# Dion Moult's Blog
My name is Dion Moult, and thinkMoult is my blog. I work as an architect and
do software development. I have written about Gentoo Linux, CG art,
open-source, plants, robotics, digital privacy, and GIS. I am available on the
fediverse socially as @thinkMoult@mastodon.social.
If you visit the archive, you can see all of my articles. To keep up to date,
you can use the atom feed.
ArchiveAtom feed## Latest 20 articles
The following is a list of the 20 latest articles.
Effective altruism and living a net-positive life (2019-08-02)I describe how average individuals can impact the world in a positive
way in all aspects of their living, all under a budget of 200 dollars a
month. The net-positive lifestyle uses concepts of biocapacity,
ecological accounting, and effective altruism.
IFC Coordinate Reference Systems and Revit (2019-05-21)BIM projects have to specify Coordinate Reference Systems and their
relationship to surveyed points and project origins in order to reliably
geolocate geometry. I describe how this works with IFC, and the current
state of compatibility with Revit.
Point cloud mesh reconstruction with metaballs (2019-05-15)3D scanning results in a point cloud which often needs to be converted
into a closed mesh surface. In this article I propose a new technique of
mesh reconstruction using metaballs.
Robotic wire cutting toolpath generation with Blender (2019-05-06)Most toolpath generation focuses on minimising material wastage, tool
wear, and robot movements. This article describes an alternative
approach that uses the U/V direction of a surface, its edge loops, and
edge rings, to intuitively describe a toolpath.
Photorealistic rendering with Radiance (2019-05-04)Radiance is rarely used for photorealistic rendering. This case study of
rendering my living room demonstrates that it is possible to be both
aesthetically believable and scientifically accurate.
Creating grass and plants in Radiance (2019-05-01)Radiance is seldom used for rendering detailed vegetation such as grass
and plants. I introduce how to use common CG techniques to still achieve
photorealistic grass in Radiance.
Ten Smiles, an Android app to remind you to smile (2019-04-26)
Ten Smiles is a small, free, Android app that reminds you to smile 10
times each day. I wrote it for fun a few years ago.
How to bulk convert PDFs to DXF or DWG (2019-04-02)Inkscape and pstoedit can be used to convert between PDF, EPS, DXF, and
DWG on the command line. This is very useful when bulk file conversions
need to be done.
The ethical implications of OpenBIM (2019-03-25)OpenBIM is an initiative to promote the use of open data in the
architecture, engineering and construction industry. I describe how
using OpenBIM has positive ethical implications.
Free intervals sheet music (2019-03-21)Intervals are a fundamental concept in learning music. This free
downloadable sheet music helps give examples and illustrates the
relationships between notes.
Why Radiance needs a free 3D model repository (2019-03-17)The Radiance free 3D model repository is the world's first
photometrically accurate model repository, with a focus on both
correctness and aesthetics. It is completely open-source and free to
mirror and redistribute. You can download models as an OBJ, along with
material and light definitions.
The five fundamental facets of ethical software (2019-03-15)Technology is increasingly trending towards proprietary forms, which
have negative impacts on society. I describe the 5 fundamental
ingredients to keep software honest, and prioritise people over profit.
How to create better IFC files with Revit (2019-03-12)This is an introduction to the fundamental concepts of IFC files and
explains how to improve data exports from Autodesk Revit to IFC. Out of
the box, Revit IFC support is very limited, but it can be mitigated
using an open-source plugin and understanding these undocumented quirks.
A comparison between Radiance and other rendering engines (2019-03-06)This posts compares Radiance with modern rendering engines, such as
Renderman and Autodesk Insight. Radiance is seen as the gold standard
for light simulation, but more modern engines are becoming more
physically based and claim photorealistic results at a fraction of the
time. Why should we use one over the other?
How to composite Enscape animations with Blender (2019-02-25)Enscape provides real-time rendering with integration with BIM tools
such as Revit, ArchiCAD, and Sketchup. However, it has a limited set of
animation tools. Blender can be used to import Enscape camera animation
keyframes and composite new animations on top of the Enscape flythrough.
A proposed Radiance Filesystem Hierarchy Standard (2019-02-17)The proposed Radiance Filesystem Hierarchy Standard (RFHS) is a proposed
standard on how to organise files for 3D models, HDR textures, Radiance
materials, IES lights, and so on in a Radiance project. This allows
Radiance assets to be easily distributed and reused across different
proejcts.
Using IfcOpenShell to parse IFC files with Python (2019-02-12)IFC is the ISO standard format for storing BIM data. IfcOpenShell allows
you to use Python to query and parse IFC files to extract and analyse
data. As there is no API documentation as of writing, these code
examples give an introduction demo to how to read IFC files.
Free major and minor arpeggios for piano sheet music (2019-01-31)Download free piano sheet music for major and minor arpeggios for all
keys. Includes fingering annotation and typeset in LaTeX, exported in
PDF format.
Embed Peertube videos on your website (2019-01-19)Peertube videos can be embedded directly on your website using an iframe
with no Javascript required. This short example demonstrates how.
Peertube is a distributed peer-to-peer network of video sharing
websites.
How to view BIM IFC files on Linux (2019-01-12)BIM IFC (Industry Foundation Classes) files can be viewed and parsed on
Linux in a few ways. I describe how to open IFC files with FreeCAD,
IfcPlusPlus, and IfcOpenShell.
EOF.