Hi Kevin,

It's not too complicated actually, I'd say basically read everything very carefully, and note down what you think while reading... I believe that simply writing down your sincere opinion is what would best benefit the book. I also try to note things that look not well explained, or missing (for example when the author "skips" a step that you find necessary) or that you didn't understand 100%. Also say things that you find absurd (like what? not a single line about that very important blender button?) I also say when I find a cool part, so the author also knows which parts of the book I liked most. That's about it I think...

Good luck!

Hi,
I started using blender a few months back and i love it....i am also managing a blog and i post my stuff there.Packtpub noticed this and asked me to review one their books,Incredible Machines.......you,ve reviewed it as well i think.Anyway,av never done this before so i don't know how to start......Any ideas?

6 new tree textures on the textures page

What we call here luso-fusco...

Hi Cory,
I think you are pretty right, I always considered focusing on only one thing is a shot in the foot... Sooner or later the different areas you put your fingers into begin to interact, and all of them benefit of this. Specially in architecture, no doubts that the best thing you can do is get involved with the widest possible range of other subjects... Things like graphic design, art, photography, programming DO enhance your understanding of architecture, maybe better than anything you can learn in arch courses...
I'm happy I helped you in that way!
Cheers
Yorik

I have really enjoyed your website and I found it pretty inspiring. I especially liked the info on using open source software for modeling/rendering. Recently I have been wondering if knowing many different skills is counter productive and if I should focus all my thought into one -- architecture, but you inspired me to keep up with my many interests. (linux, video editing, 3d modeling, sketching, photoshop, open source softwares, websites, graphic design, computer networking, etc)
--Cory

Hi aarem,
thanks for the info, I'll have a look at how it works on weather.com and if I can grab the image.
About updating, it normally updates every hour, but you can change that easily bu editing the script and change the value at line 109 by the desired time between updates (in 1000th of seconds)
About the other stuff, if that info is in the RSS feed it is possible to display it. Cycling the system tray icon is not really something I wanted (I preferred something simple and discrete), but have a look at this program: http://code.google.com/p/eeeweather/ It has more features than mine, maybe you'll like it too.

the site at good old weather comm and also weather underground have these features i think. they provide an animated radar. would these help?

Another option is to use the national weather service in the US.

also is it possible to have the python file update the weather every (say) 15 minutes. in my case, i have to click on update now to get it to update.

also is is possible to include some options in the display. such as wind speed, direction, feels like temperature in addition to temperature? would it perhaps be possible to also display these (the current conditions) cyclically in the system tray one after the other?

many thanks again for your time!!

oops! apologies. my window was refreshing repeatedly and submitting my last post again and again. I am sorry for being so clumsy. I do not mean to post repeatedly the same thing over and over again.

Yes, I thought about that already... I see two possibilities: find a place that provides an animated image (for ex. an animated gif image), or store the last ten images (but usually sites like yahoo provides only one per hour) and "play" the sequence when the dialog is shown... But then you'd need to wait for several hours to build a usable sequence...
The first method is probably better, I still should find a good site that provides animated images... If you happen to find such a site, let me know!
Cheers
Yorik

Hi again,

Thanks very much for responding! The new file does work. By the way, maybe I am asking for too much but is it possible to get an animated radar image instead or in addition to the map. I apologize for asking but I think it would be very nice to have this feature but I do not know how to go about it.

Many thanks again and best wishes

Hi,
I think something went wrong with the config file (the app creates a .fluxweatherrc file in your home directory, maybe it made it wrong). I just updated the script so it falls back on default values if something goes wrong with the config file. You can download the file again here: http://yorik.uncreated.net/scripts/fluxweather.py or simply delete the .fluxweatherrc file...

Tell me if it worked

Hi, I have been trying to play with your fluxweather.py. I do the following:

$ ./fluxweather.py
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "./fluxweather.py", line 215, in
TrackerStatusIcon()
File "./fluxweather.py", line 107, in __init__
self.update()
File "./fluxweather.py", line 112, in update
report = fetchweather(self.zip)
AttributeError: 'TrackerStatusIcon' object has no attribute 'zip'


I get the same results when i use python -u fluxweather.py.

What am I doing wrong? Could you please help?

Many thanks and best!

4 new plant textures



Pick them on the textures page.

thxx

thanks a lot you are excellent!!!

Thanks a lot! It's really a GREAT artwork! Becouse of You I decided to spend more time with blender (You inspired me). THANKS a lot again! =*

Multi-events complex animation

This is one of our latest animation. Enjoy watching!

these images are temporarily unavailable because the client asked us to remove them...

#idsampa04 : Uma rede de ciclovias para São Paulo

Isto é uma tentativa minha de imaginar uma rede de ciclovias para São Paulo, aplicando a mesma filosofia de corredores ou linhas de metrô (ligar rapidamente e eficientemente pontos estratégicos), e tentando usar e reaproveitar pontos e infraestruturas que já são usados por ciclistas hoje em dia. Também tenta misturar trechos que ligam áreas de trabalho e áreas de lazer de maneira a ser usadas o tempo todo, e por tipos de ciclistas diferentes. Tentei usar ao máximo avenidas grandes, que já são eixos preferenciais, e onde instalar uma ciclovia seria mais fácil.

É claro que isto é um trabalho muito incompleto. Mas tentei também manter a rede simples, como se o desenho tivesse que ser apresentado para alguma autoridade, e não podia assustar eles com um custo muito alto, nem apresentar algo muito complexo...

O mapa que fiz aqui é público e editável por qualquer pessoa... Se você tiver outras idéias, porque não acrescenta-las? Acesse o mapa aqui.

Two hand-made drawings of a country house project...

An invite drawing for a friend's wedding, all drawn in mypaint, layout made in inkscape:

Un prêtre-bandit que nous venons d'imaginer avec Grégoire...

Thanks Juank!

Hi Yorik, it is very nice your work about the golf club. Realy google earth is no so good but it dosen't matter. Regards from Panamá.

Moonshake fluxbox theme



This is a new fluxbox theme I just made. In the archive, there is also the .blend file I made for the background. Download it from here: http://yorikvanhavre.deviantart.com/art/moonshake-fluxbox-theme-145162287

Enjoy!

I would like to thank you for the comparison test you ran for blender renderers. I am particularly interested in Kerkythea renderer, owing to its very fast render speed. Since i am an animator in blender, rendering a frame in short times is very useful. Please could you publish the detailed render settings used in Kerkythea for the same test? I would be very much obliged.

Multiple sourcing in debian

This is more a note for myself in case I need to do it again some time. You can use one specific version of debian, and add occasionally packages from another one. This might be very handy in case you are using the testing repository, because sometimes a package dependency breaks and the best way to solve it is to install the missing package from unstable.

Keep in mind before trying this that debian versions are really made for what their name suggests, and if you want a system without problems, just stick to the stable version and don't try anything funny. On the other hand, if you are comfortable with linux and the debian packaging system, I find the testing version an excellent choice. Occasionally a package dependency breaks (usually bugs in the unstable version prevents a package to enter testing), and the package and its dependents get kept back by apt, so you must be very careful using apt-get dist-upgrade.

If you can't wait for the bugs to be fixed and the package to land in testing, it is quite easy to add exceptionally some packages from other version. First, add the desired repository to your /etc/apt/sources.list file:

deb http://ftp.br.debian.org/debian unstable main contrib non-free
deb-src http://ftp.br.debian.org/debian unstable main contrib non-free

Then, either add this to your /etc/apt/apt.conf.d/00defaultrelease file (create if necessary):

APT::Default-Release "testing";

But this will simply mark the testing repository with higher prioritary, which means if a package is temporarily unavailable in testing, the unstalbe package will be installed, either add this to your /etc/apt/preferences.d/00Default (create if necessary):

Package: *
Pin: release a=testing
Pin-Priority: 500

Package: *
Pin: release o=Debian
Pin-Priority: -10

This will give to the testing release a priority of 500 (the normal priority for your main repo), and any other official debian repository a priority of -10, which means: NEVER install from there.

Then, to force-install a package from unstable, do:

apt-get install packagename/unstable

But be careful when that package pushes a lot of dependencies, because you'll begin to mix much different versions and it can give you headaches later. Better to keep this for emergencies, and with safe packages (that you know well, and that have few or no dependencies).

#idsampa03 : taxis verdes

Esta é do Sander. Uma ideia bem simples, que mudaria radicalmente a cara da cidade: Pintar todos os taxis em verde limão. Qualquer foto da cidade formaria, em vez da tradicional mistura de tons cinza, uma composição surpreendente. Imagine num dia de chuva? Ficaria chocante de tão colorido! Também ajudaria, talvez, a diminuir as pequenas infrações que os taxistas cometem diariamente, como avançar no sinal fechado ou em cima de passagem de pedestres, se fosse mais difícil passar despercebidos...

hey yorik nice work ! ;-D

@Fluxbox and pseudo-transparency
Great thing to see. thank you. please keep it up.
I've always been amazed by your screenshots. I'll try it now.

3 new wordpress plugins

3 plugins that I made for the o Teatro Mágico website are now available in the wordpress plugins repository:

• Image feed widget: a plugin to fetch thumbnails from rss feeds and display them in a widget
• Twitter list widget: a plugin to merge the contents of several rss feeds and display them "twitter-like" (links, @someone and #something are turned into links)
• Last video widget: this one simply displays the last post of a given category in a sidebar, and resize its embedded video to the sidebar width.

Fluxbox and pseudo-transparency



Fluxbox is a window manager for linux and other unix-based systems, like KDE or Gnome (the default window manager in ubuntu). On a linux system, your desktop is made of a stack of different programs, basically the linux kernel, which drives your hardware, the X.org server, which is a graphical server and a window manager, which actually draws your desktop and its windows. More advanced window managers such as gnome are also called desktop managers because they do much more than just drawing windows. Like most pieces of a linux system, nothing prevents you from changing your window manager anytime.

Fluxbox is an extremely simple window manager, based on the old and famous blackbox (which even has a version for windows). Several other window managers have evolved from blackbox, such as openbox. They all behave more or less the same and have the same qualities: they are extremely simple and fast. The big difference between fluxbox and the others is that it looks much cooler, because of two things: it can use bitmap images to draw icons and window borders, so you can draw almost everything yourself, and it supports pseusdo-transparency.

Almost all recent linux distributions support openGL composition. That means that your desktop can do all kinds of cool effects such as having transparent windows or toolbars. This is done at a lower level by the X.org server, so basically anything can be made transparent (= composited) against the desktop background or other underlying windows. The problem is that this behaviour is pretty heavy on your graphic resources. Many people actually prefer to disable those desktop effects to have a faster desktop. And if you work with openGL-based 3D software such as blender or games, you will very probably encounter conflicts, bugs or slow performance and have to turn them off anyway.

Pseudo-transparency is not real transparency. It is a trick, basically a portion of the background image, which lies exactly under a window, is copied and then applied to the window. You can do other operations with that portion of image, such as mixing it with a color, etc. Then, the contents of the window are drawn. You will have a perfect illusion of transparency. Of course, if you have several overlapping window, you won't see them all through the upper one.

While this can be seen by many as a poor trick, to me it has fantastic advantages: It is all done by very basic software operations (copy an image, cut a portion of it, etc...), so basically any piece of software can do it, it doesn't use your 3D graphic board, and the fact that it is "false" transparency is actually very effective: How do you read the contents of a window if you can see the contents of the other windows beneath it? You need more effects, such as blurring the other windows, like windows vista does. More graphical resources used.

The main use I do of my system is producing 3D content. I want all the power of my system available for rendering or displaying complex 3D scenes. The biggest advantage of linux is that it is possible. A Windows Vista system uses about 500Mb of your memory. A typical Gnome desktop uses about 300Mb. They all have a lot of resident programs to monitor things like network, user input, mounting/unmounting, etc. A fluxbox desktop can occupy less than 100Mb, and almost zero load of the graphic board. Applications start in fractions of seconds (no resident programs have to check for this or that), and, best of all, pseudo-transparency allows for totally cool desktop look...

Another advantage of all blackbox-based window managers is the extreme simplicity of configuration. All the behavior of your desktop is stored in 2 or 3 text files, that you can either edit with a text editor or use specially-made configuration applications such as fbconf. The themes are also single text files, with an extremely easy syntax, like window.title.color = #FF3300. And on debian-based systems, the debian menu system takes care of updating your applications menu automatically. Fluxbox also has a couple of specific goodies, such as the ability to group windows different into one tabbed window.



How to try

It is very easy to have a look. Install the "fluxbox" package in your software repository, and next time you login, on your login screen, you will have a new fluxbox session available. You can have just a try, and come back to your default desktop by logging out/logging in again. Once you are in fluxbox, right-click anywhere on the desktop background to display the fluxbox menu, that contain about everything, your applications, styles (themes) and fluxbox configuration options.

You also have per-window settings, available by right-clicking any window title bar. Fluxbox can remember several things for each applications, such as window position, level, etc.



How to configure

In your home directory, a ".fluxbox" folder will be created. Inside that folder, there is an init file that contains fluxbox general parameters. The contents of that file basically reflect what you can configure from the fluxbox menu itself. The second important file is the menu file, which contains all the contents of your fluxbox menu. If you are on a debian-based system, make sure it contains a "[include] (/etc/X11/fluxbox/fluxbox-menu)" line (or "[include] (/home/yorik/.fluxbox/fluxbox-menu)" for user-space version), so your menu will automatically show installed applications.

You then have a keys that contains all keyboard shortcuts, and a couple of other files that usually don't need to be edited by hand (they are used for example to remember windows states). There is also a styles folder that contains all your user-installed custom styles (or themes).

The two file types you will usually edit to customize your fluxbox desktop are the menu file and the style files. Both have a very complete man page: just type man fluxbox and man fluxstyle in a terminal.



Transparency

Fluxbox itself can apply pseudo-transparency to everything it draws: toolbar, window bars and menu. Simply right-click and browse the available options to set the transparency levels.

Then, you have several terminals that support pseudo-transparency as well, such as aterm or urxvt (my favorite). You have then several excellent terminal applications (such as emacs or midnight commander) that, if run inside a pseudo-transparent terminal, will behave the same way.

Finally, if you know a bit of coding, making your own pseudo-transparent application is quite easy too. Here is a pygtk code to produce a pseudo-transparent application such as in the first screenshot above (look at the twitter application):

import os, gtk

class pseudoTransparentWindow:
      def __init__(self):
          self.toolbarheight=19
          self.win = gtk.Window()
          self.win.set_size_request(250, 200)
          btn1 = gtk.Button("Test Button")
          fixed = gtk.Fixed()
          fixed.put(btn1, 20, 30)
          layout = gtk.ScrolledWindow()
          layout.set_policy(gtk.POLICY_NEVER,gtk.POLICY_AUTOMATIC)
          layout.add_with_viewport(fixed)
          layout.get_child().set_shadow_type(gtk.SHADOW_NONE)
          self.style(layout.get_child())
          self.win.add(layout)
          self.win.show_all()
          self.updateBackground()
          self.win.connect('configure-event', self.updateBackground)

     def updateBackground(self,args=None,stuff=None):
          self.style(self.win)

     def style(self,widget):
          x,y = self.win.get_position()
          w,h = self.win.get_size()
          wpfile = open(os.path.expanduser('~') + os.sep + '.fluxbox/lastwallpaper')
          pb=gtk.gdk.pixbuf_new_from_file(wpfile.read().split('|')[1])
          wpfile.close()
          crop = gtk.gdk.Pixbuf( gtk.gdk.COLORSPACE_RGB, False, 8, w, h )
          pb.copy_area(x, y+self.toolbarheight, w, h, crop, 0, 0)
          mask = crop.copy()
          mask.fill(0x00000000)
          mask.composite(crop, 0, 0, w, h, 0, 0, 1, 1, gtk.gdk.INTERP_BILINEAR, 127)
          pm,m = crop.render_pixmap_and_mask(255)
          style = widget.get_style().copy()
          style.bg_pixmap[gtk.STATE_NORMAL] = pm
          widget.set_style(style)
 
if __name__ == '__main__':
     pseudoTransparentWindow()
     gtk.main()

Some viagra-spambots managed to pass through my antispam defenses, I had to reforce a bit the whole scheme. I simply set a list of blacklisted words, it should be sufficient for now...

Another weekend divagation...

O Teatro Mágico website

This is the last website we made for the band O Teatro Mágico. It is mostly drawn by hand and made with wordpress and buddypress, with many home-made plugins... Enjoy! For who is interested in the theme, it is available here.

Golf Club animation

Here is an animation we just finished. I'm not very happy of the google earth intro, but alas...
As always, it's 100% blender. Enjoy!

Very nice renders Yorik, it's always interesting see your work.

En fait si, il y en a même pas mal (voir modernistes, comme Niemeyer par ex.). Dans le cas de cette maison-ci, par contre, c'est un faux toit plat (il y a une toiture métallique derrière). C'est probablement une question de tradition (C'est un mode de construction assez traditionnel en Espagne et au Portugal).

Le toit plat est une très bonne solution, c'est juste que le domaine de la construction est toujours très enraciné aux techniques traditionnelles...

tiens c'est drôle, ici, contrairement aux pays arabes, le toît plat n'est jamais utilisé.

Renderings of a house project

très bonne, l'idée de l'atrium romain. à mon avis, il devrait y avoir moyen d'améliorer encore le fait de creuser dans le sol, pour avoir des pièces plus fraîches (le premier étage pourrait se trouver à moitié enfoncé dans la terre.

Esboços para uma casa

Aqui está uma proposta de casa que fiz com a Maíra um tempo atrás. Está baseada nos seguintes conceitos:

1. Não há necessidade de construir 4 pavimentos, como pedido inicialmente. O terreno é bastante grande (760m²) para poder fazer algo mais baixo.
2. Nos pareceu melhor adotar uma configuração de "páteo" (os cômodos em volta de um jardim central) em vez de "torre" (os cômodos empilhados), porque daqui alguns anos terão vizinhos e as fachadas da casa estarão olhando para as paredes dos vizinhos, e também para aproveitar melhor o terreno grande e o belo paisagismo que daria para fazer nele.
3. Na região nordeste, devido ao calor, os cômodos mais agradáveis são os que ficam adossados ao solo, porque a inércia do solo mantém o frescor. Nos parece melhor usar esses lugares privilegiados para quartos do que para carros.
4. O páteo pode virar um tipo de "vale verde", formando taludes com a terra retirada das escavações, reaproveitando ela.
5. Trabalhando em meio-níveis, a gente consegue um projeto muito paisagístico com pouquíssimas escadas e que fica muito baixo (a cota máxima está em 4.50m em relação à rua)

Fizemos então alguns desenhos de uma solução que imaginamos para a casa:



Este é uma vista geral da proposta. Botamos muito foco na vegetação, porque o terreno é grande e representa uma oportunidade muito boa de fazer um projeto muito integrado à natureza. Os blocos que contem os diferentes cômodos são protegidos por lajes ou telhados verdes, e tudo se abre para dentro, em volta de um "vale verde" central. Os carros ficam simplesmente abrigados em baixo de uma cobertura, liberando os espaços mais interessantes para usos melhores.



A imagem acima mostra a implantação (a rua está a esquerda). 1 é a entrada dos carros, 2 o "vale verde", 3 a aba principal, 4 a cobertura para os carros



A imagem acima mostra a entrada, a cobertura para os carros (que pode ser leve, metálica ou madeira), e no fundo, a entrada da casa. Atras da cobertura dos carros aparece a "torre" com a suíte principal



Acima está a planta do térreo. 1 é o estacionamento coberto para 4 carros, 2 contém área de serviço, lavabo, etc, 3 é uma cozinha semi-fechada que dá no 4, sala de jantar e 5, sala de estar. Todos esses espaços estão na cota 0, ou seja no nível da rua. O 6 é um estar íntimo, situado meio-nível mais baixo (cota -1.50).



Acima está a planta do andar superior, situado na cota +1.50 (meio-nível para cima). O único espaço a este nível é a suíte principal (5). As janelas ficam em cima das coberturas 3 e 4, que podem também ser telhados verdes (alias, isso providenciaria uma isolação térmica fantástica)



Este é a planta do subsolo (nível -1 em relação à rua, ou +/- cota -2.50). 1, 3, 4 e 5 são quartos, 2 são banheiros e 6 é um espaço aberto de convivência. Se chega aqui passando pela sala íntima (n°6 na planta do térreo). Todos os espaços estão abertos para o "vale verde" e nenhum quarto olha diretamente num outro quarto. Os banheiros recebem luz e ventilação pelo teto (eles estão um pouco fora da projeção dos pavimentos superiores)



Este é a vista do "vale verde", com a sala intima + suíte principal a esquerda, o bloco principal com quartos, cozinha, salas de jantar e estar a direita. Entre os dois terão as escadas.

Hi Khiraly,

- Moving meshes doesn't work, indeed. Meshes were made as a kind of test object, at the beginning of FreeCAD, and were never very finished, so I never took much care of them in the Draft module. Better use directly Part object, much more powerful. I should nevethless add that when I have time...
- Freezes when adding new Part object is strange! I've never seen that before. Here everything works fine... It looks like the error comes from OpenCasCade, I wonder if it could be because yours is 6.2 (We're at 6.3 now)? Next Ubuntu release which will be out in a couple of days will have 6.3, maybe it'll solve the problem... Otherwise, since I'm not a big expert of OpenCasCade, it might be better to ask the other devs on the FreeCAD forum: http://sourceforge.net/apps/phpbb/free-cad/index.php

ok, moving a mesh with the 2d drafting module move command, does not really work.
It creates an another object (if you click on "copy"), but it does not appear on the canvas, just it creates a Cube1 node in the treeview. Also the data does not contain Mesh, as the original Cube contained.

So it seems this functionality does not work.

Best regards,
Khiraly

Yorick: do you have an idea why parts can not be created? I mean real parts not some mesh object (so real cylinder, cone, sphere, etc), to be able to use FreeCAD for some real CAD model.

Part->parametric-> box WORKS
Part->parametric->cylinder FREEZE (forcing quit, results the following line in gdb:
Program received signal SIGINT, Interrupt.
[Switching to Thread 0xb3136710 (LWP 20892)]
0xb1ce0d32 in CSLib_Class2d::InternalSiDans () from /usr/lib/libTKMath-6.2.so
the full backtrace:
http://pastebin.com/m4c7aa6fc
)
Part->parametric->sphere FREEZE
backtrace: http://pastebin.com/m299814d5

Part->parametric->Cone
backtrace: http://pastebin.com/m3b939a2b

Part->Parametric->Torus
backtrace: http://pastebin.com/m686b39f4

Hope it helps something

Hi Khiraly,
Fantastic! Thanks for pointing me the errors, I updated the compile instructions too, so it could help someone else...
Moving or rotating an object can now be done via the 2D drafting module. Just select a couple of objects, and hit move or rotate. If you want to move in other directions than horizontally you must unlock the z coordinate. The rotate command only works horizontally at the moment, but I'll upgrade that as soon as I have a little time.

Ok, adding Part->parametric->cylinder just freeze the FreeCAD for hard.

Ok, I have launched it, many new featured appeared.

I finally was able to turn solid<->wireframe individually.
Property->Display Mode -> Shaded

However I still can not figure out how to move an object or rotate it.
Any pointers?

> Also I need libode1-dev, if not make fails at 99%. Pretty annoying;-)

/home/XXX/Asztal/down/freecad/trunk/src/Mod/Assembly/App/AppAssembly.cpp:27:22: error: ode/ode.h: No such file or directory.

Also I need libode1-dev, if not make fails at 99%. Pretty annoying;-)

sudo apt-get install libode0-dev

> # After downloading, in the same terminal, issue "cd freecad"
> to go to the freecad directory

"cd freecad/trunk"

I will report back, when I could successfully built.

Best regards,
Khiraly

Btw, how to enable wireframe mode? (instead of plain colors?)

And how to change an object's transparency?

Thank you for the compilation guide, I will try it out asap

Hi Khiraly,
I just made a small compile instruction below. Creating a debian package is not really necessary for home compilations, because FreeCAD is all contained in one single directory, so there is no harm in simply deleting it.

My shortcut for the rectangle tool is B (for Box)

Short instructions for compiling current FreeCAD svn version on ubuntu

Be aware that the svn version is the version we are working on, so it might contain bugs or even fail to compile.

1. In case of problem, the complete and detailed instructions are here


2. Install the following packages: build-essential, python, libcoin60-dev, libsoqt4-dev, libxerces-c2-dev, libboost-dev, libboost-date-time-dev, libboost-filesystem-dev, libboost-graph-dev, libboost-iostreams-dev, libboost-program-options-dev, libboost-serialization-dev, libboost-signals-dev, libboost-regex-dev, libgts-dev, libqt4-dev, qt4-dev-tools, python2.5-dev, libcv-dev, libhighgui-dev, python-opencv, libopencascade-dev, python-qt4, libode1-dev, subversion, cmake


3. Install the pivy package manually from here, because it is still not in ubuntu repository


4. Get the FreeCAD source, by pasting the following line in a terminal: svn co https://free-cad.svn.sourceforge.net/svnroot/free-cad/trunk freecad


5. After downloading, in the same terminal, issue "cd freecad"
to go to the freecad directory

6. Issue "cmake ." to create the compilation files


7. Issue "make" to compile FreeCAD


8. After compiling, issue "./bin/FreeCAD" to run FreeCAD. You can also create a shortcut to your freecad/bin/FreeCAD file.


9. All FreeCAD is contained in its source directory, so to uninstall, simply remove that directory.

Yorick: Thanks for the tip!
I had install python-qt4 in plus to get it working (and also restart FreeCAD), but other then that, no caveats.

What shortcut do you use for creating rectangle? (r is already occupied by rotate). I try to mimick your exact setup.

Could you please write shortly how to create a debian package from freecad? No need to be detailed, just the commands. (and also if you remember what packages needs to be installed beforehand).

I cant wait until the new release. It looks so promising ...

Hmm indeed, I just checked, the 0.8 jaunty package lacks the 2D Drafting module. How crazy that nobody saw it before!!!
Anyway, it's easy to fix. Download the 0.8 source package:
http://sourceforge.net/projects/free-cad/files/FreeCAD%20Linux/FreeCAD%200.8%20R2237/freecad_0.8.2237.orig.tar.gz/download
Then, extract it, then copy the "Draft" folder (inside src/Mod) into either /usr/lib/freecad/Mod/ either your_home_folder/.FreeCAD/Mod/
That's it, you should now have the 2D Drafting module available.
Note that the tutorial can refer to features and tools that are not in the 0.8 version... Just one or two month patience!
Cheers
Yorik

> the freecad program should it include by default

I have been thinking at 2D drafting module of course.

By the way, in workbench, I dont have "2d Drafting", just only "Drawing".
It seems I really miss it. How to install it?

> It seems cadkey really fits my needs,

Doh, of course freecad:
"It seems FREECAD really fits my needs,"

> Edit: About your question nr.2, it is strange... Is the 2D drafting workbench available?

I have downloaded:
freecad_0.8.2237-1jaunty1_i386.deb
python-pivy_0.3.0-1jaunty1_i386.deb

I have read, that normally the freecad program should it include by default. Im on ubuntu jaunty 32 bit. Is there a separate package available somewhere what I missed?


> or making 3D primitives and union/subtracting them.

Im planning to do exactly this. Its called csg (constructive solid geometry), which is also a useful 3d technic, but its intuitive to learn and start to see the world this way ...

Back in university I have been teached to use Cadkey (does not exist anymore), although it was really hard to learn, and non-intuitive, once I have learn measure, union, difference, I started to build many awesome objects.

It seems cadkey really fits my needs, so Im ready to learn any non-intuitve world, to start modelling something useful;-)

> (You can see that already if you compile it yourself).

Is there a step-by-step commands list, how do you do? I know the generals, but there are always caveats. So if you could share your build log(what command you typed) even without any explication, would be really helpful.

Im definietly interested in freecad. I was looking for a free CAD software *years* and I never catched freecad (that it is *that* capable), until I recently didnt learn it on here:
http://builders.reprap.org/2009/10/open-source-to-rescue.html#links

Best regards,
Khiraly

ps: glad you responded that quickly. Thank you

Hi Khiraly,
Actually there is no tutorial like this yet... The basic move/rotate manipulators that FreeCAD has at the moment are not very good either. I am in the process of adapting the 2D draftng tools so they work in 3D. That means at least you will be able to move, rotate & scale things in 3D space.
I am also beginning a tutorial here:
http://sourceforge.net/apps/mediawiki/free-cad/index.php?title=Draft_tutorial
But to my knowledge it is the very first FreeCAD tutorial around... After that I should indeed start another one with 3D. Basically you have two ways of working: Making planar things with the 2D drafting module and extruding them, or making 3D primitives and union/subtracting them. In next release of FreeCAD (end of this year) you will see a huge improvement already (You can see that already if you compile it yourself).
But it is very cool to see someone experimenting with FreeCAD, keep me informed if you make other things!

Edit: About your question nr.2, it is strange... Is the 2D drafting workbench available?

Yorick: It looks like, you have written the "Draft tutorial" wiki page.
In the section "Setting up cour FreeCAD workspace", you say, I should go into Tools->Costumize->Keyboards and select the category "Python". When I do this, I do not have shortcuts for creating line, polyline, arc, moving or rotating.

All I have is Insert test-feature, Self-test, Test all, Test all, Test base, Test base, Add menu, Remove menu, etc, etc.

What I miss? I have installed freecad from stock ubuntu jaunty package (freecad_0.8.2237-1jaunty1_i386.deb).

Thank you in advance!

Best regards,
Khiraly

Yorick: Could you point me to a tutorial, which would enable me to create relative simple CAD solid models, like this:
http://khiraly.googlepages.com/freecad_mendel_frame.png

Im unable to do the most basic things, like moving an object physically, rotating it. When I create a cylinder, it only shows a virtual sphere, which I can rotate around. (btw, if I add a mesh to my document then the cylinder magically appears).

So a startup tutorial would be more than welcome.

Best regards,
Khiraly

Hi Michael,
I do have a webblog in english, actually my blog is in all languages... But I think you get the picture with the google translation... If you want more info about Sao Paulo, dont hesitate to ask. Dont miss the Cantareira region!

Some photos we took in the new core of the Cantareira range. It is located halfway between Here is the iGoogle English translation of your wonderful web site for the pictures below. I am planning a trip to San Paulo so this was really helpful. Could you please consider having an alternative webblog in English (or did a miss it).

Sao Paulo and Guarulhos. It has 4 tracks, the largest is 6km, is of medium difficulty and a bit dull, the other 3 are smaller and much more varied. It has an artificial lake with a dam, and lots of water. And the best part is that there is almost no one. For those who think like me that bus travel can be a great experience socio-urban, it is worth to go by bus, picking up 337 of the Garden Acacio EMTU from the subway Tucuruvi. Ask to get off at school Maria Helena, the entrance is in front of the school. The trip takes about 40 minutes.

Hi cloo,
you are right... reloading the page reposts the data... Ill have a look at that.
About sweethome3d, I had seen it already... It is quite simple, but it confirms something I believe, that is that what is important is not that much that you have a big, all-in-one BIM solution, but that your software and the way you use it are made with modularity. If you draw your stuff with exportability and reusability in mind, any design application can become a BIM application. And they have some cool things (the doors and windows that insert automatically, etc)
About java in freecad, why not? I mean, the freecad source code is written in c++, so you cannot integrate pieces of java in it. But, having separate components written in java that dialog with other parts of freecad is well possible. This is what we already do with python.
About processing.org, I didnt know that, Ill have a better look at it, looks cool

I just found Sweet Home 3d - an open source 3d interior design application.
http://www.sweethome3d.eu
Though it`s not really intended for general purpose architecture, i think its quite worth discovering. Maybe it could be a starting point for real cross-platform open-source BIM ? SH3d already has parametric objects, it can import .3ds and .obj.
Yorik, can java app theoretically be integrated in freecad?
Together with Processing http://processing.org/ it could rock`n`roll in the future.
Or is it just a sweet dream?

FreeCAD with new icons set

Everything is getting prepared for the next debian freeze in november... We are more or less doing our own feature freeze this month, killing bugs and polishing the look. Here goes a preview of the new icon set of the Part module, and a first sneak peak at the splash screen. Enjoy!

Another one of Sampa!

Yorik, seguinte, andei vendo lá na Wikipedia a nossa página, sou Brasileiro e filho de Portugueses, posso dizer que sou Luso também . Uma vez me fizeram a proposta de juntar as duas wikis em uma e eu pedi que esperassem mais um pouquito para contactar vocês. Na verdade agora seria questão de juntar as Bandeiras. A pergunta é a seguinte: POsso pedir para que o mindrones detone a Wiki em PT-PT e junte as nossas Bandeiras ( Eu assumo a tradução para os dois países e se encontrarmos algum termo que não bata, tipo 'garoto' e 'gajo', me encarrego de fazer os acertos assim que algum de nossos conterrâneos me contactar. Que achas da proposta ?
Meu apelido é Greylica. Meu mail está lá na primeira page...

"retirando o asfalto"

on croit rêver!

Site migrating to yorik.uncreated.net

Hi everybody,
We just got ourselves a new domain: http://www.uncreated.net , so I am moving my site to its new location: http://yorik.uncreated.net
The current orgfree.com addresses will continue to work for a time and will simply redirect to the new location, but if you have bookmarked this site, it would be best to update it to the new location. The RSS feed is still the same: http://feeds.feedburner.com/yorikvanhavre
Ah, I also have a new e-mail address: yorik (at) uncreated.net. But my other addresses will continue to work too.

@Damian: Sabe que com apenas 25cm de terra, dá para plantar vegetação baixa, e com 60cm de terra, dá para plantar arvores de até 3m de altura? Claro que depende da espécie, mas todas essas técnicas de jardins suspensos estão já bem desenvolvidas...
No caso, acho que no centro do minhocão, retirando o asfalto, conseguiriamos tranquilamente atingir 1m de espessura de terra...

pergunta de criança: como se faz para as árvores crescerem nesse parque? qual o recipiente, o "vaso" para as raízes?

Esse lugar é muito legal; adorei as fotos tb! Beijao pra vcs

Serra da Cantareira - núcleo Cabuçu

Algumas fotos que tomamos no novo núcleo da serra da Cantareira. Fica no meio do caminho entre São Paulo e Guarulhos. Tem 4 trilhas, a maior faz 6Km, é de dificuldade média e um pouco monótona, as 3 outras são menores e bem mais variadas. Tem um lago artificial com uma represa, e muita água. E o melhor é que não tem quase ninguém. Para quem acha como eu que viagens de ônibus podem ser uma grande experiência socio-urbana, vale a pena ir de ônibus, pegando o 337 Jardim Acácio da EMTU a partir do metrô Tucuruvi. Pedir para descer na escola Maria Helena, a entrada fica na frente da escola. A viagem dura mais ou menos 40 minutos.

#idsampa 02: Transformar o minhocão em parque

Isto é uma ideia óbvia, que muitas outras pessoas já tiveram antes de mim, em São Paulo como em várias outras partes do mundo. O minhocão, para quem não vive em São Paulo, é um viaduto implantado de maneira totalmente catastrófica em volta do centro da cidade nos anos 70, destruindo o tecido social de vários bairros. Hoje, forma um "atalho" entre o leste e oeste da cidade, porque permite evitar o centro. Forma, diríamos, um micro-rodoanel.

A questão é de saber o que aconteceria se o minhocão não existisse. Entupiria o centro da cidade, como se temia na época em que foi criado? Eu me pergunto se ao contrário o minhocão não induz mais circulação, e que sem ele o fluxo de carros, em vez de se descarregar nas ruas do centro da cidade, não diminuiria, simplesmente.

O que fazer com o minhocão inutilizado então? Destruí-lo seria gastar mais dinheiro em vão, então porque não transformar ele em um parque gigantesco? O centro da cidade seria transformado, ganharia um cinto verde. Abrindo buracos e escadas, daria até para iluminar um pouco a avenida em baixo. E o prazer de circular a pé e de bicicleta no minhocão no domingo, que aconselho muito provar se você não conhece, seria permitido todos os dias.

Onde já foi feito algo similar:

• New York: Um antiga linha de trem elevada foi reconvertida em parque suspendido


• Singapore: O centro da cidade passou por um processo incrível de limpeza e incentivo ecológico, e é hoje a megacidade mais "verde" do mundo.

Thanks for the nice comments everybody!

Thanks for your great document about making of architecture project for competition in blender. I'd like to start learning blender soon and i'ts pleasure to see how seriously it could be used. I like that writing and project itself too. I've studied painting, not architecture at all. But i've found your project interesting, modern and (that's the best) very nice. By the way, i like how you turn the bed little bit on one view, it's just the detail, but doing very much and there should be pleasure to live. Wish you good luck in everything,
Tom - www.tomascerny.net

Your work is genius! The blender tutorials are extremely inspiring, thank you so much for sharing them!!!

Not often I find a personal website I like - yours is wonderful - so much to look at. Loved your piece on the architectural design process with Blender. Thanks for putting it all out there and presenting it so well.

Good job ! Very interesting post although I think beautiful pictures are sometimes lying, all the more when you model from a bird eye view that nobody would see once built.

I'm impressed how well you manage complexity. This is something Blender (or your drawing) tool shoul help a lot because a brain isn't enough I think.

Nice "force lines" and design. Keep on the good work !

Hey Yorik,

My English isn´t verry good, so i gon´t say to much, but really thanks for this webpage, i´m using Blender for a week, and I really enjoy that for so far, and you have help me a lot, thanks!

Kind Regards,
Piet

Hi Yorik et all
Obviously Blender can do much more than i first thought.
For a beginner like me though, the workspace of Blender is a bit confusing .
Blender is a SPACE workspace in contrast to a sheet of paper.
In a paper workspace the SPACE is so obvious that as you draw you draw your object view with 3D Space information included.,
In Blender you cant tell what the SPACE is like until you move an object or yourself around and see what changes. For example : In perspective drawing on paper the convention advocates the use of a Horizon line and a vanishing point on it for all objects with a common orientation. This gives the artist a sense of the SPACE before he draws an object.
Cheers JohnB

Hi Yorik, i wonder you do that kind of things what always surprise me, its nice your contribution to blender community.Great jod.Saludos desde Panamá.

Architecture composition with blender
This is an article I wrote after a (frustrated) competition project Maíra and me made some time ago. It describes how blender can be used as a fantastic architecture creation platform. Enjoy!

Simple twitter reader



This is a simple pygtk-based application that puts an icon in your system tray, that shows a simple window containing your friends tweets when you click on it. Web links inside tweets as well as @someone or #subject tags are clickable, and there is a settings dialog to set your twitter username and preferred browser. The icon turns green when there are new unread tweets.It has no other fancy function like posting tweets, since I usually post everything to identi.ca with pidgin...
It works on debian squeeze, still untested on other platforms. You need the python-twitter and python-sexy packages installed.

Get the application here.

Good site, I particularly like the Blender tutorials. Thanks.

Gracias mestre! Su opinión es siempre muy valiosa para mi!

Genial! cada una de las formas contienen en su composición una relación directa con el todo. Lo único creiticable (pero seguramente es devido a la falta de profundidad en el detalle) es la imágen del interior. no refleja en nada lo fascinante del conjunto!!! Creo que, de todas formas es cuestión de darle un ajustecito que haga vivir el entorno que estás construyendo.

Pero me encanta! La conexión intrínseca entre cada uno de los volúmenes, el verde colándose en cada rincón, generando una pieza de anclaje en la totalidad.

Grandioso Yorik, seguís sorprendiéndome.
Saludos!
Santiago

Coming from a city that faces the bay, I like the functionality and aesthetics of the design. I also like the integration of green to concrete, of sea to the structure.

#IDSAMPA 01: Conversão das marginais em praias

Totalmente absurdo? Impossível? Talvez... Mas nunca pensou que talvez, colocar mais 12 faixas nas marginais não vai fluidificar transito, mas simplesmente aumentar o número de carros nas marginais? E que os rios estão neste estado não tanto porque administrações, indústrias e cidadões despejam alegremente seus esgotos dentro, mas porque, já que não é possível chegar perto, não despertam nenhum sentimento de apropriação e portanto são considerados como esgoto por todo mundo?
Portanto, talvez retirar as vias marginais, em vez de duplica-las, poderia, quem sabe, ter o efeito inverso? Talvez não ia entupir o resto das avenidas da cidade, porque ia forçar os motoristas a repensar seus hábitos? Talvez ter praia em São Paulo ia ser um evento tão incrível que consiga alcançar os municípios a montante e incitar eles a também iniciar operações de limpeza do rio? E quem sabe, até os iredutíveis motoristas ficariam tão encantados que perdoariam a retirada das marginais...

Onde já foi feito algo parecido:

• Zürich: Pode beber água de qualquer rio da cidade, e em toda a cidade tem decks, piscinas e outras instalações para as pessoas poder tomar banho
• Seoul: Limparam o rio principal da cidade, que estava num estado próximoao Tietê...
• Paris: Fizeram um parque gigantesco (La Villette), em cima de uma área pos-industrial totalmente desgastada.

OpenFort 400 competition entry

This is our entry for the OpenFort400 competition in Amsterdam. The winners were announced today, and, as half-expected, we didn't win Anyway, the project was great fun to develop. We tried basically to reflect upon density and stacking, and tried to invert the traditional development path of typical ancient european cities like Amsterdam, by introducing "infectious" spots that force urban development to react and take innovative paths, which is a role that favelas in south-american cities could have, if better understood.

Anyway, here are a couple of images of the project, enjoy! The pdf and blender files are available for your remixing pleasure.

Thanks sir!!
I will download models from this site and practise.
And the link to open design alliance on your tutorial does not exist any more.
This is the new link.
http://www.opendesign.com/guestfiles

Excelente!! me alegra conocer los avances que mencionas, son herramientas muy importantes. Saludos!

Hey awesome news! This project is growing.

New features in FreeCAD

I'll summarize a bit what we've been doing recently. The biggest feature is the big improvements to the Drawing module. Basically you can now export any 2D view of a 3D Part object, on scale, on a svg sheet. It is already very powerful, you have total control from python to the output svg code, so you can tweak, fill, etc.
In the Draft module, we now have dimension objects working well, and they import/export to dxf format. There is also a first step to implementation of blocks, that is, you can create compounds objects by joining any type of geometry with the Upgrade tool, if no "smarter" object can be created. The downgrade tool will in turn explode compound objects.

Hi Ankit,
I also know this one: http://www.cadblocos.arq.br/ It's in portuguese, but you should be able to navigate easily...
But you might also encounter problems with conversion, when converting formats you always get a bit of headache.

Hi sir.. thanks for your tutorial.. it is amazing..

But i'm unable to open most of the files on cad block exchange network since they dont convert properly. Is there any other place where i can get such files?? I havent been able to find any as yet.

Thank you so much, Yorik, i am practicing with your tutorials and i am studing a blender manual, i have a litle troubles making windows textures, like reflexions, but i am going to continue practicing. thank you for your time.

Hi Juan,
I think almost everything is made with te eye, I model exactly only when I'll need the model for doing 2D on it afterwards, but it doesn't happen very often... Of course most of the time I start on top of a more or less precise drawing, such as a CAD plan.

Hi Mr.Yorik, I wish to ask you what method do you use to make the renders what you show us in this site? They are precision withblender or eye works with blender. My regards from Panamá Yorik.

Hé bien ma foi, que voilà de biens jolis kanjis!

Phantastic artwork, and thank you so much for sharing the textures for free!

Thanks to you sirs!

Hi Yorik, I appreciate your work and i think it is very nice, i continue studing yor tutorials Architecture for blender; regards from Panamá.

Sir, this is a treasure trove! I thank you from the bottom of my heart...

niroki fluxbox theme



get it on http://yorikvanhavre.deviantart.com/art/Niroki-fluxbox-theme-134584352

Weekend graphical divagations with new alchemy and mypaint toys...

And 5 more alpha people... We are getting a crowd here!



Get them on the textures page!

Awesome! Thank you so much.

Did you already tested UV mapping export on Sketchup latest versions? It's being a long time since i give it a try

added 5 new people alpha textures



See the textures page

Hi man , how doing.....Vi seu trabalho achei super, sou de sampa mas estou no parana construindo condominios..residenciais , baixa renda, tipo PAC do Lula,
gostartia de saber como faco para que pudessemos conversar sobre alguns maquetes eletronicas meu email, nospam@yahoo.com.br

This is so cool! Thanks for posting, I will try it.

How to import google earth terrain data into blender

Quite easy, actually. You need google earth, sketchup (free edition), python and blender installed.

1. Open google earth and zoom to where you want to import. You might need to zoom closer than you want, because sketchup has an altitude limit. In that case, do several parts
2. Open sketchup, and press "get current view" button
3. After import, press the "toggle terrain" button
4. Right-click the terrain, Unlock, then Explode
5. Export as a kmz model
6. Save a color image from the same view in google earth (Ctrl+Alt+S)
7. Rename the saved .kmz file extension to .zip
8. Unzip it
9. There will be a "models" folder with a .dae file inside. Open that file with blender's Collada 1.4 import script
10. Select everything and scale by 0.00001 (more or less)
11. Unparent everything (Alt+P)
12. Change the black and white texture by the image you just saved from google earth

An unfortunately not approved design for Paulo Teixeira's website:

Photo-integrations...

yorik, that's another great rendered sketch!! glad to see it

6 more people alpha textures


Availables on the textures page.

É uma piada? um spam? não entendi... vou deixar ali

Oferta de emprego: Investigação motorista para entrega de noite.
Investigação igualmente pessoal de entrevista para limpar cerca de biscatos sem importância.Boa remuneração.Vantagens extralegais.Automóvel de sociedade.Possibilidade de evolução no meio.
Para responder à este anúncio quer tomar contato com a prisão de Manaus.

2 sketches of a country home project

Saudações grande amigo Yorik, vamos marcar um chá aqui em casa grande Lord! Gostaria de conversar sobre arquitetura com vc, estou com uma série de terrenos e gostaria de apresentar ao Carrefour e Shopping Center (Nicolas). Vamos viabilizar isso.
Grande abraço!

mypaint

I discovered recently this very simple but excellent program called mypaint... Made for painting with a graphic tablet, and its tools are based on effect rather than type... For example, you have pencils that combine paint and smudge, other that have dynamic properties, etc... I did this in about 10minutes:



It's opensource and runs on any platform: http://mypaint.intilinux.com/

An interior hand drawing

Thanks Yorik, iam going to try that and after i'll tell you if i could, thank you so much for yuor time

Un peu dans le genre de Monkey Island II, quand on se rend compte à la fin que c'est juste deux gosses qui se sont inventé toute l'histoire pour jouer. Maupassy serait un peu un Guybrush du XXIème siècle.

Hi Juank,
If your image was saved as jpg.tga, probably you specified jpg in the filename, but blender wanted to save in tga format, so it added the .tga extension after. Check on the render panel (F10) that your image output format is jpg, not tga. (Tga is fine too, but jpg is easier to view!). Check also the image size, because if you are going to print, you need a bit more resolution than just to watch on screen. I would say, if you are going to print an A4 size, you'll need at least something like 1600x1200 pixels. Then, re-render the image.
You cannot print directly from blender, but a jpg image is easy to print from any other program that can view the image.

Pour une idée de jeu, j'imaginerais bien une sorte d'énigme montée par James pour divertir Maupassy pendant une journée sous la pluie (impossible de sortir pour jouer au croquet, évidemment)...

Hi Yorik, may you explain me how can i print a file, i made the building from yuor tutorial and i mhange the format to a jpeg.tga but i dont know what else, please answer me.

@Gabriel gracias! Espero tener luego cosas mas interesantes...

@Grégoire Ouais! Il y a même des tas de moteurs et éditeurs de jeu d'aventure, genre http://mad-project.sourceforge.net/ ou http://www.hungrysoftware.com/tools/sludge et surement plein d'autres trucs que je ne connais pas... Le jeu de hungry software est d'ailleurs bien marrant, downloade-le...

un point and click?

Excelente trabajo. Es motivador ver los excelentes resultados a los que se puede llegar con software libre. Saludos.

Quoi de plus indiqué pour Maupassy qu'une bonne vieille énigme à résoudre?

Aah le spectrum, ça c'était de l'ordinateur! Un jeu sur Maupassy ce serait pas mal, le jeu entier pourrait se dérouler dans une seule pièce... Il faudrait toujours recommencer la même chose parce que ça foirerait tout le temps... Ce serait bien con mais on se marrerait bien... ça pourrait même être du style des anciens jeux d'aventure (tiens, je suis en train de refaire Shadow of the Comet, on n'avait jamais fini!), avec des gros pixels et tout...

L'important c'est l'idée - une bonne idée, même avec des graphismes pourris, c'est toujours rigolo.

J'essaie de me rappeler le nom de tes jeux sur Spectrum, Yorik. Je me rappelle d'un type qui avançait dans des tunnels et qui pouvait donner des énormes coups du shuto avec la jambe. Je me souviens aussi des graphisme, c'était des carrés de 64 pixels, qu'ils fallait coder ligne par ligne, en 00011000 etc.

J'aimerais aussi pondre un jeu, un jour.
Avec un concept simple et fort dans l'esprit d'un tetris, pacman ou bomberman, ça permet de limiter les ressources à devoir créer (règles simples, tableau unique à détailler à loisir, etc.) tout en ayant la possibilité de s'amuser à le faire.
Sinon pour un jeu à scénario, un huit-clos pourrait être marrant, histoire d'éviter d'avoir à créer des ressources ad vitam. Et puis quel panache, quelle classe ! Un jeu d'aventure estampillé Maupassy peut-être !? Où une bonne partie du jeu se passerait à essayer de le sortir de ses toilettes dans lesquelles il se serait égaré.

Un fil électrique et deux interrupteurs pour faire une manette...

Un bon scénario, deux ou trois croquis...

Je ne comprend pas, je... quel avocat? Tu veux parler de Coco sans doute, mais malheureusement il est véreux... Oh, non, pas de problèmes, on peut dire du mal de lui, il ne viendra pas lire, il s'est fait des amis PLUS INTÉRESSANTS que nous sur fezbouc...
Ça a l'air pas mal le travail d'enodo.

J'aimerais bien essayer un jour, de pondre un jeu, mais c'est tellement de travail...

Le Havok (avec un 'k' à la fin. Non non, pas 'avocat', juste 'Havok'. Non, pas 'Justavok', .. etc.) est un moteur de gestion de physique, façon Bullet (qui est bien implémenté dans le Blender game engine).
Donc pas de moteur de jeu à proprement parler.

Mais en tout cas, c'est vrai que c'est une piste intéressante sur laquelle j'essaie de me pencher depuis un certain temps, pour faire de la visite virtuelle.
D'ailleurs mes premiers tests avec Blender étaient plutôt concluants.
Il faudra que je m'y remette entre deux jobs.

(une boîte fr qui fait de la visite virtuelle avec le moteur de Farcry 2 : enodo.fr. Ca dépote pas mal)

Oh, great work, thanks a lot.

Hi Juan, thanks for the feedback, don't hesitate to ask if I can help in anything!

Hi Yorik, i like this mall, it is very nice can see your work, i am practicing with your tutorial of modeling with precision in blender i am trying to get all you try to teach us.

Jamais entendu parler? Mais si il a servi pour farcry, ce n'est surement pas en license libre... C'était cry engine il me semble, le moteur de far cry. Mais il y en a plein, de libres: blender, crystalspace, ogre... Faudrait juste un jour s'y mettre, mais c'est pas facile de créer un jeu

Tu n'as jamais pensé à utiliser des moteurs de jeux en license libre? Je crois qu'il y en a un qui s'appelle Havoc, il a servi pour Far Cry.

Hi u2u2a, send me a mail at yorik at gmx dot fr if you want

That mall looks breathtaking,.... It's amazing how were you able to do that? I'm still a beginner in Blender and I'd really appreciate any guidance from you. I want to try and do something similar to that please

Ne fais pas ton malin, tu sais très bien qu'il s'agit d'une valise ouverte.

un open mall, c'est un shopping center sous license libre?

3D images of an open mall

A quick sketch drawing for a house

Et voilà, à São Gonçalo je n'ai pas de réseau, il faut monter à la capitale pour avoir une connection correcte avec le même appareil. On va sans doute changer pour une connection par radio, il paraît que ça fonctionne même mieux.

3D images for a police station project







project by Luc Nelles

Hi Yorik, you are amazing! your work is so awesom, I am from Panamá and i am begining with blender and i wish to make somethig good, i am engineer and i hope to make renders ,a litle bit so good, like you. Thak you for your contribution to me

Hélâ, trois fois hélâ, je n'arrive pas à accéder au bougre.
En revanche je t'ai trouvé. Tant pis pour toi.

Hélas oui, il n'y a pas d'autre solution... Son profil: http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=700390582

C'est bien ça, c'est la deuxième. On trouvait qu'on ne galérait pas assez avec la première.
Vray Blender pour ce que j'en ai vu, c'est une sorte de hack de la version demo de Maya, et donc avec toutes les limitations qui vont avec, et du coup ce n'est pas vraiment "production-ready".
Sinon comment fait-on pour accéder aux aventures de Coco ? Il faut devenir son ami j'imagine ?

Vray est super rapide en effet... (il tourne sur blender aussi maintenant, il paraît). Tu es super rapide aussi on dirait, ça fait deux filles maintenant, ou j'ai perdu le compte?
Si tu allais un peu plus sur fezbouc, tu saurais que Coco y est devenu fameux et dispose d'ors et déja de son propre fan-club. Depuis lors, il méprise ce site, alás!

Ah oui, en ce qui me concerne : depuis ma dernière visite je suis passé de Maya + Maxwell à Cinema 4d + Vray.
L'apprentissage s'est fait plutôt sans douleur (contrairement, malheureusement, à Blender sur lequel je bute toujours un peu) et les résultats sont vraiment très sympas.
J'ai versé une larme lorsque j'ai fait mes premiers tests de rendu et que mes images s'affichaient en 4~5 minutes avec une qualité apparente équivalente à Maxwell, le bruit en moins.

Sinon j'ai aussi une nouvelle fille qui a deux mois maintenant !

Ah diantre ! Je n'avais pas vu le démarrage (puis la panne sèche) de l'épisode 3...

Fezbouc... je crois bien y avoir un compte.
J'y ai quatre amis et 153 requêtes de participation à des quizz pour savoir quel chevalier du zodiaque me représente le mieux...

Oui heu, Maupassy rencontre quelques problèmes, Corentin nous a fait une branche alternative sur fezbouc, il y a eu confusion, je... Je ne sais plus, non, je ne sais plus, assez, assez! Clang, bing, docteur, il voyons calmez-vous je crac bang! bang! raah

Hey, bien le bonjour !

Alors comme ça il suffit de s'absenter quelques années, et les affaires partent en sucette ?
Un design de l'espace et Maupassy fermé pour inventaire... mais que...

J'ai uploadé de nouvelles photos du FISL et de la quarta colônia (pays natal de Maíra!), et quelques vidéos du FISL

New dimension tool in FreeCAD

A very basic first draft of a dim tool is now available in FreeCAD (in the Draft module). Don't expect much of it, it's pretty simple, has few options and is still buggy, but I'll refine it over time...

Read here how to use.

Non Mais j'ai des tas de vidéos et photos intéressantes, je vais uploader tout ça

Alors, tu as vu Monsieur Lula?

Hi nitroguy,
Yes, I had the same error already. I think it is because somehow the synaptic is confused by he strange python version number (2.6-ubuntu1)... I'lll try to make a new package ASAP!

Yorik-

I'm having a bit of a problem installing your freecad build, using Jaunty. I've installed all the packages I know to, but still get an error that says something's wrong with my python (see screenshot at picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/e_chnf8XWXV_tBSd5tzmkg?feat=directlink). I'm a bit of a Linux newbie, but getting better everyday. Could you help me determine what's wrong with my system?

Thanks!

nitroguy

We'll be at the FISL during the next week. I'll try to post a couple of updates!

Oui, par contre on ne pourait pas apprendre à danser ni à chanter...

Wow, that is such a good website, you are helping me so much because plants are so hard to make in Blender !!
Thanks the web would need more people like you !

Qui se souvient de sim earth? c'était un bon jeu... meilleur que spore, on pouvait régler les paramètres de la planète, la température, le taux d'humidité, l'activité sismique, etc...



Ça tourne bien sur dosbox... http://www.abandonia.com/en/games/185

hi yorik,
thanks for your nice models. very good work :-) continue doing so well

Chers Jean et Sylviane,
Je suis heureux que mes photos sur myspace vous plaisent, j'ai mis un point d'honneur à ce qu'elles soient d'une esthétique parfaite, nous sommes justement nous aussi récemment devenus des cyclo-activistes, et il n'y a aucun doute qu'à la prochaine naked bike ride, nous seront en tête de peloton! Je suis bien content de la victoire des écolos, dommage seulement qu'il n'y aie pas de parti pirate belge, ce serait encore mieux...

Sacré Jean-Lou!!!

Avec le printemps qui revient, il a ses hormones qui chauffent!
Faudrait que tu le voie mon cher Yorik, il s'est mis en tête de retrouver son corps de quand il avait 20 ans et passe tout son temps à la salle de sport!Au moins pendant ce temps là, il est pas à la maison à essayer de me sauter dessus.

Je vais régulièrement sur ton myspace et je reste une fan inconditionnelle de tes photos ;-)

bisous

Sylvi

Salut à vous amoureux de la nature!!!
Comme vous savez l'ecologie a eu son petit succès lors des dernières élections européennes et notamment en Belgique aux élections régionales ou les écolos ont fait un score jamais égalé!!!

Je profite donc pour vous inviter à faire un pas plus loin dans ce sens en participant à la World Naked Bike Rides. C'est un évenement mondial il y en a certainement une chez vous, même au brésil, ou il n'y a pas de grande différence avec d'habitude (c'est juste que là, on laisse tomber le string ;-) ).

A Bruxelles, la manif se déroule le 27 juin. Avec Sylviane (qui comme tu le sais n'a pas froid aux yeux et ailleurs ...) nous allons participer à cet évenement de manière à prouver notre engagement pour l'environnement.

Je dis donc: Tous à poil! pour la bonne cause!!!

A new theme for the inventario de receitas

This is a blogger theme I made for our internationally famous cooperative receipes blog:



Visit the blog here
The full theme is CC-licensed and available here

Duas novas receitas bem belgas no inventário:
Torta de açucar mascavo
Chicons au gratin.
Bom apetite!

Oi Waldomiro, obrigadão!!!

Yoryk visitei seu site achei muito bacana, parabens!! trabalhos muitos legais. abraço!!!

Escrevi um post chamado "O compartilhamento de arquivos segundo South Park" no Trezentos: http://www.trezentos.blog.br/?p=1506

Merci, danke, xi xi, gracias, spacebo, arigato, a million times and a million ways; thank you.

Voici une image que je viens de faire dans un moment d'égarement...

Hi Zack,
Have a look at my deviantart page: http://yorikvanhavre.deviantart.com/
I made the theme myself, you'll find it in my gallery, and the wallpaper is in my favourites. I like fluxbox much too, mostly because it's extremely fast and yet looks very nice. I like to have all the power of my computer available when I want it (rendering, compiling, etc) and not half of it used by desktop gadgets...

What theme and background are you using with Fluxbox? I use Fluxbox on my MythTV box, but only because it's a minimal GUI. I wouldn't mind using it as my primary desktop if it looked as nice as yours. Also, thank you very much for this writeup. It helps me understand your workflow better.

Another blender theme!

Ça me donne une idée pour la prochaine fois que je change, tiens... Tout en caractères bien verts, style Tandy 1000! Ça va être cool! Tiens, tout le monde qui se préoccupe de son avenir sur internet devrait regarder ceci: http://linuxmanua.blogspot.com/ Ça pourrait d'ailleurs servir à certains pour se rendre indétectable de leurs patrons, pendant qu'ils surfent sur fazbouc au lieu de CLASSER LE COURRIER!

Allez allez, il est grand temps d'oublier ces histoires de haquères, de fonds noirs et de caractères verts de chez Monsieur Tandy.

@Grégoire: tu ne vas pas t'y mettre toi aussi?
@Dalai: obrigado! Os reflexos são imagens hdri geralmente... Tenho dois endereços bons: http://www.unparent.com/photos_probes.html e http://www.debevec.org/probes/ tu mapeia eles em "reflex" e "plane", fica show... Eu faço todos os materiais reflexivos assim agora, nem uso mais nehum specular... e para a metade deles, o reflexo fica tão natural que até desligo o ray mirror... O tempo de rendering diminua um monte!
Um dia desses tenho que aprender em fazer imagens HDRI eu mesmo, não parece tão difícil...

Ah, as plantas não são feitas no freecad ainda... mas é o objetivo! Basicamente faltam blocos, cotas e hachuras. Cotas, vou cuidar delas em breve, blocos a principio já tem mas precisamos implementar uma maneira de usar, e hachuras, já tem hachuras com cores cheias, e está nos meus planos também achar um jeito de fazer hachuras "técnicas". Depois disso, bem, acho que vai começar a ser possível usar para produzir algo bom...

Ah, on arrive enfin à lire quelque chose, ici :-)

Oi Yorik.

Estas plantas que você fez (projeto executivo) foi no FreeCad ?
(parabéns pelas novas perspectivas, depois queria te perguntar sobre este reflexo nos vidros onde aparece o céu. É reflexo mesmo? ou você mapeou as imagens dentro da textura com refl em Map In)

Abração !

thanks... for your share Mr. Yorik..

FreeCAD import script for Blender

I just made a new script to import FreeCAD files into Blender. You must have FreeCAD installed for this script to work, and you must configure the path to your freecad.la file at the beginning of the script.
The script can be downladed here: import_freecad.py


Note: at the moment you need a recent SVN version of blender (>2111) to make it work...

A couple of still images from the latest animation we did:

these images are temporarily unavailable because the client asked us to remove them...

good job, I use linux a lot too, but u are really the one master it!

A new architecture walkthrough animation
This is an animation of a shopping mall project in Recife...
these images are temporarily unavailable because the client asked us to remove them...

MAY UPDATE

A new monthly update on my site! I made a new general design, and switched back the homepage to show the complete index of the site. Later on I'll work on some ajax expand/collapse categories... Ah, I also added a couple of recent works on the guestblog. Cheers!

Two quick renderings for a shopping mall

A "real" virtual 3D environment we just made. The biggest image is 28mx5m! The largest rendering I've ever done...

3 sheets from the latest project we detailed...

Estou vendendo meu notebook:
compaq V2607CL 1250Mb RAM tela nova, 2 anos e meio de uso. R$ 850
descrição aqui: http://tinyurl.com/dfh4ca

On eut pu croire qu'un certain auteur à succès allait mettre la main à la pâte pour continuer les aventures de Maupassy, alors qu'en fait...

Okay, thanks Olaf, I will add this info to my page. Funny, usually ubuntu is always a little bit ahead of debian... About the version number, 2087 is the correct one. The 1786 that you get from the about freecad dialog is always a bit wrong, it is because it needs to be edited manually, and the development goes so fast that regularly someone forgets to update that version number... Actually I'll have a look if it can be set automatically, would be useful.
Thanks a lot for all the feedback!

Installation of your new python-pivy works for me. For installation of FreeCAD I still needed to manually download and install packages.debian.org/de/squeeze/amd64/libopencascade-foundation-6.3.0 and packages.debian.org/de/squeeze/amd64/libopencascade-modeling-6.3.0 since the ubuntu repository only showed opencascade 6.2. You may put those links on your download page, too.
Btw, my FreeCAD installation only shows version 0.7 revision 1786 although the deb package said 2087. Is that correct or might there be any leftovers from the intrepid package I had installed before?
Thanks again.

Hi Olaf,
Thanks for the report!
This is strange... The package has python > 2.5 dependency, normally... (In fact I only have python 2.5 here)... I'll try to install on an ubuntu machine and see what's wrong. If needed I'll re-pack pivy...

Edit: I just repacked python-pivy with a simpler python dependency (>2.5). Download here. Can you tell me if it works? Thanks.
Cheers

Thanks a lot for providing FreeCAD packages for debian amd64.
I have a problem with the python-pivy-0.5.0-1_amd64.deb package on ubuntu 9.04 x64.
gdebi has the install button deactivated and ”dpkg -i” tells me that python <<2.6 is needed but 2.6.2 is installed. In fact, both 2.6.2 and 2.5.4 are installed but only 2.6.2 is referenced in ubuntus "python" package and thus 2.5 is not found by the dependency checker. Could you please help?
libcoin60 is also said to be missing, but I cloud manually install it via synaptic to solve this dependency.

made 4 new plants & alpha textures!

blend files in http://yorik.orgfree.com/greenhouse.html
textures in http://yorik.orgfree.com/archive/textures

New FreeCAD package for 64bit debian/ubuntu
I just packaged the latest version... Still not a fully debian-compliant package, but should install without problems!
http://yorik.orgfree.com/archive/packages/freecad_0.7-2087_amd64.deb
Note that the pivy package is now separated and needed too:
http://yorik.orgfree.com/archive/packages/python-pivy_0.5.0-1_amd64.deb
Enjoy! Edit: Ubuntu users seem to have a problem installing the python-pivy package, so I made an alternative version here.

Made 6 new alpha textures!

Maupassy fait penser à OSS117, par certains côtés. Je suis curieux de voir le nouveau film. Mais ENCORE PLUS curieux de lire ce que Corentin va écrire.

A lot of interesting information here. Thanks for posting.

You might want to have a look at my experimenting with architectural sections using nodes:
See wiki.blender.org → User:Mats Halldin/Sandbox

Feel free to drop a comment on my wiki talk page.

/ Mats

Nice arikel !

Hi Yorik, I've meant to do this a long time ago, but thanks for your expertise regarding Blender, (and all the other projects you've worked on). A newbie but amazed by its power. I'm following your lead, well done!! You can see my excitement for these instructions if you visit my site: www.rhb3d.com

Everyday striving to be better. Thanks

Oui, surtout en calculs rhénans...

Oui, c'est difficile, j'essaie de remettre une "queue" et une "tête" à nos divagations, en tentant de crapahuter les passages qui n'ont pas reçu de suite dans la suite par la suite, mais je n'en suis pas très heureux. Mi Mamma, ca ne vole pas très haut...;-) Mais je suis poussé au cul par la jeune et sémillante Géraldine, notre unique lectrice passionnée à s'theure. Vous saviez que Thomas était toujours aussi nul en calcul ?

Ah tout de même! Je note d'ailleurs que tu nous dois quelques millions pour ta piètre adaptation du numéro II pour le public de Fesse Book.

Pas mal, le Maupassy III : ca fait un peu scénario de film, et j'ai envie de le voir.

J'ai de la lecture à rattraper....remontons dans le temps...ne me déconcentrez pas...Fb est un Blog Killer. Je m'y remets, j'arrive, je suis là.

Présentation

Le théâtre de l'Opprimé ouvre ses portes en 1996 dans le 12e arrondissement. C'est à la fois une salle de spectacle d'environ 90 places et un lieu de recherche théâtrale. Le concept est attribué à Augusto Boal. Ecrivain, dramaturge, metteur en scène, théoricien et homme politique brésilien, il est une figure majeure du théâtre brésilien de la seconde moitié du XXe siècle. Face au contexte politique de l'Amérique latine des années 1970, Boal imagine un théâtre capable de donner la parole aux groupes minoritaires, marginalisés, opprimés.
La parole théâtrale devient alors un outil, à la fois politique car engagé, mais également thérapeutique puisqu'il favorise l'extériorisation de la souffrance et la communication. C'est donc en se basant sur les principes fondateurs de la théorie boalienne que ce théâtre organise des stages, des forums et des représentations. D'autre part, la compagnie soutient la création contemporaine en organisant, chaque saison, un spectacle et en accueillant une dizaine de troupes avec lesquelles s'établit une collaboration.

La Belette est là !!!

C'est pas mal en vert. Je me demande quand chut-chut-pas-de-nom alias la Belette va se repointer par ici... On a beau le motiver, il fait la fine bouche.

APRIL UPDATE

Finally after shameful 3 months without updates, a new technotheme! I'm currently working on a lot of stuff, a facebook integration to publish automagically new Maupassy chapters, interface for new circle and smooth tools in FreeCAD, a collaborative work list tool for Maíra and me, a new architecture blender tutorial, advanced rss function for this guestblog, a graphic novel that I must decide myself to finish one of these days, and well, that's about it for now...

Grégoire a écrit un nouveau chapitre aux aventures de Maupassy...

Ta chovendo por alí?

O jardim botânico de são Paulo. Fomos lá hoje, fiquei bem encantado... É muito grande e não tem ninguém. Vale muito a pena!

Grégoire a écrit un nouveau chapitre aux aventures de Maupassy...

Yorik a écrit un nouveau chapitre aux aventures de Maupassy...

A wordpress theme I just made for the Trezentos site. The theme can be downloaded from my deviantArt page.

Hi Akoz,
I think the plans we produce for execution are like a big text, or a big code. The people who execute can read the code. This is very important, because a building is not made only of drawn information, but of many other details transmitted by that code. In that sense, I don't think you can transmit the same amount of information with 3D renderings.

But, the way we draw 2D plans is probably very obsolete. Who said we need to draw plans manually, line after line... That´s maybe where 3D can come. Maybe 3D is not to be used only to produce rendered images of models but probably 3D can be used to do more than that. At the moment it's quite hard to find (BIM software is not really something new), but it's probably the way to go, I think...

i'm an artist-architect, and yes i try to use more an open-source workflow... it could be ...
one thing i would like your experience is "do you think execution drawings could be 3D views with good cotations like in any designed objects/exploded view add-ons ? May the plans be banned to let the 3D taking the place ?
i think today no worker are taking any measure directly on plan but just read and execute the drawing and its cotations. also getting on using 2D plans may be off with good scenes ?
what do you think about that ?
3D is the best way for any one to understand the real view, needed is more views , but also less plans and cuts coz of direct understanding ...

Grégoire a écrit un nouveau chapitre aux aventures de Maupassy...

Yorik a écrit un nouveau chapitre aux aventures de Maupassy...

one quick drawing

Oui, ca nous l'avons bien compris...

À mon avis, Corentin a honte de nous. Il fait son bon chic bon genre en nous invitant à jouer au babyfoot chez lui, et à nous montrer sa collection de disques des Beatles, mais en fait on a bien compris que c'était juste pour pouvoir dire en soirée qu'il recevait des connaissances du Brésil dans sa résidence!

Hi Eric T, long time no see!
Sure you can:
http://wiki.blender.org/index.php/BSoD/Introduction_to_the_Game_Engine
http://wiki.blender.org/index.php/Doc:Manual/Game_Engine
http://www.yofrankie.org/
http://www.gameblender.org/portal.php
http://www.vimeo.com/1916475?pg=embed&sec=1916475
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BI0V5bzvm-M
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HXT2q2EY94I

Hi mates!!!
I'm here again;

Yorik, i've got a question for you.

Is it possible to use the blender applications to create video games?

Nove receita de chocolate caseiro!!

Yorik a écrit un nouveau chapitre aux aventures de Maupassy...

A new fluxbox theme specially made to match cleanlooks gtk theme...

Grégoire a écrit un nouveau chapitre aux aventures de Maupassy...

Hi Xotik,
Thanks for the hint, I just corrected the link.
Yes, you can use 3D cad files in blender... The thing is, you will need to find the best way to import them, depending on the data inside the 3d file. If they are simple polyline contours, just save them as a DXF file and import them in blender. If it is something else (3d solids? point clouds?) you might need to follow another path (convert them to something else in another program, etc...). Probably you will need to test a bit to see what works best for you. But at the end, you should definitely be able to use them easily.

hi there,

just a quick message to let you know that the link "Linux Stuff" is redirecting to the "Free CAD" page..i´m guessing that´s not suppose to happen.

Also a question: when designing urban landscapes, i usually need to model the terrain, using 3D CAD files with elevation info exported to sketchup ou 3DStudio. Can i use them in blender as well?

thanks.
xotik
xotik[at]netcabo[dot]pt

Thanks, a very interesting and probably useful overview.

Dear Yorik,
I really enjoy your website and appreciate the Blender Tutorials. I just want to let you know that I am teaching a group of Architecture students at the Queensland University of Technology in Australia and shall give them a link to all of your website.

Kind Regards,

Florian Heise

Yorik a écrit un nouveau chapitre aux aventures de Maupassy...

Grégoire a écrit un nouveau chapitre aux aventures de Maupassy...

Yorik a écrit un nouveau chapitre aux aventures de Maupassy...

Yorik a écrit un nouveau chapitre aux aventures de Maupassy...

more recent 3D images

a residential project we've been working on lately:

Actually I really should write a kind of FAQ or article about doing architecture on a Linux platform... Many people are indeed interested by the subject. So, here we go:

My architecture workflow on linux

Actually there is no obvious or productive workflow possible at the moment, due to the lack of good (productive) CAD software on linux. You can do architecture on linux, but you won't have the same level of productivity as if you just draw with your favorite CAD program under windows (I indeed have a dual boot system .


just for the fun, my linux desktop!

That said, if you are willing to move away from the "all-in-one" solutions that big CAD vendors sell, you already can do a very big part of the work with linux software. I myself use blender for about 80% of the conception work, the rest being simple hand sketching. You already have several good scripts to generate plans and sections from your models in blender, and export them to convenient CAD formats like DXF. Search the blender wiki scripts section.

In blender you can do all kinds of useful things like importing your hand-drawn sketches, pieces of 2D CAD plans, model on top of it, etc, for example:


blend file here

The biggest problem is then, when you want to do 2D CAD. There are indeed several solutions, like qcad, autocad under wine, bricascad/intellicad, or long-time linux CAD challengers, like cycas, graphite one or varicad. There are also a number of interesting newcomers, like realCADD or medusa. But none of those solutions are really productive and free at the same time.

What I do most of the time, when I don't need much detailing, is to use several programs, each for doing pieces of the work. This is a typical unix-like approach (use several simple, reusable programs to do separate tasks, instead of having one all-in-one program) that in my opinion could benefit much architecture workflows on linux.



I myself contribute with coding and documentation to a very interesting program (currently) named FreeCAD that could hopefully fit very well in the middle of the workflow, to rework data coming from 3D into precise construction drawings. It is in usable state already, but not for real production.



Note that FreeCAD is not at all aimed at becoming another autocad clone, and 2D drafting is only a temporary use I make of it. The plans for the future of FreeCAD include much more powerful things such as parametric modeling, automatic sectionning, or structural analysis.
Today I still use a mix of other programs, such as autocad, qcad or sketchup. I also use different utilities and convertors to manipulate different file formats, like RealCadd converter or Varicad viewer.

The same way as the data you export from a 3D program to a 2D app, the way the data is formatted is the most important point, not the program you used to make it. If you modeled your building correctly, you will have good 2D data, easy to rework in 2D. The same should apply to 2D data. If you build your technical drawings correctly, they will be easy to export to other programs for presentation work.

The presentation work in itself is also easy to do under linux, there are several programs able to import technical drawings and rework them, my favorite being inkscape:



I also use gimp a lot.

All this works quite well for short or limited architecture projects, like competitions or draft projects, but of course, not so well for more detailed work such as execution drawings. For that, we would need better tools for technical drawing. At the moment I don't know any that is strong enough to allow fast, efficient and beautiful work. But the way we draw architecture is slowly changing too, so maybe new solutions will begin to appear on the linux platform too.

And if you are interested in helping the situation to evolve quicker, there are many great open-source projects out there that could use your efforts, even if you are not a programmer. This is the case of most of the software I showed in this article.

Não se esqueçam de dar uma olhada, de vez em quando a nosso blog comunautário de receitas:
http://inventariodereceitas.blogspot.com/
Hoje, justamente, adicionei uma receita de carbonnades à la liégeoise...

Hi Yorik!
I found your site through the Blender community and like what you're doing, especially the fact that you're obviously a Linux using architect.

So you guys are doing all the CAD drawing in Linux, huh? I mean, what does your workflow look like, if you get dwgs and have to proceed to work with them? Is AutoCAD under Wine the solution or have you found a reasonable alternative in Linux for technical drawing you can recommend?
Do you have a secret double boot Windows or have you found a way to completely stick to Linux? Any experience with IntelliCad?

An archi-student myself, I'm asking because I'm terribly tired of Windows but haven't found a reasonable way yet to substitute AutoCAD in Linux.
Sorry for asking so boldly, don't wanna turn your café littéraire into an FAQ section but I've been searching around for quite a while. Could help with the plain gross stupid jokes, though ;-)
Thx for your Blender-Tuts by the way, you're quite a trailblazer, man!
Thx a lot and greetings from Austria! (AuSSStria as Manu Chao calls it ;-)

Dju rwéte, tout-oute des doûgts dèsploukîs dè ç'plève dè mourdreû!
maugrè les tignasses des-arpes, dèvins l'iviér tout nu èyè pèneûs!!!

Acré, on djase bin l'inglais, asti! Et eul bia wallon qu'est à l'uche?

New blender theme:

@Kevin: Thanks!
@ Kiflom: Thanks too
I'm not too sure what would be my workflow... It is a bit different in every project. I think maybe a bit of a bazaar-style, unix-like agglomeration of small parts. I usually don't do anything during several weeks, but the project is always in a corner of my mind. So, these weeks, even if they are not very productive, have their utility. When I start sketching then, ideas usually come easily and partly organized already.
Then I sketch a lot, I would say all the concept construction and testing is done with hand sketching. When I get a firm enough idea, I put some rough environment in blender, like linework, imported 2d plan, etc... and I start to model my sketches in 3d. Usually at this point you see if the idea is nice or not.
Of course your own inconscient is always very reluctant to throw an idea away, at least mine. So I must keep very vigilant, and if I detect that I'm not totally happy, I usually must force myself to throw away part of the idea, or even the whole idea. Then, go back, etc...
For a competition, I usually don't go much further than that. I refine my model more and more, and when I think it is "solved" enough, I decide how I will show it on the panels, what technique I want to use, etc. Then, if I will need plans and sections, I usually extract them form blender and refine them in another program like inkscape, gimp or even autocad sometimes.
The final design of the panels, I usually do a mix of vector and bitmap, so I use both inkscape and gimp.
Hope it helps!

Your urxvt Tango color scheme is very useful. Thanks!

hi yorik,i am a fresh graduate architect.i have seen ur projects they are impresive,besides they look perfect.i want to ask u about ur design process starting from the scratch..up 2 the final stage(work flow).i am going make u my role model.
see u online

Our last competition project: A building for the architecture faculty of the Delft University. We made the project at 3, Maíra, Sander and me.



At first we thought we had absolutely no chance at all to win the project, so we'd better start on something that would serve us as an experience, instead of trying to win something. This allowed us not only to epurate completely everything of the surrounding "communication stuff", but also to explore all those interesting connections between graphics and architecture, and what comes before what.

We always use to think architecture like "we design spaces, then we draw those spaces", but of course, the very line we draw is actually very often defining, or creating a space. So we think spaces, then draw lines to draw them, and those lines create their own boundaries, and we "see" a space "we" created. In this project we got really crazy with those things, we drew things, we "saw" space in them, then drew those spaces, then the very drawing gave other, unexpected shapes and spaces, etc, etc. I don't know if there is something understandable in the result, but we had a fantastic experience and great discussions!

Hi Gudeta,
Yes, Blender is not a CAD program, and is also not primarily made for drawing architecture. This means you can use it to draw very accurate buildings, but you cannot do that the same way as you draw in other programs. You have not many 2D tools, for example. If you want to draw a rectangle, you must use a plane. if you want to draw a curved wall, you should use the mesh circle and not the bezier tool. You will have a "faceted" circle, but that's how blender works. But you can lower the "facet" size (more subdivisions), so you won't see the facets anymore.
Have a look at the tutorials on the http://wiki.blender.org page, you'll see quite quickly how things work and what is available to you. I think all you need is spend some time with blender to get used to its particular way of doing things.
But don't hesitate to ask me if you have specific questions!
Cheers

Hi Yorik thanks for your reply. I'm gonna start using blender. But i dont know how to create shapes rectangle, arc etc. (are they missing in blender) for example if i wanted to create a curved wall. the beizer curves cant make with a given radius. and also the bend tool i can't find. But i'm so sorry to take your time. thanks for everything.

Hi George, thanks, I hope you show us when it's finished!

Hi Yorik!

I saw your site on nehe's homepage and visited it.Ijust wanna say thank you for your great textures,those are very useful.I hope I will manage to integrate into my 3D application.
Thank you.

La Belgique II

Hi everybody, thanks for the messages.

@Joel: Wow, you guys are quite organized! I wish you great success! I didn't know about that movie...

@Alan: I am not familiar with that, but I'm sure it is possible to export to DirectX from Blender... You should have a look on the net for explanations about that, i'm sure you'll find something.

@Gr8... : No, FreeCAD is still too young, and since it still has not much use, probably nobody would take time to include it in repositories now. But Debian guys are always looking at FreeCAD, and I'm sure that when it begins to be useful, it'll quickly be added to debian, and imediately after, to ubuntu. About problems installing draft, just tell me a bit more what's going wrong and maybe I can help you.

@Gudeta: Yes, blender is a bit weird at first look. But I swear to you, when you get used to it, you end up thinking it's the best interface ever invented Just a matter of getting used to it. For 2D, unfortunately there is nothing comparable to autocad in terms of productivity aroud. There are many good CAD programs that run on linux around (varicad, realcadd, etc) or you can even run autocad2000 very well under linux (with wine). but we'll need a bit more patience before seeing a real, productive, solid, open-source CAD program around. But don't loose hopes, there are many promising things being worked on nowadays...

Hi Yorik. I am impressed by the tutorial u wrote on architecture modelling with blender. I downloaded blender but the interface looks a bit cluttered unlike other modelling apps. I use currently dual boot win and linux which 2d cad do you recommend for architectural work. i've seen cycas and qcad but they dont seem nice like autocad. please give me a suggestion. thankyou.

You have motivated me to re-take up programing. I had left it since 1996 when we used FORTRAN and BASIC and they kept changing the platforms (or the goal post as i
complained).

Can you check if ubuntu maintains FreeCAD in their synaptic repositories.

by the way
I am trying to install your draft 0.0 on FreeCAD in windows but having problem.

good luck

I was wondering if you had any suggestions on how best to export these trees via Direct X to be used in outside 3D Virtual World Applications.

Hello Yorik!
How are you? I happened to revisit again your site for Palm trees. Thank you very much!

Right now our Blender community in the Philippines is cooking up our first Open Movie. The story is about the "Battle of Mactan" - the epic battle between Ferdinand Magellan(you know him) and between Lapu-Lapu, the Warrior Mactan Chieftain. Magellan died during this battle, thus ending his circumnavigation.

If you have time, visit us at pinoyblender.com. The forum is bilingual, English and Tagalog. I was so inspired by you I had been making Blender tutorials in the vernacular. This April, I was invited to a 3-day University of the Phillippines-Iloilo Blender Camp, to become their resource person and speak about Blender in Architecture. Credit to you man! I learned most of Blender in Architecture from you.

Cheers!

Joel

La Belgique!

Many many thanks to you, yorik. You helped me much..
Greeting from Indonesia...

Voila voila, je serai en Belgique demain a 20h...

O Irineu é o único que aguentava ficar de camiseta... Acho que estava nervoso por causa da palestra logo depois :-)

Okay, I'll have a try!

Great stuff! I need this. But can you make cactus?

Aqui está, mestre! umas imagens do nosso clã, nas imagens Grégoire, Lívia, Maíra, Irineu e Harry. No computador, arquivos baixando a 1Mb/sec...

Hi! Ebanij vrot! 5g8dvj8mu7 ylbtivyl7g!

Oh Yorik,

põe umas fotos da Campus Party aqui

Estou morrendo de curiosidade (and a little jealous as well :p).
Se der conta como é a TV 3D que está montada lá.
Sei que foto não ajuda nisso, mas fico imaginando se parece 3d mesmo.

Um grande abraço!!!

Nous sommes même apparus dans le journal!



Article complet ici...

Ontem morreu uma ciclista bem conhecida dos bikers aqui em São Paulo, atropelada por um ônibus que não respeitou a distância mínima de 1.50m ao ultrapassar um ciclista... Hoje as 18h tem uma bicicletada de homenagem na praça do ciclista. Segue aqui o manifesto dos invisíveis do qual ela era um dos autores...

Manifesto dos Invisíveis

Meia centena de ciclistas urbanos, resolveram se juntar e escrever uma carta aberta, para que também tivéssemos nossa voz na discussão sobre ciclovias, bicicletas alugadas e respeito no trânsito. A carta cresceu tanto que virou um Manifesto. O Manifesto dos Invisíveis.

Motorista, o que você faria se dissessem que você só pode dirigir em algumas vias especiais, porque seu carro não possuiairbags? E que, onde elas não existissem, você não poderia transitar?

Para nós, cidadãos que utilizam a bicicleta como meio de transporte, é esse o sentimento ao ouvir que “só será seguro pedalar em São Paulo quando houver ciclovias”, ou que “a bicicleta atrapalha o trânsito”. Precisamos pedalar agora. E já pedalamos! Nós e mais 300 mil pessoas, diariamente. Será que deveríamos esperar até 2020, ano em que Eduardo Jorge (secretário do Verde e do Meio Ambiente de São Paulo) estima que teremos 1.000 quilômetros de ciclovias? Se a cidade tem mais de 17 mil quilômetros de vias, pelo menos 94% delas continuarão sem ciclovia. Como fazer quando precisarmos passar por alguma dessas vias? Carregar a bicicleta nas costas até a próxima ciclovia? Empurrá-la pela calçada?

Ciclovia é só uma das possibilidades de infra-estrutura existentes para o uso da bicicleta. Nosso sistema viário, assim como a cidade, foi pensado para os carros particulares e, quando não ignora, coloca em segundo plano os ônibus, pedestres e ciclistas. Não precisamos de ciclovias para pedalar, assim como carros e caminhões não precisam ser separados. O ciclista tem o direito legal de pedalar por praticamente todas as vias, e ainda tem a preferência garantida pelo Código de Trânsito Brasileiro sobre todos os veículos motorizados. A evolução do ciclismo como transporte é marca de cidadania na Europa e de funcionalidade na China. Já temos, mesmo na América do Sul, grandes exemplos de soluções criativas: Bogotá e Curitiba.

Não clamamos por ciclovias, clamamos por respeito. Às leis de trânsito, à vida. As ruas são públicas e devem ser compartilhadas entre todos os veículos, como manda a lei e reza o bom senso. Porém, muitas pessoas não se arriscam a pedalar por medo da atitude violenta de alguns motoristas. Estes motoristas felizmente são minoria, mas uma minoria que assusta e agride.

A recente iniciativa do Metrô de emprestar bicicletas e oferecer bicicletários é importante. Atende a uma carência que é relegada pelo poder público: a necessidade de espaço seguro para estacionar as bikes. Em vez de ciclovias, a instalação de bicicletários deveria vir acompanhada de uma campanha deeducação no trânsito e um trabalho de sinalização de vias, para informar aos motoristas que ciclistas podem e devem circular nas ruas da nossa cidade. Nos cursos de habilitação não há sequer um parágrafo sobre proteger o ciclista, sobre o veículo maior sempre zelar pelo menor. Eventualmente cita-se a legislação a ser decorada, sem explicá-la adequadamente. E a sinalização, quando existe, proíbe a bicicleta; nunca comunica os motoristas sobre o compartilhamento da via, regulamenta seu uso ou indica caminhos alternativos para o ciclista. A ausência de sinalização deseduca os motoristas porque não legitima a presença da bicicleta nas vias públicas.

A insistência em afirmar que as ruas serão seguras para as bicicletas somente quando houver milhares de quilômetros de ciclovias parece a desculpa usada por muitos motoristas para não deixar o carro em casa. “Só mudarei meus hábitos quando tiver metrô na porta de casa”, enquanto continuam a congestionar e poluir o espaço público, esperando que outros resolvam seus problemas, em vez de tomar a iniciativa para construir uma solução.

Não podemos e não vamos esperar. Precisamos usar nossas bicicletas já, dentro da lei e com segurança. Vamos desde já contribuir para melhorar a qualidade de vida da nossa cidade. Vamos liberar espaços no trânsito e não poluir o ar. Vamos fazer bem para a saúde (de todos) e compartilhar, com os que ainda não experimentaram, o prazer de pedalar.

Preferimos crer que podemos fazer nossa cidade mais humana, do que acreditar que a solução dos nossos problemas é alimentar a segregação com ciclovias. Existem alternativas mais rápidas e soluções que serão benéficas a todos, se pudermos nos unir para construi-las juntos.

Yeah, there's a quite good expectation for this stuff around. We've been workin' on it for some time now, and I think we'll all be fairly satisfied with the outcome.

Hi Marco, thanks for the feedback, I'm happy it helped.

Pour les zautres, sachez que Grégoire et Lívia seront ici à Saint-Paulo lundi, pour participer à un super événement Nerd auquel ils sont conviés tous frais payés. Enfin, tous c'est beaucoup dire car ils devront dormir sous la tente (c'est sérieux je vous jure, mais on les tirera de ce mauvais pas...). Ils donneront un spectacle techno-théatral, avec Brotherbull aux platines et Lívia aux marionnettes... La programmation est ici, au bas de la page:
http://www.campusparty.com.br/index.php/Sarau-digital-atividades.html

thank you very much for your precision modelling tutorial: it was very helpful to me: in a few hours I realized a model of my house! thank you very much!!!

The first works of the year!

Architecture guide of São Paulo
I am beginning a São Paulo architecture guide on Google maps. It is public, so everyone can add stuff there. Enjoy!



View Larger Map

que bonito!

JANUARY UPDATE

Happy new year! As every year, the contents from last year were moved to their own archive page. So, we're ready for a brand-new start.

Il me faut aussi annoncer que comme bonne résolution de nouvelle année, j'ai décidé de m'appliquer à redorer le blaon de Maupassy. J'ose espérer que les milliers de visiteurs de ce blog en feront autant!