GSoC/GCI Archive
Google Code-in 2014 BRL-CAD

Beginner: Install and run BRL-CAD! #46

completed by: Soh Xin Yi

mentors: Sean, Jacob B

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