Category: DDD

DDD 0.1.1 is on the PowerShell Gallery. It’s a small release: DDD now runs on more versions of PowerShell, works in VS Code’s terminal, and opens glTF scenes that include a camera.

If you haven’t seen what DDD can do yet, start with the 0.1.0 announcement. It covers meshes, lighting, file import/export, and charts, all drawn right in your terminal.

Works on PowerShell 7.4 and 7.5

DDD 0.1.0 needed PowerShell 7.6. When I tried it on a computer that ran the old 0.0.7 preview just fine, it wouldn’t load until I upgraded PowerShell.

A PowerShell module like DDD is built for a specific version of .NET, and it can only load in a PowerShell built on that .NET version or newer. 0.1.0 was built for .NET 10, and PowerShell 7.6 is the only version that uses .NET 10. 0.1.1 is built for .NET 8 instead, which PowerShell 7.4 uses:

I tested 0.1.1 on PowerShell 7.4, 7.5 and 7.6. If you try it on something older, you now get a clear message telling you PowerShell 7.4 is required, instead of a confusing error about loading a file.

Not sure which version you have? Run:

$PSVersionTable.PSVersion

To install or update PowerShell, see Installing PowerShell.

Works in VS Code’s Terminal

VS Code’s built-in terminal can draw sixel graphics, so you can run Out-3d right next to your code. It’s turned off by default. To turn it on:

1. Open Settings (Ctrl+,, or Cmd+, on Mac).
2. Search for terminal.integrated.enableImages and check it. Or add this to your settings.json:"terminal.integrated.enableImages": true
3. Restart VS Code.

VS Code is now in the list of known-good terminals in the README, in DDD’s setup script, and in the error message Out-3d shows when your terminal can’t draw sixel.

glTF Scenes With a Camera Now Open in Out-3d

In 0.1.0, if a .glb file had a camera in it, piping it to Out-3d failed with “Invalid data type for Out-3d.” The 0.1.0 post worked around it by filtering the camera out with Where-Object.

Now Out-3d skips cameras, so you can pipe a whole scene straight in:

$teapot = New-Teapot
$light  = New-Light  -Position (New-Point 3 3 3)
$camera = New-Camera -Position (New-Point 0 2 6) -LookAt (New-Point 0 0 0)
$teapot, $light, $camera | Export-Gltf -Path ./scene.glb

Import-Gltf -Path ./scene.glb | Out-3d -RenderMode Solid

Out-3d doesn’t view the scene from the saved camera yet. It still uses its own auto-rotating view. Using the camera is on the list for a future release.

Updating

If you already have DDD:

Update-Module DDD

If you’re new to DDD:

Install-Module DDD -Repository PSGallery
Import-Module DDD
New-Teapot | Out-3d -RenderMode Solid

You’ll also need a terminal that can draw sixel graphics, such as Windows Terminal, VS Code, WezTerm or iTerm2. The 0.1.0 post has the full list.

Source Code

The source code for DDD is on GitHub: https://github.com/lenihan/DDD

Feedback

If DDD doesn’t work on your computer, I want to hear about it. Post in the comments or email me: me@davidlenihan.com.

I now have DDD in a demo-able state, and you can try it out too.

What is DDD?

Cross-platform (Windows, Linux, Mac) 3D tools for PowerShell

That is an odd tagline, because PowerShell is known for automating IT tasks. It has nothing to do with computer graphics.

DDD is a PowerShell module. It adds commands to PowerShell to make working with 3D graphics easy.

For more info on what DDD is, see my kickoff post: http://www.davidlenihan.com/2020/04/17/introducing-ddd/

DDD Commands

The commands available in this release:

• New-Point
• New-PointArray
• New-Vector
• New-VectorArray
• New-Matrix
• New-MatrixArray
• New-IdentityMatrix
• New-ZeroMatrix
• New-RotateXMatrix
• New-RotateYMatrix
• New-RotateZMatrix
• New-ScaleMatrix
• New-TranslateMatrixXYZ
• New-TranslateMatrixVector
• Get-CrossProduct
• Get-DotProduct
• Out-3d

These commands allow you to create points, vectors, and matrices. You can manipulate points and vectors by multiplying them by matrices. You can view the primitives in 3D by piping (‘|’) the output to the command ‘Out-3d.’

Simple DDD example

Here is a simple example. Create a point at 1, 1, 1 and display it in 3D.

New-Point 1 1 1 | Out-3d

In the 3D view, you can rotate with the mouse, keyboard (WASD or arrow keys), or touch gestures. Press Esc to exit.

Installation

DDD has a single requirement: PowerShell 7 or higher. In the near future, PowerShell 7 will be built into Windows 10. For now, you have to add it to your system.

• Windows 10 via Microsoft Store
• Install PowerShell 7 for other platforms (including Mac and Linux)

NOTE: Even though DDD will work on any platform supported by PowerShell 7, I have not yet created a version of Out-3d that works on Mac or Linux. I plan on working on that next.

Demos

Once you have PowerShell 7 installed, you can copy and paste these demos into the PowerShell 7 console to run the scripts. You can modify these scripts and see what results you get. If you come up with your own creation, please share it with me via me@davidlenihan.com.

Coil

# create a coil
Install-Module DDD -Repository PSGallery
Import-Module DDD
0..3600 | ForEach-Object {
    $deg = $_ 
    $rad = $deg*[Math]::PI/180 
    $x = [Math]::Sin($rad)*360
    $y = $deg
    $z = [Math]::Cos($rad)*360
    New-Point $x $y $z
} | Out-3d

Sphere

# create a sphere
Install-Module DDD -Repository PSGallery
Import-Module DDD
$allPoints = @() # empty array
for($degY = 0; $degY -lt 360; $degY += 10) {
    for($degZ = 0; $degZ -lt 360; $degZ += 10) {
        $x = 1
        $y = 0
        $z = 0
        $pt = New-Point $x $y $z
        $rotZ = New-RotateZMatrix $degZ
        $rotY = New-RotateYMatrix $degY
        $allPoints += $rotZ * $rotY * $pt
    } 
} 
$allPoints | Out-3d

Teapot

The last demo is of a the iconic Utah teapot. This simple script is doing quite a bit…

• Download an .obj file that represents a teapot
• Convert the file in memory to an array of lines at the line breaks
• Use a regular expression to find all the vertices
• Create points using DDD’s New-Point
• Visualize points using DDD’s Out-3d

# load a teapot in OBJ file format
Install-Module DDD -Repository PSGallery
Import-Module DDD

$url = "https://graphics.cs.utah.edu/courses/cs6620/fall2019/prj05/teapot.obj"
$obj = (Invoke-WebRequest $url).ToString()
$windowsLineEnding = "`r`n"
$lines = $obj -split $windowsLineEnding

# regular expression to match a vertex: "v <X_FLOAT> <Y_FLOAT> <Z_FLOAT>"
$geometricVertex = '^v'  # https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wavefront_.obj_file#Geometric_vertex
$whitespace = '\s+'
$float = '[\d\.\-]+'
$restOfLine = '.*$'
# use "Named Captures" to get x, y, and z: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/powershell/module/microsoft.powershell.core/about/about_regular_expressions?view=powershell-7#named-captures
$vertRegex = "$geometricVertex$whitespace(?<x>$float)$whitespace(?<y>$float)$whitespace(?<z>$float)$restOfLine"

# parse .obj and output verts
$teapot = $lines | ForEach-Object {
    if ($_ -match $vertRegex) {New-Point $Matches.x $Matches.y $Matches.z}
} 
$teapot | Out-3d

What’s Next?

I proved to myself that I could make PowerShell a great environment for quickly working with 3D graphics. Here are some of the things I plan on doing…

• Out-3d for Mac and Linux
• Proper PowerShell documentation for commands
• Support for edges, faces, curves
• Support for color, texture
• Support for selecting a subset of vertices, faces, objects in Out-3d
• Support for animation in Out-3d
• Import/Export commands for
  • 3D…
    • OBJ
    • PLY
    • FBX
    • glTF
    • Alembic
    • COLLADA
    • USD
  • Images/Textures
    • PNG
    • TIFF
    • BMP
    • JPEG
  • Vector
    • SVG
  • Video
    • AVI
    • MP4
    • MPEG
    • QuickTime
    • GIF
  • Audio
    • WAV
    • MP3

Source Code

The source code for building DDD is available here: https://github.com/lenihan/DDD

Feedback

Let me know what you think. I want this to be a solid product, so if you have any problems, please let me know. Post in the comments or send me an email: me@davidlenihan.com.

11/12/2020 Updates

• Added “-Repository PSGallery” to Install-Module in examples. Without this, examples will fail for users that already have a default repository setup that is not PSGallery. Thanks Craig!
• Updated PowerShell installation instructions for Windows 10 to use Microsoft Store