irclog2html for #brlcad on 20050109

00:38.23 learner hello EricWilhelm :)
00:38.43 learner so you saw the news
01:44.50 *** join/#brlcad polyspin (~polyspin@pcp02462412pcs.chrchv01.md.comcast.net)
01:45.38 polyspin It went live! We're up on Slashdot!
01:56.38 *** join/#brlcad Dracarys (~Dracarys@Cheesemonkey.user)
01:56.56 Dracarys anyone alive here?
02:03.54 Dracarys Can someone tell me how to get fbserv running? I don't have a /dev/sgip, and running without a device blanks X except for cursor (I can close the blanking thing tho, so it's not a problem)
02:05.10 Dracarys ops are poke-prone :)
02:10.22 polyspin I'm here too
02:35.55 *** join/#brlcad Dracarys (~Dracarys@Cheesemonkey.user)
02:36.02 polyspin hello
02:36.18 Dracarys hi!
02:36.20 Dracarys =D
02:36.23 Dracarys someone alive!
02:36.42 Dracarys would you mind helping me work out fbserv, polyspin?
02:36.52 polyspin I can try.
02:37.05 polyspin Whasup?
02:37.23 Dracarys I'm making my way through the first cup tutorial, and don't have the device it uses
02:37.42 polyspin Ah, this is an age old confusion
02:37.46 Dracarys heh
02:38.01 polyspin The program does not actually open anything in "/dev" anymore
02:38.13 Dracarys :/
02:38.21 Dracarys ok, so what am I supposed to run?
02:38.23 polyspin It looks for the string "/dev" to know if it is opening a "device to display on" or a "file to store into"
02:38.31 Dracarys ahh heh
02:38.42 Dracarys so, how to I make it display in, say, vterm 8?
02:38.47 polyspin If you are on linux, with X, then you can specify "/dev/X"
02:39.16 polyspin I typically use: "fbserv 0 /dev/X" and it opens a window on my current X display
02:39.24 Dracarys cool
02:39.26 polyspin You probably want to background it
02:39.30 Dracarys ?
02:39.32 Dracarys which means?
02:39.33 polyspin "fbserv 0 /dev/X &"
02:39.36 Dracarys ah, yes
02:39.38 Dracarys thanks
02:39.56 polyspin Now you can "pix-fb -F :0 filename.pix"
02:40.27 Dracarys that would display the last render as well as write it to filename.pix?
02:40.52 polyspin No, that paints "filename.pix" into the framebuffer display
02:40.56 Dracarys ah
02:41.13 Dracarys the tut says to use "rt -F:1 -s 512", but that doesn't work
02:41.24 polyspin Instead of bringing up a new window for each image, it uses a single window, and shows whatever is "painting" there
02:41.38 Dracarys hm
02:41.41 polyspin The tut is telling it to paint to "framebuffer :1"
02:41.57 polyspin If you ran the command I typed earlier, ...
02:42.12 polyspin then you would want to say: "rt -F :0 -s 512"
02:42.19 Dracarys hmm
02:42.22 Dracarys /usr/brlcad/bin/rt: no objects specified -- raytrace aborted
02:42.24 polyspin don't forget to list the database and the geometry...
02:42.35 Dracarys and I replaced 0 with 1 earlier
02:42.45 Dracarys I'm running from inside mged
02:43.05 polyspin So that should be "rt -F :0 -s 512 my_geometry.g cube.r ball.r m1a2.g" (you get the idea?)
02:43.14 Dracarys ah
02:43.40 polyspin Within MGED I would suggest the raytrace control panel found on the "file" menu. This will render into the geometry window ususally
02:43.51 polyspin If you want a separate image display from the geometry...
02:43.57 Dracarys opendb mug.r;
02:43.57 Dracarys tree Mug.g;
02:43.57 Dracarys rt: rt_dirbuild(mug.r) failure
02:44.03 Dracarys and I don't have a file menu :P
02:44.21 polyspin Which tutorial are you reading?
02:44.36 polyspin Intro to mged?
02:44.39 Dracarys ya
02:44.50 Dracarys ok, file opened in the guish version
02:44.52 polyspin Let me check it. What page are you on?
02:45.26 polyspin Yes, I recommed the GUI version unless you are developing Tcl scripts.
02:45.35 Dracarys Modeling With CSG
02:45.37 Dracarys that page
02:45.47 Dracarys okhmm
02:45.48 Dracarys meh
02:45.51 Dracarys that html page
02:45.56 Dracarys the section is much lower down
02:46.26 polyspin which "lesson" is it in?
02:47.02 Dracarys Creating Geometry: The Cup
02:47.32 Dracarys but I don't really need to follow it exactly. How do I use the raytrace control panel?
02:48.06 polyspin In general, display the regions you want to raytrace in the wireframe view, and click the "raytrace" button.
02:48.18 Dracarys then what? where do I see it?
02:48.26 Dracarys oh lol
02:48.32 Dracarys wasn't expecting that
02:48.32 polyspin It should overlay the wireframe.
02:48.33 Dracarys :)
02:48.38 Dracarys ya just noticed
02:49.00 polyspin You have choices in the raytrace controll panel to have the image overlay/underlay the wireframe.
02:49.09 Dracarys ya
02:49.14 polyspin I think on the "Framebuffer" menu
02:49.26 Dracarys ya
02:49.41 polyspin Just picked up the package?
02:49.44 Dracarys yup
02:49.54 polyspin Welcome.
02:49.57 Dracarys saw the open sourcing article on slashdot, got interested
02:49.59 Dracarys thanks
02:50.01 Dracarys :)
02:50.24 polyspin I'm the lead on the project, so if I can answer any questions, just ask.
02:50.58 Dracarys thanks!
02:51.03 Dracarys =)
02:51.29 polyspin How'd you find the channel?
02:51.41 Dracarys guessed at the name, and most oss projects are on freenode :)
02:51.54 polyspin Glad to here it.
02:52.06 polyspin I haven't gotten around to putting the channel on the web page.
02:52.24 polyspin We've only been on SF.net for about 2 weeks.
02:52.53 Dracarys btw, I'm probably jsut being stupid about it, but on brlcad.org the download area still seems to have the old (e.g. pay $500 or send in a signed license) method listed
02:53.21 polyspin WHERE???!!!!!!
02:53.36 Dracarys heh
02:54.04 Dracarys ah nvm it was brlcad.com
02:54.13 Dracarys told you I was just being stupid about it :)
02:54.28 polyspin That's an old mirror from the "license agreement" days.
02:54.31 Dracarys ah
02:55.34 polyspin many things....
02:55.50 Dracarys that's my impression
02:56.15 polyspin BRL-CAD is primarily a geometry engine upon which a number of "analysis codes" are built.
02:56.24 Dracarys ahh
02:57.16 Dracarys or any aspects for that matter :)
02:57.48 polyspin Good idea. Walk before you run.
02:59.23 Dracarys hmm, how do you set the parameters for an object in the gui? I went to Create>tor to do the cup rim, and all it asked for was a name
02:59.57 polyspin It'll ask you for the rest of the parameters after you give it a name.
03:00.01 Dracarys didn't
03:00.14 Dracarys now I have a big fat torus overlapping my cup :P
03:00.15 polyspin Oh, "create" or "in" ?
03:00.23 Dracarys create, the menu
03:00.46 Dracarys not a command
03:00.49 polyspin "Create" takes the parameters from the size and location of the geometry view.
03:00.54 Dracarys ah
03:01.04 polyspin So size your display and center it where you want the torus.
03:01.16 Dracarys where would I go to specify numbers manually?
03:01.17 polyspin If you know the parameters, I would suggest the text "in" command
03:01.28 Dracarys hm, there's no gui equivalent?
03:01.30 polyspin In the case of a torus...
03:02.03 polyspin "in rim_of_cup tor vx vy vz r1 r2"
03:02.14 Dracarys how does one delete an object?
03:02.29 polyspin "kill objname"
03:02.47 Dracarys thanks
03:03.04 polyspin We have thought about gui builders for primitives, but didn't like the idea of "popping" windows or panels.
03:03.25 polyspin When you are building complex geometry, you can build a lot of primitives in a short time.
03:03.35 polyspin The visual popping got very annoying fast.
03:03.38 Dracarys heh
03:04.14 polyspin Most serious modelers build from the command line. It gives them precise control over the numbers without mousing around all the time.
03:04.24 Dracarys any plans towards increasing userfriendlyness? I'm happy with how it is, but I've heard plenty of complaints about it.
03:04.39 Dracarys I agree the CLI is almost always best once you know it well enough
03:04.54 polyspin I've argued for a better UI for almost 7 years.
03:05.05 Dracarys :/
03:05.26 polyspin It's one of the reasons I pushed open source. The lab wasn't interested for THEIR user community.
03:05.54 polyspin There's a sub-project comming that revamps the whole MGED look and feel.
03:06.53 Dracarys sounds good; what sort of speed is it moving along at? I know the answer is going ot be very qualitative.
03:07.00 Dracarys s/ot/to/
03:08.03 polyspin Hmm. that is wrapped up in ... politics. It's being contributed by a contractor...
03:08.37 polyspin They've done some great work studying some commercial apps and designing the GUI accordingly
03:08.49 polyspin It's raw, but a good foundation.
03:08.53 Dracarys sounds promising, if it continues along well
03:09.02 polyspin OSS developers could easily flesh it out to be REALLY COOL.
03:10.22 Dracarys I suppose there's nothing along the lines of a estimate for when it might become useable?
03:11.10 Dracarys OT: glad it keeps data on disk instead of memory; just locked up :P
03:11.21 polyspin Nothing I could say.
03:11.28 Dracarys thought so
03:11.34 Dracarys thanks again for all the help
03:11.36 Dracarys :)
03:11.50 polyspin you're welcome.
03:12.07 polyspin 8-)
03:12.29 *** part/#brlcad Dracarys (~Dracarys@Cheesemonkey.user)
03:40.48 *** join/#brlcad static (~static@COX-24-248-50-34.coxinet.net)
03:43.33 static when i run mged, i get this message: invalid command name "gui" then mged exits. anyone know how to fix?