Difference between revisions of "Google Summer of Code/Project Ideas"

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== Graphical User Interface (GUI) Projects ==
 
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|'''[[MGED Sketch Editor Migration and Enhancement]]:'''  MGED has a sucky 2D sketch editor written in pure Tcl/Tk.  Archer has nothing.  Fix the old one or write a new one.
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|'''[[2D Sketch Editor]]:'''  MGED has a sucky 2D sketch editor written in pure Tcl/Tk.  Archer has nothing.  Fix the old one or write a new one.
 
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|'''[[Analytical Raytracing Visualization]]:'''  There are a ''lot'' of visualization tools in BRL-CAD, but most aren't integrated with the GUI.  Visualizing directly within the GUI would improve usability.
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|'''[[GUI Integration of Analysis Tools]]:'''  There are a ''lot'' of visualization tools in BRL-CAD, but most aren't integrated with the GUI.  Visualizing directly within the GUI would improve usability.
 
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|'''[[Graph layout based geometry hierarchy view]]:'''  CSG forms a directed acyclic graph.  Tree view widgets show a simple hierarchical representation, but we need something better.
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|'''[[Visualizing Constructive Solid Geometry (CSG)]]:'''  CSG forms a directed acyclic graph.  Tree view widgets show a simple hierarchical representation, but we need something better.
 
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Revision as of 13:05, 24 March 2011

The list of possible projects below should serve as a good starting point for new developers that would like to get involved in working on BRL-CAD. The ideas below range from the very hard and math intense to the very easy, see the link to each for more details. You are also welcome to scale the scope of the project up or down as needed as the ideas suggested below are merely starting points. There are also several other areas of development that are of high-interest.

BRL-CAD Priorities

Be sure to read up on our application process for getting started with your proposal submission if you have not done so already including our checklist. See the diagram at the bottom of this page for an overview of our major project focus areas.

Project Categories

NURBS (Non-Uniform Rational B-Splines) Projects

BRL-CAD has recently implemented raytracing support for NURBS-based boundary representation geometry. It's one of our hot-topic priority focus areas with high impact and high visibility. They are also pretty hard so be careful to have sufficient familiarity and lots of milestones.

Idea Languages Impact Difficulty
NURBS Intersections: Evaluate the intersection of two NURBS surfaces. You'll get a 3D curve or a point, line segment, or even a plane depending how the surfaces overlap. C/C++ HIGH HARD
NURBS Tessellation: Given a NURBS object (i.e., a collection of NURBS surfaces that enclose space), evaluate a polygonal mesh. It has to be fast. C/C++ HIGH MEDIUM
Implicit to NURBS conversion: We implement lots of primitives like sphere and torus defined with implicit parameters. Given one of our implicit primitives, describe it using NURBS surfaces. C/C++ HIGH MEDIUM
Plate Mode NURBS raytracing: Imported NURBS geometry often does NOT enclose space (i.e., not solid), so add support for specifying an implicit thickness. C/C++ HIGH HARD


Code Refactoring Projects

BRL-CAD has more than a million lines of code so we have to continually refactor and clean up code for maintainability. Cruft happens. These projects help reduce the complexity and make things better. They're not very hard at all, but exceedingly valuable to our project vitality.

Idea Languages Impact Difficulty
MGED to Archer Command Migration: Our next-generation editor (Archer) needs to have the same (700+) commands that are in MGED. Help make our next CAD interface awesome. C and Tcl HIGH EASY
General Tree Walker: We have a half dozen or more functions that will traverse a geometry hierarchy in different ways. There only needs to be one. C HIGH EASY
Rework of libbu/libbn to not require Tcl: Tcl's C API is used throughout BRL-CAD providing great abstractions, but we want our basic utility and numeric libraries (LIBBU & LIBBN) to stand alone. C HIGH EASY
Consolidate image processing: We have 100+ image processing tools that independently read and write file data. Needs much reuse love. C HIGH EASY


Graphical User Interface (GUI) Projects

The primary environment in which users interact with BRL-CAD geometry is the MGED geometry editor. The "next generation" interface for MGED, dubbed Archer, has been under development for some time but there is a lot of functionality that still needs to be migrated and new features needed by MGED, Archer, or both.

Idea Languages Impact Difficulty
New Cross-Platform 3D Display Manager: BRL-CAD uses display managers for visualizing 3D geometry in a window. We want a new one that uses a cross-platform toolkit such as Qt or OGRE. C/C++ HIGH MEDIUM
New Cross-Platform 2D Framebuffer: BRL-CAD uses framebuffers to display 2D imagery. The merits of having a single interface for most platforms is self-evident. C/C++ HIGH EASY
2D Sketch Editor: MGED has a sucky 2D sketch editor written in pure Tcl/Tk. Archer has nothing. Fix the old one or write a new one. Tcl (presently) and/or C HIGH HARD
Ayam Editor Feature Integration: The Ayam project has support for NURBS editing, we do not. Collaboration and reuse is a good thing. C/Tcl MEDIUM MEDIUM
GUI Integration of Analysis Tools: There are a lot of visualization tools in BRL-CAD, but most aren't integrated with the GUI. Visualizing directly within the GUI would improve usability. C MEDIUM MEDIUM
Level of Detail Wireframes: Geometry is drawn with fixed wireframe detail which can screw performance and make shape recognition difficult. Detail needs to adjust based on view size. C HIGH EASY
BoT Editing: Our unstructured triangle mesh geometry (Bag of Triangles = BoT) is a common import format, but our BoT edit support sucks. We need something better. C HIGH HARD
NMG Editing: Our structured polygonal mesh geometry (N-Manifold Geometry = NMG) is a common export format, but our NMG edit support is non-existent. We need something. C HIGH HARD
Visualizing Constructive Solid Geometry (CSG): CSG forms a directed acyclic graph. Tree view widgets show a simple hierarchical representation, but we need something better. C/C++ HIGH EASY


Geometry Conversion Projects

Idea Description Languages Impact Difficulty
STEP Libraries C/C++ HIGH EASY
Geometry Conversion Library C/C++ HIGH EASY
Voxelize command C LOW EASY
IGES import improvements C HIGH MEDIUM


Geometry Processing Projects

Idea Description Languages Impact Difficulty
GED Transactions C HIGH EASY
Add exec option to search C HIGH EASY
Geometry Selection Functionality C HIGH EASY
Geometric Constraint Solver C/C++ HIGH HARD
Space Partitioning for Tessellation C MEDIUM HARD
libsvn within Geometry Database Format C HIGH HARD


Analysis Projects

Idea Description Languages Impact Difficulty
Analysis Library C HIGH HARD


Rendering Projects

Idea Description Languages Impact Difficulty
Shader Enhancements C MEDIUM EASY
Material and Shader Objects C HIGH EASY
NMG Raytracing Performance Improvement C MEDIUM HARD
Generalized abstracted spacial partitioning capability C HIGH HARD
High Dynamic Range Support C and/or C++ LOW EASY
Vector output from raytracing C and/or C++ HIGH EASY


Other Tool Projects

Some of these project ideas aren't as detailed or elaborate as the ones above, but would be interesting and useful nonetheless. Please discuss with us before proposing one of these ideas.


<AN IDEA OF YOUR OWN>

Do you have an idea of your own? Let us know and maybe we'll like it too. We're very open to new ideas, areas of academic research, industry applications, and any other ways that may help get you hooked on BRL-CAD development. Just remember that BRL-CAD is a solid modeling CAD suite so keep that in mind when scoping your project.

Requirements:

  • Passion for the task being suggested
  • Buy-in from one of the existing developers

Difficulty: variable