Weight & Cost Tracking > Assigning Weight/Cost Properties

Toolbar
Menu	Orca3D > Weight/Cost > Assign Weight/Cost Properties
Command	OrcaAssignWeightCost

Any point, curve, surface, or solid object in the model may have Weight and/or Cost properties assigned to it:

After starting the command and selecting the object, you will see the Weight/Cost Properties dialog. At the top, you may select any applicable materials type (Point, Curve, Surface, or Solid), depending on the type of object(s) that you have selected. Material properties may be assigned as follows:

	Point Object	Curve Object	Polycurve Object	Mesh Object	Polymesh Object	Surface Object	Polysurface Object	Solid Object
Point Material	ü	ü	ü	ü	ü	ü	ü	ü
Curve Material		ü	ü
Surface Material				ü	ü	ü	ü
Solid Material								ü

If you have selected multiple objects, only those Material properties that are common to all of the objects will be allowed. For example, if you select a curve and a surface, you can only assign a Point Material to them.

Once you have selected the type of material, select your material from the drop down list. If you would like to define a new stock material, select "Add new materials..." from the drop down list.

If you want the weight, material cost, and labor cost to be computed from the definition of the material and the geometry of the object, select "Compute from Material." For example, if you are working with a surface object, and select a material that weighs 2 kg/m^2, if the object has a surface area of 3 m^2, the weight will be 6 kgs. As the object is modified, the weight will update automatically.

If you wish to specify a weight and cost directly, select "Assign Directly." In this case, modifying your object will not change its weight or cost.

You can allow Orca3D to compute the center of gravity of an object and update it as it is moved, or you can assign its value. Note that if you assign the CG directly, moving the object in the Rhino model will not change these values.

If you need to clear the weight/cost properties that have been assigned previously to an object, click the Clear button. This will not delete your stock material definition; it will only clear the weight/cost properties from the selected object(s).

Assigning Properties to Multiple Objects

It's important to understand how Orca3D assigns Material Properties to multiple objects, groups, polycurves and polysurfaces (poly-objects), and what happens when objects are joined or exploded.

Point Materials:

•

When multiple objects are selected, and a Point Material is assigned, it is as if you had selected each object individually and assigned the Point Material. If you select 2 curves and 3 surfaces and assign a Point Material that weighs 1 kg to all of them, you now have 5 kgs of weight. The same is true if you have selected a group; each object in the group is individually assigned the Point Material.

•	When you assign a Point Material to a polycurve or polysurface, it is assigned to the entire poly-object, not the underlying curves or surfaces that make up that object. For example, if you assign a 1 kg Point Material to a polysurface that is made up of 20 surfaces, you have 1 kg of weight.

•	If you then explode the poly-object, each new object is assigned the Point Material. In the above example, each of the 20 surfaces would now have a weight of 1 kg, for a total of 20 kgs.

Curves, Surface, and Solid Materials:

•	When multiple objects, groups, or poly-objects are selected and assigned a Curve, Surface, or Solid Material property, they are each assigned the property.

•

Since these properties are "densities," based on the length, area, or volume, it doesn't matter if they are grouped, joined into poly-objects, or exploded. The total weight/cost will remain the same. The exception to this is when a solid object (which in Rhino is really a closed polysurface) is exploded into surfaces; at that point, it loses its Solid Material property and the surfaces will have no weight or cost properties.