Enabling bounds display on a group instance draws bounding boxes for each individual object:
How to have a boundary box around the entire group instance? Via python or not. It seems to possible, this guy did it: https://vimeo.com/139789313
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$\begingroup$ I hope you don't mind, your question was being flagged as low-quality so I took the liberty of adding a screenshot showing what I hope is the problem :) $\endgroup$– gandalf3Commented Feb 23, 2016 at 0:30
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$\begingroup$ I wrote an addon for this answer that creates a bounding box around selected objects. $\endgroup$– samblerCommented Feb 23, 2016 at 15:23
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$\begingroup$ Thanks @sambler! Can you add this as an answer so I can mark is as the correct one? $\endgroup$– PLyczkowskiCommented Feb 23, 2016 at 20:31
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$\begingroup$ Oops, it throws an error: File "\Text", line 141, in execute File "\Text", line 141, in <listcomp> IndexError: BMElemSeq[index]: outdated internal index table, run ensure_lookup_table() first $\endgroup$– PLyczkowskiCommented Feb 23, 2016 at 20:35
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3 Answers
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I wrote a small addon for another question that creates a bounding box around all selected objects. It seems it needed a little update to work in current versions of blender which is now available.
This does not create a dynamic bounding box, it will only match the objects you have selected at the time you create it, this can just be deleted and re-created whenever you needs updating.
After selecting one object you can use ⇧ ShiftG->Group to select all objects of the same group before creating the bounding box.
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$\begingroup$ Thanks! Could you update the answer so that it works with the current version of blender? $\endgroup$ Commented Feb 24, 2016 at 11:58
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$\begingroup$ What doesn't work? I updated the addon before answering using a recent build. $\endgroup$– samblerCommented Feb 24, 2016 at 12:02
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$\begingroup$ Oh yeah, sorry, everything works. Thanks again! $\endgroup$ Commented Feb 24, 2016 at 17:15
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$\begingroup$ Hello. Can you tweak addon also to use collection instances as group of meshes to add BB. Thanks. $\endgroup$– APECCommented Aug 8, 2021 at 6:26
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From a python perspective, Ill give you a pseudo run down of how I might approach this:
- copy the group.
- join each object in the new group together as one object.
- get the bounding box of the new joined geometry object.
- delete the new object.
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1$\begingroup$ Yup, but this works only if the group consists of mesh objects. $\endgroup$ Commented Feb 23, 2016 at 10:27
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Well not sure about python as my coding skills are next to zero, but you could do this manually for each different group in the following way:
- Add a new default cube mesh to your scene
- Enter edit mode
- Select all with A
- Press X to delete and chose Only Faces option. (That should leave you with a wireframe-like edges only skeleton of the cube.)
- In the Properties Window > Object Tab> Duplication > Choose whichever group you want to duplicate
- Now (still in edit mode) manually adjust the size of the cube edges to bound the duplicated group
Now you have a manually created bounding box., you can even customize the shape of your wire-frame mesh to suit your liking and have a custom bounding box shape, since it has no visible geometry it should not affect your rendered images You can even use it as a custom dummy object for snapping or helping place the group where desired.
answered Feb 23, 2016 at 3:54
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2$\begingroup$ Good answer, thanks, but it does have the manual step... $\endgroup$ Commented Feb 23, 2016 at 10:26