TopMod3d - Texas Open Source Symposium

Texas A&M Visualization Laboratory ©2007 dave morris1

Open Source 3D Modeling Software Development with Qt

Dave Morris


Overview

• Introduction

• Motivation

• Prior Work

• Implementation and Results

• Conclusion

• Future Work / Commercialization

• Acknowledgments


Introduction

• New graphical user interface for interacting with 3d topological meshes.

• Built upon a Doubly Linked Face List (DLFL) structure that guarantees manifold meshes.

• Intuitive, familiar interface elements based on paradigms set by other popular 3d modeling applications.

• Free, open source, portable, platform independent, localizable.• Web community with a discussion forum, and image gallery,

collaborative documentation, news updates, software downloads, etc...


Introduction

• Doubly Linked Face List (DLFL)• Linked List Data Structure

• Face list, Edge list, Vertex list• Represent Corners as Face-Vertices

• Output meshes guaranteed to be 2-manifold• Rapid prototyping / manufacturing• Developable surfaces


OBJ vs. DLFL

• Cube - Obj Format

• Cube DLFL Format


Introduction

• TopMod• Topological mesh modeling system• Originally created in 2000• C++ implementation• Ability to create high-genus 2-manifold meshes• Complex operations built on the minimal set

• Extrusions• Subdivision schemes• High-Genus operations• Planar Modeling

• Bezier patch rendering/exporting

• Counter-intuitive, unfamiliar user interface


TopMod v1

QuickTime™ and aVideo decompressor

are needed to see this picture.


Overview

• Introduction

• Motivation

• Prior Work


• Conclusion

• Future Work

• Acknowledgments


Problems

• Unfamiliar user interface• Disorganized hierarchy of menus and tool options• Only runs on Windows. :(• Static interface elements, not customizable• No clear system of keyboard shortcuts• Minimal viewport/display options• Only handles Wavefront OBJ file format and proprietary DLFL format• Only available in English• No centralized web community for discussion and development• No user or developer documentation• Closed source code• Lack of interest from students to develop it further• Development was slowing almost to a stop


Motivation


Goals

• Topmod interface should be familiar and intuitive • Needs an organized hierarchy of menus and tool options• It should be platform independent and portable• Interface elements should be customizable• It should have programmable keyboard shortcuts for all tools/options• The viewport should be configurable• It should be able to export other file formats• It should be available in multiple languages• It should have a web site that promotes discussion and development • It should have clear documentation for users and developers• It should be open source to encourage future development


Solutions

• TopMod interface needs to be redesigned from scratch• Use a more appropriate user interface toolkit• Begin redesign process with the problems in mind• Use other popular 3d modeling applications as a starting point

• Interface code should be separated from the DLFL data structure• Move DLFL operations into two libraries - Core and Auxiliary (Stuart Tett)• Integrate past thesis work that never made it to the final version

• Build a centralized web community• Distribute new software releases and news • Promote discussion and current/future development• Share a single, open source code repository• Get dugg


Overview

• Introduction

• Motivation

• Prior Work


• Conclusion

• Future Work

• Acknowledgments


Prior Work - Maya

• Hierarchy of menus/icons/toolbars

• Floating tool option windows

• Highly customizable viewport

• Heads up display


Prior Work - Blender

• Open source

• Localizable interface

• Platform independent

• OpenGL viewport/interface

• Programmed almost entirely

• By one person


Prior Work - Rhinoceros 3D

• Command Line Interface

• Auto-completion


Prior Work - Wings3D

• Open source

• Platform independent

• Context-sensitive right click menus

• Sub-object selection routines

• Winged Edge Data Structure


Prior Work - Google Sketchup

• Value Control Box

• Ruby Script Engine

• Localized


Prior Work - Other 3D Modeling Applications


Prior Work - Popup Command Line Interfaces

• Quicksilver for OS/X

• Launchy for Windows


Prior Work - GUI Toolkits• FLTK

• Free, open source, platform independent, lightweight, C++• Fast, small footprint• Limited choice of interface widgets and features

• wxWidgets• Free, platform independent, native mode drawing, C++• Can create custom widgets.• Available in other languages (Perl, Python, LUA, Ruby, Java, etc...)

• GTK• Free, open source, C / C++• Not native to OS/X, requires X11• Steep learning curve• Other languages (Python, Perl, Java, Ruby, Pascal, PHP, etc...)

• Fox, GLUI, Tk, YAAF, Agar, Juce, NovaTK, Quinta, VCF, etc...


Prior Work - Trolltech Qt

• Created in 1991 by Haavard Nord and Eirik Chambe-Eng• Incorporated into Quasar Technologies in 1994, later changed to Trolltech• Key Features

• C++• Platform Independence• Open Source (GPL) or Commercial License• Meta Object Compiler - Signals and Slots• Asynchronous input and output / event driven constructs• OpenGL module, XML module, internationalization module• Native mode widget drawing

• Existing Applications/Companies using Qt• Google Earth, Skype, KDE Desktop, Adobe Photoshop Album• HP, Disney CHIP, Lucasfilm Animation, ILM, etc...


Qt Users


Overview

• Introduction

• Motivation

• Prior Work


• Conclusion

• Future Work

• Acknowledgments


Implementation and Results

• Overview• Removing FLTK dependency• Redesigning the interface using Qt• New sub-object selection routines for vertices, edges, and faces• Consolidate old thesis research projects into the new version• Platform independence and portability• Internationalization• Heads up display• Creating an online community

• Blog, Wiki, Forum, Image Gallery, Code Repository• Usage Statistics and Visitor Tracking





Removing FLTK Dependency

• FLTK provides very few widgets• Not intuitive or user friendly• FLTK project is not well supported or updated frequently• Difficult to set specific values for various operations such as extrusion length• Lack of precision


Removing FLTK Dependency

• Rewrote OpenGL display class• Rewrote all file handling operations• Rewrote all code dealing with user interface widgets and menu options• Recreated similar interface to original, in Qt





Qt Redesign

• Use a variety of Qt classes to create an intuitive interface• QAction - to drive all menu commands, toolbar icons, etc...• QMenu - can be nested, collapsible, floatable, display custom shortcuts• QIcon - to graphically represent a QAction• QToolBar - for groups of icons• QPopupMenu - for right click context menus• QDockWidget - floatable window for tool options• QDoubleSpinBox - widget that allows a user to choose a specific number• QGLWidget - to display and interact with the 3d mesh• QPushButton - to perform operations

• Other Qt classes were used for color picking, labeling, 2D drawing, text completion, check boxes, radio buttons, a status bar, real-time translation, shortcut management.


Qt Redesign

• New interface


Viewport Customization


Preferences Dialog

• Camera FOV, near plane, far plane• Auto save• Incremental save• Default Save Directory• Viewport Colors• Line Weights/Lengths• Keyboard Shortcuts• Custom Stylesheets


Popup Command Line Interface

• Invoked by pressing spacebar key and typing• Navigate list with mouse or arrow keys• Hit enter


Other Features

• Floatable Tool Bars• Fullscreen mode• Save Screenshot buttons• STL Export• Lg3d Export





Selection Routines

• Work on Sub-object elements (Faces, Vertices, Edges, Corners)

• Global Routines:• Select All• Select Inverse• Select Multiple• Select Similar• Selection Window• Grow Selection• Shrink Selection• Clear Selected

• Faces• Face Loop• By Surface Area• Checkerboard Selection

• Edges• Edge Loop• Edge Ring

• Vertices• Edit Vertex

• Selection Conversions• Swap edges for verts/faces• Swap verts for edges/faces• Swap faces for verts/edges


• Select Inverse

• Select Multiple

• Select Similar

• Selection Window

Global Routines


• Edges

• Vertices

• Faces

Grow/Shrink Selection


Selection Conversions

• Vertices to Edges or Faces• Edges to Faces or Vertices• Faces to Edges or Vertices


Face Selection Routines

• Face Loop

• Similar Surface Area

• Checkerboard • 2-colorable


Edge Selection Routines

• Edge Loop

• Edge Ring





Previous TopMod Thesis Work / Research

• Code separated into many different version on the Viz server• Planar (Conical) sculpting work by Ozgur Gonen• Advanced extrusion operators by Eric Landreneau• Vertex Editing by Brian Barran• Bezier Patch Rendering by Vinod and Ergun• Rectangular wireframe modeling function hidden in existing code• New approach to interactive rind modeling• New approach to extrusions• New approaches to other basic operators

• subdivide edges, delete edges • subdivide faces, etc…

• Scripting Interface by Stuart Tett


Planar Sculpting

• Cut by Edge• Cut by Vertex• Cut by Face• Convex Hull• Local vs. Global


Advanced Extrusions

• Icosahedral

• Dodecahedral


• currently working on an “edit multiple vertices” feature

Vertex Editing


Bezier Patch Display and Export

• rendering capability by Vinod and Ergun• Export feature by Stuart Tett


Asymmetrical Wireframe Modeling

• Wireframe modeling is simply a modified corner cutting subdivision combined with a call to the rind modeling function

• each function takes a thickness parameter• Users now have the ability to set each thickness to a different value


Interactive Rind Modeling

• Obtain face selection set, then create the crust

QuickTime™ and aAnimation decompressor



Multiple Extrusions

• Obtain face selection set first, then extrude• provide support for the old way


Multiple Extrusions


Other Basic Operators

• Subdivide Selected Edges• Subdivide Selected Faces• Delete Selected Edges• Delete Selected Vertices

QuickTime™ and aAnimation decompressor



Scripting Interface Issues

• Written in Python by Stuart Tett• Would not compile in Windows• Mingw32 vs. Visual Studio• Posted issue to the discussion forum• Erik on the forum fixed it and posted a solution





Platform Independence and Portability

• QMake Build System• As opposed to GNU Build System or handwritten makefiles• Helps streamline the build process on Linux, OS/X, and Windows• Project file manages custom include files and libraries per OS

• Wrote scripts to further automate the build process across all 3 platforms

• Store all needed libraries within a single local directory or bundle (OS/X)• Wrote custom scripts to build independent bundles on OS/X

• No need to install the application anywhere / Do not need admin privileges• Stores a preference file in the local user directory

• remembers viewport color settings, window size and location, shortcuts





I18n

• Qt provides a simple library for interface translation• Wrap all displayable text in tr() function - tr(“text here”);• lupdate and lrelease programs generate custom translation files

• Translation data stored as .xml• Users and developers can translate text in Qt’s Linguist GUI application• Easy to use; no programming experience necessary

• Encourage TopMod users in foreign countries to help translate• Currently have a working French translation from “Frenchy Pilou”

• finished in one evening• Working on a German translation with user “sjoo” from the TopMod forum• I am working on a Spanish translation with a few users from Valencia• Waiting for Turkish / Hindi / Catalan / Italian / etc...

• I extended the functionality to make it happen real-time during execution


I18n

• Qt Linguist Application


I18n

• TopMod in French (thanks to Frenchy Pilou)


I18n - Demo Video





Heads Up Display

• Provide diagnostic information about the current state of the program• Current operating mode• Current selection filter/mask• Current extrusion mode• Current remeshing mode• Number of faces, vertices, and edges, and the genus• Number of selected faces, vertices, edges, and corners

• Rendered in OpenGL viewport using QPainter 2D painting widget• Also displays a miniature coordinate axis





TopMod Web Community

• Editable user and developer documentation• Discussion forum• News blog• Image Gallery• Open source code repository• Quick and easy implementation / styling / updating etc...



• TopMod Wiki• Based on BlenderWiki and Blender Documentation Project• Built with open source mediawiki software (wikipedia)• editable by anyone

• Features• Embed and synchronize multiple 3d models with LiveGraphics3D plugin• Embed Quicktime video tutorials• Upload and share rendered images, OBJ, DLFL, and LG3d model files• Upload and share Python Scripts



• TopMod Wiki Screenshots and Demos



• TopMod Wiki Screenshots and Demos



• TopMod Wiki LiveGraphics3D demo



• TopMod Wiki LiveGraphics3D demo



• Doxygen Source Code Documentation • Automatically generated by reading through source code• Detects custom tags and keywords in the source code comments

• //!< \todo finish internationalization support for extrusion mode widgets

• /**

• * \brief this is a description

• * \@param this is a parameter

• **/

• Generates customizable HTML and PDF documentation.• Wrote a script to automate the process of generating and publishing docs

• runs doxygen with custom HTML header and footer• archives results• uploads and unpacks the files to the TopMod web server



• Doxygen Results



• Discussion forum• open source phpBB software• easy to style and maintain• MySQL database


TopMod Web Community• News Blog• Open source Wordpress blog engine• Easy to install (5 minutes)• Easy to style maintain, PHP/MySQL



• Open source code repository• Google Code

• SVN repository• Wiki• bug reporting• release manager• scripted uploads• download tracker• google analytics• lots of storage space


Video Tutorials

• http://topmod.blip.tv• 6431 views in 1.5 months


Website Usage Statistics

• website began near the beginning of August 2007• first released on Google Code repository on Aug. 6th, 2007


Google Analytics

• 9 months of statistics to date• 312,000 pageviews• 44,000 unique visits• 2,000 visits on October 1st• 52% of traffic from referring sites• 20% from search engines• 46% of visitors spent less than 10 seconds on the site• Average Time on Site - 5:20


Google Analytics - October 1st in France


Results - Polyloop Forum

• Cross posting by Frenchy Pilou


Results - Meminesis


Results - 3dvia.com


Results - Mick


Results - torolf


Results - sjoo


Results - torolf


Results - sjoo


Results - torolf


Results - torolf


Results - sjoo


Results - Frenchy Pilou


Results - torolf


Results - sjoo


Results - torolf


Results - Frenchy Pilou


Results - shadow


Results - Stefan


Results - Python Scripting - Diego


Results - Trefoil Knot Tutorial by erik


Results - User-Created Video Tutorials

• S. Johansen from Germany

QuickTime™ and aSorenson Video 3 decompressorare needed to see this picture.



• S. Johansen from Germany

QuickTime™ and aSorenson Video 3 decompressorare needed to see this picture.



• Frenchy Pilou produced a step-by-step interactive tutorial in French


Results - Web Presence


Results - Web Presence

Texas A&M Visualization Laboratory ©2007 dave morris

Branding


Advertising

• Official Banner on ZBrush France web community• Mail call spot in 3D World Magazine, CD in magazine packaging• Tags on Delicious / Flickr / 3DVia / DeviantArt / PushPullBar etc...


Advertising - 3DWorld Magazine Issue 98


Logo Design Competition


T-Shirt Design Competition


Overview

• Introduction

• Motivation

• Prior Work


• Conclusion

• Future Work

• Acknowledgments


Conclusion

• With this new user interface, TopMod users can• create high genus 2-manifold meshes much faster and more easily• customize the interface to allow for a better and faster workflow• interact with other TopMod users in a web-based community environment• view video and text-based tutorials online • suggest features and submit bugs and other issues• learn from and contribute to the TopMod documentation • download the TopMod source code• contribute to the TopMod source code in an open environment• share images and videos of work created in topmod


Overview

• Introduction

• Motivation

• Prior Work


• Conclusion

• Future Work

• Acknowledgments


Future Work

• Collaboration through the TopMod Web Community• GPU Shading/Rendering• Wacom Tablet Support• Physically Based Camera• Multi-threaded support - ability to cancel operations• Progress Bar / Cancel Buttons• Poly editing features

• Move, rotate, scale multiple vertices, edges, and faces• Scene Graph support

• OpenSG or Maya-style DAG• Support multiple objects

• Modifier stack• Saved selection sets• PyQT custom scripted GUI elements• Support for 1-valence vertices - make TopMod crash less• More translation languages - Italian, Turkish, Catalan, Spanish, German etc...• Non-manifold mesh support / Generic Wireframe/Crust Algorithm• AJAX 3d or Flash 3d web interface• http://www.topmod3d.org/forum/


• Based on requests from user forum• Voronoi / Delaunay • Organic Forms• Python Scripting Tutorials• Basket Weave Algorithm

New Features / Remeshing Schemes


• TAMU Office of Technology Commercialization• Mays Business School• Center for New Ventures and Entrepreneurship• Marketing Department• MBA Ideas Competition• Research Valley Innovation Center• NSF/SBIR Grants• Texas Emerging Technology Fund

Commercialization Options


Overview

• Introduction

• Motivation

• Prior Work


• Conclusion

• Future Work

• Acknowledgments


Acknowledgments• TopMod Contributors

• Lead Developer: Vinod Srinivasan• Concept/Theory: Ergun Akleman, Jianer Chen• Contributors: Esan Mandal, Eric Landreneau, Zeki Melek, Stuart Tett, Michael Stanley, Ozgur Gonen, Paul Edmundson, Fusun Eryoldas, Cansin Evrenosoglu, Xu Bei, Brian Barran

• Committee• Ergun Akleman (Chair)• Vinod Srinivasan• Dr. Jianer Chen

• Special Thanks To• Stuart Tett - lead designer of the TopMod Python Scripting Engine


Questions?