[Bf-committers] Booleans

[Daniel Barbeau]

Hello Robert and the ML!

Let me jump in this discussion for one quick additional note:
There was a quick discussion about booleans on the .org board some
months ago:
http://www.blender.org/modules.php?op=modload&name=phpBB2&file=viewtopic&t=3422&highlight=boolean

The major point about the discussion was finally to point out that I
had come across some software that handled booleans on rendertime.
Shade can do both: rendertime bools and clean definitive (magic?)
on-mesh bools. (they work for polygons too)

This can complete(/compete with) what some call "instanced-booleans"
where the software does the bool operations on-the-fly using instanced
copies of the intersecting objects. This means you move the original
objects (which can get ghosted to clean up the view) and the boolean
result updates... hum... this might be what Theodore Schundler means
by "non-destructive" booleans.

Ciao and continue the good work coders!!
Dani



> Has anyone discussed the possibility of making the Boolean code
capable of
> handling real CSG trees?  IE; add a CSG Object, inside the CSG, add
a
> sphere and an overlapping cyl.  Parent the cyl. to the sphere,
select
> "subtract", and you have a sphere with a round hole.
>
> Later, you can replace the cyl. with a cube, and you now have a
sphere with
> a square hole... Or change the operation to "interfere" and you have
a
> cyl./cube with rounded ends...   Or edit the cyl. and have the hole
change
> shape... etc...
>
> The trees (ideally) can have an arbitrary number of levels, ie; the
cyl.
> could have children that affect it's shape prior to it operating on
the sphere.
>
> Even if you are not going to code CSG's, try to keep this
possibility
> open/easy for the future while working on your new boolean code...
>
> Robert Wenzlaff
> (aka Detective Thorn)