Coordinates Display

When performing point level editing, adjusting vertexes, creating Xpresso setups, recording PLA animation or fine-tuning polygons or splines, it would be nice to have an on-screen display of the coordinates of the vertexes and/or their index number.

This is what Coordinates Display Tag does. When you add it to a polygonal or editable spline object, you will get this set of options:

The On option turns on and off the tag itself. It is on by default so that you can see the coordinates of the vertexes as soon as you add this tag to the object.

The Only selected points option, when off, displays values for ALL vertexes or points of the object.
When it is on, only the selected vertexes or points will display any values.

The Show Index option, when on, will display the index number of the vertex or point of the object.

The Text Scale option will adjust the size of the values display in the viewport.

The Text Color option will define the color of the values display in the viewport.

The Show X, Show Y and Show Z options allow the filtering of what axis are shown in the viewport.

The Stacked option, when turned on, will display the vertexes or points values distributed vertically.
When it is off, it will display them side by side, in a line.

The World Coordinates option, when on, will display the vertexes or points values in World space.
When it is off, it will display the values in Local space.

The Decimal Places option will adjust the accuracy of the numeric display of the coordinates of the vertexes.

The Show only when active option, when on, will display the values of the coordinates of the vertexes ONLY when the object (polygonal or editable spline) is selected. When it is off, even if the object is deselected, the values of the coordinates of the vertexes are still displayed.

The Show in orthogonal views option, when on, will also display the values of the coordinates of the vertexes in the orthogonal views (Top, Bottom, Front, Back, Left or Right). This option is off, by default, to prevent cluter in the viewport.

The Distance Transparency option, when on, will display the values of the coordinates of the vertexes more opaque if they are closer to the camera and more transparent if the are further away. When it is off, all values are displayed with 100% opacity. To visualise true transparency, you have to have OpenGL turned on in the Preferences.

The Evaluate deformed state option, when on, will take into account the location of points that may be altered by any type of deformer. When it is off, the original location of the points (without deformation) will be used.

The Create Text Splines button, when clicked, will use all the parameters defined above and create a set of PointSpliner objects (see below) to allow the rendering of the values of the coordinates of the vertexes.

After clicking the Create Text Splines button (and if all when well), you will end up with a Null object containing a set of PointSpliner objects. They are like Text Spline object but with special parameters.

Most of the parameters of a PointSpliner objects are similar to the parameters of the Coordinates Display Tag:

The Renderable option will make all the values visible on the editor and also on the render. However, this option, if turned on, will also turn the editor slower. So, only turn it on if and when you really need it.

The Point Object option is a link field to the object (polygonal or editable spline) whose vertexes or points values we want to display.

The Index option defines what vertex or point should be displayed.

All the other parameters are like their equivalents in the Coordinates Display Tag except for the last four that are options for the text style and the Display at point location option.
This option, when turned on, will place the PointSpliner object at the location of the vertex whose index it is addressing. When turned off, you can place the PointSpliner object wherever you want.