Rhino Segue

On Sun, 09 May 1999 12:14:31 -0300, James P Crombie
<jpcrombie@...> wrote:

>But if you are doing
>complex 3d surfacing then Rhino is the best program out there.

I agree, Rhino is a stellar goodie (I was lurking on the beta testers
list during it's development, and I must say the developer guys are also
a bunch of nice chaps, no fat-heads, ifyagetmedrift).

The reason for chiming in was to mention something that is IN Rhino
already, and that is: interface drivers for a couple of the high-end 3-D
measurement tools, ya know, them gimbled arm thingies you use to
digitize in 3-D. Now, THERES a grand other possible group project, eh?
Develop a low-cost, workable resolution 3-D digitizing arm. Woooheee,
you are about to enter the "dream and drool zone".

AGAIN, the reason why these things are sooooo spendo is that to market
an industrial-grade digitootzy, and get the high resolution demanded,
the bearings and other components get spendy real fast, but for us HSM
types, being able to input a shape into Rhino at say 0.005" res and then
refine and dump out lofts or sections of the contours to our handy dandy
routers/mills would we vewy noice indeed.

BTW, Rhino, especially for what the program does, is actually NOT
terribly expensive. I think I saw one early adopter vendor selling
copies for around $400 IIRC. Not cheapo, to be sure, but not like a
license for a full copy of Autocad, neither.

Gar