May I request a (seemingly) simple function? When creating a new edge, it would be extremely useful if the tool placed it directly at the blinking cursor location in the text editor, rather than at the end of the jbeam file.
Sry for late reply, I think we are moving more towards developing the VSC JBeam Editor solely since it supports better text editing features compared to Blender
With all my respect, I don't really understand how are these tools even comparable? One fills the huge gap being an accurate 3D jbeam editor surrounded by other superb Blender functionalities, while the other is (sorry for my harshness) a fancy notepad++ with 3D visualisations. This tool represents the precision and freedom in development with new possibilities. Even if it remains tied to a specific supported Blender version, it well worth all the neccessary effort.
The Blender plugin is quite hacky tbh, its kinda surprising it still works in the latest version of Blender For one, the undo/redo support is quite fragile. Also the support for visualizing and interacting with other JBeam things like torsionbars or torsionhydros is quite limited. VSC I believe would be faster than Blender (JS vs Python), so we could support more things and tools. And the syntax highlighting and syntax validation is much better supported in VSC. And since JBeamers tend to use the text editor pretty often, more so than the 3D editor, it makes sense for the text editor to be pretty robust, unlike Blender's text editor
So best to understand has, the workflow will be like, Blender for the actual 3d modeling of the vehicle parts. VSC for the JBeam creation. PS/Gimp for textures/skins creation.
I currently use https://github.com/50thomatoes50/BlenderBeamNGExport to make unique jbeam objects, but it's very limited. I'd like to fix it's naming issue with this plugin by deleting half of it and mirroring it, then batch naming it, or have your plugin auto name things like that. The other thing that mirroring could achieve, is allow me to group beams, give them properties, then mirror it, and have. This is because the other plugin I mentioned, doesn't allow you to order, or group beams. Another feature request would be; the ability to hide nodes/beams/faces in edit mode. This would make it easier to see what I'm specifically wanting to do, or make work quicker/easier by just hiding background things that I'm not currently working on.
I've made some quick changes on this tool using Google's coding AI, currently it adds ability to hide and unhide beams in 3D viewport (H and Alt+H) and adds torsionbar visualisation which can be configured on the JBeam side panel. I've put this through as many tests as I could but I am nowhere near qualified to do such thing on my own, so please use this at your own risk. Feel free to give reports or feedback.
(unofficial) Version 0.2.52 - added functionality to hide-unhide beams and nodes (ID text) in 3D view - added customizable and toggleable visualization for torsionbars and rails - customizable and toggleable visualization for beams - added text in 3D viewport which showes corresponding line number in the jbeam file for selected beam/edge
you're a legend. I powered through this structure, it was super tedious, and this would have helped heaps. I'll definitely be using this in the future though!
No, no, no, all the credit goes to @angelo234 , for creating this project and opening new doors with it. As for the modifications, it is entirely Google's credit for their AI capabilities which not only did the heavy lifting, but added shocking amount of great ideas as additional QOL tweaks. I'm just someone who is passionate about the idea of doing jbeam stuff in Blender and willing to donate time for making it more effective and fun experience. Great to see how much it improves your experience as well. (love your channel btw, often times I feel like I'm watching myself but the way you handle the suffering of troubleshooting with great humor is so beyond my abilities) --- Post updated --- --- Post updated --- (unofficial) Version 0.2.53 - fixed line number using incorrect value - fixed torsionbars and rails not updating with beams - fixed visualization not turning off when a non-jbeam object is selected or new file is loaded - added selected node and beam information panel to the bottom of the 3D viewport (with customizable location, color and shown parameters)
(unofficial) Version 0.2.54 - customizable node IDs text font size - added customizable "cross-file beams" feature to visualize beams between nodes referenced in different jbeam objects in the project. ------------------------------------------------- (unofficial) Version 0.2.55 - fixed console entries caused by Text editor syntax errors - simplyfied Tooltips logic (using already existed datas from Properties tab) - reorganized Jbeam panel - added jbeam line number label to selected node - added Find Node feature to find, select and frame a node in 3D view by ID - added customizable visualization for SUPPORT, ANISOTROPIC, BOUNDED, HYDRO, LBEAM, PRESSURED beams
(unofficial) Version 0.2.56 - Undo function now works from the first modification after opening/importing a file - Added black outline for every text appearing in the 3D viewport for easier readability - Selected node's ID turns yellow to make them distinguishable - Moved text for selected nodes/beams jbeam line to the bottom panel (Tooltips)
! REUPLOADED ! (unofficial) Version 0.2.57 - reorganized file structure - refined visualization update logic on project Load/Revert - added Show All Line Visualization button to toggle visibility of all the lines drawn in the 3D viewport - added Find and Jump to (Text Editor) function to easily jump to the selected node's / beam's corresponding line in the Text Editor - added 3D Highlight from Text feature for nodes, beams, rails and torsionbars - "//ADDED BEAMS BY EDITOR" text is created above the added beams
(unofficial) Version 0.2.58 - REUPLOADED - FIXED: FLIP FACES - added "Open JBeam File (Split View)" button to open Text Editor in a split view - added "BeamNG Documentation" button to easily access the documentation page - added highlighting feature for slidenodes - the temporary name for created nodes contains information about X axis position (L_ M_ R_) - corrected //ADDED BEAMS BY EDITOR behaviour for multi-part jbeam files
(unofficial) Version 0.2.59 - Modified existing prefix/suffix system for new nodes: it can now detect if the nodes were created using Symmetrize function (based on X-axis position) and can copy the counterpart's name with added or replaced configurable prefix/suffix. Additionally it can detect overlapping nodes created during the process and asks for permission to delete them) - Reorganized sidepanel (REUPLOADED) - New nodes are grouped under "//ADDED NODES BY EDITOR" similarly to new beams - Added slider for Node IDs Text Offset
A little explanation for the new Auto-Symmetry renaming system: - One side gets used as a target for replace and the other as final prefix/suffix, so both sides are being used during the process. - Position switch is for the prefix/suffix in the node's name. - The set values are also applied during a regular node creation and determined by the X-axis position
(unofficial) Version 0.2.60 - added icons to side panel categories - added beam selection highlight (white) - node name at cursor position in the Text Editor gets automatically copied into Find Node by ID - Tooltip text aligned to placement position - added confirmation popup window for native Undo/Redo - added dynamic beam visualization coloring based on beamSpring / beamDamp / beamDeform / beamStrength parameters (turned off by default) Dynamic beam coloring can work with variables defined inside any jbeam text document in the project (checks for data whenever a jbeam object gets selected) in addition to regular numerical values defined in the selected jbeam object. It understands math operations between variables as well.
(unofficial) Version 0.2.61 - REUPLOADED - made auto thresholds more dynamic (takes visibility into account) - general housekeeping under the hood - grouped all node related settings into Node Visualization collapsible panel - added dynamic node visualization coloring based on nodeWeight parameter (turned off by default) ! DYNAMIC COLORING HIDES NODES/BEAMS WITH INCORRECT OR MISSING VALUES ! This is it for now, these are the features I really missed from this addon, so I am not planning to do any more updates in the near future. (except fixes if needed) Feel free to give suggestions for further improvements or any feedback!
Tom did you make it to where you can add nodes, and copy them symmetrically and batch name them with their mirror axis? I'm not to informed on the editor, so a bit hard for me to keep up.
