Hi Paul,
This is an intresting topic.Though AutoCad provides 3D tools its very hard to use.I feel like a man trying to move an elephant around holding its tail.Real-time rotation of an rendered 3D is not possible at least in my workstation.I too am exploring possibilities of how to increase my navigation capabilities inside the 3D model.
1)Hardware options : Like you said buying an expensive Video Card will not make up for the limitations inherent in the software.About the Raid and SCSI , I have the faintest idea.I would be glad if you could explain it to me.
2)Software:I feel the problem with the AutoCad 3D objects are that they carry a lot of information with them making them bulkier and also the treatment has been given with 2D as its basis .Either AutoCad has to sqeez these 3D objects and make them more agile by changing the format (Hope AutoDesk guys read this mail ) or we have to import it into another s/w which weeds out unnecessary information , compresses the 3D objects so that walkthroughs and navigating bcomes easy.AutoPlant and CadWorks which rely on AutoCad for their graphics engine use the software developed by Navisworks (www.navisworks.com). Using this software you can have a quasi-real time 3D rotation. The software recognizes DWG , DGN and 3DS file formats. There is an demo which can be downloded with some sample model files including the millenium dome in London. The software has its own clash check facility.The drawbacks being its still not customized for Plant Design Functions.Measuring and querying some minimum data of the objects are not satisfying.
I guess these three people can improve the scenario.....Intel , AutoDesk and Graphics Card Makers.
I am forwarding some information on Graphics Card maybe it could be usefull to the members
(There are two criteria for choosing a graphics card, Driver quality and
performance. The market divides into professional
and consumer cards. Professional cards are higher priced, have excellent
quality drivers, are well tested with leading CAD
applications and usually the best performance.
Consumer cards are cheaper, generally have poor drivers, are tested with games rather than CAD applications and have generally average performance. There are many brands of consumer cards, usually based on one of a small number of graphics chipsets. Often the design of card and driver used are identical for the same chipset. We list consumer cards purely by chipset used.
Professional cards are recommended over consumer cards for CAD applications.
A)Recommended Professional Cards (in order of performance):
B)Recommended consumer (reasonably stable drivers but be prepared to download latest from manufacturers website, in order of performance):
C)Tested, not recommended consumer (unstable drivers, poor performance):
Matrox G400/G500/G550
S3 Savage4
)
Shivaprakash C Rao
Tessag Edeleanu
www.edeleanu.com.sg
-----Original Message-----
From: Paul Bowers [SMTP:pbowers@pipingdesign.com]
Sent: Friday, August 31, 2001 3:36 PM
To: PipingDesign@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [PipingDesign] Hardware/Software: Real-Time 3D Rotation of CAD
Piping Models
Guys, I'm about to sink a few dollars into a new system.
I'll spare you all the ugly details except to mention that ultra SCSI and RAID are involved.
My question is:
-how can I obtain real-time rotation of a 3D CAD piping model
(doesn't have to be rendered during rotation)?
I won't throw $2000 worth of video card into acheiving this if AutoCAD simply cannot do it.
Paul
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