CGALBoolean plugin missing-for Boolean Operations

[Anand]

Binary package hint: k3d

A very fundamental CAD operation namely the Boolean operations are perfomed by the CGALBoolean plugin.
Unfortunately this is missing in k3d 0.8.0.2-2 of Ubuntu distro (Maverick), although in windows this plugin is included.
 Kindly add this and rebuild k3d. Thank you.

[Manuel A. Fernandez Montecelo (mafm)]

You can get that module enabled by adding the following to build-depends in the control file:
  libcgal-dev (>= 3.6), libmpfr-dev (>= 3.0), libgmp3-dev

In Debian repositories that would render the package to depend on non-free libraries (CGAL) and would require significant changes, that's why this is not enable.

Is this CGALBoolean module very important? If so, I can try to work out some solution, enabling a separate package containing modules depending on non-free libarries.

Are the any other missing features? I'm looking forward to feedback from real users of the package.

[Anand (senartcon)]

Hello Maneul,

Thanks for your quick attention.
However since i dont have much background in Ubuntu I would like you to
clarify as what does it mean to add those -dev packages to "build-depends in
control file" ?
I found that using Ubuntu Software centre I could install those -dev
packages; but would that suffice?

And yes Boolean operations are very important for Computer Aided Design
operations. It allows one of add, subtract, merge etc of one object with the
other. Although K-3D is an animation s/w and animators can get going without
them, people who want to work with CAD and looking for free s/w like K-3D,
it is very important.

Thanks for your time.

Cheers
Anand

On Wed, Jan 5, 2011 at 8:10 AM, Manuel A. Fernandez Montecelo <
<email address hidden>> wrote:

> You can get that module enabled by adding the following to build-depends in
> the control file:
> libcgal-dev (>= 3.6), libmpfr-dev (>= 3.0), libgmp3-dev
>
> In Debian repositories that would render the package to depend on non-
> free libraries (CGAL) and would require significant changes, that's why
> this is not enable.
>
> Is this CGALBoolean module very important? If so, I can try to work out
> some solution, enabling a separate package containing modules depending
> on non-free libarries.
>
> Are the any other missing features? I'm looking forward to feedback
> from real users of the package.
>
> --
> You received this bug notification because you are a direct subscriber
> of the bug.
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/696909
>
> Title:
> CGALBoolean plugin missing-for Boolean Operations
>
> Status in “k3d” package in Ubuntu:
> New
>
> Bug description:
> Binary package hint: k3d
>
> A very fundamental CAD operation namely the Boolean operations are perfomed
> by the CGALBoolean plugin.
> Unfortunately this is missing in k3d 0.8.0.2-2 of Ubuntu distro (Maverick),
> although in windows this plugin is included.
> Kindly add this and rebuild k3d. Thank you.
>
> To unsubscribe from this bug, go to:
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/k3d/+bug/696909/+subscribe
>

[Manuel A. Fernandez Montecelo (mafm)]

Hello Anand,

No, that will not suffice: the program has to be rebuilt (and if you are new to Ubuntu, probably you don't know how, however there are guides around). The instructions were mostly directed at Ubuntu packagers, which might want to modify the Debian package that I create.

However, there is a deeper problem: the CGAL libs that this module depends on, are in a separate repository ("multiverse", for non-free software, software which has licensing problems of some kind). I don't know if K-3D can stay in "universe" repository if it depends on software in "multiverse". In Debian, the names are different but the idea is similar, and in principle K-3D cannot be distributed with this module enabled without important consequences and modifications (it's more complicate than I thought in the 1st reply). I just contacted the (main) author of the K-3D software to know if we can do something about this.

Note: I am the Debian maintainer for this package, and at the moment Ubuntu imports directly the package into Ubuntu repositories, so maybe I'm not completely right when interpreting some Ubuntu policies about this matter.

Cheers.

[Anand (senartcon)]

Thanks a lot for your reply and good luck for your efforts!
I found that the k3d in Windows has more plugins than in Ubuntu. Hope
someday Ubuntu also gets the same. :)

Cheers
Anand

On Fri, Jan 7, 2011 at 12:47 PM, Manuel A. Fernandez Montecelo <
<email address hidden>> wrote:

> Hello Anand,
>
> No, that will not suffice: the program has to be rebuilt (and if you are
> new to Ubuntu, probably you don't know how, however there are guides
> around). The instructions were mostly directed at Ubuntu packagers,
> which might want to modify the Debian package that I create.
>
> However, there is a deeper problem: the CGAL libs that this module
> depends on, are in a separate repository ("multiverse", for non-free
> software, software which has licensing problems of some kind). I don't
> know if K-3D can stay in "universe" repository if it depends on software
> in "multiverse". In Debian, the names are different but the idea is
> similar, and in principle K-3D cannot be distributed with this module
> enabled without important consequences and modifications (it's more
> complicate than I thought in the 1st reply). I just contacted the
> (main) author of the K-3D software to know if we can do something about
> this.
>
> Note: I am the Debian maintainer for this package, and at the moment
> Ubuntu imports directly the package into Ubuntu repositories, so maybe
> I'm not completely right when interpreting some Ubuntu policies about
> this matter.
>
> Cheers.
>
> --
> You received this bug notification because you are a direct subscriber
> of the bug.
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/696909
>
> Title:
> CGALBoolean plugin missing-for Boolean Operations
>
> Status in “k3d” package in Ubuntu:
> New
>
> Bug description:
> Binary package hint: k3d
>
> A very fundamental CAD operation namely the Boolean operations are perfomed
> by the CGALBoolean plugin.
> Unfortunately this is missing in k3d 0.8.0.2-2 of Ubuntu distro (Maverick),
> although in windows this plugin is included.
> Kindly add this and rebuild k3d. Thank you.
>
> To unsubscribe from this bug, go to:
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/k3d/+bug/696909/+subscribe
>

[Manuel A. Fernandez Montecelo (mafm)]

Could you please provide a complete list of the plugins present in Windows but not in Ubuntu?

Cheers.

[Anand (senartcon)]

ya, i will surely work out; but i need some time.

Cheers
Anand

On Fri, Jan 7, 2011 at 4:01 PM, Manuel A. Fernandez Montecelo <
<email address hidden>> wrote:

> Could you please provide a complete list of the plugins present in
> Windows but not in Ubuntu?
>
> Cheers.
>
> --
> You received this bug notification because you are a direct subscriber
> of the bug.
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/696909
>
> Title:
> CGALBoolean plugin missing-for Boolean Operations
>
> Status in “k3d” package in Ubuntu:
> New
>
> Bug description:
> Binary package hint: k3d
>
> A very fundamental CAD operation namely the Boolean operations are perfomed
> by the CGALBoolean plugin.
> Unfortunately this is missing in k3d 0.8.0.2-2 of Ubuntu distro (Maverick),
> although in windows this plugin is included.
> Kindly add this and rebuild k3d. Thank you.
>
> To unsubscribe from this bug, go to:
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/k3d/+bug/696909/+subscribe
>

[Anand (senartcon)]

Hi Manuel,

Although the difference in the number of missing plugins between the Windows
and Ubuntu is not so high (converse to what i thought of), here is the list
of ones missing in Ubuntu:

Modify>> Mesh >> CARVEBoolean
Modify>> Mesh >> CGALBoolean

Create>> Bitmap >> VirtualCameraToBitmap
Create>> Bitmap >> WGLCameraToBitmap
Create>> MeshReader >> COLLADAMeshReader
Create>> MeshReader >> COLLADAMeshWriter
Create>> BundledAqsisRenderManEngine

Note:
I searched for plugins in Modify>> (Mesh, Transform), Create,
Advanced>>Dialogs

Apart from the above, I also compared the available Plugins in
Ubuntu(10.10) K-3D (0.8.0.2) with the list of 461 plugins in the K-3D wiki
site ( All Plugins <http://www.k-3d.org/wiki/All_Plugins> )

The following 66 are the missing plugins; I dont know their significance,
yet bringing it to your notice.

CompizCheck
EXRBitmapImporter
FileMagicMIMETypeHandler
GnomeMIMETypeHandler
GnomeURIHandler
ImageMagickBitmapImporter
InotifyFileChangeNotifier
JPEGBitmapImporter
K3DDocumentExporter
K3DDocumentImporter
MakeCurveSelection
MakeEdgeSelection
MakeFaceSelection
MakePatchSelection
MakePointSelection
MetaObjectScript
NGUI
NGUIAnimationTimelinePanel
NGUIKnotVectorControl
NGUIMeshControl
NGUIMorphPointsPage
NGUINodeListPanel
NGUINodePropertiesPanel
NGUIParentTool
NGUIPipelinePanel
NGUIPipelineProfilerPanel
NGUIRectangleControl
NGUIRenderRegionTool
NGUISelectionControl
NGUISnapTool
NGUITimelinePanel
NGUIToolPropertiesPanel
NGUIToolbarPanel
NGUIUndoTreePanel
NUI
OSMesaContextFactory
OpenGLVersionCheck
PNGBitmapImporter
PointsCentroid
PyUI
Python
QTUIAboutDialog
QTUIBooleanWidget
QTUIColorWidget
QTUIDefaultMode
QTUIJavaScriptShell
QTUILog
QTUIMatrixWidget
QTUINodeListPanel
QTUINodePropertiesPanel
QTUIOpenGLWindow
QTUIPathWidget
QTUIProgrammableMode
QTUIStringWidget
QTUITextEditor
QtUI
SelectBoundaryEdges
SelectDegenerateFaces
SelectedFacesToPolyhedron
SetColor
TIFFBitmapExporter
TIFFBitmapImporter
TimeToString
UniformPolyhedron
Welcome
XTrackCADDocumentImporter

Cheers
Anand

[Manuel A. Fernandez Montecelo (mafm)]

Hello Anand,

Nice listing, thank you very much.

1) Regarding the Ubuntu<->Windows ones...

CARVE and Collada are not packaged into Debian (nor Ubuntu, I suspect), so other than packaging them myself, there's nothing that I can do. I already maintain several packages and I don't have time for more, but in addition I know people who has been fighting with Collada for months without being able to get anything done -- it seems to be a tricky package.

Regarding the camera ones, in the code there are GLXCameraToBitmap and WGLCameraToBitmap, probably the first is the Linux/Unix implementation of OpenGL and the second the Windows one. VirtualCameraToBitmap seems to be related to those, perhaps a base class. In any case, it's desabled by default even on Linux, so I guess that the authors have some powerful reason to leave it disabled (they are unstable, maybe don't even build, etc).

The same with BundledAqsisRenderManEngine, it's disabled by default.

2) Regarding the comparison All-Plugins-Ubuntu ones...

I think that the modules related to image formats are present somewhere, for example when deciding the materials to use for meshes. At least, all libraries are present at build time and the modules containing those plugins are there:
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 637K Jan 7 21:35 /usr/lib/k3d/plugins/k3d-jpeg-io.module
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 88K Jan 7 21:35 /usr/lib/k3d/plugins/k3d-openexr-io.module
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 867K Jan 7 21:35 /usr/lib/k3d/plugins/k3d-tiff-io.module
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 701K Jan 7 21:35 /usr/lib/k3d/plugins/k3d-png-io.module

Regarding the rest of them, Qt modules are probably experimental (the main interface, NGUI, is based on GNOME/GTK libraries); and most of those modules are special cases not to be found in menus. For example, I verified that the "Welcome" plugin is the dialog appearing when launching the program, which says: "Welcome to K-3D Version 0.8!".

3) Conclusion

So that's it, it's nice to have the listing there to keep an eye on what's missing. If anyone now sees the list and feels that needs some specific plugin, he or she can ask me and I'll review the request, investigate if it's possible to enable the specific plugin after all, and do it :)

Thanks for your help, and if you notice anything else amiss please notify me again!

[Anand (senartcon)]

Hi Manuel,
Good to know that it was helpful. I know you would be working hard on many tasks. Good luck for your efforts.

cheers
Anand