Nova by Vertice at Imagina 2011

by Frédéric Colin 27. January 2011 21:04

Among our many R&D projects, there is is one that was really fun to develop as part of a Proof Of Concept: the use of Microsoft Kinect. Just have a look to this video (sorry for comments in french):

 

 

For more information join us on the Vertice Stand at Imagina Laughing.

Q and A on Change State (Excel) custom action

by Frédéric Colin 19. January 2011 07:25

First of all I just want to thank you all readers of this blog. I received many questions about this new custom action and I decided to share my answers. Thank you very much for your support, it is an encouragement for me to do even better!

  • Question: Fred, thank you for this new cool free feature. I'm a developer and I will be very interested to have a look to your code.
    • Well it's not possible for security reason since this code will be partially included in Nova Studio 2011 with more features. But technically it's mainly based on Excel open source provider and .NET reflection for the job.
  • Question: does this custom action will work on prior version to 6.0.0.26?
    • No
  • Question: why?
    • In fact, we did a small evolution in the Nova SDK by adding a property on the Nova Scene to merge on the fly all scene entities into a single generic collection called NovaIDs. The new custom action uses this new property.
  • Question: why don't you manage custom type assisgnement such as Vector3, enumerated types, ... ?
    • Well, maybe you will have to wait for Nova Studio 2011 for that Wink
  • Question: why can't we edit the preview grid to change values?
    • Well, maybe you will have to wait for Nova Studio 2011 for that Wink
  • Question: and what about a database to store input value?
    • Well, technically all is possible with .NET Framework and if you are interested, why not to develop this new custom action on an open source model and to diffuse it with Codeplex? I don't want to manage this project but i can participate on functional and technical specifications, ergonomics, design and tests. I think with one project leader, one or two developers and with me for reviews, it will be enough. So who wants to participate? Tongue out
  • Question: what about performance of this new custom action?
    • Well, you should avoid to call this custom action on the trigger on every frame! Indeed, even if I always try to optimize my code, there is no cache for this first version. To read a file may be fast, but if there are too many records it may become longer. In other terms choose corrrectly the right trigger and the update frequency. I will make a parallel with development processes: even if action builder is done for graphic artist and art director and even if it's very easy to use, you should always try to think before on how to implement a solution inside the action builder.
  • Question: why are there so few widgets in the Action Builder?
    • Well, to be completely honest, this is mainly due to time. In fact, I'm an avid proponents of ergonomics and for me the future is possible in the immersion of HMI in 3D scenes. But that's another story that deserves a more substantial post!
  • Question: who developed the icon of this new custom action?
    • Graphic Design is a full-time job that I willingly leave it to the professionals! Michel Rousseau did the job.

Thank you for all your questions. Again, if you are interested to participate to Nova Community, remember you can do it on our forums by helping users and developers and through Vertice wiki.

Custom action: Change State (Excel)

by Frédéric Colin 17. January 2011 09:10

As I announced it in this previous post, here is the new custom action I called "Change State (Excel). I made some modifications I'm sure you will appreciate Smile:

You have to know these possibilities and constraints:

  1. All cells must be in a string format ('4 as an example)
  2. You can choose the Worksheet number.
  3. I remove the constraint to have "Jet oledb provider 4.0" installed on your computer. In other terms, this custom action is completely autonomous and no longer depends on anything.
  4. On numeric properties, you can now add an operator to indicate to add, substract, multiply and divide. As an example, on RotationVectorX, you can write '++1 to add 1 to the current property value of the selected Nova Entity. Imagine what you can do if you plug this action to the "Every x Frames" trigger Surprised.
  5. Right now, I only manage Int, Float, Boolean, RGBA properties of Nova Entities
  6. By Nova Entities, I exhaustively mean:
    • Nova Paths, Nova Domains, Nova Groups, Nova Materials, Nova Textures, Nova Objects, Nova Cameras and Nova Lights

Attached to the post, you'll find a zip file containing a dll and a Excel sample (just pay attention to Windows language and region for numeric values inside the Excel file). To install the custom action, just drop the dll inside:

  • "C:\Program Files\Vertice\Nova Studio 2010\Plugins" for 32 bits OS
  • "C:\Program Files\Vertice\Nova Studio 2010\x64\Plugins" for 64 bits OS

Don't forget to install Nova Studio 2010 version 6.0.0.26.

Enjoy!

ChangeStateFromExcel.zip (30.33 kb)

Nova templates for Visual Studio 2010

by Frédéric Colin 10. January 2011 11:36

Maybe you develop with Nova 2010. To help you with this task, we've just released new templates (C# and VB.NET) for Visual Studio 2010.

To install them, 2 solutions:

Automatic updates for these templates inside Visual Studio 2010 are managed. You will find 8 templates:

  • Nova Controls Windows Forms Application
    • A project to create a Windows Forms application that uses Nova Controls
  • Nova SDK Windows Forms Application
    • A project to create a Windows Forms application that uses Nova SDK
  • Nova SDK WPF Application
    • A project to create a WPF application that uses Nova SDK
  • Nova Studio Control Plugin
    • A project to create a control plugin for Nova Studio
  • Nova Studio Custom Action Plugin
    • A project to create a custom action plugin for Nova Studio
  • Nova Studio Exporter Plugin
    • A project to create an exporter plugin for Nova Studio
  • Nova Studio Importer Plugin
    • A project to create an importer plugin for Nova Studio
  • Nova Studio UI Plugin
    • A project to create an user interface plugin for Nova Studio

Nova Studio 2010 - Update 6

by Frédéric Colin 13. December 2010 21:39

Last week, we have released Nova Studio 2010 6.0.0.25. Here is a little recap of what's the hell behind this new version :-):

Update 6
Build 6.0.0.25
Functionalities:

  • Compatibility with Autodesk Revit 2011: the Nova Studio add-in is now registered on Autodesk Revit 2011 (please note that only the white render is currently available).
  • Improvements of files import: a wizard is now available for files import where it is possible to select hand, up axis and parity source configuration.
  • Creation of import rules: is now possible to create and run additional steps during import to customize it.
  • Entities browser and properties window in EXE: you can now select entities browser and properties window when you publish a scene to an EXE file.

Corrections:

  • Update for the problem of navigation in a multi-display two cameras configuration
  • Update for the problem of keyboard selection in save dialog window
  • Update for the problem of mouse navigation in object view

From my point of view (since I work on this subject), most of the work in the last months has consisted to find many workarounds to integrate the last stable FBX SDK version to deal with materials in Revit 2011. But the work is not finished on this subject due to many technical problems. Stay tuned, other versions will follow to integrate colorized and textured export from Revit 2011!

Use Excel in Nova scripting

by Frédéric Colin 26. October 2010 10:15

Some of you asked me if it was possible to use Excel in Nova scripting. Yes it is with the following prerequisite: Excel must be installed on the computer! Then, here a small piece of code:

   ' Bypass for this error: old format or invalid type library excel 2007

  System.Threading.Thread.CurrentThread.CurrentCulture = System.Globalization.CultureInfo.CreateSpecificCulture("en-US")

  Dim excelApp As Object
  Dim wb As Object
  Dim ws As Object

  ' Create Excel application

  excelApp = CreateObject("Excel.Application")
  
  If Not excelApp Is Nothing Then
   ' Excel file openning

   wb = excelApp.WorkBooks.Open(filePath,, False)

   If Not wb Is Nothing Then
    ws = wb.Worksheets(excelWorksheetName)
   
    If Not ws Is Nothing Then
     ws.Range(cellCoord).Value2 = valueToStore
     
     wb.Save()
    End If
    
    wb.Close()
   End If
   
   ' Free COM Object from memory

   System.Runtime.InteropServices.Marshal.ReleaseComObject(excelApp)
  End If 

Since we use COM Interop, it's very important to explicitly release COM Object with Marshal.ReleaseComObject method's call.

I've tested this code with Excel 2007. Enjoy!

How to store a state in a Nova scene

by Frédéric Colin 1. September 2010 09:03

There are many possibilities to store user data inside a Nova Scene. That's why I've just added a new sample on Nova Wiki.

If you are interested, just have a look here.

Run Nova Studio on Common Language Runtime 4.0

by Frédéric Colin 24. August 2010 16:58

Maybe you wonder why it may be useful to run on CLR 4.0?

Well, I will say mainly for many Microsoft .NET Framework 4.0 news. As an example (it’s not the only one), if you want to use Windows Communication Foundation 4.0 in Nova Studio Plugins.

If you want to know more about this tip, just go to our wiki.

Scripting tip: change Nova Standard Material textures on the fly

by Frédéric Colin 27. July 2010 17:51

I continue my series of publication on Nova scripting by demonstrating the ability to load your materials' textures on the fly from external files.

That happens here.

Enjoy!

 

Nova Script Editor

by Frédéric Colin 20. July 2010 18:08

Do you know that some Visual Studio Shortcuts are available in the Nova Script Editor. Here is a partial list:

  • ctrl-S => save the script
  • ctrl-K + ctrl-C => comment all selected line
  • ctrl-K + ctrl-U => un-comment all selected line
  • ctrl-space => launch intellisense list
  • ctrl-M + ctrl-O => collapse all code to definitions
  • ...
Disclaimer
The opinions expressed herein are the author own personal opinions and do not represent their employers' view in anyway..

© Copyright 2012 Nova by Vertice Team