#Sequential Targa files
6 messages in this thread
HELP!
CAN ANYONE TELL ME HOW TO CREATE SEQUENTIAL TARGA FILES (A00.TGA, A01.TGA,
A02.TGA ………………..) CONTAINING IDENTICAL
INFORMATION FOR OUT PUT TO A VTR. I HAVE TO MANY FILES TO DO
BY HAND. CURRENTLY I'VE WRITEN A TURBO-BASIC PROGRAM TO
TO DO THE JOB, BUT WHEN SHELLING OUT TO CREATE A FILE IT
WON' T OUTPUT THE INTERGER.
George,
I don't understand exactly what you're trying to do. Do you have 3DS? If
these targa files are the same file, there are techniques that permit you to
send the same targa file multiple times to the VTR, for intro-type situations.
Let us know if this helps.
Nik
HI NIK
THANK YOU FOR YOUR RESPONSE. YES I DO HAVE 3D-STUDIO AND YES I DO
KNOW ABOUT 3DS CAPABILITY TO REPEAT THE START FRAME OR END FRAME.
WHAT I AM TRYING TO DO IS REPEAT INTERMEDIATE FRAMES. THE PROBLEM
AROSE FROM TAKING A FINITE ELEMENT ANALYSIS DEMO IN PCX FORMAT AND
CONVERTING IT OVER TO TARGA FORMAT. THE DEMO WAS CREATED WITH ALGOR
SUPERCAP SOFTWARE FOR PRESENTATION ON A PC. THIS SOFTWARE ALLOWS TO
DISPLAY ALL FRAMES AND ANIMATIONS IN CYCLES AND TIME, SO THAT YOU CAN
DISPLAY ONE FRAME AS LONG AS YOU LIKE AND CYCLE ANY ANIMATION WITHIN
THE DEMO AS LONG AS YOU LIKE.
I HOPE YOU CAN SEE THE PROBLEM THIS CAPABILITY CREATED WHEN
ATTEMPTING TO TRANSFER THIS DEMO TO A VTR. I WROTE A TURBO BASIC
PROGRAM THAT SOLVED MY PROBLEM.
George… I just read your last response about sequential .TGA files
and was curious about something…how do you translate from your FEA
program to 3D-Studio? I too am using an FEA (actually we call it
Discrete Element Method, same diff), to calculate the position of
800-1000 steel balls in a rotating mill. I thought about using the
3DS ASCII file import and writing a conversion util from FEA->3DS,
but the filesize would become unmanageable (600-800MB!) The next
thing I thought of was a DXF file, but this too gets large quickly
since it is also ascii. Any pointers? Thanks, Dave
PMJI, but this would be a simple problem in a couple ways. The
"classic" way would be to have the position of the balls center
points output to an ASCII file and write a LISP program to convert
them into an ACAD drawing (assuming you also have ACAD). At that
point, you can do global search and replaces for the dummy elements
for what ever type and resolution you are looking for (if you know
AutoLISP, both of these would be pretty simple programs). Next, DXF
into 3DS.
The 2nd method is less clear to me since I am not familiar enough with
this new feature in 3DSr3. I believe you can use simplistic geometry
as "dummy" objects and have them replaced _only_during_rendering_time
by the more complex parts. Therefore, you could follow the same
proceedure as before, but place a simple box, or even more simplistic
shape, and then go into 3DSr3. Then tell the system to replace those
objects with the spheres in 3DS. I am not familiar with this new
function to be sure that this will work, but my understanding is that
it will.
WHAT I DO, IS TAKE A (BRICK OR SHELL ELEMENT) FINITE ELEMENT MODEL
WITH STRESS CONTOURS MAPPED ON THE SURFACE AND USE A SCRIPT FILE THAT
I CREATE WITH ALGOR SOFTWARE TO ANIMATE DISPLACEMENT, STRESS, OR
ROTATION (THIS CREATES SEQUENTIAL ANIMATION FILES). NEXT, I TAKE EACH
OF MY ANIMATION FILES AND EITHER CREATE A FLIC WITH ANIMATOR PRO OR
CONVERT TO TARGA FORMAT FOR OUTPUT TO VTR. THE HARD WAY IS TO
EXPORT FEA DXF MODELS INTO ACAD 12 AND APPLY A SURFACES, THEN INPORT
THE MODEL INTO 3DS FOR ANIMATION. I THEN CREATE A TEXTURE MAP FROM MY
FEA RESULTS AND APPLY IT TO MY 3DS MODEL.
CURRENTLY I AM USING THE FIRST TECHNIQUE TO CREATE A PORTFOLIO FOR A
FEA ENGINEERING COMPANY