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Software Tools / Re: Playing with Blender For Artists (Bforartists) - Easier way to learn Blender?
« Last post by vtsteam on May 22, 2025, 03:21:29 PM »
Pretty sure I could get late versions of Blender going in Puppy with a little look tonight. There just wasn't the call for it, probably before. I can dual boot on all my Puppy computers into Win 7, since there were many useful oddball programs for that version, and it was relatively tame re. invasiveness. I also have it in a QEMU VM, as I mentioned before. I'll take a look at late Blender this evening.
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Software Tools / Re: Playing with Blender For Artists (Bforartists) - Easier way to learn Blender?
« Last post by sorveltaja on May 22, 2025, 12:47:12 PM »
Quote from: vtsteam on May 22, 2025, 10:20:48 AM
It sounds like you will be running Linux in a VM on Win10, and then a Linux version of Blender? Or are you actually installing Linux on your computer as the main OS?

W7 has still been my daily driver, as it has programs like Rhinoceros and a bunch of other smaller tools installed. W10 installation is on another ssd disk, mainly for testing/using software that doesn't support W7.

I had yet another ssd lying around, and decided to dedicate it for Pop OS. At the same time, I've looked for Linux alternatives for those that I used in Windows. Programs like browsers mentioned, e-mail(Thunderbird), VLC, and Wings 3D are already cross-platform ones.

But for image editors, Paint Shop Pro 8 is by far my favorite tool; somehow I managed to install and get it to work in Wine. It has one limitation, though: images on clipboard can't be pasted to it, perhaps because it is "sandbox", or isolated process inside Wine. So I installed Gimp where screenshots can be saved, and then opened in Psp.

Yeah, I also tested Puppy in VM(don't remember which flavor), and noticed it had older version of Blender available. Maybe different versions of software can be selected and installed using command line?

Anyway, I've used Puppy from usb stick in the past for things like looking what kind of hidden files W10 partitions have, or simply formatting usb sticks, if it hasn't worked in Windows.

In the end, I never thought of seeing a day when I'd prefer to have Linux as a companion OS with Windows :beer:.
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Software Tools / Re: Playing with Blender For Artists (Bforartists) - Easier way to learn Blender?
« Last post by vtsteam on May 22, 2025, 10:34:45 AM »
Sounds like you've found a Linux distro you like. But I can't help also making a suggestion of Puppy Linux, and specifically (for newish computers) a version of it called F96-CE.

One interesting thing about Puppy is that you can install the whole operating system as a simple directory within your main OS. You you can dual boot at startup into either your original OS or Puppy. You do not have to reformat your hard drive for Puppy Linux, unlike most Linuxs. This is called a "Frugal" install in Puppy lingo. And in fact it's the preferred method of installation.

In fact, that directory doesn't have to even reside on the main hard drive. It can be on a thumb drive. That gives you a completely portable operating system that can be plugged into another computer. And the speed of the OS isn't hampered by the speed of the thumb drive, because at boot time the OS is copied into RAM, and then operates from there. It's extremely compact. Of course you can add whatever browser or application like Blender you want to that base OS.

Anyway, I like the OS. I've been using it for nearly 20 years.

(Later... out of curiosity I just looked up Blender on the Puppy Linux forum and found a portable app (which is a piece of cake to install) set up with an older version of Blender 3.1. So I tried it, and here's the initial screen:

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(pps.. I tried Waterfox also from the original website, but it crashed when trying Youtube. I see there's a Waterfox development note on that bug...)
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Software Tools / Re: Playing with Blender For Artists (Bforartists) - Easier way to learn Blender?
« Last post by vtsteam on May 22, 2025, 10:20:48 AM »
This is great!  :proj:

I do something similar in reverse, sorveltaja. But my main OS is Linux. My choices are Puppy Linux running ten year old Google SketchUp as a CAD on either WINE (native Win substitution, not a VM) or AQEMU (a VM running Win 7).

Under AQEMU I get near native OS speeds using the KVM accelerator. I do like using WINE better when I can because then Windows programs are running natively within Linux. I'm not jumping back and forth into a VM from Linux. But my latest laptop is so new that SketchUp in WINE has a graphics bug that means I need to go the VM route. My older computers ran WINE/SketchUP seamlessly.

It sounds like you will be running Linux in a VM on Win10, and then a Linux version of Blender? Or are you actually installing Linux on your computer as the main OS?

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Project Logs / Re: Making a Prony Brake to Measure the Power of My Hot Air Engines
« Last post by vtsteam on May 21, 2025, 10:48:01 PM »
Then it was on to the adjustment nuts. Finally something straightforward in the lathe, out of metal! These were drilled tapped, knurled, and finally parted off in my homemade lathe, the most enjoyable part of today's work:

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Project Logs / Re: Making a Prony Brake to Measure the Power of My Hot Air Engines
« Last post by vtsteam on May 21, 2025, 10:41:00 PM »
The Chaddock design calls for two 1-1/2" long 8 BA adjustment screws nuts and washers. These are approximately equivalent to US 2-56. To me that's pretty thin -- I have stock small screws of all common US sizes down to 4-40, but nothing in 2-56, and certainly not anything near that size 1-1/2" long. So time to make some. Luckily I do have 2-56 taps and a die.

The other problem however was what to use for wire stock? I eventually found some odd size brazing rod, slightly oversize for the job, but it did accept the die without complaining So I started the slightly laborious job of hand turning 3" of 2-56 screw thread. That's 336 half turns of the die handle, not including backing off twists! Actually, of course, all part of the fun: making something from nothing.

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Project Logs / Re: Making a Prony Brake to Measure the Power of My Hot Air Engines
« Last post by vtsteam on May 21, 2025, 10:26:05 PM »
I marked out and drilled all of the hole locations in the torque arm, and drilled the smaller ones full size.

The large hole for the drum was drilled undersize with a Forstner bit.

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Professor Chaddock recommends boring on the lathe, but I find centering an odd shape like this one difficult without some kind of initial pilot hole, particularly on wood. Much easier to pre-drill on the drill press. A large hole in the piece was actually easier to center on the lathe than a small pilot would have been. I just clocked in the ID with a gauge. Then I did the final boring to size.

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Project Logs / Re: Making a Prony Brake to Measure the Power of My Hot Air Engines
« Last post by vtsteam on May 21, 2025, 10:03:44 PM »
First step in making the torsion arm is gluing the two blocks together temporarily with tacks of super glue. I put two dots at either end on both sides and just let them wick a small way into the joint from the side. I used a toothpick to pick up a small amount of glue from a drop that was placed on the waxed paper. I really didn't want the blocks to be glued together permanently, and they would have been impossible to separate if I'd applied it directly from the tube.

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I don't have accelerator, and wood sometimes slows down superglue's cure. So I used a couple small pinches of bicarbonate of soda, which effects an almost instant cure.

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.
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Software Tools / Re: Playing with Blender For Artists (Bforartists) - Easier way to learn Blender?
« Last post by sorveltaja on May 21, 2025, 07:09:09 PM »
This is again sort of an off-topic one.

Blender 2.92 is the last version that works in Win 7. It has far fewer functions, and it doesn't seem to be as stable as the newest versions.

That's why I've had to use Win10. But the more I use W10, the more I want to avoid using it.

One option that's left, was to install Linux. As I'm not too much into learning it (Linux) at the moment, I tested several distros in VM, to see which one has most easily configurable (or "windowsy") settings.

One that stood out was Pop OS. It has a GUI that imitates W11, having options to customize it a bit more easily available(although some settings require some serious searching). Plus it supports browsers like Brave, Opera, and Waterfox, which I've constantly used in Windows.

It also has a version that has Nvidia drivers included, and that's what I'm using.

It might not be the best of the best option, but so far, after few days of using it, Blender has worked without problems (as well as the browsers mentioned), and it feels that it could be good enough alternative to W10: 

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What comes to running Blender on Linux in VM, only a lot older version of Blender worked; newest one installed just fine, but gave an error message and simply refused to run.

I guess one has to have a PC with quite beefy specs, and to know how to configure hardware for VM for that kind of CPU-heavy tasks.

So, what a better excuse to utilize a moped class PC, than to install software on bare metal instead?
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Member Videos / EngineDIYShop Retrol SE-02 Steam Plant + OKMO Microcosm P71 Mini Water Pump + DI
« Last post by Jim Dobson on May 20, 2025, 01:06:12 AM »
I REALLY like how this DIY water feature turned out. Setting that up to be silver soldered was an exercise in patience that's for sure!

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