[K3d-development] K-3D features for drafting

[Yaku <jto...@gm...>]

Hi.

I know this is a lengthy proposition, but please please read it through 
and say what you think!

Sketchup is a 3D modelling software designed to be VERY easy and fast 
for architectural modelling.

It is used a lot by architects and (like in my case) film production 
designers to draft out buildings, interiors and film sets. Its also used 
to model buildings for Google Earth. Usually after the initial drafting 
is done in sketchup, the work continues in some "heavyweight" 3D 
software, or AutoCAD/ArchiCAD. In film work, these kinds of 3D drafts 
are often used to plan and discuss things with the director and 
cinematographer.

There are several problems with Sketchup:

- it is awesomely great in the first drafting phases, but falls short if 
you want to do anything more advanced (like lights, obscure shapes, 
xrefs etc..)
- its closed source (quite cheap though)
- after google bought the software, the development has slowed down, and 
gone generally in bad direction.
- does not work in linux. (getting it to work on wine is next to impossible)

So I have been almost desperate to find an alternative. While been 
searching through  miscellaneous forums and blogs, I have come convinced 
that there is a lot of people with similar needs.

After I've been trying almost every open source 3D package I can find, 
and some proprietary, I found K-3D, which truly seems to have some great 
potential.  It seems to be very user friendly, modular and generally 
designed in a sane way (like Cinema 4D btw). And the (new?) plugin 
architecture really seems interesting!

So.. My idea is to try and develop K-3D and, most importantly plugin 
tools that would allow
K-3D to be used as Sketchup alternative. I think that could be done by 
creating a set of easy plugins for quick modelling/drafting a'la 
sketchup, and create maybe a separate toolbar for those. It would be 
especially nice because with K-3D one could ALSO do the more advanced stuff.


I try to think what kind of things would need to be implemented... This 
is not a complete list, but it would be a good start. I have limited 
experience in "real 3D" a'la blender/k-3d/maya/cinema4d, so pardon if my 
terminology sucks.

---------------

- PAINT BUCKET TOOL
This would allow one to apply a material to a single face in one click. 
Maybe with a material editor with simple color picker and/or texture 
browser.

- LINE DRAWING TOOL
When line drawing tool is activated, it would snap to nearest edge or 
face (if no edge is nearby, then snap to face). When clicked once, a 
line appears from that point to the mouse cursor, and you can select 
another edge to attach the line to. So if I draw a line from ane edge of 
a face to another, the face gets splitted, and I can for example, start 
extruding the other half, or paint it with paint bucket :)

Ideally this would allow one to hold an arrow key to constrain drawing 
to some axis. Also ideally, if eg. a rectangle of lines is drawn, it 
would automatically create a face based on those edges.

- RECTANGLE TOOL
This would be a lot similar to line tool, but it would allow one to draw 
rectagles (planes) with arbitrary or user defined dimensions. The most 
basic workflow with Sketchup-style drafting is, say if you want to draw 
a house, you draw a rectangle to the ground, extrude up to make it a 
box, maybe draw a line to split the top and move the centerline up to 
make a roof, then draw a rectangle to the side and delete the face, so 
you have a hole (door/window). Etc. It is really really fast and 
intuitive to work that way.

- TAPE MEASURE TOOL
This would work a bit like line drawing tool, but it would allow one to 
measure arbitrary dimensions, and create helper points/lines using 
numerical input.

- INTERACTIVE EXTRUDE TOOL
The current K-3D extrude functionality kicks ass already compared to 
Sketchup. But an interactive, mouse-driven method to just drag things 
out would be nice.

- OTHER MINOR ADJUSTMENTS / CLARIFICATIONS
Other things that are confusing could be either adjusted or separated to 
a tool that is simpler / more  intuitive to use (more "hand-holding" 
fore the user). Like selecting a face and deleting it was something I 
was not able to do easily without side effects, like the whole object 
disappearing. Also the support for different measuring units seems 
incomplete - being able to set millimeters as default unit would be 
ideal, to be consistent with CAD software.


---------------

Dont get me wrong I'm not trying to convert K-3D into Sketchup. It just 
happens that a) Sketchup, while having a lot of problems, is currently 
the only software up to this kind of quick and easy (mostly 
architectural) drafting. b) K-3D seems to have a lot of potential to be 
a lot better tool for this task, with possibly only little additions / work.

What I am asking, is would you K-3D developers be interested in this 
kind of thing? I am very willing to do anything I am capable of, but as 
my 3D programming skills are limited, I am not able to do this kind of 
thing myself, without support from you. I have a lot of experience in 
Java, XML, Lotusscript, Javascript, PHP, so learning python and maybe 
other things to co-develop plugins etc is not a problem. But I wouldnt 
say I am able to implement this. myself

I would be very excited to be able to ditch Sketchup, and get a solid 
(and open-source) replacement to what is one of the most important tools 
for me as a production/set designer. I am sure many architects, and 
whoever needs this kind of thing, would agree.

Cheers,

  Yaku