automatically get the location (x,y,z) of objects to the global table

Hi Forum,

Is there any way to automatically get the location of an object (xloc,yloc,zloc) and the rotation everytime we move the object with our mouse? And the data will be written in Global table.
I know how to create the Global Table but I just don't know how to always get the location data of an object everytime it moves.
Does anyone here know how to do it?

Thanks.
Rahel

//PREWARNING//
Using your ondraw trigger to write logic is usually a bad thing:
1. It is not executed if you close your 3D views
2. It makes your model a lot slower because this piece of code is executed as often as the screen is refreshed.

But in this case a simple solution would be to use the ondraw trigger. Write the current locs in a label and when one of the positions are changed write them to a global table. Because you are actually using the user input to generate the data, both points are not a big issue. You could build in a global switch that, if it is off, the ondraw trigger only checks this switch and doesn't execute the code.

Originally Posted by Steven Hamoen

//PREWARNING//
Using your ondraw trigger to write logic is usually a bad thing:
1. It is not executed if you close your 3D views
2. It makes your model a lot slower because this piece of code is executed as often as the screen is refreshed.

But in this case a simple solution would be to use the ondraw trigger. Write the current locs in a label and when one of the positions are changed write them to a global table. Because you are actually using the user input to generate the data, both points are not a big issue. You could build in a global switch that, if it is off, the ondraw trigger only checks this switch and doesn't execute the code.

Hi Steven Hamoen,

Thanks for your reply. I already tried to put codes in OnDraw trigger of the object from the first time. But I didn't know what command I should use so the model know if the positions are changed. Can you tell me what kind of command I need?
I created the code below, please advise me.

treenode current = ownerobject(c);
treenode view = parnode(1);

// If this function returns a true, the default draw code of the object will not be executed.
treenode WS_Output = reftable("WS_Output");
string WS_name = getname(current);
double x_loc= xloc(current);
double y_loc= yloc(current);
double z_loc= zloc(current);
double rot_z= zrot(current);

query("SELECT x, y, z, Rotationz FROM $1 WHERE Station = $2", WS_Output, WS_name);
int total_rows = getquerymatchcount();
for (int indexRow=1; indexRow<total_rows; indexRow++){
settablenum("WS_Output",indexRow,2,x_loc);
settablenum("WS_Output",indexRow,3,y_loc);
settablenum("WS_Output",indexRow,4,z_loc);
settablenum("WS_Output",indexRow,5,rot_z);
}

Interesting to use the query. I personally would probably used something like the rank of the object. In that case not every row in the table is filled but you have a direct pointer to the correct row.

In case you want to continue with the query approach, you can use getquerymatchtablerow to get the row in the table. Then I would check if something has changed and then write the result to the table. Actually in this situation checking if it has changed takes more time then just overwrite the values. So your code could look somethink like this (I didn't test it!)
int indexRow= getquerymatchtablerow( 1, 1 );
settablenum( WS_Output, indexRow, 2, x_loc );
settablenum( WS_Output, indexRow, 3, y_loc );
settablenum( WS_Output, indexRow, 4, z_loc );
settablenum( WS_Output, indexRow, 5, rot_z );

You are already defined a treenode pointer to the table with WS_Output so use that pointer to access the table instead of the name string. In most cases strings are the slowest option to do something

Thank you so much Steven for the advice!
Now I know what to do.