How much configuration?

Since Banate CAD exposes everything to the scripter, you are free to change pretty much anything at runtime.

Here, I have entered one line of code in my script to change the color scheme:

defaultviewer.colorscheme = colorschemes.Space

the ‘Space’ color scheme is defined in the colorschemes.lua file and looks like this:

colorschemes["Space"] = {
BACKGROUND_COLOR = {0, 0, 0, 1},
CROSSHAIR_COLOR = {0.5, 0.75, 0.75, 1},
WIREFRAME_COLOR = {1,1,1,1}
}

You can easily add your own color scheme to that file before you start Banate CAD, then it will be available to you later in your script.

Or, since it’s just a table that’s available at runtime, you could just as easily construct a scheme from within your script.  And start using it.

That’s just one of a number of things you can customize about the environment.  You can also change things like the lighting. If you wanted to add a light, you could do something like:

local newLight = BLight:new({
ID = gl.LIGHT2,
Diffuse = {0.5,1,0.75,1},
Position = {2,1,-1,0},
Enabled = true
})

table.insert(defaultsceneviewer.Lights, newLight)

Or something to that effect.  In this particular case, a bit of the underlying OpenGL is showing through (gl.LIGHT2), but that will get cleaned up as the lighting system goes more generic.  But, you could do it if you wanted to.  You could even change the default lighting system by going into SceneViewer.lua and just changing the lights to be whatever you want.

This is one of those things that hardcore tinkerers might be interested in, but someone like my mother would just leave well enough alone.

At the moment, I’m working on the Animation system.  That’s pretty cool because that picture above can actually move!  Yep, you got it, the little moon can be shown to orbit the earth.  Of course, if the moon were actually proportionally that big and close, our skin would probably be ripping off our bodies from the tidal forces, but it makes for a nice visualization nonetheless.

Animation can only be shown if you’re actually playing with the script though.  I could of course add a “Make Movie” feature, but that’s a bit of work to do cross platform.  I can certainly generate a bunch of .png images that can then be stitched together by another piece of software.

At any rate, Banate CAD is first and foremost a 3D modeling/printing piece of software.  That doesn’t mean it has to be boring though.  By adding visualizations and animations, I believe it will make the 3D design experience that much more approachable and interesting, and thus more people will do it because it looks like a video game.

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