New Objects web service

I've been working on a web service and interface to help people browse and select objects that they’d want to print.

It’s in a really early stage but would be awesome to hear if anyone has ideas of what they'd like. So far it just shows (relatively poor) renders of objects at certain angles. But I have plans to improve the renders, add user reviews and ability to upload your own objects.

I'm hoping to be adding allot of new features in the next few weeks

http://new-objects.com/objects/latests/reprap

I've added some 360 degree views

http://new-objects.com/node/105
http://new-objects.com/node/117

Nice 360 degree movies! How are you making those?

Hey Arvin,

The still renders are outputted by a Java3D command line app I’ve written which i can pass a STL file + other parameters and it’ll produce a still image or a serious of.

Then FFMPEG is used to compile the frames into a video, and finally just a php module uploads to youtube and ties up loose ends.

I’m hoping to release the Java Renderer opensource once I have had a chance to clean up the source and make it more flexible.

I’m going to try and build a JavaScript interface on top of the video stream to allow people to rotate objects

"clean up the source" ... no need to clean it up. I like seeing all the iterations that people go through...that way they don't forget to release it too!

haha, of course. Well I’ve never released code before - so i had intended to spend time working out the best method (revision control and hosting service).

But vanity aside I can email you the working Java source with some notes. PM me your email if you’re interested

Very cool, now if you would tumble in the vertical axis every 36 degrees and offset it more to the right or center of the object.

Do one full rotation and then the stepped tumble, then you more and likely will not need the user rotate control.

Hi Freds,

That sounds very in the know - have you based it on anything or just a theory?

I'll have a go at testing it and see what the results are like

Just shooting from the hip and my visual observation of what you have now, which looks great though it seemed on some parts that I was missing part of the view.

I picked 36 degrees so that you would do ten views with the vertical tumble, you might try multiples of that.

Don't be shy...just zip it up and attach it here! Have never seen any bad comments or somebody's code except in a C forum! Add an apology if you feel compelled to but go ahead and post it anyway.

JoeMcGuire Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Hey Arvin,
>
> The still renders are outputted by a Java3D
> command line app I’ve written which i can pass a
> STL file + other parameters and it’ll produce a
> still image or a serious of.
>
> Then FFMPEG is used to compile the frames into a
> video, and finally just a php module uploads to
> youtube and ties up loose ends.

Did you think of using JMF to create the video
directly in Java?

Or making the view an Applet?

---

-------------------------------------------
* homeprototype free 3d design repository
* Blog
* Google+

Marcus,

Using an applet viewer was certainly an option but I’ve ruled it out on requiring the end user to have java enabled. Also as objects got bigger and more complicated it could begin to lag on a slower computer. There is a good example of a Java3d web applet viewer out there but i can’t find the link right now.
I think using JMF to create the video from stills is the probably the best direction – but I initially opted for FFMPEG for speed of development as I’m still very new to Java. I hope to go back and add JMF into the app.

=============

Avin,

I’ll get the source up for you but unless anyone is in an urgently want for it don’t think posting it on a forum is the most suitable so I’ll work towards getting it into a repository.

============

I had all the videos regenerated last night so they now rotate on a canter point with a fixed light

http://new-objects.com/node/102

It looks a lot more centered on the object now, though the rotation is not smooth it looks like you go though about 340 degrees and then reset to zero.

Still not rotating vertically, a good example is the Knight as you never get to see the face of the horse.

JoeMcGuire Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Marcus,
>
> Using an applet viewer was certainly an option but
> I’ve ruled it out on requiring the end user to
> have java enabled. Also as objects got bigger and
> more complicated it could begin to lag on a slower
> computer. There is a good example of a Java3d web
> applet viewer out there but i can’t find the
> link right now.
> I think using JMF to create the video from stills
> is the probably the best direction – but I
> initially opted for FFMPEG for speed of
> development as I’m still very new to Java. I
> hope to go back and add JMF into the app.
>
> =============
>
> Avin,
>
> I’ll get the source up for you but unless anyone
> is in an urgently want for it don’t think
> posting it on a forum is the most suitable so
> I’ll work towards getting it into a repository.
>
> ============
>
> I had all the videos regenerated last night so
> they now rotate on a canter point with a fixed
> light
>
> [new-objects.com]

Freds,

Cheers -
They are a few things I'm working on.

In the case of the knight - its imported at that angle I'd like to extend the functionality to allow objects to default rotation to overcome them being on their sides or upside down - but that requires a fair bit or work with the logic and interfaces.

For rotating vertically - I've got a few options that I'm weighing up - but i probably won't implement any for awhile.

and the looping issue has got me stumped at the moment. The videos being generated on my server works correctly - however something YouTube is doing on the encoding is causing the strange behavior - I've experimented with different numbers of frames and frame rates without any great improvement - if anyone has an expertise of ideas I'd appreciate some pointers.

Displaying the NAME of the object in the overview would be a definite improvement.
And when I click on it I would expect a text-area with a description of the object's
purpose (optional: required tools, settings, who submitted it, tags, version,...)

---

-------------------------------------------
* homeprototype free 3d design repository
* Blog
* Google+

Have you thought of converting the STL to VRML and then let the browser VRML plugin take care of the GUI. Then they could move it around just as you can a loaded STL object in the RepRap software.

---

Bob Morrison
Wörth am Rhein, Germany
"Luke, use the source!"
BLOG - PHOTOS - Thingiverse