RE:Cad programs

Dan,

I'm going to go out on a limb here and offer Vector Cad to you and any others that are interested for $100.00. It will have all the 3D wire frame drawing capabilities as the Full version of Vector Cad-Cam, and can be upgraded to the full version Cam for the difference in price between the two. I don't think that you will get the 3D surfacing (Skin) capabilities, pocketing, nor wrap cylinder. Unfortunately I'm not quite sure what the exact mix of the CAM drawing functions is included. I think that offset curves are included as well as I'm sure that all the entity drawing and dimensioning. Sometimes I can sneak a few extras in that would not normally get included. ;-)

Note this is a special price & only available to listserve members. I will try to hold it as long as possible, probably at least through October. If you feel comfortable with the free ones, you won't hurt my feelings. I have Intellicad here & use it for a few things. I don't use Turbo cad because I bought their version 3.0 or so & it was very poorly designed. (I don't like Autocad either) I tend to do most of my drawing in Vector because it is very productive. I think like windows after 10 years of so of using it & that is exactly the way Vector works. Select objects, perform many functions on them, keep going without having to reselect, copy-paste, wysiwyg in 3D wireframe Cad.

As far as the 3D modelers go, I would like to point out a couple that are not discussed too much. I may be stupid, but I would rather let as many become adept at 3D than just those that can afford Amapi (even though it is so cheap!)

2 that I have looked at & played with a bit are :

Minos 2.2 Freeware at : http://perso.wanadoo.fr/rleboite/minos.htm

and Ray Henry or Dave Anderson, (I forget which sorry) told me about

Blender which is still free at: http://www.blender.nl

It's a Python application, which apparently makes it a good candidate for Linux systems too.


The only reason that I didn't go with either of these as a companion to StlWork is that they have very little support in the US, whereas Amapi has people that will answer my phone calls and keep me on the phone much longer than I should for help understanding their product. Somewhat like I have been with a few of you ;-) I'm being a little bit generous about the capabilities of these two, because they don't really come close to ALL the features in Amapi, but they are GOOD tools to get an understanding of what 3D modeling is all about.

I almost forgot Solid Edge Origin at: http://www.solid-edge.com/Origin/

It is a free solid modeler, but will only save in it's native file format. The Plus version that gives you a chance to save your work in other usable formats is about $495 as I recall.



Best Regards, Fred Smith- IMService
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