Kitten Export

A Blender addon for exporting spacecraft models to Kitten Space Agency (KSA) format with support for thrusters, engines, meshes, and materials.

Features

• Thruster Management: Create and configure thrusters with customizable properties

  • Location and exhaust direction
  • Thrust (in Newtons)
  • Specific impulse
  • Minimum pulse time
  • Control mapping (translation and rotation)
  • Sound events and volumetric effects

• Engine Management: Create and configure engines with detailed parameters

  • Location and exhaust direction
  • Thrust (in kilonewtons)
  • Specific impulse
  • Minimum throttle
  • Sound events and volumetric effects

• Mesh Export: Automatically export all mesh objects as individual GLB files

  • Organized in a dedicated Meshes/ folder
  • Automatic filename collision handling
  • Selection preservation during export

• Material Export: Extract and export material textures

  • Automatic detection of diffuse, normal, and roughness/metallic/AO maps
  • Support for Principled BSDF materials
  • PNG export with organized naming
  • Organized in a dedicated Textures/ folder

• XML Generation: Create comprehensive part.xml files with proper structure

  • Assets definition with mesh and material references
  • Part configuration with subparts
  • Windows-compatible line endings (CRLF)
  • Configurable coordinate precision
  • Pretty-formatted output

Installation

1. Download the latest release from the Releases page
2. Open Blender and go to Edit → Preferences → Add-ons
3. Click Install from Disk and select the downloaded kittenExport-*.zip
4. Enable the addon by checking the checkbox
5. Restart Blender if needed

Usage

Adding Thrusters

1. In the 3D viewport, press Shift+A to open the Add menu
2. Navigate to KSA → Thruster
3. An Empty object with arrow visualization will be created
4. In the Data panel, configure thruster parameters:
   • FxLocation: Particle effect origin offset
   • Thrust N: Thrust in Newtons (default: 40)
   • Specific Impulse Seconds: ISP in seconds
   • Minimum Pulse Time: Minimum fire duration
   • VolumetricExhaust_id: Visual effect ID
   • Sound event on: Sound effect ID
   • Control Map: Translation and rotation axes this thruster responds to
   • Export: Enable/disable this thruster in exports

Adding Engines

1. In the 3D viewport, press Shift+A to open the Add menu
2. Navigate to KSA → Engine
3. An Empty object with cone visualization will be created
4. In the Data panel, configure engine parameters:
   • Thrust kN: Thrust in kilonewtons (default: 650)
   • Specific Impulse Seconds: ISP in seconds
   • Minimum Throttle: Minimum throttle fraction (0-1)
   • VolumetricExhaust_id: Visual effect ID
   • SoundEventAction_On: Sound effect ID
   • Export: Enable/disable this engine in exports

Exporting to KSA Format

1. Select a target directory or create a new one
2. Go to File → Export → KSA Part
3. Configure export options:
   • Part ID: The identifier for your part (default: "MyRocket")
   • Coordinate Decimal Places: Precision for coordinates (default: 3 = 0.001)
4. Select the output folder and click Export

The exporter will:

• Create a Meshes/ folder with individual GLB files for each mesh
• Create a Textures/ folder with extracted material textures
• Generate a part.xml file with all configuration

XML Structure

The generated part.xml follows this structure:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<Assets>
  <MeshFile Id="mesh_name" Path="Meshes/mesh_name.glb" Category="Vessel"/>
  
  <PbrMaterial Id="material_nameTextureFile">
    <Diffuse Path="Textures/material_name_Diffuse.png" Category="Vessel"/>
    <Normal Path="Textures/material_name_Normal.png" Category="Vessel"/>
    <RoughMetaAo Path="Textures/material_name_RoughMetaAo.png" Category="Vessel"/>
  </PbrMaterial>
  
  <Part Id="MyRocket">
    <SubPart Id="mesh_name">
      <SubPartModel Id="mesh_nameModel">
        <Mesh Id="mesh_nameMeshFile"/>
        <Material Id="material_nameTextureFile"/>
      </SubPartModel>
    </SubPart>
    
    <Thruster Id="thruster_name">
      <Location X="0.0" Y="0.0" Z="0.0"/>
      <ExhaustDirection X="1.0" Y="0.0" Z="0.0"/>
      <Thrust N="40"/>
      <SpecificImpulse Seconds="220"/>
      <MinimumPulseTime Seconds="0.008"/>
      <ControlMap CSV="TranslateForward,PitchUp"/>
      <VolumetricExhaust Id="ApolloRCS"/>
      <SoundEvent Action="On" SoundId="DefaultRcsThruster"/>
    </Thruster>
    
    <Engine Id="engine_name">
      <Location X="0.0" Y="0.0" Z="0.0"/>
      <ExhaustDirection X="1.0" Y="0.0" Z="0.0"/>
      <Thrust N="650000"/>
      <SpecificImpulse Seconds="452"/>
      <MinimumThrottle Value="0.05"/>
      <VolumetricExhaust Id="ApolloCSM"/>
      <SoundEvent Action="On" SoundId="DefaultEngineSoundBehavior"/>
    </Engine>
  </Part>
</Assets>

Project Structure

The addon is organized into modular components:

• __init__.py: Main addon file with registration and imports
• thruster.py: Thruster-related classes and functions
• engine.py: Engine-related classes and functions
• export.py: Export operators and XML generation
• utils.py: Shared utility functions
• menu.py: UI menu definitions
• blender_manifest.toml: Addon metadata for Blender extension system

Requirements

• Blender: 4.2.0 or later
• Python: 3.10+ (included with Blender)

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please feel free to submit issues and pull requests.

License

This project is licensed under the GNU General Public License v3.0 or later - see the LICENSE file for details.

Author

Marcus Zuber and all contributors.

Support

For issues, questions, or suggestions, please open an issue on the GitHub repository.

Version History

0.0.4

• Modularized code into separate modules (thruster, engine, export, utils, menu)
• Added permissions: contents: write to GitHub Actions for releases
• Improved code organization and maintainability

0.0.3

• Previous improvements and fixes

0.0.2

• Earlier version

0.0.1

• Initial release