dxf2rad

radiance-general
1

hi

is there a Mac OS X compilation of dxf2rad ?

tom

Tom Young Architects
19 Bassett Street
London
NW5 4PG
020 7482 6150
07765 378 502
[email protected]
http://homepage.mac.com/thdyoung/FileSharing1.html
http://localstinker.blogspot.com/
http://www.localstink.com/rktat/index.html

2

Tom,
if you ar refering to Gerog Mischlers dxf2rad I am afraid you are out of luck. Since the sourcecode is not available and Schorsch has obviously disapered you might want to try a differrent route. But maybe OSX can run Linux ELF binaries? That could be an option.
Where are your DXF files coming from? We just implemented a converter for certain types of DXF output (EliteCAD) that for instance produces only triangles with color codes. Workes fine for our purpose.
Feel free to contact me if you need more info.
Regards,
Erwin

···

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: [Radiance-general] dxf2rad (23-Okt-2007 13:37)
From: Tom Young <[email protected]>
To: [email protected]

hi

is there a Mac OS X compilation of dxf2rad ?

tom

Tom Young Architects
19 Bassett Street
London
NW5 4PG
020 7482 6150
07765 378 502
[email protected]
http://homepage.mac.com/thdyoung/FileSharing1.html
http://localstinker.blogspot.com/
http://www.localstink.com/rktat/index.html

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

To: [email protected]

3

hi Erwin

  i can't make anything useful out of the linux binary for mac osx so far as I can see

i'm using Vectorworks

i don't think there can be a route from Vectorworks to a rad file.

i assume the way to go is to make a dxf file of a Vectorworks model

if you have a dxf converter which would work on a mac, that would be terrific !

is it a command line utility ?

tom

Tom,
if you ar refering to Gerog Mischlers dxf2rad I am afraid you are out of luck. Since the sourcecode is not available and Schorsch has obviously disapered you might want to try a differrent route. But maybe OSX can run Linux ELF binaries? That could be an option.
Where are your DXF files coming from? We just implemented a converter for certain types of DXF output (EliteCAD) that for instance produces only triangles with color codes. Workes fine for our purpose.
Feel free to contact me if you need more info.
Regards,
Erwin

Tom Young Architects
19 Bassett Street
London
NW5 4PG
020 7482 6150
07765 378 502
[email protected]
http://homepage.mac.com/thdyoung/FileSharing1.html
http://localstinker.blogspot.com/
http://www.localstink.com/rktat/index.html

···

On 23 Oct 2007, at 12:53, Erwin Zierler wrote:

4

Hi Tom,

One workflow option, much as I dislike suggesting it, is perhaps to use Sketchup as an intermediate. It looks like Vectorworks will save out an skp. Sketchup (commercial version) can then save out an obj format file, which can be converted with obj2rad. I have very limited experience with Sketchup, but in my few experiences, I have found that the models are very very hefty. Another alternative is to save out as 3ds and use 3ds2rad, however there are limitations to this dealing with data sizing for the file format.

-Jack

Tom Young wrote:

···

hi Erwin

i can't make anything useful out of the linux binary for mac osx so far as I can see

i'm using Vectorworks

i don't think there can be a route from Vectorworks to a rad file.

i assume the way to go is to make a dxf file of a Vectorworks model

if you have a dxf converter which would work on a mac, that would be terrific !

is it a command line utility ?

tom

On 23 Oct 2007, at 12:53, Erwin Zierler wrote:

Tom,
if you ar refering to Gerog Mischlers dxf2rad I am afraid you are out of luck. Since the sourcecode is not available and Schorsch has obviously disapered you might want to try a differrent route. But maybe OSX can run Linux ELF binaries? That could be an option.
Where are your DXF files coming from? We just implemented a converter for certain types of DXF output (EliteCAD) that for instance produces only triangles with color codes. Workes fine for our purpose.
Feel free to contact me if you need more info.
Regards,
Erwin

Tom Young Architects
19 Bassett Street
London
NW5 4PG
020 7482 6150
07765 378 502
[email protected]
http://homepage.mac.com/thdyoung/FileSharing1.html
http://localstinker.blogspot.com/
http://www.localstink.com/rktat/index.html

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

--
# Jack de Valpine
# president
#
# visarc incorporated
# http://www.visarc.com
#
# channeling technology for superior design and construction

5

Hi Tom,

I have a dxf2rad version available that we have developped for in-house use.
We use it almost every day on Linux.
It should compile under osx also. Just dowload the files and run
# gcc -o dxfimport dxfimport_so.cpp

"dxfimport" is a c++ command line utility that reads triangle (face) primitives from dxf files, and convert these into Radiance polygon primitives, using the layernumber of each face as modifier (LAYER001, LAYER002 etc.).

The url is:
http://www.toren.com/radiance/dxfimport_so.h
http://www.toren.com/radiance/dxfimport_so.cpp

Comments in the source files are a combination of dutch and english, as I said it is an in-house tool - and I am dutch.... :slight_smile:

Good luck,

Iebele

Tom Young wrote:

···

hi Erwin

i can't make anything useful out of the linux binary for mac osx so far as I can see

i'm using Vectorworks

i don't think there can be a route from Vectorworks to a rad file.

i assume the way to go is to make a dxf file of a Vectorworks model

if you have a dxf converter which would work on a mac, that would be terrific !

is it a command line utility ?

tom

On 23 Oct 2007, at 12:53, Erwin Zierler wrote:

Tom,
if you ar refering to Gerog Mischlers dxf2rad I am afraid you are out of luck. Since the sourcecode is not available and Schorsch has obviously disapered you might want to try a differrent route. But maybe OSX can run Linux ELF binaries? That could be an option.
Where are your DXF files coming from? We just implemented a converter for certain types of DXF output (EliteCAD) that for instance produces only triangles with color codes. Workes fine for our purpose.
Feel free to contact me if you need more info.
Regards,
Erwin

Tom Young Architects
19 Bassett Street
London
NW5 4PG
020 7482 6150
07765 378 502
[email protected]
http://homepage.mac.com/thdyoung/FileSharing1.html
http://localstinker.blogspot.com/
http://www.localstink.com/rktat/index.html

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

6

Hope that this is not a secret - but there was a version for OS X that never had been released. So - if you manage to contact Schorsch...

I'm not sure about the export formats in recent releases of Vectorworks. If you can export 3ds, you can import using a variety of tools. If you can export IGES, you might get even better geometry when using brlcad to convert to e.g. obj than rad.

Good luck.

Lars.

7

IGES is a Vectorworks export option.

I'm not clear what bricad is.

thanks

tom

If you can export IGES, you might get even better geometry when using brlcad to convert to e.g. obj than rad.

Tom Young Architects
19 Bassett Street
London
NW5 4PG
020 7482 6150
07765 378 502
[email protected]
http://homepage.mac.com/thdyoung/FileSharing1.html
http://localstinker.blogspot.com/
http://www.localstink.com/rktat/index.html

···

On 23 Oct 2007, at 16:25, Lars O. Grobe wrote:

8

thanks Iebele

<<gcc -o dxfimport dxfimport_so.cpp dxf1.dxf
In file included from dxfimport_so.cpp:13:
dxfimport_so.h:12:20: error: malloc.h: No such file or directory>>

I should say that I'm no geek.

I did man gcc and the page went on forever!

I don't understand what the two arguments of this gcc app are doing.

I appreciate your making them available but don't understand what's to be done.

Am I generating a usable OSX script to be shebanged or put into the Path to use from Terminal ? If so where is that script ?

Apologies for not getting it!

tom

# gcc -o dxfimport dxfimport_so.cpp

Tom Young Architects
19 Bassett Street
London
NW5 4PG
020 7482 6150
07765 378 502
[email protected]
http://homepage.mac.com/thdyoung/FileSharing1.html
http://localstinker.blogspot.com/
http://www.localstink.com/rktat/index.html

···

On 23 Oct 2007, at 14:53, iebele wrote:

9

Tom Young wrote:

thanks Iebele

<<gcc -o dxfimport dxfimport_so.cpp dxf1.dxf
In file included from dxfimport_so.cpp:13:
dxfimport_so.h:12:20: error: malloc.h: No such file or directory>>

I should say that I'm no geek.

I did man gcc and the page went on forever!

I don't understand what the two arguments of this gcc app are doing.

I appreciate your making them available but don't understand what's to be done.

Am I generating a usable OSX script to be shebanged or put into the Path to use from Terminal ? If so where is that script ?

That error makes me think you have gcc installed on your machine, but not all of the libraries. Have you done a full install of Xcode? Make sure that's been done first, then you may also need to run this as root (do you know about the sudo command, which runs things as root?). After it's been compiled (yes, gcc is a compiler so it's not making a script but an actual executable), you will move the binary to /usr/local/bin with all the other Radiance binaries (you would do this with sudo too, i.e. "sudo mv dxfimport /usr/local/bin"). sudo will ask you for the administrative password, which you likely set up when you set up your Mac initially. Hope this helps (and does not hurt)!

- Rob Guglielmetti
www.rumblestrip.org

10

That error makes me think you have gcc installed on your machine, but not all of the libraries. Have you done a full install of Xcode?

no!

  Make sure that's been done first, then you may also need to run this as root (do you know about the sudo command, which runs things as root?).

ok w root and that sort of stuff

After it's been compiled (yes, gcc is a compiler so it's not making a script but an actual executable), you will move the binary to /usr/local/bin with all the other Radiance binaries (you would do this with sudo too, i.e. "sudo mv dxfimport /usr/local/bin"). sudo will ask you for the administrative password, which you likely set up when you set up your Mac initially. Hope this helps (and does not hurt)!

nothing hurts yet

thanks v much

tom

Tom Young Architects
19 Bassett Street
London
NW5 4PG
020 7482 6150
07765 378 502
[email protected]
http://homepage.mac.com/thdyoung/FileSharing1.html
http://localstinker.blogspot.com/
http://www.localstink.com/rktat/index.html

···

On 23 Oct 2007, at 18:15, Rob Guglielmetti wrote:

11

  Make sure that's been done first, then you may also need to run this
as root (do you know about the sudo command, which runs things as root?).

eww, never compile anything as root. Upstream's fancy build stuff may
accidentally rm -rf / just because some variable went missing.

···

--
Bernd Zeimetz
<[email protected]> <http://bzed.de/>

12

Bernd Zeimetz wrote:

eww, never compile anything as root. Upstream's fancy build stuff may
accidentally rm -rf / just because some variable went missing

Ah, good point. What Bernd said. =8-)

- Rob

13

Hi Tom,

I think Rob is right.
If you don't solve it with Rob's suggestion, try these:

http://www.toren.com/radiance/dxfimport_so_tom.h
http://www.toren.com/radiance/dxfimport_so_tom.cpp

Also you should use g++ instead of gcc, sorry for that, like this:

# g++ -o tom dxfimport_so_tom.cpp

And to test it:
# ./tom

Good luck,

Iebele

···

Tom Young wrote:

thanks Iebele

<<gcc -o dxfimport dxfimport_so.cpp dxf1.dxf
In file included from dxfimport_so.cpp:13:
dxfimport_so.h:12:20: error: malloc.h: No such file or directory>>

I should say that I'm no geek.

I did man gcc and the page went on forever!

I don't understand what the two arguments of this gcc app are doing.

I appreciate your making them available but don't understand what's to be done.

Am I generating a usable OSX script to be shebanged or put into the Path to use from Terminal ? If so where is that script ?

That error makes me think you have gcc installed on your machine, but not all of the libraries. Have you done a full install of Xcode? Make sure that's been done first, then you may also need to run this as root (do you know about the sudo command, which runs things as root?). After it's been compiled (yes, gcc is a compiler so it's not making a script but an actual executable), you will move the binary to /usr/local/bin with all the other Radiance binaries (you would do this with sudo too, i.e. "sudo mv dxfimport /usr/local/bin"). sudo will ask you for the administrative password, which you likely set up when you set up your Mac initially. Hope this helps (and does not hurt)!

- Rob Guglielmetti
www.rumblestrip.org

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

14

Sketchup is no so bad. I have written a Ruby script to export Sketchup models
to Radiance and I'm about to finish and release it soon (I keep saying that
for 2 weeks now...). Sketchup has some nice features (like n-sided polygons
and a total lack of complex geometric primitives) that can be translated
nicely into Radiance. It has not seen much testing (yet) and if Tom needs
a solution today I can only offer a work in progress.

Anyway, Sketchup doesn't make the models 'hefty'; it's the users. If you
have a messy model in Sketchup/Vectorworks/Autocad it will end in a messy
model in Radiance.

I remember that there is another script around which was presented at the
first Radiance Workshop in Fribourgh years ago. That might have seen some
further development and be in a more user friendly state.

Other options: does Vectorworks offer a scripting API? A very simple
Radiance exporter should not be hard to do and can probably be derived
from a sample script (access to the 3D faces is all that's required).

You could use Blender and Francesco's or my own export scripts. The
biggest problem is to find a format of the DXF file that Blender can
understand. But that's the problem of all export-import-export tool
chains (and ultimately of the DXF file format).

Finally, I have written a partial DXF to Radiance converter in Python
once. It was written with one particular DXF file in mind and I don't
think I even added support for 3D faces. If you have a small DXF example
I could see if it works and perhaps add bit to support the most basic
files. I stopped playing around with that because I couldn't work out
some problems with transformations. But if Vectorworks exports to a plain
3D space it should be fine.

Regards,
Thomas

···

On 23 Oct 2007, at 13:43, Jack de Valpine wrote:

Hi Tom,

One workflow option, much as I dislike suggesting it, is perhaps to use
Sketchup as an intermediate. It looks like Vectorworks will save out an skp.
Sketchup (commercial version) can then save out an obj format file, which can
be converted with obj2rad. I have very limited experience with Sketchup, but
in my few experiences, I have found that the models are very very hefty.

15

I'll chime in that strata2rad by Paul Bourke
was built to convert Strata Studio Pro dxf files to Radiance - and it
also works with Infini-D
dxfs - so it may work with yours
I have Mac binary and source - I don't see it on his site anymore
http://local.wasp.uwa.edu.au/~pbourke

Rob F

···

From: [email protected]
[mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of
iebele
Sent: Tuesday, October 23, 2007 11:28 AM
To: Radiance general discussion
Subject: Re: [Radiance-general] dxf2rad

Hi Tom,

I think Rob is right.
If you don't solve it with Rob's suggestion, try these:

http://www.toren.com/radiance/dxfimport_so_tom.h
http://www.toren.com/radiance/dxfimport_so_tom.cpp

Also you should use g++ instead of gcc, sorry for that, like this:

# g++ -o tom dxfimport_so_tom.cpp

And to test it:
# ./tom

Good luck,

Iebele

Tom Young wrote:

thanks Iebele

<<gcc -o dxfimport dxfimport_so.cpp dxf1.dxf In file included from
dxfimport_so.cpp:13:
dxfimport_so.h:12:20: error: malloc.h: No such file or directory>>

I should say that I'm no geek.

I did man gcc and the page went on forever!

I don't understand what the two arguments of this gcc app are doing.

I appreciate your making them available but don't understand what's
to be done.

Am I generating a usable OSX script to be shebanged or put into the
Path to use from Terminal ? If so where is that script ?

That error makes me think you have gcc installed on your machine, but
not all of the libraries. Have you done a full install of Xcode?
Make sure that's been done first, then you may also need to run this
as root (do you know about the sudo command, which runs things as
root?). After it's been compiled (yes, gcc is a compiler so it's not
making a script but an actual executable), you will move the binary to

/usr/local/bin with all the other Radiance binaries (you would do this

with sudo too, i.e. "sudo mv dxfimport /usr/local/bin"). sudo will
ask you for the administrative password, which you likely set up when
you set up your Mac initially. Hope this helps (and does not hurt)!

- Rob Guglielmetti
www.rumblestrip.org

_______________________________________________
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

16

Hi Thomas,

Well that is interesting about Sketchup models. And to clarify, my experience has really been in trying to take client built sketchup models and get them into something useful. So my experience biased by big not very well built/organized models provided by others. I guess the thing that I am glad to hear is that like any modeling tool, if well used and controlled, you can get something useful out of it. I would certainly be interested in trying your translator if and when you feel it is ready to share.

Best,

-Jack de Valpine

Thomas Bleicher wrote:

···

On 23 Oct 2007, at 13:43, Jack de Valpine wrote:

Hi Tom,

One workflow option, much as I dislike suggesting it, is perhaps to use
Sketchup as an intermediate. It looks like Vectorworks will save out an skp.
Sketchup (commercial version) can then save out an obj format file, which can
be converted with obj2rad. I have very limited experience with Sketchup, but
in my few experiences, I have found that the models are very very hefty.

Sketchup is no so bad. I have written a Ruby script to export Sketchup models
to Radiance and I'm about to finish and release it soon (I keep saying that
for 2 weeks now...). Sketchup has some nice features (like n-sided polygons
and a total lack of complex geometric primitives) that can be translated
nicely into Radiance. It has not seen much testing (yet) and if Tom needs
a solution today I can only offer a work in progress.

Anyway, Sketchup doesn't make the models 'hefty'; it's the users. If you
have a messy model in Sketchup/Vectorworks/Autocad it will end in a messy
model in Radiance.

I remember that there is another script around which was presented at the
first Radiance Workshop in Fribourgh years ago. That might have seen some
further development and be in a more user friendly state.

Other options: does Vectorworks offer a scripting API? A very simple
Radiance exporter should not be hard to do and can probably be derived
from a sample script (access to the 3D faces is all that's required).

You could use Blender and Francesco's or my own export scripts. The
biggest problem is to find a format of the DXF file that Blender can
understand. But that's the problem of all export-import-export tool
chains (and ultimately of the DXF file format).

Finally, I have written a partial DXF to Radiance converter in Python
once. It was written with one particular DXF file in mind and I don't
think I even added support for 3D faces. If you have a small DXF example
I could see if it works and perhaps add bit to support the most basic
files. I stopped playing around with that because I couldn't work out
some problems with transformations. But if Vectorworks exports to a plain
3D space it should be fine.

Regards,
Thomas

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

--
# Jack de Valpine
# president
#
# visarc incorporated
# http://www.visarc.com
#
# channeling technology for superior design and construction

17

Jack de Valpine wrote:

Hi Thomas,

Well that is interesting about Sketchup models. And to clarify, my experience has really been in trying to take client built sketchup models and get them into something useful. So my experience biased by big not very well built/organized models provided by others. I guess the thing that I am glad to hear is that like any modeling tool, if well used and controlled, you can get something useful out of it.

Yeah, I got two models recently, one built in SketchUp and the other in Revit (same project, same model extents), and the Revit one was literally unusable in AutoCAD, much less Radiance.

I would certainly be interested in trying your translator if and when you feel it is ready to share.

As a very recent licensee of SketchUp Pro, I too would be interested in your translator, Thomas! I'd also like to hear (maybe off-list) your thoughts on how to model accurately in SketchUp, since it seems to still lack direct coordinate input, UCSs, and the object snaps seem a little lean compared to ACAD...

- Rob

18

Hey Rob,

Would you be willing to share experience with Revit to Radiance? What where the main problems that you encountered?

-Jack

Rob Guglielmetti wrote:

···

Jack de Valpine wrote:

Hi Thomas,

Well that is interesting about Sketchup models. And to clarify, my experience has really been in trying to take client built sketchup models and get them into something useful. So my experience biased by big not very well built/organized models provided by others. I guess the thing that I am glad to hear is that like any modeling tool, if well used and controlled, you can get something useful out of it.

Yeah, I got two models recently, one built in SketchUp and the other in Revit (same project, same model extents), and the Revit one was literally unusable in AutoCAD, much less Radiance.

I would certainly be interested in trying your translator if and when you feel it is ready to share.

As a very recent licensee of SketchUp Pro, I too would be interested in your translator, Thomas! I'd also like to hear (maybe off-list) your thoughts on how to model accurately in SketchUp, since it seems to still lack direct coordinate input, UCSs, and the object snaps seem a little lean compared to ACAD...

- Rob

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

--
# Jack de Valpine
# president
#
# visarc incorporated
# http://www.visarc.com
#
# channeling technology for superior design and construction

19

Jack de Valpine wrote:

Hey Rob,

Would you be willing to share experience with Revit to Radiance? What where the main problems that you encountered?

Oh, just the usual bs with Autodesk's so-called intelligent entities, parametric building assemblies and the like, that get replaced with "proxy objects" when saved down to early AutoCAD formats. Things disappear, objects behave strangely (such as not being able to be copied and pasted into other drawings), etc. This particular Revit model I was talking about was simply too detailed for its own good and was bogging down my system. In general I find that 300MB drawings will do that. :wink: It was so slow that weeding out the extraneous polygons was simply taking too long.

- Rob Guglielmetti

20

Hey Rob,

Wow 300Mb, I start being highly suspicious at around 25MB for a CAD model. On the other hand, I think this BIM stuff is going to go somewhere, so figuring out how to manage the data is going to be an issue worth investigating. I suspect it is particularly nasty if you are trying get data out for use in Autocad 2000. I wonder if would be any more "inter-operable" going from Revit to 2008.

As an aside, I really wish that the folks at Autodesk would provide a method for exporting to obj format. Not that this helps with managing gigantic 3D data sets, but it would at least provide good workflow from Autodesk tools to other applications....

-Jack

Rob Guglielmetti wrote:

···

Jack de Valpine wrote:

Hey Rob,

Would you be willing to share experience with Revit to Radiance? What where the main problems that you encountered?

Oh, just the usual bs with Autodesk's so-called intelligent entities, parametric building assemblies and the like, that get replaced with "proxy objects" when saved down to early AutoCAD formats. Things disappear, objects behave strangely (such as not being able to be copied and pasted into other drawings), etc. This particular Revit model I was talking about was simply too detailed for its own good and was bogging down my system. In general I find that 300MB drawings will do that. :wink: It was so slow that weeding out the extraneous polygons was simply taking too long.

- Rob Guglielmetti

--
# Jack de Valpine
# president
#
# visarc incorporated
# http://www.visarc.com
#
# channeling technology for superior design and construction