Posted by Kevin Matthews on March 27, 2000 at 16:21:09:In Reply to: Re: which 3D CAD software to purchase? posted by kevin on March 27, 2000 at 15:33:34:
Just so you are aware, I still recommend DW to my clients.That's great to hear - thanks!
I will give the newest version of DW a try and hopefully the DXf option will work as you sayNote that the triangulated DXF output is provided from the Lights and Textures window, NOT from the standard modeling window.
I'm really a bit confused by your attitude toward other rendering programs. Why be so condesending?I'm not quite sure what you mean. I have nothing against rendering programs per se - in fact, some of my best friends are rendering programs! But seriously, for people needing extensive recorded animation capabilities, we regularly recommend additional rendering/animation software like Art*lantis, which we even sell bundled with DesignWorkshop, because our users have found it to be good, easy, and productive. DW is just one piece of a full-spectrum 3D toolkit, and integration with other apps is high on our priority list.
One thing I am certainly tired of, however, is otherwise high-end software -- Lightscape for instance had this problem for many years -- that comes with narrow and limited file import capabilities. DesignWorkshop has always exported valid DXF files, but several expensive rendering/animation applications couldn't read them, because we used the 3D Polyline entity in DXF, and these apps just ignored the 3D polyline.
What was grating about this is that Artifice would often be blamed for the problem, even though the other company was the party actually failing to support the file format. Rarely would the other company involved lift a finger to clarify or resolve the problem.
Now that the DW Lights and Textures window exports fully triangulated models using the 3DFACE entity for DXF, virtually every other 3D app can read the data. 3DFACE triangles are the lowest-common-denominator of 3D surface entities in DXF. Every 3D app can read them, so no more problems.
But the same type of problem still exists elsewhere, for instance with KPT Bryce, which "supports" 3DMF files, but can't read trimeshes, and even with Art*lantis, which "supports" 3DMF files, but ignores the textures.
3D file translation is still a lot messier for users than there is any good technical reason for, and I see a big part of the problem coming from software companies that would rather spend on advertising than on fixing their translators. And coming from companies who exploit arcane and limited translation senarios as customer control strategies, at the expense of their own customers' productivity. That is a lame but all-too common business approach to translators in the CAD industry.
I could go on and on on this subject...
Cheers,
K