NURBS based design software

Depends on what you want to do or are doing, your workflow or needs in creating freeform sharps, within or outside SW?

BTW, there are other SW addin's which are more inline with what Rhino3D can do...

GeometryWorks3d,

Anyhow, Rhino3D is the better freeform surface tool outside of SW, period.

You really have to try them yourself, and they all have full working demos.

..

One of the things that I do like about shapeworks is that it can be fully intergrated into the SW environment.

solidThinking. Runs on OS X as well as Windows.

jon

How would you know? YOU don't actually use ANY 3D CAD/CAM ....

And since when is running on OS X a figure of merit for NURBS?

Confused by the ads & buzzwords again? What ever happened to 3 dinkies? The new thing is better, right?

Do you even actually *know* what NURBS is? I don't think so. How about 3D CAD or CAD/CAM? Same boat I expect ... you've never actually used any of it ...

Rhinoceros 3D!

Rhino has no surface to spline associativity.... tweak your underlying curves and guess what.... you have to create those surfaces all over again. This really gets old very quickly and it makes for a program that does not encourage experimentation with how your shape will look. The words tedious and annoying come to mind.

This is not an issue with solidThinking as it has surface to spline associativity. Further solidThinking has surface to surface associativity.

Take a look at some of the things you can't do with Rhino here:

How about Open GL support in Rhino ? To say the least it is very, very poor.

Take a look here and see if you can see how Rhino should be supporting Open GL

How about real time dynamic curve analysis ? Last time I checked Rhino's was static.... what a pain in the ass... much like the situation I described above. Take a look here to see how it should be done in real time:

"solidThinking VANTAGE introduces a new advanced analysis tool to interactively control Tangency and Curvature Continuity."

Note the word "interactively" above.

How about variable fillets in Rhino ?

Forget about it !!!

You want this then you have to purchase a plug-in from 3rd party developers who should be *directly on McNeel's payroll* instead of slugging it out on their own. Unfortunately Bob McNeel is too cheap and too stupid to recognize what really needs to be done with Rhino by bringing on board developers who have the qualifications like the people who develop Power Solids and Power Booleans for Rhino do.

For almost a year McNeel has tried to get Rhino back where it was before the folks at Alias pulled the plug on AG Lib. Further, McNeel does not exactly have a track record of rapid development of their product and it pails compared to how much progress the folks who make solidThinking have made.

Despite many, many requests from Rhino users McNeel won't be porting Rhino to OS X. McNeel can't because they can barely keep up now as evidenced by what has happened with Alias pulling the plug on AG Lib.

By the second quarter of next year people are going to have a lot more significant options than they do now. A few may show up sooner. ;>)

jon

Where are you banned again? Where have your archived posts been deleted (the ultimate insult to the clueless)?

SolidWorks and Think3 have many of the features you are talking about, I have owned all three, also tried the plug ins for better surfacing in SW But when it comes down to it, Rhino3d is easier and quicker for me to get work done, Rhino doesnt pretend to be a solid modeler. If I need variable fillets I can import to SW or draw them myself, they will get there soon. I get things done in an hour that I couldnt even get to work in other programs Rhino support is excellent and costs you NOTHING Sometimes the associativity is nothing but a pain in the ass I think the new Rhino3d ver 3 graphics are better than what I have in SW I'd Choose Rhino

Hi John,

Let's just hope that more and better choices become available soon because many people are just really sick and tired of incomplete products.

IMO thinkdesign / thinkshape is the closest to being a complete product and it will be the product that continues to lead the others.

Further, think3's Global Shape Modeling should greatly benefit from a 64 bit OS. From what I can tell think3 spends more money and has better developers than any of the products mentioned. The only problem is that think3 continues to have about zero interest in working with small shops.

If you ever get the time, you really should try VX's Vision because I believe it could easily do what you need it to do. I can understand that your time is limited and it's a pain in the ass to learn yet another product. However, in your case, since you know both SolidWorks and Rhino it should not be that hard. Unlike think3, VX understands how to work with small accounts and their support is excellent and I believe free... understand, it's not like having a large user group like Rhino but if a product is good and your have a very good understanding like you now have then often times you don't need that level of support.

Always nice to read your posts and I certainly know where your coming from.

Going to see Cheap Trick on 11 / 4. Too bad you don't do guitar work for them. Really like their new CD. Best stuff since Dream Police.

jon

I quite often consider it to be a blessing not to have to fuss with feature hierarchy and dependancies. Rhino's a good piece of software and is probably the best dollar value on the market for NURBS surface modeling.

===========================

The reality is that Rhino isn't very flexible at all because it has no associativity.

You don't have to drop down to Rhino's low level to accomplish what you want. You do have to spend more money but you get real solids and the power of the ACIS kernel.

"Our top priority is to provide software that makes you more productive in the conceptual design phase of the product development cycle. We accomplish this by focusing on two key areas of the user experience, namely flexibility and speed.

Flexibility in the conceptual design phase is critical. To create a flexible environment we provide simple consistant tools that let you freely construct with 2D/3D wireframes, surfaces, solids, or use a combination of methods (hybrid modeling). This flexible environment is accomplished without entering special modes for drafting, part modeling, assembly, rendering, animation, or drawing composition. Concepts Unlimited provides one consistant environment for all your design needs.

The second critical component is speed. The fast demanding pace of conceptual design requires that the designer explore numerous trade studies in a short amount of time. To support this dynamic environment Concepts Unlimited incorporates design associativity. Design associativty transparently creates relationships between curves, surfaces, solids, and a variety of object dependent parameters. The relationships provide a means to quickly rebuild geometry when it comes time to explore new ideas. In addition, Concept Explorer displays a graphical representation of the relationships and provides tools for suppressing, replacing, removing, and adding geometry."

Runs on OS X as well as Windows

jon

Also see:

http://64.219.184.27/csi/faq.htm jon

John,

You might also want to take a look at this product which was just released.

Here is a little bit about it:

http://64.219.184.27/csi/faq.htm http://64.219.184.27/csi/products.htm Tim Olson decided to do his own product and left Ashlar. This is his view of what the market really needs. I happen to think Tim is right. IMO his Concept is one hell of a lot better than settling for Rhino's very low level functionality.

jon

Hey Cliff

Why must you c> >

What's a kernel?

They are tired of you too? LOL ...

Did they not ask you to never ever mention their name again .. ? What happened? Cut off your free canned demo?

Hey Cliff

Why must you c> >

You are wasting your breath (fingers?). Over the years these two have been asked in pretty much every way possible to grow up or go away. The best solution is to set filters and/or simply ignore their posts.

JJ

Looks like AOL dropped a top-posted post ....

I don't post endless clueless buzzwords & ads or steal from others .

I've suggested he use alt.clueless.morons several times.

Ask jb about kernels. Or about anything else. He's almost always using the buzzwords. In his usual confused way.

I dare you both .