Getting Started - Chapter 2 - Mesh Placement
Place and Scale a Mesh
Size
Some meshes, such as box, have properties that you can set to change during their creation.
const box = BABYLON.MeshBuilder.CreateBox("box", {width: 2, height: 1.5, depth: 3})
After creation, and for meshes that do not have sizing options, changes in size are achieved by scaling the mesh.
const box = BABYLON.MeshBuilder.CreateBox("box", {}); //unit cubebox.scaling.x = 2;box.scaling.y = 1.5;box.scaling.z = 3;
const box = BABYLON.MeshBuilder.CreateBox("box", {}); //unit cubebox.scaling = new BABYLON.Vector3(2, 1.5, 3);
As you can see, from the above codes, scaling is a vector object with properties x, y, and z.
All three of the above sets of codes will produce boxes of the same size
Position
For the majority of meshes the position property places the center of the mesh at that position. Position is also a vector object with properties x, y, and z, so that the following two sets of codes position the box in the same place.
box.position.x = -2;box.position.y = 4.2;box.position.z = 0.1;
box.position = new BABYLON.Vector3(-2, 4.2, 0.1);
We can now use positions to place the boxes sized in three different ways in one playground. In each case the height of a box is 1.5 and therefore for each box position.y = 0.75 to place it on the ground.
Positioning MeshesOrientation
As for scaling and position the rotation property of a mesh is a vector object with properties x, y and z. However when building our first world we will only consider rotation about one axis since a setting a rotation about all three axes can be surprisingly confusing.
Rotations are given in radians. If you prefer working in degrees Babylon.js provides a conversion tool. Both these lines of code with produce the same rotation.
box.rotation.y = Math.PI / 4;box.rotation.y = BABYLON.Tools.toDegrees(45);
We can now change the size, position and orientate a mesh adding a little more variation to the box as a building. Before we place more boxes in the scene let us see if we can make them a little more building like.