Anim8or Community

When accessing Anim8or.com this evening (5:15 pm EST, December 23, 2024) Firefox complained that its security certificate has expired.

Sorry: can't help with this one. I vaguely recall something similar happening to me, but I don't even recall if I managed to fix it or gave up in disgust

Nope. Not even Hari

(Selden is my first name, actually.)

Good to know things are working for you. It's surprising how many bugs a reboot fixes.

I'm a little confused by your request, but I think you're asking how to change the orientation (and/or location) of the object's axes relative to its shape. In Anim8or terms, that means "change the object's pivot point."

This can be done by selecting the "edit pivot point" mode. It has operations similar to those available in the "edit object" mode.

In the screengrab below, I moved the object away from the origin so that the pivot point's axes can seen more easily. They're hard to see when they overlap the "World" axes, as they do when the object is centered. I've also rotated the pivot point somewhat.

The "Edit" menu in the top row of options has a "Pivot..." entry which provides a few edit options, too.

You're very welcome!

(Sorry for this late reply, I don't visit the forum as often as I should.)

Here's how I've done it:

With Anim8or in Object mode, select the Sphere icon. In the main viewpane, left-mouse-button click where you want the sphere to be (roughly: it can be moved later).  Then double click on the sphere's image. That'll bring up the Sphere Editor menu, where you can specify the number of divisions. After you've chosen appropriate longitude and latitude values (Latitude needs to be changed to an odd number, not an even value), you can select Build -> Convert to Mesh. Then switch to Point Edit and drag points to get the desired shape.

(I'll add a screengrab shortly.)

Request for enhancement of Wavefront .obj object export:

Please make it possible to export a .mtl Ns value of 1.0

Suggestion: When Anim8or's material Brilliance is set to 1.0, then set Ns to 1.0  (Currently it gets set to 0.0)

Rationale:

I am trying to create Wavefront .obj objects with a matte surface for importing into "Sweet Home 3D." For a surface to be matte, SH3D needs it to have a .mtl value of
Ns 1.0

(In addition, a setting of "illum 1" is desirable but does not seem to be required.)

Background:

I've been using Anim8or to create "furniture" objects for use in "Sweet Home 3D", free home-design software. ( https://www.sweethome3d.com/ ) SH3D uses Wavefront OBJ format as its model import format. When an object which was created in Anim8or with default material characteristics has been exported to .obj and then imported into SH3D, SH3D's image rendering algorithms render the object with highly reflective surfaces. They actually produce a mirror image of the environment on their surfaces. In many cases this is undesirable.  After consulting on the SH3D support forum, I learned that when an object is imported which has a Ns of exactly 1.0, then those reflections are NOT drawn.

Unfortunately, I have not been able to persuade Anim8or to emit an Ns of 1. I can get very close to 1.0 by reducing Anim8or's Brilliance value close to 1, but when Brilliance is set to 1.0, it generates an Ns value of 0.0. A value of 0.0 causes rendering errors in SH3D.

As a workaround, I've been using a text editor to change the value of Ns from 0.0 to 1.0, but it'd be nice not to have to do that.

I'm using Anim8or v 1.01.1403

I'd like to view "dimension arrows" alongside models that I'm making in "object" mode. Is this possible? If so, how?

I seem to recall enabling and using this feature a few years ago, but I simply can't find it now. I have a vague (and maybe wrong) recollection about this feature somehow being related to an "engineering" option. I've stared at menu options and searched through the manual, but simply can't find it. I've looked for the keywords "engineering", "units", "dimension". I'm probably looking at it and simply not seeing it.

As I seem to recall, the feature produced lines and arrows like the yellow stuff in the picture below, although the lines were thinner.