Re: Looking Ahead to K-3D 0.9

> I also have a personal interest in using K-3D as an architectural
> design and simulation tool.
> My wish list includes output to the Indigo render,
> http://www.indigorenderer.com/  and interaction with
> http://apps1.eere.energy.gov/buildings/energyplus/ as well UI tools
> with the same level of fluidity and expressiveness as SketchUp.
>
> The above wish list would benefit from a reworking of the materials
> part of the application so that I can define a "substance" e.g.
> concrete-123-xyz and that substance has physical properties that
> include the optical (material) properties, but also thinks such as
> mass, R value etc. so that one model can be used in Indigo for
> presentation and visualization and also for LEEDs analysis and
> documentation.
>
> With the geometry associated with "substances" (phycal materials) K-3D
> could also interface with architectural engineering tools to calculate
> loads within the structure. e.g. http://www.csc.fi/english/pages/elmer
>  or http://impact.sourceforge.net/ and this capability would also
> benefit animation production requiring physics simulation.
>
> If I had to pick one, of the above, I'd choose output to Indigo, and
> the associated improvements in handling materials such as texture
> baking so that Renderman SL can be used to define maps for output to
> renderers that don't support it natively. i.e. have an internal
> Renderman renderer and use it as just another way of defining a
> texture map.