Structure Synth 1.0 (“Potemkin”) Released

I’ve released version 1.0 of Structure Synth.

The biggest new feature is the new Template Export GUI, which I described in a previous post. Template Export GUI highlights:

  • Shows the defined primitives in the template (highlighting used and missing ones).
  • Integrated XML editor with syntax highlighting for quickly modifying the template.
  • Automatic unique filename generation.
  • Quickly set output width and height.
  • Optional post modification window allows you to modify the output before saving.

Other new features:

  • Added a ‘Recent files’ menu entry.
  • Optional (and experimental!) depth-first recursion (using ‘set recursion depth’). This can be useful for constructive solid geometry.
  • Added an application icon.
  • Support for a new generic ‘template’ primitive

The template XML syntax has been slightly modified, and is no longer compatible with the previous format:

  • A new ‘description’ element has been introduced.
  • The ‘substitution’ element is now called ‘primitive’ (so you need to rename elements of this type).
  • Added ‘defaultExtension’ tag (for automatically suggesting file extension).
  • Added ‘runAfter’ tag (for setting a default application to spawn).

Binaries for Windows (XP and Vista).
Mac binaries (Universal build).
Linux is still source only, but if you are on Debian or Ubuntu, keep an eye out for the ‘structure-synth’ package – it will be updated to 1.0 at some point.

UPDATE 11 July: Mac binary now available.

Download at SourceForge.

5 thoughts on “Structure Synth 1.0 (“Potemkin”) Released

  1. I have big problems getting this work on my windows xp.. I installed Visual Studio Express C++ 2008, Windows SDK for Windows Server 2003, compiled Qt 4.5 (with nmake). Every time i try to start structuresynth.exe I get loading image(logo/picture) and right after that error message that “StructureSynth.exe has encountered a problem and needs to close”

    Does it matter where the structure synth -folder is located and do i also need to build structure synth?

  2. I’m a bit unsure about what you mean by “do I need to build structure synth”.

    If you just want to try out Structure Synth, you can just download the windows executable and run it. It should work out of the box.

    If you want to compile Structure Synth yourself, it seems like you have done it the right way – Compiled Qt4.5 and installed the Windows SDK.

    Now you of course need to download the source and compile Structure Synth – open the StructureSynth.sln solution file in Visual Studio and press F5 to run it with debugging enabled. If it crashes Visual Studio should catch an Exception somewhere. You do not need to Build/Packaging scripts – these are only for deployment.

    Things to try:
    – the QT4DIR environment variable must be set (but otherwise you shouldn’t be able to compile)

    – Try running Structure Synth (inside Visual Studio) in both the ‘debug’ and ‘release’ targets (look for a drop-down in the GUI where you can change this).

    – Structure Synth might link to the Qt wrong libraries at run-time (there might be several installed). Try copying the following files from your Qt build into the folder with the Structure Synth executable: QtXml4.dll, QtScript4.dll, QtOpenGL4.dll, QtGui4.dll, QtCore4.dll. If you are making a ‘debug’ build you will ned the version with an extra ‘d’, e.g. QtXml4d.dll, etc…

    Best regards, Mikael.

  3. Thanks for the quick reply!

    Sadly the windows executable didn’t work and caused the “StructureSynth.exe has encountered a problem and needs to close” -error.

    – QT4DIR environment variable is set
    – checkout from svn

    I open the solution -> F5 -> “This project is out of date: StructureSynth – Debug Win32. Would you like to build it?” -> Yes -> 1 Error:

    Compiling…
    moc_TemplateExportDialog.cpp
    c1xx : fatal error C1083: Cannot open source file: ‘.\tmp\moc\moc_TemplateExportDialog.cpp’: No such file or directory

    Do you have any other clues? 🙂

  4. Ah. I think the Qt-“moc” files are only built in ‘Release’ mode.

    Try changing to ‘Release’ configuration in Visual Studio the first time you compile and see if that works.

  5. Thanks! I did the release build and ended up with the same error (..encountered a problem and needs to close) than with the release .exe

    BUT I managed to get it running after that in debug – now that i had all the necessary moc-files from release-build.

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