HENSHIN - From AutoCAD to SecondLife

Hi everyone!!

Today we want to share with you all, the latest version of our HENSIN 1.5, a tool that allows importing from AutoCAD 3d drawings to SL.

And without more ado:

English Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e0R6aTdk2dk

Spanish Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eqYUMzTtP8Y

It won't be available yet because it is still unfinished but it is 99% usable.




If you have any question, IM us

Asha Eerie - Impalah Shenzhou

And the shadow of Asha (me) says...

Technical Details:
- It handles boxes, cylinders and spheres (no cuts yet... maybe it will be done with 3DMax or blender). Soon torus and sculpted prims will be implemented.
- Handles the building using layers.
- The HUD can control the transparency and phantom of every layer. Building and clean of every layer individually are possible too.
- You can relocate the building once it is totally rezzed.
- 100 m of range for building and repositioning ("shout" range)
- Delays included for not to overload sims (tested on high lagged sims without problems).


The future...
- Generation using webservice as data source (xmlrpc).
- Texturing while building.
- Import from SL to Autocad.
- etc, etc etc.


See you

Wow that is pretty freakin cool!

Assuming that each prim counts as only one prim (small text in the vid was too blurry for me to read) we will finally have a true offline builder.

When it rains it pours!

Speaking of all the new learning curves being announced lately, do you have any idea
what the oldest version of Autocad will be required to use this method. And can older versions
of Autocad even be obtained?

Of course the reason I ask is that I am sure the a new version of Autocad will be prohibitively
expensive for some.

And you mentioned Blender? Was that just for a an isolated technique...or will there be an
export available for that or other 3d programs? How cool would that be?!!!

Hi!!!

Maybe I tried to show too many things in a single video... I'll try to explain it here (excuse my, sometimes, bad english).

The idea of the exporter is to use the tools provided with CAD programs (precise aligns, exactly positions, etc.) to eliminate the need of SL tools to align, resize and rotate the prims: always laggy, frequently imprecise.

We use Autocad 2005 for the exporter, but the script is made in VBA so we think it can be used in previous versions. Even if there is a free or less expensive CAD program (with scripting posibilities) we could try to translate it.

The method of creating a design for this is similar to building into SL. You have blocks, you rotate and position the blocks and the last step is to export the data. The good news for architects is that you can draw "normally" (lines, curves, etc.) and only position the blocks over the design to export.

In this moment the script can't manage prim modifications (cut, hollow, etc.) but we are working to get it or, if it isn't possible, to import the modifed prims forms 3DMax, Blender, Maya or any 3D program.

The general question you do about exporting from other 3D programs... just search for SLPrims here in the forums, there is a great script to did it.


See you

Hi there,

Thanks for the quick response. I am pretty sure I understood you the first time.
And cool you answered the question about older versions of autocad.

And you mentioned the pre-existing script for importing prims from other 3d programs, are
you talking about the blender to SL script by Jeffery Gomez?

I admit that I have not checked to see if it has been updated, but the last time I did, it
counted each face as a separate prim.

So that was my other central question about yours, is each prim counted as one prim or is each face counted as a separate prim?

Otherwise your method looks awesome for its precision and offline build ability.

Ah you must have been referring to this thread.
/8/c4/113716/1.html

I saw this quite some time ago and took a pass for the price of entry, (acquiring Maya)
was overkill for me at the time for what it would allow me to do in SL.

He he,

Sorry for hammering this thread, but was just looking on Ebay,
http://search.ebay.com/autocad_W0QQfromZR41QQfrtsZ50

So it appears that a new version of autocad can be had for between 6 and 700+ US.
While autocad LT can be had for around 150 US , would the LT version work with this method?

Please say yes please please please.

Hii!!

Each block you use in Autocad, changes into ONE SL prim
When you are designing in Autocad, you can count your prims in a click and know how many you are using (great for SL, don't you think?)


And sorry but I don't know autocad LT... As Impalah said before, if it has scripting posibilities, we'll try to make it compatible. One more thing to research.

Hi,

About Autocad LT... bad news... it doesn't allow scripting.

Don't worry, I'm working on a way to decode DWG (propietary) format with the help of http://www.opendesign.com/ info.

Awesome work, guys. Really great. Makes me want to go out and get AutoCAD.

Any chance I could persuade you to pick up where Adrian left off and finish the Maya one? Pretty please?