Blob Sculptor for Windows 1.0

Contents

BLOB SCULPTOR FOR WINDOWS ( BSFW ) Version 1.0 by

Alfonso Hermida,

Steve Anger,

Truman Brown and

Ronald Praver   4/16/94

This program helps you manipulate and model 3D objects thru the use of blobs.

THIS PROGRAM IS FREEWARE ... BUT, USE AT YOUR OWN RISK.

System Requirements:

386 or better with coprocessor

(math coprocessor suggested)

VGA graphics card

 mouse

You can reach us at:

* 	TGA BBS (510)524-2780

* 	Pi Square BBS (301)725-9080     (Alfonso's the Sysop)

* 	CompuServe: GraphDev forum

Thanks to:

* 	Dan Farmer for the interest and enormous amount of 	feedback and Beta testing.

    * 	Ronald Praver for speeding up suggestions.  Ron is 	the author of World Render 3D, a wireframe modeler 	and translator.

    * 	David K. Mason for the program's name.

    * 	Bill Allen, editor of 3D Artist.  3D Artist is 	dedicated to computer graphics and publishes how-to 	articles on computer graphics programs for different 	platforms.  For more info:

3D Artist

PO Box 4787, Santa Fe NM 87502-4787

Voice (505)982-3532   FAX   (505)820-6929

Silicon Graphic's Open GL Developers

If you know how to program on Open GL for the Silicon Graphics, please contact Alfonso Hermida.  He has part of the code already ported to GL. The next step is to create the user interface.

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DEFINITION :

LMB  = Left Mouse Button

RMB  = Right Mouse Button

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INTERFACE:

BSFW's display consists of 3 principal views:

       	Vertical Axis    Horizontal Axis

Top    (upper left window)       Z                 X

Front  (lower left window)       Y                 X

Side   (lower right window)      Y                 Z

and a preview window (upper right window referred to as ISO) which can be modified thru the CAMERA command.  Finally the right side is the MENU area.

The horizontal and vertical coordinates of the mouse are displayed in the MENU area.  The name of the view window where the mouse is currently located is displayed above the coordinates.

SUMMARY OF COMMANDS:

After each command description the letters F, S, T and Iso are used to define in which views the command is valid.  If no letters are present, the command doesn't apply in that view.

BS preserves the last command selected.  To execute the previous command, click the LMB. (Some of the commands can't be repeated - this is done either for convenience or for safety).

Most commands may also be activated by pressing the key corresponding to the highlighted letter of the command as well.

FILE:

This command presents series of file-related subcommands.

   	NEW:	Deletes the whole database - fresh start!

   	SAVE:	Writes data to a file.  Files may be saved in the 	following formats:

  	* BLOB     	Blob Sculptor

  	* POV      	Persistence of Vision raytracer

  	* POLYRAY  	Polyray raytracer

  	* RAYSHADE 	Rayshade raytracer

  	* RAW      	polygons

  	* CTDS     	Connect The Dots System

  	* DXF      	Autodesk's Data eXchange Format

* GEO	VideoScape 3D

   	LOAD:  Reads in a Blob Sculptor file.  Existing data is 	overwritten.

   	MERGE:	Reads in a Blob Sculptor file.  New data is 	merged with existing data.

   The Blob Sculptor format is an ASCII file described as follows:

[blob1.0]

threshold   =  .6

// A REMARK

strength    =  .6

grid_size   =  f

grid_on     =  1/0

snap_on     =  1/0

camera      =  x y z angle

target      =  x y z

up          =  i j k

top_view    =  hmin vmin hmax vmax

front_view  =  hmin vmin hmax vmax

side_view   =  hmin vmin hmax vmax

zoom_factor =  f

sphere      =  x y z radius strength

NOTE:

The only statement that must appear in a specific place is the '[blob1.0]' this is used to disern which version of the parser to use. The identifier must be the first statement in a .BLB file. It doesn't have to be the first line just the first statement. No other statement is required!

_

    Example: (file HAND.BLB)

 	[blob1.0]

threshold = 0.6

sphere = -0.413502  0.0253165  0 1 1.50823

sphere =  0.43038  -0.00843882 0 1 1.59972

sphere = -0.548523 -1.18987    0 1 1.45752

sphere =  0.700422 -1.20675    0 1 1.4348

sphere =  1.49367  -0.548523   0 1 0.983246

sphere =  1.72996   0.109705   0 1 0.747382

sphere =  1.79747   0.683544   0 1 0.683805

sphere =  1.82278   1.21519    0 1 0.676372

sphere =  0.759494  0.911392   0 1 0.714533

sphere =  0.742616  1.50211    0 1 0.676372

sphere =  0.691983  2.16034    0 1 0.749914

sphere =  0.599156  2.79325    0 1 0.708316

sphere =  0.43038   3.50211    0 1 0.718941

sphere = -0.21097   1.08861    0 1 0.679169

sphere = -0.312236  1.74684    0 1 0.714533

sphere = -0.464135  2.42194    0 1 0.629936

sphere = -0.666667  3.09705    0 1 0.698434

sphere = -0.919831  3.80591    0 1 0.715417

sphere = -1.0211    1.0211     0 1 0.640875

sphere = -1.30802   1.64557    0 1 0.621859

sphere = -1.57806   2.23629    0 1 0.670744

sphere = -1.86498   2.84388    0 1 0.620842

sphere = -1.4346   -0.151899   0 1 1.21077

sphere = -1.33333  -1.26582    0 1 1.24168

sphere = -2.04219   0.691983   0 1 0.670743

sphere = -2.4135    1.29958    0 1 0.674501

sphere =  1.80591   1.90717    0 1 0.78531

sphere = -2.75105   1.77215    0 1 0.555298

// This file creates a 3D hand.

CREATE (F, T, S)

This command creates a blob component in any of the 3 principal views. After selecting this command, click the LMB to define the center of the component.  Next, move the mouse to define the radius.  Finally, press the LMB to accept or the RMB to CANCEL.

To manually create blob components at specific coordinates, you may press the key combination ALT-C to bring up an input panel for the coordinate values.  After entering coordinate values, press ENTER (or click on OK) to accept, or press ESC (or click the RMB) to cancel.

MOVE  (F, T, S)

You may move a component to another location at anytime by selecting the MOVE command.  To select the component to be moved, click on any part of the circle to be moved.  The circle will be highlighted (yellow color). Now, move the mouse to the view where you want to perform the move operation and press the LMB.  A ghost image will appear in case you want to locate it in it's original place.  Press the LBM to accept the new location or RMB to CANCEL.

This command is different from most others because sometimes it's easier to select a component in a view different from the one where the move will be performed.

COPY (F, T, S)

The COPY command behaves the same as the MOVE command but doesn't delete the original component.

RESIZE (F, T, S)

You may resize a component at anytime by selecting the RESIZE command.  To select the component to be resized, click on any part of the circle.  The circle will be highlighted and a beep will indicate that you may resize the component.  A ghost image will appear in case you want resize it to it's original size.  Press LBM to accept the new location or RMB to CANCEL.

REDRAW

This command refreshes ALL the views. Negative components are drawn in red.

ZOOM (F, T, S, Iso)

To zoom In or Out, click on any of the views.  The mouse button will determine the zooming operation:

   LMB     Zoom In

   RMB     Zoom Out

To control the rate of zoom, click on the ZFACTOR button. This will bring up a panel where you may input a value for the zoom factor.  Higher values produce faster zooms. The maximum zoom factor is 10.

DELETE (F, T, S)

To delete a component, click the LMB on any part of the circle.  You'll be asked if you want to continue.  To delete the object click on [OK].

MIRROR, MIRROR AXIS (F, T, S)

The Mirror command mirrors the selected component, depending on the status of the Mirror Axis button.  Components are mirrorred about the origin.  If a selected component already has a mirror copy, you will be presented with a message stating such.  Simply click on [OK] and try another component.

PAN (F, T, S)

You may perform panning by clicking on the PAN command. By clicking on any of the 3 principal views, the point will become the center of that scene.  If the view gets out of limits and you can't return it back, reset it using the ORIGIN command.

ORIGIN (F, T, S)

This command puts the origin back in the center of the selected view. Click on the ORIGIN icon then click on one of the principal views....the 3D axis will appear in the center.

CAMERA ( Iso )

Changes the From, At and Up vectors for the Iso view.

PREVIEW (Iso )

NOTE:	Be sure that you have saved your data before 	previewing it!  This is an experimental program.

Generates a wireframe representation of the current scene. BSFW tries to display a hidden line representation, but some triangles may not show up. This doesn't affect the scene if it is saved as RAW data.  When saved as RAW data all the triangles will be written.

DENSITY (F, T, S)

Select a component to change it's strength(density) value. The value can be positive or negative.  To accept the default value press [Enter].

NOTE: 	Math errors may occur if the density selected is less 	than or equal to the threshold value.  BS has been 	programmed to reset itself if a fatal math error 	occurs. In most cases, the reset procedure should 	preserve your data. If a reset occurs, save your data 	immediately, exit and restart the program.

DETAIL

This value, between 20 and 50 determines the resolution in the algorithm used to evaluate the blob surfaces.  The values affect the program in this way:

20     fastest,  least resolution, uses less memory

:

:

50     slowest,  best resolution,  uses more memory

For PREVIEWing, it's good to have a small number, between 20 and 30.  For the final image generation, 30 and up is good (unless you like the resolution given by lower numbers).

Needless to say, the higher the number, the greater the number of triangles that will be generated when creating RAW data output.

THRESHOLD

Changes the Threshold value for the blobs.

See NOTE pertaining to Density above.

SNAP

Turns On/Off the SNAP feature.

GRID  &  ROW/COL

The GRID command enables the grid.  The grid is redrawn with every redraw.

The ROW/COL command sets the number of divisions (# of rows = # columns) in the grid.

QUIT

Exit the program.

ABOUT

Tells you who the authors are!

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ADDITIONAL INFO:

* THRESHOLD          default value 0.6

* STRENGTH (DENSITY) default value 1.0

* Maximum number of components is 500            (INCREASED)

* ROW/COL value      default value 20


Introduction
What is Blob Sculptor

This package is a multifaceted application. You can use it as:


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