Keet,
I'm thinking pretty much along your lines. Especially regarding the library and the data minimization.
That's why I model parametrically in CAD. Many real Balton parts are made from wires. In CAD, all my wires are extrudes, with a single common ancestor for their profiles. Topologically, that may be any closed curve; so far it is a circle. When, let's say, 3d-printing a clamp for a lamp, the cheek insides will be round and smooth. Then, for use with SH3D, a heptagon might replace the circle, and instantly every wire has 7 edges. If heaven sends me a workstation, I'll take pleasure in replacing it with a meticulously handcrafted dodecagon featuring a double diagonal from 11:30 to 6:30.
The library idea is indeed older than my decision for SH3D. The top disclaimer is there just in case it would go public. Beware that I might remember your offer to create that furniture library. I still couldn't get the FLE 2.x to run on Ubuntu 22.04 with Nvidia
graphics.My aspiration to go with as few pixels and triangles as possible can be read from that thread, and is partly inspired by your own data reduction project.
You made me even consider opening all wires' ends, making them pipes. They are thin, and thanks to backface culling this would hardly be visible. But it's gonna be tricky, as the parent models are solid prisms that just do have lids. So, I would have to establish some automatic to identify those in the derived meshes and peel them off. I am reluctant to automize FCad or blender, as I'm an even fresher-man to python than to SH3D. OTOH, my mesh-deriving-and-scaling procedure is already an FCad macro in python - first step made. Anyway, I will go after that only if my PC dinosaur gets really sucking and demands pipes. And meanwhile sneakily hope that someone else needs it more badly than me and crafts it.
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Cheers - Joe //
