BRL-CAD 7.22

radiance-general
1

Hello,

has anyone in this list ever used BRD-CAD 7.22 for Mac to create models for Radiance?

If so, how do you convert BRL-CAD models to a format compatible with Radiance?

Many thanks.

pr

2

Hi Philippe

According to this document (
http://brlcad.org/w/images/6/66/Converting_Geometry.pdf) BRD-CAD has a
converter to Wavefront OBJ format which is well supported in Radiance. From
OBJ you then use the Radiance tools obj2rad or obj2mesh to convert the
geometry into a Radiance native format. You have to experiment with these
tools to find a modeling and exporting workflow that suits your needs.

BRD-CAD also includes sample source code for non-CSG exporters (ie. face
based geometry like it's used in Radiance). It should not be too difficult
to write a native Radiance exporter based on this - if you know C, of
course.

Regards,
Thomas

···

On Wed, Jan 2, 2013 at 3:06 PM, Philippe de Rochambeau <[email protected]>wrote:

Hello,

has anyone in this list ever used BRD-CAD 7.22 for Mac to create models
for Radiance?

If so, how do you convert BRL-CAD models to a format compatible with
Radiance?

Many thanks.

pr

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[email protected]
http://www.radiance-online.org/mailman/listinfo/radiance-general

3

Hi Thomas,

thanks for your feedback.

Unfortunately, the BRL-CAD converter you mention is not included in the MacOSX version of BRL-CAD 7.22 and you can only export the databases to ASCII (tcl language format) in that application.

As a result, I am going to switch modelers: either Blender or Rhino.

Cheers,

Philippe

···

Le 5 janv. 2013 à 15:09, Thomas Bleicher a écrit :

Hi Philippe

According to this document (http://brlcad.org/w/images/6/66/Converting_Geometry.pdf) BRD-CAD has a converter to Wavefront OBJ format which is well supported in Radiance. From OBJ you then use the Radiance tools obj2rad or obj2mesh to convert the geometry into a Radiance native format. You have to experiment with these tools to find a modeling and exporting workflow that suits your needs.

BRD-CAD also includes sample source code for non-CSG exporters (ie. face based geometry like it's used in Radiance). It should not be too difficult to write a native Radiance exporter based on this - if you know C, of course.

Regards,
Thomas

On Wed, Jan 2, 2013 at 3:06 PM, Philippe de Rochambeau <[email protected]> wrote:
Hello,

has anyone in this list ever used BRD-CAD 7.22 for Mac to create models for Radiance?

If so, how do you convert BRL-CAD models to a format compatible with Radiance?

Many thanks.

pr

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Radiance-general mailing list
[email protected]
http://www.radiance-online.org/mailman/listinfo/radiance-general

_______________________________________________
Radiance-general mailing list
[email protected]
http://www.radiance-online.org/mailman/listinfo/radiance-general

4

Hi,

I am surprise to hear that the obj exporter should not be included in
the Mac distribution of BRL-CAD. Did you ask about this?

AFAIK there have even been plans to directly output as octree, but that
native Radiance support has never been added.

Cheers, Lars.

5

Hi Lars,

according to the BRL-CAD Converting_Geometry documentation PDF, the g-wave command lets you convert MGED object to .obj files. However, I could not find that command either in he BRL-CAD MGED 7.22 for MacOSX menus, nor in the Command Window help ("help g-view" return "no help found for g-view").

I should indeed have asked about it in the mailing list, but gave up on BRL-CAD as a modeler a few days ago when I encountered the "free" Rhino for MacOSX.

Best regards,

Philippe

···

Le 6 janv. 2013 à 16:14, "Lars O. Grobe" <[email protected]> a écrit :

Hi,

I am surprise to hear that the obj exporter should not be included in
the Mac distribution of BRL-CAD. Did you ask about this?

AFAIK there have even been plans to directly output as octree, but that
native Radiance support has never been added.

Cheers, Lars.

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Radiance-general mailing list
[email protected]
http://www.radiance-online.org/mailman/listinfo/radiance-general

6

Hi Philippe!

according to the BRL-CAD Converting_Geometry documentation PDF, the
g-wave command lets you convert MGED object to .obj files. However, I
could not find that command either in he BRL-CAD MGED 7.22 for MacOSX
menus, nor in the Command Window help ("help g-view" return "no help
found for g-view").

I should indeed have asked about it in the mailing list, but gave up
on BRL-CAD as a modeler a few days ago when I encountered the "free"
Rhino for MacOSX.

Rhino and BRL-CAD are _very_ different tools. Rhino is a 3d-modeller
with advanced GUI and fancy buttons. BRL-CAD is basically a very
powerful CSG engine, with several frontends such as GUIs and command
line tools. If you need really have CSG modelling, possibly scripting,
BRL-CAD probably would be perfect, but for modelling some geometry with
a nice GUI Rhino (or Blender or wharever) is easier.

Just for completeness, you were probably just looking at the wrong
place. Just as with the radiance tools, you will not find the utilities
coming with BRL-CAD in any menu bars or Command Window Help. They are
commands, you can execute them if they are in your PATH, and you find
help using manpages.

Cheers, Lars.

7

Hi Lars,

I have finally found out how to convert a BRL-CAD database to an .OBJ file (which may later be used in Radiance) on MacOSX:

exec ./rel-7.22.0/bin/g-obj /Users/yourname/Desktop/BRLCad/test.g shape1.s > /Users/yourname/Desktop/BRLCad/shape1.obj

The resulting file looks like this:

# BRL-CAD generated Wavefront OBJ file (Units mm)
# BRL-CAD model: /Users/yourname/Desktop/BRLCad/test.g
# BRL_CAD objects: shape1.s
g shape1.s
v -2135.614650 123.542661 2545.726358
v -2122.058812 98.716591 2574.008958
v -2147.390442 44.812126 2581.262728
…

Cheers,

Philippe

···

Le 6 janv. 2013 à 19:19, Lars O. Grobe <[email protected]> a écrit :

Hi Philippe!

according to the BRL-CAD Converting_Geometry documentation PDF, the
g-wave command lets you convert MGED object to .obj files. However, I
could not find that command either in he BRL-CAD MGED 7.22 for MacOSX
menus, nor in the Command Window help ("help g-view" return "no help
found for g-view").

I should indeed have asked about it in the mailing list, but gave up
on BRL-CAD as a modeler a few days ago when I encountered the "free"
Rhino for MacOSX.

Rhino and BRL-CAD are _very_ different tools. Rhino is a 3d-modeller
with advanced GUI and fancy buttons. BRL-CAD is basically a very
powerful CSG engine, with several frontends such as GUIs and command
line tools. If you need really have CSG modelling, possibly scripting,
BRL-CAD probably would be perfect, but for modelling some geometry with
a nice GUI Rhino (or Blender or wharever) is easier.

Just for completeness, you were probably just looking at the wrong
place. Just as with the radiance tools, you will not find the utilities
coming with BRL-CAD in any menu bars or Command Window Help. They are
commands, you can execute them if they are in your PATH, and you find
help using manpages.

Cheers, Lars.

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Radiance-general mailing list
[email protected]
http://www.radiance-online.org/mailman/listinfo/radiance-general