[x3d-public] Improvements to Blender for importing X3D, thanks to NIH 3D Print Exchange

[Don Brutzman]

Gordon, thanks so much for reaching back.  Great to hear!   8)

Wondering, might you be willing to join one of our monthly CAD/3D print/3D scan working group teleconferences?  They are first Thursday of each month, 08-0930 pacific (11-1230 eastern).

It would be great to hear first-person from you on what you've done, what your book describes, and where you think that our X3D efforts should be sure to focus.

Looking forward to further discussion and insights, again thank for your great work.



On 10/24/2015 6:07 PM, Gordon Fisher wrote:
> That's great to hear.
>
> For anyone interested in learning more about the basics of using Blender to design for 3D printing, I wrote a book called Blender 3D Printing Essentials. It recommends using the X3D format for printing 3D objects with patterned textures. It's available at the Packt Publishing website Blender 3D Printing Essentials | PACKT Books <https://www.packtpub.com/hardware-and-creative/blender-3d-printing-essentials> or at Amazon.
> 	
> 	
> 	
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> Blender 3D Printing Essentials | PACKT Books <https://www.packtpub.com/hardware-and-creative/blender-3d-printing-essentials>
> Learn 3D printing using the free open-source Blender software. This book gives you both an overview and practical instructions, enabling you to learn how to scale, build, color, and detail a model for a 3D printer.
> View on www.packtpub.com <https://www.packtpub.com/hardware-and-creative/blender-3d-printing-essentials>
> 	
> Preview by Yahoo
>
> Gordon
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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> *From:* Anita Havele <anita.havele at web3d.org>
> *To:* x3d-public at web3d.org
> *Cc:* Cad at web3d.org; consortium at web3d.org; 'X3D Graphics Working Group' <x3d at web3d.org>
> *Sent:* Friday, October 23, 2015 12:27 PM
> *Subject:* [x3d-public] Improvements to Blender for importing X3D, thanks to NIH 3D Print Exchange
>
> *Thanks to NIH 3D Print Exchange, t*hese significant improvements to the Blender 3D authoring tool for importing X3D brings increased functionality and performance. <http://3dprint.nih.gov/>Blender <http://3dprint.nih.gov/>is a popular open-source 3D authoring tool written in C++ that includes support for import and export of #X3D scenes.  X3D is the third-generation successor to the Virtual Reality Modeling Language (VRML).
> *Vsevolod (Seva) Alekseyev*is a lead programmer at theNational Institutes of Health (NIH)3D Print Exchange <http://3dprint.nih.gov/>.  He has contributed significant improvements to the Blender source code for importing X3D.  Support now includes all of the *geometry nodes from Rendering and Geometry3D components, image and pixel textures (including primitive geometry), TextureTransform to shift 2D image texture coordinates, Lighting component (PointLight DirectionalLight SpotLight) and Viewpoints, which are essential for scene navigation.* These improvements have been released as part of the Blender source trunk in time for the annualBlender 2015 Conference <http://www.blender.org/conference>which runs 23-25 October 2015 inDe Balie, Amsterdam.
> Seva reports:  “It is great to develop expanded support to a larger subset of the X3D standard.  Future work might handle advanced textures, scene animation and user interactivity, if there increasing is community demand out there.”
> Dr. Darrell Hurt is Chief of the Bioinformatics and Computational Biosciences Branch (BCBB) at NIH and a member of the Web3D Consortium Board of Directors.  He notes “Blender is important.  This dramatic increase in functionality and performance brings value to the NIH 3D Print Exchange program and the larger 3D printing industry.”
> Anita Havele is Executive Director of the Web3D Consortium.  “We are proud of how NIH is always innovating.  Our members also support a public community with theProject Wish List <http://www.web3d.org/projects/wish-list>.  We invite companies, research institutes and individual professionals tojoin the Web3D Consortium <http://www.web3d.org/join>and make a difference.”
> http://www.web3d.org/news-story/improved-blender-import-x3d-scenes
> Best regards,
> Anita-Havele
> Executive Director, Web3D Consortium www.web3d.org <http://www.web3d.org/>
> Phone: +1 248 342 7662     Fax: +1 248 457 8018

all the best, Don
-- 
Don Brutzman  Naval Postgraduate School, Code USW/Br       brutzman at nps.edu
Watkins 270,  MOVES Institute, Monterey CA 93943-5000 USA   +1.831.656.2149
X3D graphics, virtual worlds, navy robotics http://faculty.nps.edu/brutzman