Simulation and animation in 3-d. Recommendations?

[MrE]

Yesterday I had a lot of ideas in physical construction that I want to manifest into a 3-d drawing.(with an animation) I draw only in 2-d for cad work using orthogonal projection for elevations of houses. I have not delved into 3-d modeling. I am an ace at Autocad shortcuts, however.

What program(s) do you recommend? Lets assume unlimited funds for software so cost isn't an issue.(even though I eat mac and cheese as readily as top ramen if you catch my drift :-) )

Software I can think of:

1) Autodesk Inventor

2) Pro/Engineer

3) Solidworks

4) Mikos recommended BRL-CAD in an earlier post.

5) Jccarlton recommended Cocreate OneSpaceModeling; MSimon noted the apparent steep learning curve.

For the sake of easy exchange and modification between willing members of the forum I wish to get a feeler to what people's preferences for file types and software are. I learn fast and am chomping at the bit to animate reactor designs. Pen and paper 2-d is not enough in this project.

Eric

[Tom Ligon]

Since you use AutoCad professionally, I'll suggest one to NOT use.

I'm cheap. I've used DesignCAD for decades, almost exclusively for 2D. Their present 3D packages are capable of animation. I've tried doing this for a Polywell, but found it maddeningly difficult and awkward. I could make it animate one or two particles moving, but that was about as far as I could go before giving up and going to a video editing program. Before I could get mine in decent shape, Foger Rox got a reasonable animation going.

DesignCAD is cheap as dirt (around a hundred bucks), but I doubt a pro would appreciate it. Some of the amateurs here might find it very good.

Our mechanical engineers use Solid Works here at work for 3D, and they generally approve of it. I've never seen them try an animation.

[MrE]

Thanks for the heads up Tom. I had a conversation with a coworker and he suggested 3ds max. He gave me a primer and I am very impressed at the apparent ease of use as well as the powerful options. Solidworks is also on my radar because of it's cosmos integration. More thoughts and recommends are welcome from other readers. :-)

[bcglorf]

Thanks for the heads up Tom. I had a conversation with a coworker and he suggested 3ds max. He gave me a primer and I am very impressed at the apparent ease of use as well as the powerful options. Solidworks is also on my radar because of it's cosmos integration. More thoughts and recommends are welcome from other readers.

If you are looking to do animated 3D and aren't worried about using it for more than illustrative purposes I'd recommend Blender 3D. It's free, there are good tutorials for it, and it's built specifically for animations. Of course, if you know someone who can walk you through 3D studio max that really should be the deciding factor in my opinion.

[elkaim]

I'll chime in to recommend SolidWorks. This is a very powerful program, and once you get the constraint based assembly idea, it goes very fast.

I have my students mock up things using it all the time, and they get quite good quite fast. One of my students made a quick demo of how to use it (for an older version now), which is at:

http://www.soe.ucsc.edu/classes/cmpe118 ... ksDemo.avi

Enjoy, G.

[tonybarry]

Maya. You can get a Free Student Version, and it's built for animation. Has lots of functions to simulate natural processes (gravity, inertia, etc).

Be warned ... the non student version is seriously expensive.

Regards,
Tony Barry

[tombo]

Has anyone tried products from this website?
http://www.buycheapsoft.net/contacts.html
The prices on CAD programs seem too good to be true, so they might be.
OTOH I had good luck with other OEM software for big name antivirus software with similarly deep discounts. (from a different OEM software company)
But, the cash risk there was a lot less than it is here.
OTOOH the BBB does not have them listed in any way.
So, a little direct knowledge would go a long way.

[icarus]

Solidworks and ProE seem to be preferred for 3-d solid modelling. ProE is good for product development in terms of tracking large complicated assemblies.

NX is top of the line and has good animation as well as everything else. (and top dollar)

https://www.plm.automation.siemens.com/ ... oducts/nx/

[Roger]

[ I'd recommend Blender 3D. It's free, there are good tutorials for it, and it's built specifically for animations.

Heres a Blender vid
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mXlF4VsX ... re=related

I'm started to learn Anim8tor, its a medium powered SW, Blender 3D is hi powered. Now that I've seen how much better Blender is, I might go to Blender 3D.

Compare the 2

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4dLfzyvln5c

IMHO there is no reason to pay for animating SW, Blender 3D & Anim8r are well supported, with tutorials, ongoing online communities.

[tombo]

I'm not looking for animation.
I'm looking for CAD & 3D engineering modeling.
I already know autocad well and a little inventor and I want a legitimate up to date copy.
I'm just a little concerned about this particular website.

[olivier]

Has anyone tried products from this website?

The software that we sell is bought primarily at the auctions and from the companies that have run out of business.[...]
you will not receive any printed documents (license or instruction) [...]
in case you have already installed any other versions (previous ones or upgrades) you are to REMOVE them completely before installing our versions to avoid conflicts between the versions. You are not just uninstall but clear the Registry (for PC software) for the corresponding entries.

Attractive, but my self-preservation instinct is whispering in my ear : "Stay away...". It looks safer to me to buy from a black market dealer in Moscow's underground!
The last time I found such a bargain on the Internet, some Google search revealed that it was a company with a fictitious address in England, which kept changing its name all the time and which actually shipped electronic goods from the US to Europe with fake invoices and customs declarations to circumvent taxes... and void manufacturer warranty. I won't have anything to do with it.

[Scupperer]

I'm not looking for animation.
I'm looking for CAD & 3D engineering modeling.
I already know autocad well and a little inventor and I want a legitimate up to date copy.
I'm just a little concerned about this particular website.

The full version of Autocad has 3-d modeling, and versions from 2000 and up are much easier to use and more functional with 3D modeling than earlier Autocad packages. If you're already familiar with Autocad's interface, learning the 3-d tools is not difficult, and since it's geared towards 2-D drafting, the 3-D portion allows you to be as exacting in measurements as you are in 2-D, which is often difficult to achieve in 3D software geared for animation, not only from having to learn the new interface, but because they're generally geared more towards artistic implementations than technical.

Autocad's basic rendering package is pretty crappy, however. Lights and scenes and materials are extremely difficult to set up, and effects are pretty much nonexistent. No animation is included, either. There are rendering and animation packages specifically for Autocad, but I haven't tried any of them.

What I normally do (architect here), is create a 3D model in Autocad, and then export it to 3D Studio or Form-Z (tried Lightwave once, as well), where lights and views and materials can be set up for a final artistic render, without compromising the accuracy of the model. 3D Studio, as an Autodesk product, is probably the easiest to use starting with an Autocad model.

[Skipjack]

We are using LightWave3d here. Doing anything from viz to custom tools with it. It is a very capable application and easy to afford. Autodesk applications (pretty much anything else now, other than Cinema4d, Lightwave, Houdini and Blender) are not easy to afford. I also do not like Autodesks licensing scheme (you practically rent the app). NewTek is a very nice and capable all american company.
LightWave can import 3d- DXF files as well as STL files (via a free plugin). So it is very suitable for use with all sorts of data. There is even a plugin for use with volumetric and dicom data.