Slashdot Mirror

Solidworks is the de-facto standard in many industries for 3d models. CATIA's great if you're made of money. If you want something a bit cheaper try http://www.rhino3d.com/ And you'll get more experienced responses by looking at threads about this question on cnczone or practicalmachinist.

The nurbs modeling program Rhino3D does this. The trial version is limited to 25 saves, rather than days or uses.

You're right that there are alternatives to AutoCAD, but it's not just Autodesk that makes Windows-only CAD programs. Take Rhino, a pretty amazing (and remarkably inexpensive) CAD program, but one which cannot or will not ever be ported because, I'm assuming, it's dependent on the same Windows APIs that AutoCAD is, Rhino originally being an add-on for it. I'm desperately hoping it'll run acceptably under emulation on an Intel Mac, because I need to use it and being forced to use a PC just for the sake of this single program (hell, being required to buy an extremely high-end PC for the sake of this one program) is irritating, to put it mildly. But to my knowledge, there's nothing else out there with Rhino's combination of complex 3D modeling and scripting.

I found the accuracy of your description of AutoCAD highly amusing. In my experience, 2000 ran decently, but no one I know will go anywhere near the wizz-bangy monstrosity that is 2006. The thing is so obsequious that it's perpetually in your way.

And sorry for the AC -- I figured modding you up was a better use of my time than posting as a user...

I do hope you aren't still using polygons.

*G*

Anyone have info on Rhino?

Is Maya in the same league?

The Maya/Alias/AutoCAD/Discreet site pops up an uncancellable cookie.

Not a good sign.

Pro/E HAS a GNU/Linux version. There are several projects right now to build the kinds of systems you are talking about. Check out Music Man/Ernie Ball - they use Redhat with Pro/E. No joke, I'm in the industry, and I've met a person or two in the know. Catia has a Unix version, UG has a Unix version. I believe (but am not sure) that even SDRC's I-DEAS has a Unix version. Get a demo of Rhinoceros (Windows only, very sorry to say) and check out the IGES export flavors. There are somrthing like 50 of them, and they list both Windows and Unix subflavors for many of the apps it can emulate in export.

CAD/CAM is available, it's just incredibly expensive at times and is NOT Free Software.

You're right about CMM. There ain't nothin' that I know of available.

Even CNC machine control is covered, check out EMC (BDI for those not using the Linux real-time source patches) at www.linuxcnc.org. It's based off of NIST EMC (Enhanced Machine Controller), and can drive (I think) up to 7 independant axes of motion and lot's o' limit switches, with stepper or servo output. I recommend using some kind of amplifier if yer gonna drive one o' those humongous VMCs, of course.

Which is they rebranded in 1998 to make the company logo the letters sgi with the bottoms cut off, as if they were appearing over the horizon. (New motto: "The Solution is in Sight!") But I guess that's even more obscure then the original logo, because now they just use the three letters.

And the original logo is very obscure. It's not a bug! It's the Chrome Cube! The whole point being that you need an SGI workstation to render the damn thing. But nobody ever got that. So sad!

There was a small app for MacOS 7.1 back in the day that would allow you to submit DOS style commands: mkdir, rename, copy, move. Basically an experiment in API calls. I haven't owned a mac since '94, so I don't really know if this little app still exists.

to do with the software, but most high end 3d stuff costs an arm and a leg.

One reasonably priced well spoken of modeller you didn't mention is Rhino.

Maya is nice, but if you aren't animating you're only using a very small portion of its abilities.

Linux an untouched market? Hardly. Most of the big name large and powerful animation packages already run on Linux. For rendering, there's POV and BMRT, and Renderman for those with the $$. Then there's blender, scheduled to be opensource soon; not to mention the counteless modeling and animation projects that have already been started (ok, this is a stretch, most of them scarcely compile correctly, but someone's already working on it).

What I'd really like to see is a Linux port of Rhinoceros. This is a really great modeling program. It's loads more useful than AutoCad for designing (IMO), and it does solid modeling for a mere $800. In fact, this and a few games are the only thing that ties me to Windows at all. I'd be willing to fork out up to 500$ more to pay for the privlidge to use it on Linux, and I know there is demand for a port. So far they have shown no intrest at all...

Rhino-3D (3D modeling software) has an interesting way to keep licensing legal. In order to install on a computer, you must have an original key. However, it is very possible to install the software on several computers. However, only one copy of the software can be running at the same time if it was installed with the same key. If you start up the copy on the other computer it will inform you that the license associated with the copy you are trying to start is already in use, and then it will exit. (Sounds similar to Quake 3 and Half-Life).

Rhino also has the ability to have a "Zoo Keeper" where many keys can be installed. Every time a user starts a copy of Rhino, it goes to the key server and gets a valid key. If all the keys are being used, it cannot start up since the company only purchased x number of licenses. Seems like a fairly decent way to do things to me. It lets you install on whatever computers you would like, but lets you run only the number of copies you have purchased simultaneously.

not sure you would count this or not. but rhino3d works fine via wine (with a slight performance hit)

Hmm...I consider Rhino more of a modeler, less of a full-fledged 3D Animation app. It's a great modeler, btw. You can't do animation in it, however.

Based on what I garnered from Bob, Michael and other folks at McNeel during Rhino beta testing, I doubt they're planning on making a non-Win32 port anytime soon...

Definition:
NURBS, Non-Uniform Rational B-Splines, are mathematical representations of 3-D geometry that can accurately describe any shape from a simple 2-D line, circle, arc, or curve to the most complex 3-D organic free-form surface or solid. Because of their flexibility and accuracy, NURBS models can be used in any process from illustration and animation to manufacturing.

I know the use of NURBS are really easy and flexible as they are simply splines which can be ajusted by certain control points and different wieghting. They have easily replaced charachter modelling from polygons in the past 2 years.

I remeber speculation on hardware which could render/raytrace NURBS and other spline based modelling, directly w/o conversion to polys. However i've yet to see it materiealize.

Some of the Better NURBS modeller's avalible are:
Maya A linux port of this is supposedly floating around SGI and some of the larger software houses.

Rhino3D Shame its windows only, yet there's some reports of it successful in Wine.

Enjoy, Oblisk

------------------------------------