Bounding Box and Show Dense BBox draw a box around the selected object and label its length, width and height. Use them to read the overall dimensions of a part, for example to check that it fits the build plate of a printer or a stock blank. Both buttons are on the Inspect tab; Bounding Box is also on the Nesting tab.
| Tool | The box | Use it to |
|---|---|---|
| Bounding Box | Edges parallel to the X, Y and Z axes of the scene | Check the space the object takes in the scene, as it is placed now |
| Show Dense BBox | A tight box aligned with the shape of the object; it turns with the object | Read the real size of the part, even when it is rotated |
Show the box
- Select the object in the Scene Tree.
- Click Inspect › Bounding Box or Inspect › Show Dense BBox. The button stays highlighted while the box is shown.
- Read the dimensions in the labels on the box edges, in scene units (usually mm).
To hide the box, click the same button again. Both boxes can be shown at the same time: the labels of the dense box then end with (dense).
In the example above the housing is rotated by 30°. The axis-aligned Bounding Box grows to 330.692 × 267.444 × 222.706, while the dense box still shows the real size of the part, 311.606 × 135.89 × 222.706.
Details
- Bounding Box draws one box for each selected object. When you select several objects, a small panel opens with Show Common Box: turn it on to draw one box around all of them.
- Show Dense BBox draws the box of one selected object: a mesh, a point cloud or a polyline.
- The exact numbers of the box are also in the Information panel under the Scene Tree (Box Size, Box Min, Box Max; switch World / Local) and in Object Info.
- To move the center of the bounding box to the origin, use Move to Zero.
