1. Preparing your tools at Papervision 3D Tutorials

Welcome to Papervision2.com, This is the very first tutorial which will walk you through getting the tools required, and the source code for Papervision 2.0a.

Getting an IDE

There are various intergrated development enviroments available. The most widely used IDE for developing Papervision is Adobe Flex 2. You can get a 30-day free trial of Flex, or you can buy it. The downside of this is that it’s expensive.

There is a free alternative if you are running windows. The kind people over at FlashDevelop have created a completley free IDE which coupled with the Flex 2 SDK, can be used as a completley free alternative to Adobe Flex. I’ll walk through the steps to install FlashDevelop below.

Downloading FlashDevelop and the Flex SDK

The first thing you need to do is download the Flex SDK from the Adobe website.

You can download it using this direct link:
Flex 2 SDK (38.1 Mb)

You now need to download a build of FlashDevelop from their website.
I will be using version 3.0.0 Beta5 in my tutorials, but it shouldn’t matter which version you choose.

You can download the version that I have using this direct link:
FlashDevelop 3.0.0 Beta5 (3.43Mb)

Installing FlashDevelop

Note: This installation requires the Java Runtime Environment version 1.6. If you don’t have this, download it here:
http://filehippo.com/download_java_runtime/

Firstly, double click on the FlashDevelop installer. You should see the setup screen:
FlashDevelop Install Stage 1

Click Next, read and agree with the License agreement, then you will be presented with this page:
FlashDevelop Installer 2

I ticked the box to allow me to run multiple instances of the application, this is completley up to you.

Click Next, then Install.

FlashDevelop is now installed on your system. You still need to set it up with the Flex SDK to be able to use it to develop Papervision 3d.

Installing the Flex SDK

Firstly, you need to extract the files from the Flex SDK zip file that you downloaded.

I extracted all of the files to “C:\FlexSDK\” but you can extract them where you like.

Run FlashDevelop. From the menu at the very top of the application, click on Tools, then from the pull-down menu, Select “Program Settings“. You will now have the FlashDevelop settings window on your screen.

In the left hand list, click on “AS3Context“

In the right hand pane, you will see a list of settings. Find the “Flex SDK Location” setting and click into the box to the right.

A button will appear on the right with three dots in it. Click on the three dots and select the folder which you extracted the Flex SDK files into. Make sure that you select the folder which contains the subfolders “asdoc, bin, frameworks” etc.

Click Ok in the folder selection box, then Close in the Settings dialog.

FlashDevelop is now set up and ready to use.

15 Responses to “1. Preparing your tools”

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1 David
January 22, 2008 at 5:23 pm

If you are running Mac OSX, you might want to try out working with TextMate and fcsh.

http://noahlittle.wordpress.com/2007/09/09/flex-and-actionscript-3-with-textmate-and-fcsh/
2 Luke
January 22, 2008 at 5:26 pm

Thanks David!

Looks like it will be a great help to those who are on Macs

-Luke
3 Jonny
February 2, 2008 at 2:56 pm

You need to install Microsoft.NET 2.0 runtime before installing FlashDevelop.
4 fassa
February 12, 2008 at 4:24 pm

Lets say i dont want to use FLEX SDK and i have flash cs3 , and i want to make complex flash sites and just implement papervision3d components like interactive 3d thumbnails , can you explain how can i use fashDevelop and flash cs3 instead of flex sdk
5 harley
March 11, 2008 at 2:52 am

hi: even though I am using flex 3, these tutorials have been very helpful. small differences, but it still works.

I am trying to figure out the workflow between setting up my projects using an AS3 compiler and then using Flash CS3; In looking at the AS3 mouse3d example, i could go this route, but i really like the structure you have started here by using a PaperBase.as then modifing an application page..

can you advise how i might do the as3 coding in one ide then use flash for another. i am going to post this on the list as well.

again, thanks for the help.
6 harley
March 11, 2008 at 4:19 am

umm.. very easy.. seems, i just need to set my class path in the publish settings or drop the PaperBase.as and .as into the project folder and declare the document class as my and all works fine.. infact better.
7 xcorrect
May 22, 2008 at 11:17 am

can u plz tell me how can i do these things using flash cs3, i’m a newcomer to this and it’ll b very helpful
8 chartresgreenman
June 4, 2008 at 10:05 pm

do i need to install this flex sdk in order to do these tutorials and /or make use of this paperbase class in my as3/papervision? help! noob here,, and thanx.
9 chartresgreenman
June 4, 2008 at 10:07 pm

Also, i am completely clueless as to how to set up my files, including dae.files which do i put where in order for flash cs3/papervision to be able to find/use them eficiently? thanx again
10 theWEBster
June 18, 2008 at 9:35 am

Hi everyone,
first of all: great tutorials! i got everything run perfectly on my work-machine. lovely! lovely! but at home i got some problems installing the flex sdk. i have installed flashdevelop 3 beta 7 and downloaded the sdk from your link. the as3-properties-link is set to c:\FlexSDK but i couldn’t start a new as3-project it is not available in the list as2-projects aren’t visible too. why? any ideas? (i got flash8 installed, not flash cs3)

ciao,
websta
11 Markus
June 29, 2008 at 11:06 am

Hey. What is the different between Papervision 2 and Papervision3D?
12 SangWook
August 1, 2008 at 5:29 am

thanks, david,
this page is very useful for me
13 GregMiller
August 19, 2008 at 3:26 pm

I have Flex 3 Builder. I’ll presume all things the same for the Flex 2 IDE described above. Is there anyone else working in Flex 3? Any modifications or suggestions?
14 dennis
March 4, 2009 at 9:56 am

is there any copyright issue if I used this technology for commercial?
15 joe
May 3, 2009 at 6:14 pm

Come on with the flex IDE! The geeks have destroyed flash enough. I mean I spend all this money on the flash IDE and you guys make something that only work in Flex. Man site after site its like this. Can you guys get it together. Why would anyone want to have flash then buy flex or as your great alternative…download flashDev on flex sdk. What ever happen to ease of use? Thanks guy!