Scalpel (?)
11 messages in this thread
Hi, Edwin. Just took a look at the demo of the new SCALPEL IPAS. I am very
intrigued — looks promising. Could you provide more information (i.e. how it
works, and a projected release date)? Thanks in advance.
Regards, Connie
Hello Constance,
thank you for your interest in our product. SCALPEL is a IPAS3 "plug in" that
will enable you to cut every mesh object in 3D Studio into two(or even more)
halfs.
The most advantage of SCALPEL over 3D studios internal routines is speed.
Depending on your processor SCALPEL will cut your meshes in realtime!
SCALPEL is not a replacement for boolean operation, it is an addition with
other advanced functionality. Our programmers tried to eliminate nearly every
problems that could occur by cutting mesh objects. Most important is the
problem in keeping the mapping coordinates. With SCALPEL you do not need to
apply your mapping again after the cut. You could cut in one go any number of
objects (not really, it depends on memory, meshsize . . . ). SCALPEL let you
decide wether the cutted object is hollow or filled (extra faces will be
generated!).
Release Date will be end of February (it's a guess–> programmers are never
satisfied)
I hope this helps you in some way.
If you have any further questions or if you need a test "cut" of a meshobject
just leave me a note.
take care
edwin
Hi, Edwin. Thanks for the info on Scalpel. It appears this will be somewhat
useful, but actually I was hoping for a real-time tool (kinda like carving
actual material). Do see any possibility of a plug-in with this capability in
the near future?
Regards, Connie
Hello Constance,
please give me more info on your needs. If the need is there who
knows perhaps we are interested . . .
regards, edwin
Edwin, Bill Batchelor came up with an excellent use for scalpel, in association
with skin.axp. He uses scalpel to slice up polymeshes that he wants to skin
into their component slices, and then he traces those slices in the shaper to
create the skin cross-sections.
– G
Hello YostGroup??
Thank you for the information. It seems to me real hard work to create in this
way a skin object.
We think to implement some kind of enhancement for your skin IPAS.
But we need some information about skin:
Is there any restriction for skin except the "clean numbering " of the
vertexes (<– is this right?)
How does skin handle branches? Y or M?
We have your skin.axp and made only view tests. I think we could handle several
problems in adopting our SCALPEL for your skin.axp. What do you think?
—–
At this moment we are now finishing our userinterface. We found some
difficulties with the realtime render lib we use the watcom 10
compiler and we could only produce black objects. Except of this
problem the lib works fine. Is there any workaround? We are now
registered as MM Developer.
Hi Edwin,
<< How does skin handle branches? Y or M? >>
Maybe the following file will help you….
File Info for BRANCH.ZIP
Section: Mesh/Project Files Contributor: 71532,1214 Size: 79972
Submitted: 8/24/94 Type: Binary Accesses: 221
Title: Psudeo-Branching Skin examples
Keys: BRANCH SKIN EXAMPLE
This zip contains 2 small & simple project files & flics to
demonstrate one technique for faking Skinning a branching path
(skeleton). Make sure to select the CS's by name, one-by-one, to
analyze the technique used. Feel free to ask me any questions
regarding it… BILL
<< At this moment we are now finishing our userinterface. We found
some difficulties with the realtime render lib we use the watcom 10
compiler and we could only produce black objects. Except of this
problem the lib works fine. Is there any workaround? >>
The realtime render lib was uploaded by Gus Grubba. I have not seen
any threads regarding it's use. You may wish to contact Gus
directly.
jonas[adesk]
Jonas already hit both nails on the head. Branching is possible using
Bill Batchelor's technique, and the Watcom rt rendering library was
put together by Gus Grubba.
I put together a Watcom version of the real time renderer library but it was
meant for Watcom 9.5 (I don't have 10.0). On the other hand, it would either
link or not at all. If you didn't have any link time problems, it should work.
As I don't do much of Watcom development, I don't have how to test that thing.
When I uploaded, I asked people to try it out and let me know. You're the first
one reporting a problem with it.
What I need you to do is to compile and link the demo I uploaded (VIEW) with
your setup and see if that works. We would take it from there.
Gus
It is too bad that scalpel can't create the sliced cross-sections ready for use
with skin automatically. This would be a powerful addition since "slice" can't
handle this.
Could you give me some more details on what features the "scalpel" IPAS has?
From your description it would appear that we could use a boolean subtraction
to produce the same results with the exception of losing the mapping
coordinates.
Thanks.
David "Cut here" Gould
Hello David!
Please explain, what exactley do you mean with producing the cross
sctions ready for skin?
–>From your description it would appear that we could use a boolean
subtraction to produce the same results with the exception of losing
the mapping coordinates.
No you misunderstood the SCALPEL concept. SCALPEL acts like a scalpel
— it does a "clean sharp cut" with no trouble. And no trouble means
that there will be no message like "please adjust geometry" or
"cannot complete bla bla bla". SCALPEL does not use any kind of
boolean, but what it does is done in realtime and it's done perfect.
The basic concept is that SCALPEL cuts everything in two halfs
regardless of geometry or size of objects. Based on this cutting
concept SCALPEL is now growing . . . IPAS3 Interface multiple cutting
etc.