Measuring in Wildfire 3

[DefCon5]

One of our usershas the followingquestion question/comment for discussion:
<DIV id=post_message_545>Has anyone else had difficulties with the measure tool in Wildfire 3? It has been changed significantly, in my opinion, the previous version was far better to use.

In WF2 we used to have a series of mapkeys which would open the Measure window, set the "type" to distance, and set the "From" and "To" options to plane-plane, plane-axis, axis-axis, part-part, etc. This made it easy to measure whatever we wanted very quickly.

In WF3, the measure tool uses the selection filter at the bottom of the screen to determine what is to be selected. It is not easy to write a mapkey to make the measure tool quick & easy to use.

Does anyone have a solution to this? Either a mapkey or (even better) is it possible to get the old measure tool back?</DIV>
<DIV></DIV>
<DIV>Thanks.</DIV>

 

[sjohnson]

In WF2 the config option enable_k01_msr_anls controls the measure tool (set to yes or no), I haven't used WF3 - but maybe that config option still works. Are you using the same config.pro file in WF3 as you did in WF2?

 

[sparkfun]

I also feel that the WF2 measuring tool was much much better then the WF3. I am very curious to hear if its possible to "re-load" the older version.
Spark

 

[MartinBooker]

Couldn't agree more....

I had a similar map key in WF2 to pre-select "plane-plane" - "plane-axis" etc and used it constantly.

The new tool is dangerously innacurate sometimes as well giving simply the wrong measurement from plane to plane even having been very carefull to ensure that the whole surface is highlighted before clicking instead of just an edge.

I find myself wasting time by starting a new feature square to the surfaces I want to measure across and slapping a dimension line on in sketch mode to double check the result

Would be very interested to hear of a workaround for this.



Edited by: MartinBooker

 

[sip]

You could also highlight the output and copy it to the clipboard, fif you wanted to adjust a dimension. Can't anymore...


Sip

 

[michaelpaul]

Couldn't agree more....

I had a similar map key in WF2 to pre-select "plane-plane" - "plane-axis" etc and used it constantly.

The new tool is dangerously innacurate sometimes as well giving simply the wrong measurement from plane to plane even having been very carefull to ensure that the whole surface is highlighted before clicking instead of just an edge.

I find myself wasting time by starting a new feature square to the surfaces I want to measure across and slapping a dimension line on in sketch mode to double check the result

Would be very interested to hear of a workaround for this.

So from the sounds of it I shouldn't look forward to an improved measuring system in WF3 when my company makes the switch from 2.0?

I really, really miss the measuring capabilities in SolidWorks. Pro just seems to make it so difficult to measure something. how often do we want to know teh straight line distance from one point to another? Rarely. Usually we're concerned with the X, Y, or Z distance but you must select your points, translate to a coordinate system, pick the coordinate system, compute, and then zoom out so you can orient yourself to know which axis you want to find.

Back in SW, you didn't even need to pick the measure tool. You would just pick your two points and the X, Y, Z, AND straight line distance was displayed on the status bar. No unnecessary mouseclicks to find the information! And to make it even easier to interpret, there was an icon in the lower left corner of the display showing you the model orientation so you always knew which direction the X, Y, and Z axies were pointed.

I don't dislike Pro/E, but I haven't fallen in love with it either...............

Michael

Edited by: michaelpaul

 

[Zaki]

Hi Guys


I think its a little bit different but not so dangerous, u just need to find right way to measure. Normaly the diffeculty is feeling at plane to plane or plane to anything measurment. In this always check "use as plane" check box.


View attachment 2345


just try to find all the right ways and dont be panic, WF 3 is so good.

 

[design-engine]

I always measure in drawing mode with cross sections. Less chance for mistake.

 

[hhrm]

"enable_k01_msr_anls" does not seems to work in WF3.

Regards.

 

[JamesM]

We upgraded to WF3 a few months ago. I agree that the measurement function isn't as good as in WF2, but I could deal with it. There is another really annoying problem with it, though - when I select the feature type I would like to measure from (such as Surface), it frequently selects a different feature type (such as Facet Vertex). At first I thought I was just being careless when clicking, but after two or three months I know that I can't be that consistently careless. Is this a problem that other users are having?

 

[Tobyk]

I have the same problem.


I have a mapkey to measure "surface to surface" that I recorded while in an assembly.


When I use it in a part it selects facet vertex instead of surface.


I believe it it because they are both the 14th position from the topon the popup selection filter.


I haven'tfigured outa workaround yet. I just know if I'm in a part I have an extra click to do for now.

BTW I recommend using WF3 build M090- they modified the measure tool so that "use as plane" is selected by default and combined the results and from/to tabs.

 

[gkbeer]

Try adding the Analysis tool bar to your config.win.

 

[hhrm]

WF3 M110 is significantly better regarding measuring. Give it a try. Most of the issues seem to be resolved.

 

[rcoe]

M110 for me has fixed a lot of the problems that i was having with M090.


ie. i could generate 2 or 3 different dimensions from the same positions by measuringbetween faces/edges/points or planes that would in real life have identical dimensional values.


it was a bit.....'pick until you get the result that you'd like to hear'