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.

You can see the full list of articles in the archive. If you are interested in a specific topic, try searching below. Try something like 3D, or linux.

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.