A new Caliper is coming!

Ever since Blender 2.5 came out I have been receiving a couple of e-mails every month asking me whether I would create a new version of the Caliper python script/addon for the current Blender version. I think that Blender has stabilised enough for me to do so now!

You can help by donating a small amount at the bottom of the page!

About me

I have been writing python scripts for Blender 3D now for the last 8 years. Recently I also worked on Sintel, a short movie by the Blender institute, and helped rewrite the Graphicall.org website. Basically I’ve been around the Blender Community for over a decade helping out where I can. One of the most downloaded python scripts I’ve written is the Caliper, which was released back in 2006. It was initially done as a small commercial job  for Render Reality LLC.

What is the Caliper?

The Blender Caliper script is a tool that lets you measure distances inside Blender 3D in real world values. Not only that but it also creates clean renderable objects to show the measurements. This way architects & designers for instance can show renders of their products and designs to customers including measurements that are meaningful, and that everyone can understand.

The proposal!

I will start by creating a completely fresh script for the Caliper as a proper Blender 3D addon (or module). This addon will incorporate the basic Caliper functionality of creating an object which displays the distance between 2 points in Blender’s 3d space and can be rendered. Then this functionality can be expanded with more detailed measurements and live updating. Finally I propose to maintain the system for future Blender versions.

The imperial and the metric system will both be supported.

All the code will be released under a GPL license, and published on-line during the project.

Funding

Funding takes place via Paypal. Please see the section below for additional information. People who have donated to the project will be mentioned below here.

Contributors

Current Funding Status!

(This bar is updated manually, and may not reflect the current situation)

 

Targets

Feedback

All feedback and suggestions are welcome. A thread at the Blenderartists.org forum has been started for this purpose. Please do not send e-mail messages to me personally with your suggestions. It is much easier to keep track of things using the forum.

Fund it!

If you like this project, please donate to it. Enough donations will ensure that the project will be finished within half a year. Without these donation the project can take longer.

You can donate a small amount, but please keep it above €10 due to the overhead of paypal.

It is also possible to donate anonymously. If you don’t want to be mentioned on this page please send me an <enable javascript to view e-mail addresses> after you make your donation.

Timetable

First development will start when the amount of €1000,- is met. All development can be watched from a public svn repository and status reports that will be updated regularly. Please contact me if you have additional questions.

The first stage of crowdfunding will end on the first of June 2012. We hope to get enough funds, to start development.

Please press the next button, to donate.

For more information about the fair see: http://www.afsh.nl/
For more information about the Entoforms see: http://www.entoforms.com/

Stop by if you can! I’m there myself a few days during the week and the entire weekend.

The Entoforms have progressed heaps. I showed them as the “featured artist” at the Affordable Art Fair in Amsterdam last October. And the website has had a complete redo.

I also started a project called the Shapewright. It is a website where you can create custom/unique objects to have 3D printed (or download to print your own). I took part in the Mozilla Festival last October showing people some of what makes it work, and making some stuff with them on the spot.

Another new project I started is the Blender Icons art book. It will be a book with the best works made in Blender 3D. So far over 80 images have been submitted by over 60 registrars. It’s going great and I hope we can publish it some time this year.

You can now also purchase a few of my patterns on Spoonflower.
And I opened an Etsy shop offering some special items!

My work was mentioned in 2 talks at the Blender Conference. One about art history, and one by Shigeto Maeda! I also had the honour to meet Shige in person and we exchanged art pieces (I’m so thankful).

Last but not least I moved back to The Hague. It’s a much friendlier city than Amsterdam (only 45min by train), and I already feel completely at home here in our cosy apartment.

All in all it has been a hectic time, with more on the way. I’ll try to keep you all informed!

• I reserve the right to change my mind
• manufacturing = out, making = in

I generated space ships based on the nicknames of all Blender 3D coders.

The code is based on the entoforms scripts… which you can find here: http://www.entoforms.com

You can download the base blend from: http://www.blendswap.com/3D-models/vehicles/shipwright-06/
You can download the scripts from: http://code.google.com/p/entoforms/

This is an experimental visualisation of all temperature readings between 1800 and 2009,

It uses the HadCRUT3 subset January 2010 release from: http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/research/climate/climate-monitoring/land-and-atmo…

The music can be downloaded for free from: http://www.ichiigai.net/release/spielgelbild

The animation was generated using Python in Blender 3D (all free software). Each spike stands for a location where temperatures were recorded. The length and colour reflect the temperature.

Tirana, Andorra la Vella, Vienna, Minsk, Brussels, Sarajevo, Sofia, Zagreb, Nicosia, Prague, Copenhagen, London, Tallinn, Helsinki, Paris, Tbilisi, Berlin, Athens, Budapest, Reykjavik, Dublin, Rome, Pristina, Riga, Vaduz, Vilnius, Luxembourg, Skopje, Valletta, Chisinau, Monaco, Podgorica, Amsterdam, Belfast, Oslo, Warsaw, Lisbon, Bucharest, Moscow, San Marino, Edinburgh, Belgrade, Bratislava, Ljubljana, Madrid, Stockholm, Bern, Kiev, Cardiff,  Algiers, Luanda, Porto-Novo, Gaborone, Ouagadougou, Bujumbura, Yaounde, Praia, Bangu, N’Djamena, Moroni, Brazzaville, Kinshasa, Yamoussoukro, Djibouti, Cairo, Malabo, Asmara, Addis Ababa, Libreville, Banjul, Accra, Conakry, Bissau, Nairobi, Maseru, Monrovia, Tripoli, Antananarivo, Lilongwe, Bamako, Nouakchott, Port Louis, Rabat, Maputo, Windhoek, Niamey, Abuja, Kigali, Sao Tome, Dakar, Victoria, Freetown, Mogadishu, Pretoria, Khartoum, Mbabane, Dar es Salaam, Lome, Tunis, Kampala, El Aaiun, Lusaka, Harare, Kabul, Yerevan, Baku, Manama, Dhaka, Thimphu, Bandar Seri Begawan, Rangoon, Phnom Penh, Beijing, Dili, New Delhi, Jakarta, Teheran, Baghdad, Jerusalem, Tokyo, Amman, Astana, Pyongyang, Seoul, Kuwait City, Bishkek, Vientiane, Beirut, Kuala Lumpur, Male, Ulan Bator, Kathmandu, Muscat, Islamabad, Manila, Doha, Riyadh, Singapore, Colombo, Sri Jayawardenepura-Kotte, Damascus, Taipei, Dushanbe, Bangkok, Ankara, Ashgabat, Abu Dhabi, Tashkent, Hanoi, Sana,  St. John’s, Nassau, Bridgetown, Belmopan, Ottawa – Ontario, San Jose, Havana, Roseau, Santo Domingo, San Salvador, Nuuk, St. George’s, Guatemala City, Port-au-Prince, Tegucigalpa, Kingston, Mexico City, Managua, Panama City, Basseterre, Castries, Kingstown, Port-of-Spain, Washington D.C.,  Canberra, Suva, Tarawa, Majuro, Palikir, Yaren, Wellington, Koror, Port Moresby, Apia, Honiara, Nuku’alofa, Funafuti, Port Vila,  Buenos Aires, La Paz, Sucre, Brasilia, Santiago, Bogota, Quito, Georgetown, Asuncion, Lima, Paramaribo, Montevideo, Caracas