AC3D under Mac OS X Leopard

[blackbird]

I downloaded the patch from this page and put it in the scripts folder, although it does not seem to do anything for starting AC3D.

[blackbird]

I downloaded a new copy of AC3D, and it seems to work fine now.

[captainpeter]

If it works with a new copy it was probably a file permissions issue.
OS 10.5.1 seems to fix some ACL vs. UNIX permissions inconsistencies too.

cheers
peter

[wayned]

Originally Posted by Andy

It appears that there is a problem with file dialogs when running the current Mac AC3D under the new Leopard system.

Rest assured - we are working on a fix and will announce it when ready.

BTW - Merry Christmas!!

(this is a MacBook Pro running Leopard)
I'm trying to import a DXF part that originally came from an SGI system.
I had a sample of 6 or 7 files, they all seemed to get "stuck" and
eventually crashed. Thinking it might be an issue with line endings, I
opened one up in TextWrangler and saved it with Mac and MS-DOS
line endings (modifying the file name for each so I could tell them
apart). When I tried to import the one with Mac line endings, I got a
"gas gauge" in the corner, it went part way across and then stopped,
eventually it crashed.

Could the issue quoted at the top also be related to this?

[captainpeter]

The DXF import definitely needs some improvement.
There are tons of different DXF file formats.
As far as I remember you'll need an ASCII DXF file which only contains lines and polygons and which was saved in AutoCAD R12 (or earlier?) format.

Here's some basic information: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AutoCAD_DXF

I usually open DXF's in another 3D app and re-save them in a known good format.

cheers
peter

[wayned]

Originally Posted by captainpeter

The DXF import definitely needs some improvement.
There are tons of different DXF file formats.
As far as I remember you'll need an ASCII DXF file which only contains lines and polygons and which was saved in AutoCAD R12 (or earlier?) format.

Here's some basic information: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AutoCAD_DXF

I usually open DXF's in another 3D app and re-save them in a known good format.

cheers
peter

I figured since it came from a company that pretty much defined the implementation. Obviously that was a bad assumption! I don't know that I have any other way to read in a dxf file.

On the other hand, I do have "profiles" of the objects. These profiles are x, y, z triples of an object as a line was traced in a line across an object. One of the guys in the office would generate a homegrown model to check for the proximity of two objects. We have software that generates a path the center of gravity an object follows, the generated model is referenced to the cg. Usually the objects are symmetrical along the longitudnal axis (the axis along which most of the points are taken).

[captainpeter]

You could try reading them with Blender3D which is free.
You can export to .ac format from Blender.
CAD File Converter written by a small Italian company named 'Interstudio' may offer even more DXF to DXF conversions. It also supports binary files as well as DWG and DXB.

cheers
Peter

[wayned]

Merry Christmas!

I've downloaded Blender, installed it, etc. I had installed the Mac developer tools earlier, looking for Python, I find MacPython-2.3, that seems to be close enough. Double clicking the "BuildApplet" icon, I get a brief flurry of activity and then nothing. I see there is a wxPython directory under documentation but that seem to be oriented around building widgets (those critters like a clock, stock quotes, - at least that's what I think they are, etc.) - I don't think those are what is needed. Blender evidently uses Python for at least the import & export functions.

I wonder if AC3D uses either Tcl/Tk (AC3D does use Tcl don't they?) Python for import/export?

(reading, experimenting and poking my way trying to remove this seemingly perpetual shine of newbieness!)

[bfeaver]

I just took delivery of an Intel iMac with Leopard. Multiple crashes brought me here. Ugly workaround but we are back in the game. Thanks so much Andy.

Blue side up,
Bob

[captainpeter]

You need the Python 2.3 build of Blender for OS 10.4 and the Python 2.5 build for OS 10.5. (unless you custom installed another version of Python)
Python is pre installed in both Tiger & Leopard. Just launch Blender and you should be able to import. btw. DXF files are read into Blender via File->Open.
It is a native format for Blender - whatever that means.
I usually just use it as a import helper because of its ability to export AC format files.

I know Blender is a ugly workaround for a simple import problem into AC3D but it sometimes does the trick. Blender's import/export scripts usually work on Mac Linux and Windows (they are Python scripts - i.e. text files). AC3Ds plug ins need to be compiled from source to work on other platforms so Mac users can't use most 3rd party plug ins available here in the forum. (AC3D scripts usually work)

cheers
Peter