Y.A.P.R.M. - Yet Another POV-Ray-Modeller

New Object and Layer Property Handling

Today I finished a next major step towards the next release of Y.A.P.R.M. with the new GTKmm based interface. Now every object can be edited again. But with a new simplified design. In previous versions you first had to click in the menu than select the objects and than enter the data in the pop up windows that showed. These are many many clicks and often the property window was in your way to see the right part. In the new version you just click on the object you like to edit and the object property sheet lets you enter the data. The same holds for the layer editing process. The new screen shot I just uploaded should give you an impression of the new feature.

With this feature in place you can already model and manipulate your scenes with the the GTK Y.A.P.R.M. The only missing point for the final 0.7 release are now to get the object control points working again. This should not be the big issue. The only point here is to support undo and redo. Than there are some minor issues left like enabling undo redo for all actions in the layer tree and correctly update the viewports.

So for all of you how like to see how far I am already check out the lates version from the SVN. Let me know what you think.

Enjoy,
Alil

Menu Finished

The menu of the new Y.A.P.R.M. is finished. It provides you with the same functionality available in Y.A.P.R.M. 0.6.6 with the main extension that all menu actions that lead to a scene change can be undone and redone. I'm pretty proud of this implementation.

The only thing that is left before the GTK version of Y.A.P.R.M. can go into the test phase is the editing of object properties. I'm targeting a new approach which should make it easier to edit object properties, which I hope you will like. Today I drafted the first ideas how to tackle the problem. Lets see how it turns it.

For all how like to have a sneak preview on the new Y.A.P.R.M. please check out the latest version from SVN.

Enjoy,
Alil

Update on GTK Transition

The work on the new version of Y.A.P.R.M. is progresseing. I just finished the object creators. This allows that all objects that have been supported by version 0.6.6 can again be created. So it is coming to a stage where it is again usable. What is even better I started also to work on undo and redo and for the object creation the undo and redo is already working. The next steps are to get the edit menu up and running and the last main step will be the object property editing. However I still have to think a little on how this should be done in the new Y.A.P.R.M. A key point is to improve usabilty and reduce the amount of clicks and mouse move that where necesssary in the old version. Any suggestions are warmly welcome.

If you like to peek on the new Y.A.P.R.M. Feel free to check it out from SVN and let me know what you think.

Enjoy,
Alil

Scene Tree View Finished

Today I complete a major milestone towards a first working gtkmm version of Y.A.P.R.M.: I completed the work on the tree view used for navigating and editing the layer structure of the scene. The next step will focus on the object creation. However, currently I'm still not sure if I want to have this the same way as the old Y.A.P.R.M. or if I would like to have it differently. Suggestions are warmly welcome.

Enjoy,
Alil

Mouse Gestures

In the last week I came across some libraries providing an easy support for mouse gestures. I furthermore heard that several CAD tools use mouse gestures in order to improve the useability and speed of the drawing process. I found this idea rather interesting. So I like to ask you what do you think? Please show your opinion in the new poll I just added.

Thanks,
Alil

First Preview on new Y.A.P.R.M.

I just finished to implement all view ports. Therefore I thought you might be interested in seeing a first sneak preview how the new Y.A.P.R.M. will look. Therefore I uploaded a screenshot giving you an overview of how the new viewports can be arranged. As you can see it already looks pretty impressive. However still you just can view your scenes. Editing will still take some time. More than expected. For all of you who like to try the new Y.A.P.R.M. it is available in the SVN.

Enjoy,
Alil

GDL for Managing the Layout of the new Y.A.P.R.M.

After playing around with GTKmm for some time I have already a first version running. This version is capable of loading and saving Y.A.P.R.M. scene files. Also the import of 3D model files with assimp is working. However you can't see much as you are just able to render the scene.

Y.A.P.R.M. will move to GTKmm

As you may have noticed with the latest poll I'm currently rethinking the widget library used. I spent much work in the current widget library but as I did everything from scratch every new feature for Y.A.P.R.M. was pretty much work in the widget lib. So I spent more time programming widgets then on features for Y.A.P.R.M. With the new ideas I have for Y.A.P.R.M. I came to the limits of the widget lib. After some thinking I decided that the new widget lib will be GTKmm. I know that in the poll also wxWidgets got many votes. However I did already a project with wxWidgets and I was not really happy with it. After doing some tests with GTKmm I can say that its interface is nice and straight forward.

As part of this change I'm also rethink the overall interface of Y.A.P.R.M. Many possiblities are available. Please look at the poll I just started and give me your ideas for the new interface design.

In the meantime I will work on the basic dialogs which will somehow be rather similar to the existing user interface. For everybody who is interested in the current state have a look in the svn on sourceforge.

Enjoy,
Alil

Y.A.P.R.M. will move to GTKmm

Debian Packages

It took me some time but now also the debian packages (src, i368, amd64, and ppc) are available for download. See the download page for more details.

Enjoy,
Alil