http://blog.3dtin.com 3D design inside browser posterous.com Sat, 18 Feb 2012 23:53:16 -0800 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/3dtin/~3/nahdYNtko6E/reputation-scores http://blog.3dtin.com/reputation-scores <p> <p>You may have noticed that your reputation score and/or the ratings of your sketches changed yesterday. In most of the cases the user's reputation scores must have gone down, while ratings of their sketches may have gone up. This happened because we have updated our formulae that calculate these scores based on the points the users give to the sketches.</p> <p>Our old formulae had a few problems. We encourage users to share their sketches and improve other's sketches that they have shared under creative commons. Therefore, when a derivative sketch gets credit, we add part of it to the root sketch it was derived from. In our old system, this was implemented alright, but the formula was little unfair. If a root sketch has received high points from other users, but its derivative receives significantly low points from the users, then it used to bring down the rating of the root sketch. This is not fair in most of the cases. In the new rules, we have fixed this problem.</p> <p>Also, in our old system, the reputation points the creator of the sketch used to get from it was 10 multiplied by the average rating of the sketch. Due to this, if an excellent sketch got 100 ratings each of 4 points, then its creator (A) used to get total 40 reputation points, but if another sketch however got just 1 rating of 5 points, its creator (B) used to get 50 reputation points. In the new formula, we merely add user given points directly to the reputation of the creator of sketch. Thus in above example, creator A will receive 400 reputation points, while creator B will receive 5 points.</p> <p>Here are the exact formulae for the interested readers</p> <p><div class='p_embed p_image_embed'> <a href="http://getfile3.posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/temp-2012-02-18/oCvujuEzrvgbzaigvmutlxrgrdhhfGbtvwzqJfItdvFfIbaaJIuyuulqCCht/rep-formula.gif.scaled1000.gif"><img alt="Rep-formula" height="268" src="http://getfile3.posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/temp-2012-02-18/oCvujuEzrvgbzaigvmutlxrgrdhhfGbtvwzqJfItdvFfIbaaJIuyuulqCCht/rep-formula.gif.scaled500.gif" width="500" /></a> </div> </p> <p>[ Image created with <a href="http://texify.com/" target="_blank">Texify</a> and <a href="http://webdemo.visionobjects.com/equation.html?locale=default" target="_blank">WebEquation</a>&nbsp;]</p> </p> <p><a href="http://blog.3dtin.com/reputation-scores">Permalink</a> | <a href="http://blog.3dtin.com/reputation-scores#comment">Leave a comment&nbsp;&nbsp;&raquo;</a> </p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/3dtin/~4/nahdYNtko6E" height="1" width="1"/> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/918704/icon128.png http://posterous.com/users/5Aap1V3mh7UZ 3DTin 3DTin 3DTin http://blog.3dtin.com/reputation-scores Tue, 07 Feb 2012 06:42:00 -0800 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/3dtin/~3/IoxPBQ8c4os/fresh-look http://blog.3dtin.com/fresh-look <p> <p>For nearly two years 3DTin has been under constant development, with frequent releases. It's a good strategy for engineering problems, but it makes you ignore the aesthetic values of your product's UI. For last month we have worked very hard to correct that shortcoming. 3DTin now comes with a well thought-out beautiful interface. <a href="http://www.3dtin.com" target="_blank">Take a look</a>.</p> <p><div class='p_embed p_image_embed'> <a href="http://getfile8.posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/temp-2012-02-07/bqktHiAzfEmathHdnDaDavnjEaqHnjluzrGairxxHAwClBDEuIJIBljCjzAy/newlook-1.jpg.scaled1000.jpg"><img alt="Newlook-1" height="339" src="http://getfile1.posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/temp-2012-02-07/bqktHiAzfEmathHdnDaDavnjEaqHnjluzrGairxxHAwClBDEuIJIBljCjzAy/newlook-1.jpg.scaled500.jpg" width="500" /></a> <a href="http://getfile0.posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/temp-2012-02-07/GcoEhqifEkaksppyJhvecAduBCuEhxFcotnkHuACFhaDchlhgBwisohogotk/newlook-2.jpg.scaled1000.jpg"><img alt="Newlook-2" height="339" src="http://getfile4.posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/temp-2012-02-07/GcoEhqifEkaksppyJhvecAduBCuEhxFcotnkHuACFhaDchlhgBwisohogotk/newlook-2.jpg.scaled500.jpg" width="500" /></a> <a href="http://getfile5.posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/temp-2012-02-07/FeAHIefllfopHhybakIyqymkgowygpJwesnsvDuivivaEBoDAdJtEawaiufx/newlook-3.jpg.scaled1000.jpg"><img alt="Newlook-3" height="340" src="http://getfile4.posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/temp-2012-02-07/FeAHIefllfopHhybakIyqymkgowygpJwesnsvDuivivaEBoDAdJtEawaiufx/newlook-3.jpg.scaled500.jpg" width="500" /></a> <a href="http://getfile2.posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/temp-2012-02-07/GjxlxHszbovcAxrzisvmzEJmnGzlxwoozcksevIwuagdyopewFDygvArffyH/newlook-4.jpg.scaled1000.jpg"><img alt="Newlook-4" height="340" src="http://getfile9.posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/temp-2012-02-07/GjxlxHszbovcAxrzisvmzEJmnGzlxwoozcksevIwuagdyopewFDygvArffyH/newlook-4.jpg.scaled500.jpg" width="500" /></a> <div class='p_see_full_gallery'><a href="http://blog.3dtin.com/fresh-look">See the full gallery on Posterous</a></div> </div> </p> <p>There are more things too.</p> <p><strong>More Templates (Total 60 of them now)</strong></p> <p>We have added bunch of templates last week. They mainly provide variations of basic shapes based on angle of revolution. For e.g. two of the new templates are Cylindrical Pie and Cylindrical segment. They let you create specific shapes from a cylinder by entering different values of angle. We have then extended the same idea across all revolution based templates (Cone, Sphere, Pipe, etc) and added them as templates.</p> <p><div class='p_embed p_image_embed'> <img alt="Pw" height="256" src="http://getfile8.posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/temp-2012-02-07/rfpyAwdgyrsfhkpItDqJIychekerobEgvmppzgCspkdzyduBJgGFguslujFx/pw.png.scaled500.png" width="256" /> <img alt="Hw" height="256" src="http://getfile3.posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/temp-2012-02-07/JAhzGnzpckieAAoEofnvlDJmziDxfqeGEzexvBqCbnmwEcztFiFCDmIrvqBk/hw.png.scaled500.png" width="256" /> <div class='p_see_full_gallery'><a href="http://blog.3dtin.com/fresh-look">See the full gallery on Posterous</a></div> </div> </p> <p><strong>Alignment</strong></p> <p>I am a big fan of Inkscape. I love their grouping controls that let me align many elements quickly. I wanted same functionality in 3DTin too. Therefore we have added similar controls to align objects in 3D space.</p> <p><div class='p_embed p_image_embed'> <img alt="Screen_shot_2012-02-07_at_8" height="131" src="http://getfile7.posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/temp-2012-02-07/agqdtJcJihDGkBwBtDgyFenHIdJwIbzBomAaBbfzjesFEfkcukcvpqdvdyhn/Screen_shot_2012-02-07_at_8.00.30_PM.png.scaled500.png" width="317" /> </div> </p> <p><strong>Youtube Tutorials</strong></p> <p>From new users, there has always been a complaint about lack of proper documentation and tutorials. Since we were constantly experimenting with new features, it didn't make sense to document something only to change/remove it later. But now that has changed. We have added 5 very informative video tutorials, that will demo various functions of 3DTin. They are accessible right through the interface, by clicking on the Guide icon in the top toolbar.</p> <p>Here is a playlist of all those videos.</p> <p><iframe src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/videoseries?list=PLEAD67EF87E167387&amp;hl=en_US" frameborder="0" height="300" width="500"></iframe></p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>We have also made some changes to the workflow of recently added features too. Mainly to fix some annoying behavior they had. That involved making the context dialog modal. It's the dialog (actually only a toolbar) that appears when you click on the geometry. It now doesn't disappear after you move the mouse away, it stays there. Its accidental disappearance was a major source of annoyance.</p> <p>In the life of a Web site there is hardly any meaning for a 1.0 release, because it evolves continously. But if it matters to anyone, this would be the 1.0 release of 3DTin.</p> <p>Enjoy!</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> </p> <p><a href="http://blog.3dtin.com/fresh-look">Permalink</a> | <a href="http://blog.3dtin.com/fresh-look#comment">Leave a comment&nbsp;&nbsp;&raquo;</a> </p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/3dtin/~4/IoxPBQ8c4os" height="1" width="1"/> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/918704/icon128.png http://posterous.com/users/5Aap1V3mh7UZ 3DTin 3DTin 3DTin http://blog.3dtin.com/fresh-look Tue, 24 Jan 2012 04:59:00 -0800 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/3dtin/~3/RsK6N7pbbSk/scaling-and-shearing http://blog.3dtin.com/scaling-and-shearing <p> <p>An important aspect of 3D modeling software is its ability to apply affine transformations. So far we have supported three affine transformations - Translation (Moving the geometry), Rotation, Reflection (Flipping the geometry). Today we are adding two more to that list - Scaling and Shearing.</p> <p>With scaling you can resize a geometry or a group of geometries - uniformly or non-uniformly. This gives you the ability to resize different components of your model relative to other components. Non-uniform scaling gives you ability to create more interesting shapes than were possible before - e.g. Ellipses and Ellipsoids.</p> <p>Shearing is another useful transform. It comes handy when you want to skew an object sideways while still keeping the surfaces in perpendicular direction flat.</p> <p>A demo can explain much better than the prose can, so here you go.</p> <p><iframe src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/kk0vQQyF8kk" frameborder="0" height="315" width="560"></iframe></p> </p> <p><a href="http://blog.3dtin.com/scaling-and-shearing">Permalink</a> | <a href="http://blog.3dtin.com/scaling-and-shearing#comment">Leave a comment&nbsp;&nbsp;&raquo;</a> </p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/3dtin/~4/RsK6N7pbbSk" height="1" width="1"/> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/918704/icon128.png http://posterous.com/users/5Aap1V3mh7UZ 3DTin 3DTin 3DTin http://blog.3dtin.com/scaling-and-shearing Tue, 17 Jan 2012 03:44:00 -0800 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/3dtin/~3/N0MVGwqatF8/grouping-and-other-things http://blog.3dtin.com/grouping-and-other-things <p> <p><em><strong>TL;DR</strong> Check the demo video at the end.</em></p> <p>We are very excited to introduce a Grouping workflow in 3DTin. It is going to play important role in enabling you to make more complex models with 3DTin.</p> <p>Last month - out of the blue - I felt like modeling the <a href="http://www.moddb.com/mods/avatar-pandora-wars/images/rda-scorpion-helicopter" target="_blank">vertical takeoff chopper from Avatar</a>. The one with two fans on either side that can rotate and point upward or forward depending upon which direction the chopper wants to go. When I started to assemble the fans, I realized how hard it was to do it with 3DTin, even though it should have been very simple. There were two major drawbacks.</p> <p>1. Placing geometries at exact location w.r.t. other geometries was very difficult.</p> <p>2. There were so many repetitive parts which should have been copy-pastable, but were not. (All blades of a fan are same. Also the twin fans of the chopper are mirror images of each other. Why draw each one separately)</p> <p>The reason behind first limitation lies in the history of 3DTin. Since it started as a voxel editor tool, everything is aligned to the boundaries of grid cells. That is why after geometries are rotated they shift a little to align with the invisible grid structure and when geometries are moved they snap to grid lines. The second limitation called for a grouping mechanism that will allow aggregating arbitrary number of geometries together and performing operations on them as single unit, including group cloning.</p> <p>After nearly a month we are glad that we have solved both of these problems.</p> <p>To fix the first problem, we had to reorganize some code. It wasn't that difficult to implement continuous movement, but it took much work to ensure that it won't break existing sketches. In the new implementation, the rotated geometries won't snap to nearest boundaries. They will remain exactly where their preview predicts they will be. As for continuous motion of geometries, we have added a "Snap to Grid" toggle button to the bottom left toolbar.</p> <p><div class='p_embed p_image_embed'> <img alt="Snap2gridon" height="72" src="http://getfile7.posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/temp-2012-01-17/uJcdywiCtaGjkeGHDlvywvJhfgmuaeurnhiFFnjvwbltkmFgqnnehEFndIlC/snap2gridOn.png.scaled500.png" width="72" /> </div> </p> <p>When it's ON, the geometries will snap to grid-lines as you move them around (just like before). But when you turn it OFF, you will be able to move the geometries in continuous trajectory, without any jumps. To help you judge the exact location of geometry's edges we have added a position readout panel at the bottom, which continuously displays the location of the geometry.</p> <p>You will see what I mean in the demo video below.</p> <p>Let's talk about grouping before that. You will see a new button added in upper left toolbar - that we call "Select" tool.</p> <p><div class='p_embed p_image_embed'> <img alt="Select" height="64" src="http://getfile0.posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/temp-2012-01-17/ackGEyfnqimDxuGwAftfkyyeInvbJfGoBcmmhElvelmtmFxAjvyaFeHCcdsv/select.png.scaled500.png" width="64" /> </div> </p> <p>You click on the "Select" icon and draw a rectangle over your sketch, trying to capture all the geometries of interest. You will see them getting highlighted as you do this. Once you have selected them, a bar will appear on the top, which will let you perform several operations on this group of geometries. We call this temporary grouping. One of the options in this bar is named "Group". When you press it, all the selected geometries will become part of a single group geometry, that you can treat as a single unit. You can move it, rotate it, flip it and even clone it to create multiple copies of it. This technique lets you create hierarchy of geometries, which makes big modeling projects very manageable.</p> <p>To demonstrate what I mean, I created a video as I was creating the Twin fans of the vertical takeoff chopper I mentioned above. Take a look.</p> <p><iframe src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/0qPf2CBnGsg" frameborder="0" height="315" width="560"></iframe></p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>If someone wants to complete the entire chopper before me, <a href="http://www.3dtin.com/8iuw" target="_blank">this</a> is where you go.</p> <p>Besides these two major improvements, we took the opportunity to fix many other small things too. The Axis dial in bottom right is one example. Also, gone are those wireframe boxes that showed geometry focus, instead we now use geometry outline to do that job elegantly. All the controls are now properly documented with snappy tooltips (thanks to <a href="http://onehackoranother.com/projects/jquery/tipsy/" target="_blank">tipsy</a>)</p> <p>Let me know how do you like it.</p> </p> <p><a href="http://blog.3dtin.com/grouping-and-other-things">Permalink</a> | <a href="http://blog.3dtin.com/grouping-and-other-things#comment">Leave a comment&nbsp;&nbsp;&raquo;</a> </p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/3dtin/~4/N0MVGwqatF8" height="1" width="1"/> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/918704/icon128.png http://posterous.com/users/5Aap1V3mh7UZ 3DTin 3DTin 3DTin http://blog.3dtin.com/grouping-and-other-things Tue, 03 Jan 2012 06:04:39 -0800 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/3dtin/~3/DiKq-5_Hypk/search-and-tags http://blog.3dtin.com/search-and-tags <p> <p>Happy New Year all!</p> <p>I am glad to announce this year's first feature-set today.</p> <p>Now you can use a search box to discover sketches on 3DTin. Here is an example.</p> <p><div class='p_embed p_image_embed'> <img alt="Search-results" height="487" src="http://getfile0.posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/temp-2012-01-03/loxuJvqrqitzkqedymBqeDkuJczfsykozlwefscymnkdcktEzCpcocCsiGtm/search-results.jpg.scaled500.jpg" width="362" /> </div> </p> <p>To improve the search experince and categorize the sketches efficiently we have also implemented tagging. You can add tags while saving a new sketch. You can update them later by pressing 'more' button in titlebox. Moreover, tags are managed in wiki-style, i.e. anyone can add/remove tags from anyone else's sketches. We hope that collaboratively all of us can build a more structured library of 3D models in future.</p> <p><div class='p_embed p_image_embed'> <img alt="Tags" height="336" src="http://getfile7.posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/temp-2012-01-03/dbailxyezwIBqwlxEilltptmeConlFAxwmklhhIjyAGjsFurkipFAypolzwu/tags.jpg.scaled500.jpg" width="340" /> </div> </p> <p>In order to make the search results safe, we have implemented a flagging mechanism too. For sketches with offensive content, you can just click on the flag icon in the titlebox and we will filter those sketches out from the search results.</p> <p><div class='p_embed p_image_embed'> <img alt="Screen_shot_2012-01-03_at_7" height="51" src="http://getfile0.posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/temp-2012-01-03/qoyoysuharonCAHhsmIDDpxiwfoFpowducfJkxzvsjejwAbgogpcEjweDCyr/Screen_shot_2012-01-03_at_7.21.51_PM.png.scaled500.png" width="179" /> </div> </p> <p>Although search box is currently only useful to search for sketches and users, it is going to play a vital role in the overall 3D modeling workflow. Stay tuned to this blog to hear more on that.</p> <p>And yes. You no longer have to have Google login in order to login to 3DTin. We now support OpenID login for Twitter and Facebook identities too.</p> <p><div class='p_embed p_image_embed'> <a href="http://getfile1.posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/temp-2012-01-03/ICkjfDJmmmheljyeIwuEyqwlojJxqBxuCDAlIDIHCnhAnhiDicctmttkkpab/Screen_shot_2012-01-03_at_7.27.02_PM.png"><img alt="Screen_shot_2012-01-03_at_7" height="153.195488721805" src="http://getfile1.posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/temp-2012-01-03/ICkjfDJmmmheljyeIwuEyqwlojJxqBxuCDAlIDIHCnhAnhiDicctmttkkpab/Screen_shot_2012-01-03_at_7.27.02_PM.png" width="500" /></a> </div> </p> <p>Enjoy!</p> </p> <p><a href="http://blog.3dtin.com/search-and-tags">Permalink</a> | <a href="http://blog.3dtin.com/search-and-tags#comment">Leave a comment&nbsp;&nbsp;&raquo;</a> </p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/3dtin/~4/DiKq-5_Hypk" height="1" width="1"/> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/918704/icon128.png http://posterous.com/users/5Aap1V3mh7UZ 3DTin 3DTin 3DTin http://blog.3dtin.com/search-and-tags Mon, 26 Dec 2011 04:42:18 -0800 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/3dtin/~3/UOMGIdI_6Ww/continuous-rotation http://blog.3dtin.com/continuous-rotation <p> <p>Hope you are having wonderful holidays. It has been an eventful year for us at 3DTin. In 2011 we converted our browser based humble voxel editing program into something that can create 3D models comparable to desktop CAD tools.</p> <p>Before 2011 ends though, we want to release one more enhancement to 3DTin.</p> <p>As you can tell, 3DTin's workspace is primarily discrete. That is, the geometries are aligned at discrete edges of the grid. They cannot be moved continuously. This restriction is helpful (although sometimes annoying), because you don't have to worry about accurate placement of geometries. When we introduced geometry rotation, we followed the same philosophy and allowed rotations in multiples of 90&ordm;. Besides, there wasn't much point in allowing arbitrary rotations, when you could not merge geometries into each other. But that has changed. Now you can <a href="http://blog.3dtin.com/merging-geometries">merge geometries</a>. Therefore it makes lot of sense to allow continuous rotations.</p> <p>Now when you select a geometry, you will see a new context window as below.</p> <p><div class='p_embed p_image_embed'> <img alt="3dtin-cont-rotation" height="303" src="http://getfile7.posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/temp-2011-12-26/ifaqbecyfAfisnjaocnGkczgjfjeAAkbzybxHbgCCtBpifcECqAEwomvGfIh/3DTin-cont-rotation.jpg" width="297" /> </div> </p> <p>When you click on the rotation icon (red circle), you will see the rotation controls appear. They contain a slider at the bottom of the context window (green rectangle). You can move the slider to rotate the geometry through any angle you want. There are also two icons if you quickly want to rotate through 90&ordm;, just like old days. As you change the angle the geometry will rotate. Moreover the degree callout window (green rectangle) will show the actual number of degrees being applied. In case you want to give specific number of degrees and slider's resolution falls short, then you can click on the degree callout window and it will prompt you to enter the degrees with text entry.</p> <p>The continuous rotation combined with geometry merging gives ample opportunity to create interesting models.</p> <p>Check out these couple of examples that demonstrate what you can do with continuous rotation.</p> <p><div class='p_embed p_image_embed'> <img alt="Fanblades" height="316" src="http://getfile8.posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/temp-2011-12-26/uDkiCIpyzAorCEBfBdFngwBreCayxJdwAblqmsBEzmxBzsgbtkApgloqJJch/fanblades.jpg.scaled500.jpg" width="372" /> <img alt="Sculpture" height="387" src="http://getfile8.posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/temp-2011-12-26/nBekFusGkntchgyfafBimjswBveEFJfyDwsmDzserGaFinFAvDkbFmwfqgoz/sculpture.jpg.scaled500.jpg" width="479" /> <div class='p_see_full_gallery'><a href="http://blog.3dtin.com/continuous-rotation">See the full gallery on Posterous</a></div> </div> The <a href="http://www.3dtin.com/crrw">first one</a> shows a fan whose blades are rotated 45&ordm; and then merged with the central arms. The <a href="http://www.3dtin.com/y3ew">second one</a> is an abstract sculpture with the Tapered pipe geometry rotated at 60&ordm; angle.</p> <p>Note that, the continuous rotation cannot be applied to cube-groups. If you want brick shaped structures to be rotated through arbitrary angles, you should make them from the Box template instead of cubes.</p> <p>The new design of the context window uses a new set of icons for actions like clone, flip, 2x, edit, etc. All the functionality is unchanged though.</p> </p> <p><a href="http://blog.3dtin.com/continuous-rotation">Permalink</a> | <a href="http://blog.3dtin.com/continuous-rotation#comment">Leave a comment&nbsp;&nbsp;&raquo;</a> </p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/3dtin/~4/UOMGIdI_6Ww" height="1" width="1"/> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/918704/icon128.png http://posterous.com/users/5Aap1V3mh7UZ 3DTin 3DTin 3DTin http://blog.3dtin.com/continuous-rotation Fri, 16 Dec 2011 04:23:00 -0800 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/3dtin/~3/MhlkI6xYO9g/merging-geometries http://blog.3dtin.com/merging-geometries <p> <p>Since the beginning of time we have maintained a restriction that prevents you from overlapping multiple geometries in 3DTin. Whenever you move a geometry and try to collide it with another geometry, you get the orange warning box - "Avoiding Geometry Overlap". This limitation can be frustrating sometimes. Imagine you want to stick a conical nose to the spherical head of a Joker. If you cannot push the nose into the head, then it will look floating - barely touching the head at a single point of contact, totally artificial.</p> <p>We have solved this problem for you now. You can now merge all the objects into other objects every which way you want. As a result you can now make some interesting shapes like this one.</p> <p><div class='p_embed p_image_embed'> <a href="http://getfile9.posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/temp-2011-12-16/hsFetwdsaHlCkiBtgyrBjvafEbAgaCEkxzBHoHvapineqiAhctIuEpolcsad/Screen_shot_2011-12-16_at_5.35.15_PM.png.scaled1000.png"><img alt="Screen_shot_2011-12-16_at_5" height="342" src="http://getfile4.posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/temp-2011-12-16/hsFetwdsaHlCkiBtgyrBjvafEbAgaCEkxzBHoHvapineqiAhctIuEpolcsad/Screen_shot_2011-12-16_at_5.35.15_PM.png.scaled500.png" width="500" /></a> </div> </p> <p>This change can drastically improve the quality of the models. They can now look more realistic, instead of looking like mere collection of primitive blocks. I can't wait to see how you put it to use.</p> <p>[Technically speaking, this operation is called Union of two solids. It's one of the 3 standard CSG /boolean operations (others being subtraction and intersection)]</p> <p><strong>Update</strong>:</p> <p>There are some limitations that I left out in hurry yesterday. You can merge any number of geometries in the browser if you want, but if your ultimate goal is 3D printing you should use geometry merging with restraint. The boolean operations on solids are time consuming. So while exporting the STLs we do not perform merging if more than 10 geometries are overlapping in a group. We just export them as is. Such exported files may look the same, but they may contain invalid polygons that may confuse a 3D printer.</p> </p> <p><a href="http://blog.3dtin.com/merging-geometries">Permalink</a> | <a href="http://blog.3dtin.com/merging-geometries#comment">Leave a comment&nbsp;&nbsp;&raquo;</a> </p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/3dtin/~4/MhlkI6xYO9g" height="1" width="1"/> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/918704/icon128.png http://posterous.com/users/5Aap1V3mh7UZ 3DTin 3DTin 3DTin http://blog.3dtin.com/merging-geometries Sat, 03 Dec 2011 03:04:12 -0800 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/3dtin/~3/wSTeNFIIucY/teach-and-earn http://blog.3dtin.com/teach-and-earn <p> <p>We know that some of you are good at teaching others about a tool like 3DTin. We have seen some enthusiastic video tutorials on Youtube showing how to use 3DTin. You are definitely better at it than we are. So here is a good news for you.</p> <p>Create a video tutorial that shows how to use 3DTin to create awesome 3D models and we will give you the Premium Membership for FREE.</p> <p>Just record your 3DTin session when you are creating a model. Describe the steps briefly as you go along and upload the video to Youtube. Let's know about it through the following submission form.</p> <p><div class='p_embed p_image_embed'> <img alt="Screen_shot_2011-12-03_at_4" height="415" src="http://getfile2.posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/temp-2011-12-03/awulofGbqnHfyHeBuADyeeDkgtpkhmBkxEeHkHsimhrwCkwcpbEBfIuBmuyB/Screen_shot_2011-12-03_at_4.27.41_PM.png.scaled500.png" width="484" /> </div> </p> <p><span style="font-size: small;">(You can get to the above form by clicking on the "info" icon in top toolbar and then clicking on the video icon in lower-left corner of keyboard shortcuts window. You will also see a "Teach &amp; Earn" webclip now and then, it leads to the same form.)</span></p> <p>If your video follows the guidelines, you get a Premium Membership.</p> <p>We will feature select videos in 3DTin gallery to give them the exposure they deserve.</p> <p>So start recording...</p> </p> <p><a href="http://blog.3dtin.com/teach-and-earn">Permalink</a> | <a href="http://blog.3dtin.com/teach-and-earn#comment">Leave a comment&nbsp;&nbsp;&raquo;</a> </p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/3dtin/~4/wSTeNFIIucY" height="1" width="1"/> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/918704/icon128.png http://posterous.com/users/5Aap1V3mh7UZ 3DTin 3DTin 3DTin http://blog.3dtin.com/teach-and-earn Tue, 29 Nov 2011 04:08:00 -0800 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/3dtin/~3/XhangdDAal4/3d-text-improvements http://blog.3dtin.com/3d-text-improvements <p> <p>Last week we introduced 3D Text. Even though it worked as it was supposed to, there were some caveats. For one it was darn slow. Moreover the parameters (width, height, text length) were confusing.</p> <p>Over weekend I found a way to speed things up a little by caching intermediate results. Now you won't have to wait forever for the text solid to build. The build time is proportional to the length of the text. We allow text length that can be built within 1 minute. The limit on text length was 5 characters. With latest improvements we can build longer text strings, so we have now raised the limit to 10 characters.</p> <p>It is now also possible to create text with any aspect ratio. You can specify both width and height of the desired text and our server will scale the text accordingly. If you leave one of the Width or Height to 0, then that dimension will be automatically calculated to suite the default aspect ratio of text.</p> <p>Hope the typophiles among you will like these improvements.</p> </p> <p><a href="http://blog.3dtin.com/3d-text-improvements">Permalink</a> | <a href="http://blog.3dtin.com/3d-text-improvements#comment">Leave a comment&nbsp;&nbsp;&raquo;</a> </p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/3dtin/~4/XhangdDAal4" height="1" width="1"/> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/918704/icon128.png http://posterous.com/users/5Aap1V3mh7UZ 3DTin 3DTin 3DTin http://blog.3dtin.com/3d-text-improvements Thu, 24 Nov 2011 03:47:00 -0800 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/3dtin/~3/4W13MltQ6lg/3d-text http://blog.3dtin.com/3d-text <p> <p>In our daily life there is a family of shapes that we encounter most frequently, yet it's too complex to draw using primitive tools. I am talking about Text.</p> <p>Our digital universe is primarily made of text, but we never have to draw it. All the complex shapes that make up the text are mapped to specific keys on our keyboard. When we hit the keys the underlying software knows how to convert that keystroke in the shape of a letter. We don't have to worry about how smooth the curvature of "O" is or how tall "J" should look. Most of the software we use daily has taken care of these minute details. But when it comes to modeling tools, that luxury can't be taken for granted.</p> <p>For instance in 3DTin, users have tried to create textual shapes in their 3D models by using cubes. But the results are far from ideal. Typical glyphs are so intricately shaped that, designing them manually is out of question. Therefore we decided to do something about it. We are introducing two templates to add text to your 3D models.</p> <p>You will see the new templates near the end of the template list (which you can open by clicking the geometry button below 3DTin icon in the top left corner)</p> <p><div class='p_embed p_image_embed'> <a href="http://getfile3.posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/temp-2011-11-24/olbkopIhBnEDBzjlkmhDmCtogbnJktEodCIcAqhdbFBIyFyyHCJxFrIvkavf/Screen_shot_2011-11-24_at_4.41.23_PM.png.scaled1000.png"><img alt="Screen_shot_2011-11-24_at_4" height="351" src="http://getfile1.posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/temp-2011-11-24/olbkopIhBnEDBzjlkmhDmCtogbnJktEodCIcAqhdbFBIyFyyHCJxFrIvkavf/Screen_shot_2011-11-24_at_4.41.23_PM.png.scaled500.png" width="500" /></a> </div> </p> <p>Click on the Text template and you will get to customize it.</p> <p><div class='p_embed p_image_embed'> <img alt="Screen_shot_2011-11-24_at_4" height="397" src="http://getfile6.posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/temp-2011-11-24/mapueyIBFFyCImltcCbocuDClFDsggmJdxhdgJqeBxappJofskvrcgaowEye/Screen_shot_2011-11-24_at_4.23.55_PM.png.scaled500.png" width="389" /> </div> </p> <p>Fill in whatever text you want to add. Specify height or width (not both) and choose one of the three fonts.</p> <p>When you press 'Add', the server will generate the solid in the shape of the text you provided. Once it's ready you will see the ghost of this solid dancing along the mouse cursor.<div class='p_embed p_image_embed'> <img alt="Screen_shot_2011-11-24_at_4" height="206" src="http://getfile5.posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/temp-2011-11-24/zyDuzgekdifmkGoHrfokwAwyBybwrkcqJvbzGdtDzIeiqyqtvGnEtjBzibAB/Screen_shot_2011-11-24_at_4.24.34_PM.png.scaled500.png" width="304" /> </div> </p> <p>As you click anywhere in the sketch, the solid will get added to the sketch.<div class='p_embed p_image_embed'> <img alt="Screen_shot_2011-11-24_at_4" height="169" src="http://getfile4.posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/temp-2011-11-24/bmemmghaJuJloJaJlerHiriFrsjzHowruxtryzlrtHunwmrGxBoJukqrylHs/Screen_shot_2011-11-24_at_4.25.08_PM.png.scaled500.png" width="356" /> </div> </p> <p>As simple as that.</p> <p>There is no new interface, it's just another template.</p> <p>The second new template is similar to the first one in parameters, except it generates a void in the shape of text. It will be useful to create engraved text.</p> <p><strong>How is it done?</strong></p> <p>If you remember, we have built our server infrastructure in the form of a python library named '<a href="https://github.com/jayesh3/cadmium" target="_blank">Cadmium</a>' - which is written on top of the venerable CAD libraries OpenCASCADE and PythonOCC. In order to create 3D text, we extended the cadmium library for the job. We use python bindings of fontforge to extract shape information from TTF font files and then use it to build solids using PythonOCC. The source code is available in cadmium's github <a href="https://github.com/jayesh3/cadmium" target="_blank">repository</a>. If you are an advanced user interested in cadmium, you will be glad to know how easy it's to create an STL file in the shape of the text you want. You just need to write following 3 lines of python code.</p> <div class="CodeRay"> <div class="code"><pre>from cadmium import Text s = Text('My 3D Text', fontpath='path-of-ttf-font-file', width=10, thickness=1) s.toSTL('mytext.stl')</pre></div> </div> <p>It's all ready to use. So give it a try and let me know how it goes.</p> <p><strong>Caveat</strong>&nbsp;Since it takes lot of processing on server to generate the solid from text glyph, we have limited the length of text to 5 for now. Depending upon ongoing usage we may change it in future.</p> </p> <p><a href="http://blog.3dtin.com/3d-text">Permalink</a> | <a href="http://blog.3dtin.com/3d-text#comment">Leave a comment&nbsp;&nbsp;&raquo;</a> </p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/3dtin/~4/4W13MltQ6lg" height="1" width="1"/> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/918704/icon128.png http://posterous.com/users/5Aap1V3mh7UZ 3DTin 3DTin 3DTin http://blog.3dtin.com/3d-text Sun, 06 Nov 2011 00:59:00 -0700 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/3dtin/~3/lxcHYUb0v6Y/backend-migration-is-now-complete http://blog.3dtin.com/backend-migration-is-now-complete <p> <p>A month long project to rewrite 3DTin backend has finally paid off. 24 hours ago we switched to our new server that is hosted on Amazon EC2. All the data was migrated from GAE datastore to our new database, with virtually no downtime. Other peripheral functions like Leaderboard and Premium membership payment system were restored gradually and now everything is working as before the switch.</p> <p>Our new server architecture uses Tornado Web server, Amazon S3 for storage and PostGreSql for database. Unlike Google App Engine, we are in total control of this environment. It has already simplified many aspects of 3DTin webapp and I can see many opportunities to improve things further.</p> <p>Please log in to your 3DTin account and let me know if you see any problems.</p> <p><strong>Update </strong>It has come to our notice that some users who have saved sketches on 3DTin in the past, may not find them anymore. If this happens, please don't panic, <a href="mailto:jayesh@3dtin.com">just drop me an email</a>. Your data is safe, it may just be differently organized due to new login mechanism.</p> </p> <p><a href="http://blog.3dtin.com/backend-migration-is-now-complete">Permalink</a> | <a href="http://blog.3dtin.com/backend-migration-is-now-complete#comment">Leave a comment&nbsp;&nbsp;&raquo;</a> </p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/3dtin/~4/lxcHYUb0v6Y" height="1" width="1"/> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/918704/icon128.png http://posterous.com/users/5Aap1V3mh7UZ 3DTin 3DTin 3DTin http://blog.3dtin.com/backend-migration-is-now-complete Thu, 27 Oct 2011 21:01:00 -0700 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/3dtin/~3/R51AXiSYojs/update-55018 http://blog.3dtin.com/update-55018 <p> <p>In past few weeks we haven't added any significant features to 3DTin front end, therefore I didn't have much to write. I have spent most of that time working on the backend, whereas <a href="http://about.me/niharsawant" target="_blank">Nihar</a> has been working on tidying up 3DTin's GUI widgets to create a consistent interface.</p> <p>Ever since 3DTin started, I chose Google App Engine to host the website, mainly due to extremely cheap hosting and my preference for Python. GAE has served us well. During the times of flash traffic it has helped us remain up. However, as 3DTin's needs started to diverge from a typical website (Export server, Cadmium factory server), we found GAE to be very limiting. I have been contemplating the shift from GAE for over a year now. But it didn't make sense to spend time on it at the expense of ignoring CAD features of the frontend. However, GAE announced certain changes in past month and it suddenly made sense to work on the migration after all. I spent entire October re-architecting our server architecture. In the new design I got chance to implement certain features that should reduce the overall loading time of 3DTin.</p> <p>The backend work is in its last stage now and during next week we will proceed with actual migration from GAE to Amazon EC2. Our plan is to have minimal downtime during the process. In fact, if everything goes according to the plan, the site will never be down; only for a brief period of time it will go readonly (i.e. you won't be able to save Sketches). I will post updates about how it goes.</p> <p>Meanwhile, let me write about some subtle enhancements that Nihar has done in 3DTin GUI. In my opinion, 3DTin's GUI still lacks consistency (e.g. Undo-redo feature, standard keyboard commands). Nihar's work is a step in that direction to improve things. He has implemented a consistent Keyboard handling architecture, so that standard keyboard keys will behave as expected. For instance, Enter and ESC can now be consistently used to accept/dismiss dialog prompts. In the template browser dialog, Arrow keys provide an alternative way to reach the desired template. I am sure these small details are going to prove important in the long run, so we are taking some time off the main feature-train to work on them.</p> <p>Every other day I browse the sketches that users have created recently, and more often than not I come across a sketch that makes me go "wow!". I add these great works to the gallery and also post them to our Facebook page and Twitter stream. I will highly recommend you to subscribe to one of these channels to see some incredible 3D modeling work people are doing with 3DTin. You will find the links on the left of this column.</p> <p>Stay tuned and enjoy modeling.</p> </p> <p><a href="http://blog.3dtin.com/update-55018">Permalink</a> | <a href="http://blog.3dtin.com/update-55018#comment">Leave a comment&nbsp;&nbsp;&raquo;</a> </p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/3dtin/~4/R51AXiSYojs" height="1" width="1"/> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/918704/icon128.png http://posterous.com/users/5Aap1V3mh7UZ 3DTin 3DTin 3DTin http://blog.3dtin.com/update-55018 Tue, 04 Oct 2011 20:11:50 -0700 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/3dtin/~3/-rxcgYftle0/custom-background-colors http://blog.3dtin.com/custom-background-colors <p> <p>When you compose a 3D scene with careful color combination or with strategic light effects, the results loose some of their lure due to stark white background. It makes the sketch look artificial. Therefore we added a small feature this week that lets you change the background colors of 3D models. It's added as the 4th option in light options panel, that you can reach by hovering over the little sun icon from the toolbar in left bottom corner (WebGL only).</p> <p><div class='p_embed p_image_embed'> <img alt="Screen_shot_2011-10-05_at_8" height="217" src="http://posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/temp-2011-10-04/ybrtAsBJntfswrElsiCmtiwFvJsryyAdjlnEdDpjyrhrJhxspJrolAiCodHz/Screen_shot_2011-10-05_at_8.35.09_AM.png.scaled500.png" width="455" /> </div> </p> <p>Here are some before-and-after results</p> <p><div class='p_embed p_image_embed'> <a href="http://posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/temp-2011-10-04/grEAHChtFnkEzoBCDiqmDJaahtyoslHAwGxcgqcfpJJHhAwrpmqHBJezyjqE/x1.png.scaled1000.png"><img alt="X1" height="423" src="http://posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/temp-2011-10-04/grEAHChtFnkEzoBCDiqmDJaahtyoslHAwGxcgqcfpJJHhAwrpmqHBJezyjqE/x1.png.scaled500.png" width="500" /></a> <a href="http://posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/temp-2011-10-04/rtxcnCFnwwFsCfHDznBGbcrahFtljyjlqsGdtvtfusaqcuihloHpkyqaqFGD/x0.png.scaled1000.png"><img alt="X0" height="423" src="http://posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/temp-2011-10-04/rtxcnCFnwwFsCfHDznBGbcrahFtljyjlqsGdtvtfusaqcuihloHpkyqaqFGD/x0.png.scaled500.png" width="500" /></a> <div class='p_see_full_gallery'><a href="http://blog.3dtin.com/custom-background-colors">See the full gallery on Posterous</a></div> </div> <span style="font-family: Cantarell, Verdana, Sans Serif, serif, Arial; font-size: 16px; line-height: 35px;"><a href="http://www.3dtin.com/3en" target="_blank">wep&ntilde;igqg</a></span></p> <p><div class='p_embed p_image_embed'> <a href="http://posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/temp-2011-10-04/oJdEobabHIejJAhpzeEHbAugfEHiiEypnDCDJtrIopeCvjHJshpnHAhvlruz/y1.png.scaled1000.png"><img alt="Y1" height="537" src="http://posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/temp-2011-10-04/oJdEobabHIejJAhpzeEHbAugfEHiiEypnDCDJtrIopeCvjHJshpnHAhvlruz/y1.png.scaled500.png" width="500" /></a> <a href="http://posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/temp-2011-10-04/sunEkbhpxwCDohDeEuywfydAkdIwBpDoragerIizEFHkJvyydxGCJrypuDcs/y0.png.scaled1000.png"><img alt="Y0" height="537" src="http://posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/temp-2011-10-04/sunEkbhpxwCDohDeEuywfydAkdIwBpDoragerIizEFHkJvyydxGCJrypuDcs/y0.png.scaled500.png" width="500" /></a> <div class='p_see_full_gallery'><a href="http://blog.3dtin.com/custom-background-colors">See the full gallery on Posterous</a></div> </div> </p> <p><a href="http://www.3dtin.com/zcx" target="_blank">Cleaning closet</a></p> <p>I hope this will add more context to your sketches.</p> </p> <p><a href="http://blog.3dtin.com/custom-background-colors">Permalink</a> | <a href="http://blog.3dtin.com/custom-background-colors#comment">Leave a comment&nbsp;&nbsp;&raquo;</a> </p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/3dtin/~4/-rxcgYftle0" height="1" width="1"/> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/918704/icon128.png http://posterous.com/users/5Aap1V3mh7UZ 3DTin 3DTin 3DTin http://blog.3dtin.com/custom-background-colors Sat, 24 Sep 2011 20:40:19 -0700 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/3dtin/~3/2EHyOUt8f7I/documentation http://blog.3dtin.com/documentation <p> <p>We spent some time last week to add some "meta" to 3DTin.</p> <p>There is a quick tutorial now. The interface is meant to be self explanatory, but it doesn't hurt to explicitly explain a few things. The tutorial is linked from the new "Home screen", that appears when you visit the site first time and can be recalled again by clicking on the 3DTin icon in the top left corner.</p> <p><div class='p_embed p_image_embed'> <a href="http://posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/temp-2011-09-24/kbhvFpGmwBpGrJuDrbzjIdynIceHahatngqItytJdnkzdlowpJmnBFGHotJt/Screen_shot_2011-09-25_at_9.06.46_AM.png.scaled1000.png"><img alt="Screen_shot_2011-09-25_at_9" height="476" src="http://posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/temp-2011-09-24/kbhvFpGmwBpGrJuDrbzjIdynIceHahatngqItytJdnkzdlowpJmnBFGHotJt/Screen_shot_2011-09-25_at_9.06.46_AM.png.scaled500.png" width="500" /></a> </div> </p> <p>We have also updated the preview images of all the templates, so that they clearly show the meaning of parameters.</p> <p><div class='p_embed p_image_embed'> <img alt="Screen_shot_2011-09-25_at_9" height="357" src="http://posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/temp-2011-09-24/zBGgcivzzccgrmoglwxacwrnrvuDvmGaaJIGgdqnmhyjfHHkadxlguskkAec/Screen_shot_2011-09-25_at_9.07.22_AM.png.scaled500.png" width="397" /> </div> </p> <p>Is there anything else you would like to see explained? Let us know.</p> </p> <p><a href="http://blog.3dtin.com/documentation">Permalink</a> | <a href="http://blog.3dtin.com/documentation#comment">Leave a comment&nbsp;&nbsp;&raquo;</a> </p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/3dtin/~4/2EHyOUt8f7I" height="1" width="1"/> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/918704/icon128.png http://posterous.com/users/5Aap1V3mh7UZ 3DTin 3DTin 3DTin http://blog.3dtin.com/documentation Tue, 13 Sep 2011 04:46:34 -0700 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/3dtin/~3/hBGFOaILEJI/cubes-are-fast-again http://blog.3dtin.com/cubes-are-fast-again <p> <p>The performance improvements we delivered few weeks ago, were mainly geared towards advanced geometry. For the sake of consistency in the code, we applied the same rendering techniques to cube based models as well. It worked alright, however the performance of cube based models dropped drastically.</p> <p>I expect use of advanced geometry will be more commonplace than cubes in the future. However, cubes give more freedom in drawing arbitrary shapes. And more importantly we have users who are very talented pixel artists and have created gorgeous artwork like the one below. We want to make sure that their cube based models render as fast as the ones with the advanced geometry, therefore we have fixed part of the code that was causing problems. Now the cube based models should load quickly.</p> <p><div class='p_embed p_image_embed'> <a href="http://posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/temp-2011-09-13/tuGFwCInAmeCngmovCarwespvocycHbryqFoHtiJGDwsjIDBbeeeznFhrkuA/Screen_shot_2011-09-13_at_5.11.16_PM.png.scaled1000.png"><img alt="Screen_shot_2011-09-13_at_5" height="293" src="http://posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/temp-2011-09-13/tuGFwCInAmeCngmovCarwespvocycHbryqFoHtiJGDwsjIDBbeeeznFhrkuA/Screen_shot_2011-09-13_at_5.11.16_PM.png.scaled500.png" width="500" /></a> </div> </p> <p>You can now try to <a href="http://www.3dtin.com/myk" target="_blank">load above sketch</a> and it will load without blocking your browser.</p> <p>Moreover we had some bugs in smoothing that used to make smoothed sketches take longer to load. We have fixed them too.</p> </p> <p><a href="http://blog.3dtin.com/cubes-are-fast-again">Permalink</a> | <a href="http://blog.3dtin.com/cubes-are-fast-again#comment">Leave a comment&nbsp;&nbsp;&raquo;</a> </p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/3dtin/~4/hBGFOaILEJI" height="1" width="1"/> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/918704/icon128.png http://posterous.com/users/5Aap1V3mh7UZ 3DTin 3DTin 3DTin http://blog.3dtin.com/cubes-are-fast-again Thu, 08 Sep 2011 06:24:20 -0700 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/3dtin/~3/rYR1UMH7QJU/advanced-modeling-with-new-templates http://blog.3dtin.com/advanced-modeling-with-new-templates <p> <p>As I promised couple of posts back, now that we have built our infrastructure we can deliver advanced modeling features on top of it. So far we supported 11 basic geometric shapes for you to add to your sketches. Today we added 26 additional shapes to that list. Let me tell you what that means with a couple of screenshots.</p> <p><div class='p_embed p_image_embed'> <a href="http://posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/temp-2011-09-08/iHuftDEyxhFzlJCComCxAatrAcgoJGujagtyBohgsCkEssJrbdAkqCGdJiuh/Screen_shot_2011-09-08_at_5.32.50_PM.png.scaled1000.png"><img alt="Screen_shot_2011-09-08_at_5" height="463" src="http://posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/temp-2011-09-08/iHuftDEyxhFzlJCComCxAatrAcgoJGujagtyBohgsCkEssJrbdAkqCGdJiuh/Screen_shot_2011-09-08_at_5.32.50_PM.png.scaled500.png" width="500" /></a> <a href="http://posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/temp-2011-09-08/BFAJmIubCllnegBBtDhncsghdkfskHvhBubJfonaDcprvcwByjAnjyuHjnda/Screen_shot_2011-09-08_at_5.47.07_PM.png.scaled1000.png"><img alt="Screen_shot_2011-09-08_at_5" height="366" src="http://posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/temp-2011-09-08/BFAJmIubCllnegBBtDhncsghdkfskHvhBubJfonaDcprvcwByjAnjyuHjnda/Screen_shot_2011-09-08_at_5.47.07_PM.png.scaled500.png" width="500" /></a> <div class='p_see_full_gallery'><a href="http://blog.3dtin.com/advanced-modeling-with-new-templates">See the full gallery on Posterous</a></div> </div> You can edit above two sketches here: <a href="http://www.3dtin.com/lcx" target="_blank">Imperial Fighter</a> and&nbsp;<a href="http://www.3dtin.com/zcx" target="_blank">Cleaning Closet</a></p> <p>As you can see, we can now build really interesting models simply&nbsp;by adding instances of basic geometric shapes. The basic principal of sketch design is still the same. Choose a template, fill in the variable values, arrange the generated instances to build what you want to build. Both the above sketches were created by following the same basic workflow.</p> <p><div class='p_embed p_image_embed'> <img alt="Screen_shot_2011-09-08_at_6" height="407" src="http://posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/temp-2011-09-08/yGuxxzvsAvGvwkCrDcbaaaGnHrzreIghhApCwgppebyegGJpnjsysuvcpwcn/Screen_shot_2011-09-08_at_6.05.37_PM.png.scaled500.png" width="494" /> </div> </p> <p>The templates now include a variety of basic shapes that are typically required for 3D modeling. In addition to the primitives (Box, Cylinder, Cone, Sphere), we have added Pyramid, Pipe, Torus, Pipe bends, Spherical shells, tapered cylinders, tapered pipes and half/quarter sections thereof. These shapes are quite generic. A hollow cylinder can make a rod in the bicycle, or a can of coca cola - it is up to you to specify the desired parameters (radius, thickness, height) and generate what you need for your 3D model. &nbsp;</p> <p>When you pick one of these shapes, fill in the variables and press the add button, a corresponding cadmium script executes on our server and returns you the mesh object to render. With ample amount of caching we try to make this process as fast as possible, so you don't have to wait. Recent WebGL performance overhaul was made specifically to make rendering of these objects faster and smoother. It has indeed paid off.</p> <p>I am very excited about the possibilities. In next few days I am going to enjoy myself making some models of my own. It was real fun to design above two models. I hope you will enjoy it too. Do let me know what you come up with.</p> </p> <p><a href="http://blog.3dtin.com/advanced-modeling-with-new-templates">Permalink</a> | <a href="http://blog.3dtin.com/advanced-modeling-with-new-templates#comment">Leave a comment&nbsp;&nbsp;&raquo;</a> </p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/3dtin/~4/rYR1UMH7QJU" height="1" width="1"/> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/918704/icon128.png http://posterous.com/users/5Aap1V3mh7UZ 3DTin 3DTin 3DTin http://blog.3dtin.com/advanced-modeling-with-new-templates Fri, 26 Aug 2011 19:15:50 -0700 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/3dtin/~3/0MKrZbEK60Y/google-in-app-payments http://blog.3dtin.com/google-in-app-payments <p> <p>We now support Google In App payments!</p> <p>Google introduced this API during the summer this year to facilitate quick purchases from inside the webapps with minimum number of clicks possible. (Ideally minimum = 2. First one to initiate the transaction, second to confirm it). Since a lot of our users come from <a href="https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/algoakekcdmbbikdjgjdahbfihboglmi?hl=en-US" target="_blank">Chrome Web Store</a>, they are likely to have Google Checkout accounts. We wanted to make it super easy for them to buy <a href="http://blog.3dtin.com/3dtin-premium" target="_self">3DTin Premium</a>.</p> <p>In online purchases - especially at lower price points - the inhibiting factor is not the price of the purchase, but the unwillingness of the user to fill in forms for Credit card info and billing address. That is why we wanted to make sure that there are as few hassles in the purchase process as possible. Google In App payments does exactly that. You can do the purchase in the middle of an editing session, and complete the transaction without ever leaving or refreshing the page.</p> <p><div class='p_embed p_image_embed'> <img alt="Screen_shot_2011-08-27_at_6" height="413" src="http://posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/temp-2011-08-26/tGnvmcGdDhJClspkxftlwnfqhACHIcDGjuAulqmqlucGaedkAivBBtvkxGih/Screen_shot_2011-08-27_at_6.51.22_AM.png.scaled500.png" width="477" /> </div> </p> <p>Moreover, Google In App payment API is incredibly simple to program against. I decided to start working on it exactly 24 hours ago. I had deployed it to the production server within 5 hours. Half of that time was spent in doing the artwork for the feature. Just read through the <a href="http://code.google.com/apis/inapppayments/docs/tutorial.html" target="_blank">Getting Started tutorial</a> and then look at the implementation of this <a href="http://code.google.com/p/iap-hello-world/" target="_blank">simple demo app</a>. Between these two links, you will find most of what you need to integrate the payment feature in your Web app. I love the Web APIs that just work.</p> <p>We have still left the Paypal button alongside the Google Checkout button, for those who prefer that option.</p> <p>Let us know your feedback.</p> </p> <p><a href="http://blog.3dtin.com/google-in-app-payments">Permalink</a> | <a href="http://blog.3dtin.com/google-in-app-payments#comment">Leave a comment&nbsp;&nbsp;&raquo;</a> </p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/3dtin/~4/0MKrZbEK60Y" height="1" width="1"/> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/918704/icon128.png http://posterous.com/users/5Aap1V3mh7UZ 3DTin 3DTin 3DTin http://blog.3dtin.com/google-in-app-payments Wed, 24 Aug 2011 03:30:00 -0700 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/3dtin/~3/5JFJ6nUoSM8/quality-speed-and-extensibility http://blog.3dtin.com/quality-speed-and-extensibility <p> <p>These have been long two months that we've spent in hacking the core of 3DTin. After numerous delays however, we have finally deployed the new improvements to the site. Usually we release partial features every week or so, but this new featureset has been an exception. We had to change a lot of code and data structures, to achieve some of the goals that we had set. But finally we are there now. So let me tell you what we have done.</p> <p>The improvements can be categorized in three major areas</p> <p><span style="font-size: medium;"><strong>Quality</strong></span></p> <p>After series of experiments and redesigns, we have achieved some significant improvements in WebGL rendering. We have switched to texture based rendering, thus harnessing GPU's capabilities of interpolation when drawing curved surfaces. As a result, the curved surfaces now look as smooth as they ideally should be. Check out following pairs of screenshots to see what I mean. The first screenshot in the pair is from the old implementation and the second one is from the new implementation.</p> <p><div class='p_embed p_image_embed'> <a href="http://posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/temp-2011-08-24/xhruDtciwEGyGGHGrtIdiCukczkcqkdaluHudqmfjzvuqbJrojowegryeHty/Screen_shot_2011-08-18_at_3.39.37_PM.png.scaled1000.png"><img alt="Screen_shot_2011-08-18_at_3" height="572" src="http://posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/temp-2011-08-24/xhruDtciwEGyGGHGrtIdiCukczkcqkdaluHudqmfjzvuqbJrojowegryeHty/Screen_shot_2011-08-18_at_3.39.37_PM.png.scaled500.png" width="500" /></a> <img alt="Screen_shot_2011-08-18_at_3" height="622" src="http://posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/temp-2011-08-24/hnlAompelirecuovChoABcyavccpolxlpBapDcmhlskEycopngIudIjmJgqI/Screen_shot_2011-08-18_at_3.39.56_PM.png.scaled500.png" width="497" /> <div class='p_see_full_gallery'><a href="http://blog.3dtin.com/quality-speed-and-extensibility">See the full gallery on Posterous</a></div> </div> </p> <p><a href="http://www.3dtin.com/asd" target="_blank">Justice League watch tower by Dewbot</a></p> <p><div class='p_embed p_image_embed'> <a href="http://posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/temp-2011-08-24/afzsxEsjDlJrcHpvhgEabdcEsCqCJnkIkvzGrfJDEDsFtBJxgcBcFnlbqpzz/Screen_shot_2011-08-18_at_3.33.45_PM.png.scaled1000.png"><img alt="Screen_shot_2011-08-18_at_3" height="462" src="http://posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/temp-2011-08-24/afzsxEsjDlJrcHpvhgEabdcEsCqCJnkIkvzGrfJDEDsFtBJxgcBcFnlbqpzz/Screen_shot_2011-08-18_at_3.33.45_PM.png.scaled500.png" width="500" /></a> <a href="http://posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/temp-2011-08-24/udulsrInwHErbweCytGummCzyICfswlxHJIiHhwFjjfqIpupotjwbmsgiezz/Screen_shot_2011-08-18_at_3.33.59_PM.png.scaled1000.png"><img alt="Screen_shot_2011-08-18_at_3" height="479" src="http://posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/temp-2011-08-24/udulsrInwHErbweCytGummCzyICfswlxHJIiHhwFjjfqIpupotjwbmsgiezz/Screen_shot_2011-08-18_at_3.33.59_PM.png.scaled500.png" width="500" /></a> <div class='p_see_full_gallery'><a href="http://blog.3dtin.com/quality-speed-and-extensibility">See the full gallery on Posterous</a></div> </div> </p> <p><a href="http://www.3dtin.com/pxs" target="_blank">robot by canguru</a></p> <p><div class='p_embed p_image_embed'> <a href="http://posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/temp-2011-08-24/theBuciaofhAojlGeGECbiEGrflCoudFBsFqAbxwcemGCekkxjsfqiHIoiqE/Screen_shot_2011-08-23_at_10.04.21_AM.png.scaled1000.png"><img alt="Screen_shot_2011-08-23_at_10" height="586" src="http://posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/temp-2011-08-24/theBuciaofhAojlGeGECbiEGrflCoudFBsFqAbxwcemGCekkxjsfqiHIoiqE/Screen_shot_2011-08-23_at_10.04.21_AM.png.scaled500.png" width="500" /></a> <img alt="Screen_shot_2011-08-23_at_10" height="613" src="http://posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/temp-2011-08-24/IbjBvGBfuAerDkahxipBtdlwvIdcHgibAEEwACmGGnCCCEFedDpbuggDdGlG/Screen_shot_2011-08-23_at_10.05.22_AM.png.scaled500.png" width="488" /> <div class='p_see_full_gallery'><a href="http://blog.3dtin.com/quality-speed-and-extensibility">See the full gallery on Posterous</a></div> </div> <a href="http://www.3dtin.com/gci" target="_blank">Bald Eagle by Fumanchu64</a></p> <p>This change also improves the look of smoothened surfaces created from cubes.</p> <p><span style="font-size: medium;"><strong>Speed</strong></span></p> <p>We have done tens of changes in various areas of our code that have positively affected the speed of model rendering. In sketches of moderate size we even achieve full frame rate of 60 FPS. We employed various techniques to achieve this goal - reusing memory buffers, cutting through the abstractions to avoid extraneous computations, careful usage of GPU's memory bandwidth, shifting some computations to the cloud and so on. It's difficult to achieve the best speed for all kinds of models however. Models with lot of cubes tend to have sluggish responses than ones with ready-made geometry. But overall the UI should feel snappy.</p> <p><strong><span style="font-size: medium;">Extensibility</span></strong></p> <p>3DTin is now powered by <a href="http://jayesh3.github.com/cadmium/" target="_blank">Cadmium</a>. If you remember <a href="http://blog.3dtin.com/cadmium-solid-modelling-library-python-openso" target="_blank">our announcement in June</a>, you might know about the Python scripting environment called 'Cadmium' that we are developing. It's a python library that we developed on top of OpenCASCADE and PythonOCC to provide a scripting environment for advanced solid modeling. So far you were able to add 11 ready-made shapes besides cubes - i.e. Cylinders, Cones, Spheres, Wedges and their variants. With this release, these shapes are now computed in the cloud using the Cadmium library. What this means is, in future we can use the Cadmium scripting environment to offer a wide variety of shapes to add to your sketches. Laying the groundworks for this infrastructure was the most challenging part, and it has completed now. We are now going to use this infrastructure to extend the 3DTin platform horizontally. I won't go into the details just in this post, but soon you will see the fruits of this new extensible system.</p> <p>There are other small and not-so-small changes all around, but I will let you discover and enjoy them. As always, we will be fixing some rough edges that are still left. Do let us know what you think about the new changes.</p> </p> <p><a href="http://blog.3dtin.com/quality-speed-and-extensibility">Permalink</a> | <a href="http://blog.3dtin.com/quality-speed-and-extensibility#comment">Leave a comment&nbsp;&nbsp;&raquo;</a> </p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/3dtin/~4/5JFJ6nUoSM8" height="1" width="1"/> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/918704/icon128.png http://posterous.com/users/5Aap1V3mh7UZ 3DTin 3DTin 3DTin http://blog.3dtin.com/quality-speed-and-extensibility Tue, 02 Aug 2011 03:10:13 -0700 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/3dtin/~3/am2CLTHKa90/update http://blog.3dtin.com/update <p> <p>I haven't posted an update over a month now, so let me just scribble a few lines about what we are up to.</p> <p>We are spending a lot of time in the lab. Reading some classic CAD literature, playing with new techniques, analysing our code and design for poor performance, and lot of other things that are not yet directly reflected in the final app. We are very excited about what we have found. In coming month we will release the fruits of this work. We are just holding things back, because they are going to have long term implications, so we want to design and test them as best as we can before releasing them into the wild. So, stay tuned.</p> <p>Meanwhile, let me post some screenshots of recent sketches our users have created on 3DTin. Whenever I see a beautiful sketch drawn on 3DTin, I feel more motivated to make 3DTin better. So keep them coming.</p> <p>Also, if you want to chat with me, I've started hanging out on IRC. Find the #3dtin channel on irc.freenode.net, or <a href="http://irc://irc.freenode.net/3dtin">click here</a> if you have IRC client.</p> <p><div class='p_embed p_image_embed'> <a href="http://posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/temp-2011-08-02/aqnbuIaoCDkjJaxjrpcFEurvlkHHCDFDneEDCHvejDpdCJazbbcCudIpElIw/pxs.png.scaled1000.png"><img alt="Pxs" height="377" src="http://posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/temp-2011-08-02/aqnbuIaoCDkjJaxjrpcFEurvlkHHCDFDneEDCHvejDpdCJazbbcCudIpElIw/pxs.png.scaled500.png" width="500" /></a> </div> </p> <p><a href="http://www.3dtin.com/pxs">robot by canguru</a></p> <p><div class='p_embed p_image_embed'> <a href="http://posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/temp-2011-08-02/ykvqCdDueFceuJaBpwomBBaDJrvHEpuIlpohCyviJJebJDkxgyuxCBvtEsuh/1zj.png.scaled1000.png"><img alt="1zj" height="377" src="http://posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/temp-2011-08-02/ykvqCdDueFceuJaBpwomBBaDJrvHEpuIlpohCyviJJebJDkxgyuxCBvtEsuh/1zj.png.scaled500.png" width="500" /></a> </div> </p> <p><a href="http://www.3dtin.com/1zj">Soccer stadium by Contreras6000</a></p> <p><div class='p_embed p_image_embed'> <a href="http://posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/temp-2011-08-02/dxHbhvgjDAsFzhwvnrGdiIvCosCwsFiCdtnAcuqsibexbAIhpmgmhBtgEgwk/5mj.png.scaled1000.png"><img alt="5mj" height="377" src="http://posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/temp-2011-08-02/dxHbhvgjDAsFzhwvnrGdiIvCosCwsFiCdtnAcuqsibexbAIhpmgmhBtgEgwk/5mj.png.scaled500.png" width="500" /></a> </div> </p> <p><a href="http://www.3dtin.com/5mj">by kashyap.jsn</a></p> <p><div class='p_embed p_image_embed'> <a href="http://posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/temp-2011-08-02/waIpeCcpDqEsbgpavIgIFEBhbFtiHxJuuGEADiqAyrstzoqiHtFIDGjgdGDH/svh.png.scaled1000.png"><img alt="Svh" height="377" src="http://posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/temp-2011-08-02/waIpeCcpDqEsbgpavIgIFEBhbFtiHxJuuGEADiqAyrstzoqiHtFIDGjgdGDH/svh.png.scaled500.png" width="500" /></a> </div> </p> <p><a href="http://www.3dtin.com/svh">Megabot by dickdemas</a></p> <p><div class='p_embed p_image_embed'> <a href="http://posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/temp-2011-08-02/vJxojueHiCHlIlvsyFldvdbeAlrbbcjEdwceuCCumvewJbwhHyaqHwlkCsvF/asd.png.scaled1000.png"><img alt="Asd" height="377" src="http://posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/temp-2011-08-02/vJxojueHiCHlIlvsyFldvdbeAlrbbcjEdwceuCCumvewJbwhHyaqHwlkCsvF/asd.png.scaled500.png" width="500" /></a> </div> </p> <p><a href="http://www.3dtin.com/asd">Justice League Watch tower by Dewbot</a></p> <p>If you want a feed of beautiful 3D models on 3DTin, you can find it on our <a href="http://www.facebook.com/3DTin">Facebook page</a>.</p> </p> <p><a href="http://blog.3dtin.com/update">Permalink</a> | <a href="http://blog.3dtin.com/update#comment">Leave a comment&nbsp;&nbsp;&raquo;</a> </p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/3dtin/~4/am2CLTHKa90" height="1" width="1"/> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/918704/icon128.png http://posterous.com/users/5Aap1V3mh7UZ 3DTin 3DTin 3DTin http://blog.3dtin.com/update Tue, 28 Jun 2011 04:41:00 -0700 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/3dtin/~3/G4GYd7LJQss/collada-support http://blog.3dtin.com/collada-support <p> <p>We are glad to add Collada (.dae) to the list of export formats that we support on 3DTin.</p> <p><a href="https://collada.org/mediawiki/index.php/COLLADA_-_Digital_Asset_and_FX_Exchange_Schema">Collada</a> is becoming a standard format to exchange 3D modeling data between applications. With the collada export of 3DTin models, you can now import your 3DTin work in wider variety of 3D tools.</p> <p>Moreover, unlike OBJ/STL, collada files let us add unit information for the model. At present, we export the models by mapping length of single cube to 1cm. In future we will add interface to customize this option too.</p> <p>This new enhancement will let you import your 3DTin models to Google Earth or Second Life, where you can have more fun with them.</p> <p>Let us know if you see any problems.</p> </p> <p><a href="http://blog.3dtin.com/collada-support">Permalink</a> | <a href="http://blog.3dtin.com/collada-support#comment">Leave a comment&nbsp;&nbsp;&raquo;</a> </p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/3dtin/~4/G4GYd7LJQss" height="1" width="1"/> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/918704/icon128.png http://posterous.com/users/5Aap1V3mh7UZ 3DTin 3DTin 3DTin http://blog.3dtin.com/collada-support