Introduction to Papervision 3D and Flash - Page 2

Installing Papervision 3D.

Papervision 3D consists of a set of classes - pre-made Actionscript code that handles the complex creation and processing of 3D models in Flash. For Flash to make use of the Papervision 3D classes, these must first be installed on your computer, then imported into Flash when you want to use them.

First, you will need to download a SVN client, which will allow you to install Papervision 3D.

SVN, or Subversion, is version control software that is used to keep files up to date. The Papervision 3D classes are constantly being updated with new features and bug fixes, so using the SVN client will allow you to download the latest version of Papervision 3D and keep it up to date.

The client I used is Tortoise SVN, which can be downloaded from the following site. There are versions for different Operating Systems, but this tutorial covers Windows Vista.

http://tortoisesvn.net/

I downloaded the file TortoiseSVN-1.6.3.16613-win32-svn-1.6.3.msi, which is a Windows installer file for 32bit Windows. The version you download will depend on your operating system and also what version is currently available.

Once downloaded, double click the file to run the installer. If a security warning message appears, choose Run.

Go through the install procedure, accepting the defaults until the software is installed. You may need to restart Windows for the SVN client to work properly. Tortoise SVN integrates with the shell of Windows, and is accessible from the right-click menu in Windows Explorer.

Next step is to create a folder on your hard disk for Papervision 3D to be installed. I created a folder on the Desktop called Papervision3D.

Using Windows Explorer I navigated to the Desktop and right-clicked on the Papervision3D folder. I then chose SVN Checkout from the menu.

The following screen appears, where you can specify the URL of the software you want to download. The Papervision 3D classes are hosted on Google Code, and the URL for Papervision 3D is as follows:

http://papervision3d.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/

Ensure you have the same settings as above, then choose OK. The installation will start and will probably take a few minutes to complete.

If you want to update Papervision 3D at any time in the future, simply open Windows Explorer, right click on the Papervision3D folder where the software is stored and choose SVN Update from the menu.

Inside the folder where the Papervision 3D software is stored is a series of sub-folders containing numerous files. This is correct, and shouldn't be tampered with.