (house at top-left) will move the cam to that position.

You can also do SetCurrentViewAsFront. This rotates all the standard views (top, bottom, left....) along.

Unfortunately these settings are not saved if you write a .mix file (or do some export). So they get lost loading that scene in a new session.

The only way to save certain views permanently is to use mmApi to query certain cam positions and save these parameters to a text file or .csv table using a external script.

Here I showed how to query the cam and how to reconstruct a certain view in a Python script (note: You need to use MM in perspective mode - in orthographic mode the zoom in/out will not be restored).

Re: Saving view position

Anonymous — Wed, 04 Dec 2019 12:08:25 GMT

Thanks a lot for your fast reply.

I'm not so habituated to some type of programming, but some time, it's time to do it!!! 😉

Re: Saving view position

d-g-carey — Mon, 26 Apr 2021 03:49:24 GMT

Would you know how to do this in version 3.3 for Mac where there is no cube? I just started using MeshMixer to edit objects produced in Metashape. I export from Metashape into MeshMixer and apparently when you send the object back to Metashape after editing it it has to be in the exact same position as when you exported it. I need a way to be able to revert back to the initial import position before exporting back to Metashape. I need a way to return to the exact starting position.

Re: Saving view position

Anonymous — Mon, 26 Apr 2021 09:05:57 GMT

Except using coding via mmApi there's no way to store a certain camera position in MM 3.3.

Note: Here we are talking about camera positions not about the coordinates a certain object owns. Coordinates do not change on import/export.

Some hints:

Both Meshmixer and Metashape use Y as the Up-direction. So you should not enable FlipZ-Y_AxisOnImport-Export ( this can be done via Preferences>File-tab or on an Import dialog).
Concerning camera positions: MM3.3 owns the option to turn on camera snapping via its Hotbox. Hold down Space and activate Snap in its Camera section while Free is disabled. Note: The Hotbox doesn't update its buttons renderings within a single call. You need to release Shift and press it again to see the changes. An activated options is darker. With Snap enabled navigating in the scene the camera snaps to a main axis as soon as you navigate near to it.
When you create a new scene by importing an object MM's default switch to a 45° view. You can disable that behaviour in Preferences > General-tab > ResetCameraOnSceneChange. Now creating a new scene from a former one will leave the camera at its current position.
Also: There's a camera position history which stores camera positions when you navigate in the scene. Via menu: View/PreviousView and NextView you can switch between these positions.

Re: Saving view position

d-g-carey — Mon, 26 Apr 2021 16:03:28 GMT

I am rather new to Meshmixer so I am confused by camera position vs an objects coordinates. All I know is that Metashape tells me that when I imported the changes I made in Meshmixer back into Metashape in order to apply texture it didn’t work because the position of the object had been changed by Meshmixer. In Meshmixer I had to move the object around to fix defects in the mesh so of course it will be in a different position. I know people are going from Metashape to Meshmixer and back all the time so what am I missing?

Re: Saving view position

Anonymous — Mon, 26 Apr 2021 17:10:50 GMT

If you navigate in the scene you do not rotate the object. You do not change the object's coordinates. Imagine you were sitting in a spaceship. You change the spaceship's position to see a planet from different sides...

A different thing is to transform an object. You change the coordinates this way. In this case the planet is rotated while the spaceship stays. IN Meshmixer: EDIT/Transform.

If you have problems in Metashape applying a texture after some modification in Meshmixer: Meshmixer adds/removes triangles. This might be a problem for Metashape projecting the images to the correct triangles....

Think you should create the texture in Metashape first and do the edits on the already textured mesh in MM after that. But I'm no Metashape expert.

Re: Saving view position

d-g-carey — Mon, 26 Apr 2021 18:29:10 GMT

OK. I understand now. I did an edit / transform at one point and that threw it off. If I avoid the transform I can move the camera around to make my changes. Thanks alot!!