Anim8or Community

Problem: Reference image is missing its texture

Details:

If an object contains a reference image, copying everything to a new object does not display the reference image's texture. A blank (black) reference image is drawn instead. See the attached screengrab.

Workaround: Exit and restart Anim8or. The copied reference image is then drawn with its texture in the new object. (This can take a painfully long time if one is working on a large model.)

This problem is seen when using Anim8or v1.01.1318 and previous versions.

Simplified instructions to duplicate:

Open an empty .an8 file
Import a reference image (object editor -> Build -> Reference Image ...)

Copy all to clipboard ( Ctrl-A Ctrl-C )
Create a new object (object editor -> Object -> New)

Paste into the new object ( Ctrl-V )

The new reference image is drawn black.

See the attached Zip file, which contains a model with a reference image. Since it has been saved, when you load it and select object02, the reference image will be drawn.

Selden

p.s. Similarly, sometimes when I copy a mesh from one object to another, it isn't drawn, either. Maybe it's a related problem?

Unfortunately, I haven't been able to duplicate this mesh viewing problem predictably. As with the reference image, though, if I exit Anim8or and restart it to edit the resulting .an8 file, the copied mesh is present and visible in the second object.

s.

Doh. :rolls eyes:

For some reason I hadn't realized that Anim8or could import .STL format.

I'll see what happens when I do that.

Steve, that's fine. As I mentioned, there is a workaround.

Nope, no groups are involved, either.

To be more specific:

I used MeshLab v1.2.3 to convert two STL models into OBJ format, then imported the OBJs into Anim8or. (That process causes all of the meshes of each of the OBJs to be imported as a single solid.) I moved the two solids so they were properly aligned, then typed Ctrl-A so I could try to find out which surfaces of those meshes needed to have their normals flipped. (When selected surfaces are drawn blue, their surface normals are pointing in the wrong direction. Yellow surfaces are OK.) That's when I discovered Ctrl-A selected only the surfaces which were in one of the two meshes which had been imported.

Fortunately, though, there is a workaround: Object/Point Edit's "Drag Select" option can be used to select all of the surfaces in the current Object, including those that Ctrl-A doesn't select.

While working on a rather large model, I discovered that Ctrl-A selected only half of the surfaces. The model consists of two adjacent meshes and only the surfaces of one of those meshes was being selected. See the attached screengrab.

The zip of the model is too large to attach (3.5MB) so here's a link to it:

https://www.classe.cornell.edu/~seb/files/Avalon-P1-2.zip

Well, in that case, then, I'm not sure what you mean by "its veracity has been challenged". WIPs certainly don't have to be shown in their final forms.

CC,

Groups can be used to reduce the number of manual copy-paste-and-rotate operations when the rotations are around a central point. You can group the models that already have been rotated and then rotate that entire group. It can significantly reduce the total number of operations involved. When you're done you can ungroup them all (or not) as appropriate. Similar groupings can help when creating linear assemblies.

I agree, though, that creating "macros" consisting of a sequence of operations would be very helpful.

Here's the announcement for some of my most recent efforts. As mentioned above, they need Celestia to have been installed. They should work under Windows, MacOS and Linux. Each includes both installation and operating instructions.
----
The preliminary Framework, Power and Mundilfoeri map Addons have all been updated. The Framework has increased dramatically in size to support additional interactions with the communication system used in the Neosol stellar system. They all work individually or in cooperation with each other and/or the original Resurgence Addon.


I consider these to be "Release Candidates." I think they've ready to be officially published, but would like others to test them for bugs or problems that I might have overlooked.

1. MundilfoeriMaps_v097.zip  (45 MB, expands to 68 MB, updated 16:30 EST, 19 Jan '18 )
 -- Adds maps of the Mundilfoeri planetary system.

2. ZeusBattery_v097.zip (3.4 MB, expands to 4.2 MB, updated 16:30 EST, 19 Jan '18 )
-- Adds a battery to the Resurgence maps. v0.95 improves backdrop and explosion.
 
3. ResurgenceFramework_v097.zip (19 MB, expands to 37 MB, updated 16:30 EST, 19 Jan '18 )
-- Adds several control icons at the bottom of the maps, in addition to some control over the things they display.
This includes elements of the Neosol Communication network.

Below are screengrabs of some of what is included in the updated Framework Addon. See earlier posts for images from the Mundilfoeri and Power Addons.

Framework cooperating and interacting with the original Resurgence Addon and with the Zeus Battery Addon.

Two 3D maps of the NeoSol communication network as provided in the Framework Addon.

Two control pages for the Neosol communication devices: a buoy used by the network and an interface to control the local connection to it.

Edited to add:
Almost all of the visible objects were created using Anim8or, including the buttons and the backgrounds. The exceptions are the hexagonal and circular meshes which consist of individual OpenGL lines. Those were created by programs which I wrote.  They defined those two objects using Celestia's native "CMOD" format.  It'd be nice if I could have used Anim8or to create them, but so far I haven't figured out a way to do that.