Anyone Use CAD Software?
polycounter lvl 11
Now, this is just a curiosity, since I have never even opened a copy of CATIA or SolidWorks, but from what I hear there are some VERY nice modeling features in these software packages. Especially for those doing complex hard surface work.
There must be a good reason for it, but why isn't this software used for entertainment work like the games industry or film, what does it do to models/meshes that makes it so unusable for these industries?
Do any of you have an experience with CAD packages?
There must be a good reason for it, but why isn't this software used for entertainment work like the games industry or film, what does it do to models/meshes that makes it so unusable for these industries?
Do any of you have an experience with CAD packages?
Replies
As I said, I can't speak for SolidWorks, but put it this way, if someone told me I could only use AutoCAD or Vectorworks to create my game art from now on, I'd quit making game art and run off crying.
There are benefits for the Arch industry from using that software and that's ultra-precision. Because things need to be so damn perfect, like a pipe needs to intersect another pipe at exactly 'x' angle and 'y' position etc, and obviously drawings are done to scale too.
On top of this you've got the CAM companies who machine parts out using CAD, again they need ultimate precision which AutoCAD and the like are designed for.
The modelling tools in both packages I use come across as very similar to a lot of those we're all familiar with in Max/Maya etc, but usually I'll input a numeric value to execute a tool rather than say slide an edge.
So yeah, in a way they do complex modeling, but the complexity coming more from the precision required as oppose to the visual complexity of a model.
They're probably not used in the entertainment industry just because other tools produce appropriate work more efficiently and more quickly. For example, if a film studio needed a building modelled for a scene, the most important thing would be visual quality rather than exacting scale and precision. Also, I can't imagine organic/character modelling being very enjoyable in a CAD package, and since most projects both film and games call for both hard surface and organic stuff in the same project, I guess it makes more sense to stick with a package designed for that kind of versatility.
That said, I only do Arch-Viz, I would imagine the best person to answer would be someone who works with CAM or similar.
Mapping isn't impossible, but there are not a lot of options for it. You can pretty much forget about wrapping bitmaps around models. I've exported models to .obj and imported into 3Ds Max for curiosity's sake...the geometry created in the translation is hell. Solid Models are different in that you make a cut, etc there's no hole in the part. Meshes and Polys are hollow and it's easy to create holes in the geometry. There's no grabbing verts or edges or polygons in SolidWorks...that's just not how the software works. Every feature in a Solid 3d model is based off a 2d (or 3d) fully defined drawing as in AutoCad or DWGeditor. You need to keep things concentric, snap to angles, make lines collinear, etc.
Each software has its use. Mechanical things can easily be created in SolidWorks or Pro-E, but nothing organic. However, to translate those models to something a mesh-based modeler can use is a whole new demon...
Something I am curious about tho, is fillet tools. Autocad isnt great at this stuff, but I believe that packages like SolidWorks excel at them. Would it be possible to export a hard-edged 'lowpoly' object to SW, and beautifully fillet the edges in there ?
On a similar note, I remember seing screenshots of a flexible pipe generator for SW ; basically you define an entry point, an exit point, the kind of flexible tubing you need and bam it creates the best rubber tube for the job with the correct bending - looking much more accurate than guessing the shape with a bezier curve.
Those would be quite something, and if done well, could replace subd work for many mechanical modeling cases. Ideas ?
And translating it over to polygons is feasible, but can be time consuming.
The whole solid modelling process is just great so, perfect booleans, smart edges... but if you don't do your plan well, you will fuck up the logic easily.
As for importing a lowpoly, I tried that, but it won't work, you need the "mathematical" model of your shapes, in order to benefit from it. Which would mean rebuilding the lowpoly
Exporting a hi-poly is totally doable so.
from what I heard AutoCAD is rather bad when compared to the pro-tools like solidworks, pro-engineer and so on. It's just that AutoCAD is the cheapest for what it offers, hence very affordable and wide-spread.
I just watched those a week or two ago. Man, that is some awesome stuff. I've only used AutoCAD myself, but this NX program seems way better, I thought AutoCAD was pretty shitty, it didn't really seem to like working with curves and bevels...
basicly every position in your workpiece has a mathematical definition and you could calculate it. even if your resolution doesnt display a 100% round curve, it still is 100% rounded
everything is very "mathy"
also, your workflow is quite different, since you have to define everything
good thing is, hardsurface modeling is easy going, you wont have any smoothing errors that you have to fix hour´s long or anything like that
you dont need support edges or anything fancy like that
you define your radius on each edge and thats it, 100% smooth renders
bringing in pockets or holes is also very easy since you dont have something like a meshflow, place it, define the size, and there you go
downside is organic stuff, you wouldnt want to do it there since you would have to calculate every single curve or have an algorythm for it. this would take 1000x longer than in zbrush (maybe even longer than that)
on the import as obj matter:
i´ve once tried to import some stuff as obj into 3dsmax, but it really looked weird and cleaning it up somehow took longer than it would have if i had created it in 3dsmax
but that was some years ago, dont know if anything has changed since then
maybe it was the part itself that produced such an horrible result since it had many small edges and bevels
if anyone has played around with that lately, would be nice to hear if anything has changed (or if i simply fucked up last time )
Parametric modeling takes some getting used to but can be really powerful and fast if done correctly. Because you have to define everything it is usually possible to edit things at any time and not break your model. If you have a bunch of holes on a flat plane you can resize them, no problem. Resize the plane and the spacing of the holes will change if you set everything up right.
Curvy things are a headache tough.
I did a quick little test to see if a imported CAD model delivers a good base normals and it gave no problems for me. Its on my dropbox if anyone wants to see what a imported mesh looks like:
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/135289/Test.max