Why can't I define a variable as a measured angle?

StephenG

It is possible with an "Assigned" variable



but not with with "Measured".

NeilCooke

It is a limitation related to not being able to deterministically measure the correct angle each time. There are already tickets open on this but an additional vote wouldn’t go amiss. 

S1mon

Much like the new trim/extend curve uses a helper point for determining which end to use, couldn’t something like that work for angle measurements?

StephenG

I am not sure I fully understand the issue. Is it because without presumptions and/or additional information multiple valid angles exist?   

as in...


Would restricting measured angles to a 3 point method, where the 2nd point is designated the angle vertex and returning a value <=180 degrees address the issue? 

EvanReese

You can do this with the custom Measure Value feature by @konstantin_shiriazdanov, but yes, you understand the issue correctly, the angle can flip unintuitively. If you happen to know that it's always going to be <90° you could use a function to force it to be the right one like this.

Set #angle with Measure Value, then make a new variable also called #angle and make it equal to the following:

min((180 * degree) - #angle, #angle)

This will look at the measured angle and the supplementary angle and return the smaller of the two.

StephenG

The "Measure Value" feature is definitely an upgrade to the "Measure Distance" feature script I have used in the past (now depreciated).

Question: Why "(180 * degree)" instead of "(180 degree)"? I have never seen units applied using an "*".  

billy2

value with units= 1*mm, featurescript has units attached to their variables. Println a variable in featurescript and you'll see it's an object. This allows you to perform vector math with variables, add up volumes and most import add 1*in + 1*mm and get the correct answer.

When you have to vectors selected, you don't know anything else. To make this work you'd have to pick 2 vertices to determine which angle you want. 

Once you figure this out, post it, it'll be interesting.

EvanReese

@StephenG
Oh yeah, that's a FeatureScript habit. That's the actual way to represent it, but the normal dialogue boxes automatically fixes it for you so if you type "1mm" it fixes it to "1 * millimeter" internally. you could totally just do (180deg).

outstanding

NeilCooke said:

It is a limitation related to not being able to deterministically measure the correct angle each time. There are already tickets open on this but an additional vote wouldn’t go amiss. 

The place to vote being here, I suppose.