3D Model Normal Editor

Project Description


PLEASE READ. This software has officially been archived. While there was once a time where this tool made sense, there are so many open-source alternatives, including Blender, that can do just fine with managing normals. It has largely made this program obsolete. This product will not receive updates in the future.


See the page The Need for a Normal Editor for a more complete description of the purpose of this project.

There have been many times that I've needed to be able to modify the normals of a 3D model, but without spending thousands of dollars on a high-end editor, like 3D Studio Max, there appears to be no software around that allows you to edit the normals of an object. This project will attempt to remedy this situation by creating a 3D Model editor that (only) allows you to edit the normals of a model.

If you have any comments or suggestions about this project, please let me know at the bottom of this page.

Basic Requirements

Progress To Date
Display the model graphically
Display with a simple shader
Support for textured models
display can draw vertices, lines, and faces
Selection of vertices
Selection of faces
Allows you to change the normal for all faces by a vertex
Allows you to change the normal for all faces individually
Read in at least one type of 3D model format (.obj?)
Save to at least one type of 3D model format (same as above)
Saving to a native (application) file format
Loading from the native file format
Rework the data model for better control
normal-editor-requirements
Here is a place for your title Click me to edit ! false
DevelopmentScreenShot.PNG

Future Enhancements

  • Other simple tweaking of the model
    • scaling
    • rotating
    • moving around
  • Breaking up the normal of a vertex that belongs to multiple faces so that each face gets their own normal
  • Multiple normals at once
  • Possibly a complete port of Wings3D into Java (in a long time).

Current Status

I was hoping to be able to release a working version of this by the middle of July 2008, but it will probably take a little bit longer than that, since that is only in a few days. It will probably be sometime between the 20th and 31st of July.

I've updated the GUI Look and Feel to the Nimbus L&F, which is a huge improvement over the Metal L&F that I was using before. But that means you will need at least Java 6 update 10 in order to run that. I'm planning on making sure that it at least functions with the old metal L&F, just in case people don't have the newest version of Java.

Overall, I'm getting close to being done, and I think the hardest parts are complete.

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