Macro View Rotation

This GUI allows the view to be rotated with more precision than when using the mouse. Rotation is according to axes fixed with respect to the user and not the objects, though the aim is that the objects rotate about their approximate shared centre rather than the view centre.
The GUI defaults to the top right of the screen, this behaviour can be changed by editing

a = QtGui.QDesktopWidget()
 right = a.availableGeometry().width()
  
 self.setGeometry(right-300, 0, 300, 150) 

at the end of the function 'initUI'. The first two arguments (right-300, 0) provide the position for the top left corner of the window - my experience is that the behaviour was as intended on Ubuntu but Vista positioned the window too high and the 0 needed to be changed to ~30.
Three icons are referred to to symbolise the rotation directions. A zip file containing these icons can be found here, the images should be placed in the folder containing your macros. Please feel free to contribute better ones!

import PySide
from PySide import QtGui, QtCore
from pivy import coin
from math import pi


def find_centre():
xmax = xmin = ymax = ymin = zmax = zmin = 0
for obj in App.ActiveDocument.Objects:
if obj.TypeId[:4] == "Mesh":
box = obj.Mesh.BoundBox
elif obj.TypeId[:6] == "Points":
box = obj.Points.BoundBox
elif obj.TypeId[:4] == "Part":
box = obj.Shape.BoundBox
else:
continue
xmax = max(xmax, box.XMax)
xmin = min(xmin, box.XMin)
ymax = max(ymax, box.YMax)
ymin = min(ymin, box.YMin)
zmax = max(zmax, box.ZMax)
zmin = min(zmin, box.ZMin)

centre = FreeCAD.Vector((xmax+xmin)/2.0, (ymax+ymin)/2.0, (zmax+zmin)/2.0)
return centre



class rotate_gui(QtGui.QWidget):  
def __init__(self):
super(rotate_gui, self).__init__()
self.initUI()
self.initRotate()


def initUI(self):
self.sld = [0,1,2]
self.tbox = [0,1,2]
path = FreeCAD.ConfigGet("UserAppData")
icon = [0,1,2]
icons = ('right.png', 'up.png', 'out.png')

for i in range(3): 
self.sld[i] = QtGui.QSlider(QtCore.Qt.Horizontal, self)
self.sld[i].setFocusPolicy(QtCore.Qt.NoFocus)
self.sld[i].setSingleStep(5)
self.sld[i].setPageStep(15)
self.sld[i].setValue(0)
self.sld[i].setMaximum(180)
self.sld[i].setMinimum(-180)
self.tbox[i] = QtGui.QLineEdit(self)
self.tbox[i].setText("0")
self.tbox[i].setAlignment(QtCore.Qt.AlignRight)
icon[i] = QtGui.QLabel(self)
icon[i].setPixmap(QtGui.QPixmap(path + icons[i]))
self.sld[i].valueChanged[int].connect(self.valueChange)
self.tbox[i].returnPressed.connect(self.valueEntered)

resetButton = QtGui.QPushButton("Reset")
resetButton.clicked.connect(self.reset)

okButton = QtGui.QPushButton("OK")
okButton.clicked.connect(self.close)

cancelButton = QtGui.QPushButton("Cancel")
cancelButton.clicked.connect(self.cancel)

hbox = [0,1,2,3]
vbox = QtGui.QVBoxLayout()

for i in range(3):
hbox[i] = QtGui.QHBoxLayout()
hbox[i].addWidget(icon[i],1, QtCore.Qt.AlignCenter)
hbox[i].addWidget(self.sld[i],4)
hbox[i].addWidget(self.tbox[i],1)
vbox.addLayout(hbox[i])

hbox[3] = QtGui.QHBoxLayout()
hbox[3].addWidget(resetButton,1)
hbox[3].addWidget(okButton,1)
hbox[3].addWidget(cancelButton,1)
vbox.addStretch(1)
vbox.addLayout(hbox[3])

self.setLayout(vbox)

a = QtGui.QDesktopWidget()
right = a.availableGeometry().width()

self.setGeometry(right-300, 0, 300, 150)
self.setWindowTitle('Rotate view...')
self.show()


def initRotate(self):
self.internal = False
self.current = 0

self.cam = Gui.ActiveDocument.ActiveView.getCameraNode()
self.centre = coin.SbVec3f(find_centre())
self.view = self.cam.orientation.getValue()
self.pos = self.cam.position.getValue()

#store a copy of the original view to be restored in the case of user selecting Reset or Cancel
self.original_view = coin.SbRotation(self.view.getValue())
self.original_pos = coin.SbVec3f(self.pos.getValue())

self.config_direction(0)


def reset(self):
#reset the view to the original one
self.cam.orientation = self.original_view
self.cam.position = self.original_pos
self.internal = True
for sld in self.sld:
sld.setValue(0)
self.internal = False
for tbox in self.tbox:
tbox.setText("0")
self.config_direction(0)


def cancel(self):
self.reset()
self.close()


def config_direction(self, i):
#evaluate the vectors corresponding to the three directions for the current view, and assign the i-th one to self.direction
self.view = self.cam.orientation.getValue()
self.view = coin.SbRotation(self.view.getValue())
self.pos = self.cam.position.getValue()
self.pos = coin.SbVec3f(self.pos.getValue())

up = coin.SbVec3f(0,1,0)
self.up = self.view.multVec(up)
out = coin.SbVec3f(0,0,1)
self.out = self.view.multVec(out)
u = self.up.getValue()
o = self.out.getValue()
r = (u[1]*o[2]-u[2]*o[1], u[2]*o[0]-u[0]*o[2], u[0]*o[1]-u[1]*o[0])
self.right = coin.SbVec3f(r)

self.direction = [self.right, self.up, self.out][i]

 def check(self, i):
#check if the direction of rotation has changed, if so then set previous slider & textbox to zero, and setup the new direction
if i <> self.current:
self.internal = True
self.sld[self.current].setValue(0)
self.tbox[self.current].setText("0")
self.internal = False
self.current = i
self.config_direction(i)


def rotate(self, value):
#carry out the desired rotation about self.direction
val = value*pi/180.0
rot = coin.SbRotation(self.direction, -val)
nrot = self.view*rot
prot = rot.multVec(self.pos - self.centre) + self.centre
self.cam.orientation = nrot
self.cam.position = prot


def valueChange(self, value):
#respond to the change in value of a slider, update the corresponding text box, check for a direction change then rotate
#if the value was changed internally, ignore event.
if self.internal:
return

sender = self.sender()
for i in range(3):
if sender == self.sld[i]:
break
self.tbox[i].setText(str(value))
self.check(i)
self.rotate(value)


def valueEntered(self):
#respond to a value being entered in a text box, updating the corresponding slider, check for direction change then rotate
sender = self.sender()
for i in range(3):
if sender == self.tbox[i]:
break
value = int(self.tbox[i].text())
self.internal = True
self.sld[i].setValue(value)
self.internal = False
self.check(i)
self.rotate(value)
 

rotate = rotate_gui() 

Discussion page

View+Rotation