Matt Bennett: CAD & Code

A proof of concept demo of a Computer Aided Machining package I did in the summer of 09.  Written in C++ using good ‘ol MFC for the UI.  The objective was to load and display STL files, define cutter geometry and calculate collisions and contacts between them to generate 3d cutter movements over the STL triangles.

That worked!

Next step was to provide simulation of the cutter actually removing material.  I’ve been intruiged by this algorithm since I first saw it in action over 10 years ago and after looking for ways to achieve it on the Z-buffer I finally settled on my own solution (which, actually, must be the way to do it)…

That worked too (see inset in the image above).

The solution involves 2 set-up steps:

1) raytracing through the material, to generate solid depth information (depth at which it enters, depth at which it exits)  The color information is taken from the point it enters.

2) raytracing through the cutter as above, but taking the color information from the point at which it exits.

Because these scene is rendered without perspective, it’s possible to transform the cutter rays through space and subtract them from the model rays, which makes the actual “material removal” code really quite pacey as there’s no realtime ray tracing invovled.

Next step was to wrap it in a front-end with dialog forms for managing and defining stock material, boundaries, cutters, cutter paths and outputting CNC programs.

MFC has been around so long it’s hard to ignore it, but ultimately I’d consider using a cross platform solution because the rest of the code is.

Where next?

When I have some time to commit to it, I’ll try and push it onwards with the ability to create different types of cutter paths, picking out features such as sharp corners and drilled holes etc.  But it may just stay as yet another experiment…

I’ve been following the development path of this game for what must be 5 years now.  It really shows what the focus and tenacity of (what I believe is mostly a solo development effort) can achieve.

There’s now a full version available for less than 10 quid!

Try it and buy it!

So far the only thing I’ve found missing is an in-car camera view.  I find I can really judge the yaw angle of the car in this view and use it all the time when playing things like Grid, Gran Turismo etc, great for correcting and managing slides, which there’s plenty of when driving v8 super cars (well, the way I drive them anyway!)

Congrats to the development team.

Here’s an old game I did with artist and musician Steve Bisson.

It’s a lumines clone with dynamic soundtracks and various, themed tile sets.  We had a lot more levels ready to go but backed out of selling it to avoid issues with the publisher and developer of the original game.

We submitted this version of the game as an entry into GameDev.net’s 4E4 (4 Elements, 4th competition) much to the annoyance of some participants due to it being a skinned / themed version of a game that was already in development.  We knew it was a bit cheeky, but it gave us a deadline to get out a playable version.  In the end it was the only version we ever released.

The judges decided it was a bit cheeky too, and discounted the entry but that didn’t stop one judge from admitting it was by far the most played entry - discounted or otherwise!

It was done with my C++/DirectX game engine, which I’ll write more about in time.

Download here:  http://download.cnet.com/Lumixed4E4/3000-18536_4-10564507.html?tag=mncol

I posted a particle system over in the Blitzmax code archives a while ago.  It’s actually part of the framework but it stands alone quite well and I thought it might be useful to someone.

A full download is here.  Containing Win32 and Intel Mac compiled versions of the editor, full blitzmax source code and sample emitters.

I’ve been busy on this new site and it’s working pretty well so far.  Some of you will recognise it as a Wordpress site which has taken a lot of the pain away!

Over time I hope to merge www.contractcad.co.uk with this site so this will be a one-stop-shop if you’re looking for CAD or Code.

Part of the reason for this site is to make a home for my Blitzmax framework; MBM Framework so I need to polish that some more and prepare it for release too.

A cool tile matching game, created under contract from the owner of zhanggames.com.. Mystic Worldz

Cross-platform (PC & Macintosh) written in Blitzmax.  As well as the game code I also provided a fully functional and fairly friendly (given the time constraints) level editor, also written in Blitzmax, using MaxGUI.