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Old 31st July 2006, 05:23 AM   #1
steve_hill
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Question Where do I begin?

Not a David Cassidy quote (oh I am so old ), but a request for advice on where/how to start developing plugins for AC3D.

I thought my first plugin might be some sort of 3D (or even 2D) fractal generator (something I did about 20 years ago from the ground up). All I have at the moment are the header files and the sources for some of the existing plugins.

Many thanks for any suggestions.

Steve.
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Old 31st July 2006, 08:25 AM   #2
Dennis
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Default Re: Where do I begin?

I recently threw this together:

http://www.supercoldmilk.com/ac3dplugtut/

I hadn't officially pushed it out there yet (it needs more work), but this should provide an intro to writing your own plugins. You'll need to contact Inivis for the SDK, which actually has some fairly decent examples as well.

Post back here with any issues you have working through it. Because I use AC3D for Windows, it can tend to be a bit Windows-centric (especially the section regarding setting your IDE, which is not only Windows-centric but MSVC-centric as well). If anyone has any notes for non-MS or Mac/Linux IDE's, I'd be glad to add them.

Dennis
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Old 31st July 2006, 10:22 AM   #3
steve_hill
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Red face Re: Where do I begin?

Quote:
Originally Posted by Dennis
I recently threw this together:

http://www.supercoldmilk.com/ac3dplugtut/
Dennis
That looks excellent and not at all thrown together. I am PC-based, so it's ideal for me. I'll let you know if I have any problems, but it all looks very clear (can't try it just now as I am at work!)

Many thanks.

Steve.
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Old 1st August 2006, 07:42 AM   #4
steve_hill
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Default Re: Where do I begin?

Quote:
Originally Posted by steve_hill
That looks excellent and not at all thrown together. I am PC-based, so it's ideal for me. I'll let you know if I have any problems, but it all looks very clear (can't try it just now as I am at work!)

Many thanks.

Steve.
On arriving home, I discovered that our broadband connection was busted, but working from my memory of the tutorial I finally managed to do a Hello World plugin in VC6. I failed to get it to link under Express2005, but I will investigate further on this one.

My only point of confusion was how to wire up a C++ command:


ac_add_command( "sah_command", function);
ac_add_tools_menu_item( "Do something", "ac3d sah_command", "Does something" );


Took me a while to work out that the "ac3d " was needed.

Next task is to get a handle on the 3D data structures ... oh and undo/redo.

Thankfully, Broadband is working again now.

So thanks again for the tutorial. It was invaluable.
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Old 1st August 2006, 09:53 AM   #5
Dennis
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Default Re: Where do I begin?

No problem at all --- glad it was helpful!
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Old 16th August 2006, 08:18 PM   #6
conzar
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Default Re: Where do I begin?

Any suggestions for making cross-platform plugins? Right now my plugins work for linux but I would like them on windows and mac.
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Old 17th August 2006, 01:00 AM   #7
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Default Re: Where do I begin?

Quote:
Originally Posted by conzar
Any suggestions for making cross-platform plugins? Right now my plugins work for linux but I would like them on windows and mac.
If you've already created the plugin under Linux, your best bet is to do command-line compiles on Windows and Mac using the makefiles that ship with the SDK --- I can't speak for the Mac version, but the Windows makefile works fine. Of course, you'll need a Windows and Mac box as well
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