Access Return Value from Command Line

[Grischa]

Hi,

I wanted to write a quick and simple script to get the angle between 2 Surfaces using the rs.command(_Angle)

I used the TwoObjects options which works fine but it returns a boolean and writes the angle (that I need) only to the command line.
And I was wondering if I can somehow access that value?
Or any other suggestions?

Here is the script and I also attached a file with 2 Surfaces:

Python Code:

import rhinoscriptsyntax as rs
 
while True:
    pt = rs.GetPoint("select point for dot location")
   
    if pt is None:
        #break
   
    #this returns True/False
    angle = rs.Command("_Angle _t")
   
    if angle is False:
        break
   
    #How can I get the angle???
    rs.AddTextDot(angle, pt)

[Grischa]

Ok here is a little work arround I came up with.
Works fine for what I needed it.
But it would be nice to know if there is any other way?

Thanks!

Python Code:

import rhinoscriptsyntax as rs
 
while True:
    pt = rs.GetPoint("select point for dot location")
   
    if pt is None:
        break
   
    rs.ClearCommandHistory()
   
    #this returns True/False!
    angle = rs.Command("_Angle _t")
   
    if angle is False:
        break
   
    #get current content of command line
    str_cmdLine = rs.CommandHistory()
   
    #slice, convert and round
    angle = round(float(str_cmdLine[-7:-1]), 1)
   
    rs.AddTextDot(angle, pt)

[Mitch]

Hi,

rs.command does not return the result of the command, it only returns a boolean true/false value if it succeeded or not... if rs.command returns objects, you can access those by running rs.LastCreatedObjects() immediately after the rs.Command. However if it's just a command line value, that won't work. You can parse the command history as you did, but I prefer to use the base rs functions like this:

python Code:

import rhinoscriptsyntax as rs
 
def PlanarSurfaceNormal(srf):
    domU=rs.SurfaceDomain(srf,0)
    domV=rs.SurfaceDomain(srf,1)
    return rs.SurfaceNormal(srf,[domU[0],domV[0]])
 
srf1=rs.GetObject("Select first surface",rs.filter.surface)
srf2=rs.GetObject("Select second surface",rs.filter.surface)
 
if rs.IsSurfacePlanar(srf1) and rs.IsSurfacePlanar(srf2):
    normVec1=PlanarSurfaceNormal(srf1)
    normVec2=PlanarSurfaceNormal(srf2)
    angle=rs.VectorAngle(normVec1,normVec2)
    print "The angle between surfaces is {} degrees".format(angle)

(I did not do the text dot stuff in the above example, nor did I do any error checking to see if the surfaces were actually picked...)

IMO, the above is a bit complicated owing to the fact that we do not have a rs.SurfacePlane method for planar surfaces as we do for planar curves, so I had to write my own function.

--Mitch

[Grischa]

Hi Mitch,

thanks for your reply and the code!
Looks much cleaner than my version ;-)

Best,
Grischa