Buying some 3D rendering software..need advice (1 Viewer)

[Anthony_Gomez]

(NOTE: I post this in this forum since the DIY renderers hang out here and the Rendering is used on DIY projects)



The School is going to purchase some software for me and I want some input from those with experience.

I am currently looking at Rhino 3D and AutoCad 2004. I can get both for about the same price (which isn't an issue in the first place).

Sofar, I have been playing with the evaluation version of Rhino and find that it is easy to use.

I would need the program for both 2d (machine shop diagrams) and 3d (rendering layouts of of some laser spectroscopy systems) work which they both seem to do.

So could someone (or many) who has experience list the Pros and Cons of both.

Many thanks!!!

(of course I will use it in my free time for some cabinet designs )

 

[Dave Milne]

A UofA student here "Ron D Core" did some incredible renderings in "3D Studio Max 4". You may remember this post The links seem to be gone, though. I haven't exchanged emails with him in quite a while and his last post was Sept. 9th. Don't know if he graduated or what...

 

[Eric Y]

I know its not on your list but I've used PRO-E and it is fantastic and extremly flexable.

 

[Brian Knauss]

Unigraphics seems to be used by a good amount of professionals. I see it a lot on my results for monster.com searches.

 

[Ryan Hawke]

Rhino and AutoCAD are great choices, but it depends on what you really need it for. If you're looking for photo-realistic renderings, then 3D Studio Max is probably the best choice. For more technical drawing, AutoCAD or Rhino will probably be better. If you almost exclusively need 3D, I'd say Rhino, which is by far the best modeling program I've ever worked with. For good renderings with Rhino they have a program called Flamingo, but I haven't used it. If 2D is more a focus, then I'd say AutoCAD. I haven't used the 3D much in AutoCAD, but I'd imagine its pretty good, depending on how advanced you need to get. I just still like Rhino for 3D. You can download a demo for Rhino at their website and try it out.

Laser spectroscopy? Sounds cool! I'm a sophomore right now in the optics program at UofA (hey Dave! I think we met at Russ'). I took a tour of an atom optics lab today where they used a diffraction grating on a collimated beam of sodium atoms. Good luck in finding your software!
--Ryan

 

[Anthony_Gomez]

Thanks for the advice. I have been playing with rhino all day and I think I will go with it.

I still can't do 2 seemingly simple tasks and I was hoping someone can tell me how to do it.

1) suppose a cylinder. Say I want to make the sharp edge on the circumference rounded over or chamfered. ..how?

2) suppose a cube (like a sub box). How do I round over all the edges?

I know how to round over a single edge, but when rounded edges meet, I get some weird stuff going on. ..and with the cylinder, I just can't get anything to go. :frowning:




Rryan, I work on atmospheric "problems" in chemistry. Right now, we are studying them through Laser Desorption QMS and Cavity Ring Down.

 

[Brett DiMichele]

For professional use you would want what the pro's use and
that would be SolidWorks, Maya and Autocad. These are of
course the hardest and most complex modeling packages out
there.

For home use the best I have used is Caligari TrueSpace it
has the best interface I have ever seen and I have used
all of the various modeling packages before. TS also has
one of the best "built in" Raytrace engines, POV Ray is
still a better external Ray Tracer but for most modeling
work the built in ray tracer will do spectacular things.

Check out True Space at www.caligari.com and check out the
TS Galleries and see what the experts can do with it.. You
will be blown away.

 

[Ryan Hawke]

In the solid tools menu in Rhino there is a fillet edge button that does a nice job on rounding over edges. For chamfering you might want to use the surface tools chamfer, where you select the two surfaces you want chamfered (ala AutoCAD). Good luck!
--Ryan

 

[Anthony_Gomez]

Ryan, thanks, but it doesn't work when the rounded corners meet.

create a cube and use that command 3 times consecutively at the 3 edges that form a point....you get some weird thing at the corner.

 

[Hank Frankenberg]

Tony, next thing we'll see is some Jon-like speaker renderings! I know you'll share the program with your buds. Just kidding!

 

[Anthony_Gomez]

sorry Hank....school owns the software...and I still have many years to keep a cleans slate to graduate

I'll have to send you my first rendering (no texture mapping...just shaping) when I get back to the office

 

[Brett DiMichele]

You mean you can make speakers in 3D?

Now way! I will believe it when I see it....

 

[Anthony_Gomez]

I'll post on here what I did. I haven't learned texture mapping and stuff yet, but I think what I did in from pretty much 1 day of learning is pretty damn impressive....only in the pre-rendering stage.

 

[Rob Formica]

I agree with Brett on the praticallity of "for professional use you would want what the pro's use" as you always end up sharing projects, and multiple importing/exporting never seems to work 100%. I work pretty much in 2D which AutoCAD (version 14 and up seem pretty commun) is an easy choice.

For educational use... that one is up to you...

 

[Dave Milne]

Rob,
I also have AutoCAD 14... but I'll throw out a warning to first-time CAD drivers out there: This program isn't for the faint of heart. I've fiddled with it for a total of about ten hours and I'm still barely to able to make a simple 2D speaker box. Yikes! Maybe I'm just software-challenged. It does have impressive capabilities that I hope to someday exploit.

Ryan,
yes we did meet at Russ'. A month or so ago he was thinking about another Tucson DIY meet. 'Haven't heard back, though. Did I miss it? We could probably do one at my place. That would give me incentive to finish my new measurement mic preamp

 

[BruceD]

Can I ask those of you who use and know AutoCAD, what are some of the better books for learning AutoCAD (mostly 2D) out there today?

 

[Ryan Hawke]

Dave,
I got that email too but haven't heard anything back. If we get together in a month or so we'll have finished our new center channel and probably surrounds. Our sub is almost done (box is done, but not finished) but its too big/heavy to bring anywhere (AV15, 5.5 cu ft total). We have Adire 281s that we might be able to bring somewhere, they're big and heavy too but might be worth it because they seem to get a lot of airplay in the forums and I'm sure a lot of people would like to hear them. Anyways back to 3D...

In Rhino when I select all three corners of a cube at once for the fillet edge tool they come out perfect at the corner. Didn't try it one at a time, but if that doesn't work maybe you can try changing the "trim" commands to get it to work. The chamfering will probably cause the most problems, thats been my experience anyway. I wish they'd make a chamfer edge tool thats designed to be used on solids. BTW, you can create your own shapes with tools like revolve and surface from curve network then cap the ends to make it solid. Good luck!
--Ryan

 

[Anthony_Gomez]

here is what I learned to do in 1 day.

Don't ask what it is

you HAVE TO CUT AND PASTE the link.
http://beyond_gomer.tripod.com/source.jpg

 

[Travis Cain]

It looks like some sort of high powered laser..

 

[Anthony_Gomez]

not a laser at all

...well...not in that image

We buy our lasers...well...buy the NdYAG's but are building the OPO.