[Bf-committers] Collada status

[migius]

hi Rodrigo, hi Tim, hi Toni,
great news, coincidentally so much interest for improving Collada stuff!
I have no collada experience and probably will have no occasion to work with
it next future, but since Sketchup/Google use it, it could be interesting
for me as architect (Collada contra DXF).

A week ago i've started to inform myself about Collada and tried to make
Collada 1.4 importer (script) running, but first after installing SPE
(Stani's Python Editor IDE) i became a better overview in how these modules
working. I am a beginner in OOP, but surprisingly i can understand this code
from Illusoft - maybe because it is good programed, good structured? I have
the impression, it could be easy to implement missing/future format
extensions there.

I have learned Python and Blender-Python-API in short time last year,
motivated to write "a little better" DXF-importer for Blender. At first I
was very skeptic with Python, but more and more was impressed with its
performance and the easiness of debugging in graphical environment like
Blender. For me the biggest advantage of python code is its open character -
every user can customize, modify and test it instantly in Blender. Therefore
i would prefer Python for all not performance critical routines - to keep
Blender open for every "noob" like me, with the hope, more "normal" users
become interest for programing.

I am working now on small improvements for collada14importer: correct
oriented/scaled parenting structures and armatures, also animations are
supported now, but sometimes strange things happen and i am not sure where
the problem comes from. SPE is a big help also for DAE files editing, cause
it can manage xml code. Unfortunately most of the time i had to invest in
searching for reference material and properly working viewer (open/free).
-  Could you suggest something free for winXP?

The patch will come into SVN probably today/tomorrow, with some test files
together.

migius