Beginner: Install and run BRL-CAD! #52BRL-CAD
Status: ClosedTime to complete: 100 hrs Mentors: Isaac Kamga, Kesha ShahTags: modeling, CAD, 3d, designBeginner

This is a two-part task. First part is about open source communication, second part is to install and run one of BRL-CAD's tools.

PART 1: For the first part, see the Voluntary Communication Checklist on our org profile page here: https://www.google-melange.com/gci/org/google/gci2014/brlcad

Simply do one or more of the checklist items and leave a comment here saying which you did. Provide some evidence that we can verify like if you talk on our IRC channel, let us know your username. If you join a mailing list, just leave a comment stating the first four letters of your e-mail address (please don't post your whole address). We encourage you to do all four!

PART 2: The second part of this task involves downloading, installing, and running BRL-CAD and then proving you got it working. You'll prove it by creating some really simple geometry, rendering it, and submitting a screenshot.

You have a choice of how to obtain our software, each with different learning challenges:

  • BEST: You can download and compile directly from our repository: http://brlcad.org/wiki/Building_from_SVN
  • EASY: You can download our Virtual Machine image: http://brlcad.org/wiki/Deuces#Getting_Started
  • MEH: You can use a binary tarball: http://brlcad.org/d/download

Once you have BRL-CAD installed, you'll want to run either mged or archer. You can see our Intro to MGED on http://brlcad.org/wiki/Documentation for extensive tutorials on how to model, but here are some quick steps to get you going:

  1. First, create a simple 512x512 black and white image that has your name in it somewhere. Any paint program will do here. You'll want to create white text on a black background.
  2. Save that as a png image named hello.png
  3. Convert your png image to a bw image by running our png-bw command (png-bw hello.png hello.bw). If you can't figure out how to do that on your system command line, this command on the mged prompt should work if you copy-paste it exactly as written into mged: exec \[ file join \[ bu_brlcad_root bin \] pix-bw \] hello.png \ hello.bw
  4. Create your extruded bitmap geometry: in gcirocks.ebm ebm hello.bw 512 512 64
  5. Render a pretty picture:
    B gcirocks.ebm
    ae 35 25
    zoom 1.5
    l gcirocks.ebm
    rt
  6. You should see a rendering window pop up if everything else was okay. Take a full screenshot and submit it here.

Once you submit your screenshot, remember to leave a comment with details about which communication checklist item(s) you performed along with your evidence.

References:
  • http://brlcad.org/wiki/Compiling -- if you're trying to compile from source
  • http://brlcad.org/wiki/Documentation -- intro to mged and quick ref command card
  • http://brlcad.org/wiki/EBM -- more details on the ebm you are creating
Uploaded Work
File name/URLFile sizeDate submitted
GCI Task.png107.9 KBJanuary 12 2015 09:29 UTC
Comments
Samuel Chuaon January 12 2015 08:10 UTCTask Claimed

I would like to work on this task.

Daniel_R on January 12 2015 08:36 UTCTask Assigned

This task has been assigned to Samuel Chua. You have 100 hours to complete this task, good luck!

Samuel Chuaon January 12 2015 09:29 UTCReady for review

The work on this task is ready to be reviewed.

Isaac Kamga on January 12 2015 09:36 UTCTask Closed

Congratulations, this task has been completed successfully.