BookGen

Generate books in Blender | fast and easy

BookGen is a free  book-generation addon for the open-source 3D-package Blender.  It allows you to fill shelfs or cupboards with books – fast and easy.

Features:
  • control width, height, depth, cover thickness and more parameters of the books
  • use randomization to generate a variety of different books
  • subsurf-ready
  • automatic uv-unwrap for texturing
Installation:
  1. Download the .zip from link at the top
  2. Open Blender, click on “File” and open the “User Preferences”
  3. Switch to the addons-tab  and click on “install from File”
  4. Choose the .zip and click “install”
  5. Now Activate it by clicking on the checkbox next to it. Done.
Demo:

[vimeo  w=1000 90801687]

Getting started:

After you installed the Blender addon as described above you can start it by clicking on “Add”. In the “mesh”-category you will find “Add Books”. If you click on that you will see some books in the 3D-Viewport. You can now use the settings in the operator panel to change the amount and the look of your books.

Options:

At the top of the operator panel you will find settings affecting all books:

  • width: changes the width of all books together. This is normally the width of your shelf.
  • scale : changes the overall scale of your books. This does not effect the books proportions.
  • seed: changes the random numbers. It allows you to get different layouts with the same settings.
  • spacing: changes the spacing between two books. You can adjust the randomness by changing the slider next to it.
  • x-y-custom: changes the axis on the which the books are distributed

The first box contains settings to change the proportions of your books:

  • height: changes the height of your books. You can again adjust the randomness by changing the slider next to it.
  • depth: changes the depth of your books. I think knew it: You can adjust the randomness by changing the slider next to it.
  • width: changes the width of your individual books. I think you got the randomness thing now.

The second box changes the details of the generated books:

  • textblock-offset: changes the offset between cover size and textblock size
  • cover-thickness: changes the thickness of the books covers
  • spline-curl: changes how bulgy the back of the books are.
  • hinge-inset: changes the inset at the hinge
  • hinge-width: changes the width of the hinge

Below those boxes there are some additional options:

  • Add Subsurf-Modifier: adds a subdivision surface modifier to your books.
  • shade smooth: set the shading of all books to smooth
  • unwrap: auto-unwrap all books generated by the bookGen addon
Roadmap:
  • stacking of books with random z-axis-rotation
  • control the alignment of books (e.g. align backs)
  • allow leaning of books
  • autotexturing
License:

Š Copyright Oliver Weissbarth 2014. This addon is licensed under GPLv3.

Issues:

As this is still in Alpha state serious issues are possible. If you do find any bugs please email me at mail@oweissbarth.de or use the contact form.

Links and Downloads