How do I find the distance between two planes?

Kira_Lee

The user chooses a plane to draw on (it will be parallel to one of the three given planes - Front, Top or Right). From this, I want to be able to change the y- coordinate in a sketch based off of this length value. It isn't going through my if statements and it's just using "X" that I set above it. I have tried using boxDis in my if statement instead because I would think Vec is redundant, but this didn't work either. I am new to Feature Script, so any help would be greatly appreciated.

var realPlane = evPlane(context, {

"face" : definition.myPlane});
//should return a 3D vector where 2 values are 0var Vec = planeToWorld(realPlane, vector(0, 0) * inch);//Predefines the variable Xvar X is number = 0;if (Vec[0] != 0){var X is number = 0;}if (Vec[1] != 0){var X is number = 1;}else{var X is number = 2;}//sets the distance between our plane and the origin as a vector (we take the z coordinate)var boxDis = project(realPlane, vector(0, 0, 0) * inch);
//Create sketchvar champSketch = newSketch(context, id + "champSketch", {"sketchPlane" : qCreatedBy(makeId("Front"), EntityType.FACE)});skLineSegment(champSketch, "ChampLine1", {"start" : vector(definition.OuterDiameter / 2, boxDis[X]),"end" : vector(definition.OuterDiameter / 2 - (0.117 * inch), boxDis[X])});

Kira_Lee

This is different than normal coding, the whole code has to be put into the "if/else" statement. This triples the entire size of my code, but it works - variables cannot be defined in the "if" statement and then be used outside of it. If there is an easier/cleaner way to do this, I'd love to know. Thank you in advance for the help. This is the snippet of that code fixed:

        //make our face as a plane

        var realPlane = evPlane(context, {

                "face" : definition.myPlane

            });

        

        //should return a 3D vector where 2 values are 0

        var Vec = planeToWorld(realPlane, vector(0, 0) * inch);

       
        //sets the distance between our plane and the origin as a vector (we take the z coordinate)

        var boxDis = project(realPlane, vector(0, 0, 0) * inch);

       
        if (Vec[0] != 0)

        {

            var X is number = 0;

        //Create sketch

        var champSketch = newSketch(context, id + "champSketch", {

                "sketchPlane" : qCreatedBy(makeId("Front"), EntityType.FACE)

            });

        skLineSegment(champSketch, "ChampLine1", {

                    "start" : vector(definition.OuterDiameter / 2, boxDis[X]),

                    "end" : vector(definition.OuterDiameter / 2 - (0.117 * inch), boxDis[X])

                });

        }

        if (Vec[1] != 0)

        {

            var X is number = 1;

        //Create sketch

        var champSketch = newSketch(context, id + "champSketch", {

                "sketchPlane" : qCreatedBy(makeId("Front"), EntityType.FACE)

            });

        skLineSegment(champSketch, "ChampLine1", {

                    "start" : vector(definition.OuterDiameter / 2, boxDis[X]),

                    "end" : vector(definition.OuterDiameter / 2 - (0.117 * inch), boxDis[X])

                });

        }

        else

        {

            var X is number = 2;

        //Create sketch

        var champSketch = newSketch(context, id + "champSketch", {

                "sketchPlane" : qCreatedBy(makeId("Front"), EntityType.FACE)

            });

        skLineSegment(champSketch, "ChampLine1", {

                    "start" : vector(definition.OuterDiameter / 2, boxDis[X]),

                    "end" : vector(definition.OuterDiameter / 2 - (0.117 * inch), boxDis[X])

                });

        }

        

        

MichaelPascoe

Here is a measure feature I wrote a while back. I use it for measuring multiple distances in one feature. It will return the parallel distance. Perhaps you can use it as an example: Measure

For efficiency, learning how to use java script functions will help in cases similar to this.

One way to simplify your code would be to create your variables outside the if statements, then, define the variables inside the if statements. This will let you create the sketch once while letting the variable change depending on the statement.

Example:

        var startDef;
        var endDef;
        var X;

        if (Vec[0] != 0)
        {
            X = 0;
            startDef = vector(definition.OuterDiameter / 2, boxDis[X]);
            endDef = vector(definition.OuterDiameter / 2 - (0.117 * inch), boxDis[X]);
        }
        else if (Vec[1] != 0)
        {
            X = 1;
            startDef = vector(definition.OuterDiameter / 2, boxDis[X]);
            endDef = vector(definition.OuterDiameter / 2 - (0.117 * inch), boxDis[X]);
        }
        else
        {
            X = 2;
            startDef = vector(definition.OuterDiameter / 2, boxDis[X]);
            endDef = vector(definition.OuterDiameter / 2 - (0.117 * inch), boxDis[X]);
        }

        //Create sketch
        var champSketch = newSketch(context, id + "champSketch", {
                "sketchPlane" : qCreatedBy(makeId("Front"), EntityType.FACE)
            });

        skLineSegment(champSketch, "ChampLine1", {
                    "start" : startDef,
                    "end" : endDef
                });

ilya_baran

        var X;

        if (abs(Vec[0]) > TOLERANCE.zeroLength)
            X = 0;
        else if (abs(Vec[1]) > TOLERANCE.zeroLength)
            X = 1;
        else
            X = 2;

        var startDef = vector(definition.OuterDiameter / 2, boxDis[X]);
        var endDef = vector(definition.OuterDiameter / 2 - (0.117 * inch), boxDis[X]);

        //Create sketch
        var champSketch = newSketch(context, id + "champSketch", {
                "sketchPlane" : qCreatedBy(makeId("Front"), EntityType.FACE)
            });

        skLineSegment(champSketch, "ChampLine1", {
                    "start" : startDef,
                    "end" : endDef
                });

Two suggestions to the above: remove the repeated code from the if statements, and use tolerant comparisons.

MichaelPascoe

The master has spoken. 

oops, didn't see that those were the same.