thanhph111/blender-bounding-box

An Blender add-on for creating simple bounding boxes from selected objects

Blender bounding box generator

On April 14, 2021, Blender 2.93 Beta has been released, confirming the integration of the Bounding Box Node in a new series of Geometry Node. It is more efficient and more compatible than the approach of this add-on. Therefore, it should be archived.

You can check the Differential Revision here.

A Blender add-on for creating simple bounding boxes from selected objects. It creates AABB (axis-aligned bounding box) which based on the active object's coordinate system or world coordinate system.

This add-on will be useful when you need to create a hole on the wall (using Boolean) to place your windows or when you need to calculate the size of an object group.

Installation

1. Open Blender
2. Go to Edit > Preferences
3. In the Add-ons tab, select Install
4. Choose the ZIP file downloaded from Github
5. Check the checkbox of the add-on

Usage

How it works

The add-on create a bounding box based on selected object and active object.

There are 2 coordinate systems the bounding box axes can align:

• The active object coordinate system: The bounding box axes will align with the axes of the active object.
• The world coordinate system: The bounding box axes will align with the global coordinate system.

There are some helpful switches :

• Separate active object: Active object will not contribute vertices to the bounding box.
• Display as wireframe: Display bounding box under wireframe display type.
• Show in Renders: Show bounding box in rendered scenes.

Active object can be various types of object (Empties, Lights, Cameras...) but only mesh objects in selected objects affect the result. All scenarios are shown in the table below.

How to call

You can run the operator from the Search Menu (F3) or from Add Menu (Shift + A).
If you cannot find the operator or the Bounding box button is fade out, you need to select something first.

A demo

A list of scenarios

Separate active object	Selected objects	Active object	Behavior
TRUE	None	None	Cancel
TRUE	None	Mesh	Cancel
TRUE	None	not Mesh	Cancel
TRUE	List of meshes contain active object	None	Unknown
TRUE	List of meshes contain active object	Mesh	Remove active object from selected objects
TRUE	List of meshes contain active object	not Mesh	Unknown
TRUE	List of meshes not contain active object	None	Pick first object from selected objects as active object
TRUE	List of meshes not contain active object	Mesh	Create bounding box normally
TRUE	List of meshes not contain active object	not Mesh	Create bounding box normally
FALSE	None	None	Cancel
FALSE	None	Mesh	Selected objects is active object
FALSE	None	not Mesh	Cancel
FALSE	List of meshes contain active object	None	Unknown
FALSE	List of meshes contain active object	Mesh	Create bounding box normally
FALSE	List of meshes contain active object	not Mesh	Unknown
FALSE	List of meshes not contain active object	None	Pick first object from selected objects as active object
FALSE	List of meshes not contain active object	Mesh	Create bounding box normally
FALSE	List of meshes not contain active object	not Mesh	Create bounding box normally

Setup environment for development

I am using:

• Editor: Visual Studio Code
• Linter: Flake8
• Formatter: Black
• Environment manager: pipenv

These steps will show how to set up a python virtual environment that fits my workflow.

1. Open CLI in the project directory.
2. Run following command python -m venv .venv. A .venv folder will appear in the project folder.
3. Then run this pipenv install --dev to install packages for development.
4. After that, a virtual environment has been setup. You can get in using pipenv shell and get out with exit. Once activated, you will have all packages you need.