objline doesn't seem to work properly and X11 window flash and gone very quickly

Hi, everybody,

When I type "objline buildings.rad | x11meta" and return in the Terminal in
Mac OS X Snow Leopard, the *X11 window showed up for a very very short of
period and then disappeared immediately*.

As to my understanding, what we'll get by execute the objline command is an
image with four wire frame views of the geometry described in a specific
.rad file and the image window will stay on the screen rather than flash and
gone, am I right?

It seems the rest Radiance commands are still working. I can use Python to
execute in batch those most fundamental radiance commands like getinfo,
gensky, genbox, oconv, rpict, rvu, etc. with images displaying correctly.

So, can anybody help to point out what's wrong here and how to fix it?

Both my Mac OS X system and my Radiance are fresh installation.

I install the latest Radiance following the guide from the this website
after I tried and failed by following the README file in the installation
folder of Rad4R0.
http://www.designcommunity.com/forum/8756.html

Is it because my Radiance is not properly installed?

Really appreciate your help!

Ji

Ji,

Objline might bomb out if there are non-planar vertices in your model.

-John

···

-----------------------------------------------
Dr. John Mardaljevic
Reader in Daylight Modelling
Institute of Energy and Sustainable Development
De Montfort University
The Gateway
Leicester
LE1 9BH, UK
+44 (0) 116 257 7972
+44 (0) 116 257 7981 (fax)

[email protected]
http://www.iesd.dmu.ac.uk/~jm

Hmmm, that's odd. The error means that the program could not open the file vchars.mta in a read-only capacity. Following a normal installation of Radiance on Mac OS X, that file should indeed live in /usr/local/lib/ray/meta and be read-only accessible to everyone.

So yeah it's possible that something didn't go right during installation. The correct and not-totally-detailed procedures for installing Radiance on the Mac are:

go to www.radiance-online.org, click the link on the left for "download radiance", and follow the procedures found under "Download official release from this server". Basically you grab the source code, and compile. Compiling on the Mac is easy, you run ./makeall install from the directory where you unpack the archive, and follow the prompts. You need to run this as an admin, and in Mac OS this is easy:

sudo ./makeall install

This will prompt you for the administrator password, and then you just follow the prompts.

NOTE: you must have the directory /usr/local/lib/ray already existing so the installer can place all the library files. This is done with

sudo mkdir /usr/local/lib/ray

Maybe this was your problem the first time around? Here's a quick rundown of the steps:

1. download http://www.radiance-online.org/software/rad3R9all.tar.gz
2. at the command prompt, go to the directory where you saved the rad3R9all.tar.gz file
3. type: gunzip < rad3R9all.tar.gz | tar xf -
4. go to the archive directory (cd ray)
5. create /usr/local/lib/ray directory if it does not exist (sudo mkdir /usr/local/lib/ray)
6. type sudo ./makeall install (supply admin password when asked)
7. follow the prompts, responding to defaults; definitely answer 'y' when asked if you want to install libraries, accept default location
8. make the PATH changes recommended after installation.

Give that a go, and retry objline.

- Rob

···

On Jun 11, 2010, at 10:37 AM, Ji Zhang 张冀 wrote:

Thanks, John!

But I think the rad file I used should be OK because it only contains five simple boxes and I can use rvu to generate a rendering for it.

Just now I tried to use the table.rad file got from Axel Jacobs' tutorial and the objline still doesn't work. Moreover, there's an error message showing in the Terminal:

fatal - cannot open file "/usr/local/lib/ray/meta/vchars.mta", mode "r"

I sense my Radiance has got big problem. What does this error message mean?

Should I reinstall Radiance?

What are the correct and detailed procedures to install Radiance on Mac OS X Snow Leopard?

Thanks!

Ji

On Fri, Jun 11, 2010 at 11:35 PM, John Mardaljevic <[email protected]> wrote:
Ji,

Objline might bomb out if there are non-planar vertices in your model.

-John

-----------------------------------------------
Dr. John Mardaljevic
Reader in Daylight Modelling
Institute of Energy and Sustainable Development
De Montfort University
The Gateway
Leicester
LE1 9BH, UK
+44 (0) 116 257 7972
+44 (0) 116 257 7981 (fax)

[email protected]
http://www.iesd.dmu.ac.uk/~jm

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

--
ZHANG Ji 张冀 (PhD) :: Research Fellow :: Centre for Sustainable Asian Cities :: School of Design and Environment :: National University of Singapore :: 4 Architecture Drive, Singapore, 117566 :: Contact: 65-6516 5046 :: Email: [email protected]
_______________________________________________
Radiance-general mailing list
[email protected]
http://www.radiance-online.org/mailman/listinfo/radiance-general

You are using the alternative installation method, which means copying the binaries. What you forgot to do is run "makeall library" to install the library files. That's all you need to get things working, I hope.

If you want to rebuild the system, you'll need to install the (free) Apple Developer's Tools, first.

-Greg

···

From: Ji Zhang 张冀 <[email protected]>
Date: June 11, 2010 10:30:06 AM PDT

Dear Rob, thank you very much for your detailed explanation!!!

However, I still couldn't get the radiance installed in the default directories follow the steps suggested by you.

The following are the messages shown in the Terminal during installation (within the area maked by #):

####################################################################
Ji-ZHANGs-iMac:ray jizhang$ sudo ./makeall install

        RADIANCE 4.0a INSTALLATION

This script rebuilds all of the Radiance programs and installs
them on your system. You should read the file README before running
this script. You can type ^C (followed by return) at any time to abort.

You must first answer the following questions.

What is your preferred editor [vi]?
Where do you want the executables [/usr/local/bin]?
Current rmake command is:
#!/bin/sh
exec make "SPECIAL=ogl" \
    "OPT=-O2" \
    "MACH=-DBSD -DNOSTEREO -Dfreebsd -I/usr/X11R6/include -L/usr/X11R6/lib" \
    ARCH=Intel "COMPAT=" \
    INSTDIR=/usr/local/bin \
    LIBDIR=/Users/jizhang/Radiance_lib \
    ESUFFIX= \
    CC=cc CONFIGURE_ARCH=i386 "[email protected]" -f Rmakefile
Do you want to change it? n
Making programs...
~/ray/src/common ~/ray/src
In directory common...

Oops. Yeah, I guess step zero is: "get the developer tools installed on your system". Sorry about that!

The developer tools (now called XCode) include the compiler and the program "make", which you need to compile the source code (and its absence on your system is causing all your error messages there). XCode is a free (but large) download from Apple:

http://developer.apple.com/technologies/xcode.html

You have to create a developer account, but its free and amounts to a login/password. Grab XCode and install it, making sure you install all the X11 dev stuff, then go back to that ray directory and try rerunning ./makeall install and we'll go from there.

···

On Jun 11, 2010, at 11:30 AM, Ji Zhang 张冀 wrote:

Dear Rob, thank you very much for your detailed explanation!!!

However, I still couldn't get the radiance installed in the default directories follow the steps suggested by you.

The following are the messages shown in the Terminal during installation (within the area maked by #):

####################################################################
Ji-ZHANGs-iMac:ray jizhang$ sudo ./makeall install

        RADIANCE 4.0a INSTALLATION

This script rebuilds all of the Radiance programs and installs
them on your system. You should read the file README before running
this script. You can type ^C (followed by return) at any time to abort.

You must first answer the following questions.

What is your preferred editor [vi]?
Where do you want the executables [/usr/local/bin]?
Current rmake command is:
#!/bin/sh
exec make "SPECIAL=ogl" \
    "OPT=-O2" \
    "MACH=-DBSD -DNOSTEREO -Dfreebsd -I/usr/X11R6/include -L/usr/X11R6/lib" \
    ARCH=Intel "COMPAT=" \
    INSTDIR=/usr/local/bin \
    LIBDIR=/Users/jizhang/Radiance_lib \
    ESUFFIX= \
    CC=cc CONFIGURE_ARCH=i386 "[email protected]" -f Rmakefile
Do you want to change it? n
Making programs...
~/ray/src/common ~/ray/src
In directory common...
/usr/local/bin/rmake: line 2: exec: make: not found
~/ray/src
~/ray/src/rt ~/ray/src
In directory rt...
/usr/local/bin/rmake: line 2: exec: make: not found
~/ray/src
~/ray/src/meta ~/ray/src
In directory meta...
/usr/local/bin/rmake: line 2: exec: make: not found
~/ray/src
~/ray/src/cv ~/ray/src
In directory cv...
/usr/local/bin/rmake: line 2: exec: make: not found
~/ray/src
~/ray/src/gen ~/ray/src
In directory gen...
/usr/local/bin/rmake: line 2: exec: make: not found
~/ray/src
~/ray/src/ot ~/ray/src
In directory ot...
/usr/local/bin/rmake: line 2: exec: make: not found
~/ray/src
~/ray/src/px ~/ray/src
In directory px...
/usr/local/bin/rmake: line 2: exec: make: not found
~/ray/src
~/ray/src/hd ~/ray/src
In directory hd...
/usr/local/bin/rmake: line 2: exec: make: not found
~/ray/src
~/ray/src/util ~/ray/src
In directory util...
/usr/local/bin/rmake: line 2: exec: make: not found
~/ray/src
~/ray/src/cal ~/ray/src
In directory cal...
/usr/local/bin/rmake: line 2: exec: make: not found
~/ray/src
There were some errors.
####################################################################

When this "unsuccessful" installation finished, there seem to be no file at all in the /usr/local/lib/ray directory...

and no radiance executable can be found in the /usr/local/bin directory either......

So, can you help to take a look and point out what the problem here is?

BTW, the Terminal I'm using in Mac OS X Snow Leopard is titled "Terminal - bash -95x50".

Thank you!

Ji

On Sat, Jun 12, 2010 at 1:02 AM, Rob Guglielmetti <[email protected]> wrote:
Hmmm, that's odd. The error means that the program could not open the file vchars.mta in a read-only capacity. Following a normal installation of Radiance on Mac OS X, that file should indeed live in /usr/local/lib/ray/meta and be read-only accessible to everyone.

So yeah it's possible that something didn't go right during installation. The correct and not-totally-detailed procedures for installing Radiance on the Mac are:

go to www.radiance-online.org, click the link on the left for "download radiance", and follow the procedures found under "Download official release from this server". Basically you grab the source code, and compile. Compiling on the Mac is easy, you run ./makeall install from the directory where you unpack the archive, and follow the prompts. You need to run this as an admin, and in Mac OS this is easy:

sudo ./makeall install

This will prompt you for the administrator password, and then you just follow the prompts.

NOTE: you must have the directory /usr/local/lib/ray already existing so the installer can place all the library files. This is done with

sudo mkdir /usr/local/lib/ray

Maybe this was your problem the first time around? Here's a quick rundown of the steps:

1. download http://www.radiance-online.org/software/rad3R9all.tar.gz
2. at the command prompt, go to the directory where you saved the rad3R9all.tar.gz file
3. type: gunzip < rad3R9all.tar.gz | tar xf -
4. go to the archive directory (cd ray)
5. create /usr/local/lib/ray directory if it does not exist (sudo mkdir /usr/local/lib/ray)
6. type sudo ./makeall install (supply admin password when asked)
7. follow the prompts, responding to defaults; definitely answer 'y' when asked if you want to install libraries, accept default location
8. make the PATH changes recommended after installation.

Give that a go, and retry objline.

- Rob

On Jun 11, 2010, at 10:37 AM, Ji Zhang 张冀 wrote:

Thanks, John!

But I think the rad file I used should be OK because it only contains five simple boxes and I can use rvu to generate a rendering for it.

Just now I tried to use the table.rad file got from Axel Jacobs' tutorial and the objline still doesn't work. Moreover, there's an error message showing in the Terminal:

fatal - cannot open file "/usr/local/lib/ray/meta/vchars.mta", mode "r"

I sense my Radiance has got big problem. What does this error message mean?

Should I reinstall Radiance?

What are the correct and detailed procedures to install Radiance on Mac OS X Snow Leopard?

Thanks!

Ji

On Fri, Jun 11, 2010 at 11:35 PM, John Mardaljevic <[email protected]> wrote:
Ji,

Objline might bomb out if there are non-planar vertices in your model.

-John

-----------------------------------------------
Dr. John Mardaljevic
Reader in Daylight Modelling
Institute of Energy and Sustainable Development
De Montfort University
The Gateway
Leicester
LE1 9BH, UK
+44 (0) 116 257 7972
+44 (0) 116 257 7981 (fax)

[email protected]
http://www.iesd.dmu.ac.uk/~jm

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

--
ZHANG Ji 张冀 (PhD) :: Research Fellow :: Centre for Sustainable Asian Cities :: School of Design and Environment :: National University of Singapore :: 4 Architecture Drive, Singapore, 117566 :: Contact: 65-6516 5046 :: Email: [email protected]
_______________________________________________
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

--
ZHANG Ji 张冀 (PhD) :: Research Fellow :: Centre for Sustainable Asian Cities :: School of Design and Environment :: National University of Singapore :: 4 Architecture Drive, Singapore, 117566 :: Contact: 65-6516 5046 :: Email: [email protected]
_______________________________________________
Radiance-general mailing list
[email protected]
http://www.radiance-online.org/mailman/listinfo/radiance-general