VIEW2MODEL(nged)

💅 VIEW2MODEL(nged) — or: how to grab your view→model matrix

Ok bestie, welcome to the nged corner of BRL-CAD User Commands. This one's short, sweet, and honestly kind of iconic for how much it doesn't do. Let's get into it ✨

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✨ NAME ✨

view2model — convert view xyz to model coordinates (vec) 🦋

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✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

view2model

That's it. That's the whole mood. No flags, no args, no drama 💅

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✨ DESCRIPTION ✨

So here's the tea: view2model hands you back the current view-to-model transformation matrix (gv_view2model) as a 16-element space-separated floating-point string, all encoded up by bn_encode_mat. 🎀

That matrix's whole job? It transforms points from normalized view space into model space — and model space here is measured in millimeters. No cap.

⚠️ Real talk: this command takes no arguments. It is a pure matrix accessor — it does not perform a point transformation. Not even a little. Don't come for it asking it to transform your point, because it will simply not 😭

If you actually want to convert an individual point from view space to model space with local-unit scaling, that's a whole different girlies situation — use v2m_point for normalized or view2model_lu for local units. 🫶

And the matrix you get back is the mathematical inverse of the model2view matrix. Together, those two define the current view orientation and zoom in BRL-CAD's view system. They're literally a duo, main character energy, inseparable 🔥

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✨ EXAMPLES ✨

Example 1 — grab the current view-to-model matrix 🌸

mged> view2model

This returns the 16-element view-to-model matrix, like for example:

1 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 1

Which is what you get when the view is in the default front-facing orientation with no rotation — a nice lil identity moment ✨

Example 2 — capture the matrix for scripting 🧚

mged> set v2m [view2model] mged> mat4x3pnt $v2m "0 0 0"

(yes that's two mged> prompts squished on one line in the original — she's cozy like that, you got this 💖)

So what's happening: you retrieve the current view-to-model matrix into v2m, then apply it to the view origin (0, 0, 0) via mat4x3pnt. The result? The model-space position of the view center. Chef's kiss 👑

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✨ AUTHOR ✨

BRL-CAD Team — legends, honestly 🏆

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✨ BUG REPORTS ✨

Found a bug or a problem? Don't suffer in silence, bestie — send electronic mail to devs@brlcad.org 💌

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and that's the whole page, you ate it up 🌈

sign-off era: this beauty comes to you from BRL-CAD, from the VIEW2MODEL(nged) manual page in the nged section — mwah, go transform something 💜