Blender Addon: Piperator, Generation of Pipe Networks / New version with vertex color pipe control

Hi Everyone,

I have developed a little addon which generates pipes around mesh objects called Piperator. A detailed explanation can be found here: https://yeus.gitlab.io/post/2019-12-03-piperator0.91/.

current download link is here: https://gitlab.com/yeus/piperator/uploads/bf5033ee1ed2478128cf22c1826c1bdb/piperator.zip

This addon is an on-going development. And this is just a first version of the addon and several others. In the spirit of the blender open source community, I will always release a gpl-version here (if you want to support me you can also check out this link: https://www.patreon.com/yeus and for example suggest new features and vote on them). Additionally, I am preparing to release a more “enhanced” version on blender market at some point.

Some Examples of what can be done with this addon:

UPDATE

Version 0.91 update:

  • Pipe Control with green & red vertex colors.
  • up to five layers of pipes

→ see this post: https://yeus.gitlab.io/post/2019-12-03-piperator0.91-released/

operator_menu_vertexcolors

Version 0.9:

and a little tutorial video:

I would be happy to see more examples in this thread!! (And also critique is VERY welcome)

All the best,
yeus

31 Likes

I like… am guessing that I can straighten some pipes when needed in post process. Two examples have spaghetti pipes. Will try it and upload when I can. thanks much. I see good use for this.:smile::+1:

The good begining. Thanks

Nice and very useful addon, but I’ve problem during installation, my version of Blender is 2.81.15.

I select the piperator zip file, click on install but nothing happens… what I’m missing?

the console says:

Modules Installed () from ‘D:\piperator.zip’ into ‘C:\Users\mx001\AppData\Roaming\Blender Foundation\Blender\2.81\scripts\addons’

but the addon doesn’t appear.

Same behaviour on Blender 2.80.

There are three buttons in addon, prferences. You habe yo click yhe testing categorie. Guess you didnt read my article on my website:-) . (type in search engine Blender addons) and its nearly on top.

Awh, I am on yhe phone loads of spelling errors

Yes, I suspect Peetie is right here ;).

–> activate “testing” in addons to see the addon, Mille_porte. Can you see it afterwards?

Thanks yeus, the addon is listed in the testing category, if you already explained this i’m sorry!

The addon works well and it is very appreciated!

Nice idea!

This is a great addon. Thanks very much.

Really useful addon, thank you @yeus.

Do you plan to allow to add pipe decorations (such as valves, junction joints, gauges, pipe clamps, pipe holders…) and an option to set the amount of those (along the pipes) ?

I’d love to be able to add:

VALVES :

PIPE JUNCTION JOINTS :

PIPE CLAMPS :

PRESSURE GAUGES :

Maybe for these options, the addon could feature pre-made models (for decoration) to add onto the pipes? But of course, being able to use our own custom objects (valves, joints, gauges, pipe clamps, pipe holders…) would be great too.

Thank you in advance.

2 Likes

For your information, I have noticed this message in the console:

Then blender-2.82-1aa171692494-windows64 crashed.

Thanks for testing @xan2622. I have planned to add pretty much all of what you suggested :). Also self-made objects. Plan is the following:

  • next version will enable influencing the pipe layout using vertex colors.
  • then I’ll add a system for custom pipe decoration objects to the mix.

Yeus

3 Likes

Thx for the report!

Another attempt at adding 20 pipes on a cube:

1). Works fine with blender 2.80.75 but not with the new beta alpha 2.82
2). Geometry face normals are not correct for all objects
3). Polywire can you add maybe bevel modifier vertices by angle , this way i can use the addon quickpipe

I can’t activate the addon!

Works only with blender 2.80.75 for the moment :grinning:

Nice work !!

1 Like

Congratulations on your addon. Very good job. I have verified that the commented error is generated by conflict with the https://github.com/VertStretch/RenderBurst addon. If you disable this addon your can usually be activated and then reactivate Render Burst at 2.80. In 2.81 this also works but you can no longer enable Render Burst.

thx for checking what caused the error. I will incorporate that in the next version!