Measurement of the "Straightened" length of a path

Question

So, I'm having a bit of trouble with scaling. An object I'm making involves the use of a path to form a curved surface, but I need the resulting curve to be within about 1% of an exact length.

So, if I were to have, say, this curve here that I made for purposes of this question... is there an efficient way to tell how long the black part would be if you straightened it out to a perfect line?

score 10 · Answer 1 · answered Mar 15 '20 at 19:04

10

The Curve Tools addon can also measure the length of a curve and may be easier to use if you're not already familiar with the Animation Nodes addon.

To measure the length of a curve using Curve Tools:

Enable the Curve Tools addon (under Edit > Preferences > Add-ons).
Select the curve object.
Press N to show the sidebar and click the Edit tab.
Expand the Curve Tools panel, expand the One Curve subpanel, and click Calc Length.

answered Mar 15 '20 at 19:04

Reign of Error

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That also works quite well, and honestly, getting a sidebar is a fair bit more accessible and clearcut than having to open a node tree to get a single number. – Wavelength RenegadeReef Mar 16 '20 at 22:32
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seems to not works for nurbs curves in 2.8? – ThorSummoner Aug 04 '20 at 04:16

score 4 · Answer 2 · answered Mar 02 '21 at 04:18

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make a plane
go to array modifier
change fit type to ' fit curve '
select the curve
scale the plane to 0.001, smaller you scale the plane more accurate the curve length
check length in sidebar by pressing 'N'

answered Mar 02 '21 at 04:18

Vijaykumar mane

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Also my preferred method for getting length in global coords. – batFINGER Mar 02 '21 at 08:31

score 3 · Accepted Answer · answered Aug 22 '18 at 20:32

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In the Animation Nodes addon there is a node to do just that: Get Spline Length.

The example usage is what you need.

answered Aug 22 '18 at 20:32

Jaroslav Jerryno Novotny

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Oh wow. That's SO much easier than I'd anticipated. Thank you! – Wavelength RenegadeReef Aug 22 '18 at 20:42

Measurement of the "Straightened" length of a path

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