Online RayTracing Sketchpad to plan RFZs and similar stuff

[andymel]

Hi,

I'm pleased that my room mode calculator amroc is used by some of you. I thought I introduce my new tool in here and I would be very very happy if you could tell me any feature requests, problems or ideas that come to your mind!!

It's not meant to be a replacement for any 3D ray tracing simulations out there that calculate impulse responses. Rather, it is a replacement for paper and pencil when it comes to planning first reflections and rough sound energy distribution.

But I don't want to say to much. Simply play around and tell me if you have any ideas to make it more useful for you!

http://amray.andymel.eu/

Hope it is useful to some of you!
Andy

[RJHollins]

oh this looks really cool.

Just started playing ... one thing, for some of us old-timers in the US ... we didn't really take to the METRIC system.

Standard feet & inches are the only rulers we have.

might that option be included ?

[andymel]

Hey,
and thanks for your fast reply!

I had an interesting conversation with a physicist once that told me it's perfectly fine to force the people to use the metric system. But as I'm not so militant in terms of physics I could also implement that
Thanks for the tip!

[Soundman2020]

Standard feet & inches are the only rulers we have.

RJ! Gasp! I'm shocked! That's terrible! How can you survive in the modern world like that?

Metric_system_adoption_map_1419794958.png

But don't worry: I hear what you are saying, since I was brought up on imperial too. But I was forced to switch over in high school, when Australia adopted metrics. So I was one of the lucky ones to learn both at once. I hated learning conversion factors at the time, but now I'm rather glad to have gone through that, and it's actually not so bad. Metric just makes things so much easier, once you learn it. There's a simple logical mathematical relationship between everything and everything else. It's worth the effort....

- Stuart -

[JCBigler]

But don't worry: I hear what you are saying, since I was brought up on imperial too. But I was forced to switch over in high school, when Australia adopted metrics. So I was one of the lucky ones to learn both at once. I hated learning conversion factors at the time, but now I'm rather glad to have gone through that, and it's actually not so bad. Metric just makes things so much easier, once you learn it. There's a simple logical mathematical relationship between everything and everything else. It's worth the effort.

I hear ya'. I prefer the metric system also, but when you go down to the lumber yard and ask for stuff in metric, they look at you like you like you just fell off the turnip truck and then laugh as you meekly exit the shop with your tail between your legs.

[Soundman2020]

but when you go down to the lumber yard and ask for stuff in metric, they look at you like you like you just fell off the turnip truck

:thu!

I'm actually just taking a cheap shot at the USA there, but in reality even here in Chile, which has been metric for decades, there's still an amazing hodge-podge of measurements. At the building supply stores, lumber is still marked as "2x4", even though it measures 38mm x 89mm, yet it comes in 2.4 m lengths, and 3.6 m lengths... Go figure! Paint is sold by the gallon, but coverage is give in square meters (!), and the brushes and rollers are all metric... except for the ones that aren't! Nails and screws are just as bad ("I need a one kilogram bag of 2" nails, please!"), and bolts are both at once: 3/8" bolt, 10cm long... Same for plumbing: You buy 3/8" copper pipe, in 2m, 4m, 6m or 10m lengths .... And in the kind of things I use for studios, it gets REALLY interesting: Drywall is all metric, and comes in sheets that measure 120cm x 240 cm, but plywood is imperial, and comes in sheets measuring 122cm y 244 cm, which is 4' x 8'. So imagine what fun it is when I want to do a wall that has one layer of plywood plus one layer of drywall: there's a difference of 2 cm in the width of each sheet, and 4cm in length. So should I do 16" OC framing, to line up with the plywood, or 40cm OC framing, to line up with the drywall !!! AAARGGGH!!! It drives me nuts....

Maybe one day the world will go entirely metric, and we can leave the strange imperial stuff in the past, but I have a feeling I won't be alive to see that... and neither will my great-grand kids!!!.

- Stuart -

[RJHollins]

yes ... we are that large Grey spot .... and it is a 'measurement mess' here. You need 2 types of wrenches/sockets cause they mix and match both systems [they don't feel the need to tell you what system they ARE using ... needless to say, they probably sell a lot more bolts than otherwise [I've butchered a few myself ... hey, I thought it fit OK, until you try to toque it down. Big Business/Capitalism at its' best
They tried to do the edu-conversion ... but they started to late for my group. So I now have several conversion apps on my iPhone to help. Still a nightmare.

Oh Yeah ... the construction supplies. It don't matter what they print on it ... it's feet and inches ... 2x4, 4 by 8 sheet. We have 'penny' nails ... but nobody really knows what that's suppose to be

Don't even start with Celsius/Fahrenheit conversion.... That's what keeps Canada and the US two separate nations

I remember a joke they played on one of the laborers .... bought him a metric tape ruler. They eventually had to take it away from him ... the joke backfired

[JCBigler]

And yet, we measure our soda pop and car engines in liters...

[RJHollins]

But the cars are measured in Miles Per Gallon.

Our speedometers have both scales ... and NO, the police no longer accept 'you' were reading the wrong scale ... or thought that was RPM's [unless ya happen to be a really cute girl - then ... their 'mileage' may vary]

[OttoPus]

Amazing work!

If you should develop a Sketchup plug-in to implement these calculations directly within the software, I'd buy that instantly.

[Soundman2020]

Now that I'm done with hijacking your thread to rant about metric and imperial, I really have to congratulate you once again, Andy. This is an AMAZING tool! So very, very useful. It will save me hours of work when designing studios. It soooo cool! If I could give you a "Coolest app of the year" award, I sure would. It's simple, elegant, intuitive, and a whole lot of superlatives to go with that!

I'm going to play around with it some more, but I already have a couple of requests in mind: The first one: can you put some type of indicator on the walls to show what angle they are rotated at, from the X and Y axis? That would be very useful. And to go with that, perhaps the ability to specify the angle that a wall should be. So I could specify starting point, length and angle, for example.

Oh yeah, and the easiest one of all: make it 3D not, just 2D! (Don't worry, I do know that that would be really darn hard to do, but hey, I can dream, right?

Seriously, thank you so much fore developing that: you have no idea how much of a time saver it will be.

- Stuart -

[andymel]

Haha, I was very pleased and curious when I saw how many answers you wrote. Unfortunately most of them just discuss one feature ...ok I hear it...feet and inches...Lets make another settings panel anywhere.

First of all, thanks for your very kind words! It helps to know why I do something like that

...I already have a couple of requests in mind: The first one: can you put some type of indicator on the walls to show what angle they are rotated at, from the X and Y axis? That would be very useful. And to go with that, perhaps the ability to specify the angle that a wall should be. So I could specify starting point, length and angle, for example.

What do you think about adding some infos about the x/y angle of the currently drawn wall in the right/upper corner under the cursor infos?
@specify values: Currently its possible to write the length of the wall after you have drawn it. Maybe you can help me thinking of a good way to add the angle to. Maybe something like "120;45" for a line with 120cm length and 45°? The next question is, what will 45° mean? I would think of a line going from bottom left to top right as 45°. Is this just my way of thinking or would you agree? Negative Values would be wise I think. So you could write -45 instead of 315.

Example. Lets draw a "z" to discuss it in detail if someone has better ideas than me:
You click, you draw, you type "100;0" -> after that you have a horizontal line with 100cm length
You click again on the left end of that line, draw and type "160;50" - now you have two lines, and when you move something or mark them you see the angle of 50° between them.
Now you draw a line from the right upper and of that line and type 100;180. But you will see 50° again when you mark/move them.
Now you have your "z".
Some ideas to improve that?

Amazing work!
If you should develop a Sketchup plug-in to implement these calculations directly within the software, I'd buy that instantly.

Oh yeah, and the easiest one of all: make it 3D not, just 2D!

The problem with 3D is, that you could not do such fast experiments. You would have to have an existing model or you would have to build one. Also I see no possibility to make a 3D ray as intuitive like those 2D rays. It simply isn't meant to be one more acoustical raytracer for impulse responses. Its meant to close the gap between those laborious simulators and a fast sketch on paper.

Seriously, thank you so much fore developing that: you have no idea how much of a time saver it will be.

Well that's why I did it

I hope for more feature requests and ideas!

[FriFlo]

Mei, Andi! Des is großartig!

Great tool! Thank you!

[andymel]

Mei, Andi! Des is großartig!

Great tool! Thank you!

Daonk da sche
Thanks a lot!

[RJHollins]

on the 'similar stuff' side of things ...

I'm looking at the 'amroc' calculator site [actually, I need to check it with my alternative browser, as my old IE-8 doesn't seem to work well on it].

nonetheless a question.

Might there be a possibility for the program, given 2 measurement points [say height and width], and calculate the 'best' length ? [or some combination like that]. Given that 'best' might be open to interpretation ... it's still something I've wondered.

thanks ! I will be needing these calculators .... because ....