Hi! (Preface - I have never used AoI) NopHead's recent post http://hydraraptor.blogspot.com/2008/06/from-illusion-to-creation.html regarding the AoI mesh problem revealed something as problematic as the mesh problem itself: AoI is not an engineer-oriented software. I am learning solidworks at the moment and I can see how using an engineering oriented tool would be neccesary in order to produce results with the reprap on a large scale. Imagine you need to create a disk with 7 evenly spaced holes on it. with solidworks you create one hole, position it, select "circular patter", select 7 and hit ok. If I understand correctly, in AoI you would have to calculate (!!!) the position of each hole. Instead of being smart about and "knowing" that the holes are in a circular pattern AoI only knows you placed the holes in some arbitary position. Imagine realising you need to move all the holes 5 mm outwards (radially).... what a headache! Here is a wikipedia list of free CAD software. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Free_computer-aided_design_software some of them are more oriented to graphics... some for for architecture... but at least one looks pretty cool: Open CASCADE http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_CASCADE I'm downloading it now but the screenshots look very promising. here is the website: http://www.opencascade.org/ if you want to download it to try you can use my login: user: dudedude password: dude1234 What do you think? -Leav p.s. PLEASE someone reply to this post! all my other threads are like ghost towns! :) https://reprap.org/forum/read.php?12,13723,13723#msg-13723 Sun, 16 Aug 2026 13:15:01 -0400 Phorum 5.2.23 https://reprap.org/forum/read.php?12,13723,226793#msg-226793 https://reprap.org/forum/read.php?12,13723,226793#msg-226793 Fully functional Demos are free to use for 30 days no questions asked.]]> Richard Siemsen RepRap Host Sat, 13 Jul 2013 21:12:57 -0400 https://reprap.org/forum/read.php?12,13723,16343#msg-16343 https://reprap.org/forum/read.php?12,13723,16343#msg-16343
So it, like blender, is primarily an animation package.

And it's free as in beer, but not free as in freedom, and it's windows only.

I don't see it's advantage over blender? Prettier UI maybe? Easier to learn? Can't be much easier. Based on the comments here, you'll still need to spend hours in tutorials. And most of them will be concerned with shading, rendering, animation, and getting things to look right. Though to be fair even the BRL-CAD tutorials do spend some time on those topics.

There is no way to avoid the learning curve for any powerful 3d package. Better to face the music now and enjoy the benefits later that to sit in a chair on the side of the hall and feel the pain forever.]]> jgilmore RepRap Host Sat, 30 Aug 2008 20:55:22 -0400 https://reprap.org/forum/read.php?12,13723,16275#msg-16275 https://reprap.org/forum/read.php?12,13723,16275#msg-16275
Does it have good measurement tools?

That is what is lacking in AOI and so far I have not seen any in Blender.

Bruce]]> brucew RepRap Host Thu, 28 Aug 2008 15:53:57 -0400 https://reprap.org/forum/read.php?12,13723,16274#msg-16274 https://reprap.org/forum/read.php?12,13723,16274#msg-16274
Truespace is great! - it's a powerfull 3D-programm with tons of features, possibilities and STL-export, so would fit perfect for our needs.

The tutorials are very good too, and you need them - you have much to learn until you're in. But it's much easier to adopt then blender.

I'm in some german based CNC-forums with a big base of hints, informations, download-stuff and such ...

It's a different comunity with similar problems and solutions, so sometimes i can exchange some hints - the biggest problem is the shear amount of informations!

Viktor]]> VDX RepRap Host Thu, 28 Aug 2008 15:40:40 -0400 https://reprap.org/forum/read.php?12,13723,16272#msg-16272 https://reprap.org/forum/read.php?12,13723,16272#msg-16272

Thanks Viktor there was a lot mentioned what do you think of the software?

Bruce]]> brucew RepRap Host Thu, 28 Aug 2008 14:46:57 -0400 https://reprap.org/forum/read.php?12,13723,16271#msg-16271 https://reprap.org/forum/read.php?12,13723,16271#msg-16271
brucew Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> ... it looks like no body has mentioned this software ...

Look here: [forums.reprap.org]

Viktor]]> VDX RepRap Host Thu, 28 Aug 2008 14:43:23 -0400 https://reprap.org/forum/read.php?12,13723,16268#msg-16268 https://reprap.org/forum/read.php?12,13723,16268#msg-16268 they have some cool things listed in the software section. plus some free .stl files.


[cnc4free.org]

Bruce]]> brucew RepRap Host Thu, 28 Aug 2008 14:23:39 -0400 https://reprap.org/forum/read.php?12,13723,16265#msg-16265 https://reprap.org/forum/read.php?12,13723,16265#msg-16265

[www.caligari.com] the free software is called truespace.

from looking at the web site it kind of looks like blender which I have been trying
out.

Bruce W.]]> brucew RepRap Host Thu, 28 Aug 2008 13:58:12 -0400 https://reprap.org/forum/read.php?12,13723,14441#msg-14441 https://reprap.org/forum/read.php?12,13723,14441#msg-14441
Although, there may be a simpler approach. Might one be able to take an existing open source modeling package and adapt it to support BRL-CAD, needing relatively little effort compared to writing from scratch? That could give us a more friendly GUI very quickly, which could then be further optimized for CAD use.

Edit: Talked to a dev on IRC, turns out the new GUI code is in fact out there: svn co "https://brlcad.svn.sourceforge.net/svnroot/brlcad/rt^3/trunk" "rt^3"]]> Ralith RepRap Host Tue, 15 Jul 2008 21:03:31 -0400 https://reprap.org/forum/read.php?12,13723,14395#msg-14395 https://reprap.org/forum/read.php?12,13723,14395#msg-14395
In my view, any candidate to replace AoI must be BOTH more powerful and easier to use. While BRL-CAD goes above and beyond in the first category, we all know it is very lacking in the second. However, I completely disagree with Forrest's assessment that because it's not polished, it's not worth the time of day. I see this software as having enormous latent potential, and the task of putting a new and intuitive frontend on it is relatively trivial compared to trying to write a new CAD package with similar functionality. It is also an active project with many developers and upgrades going on right now, including one that *might* (emphasis on the might - they don't seem to even have any alpha code up yet) solve the GUI issue, which is the only objection to the software that I've heard yet. And if it doesn't get finished by the end of the summer, well, maybe next year. What's not to like?]]> Kyle Corbitt RepRap Host Mon, 14 Jul 2008 19:41:11 -0400 https://reprap.org/forum/read.php?12,13723,14391#msg-14391 https://reprap.org/forum/read.php?12,13723,14391#msg-14391
This also leads to the peculiar concerns of being expected to work for free rather than for help. Developing something that a technically capable person can put together and work on tends to result in improvements coming in from that person fiddling with it to make it work better, and so is exchanging work for work. Expending work to develop that thing into something that someone who is not capable or willing to become capable of such work is doing work for very little benefit - doing work for free. Distributions find other causes to do that work - sometimes simple charity, sometimes simple profit. I see no reason to say that other people should develop things for free.]]> jonored RepRap Host Mon, 14 Jul 2008 18:18:11 -0400 https://reprap.org/forum/read.php?12,13723,14388#msg-14388 https://reprap.org/forum/read.php?12,13723,14388#msg-14388 -------------------------------------------------------
>
> You seem to presume that the reprap community
> should not be expected to complete technically
> advanced tasks such as compiling BRL-CAD.
>
Nope, they shouldn't. If you want Reprap technology to become something more than a geek fad it's going to have to be a LOT easier than that.
>
> This
> seems silly; assembling a reprap is far more
> complicated a task than building a well-maintained
> software package.
>
Did you hear me suggest that building a Darwin is simple enough to get it a large following? Darwin is a good start, but Repraps have a bunch of design iterations to go though before they get a large following.]]> Forrest Higgs RepRap Host Mon, 14 Jul 2008 17:44:49 -0400 https://reprap.org/forum/read.php?12,13723,14386#msg-14386 https://reprap.org/forum/read.php?12,13723,14386#msg-14386
Your opinion of modern Linux seems strange to me; this is the day in which it is available preinstalled at brick-and-mortar stores, and even (so I hear) pitched heavily by the salespeople to new computer users. Barring serious hardware support issues, an up-to-date Ubuntu install can give most users an easier time than the competition. Also, you're doing that popularity == quality thing again. I shouldn't have to explain why that's inaccurate.

You seem to presume that the reprap community should not be expected to complete technically advanced tasks such as compiling BRL-CAD. This seems silly; assembling a reprap is far more complicated a task than building a well-maintained software package. You don't really need any skills to run 3 commands a web page instructs you to, but I suspect assembling even just the electronics of a reprap is no small feat for someone without relevant experience. In the end, though, this is largely moot; in a community such as this, there will always be at least a few highly capable software techs, and preparing packages and executables from sources is not terribly challenging when a project places the emphasis that this one does on an easy and reliable build process.

You speak fearfully of the massive-scale modularity of BRL-CAD. This division of the package into many independent tools, libraries, and utilities is in keeping with the most valuable of Unix traditions, and one of its greatest strengths. Thanks to this, tasks such as working with its native file format are largely straightforward, as instead of writing a complex parser one can simply use that which is already available, encapsulated in a library with a simple interface. As Kyle says, this also makes the internal code itself much easier to jump into. I realize that these development tasks are not directly relevant to its practicality as a end-user CAD tool (which is getting the work it admittedly needs), but their enabling is what gives it real strength, providing a great deal of reassurance that it will not stagnate, which is a major issue with a project in as obscure a niche as this.]]> Ralith RepRap Host Mon, 14 Jul 2008 17:24:02 -0400 https://reprap.org/forum/read.php?12,13723,14379#msg-14379 https://reprap.org/forum/read.php?12,13723,14379#msg-14379 -------------------------------------------------------

>
> I'm no idealogue - I'll use whatever software gets
> the job done.

In a very real way, I'm not either. I've used upwards of a dozen operating systems over the years. IBM's with their Job Control Language (JCL) with no defaults was a living nightmare. I also used Sun Unix for several years on Sparc workstations with good results. Mind, the manuals for Sun Unix took up nearly two metres of shelf space, but you could do quite useful work with only a few pages in their thin summary manual.

I find myself caught. I've avoided going over to Vista because it's a resource pig without competition. I'd planned to shift over to Linux about now, but the damned thing is still as geeky as it was when I first started watching it's progress five years ago. Doing an informal look at my own website statistics Linux is getting about 17%, Mac OS about 8.5% and the remaining 75% Windows.

Those numbers are a little canted because of the technical nature of my website.
For another, non-technical website that I look after the numbers for Linux, Mac and Windows are 4%, 10% and 86%, respectively.

Clearly, Linux has a long way to go in reducing it's user hostility. ::o]]> Forrest Higgs RepRap Host Mon, 14 Jul 2008 16:20:50 -0400 https://reprap.org/forum/read.php?12,13723,14375#msg-14375 https://reprap.org/forum/read.php?12,13723,14375#msg-14375 -------------------------------------------------------
> Kyle Corbitt Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> >
> > One thing that strikes me as unique and
> promising
> > about this software is that rather than a
> > monolithic application it is "a collection of
> more
> > than 400 tools, utilities, and applications".
> >
>
> That's promising? Sounds more like a nightmare,
> to me anyway. ::o


Right, we know. Kinda like Linux. ;)

I'm no idealogue - I'll use whatever software gets the job done. I run Linux at work, but my primary OS at home is Vista. I also have a Kubuntu VM I run from Vista, and I dual boot (although I can't remember the last time I booted my Linux partition). I have a home server running Ubuntu as well. However, I spend 95% of my time at home in Vista, because you're absolutely right, it's easier for many things. I'm not advocating BRL-CAD because I think open source apps are inherently better, but because it's the best thing I've seen out there for the price. And yeah, the ability to run on Linux is a huge bonus over other CAD packages because I would like to spend more time in that environment - it's becoming nicer and more user-friendly every month, but I still have all the raw power of a fully integrated CLI whenever I need it.]]> Kyle Corbitt RepRap Host Mon, 14 Jul 2008 15:30:40 -0400 https://reprap.org/forum/read.php?12,13723,14372#msg-14372 https://reprap.org/forum/read.php?12,13723,14372#msg-14372 -------------------------------------------------------
>
> One thing that strikes me as unique and promising
> about this software is that rather than a
> monolithic application it is "a collection of more
> than 400 tools, utilities, and applications".
>

That's promising? Sounds more like a nightmare, to me anyway. ::o]]> Forrest Higgs RepRap Host Mon, 14 Jul 2008 15:21:35 -0400 https://reprap.org/forum/read.php?12,13723,14371#msg-14371 https://reprap.org/forum/read.php?12,13723,14371#msg-14371 -------------------------------------------------------
> Lord! Linux and "building from source"! I'd
> rather get tangled in poison oak. ::o


Forrest, if you look at the website under "downloads" they have nice friendly .exe files for Windows as well. A mature project like this almost never requires Windows users to build it for themselves - they know they'll get that kind of reaction ;).

Of course, the executables are similarly out of date, but my suspicion is the program hasn't changed drastically in the last two years. And if you look at the fine print for the 7.12.4 announcement, it *does* say that this is a source-only release intended primarily for developers.

-----------------------------

One thing that strikes me as unique and promising about this software is that rather than a monolithic application it is "a collection of more than 400 tools, utilities, and applications". While this means it is probably not as well integrated as some more commercial products, it also means that a hobbyist could theoretically learn about one particular module and begin improving it without having to become well acquainted with the entirety of the source code. This generally leads to more rapid development of open source software. "Bazaar model" and "UNIX philosophy" and all that jazz. Of course, that is predicated on a sizable and knowledgeable userbase, which I don't think it has right now, contrary to Ralith's assertions. But the potential is there.]]> Kyle Corbitt RepRap Host Mon, 14 Jul 2008 15:09:04 -0400 https://reprap.org/forum/read.php?12,13723,14370#msg-14370 https://reprap.org/forum/read.php?12,13723,14370#msg-14370 -------------------------------------------------------
> Forrest Higgs Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Lord! Linux and "building from source"! I'd
> > rather get tangled in poison oak. ::o
>
> To build 90% of programs in Linux, you type 3
> commands:
>
> ./configure
> build
> build install
>
> and that's taking the slow and steady courteous
> approach.
>
> Try that in windows :)


LOL! I'm reminded of the cartoon years ago where Bill Gates and the Mac freak are together and the Mac freak says, "name something that I can't do on my Mac that you can do with Windows". Bill replied, "right click".

First off, once you do a build as a developer and let your development environment do a release (I'm talking about Visual Studio here), that's it. End users never do builds. Indeed, when you try to talk about a build to most windows users (not developers) they don't have a clue what you're talking about. Problem I've seen over and over in these forums and before these forums existed in Reprap is that it seems like EVERYBODY including end users of Linux lives and breathes builds. It seems weird, creepy, geeky and worst of all silly.

As to your "try that" taunt. I've been using Visual Studio to bang out a quick app this morning. Ordinarily, I run in my IDE, but when I want to run fully compiled code I simply go to the Build menu and select "build", "rebuild" or "publish" as indicated. (:D

I'm trying to remember the last time I got an error code on a build. Mind, you don't try to build when you have outstanding errors in debug mode, so that's probably a bit unfair I suppose. (:P)]]> Forrest Higgs RepRap Host Mon, 14 Jul 2008 14:45:18 -0400 https://reprap.org/forum/read.php?12,13723,14367#msg-14367 https://reprap.org/forum/read.php?12,13723,14367#msg-14367 jonored RepRap Host Mon, 14 Jul 2008 13:56:30 -0400 https://reprap.org/forum/read.php?12,13723,14365#msg-14365 https://reprap.org/forum/read.php?12,13723,14365#msg-14365 -------------------------------------------------------
> Lord! Linux and "building from source"! I'd
> rather get tangled in poison oak. ::o

To build 90% of programs in Linux, you type 3 commands:

./configure
build
build install

and that's taking the slow and steady courteous approach.

Try that in windows :)]]> greenarrow RepRap Host Mon, 14 Jul 2008 13:31:19 -0400 https://reprap.org/forum/read.php?12,13723,14361#msg-14361 https://reprap.org/forum/read.php?12,13723,14361#msg-14361 Forrest Higgs RepRap Host Mon, 14 Jul 2008 11:05:58 -0400 https://reprap.org/forum/read.php?12,13723,14357#msg-14357 https://reprap.org/forum/read.php?12,13723,14357#msg-14357 -------------------------------------------------------
> The only possible problem with this is that the
> latest version is 7.12.4 but the lastest Linux
> download is 7.8.4. If we are going to use new
> features, we need to be sure that they are going
> to be available to Linux users as well.


Considering all development for this package took place exclusively on Linux or other Unix-based operating systems for the vast majority of its existence (it was ported to Windows relatively recently), I assume that building from source, at least, should still work to get the latest version on Linux. But, that's just a guess, I haven't tried.]]> Kyle Corbitt RepRap Host Mon, 14 Jul 2008 10:35:45 -0400 https://reprap.org/forum/read.php?12,13723,14354#msg-14354 https://reprap.org/forum/read.php?12,13723,14354#msg-14354 davidgoodenough RepRap Host Mon, 14 Jul 2008 06:13:21 -0400 https://reprap.org/forum/read.php?12,13723,14350#msg-14350 https://reprap.org/forum/read.php?12,13723,14350#msg-14350
Of course, it won't exactly be hard to deal with, because it's got an explicit design goal of easy import from and export to almost any format out there. Lots of converters, templates to write more if we need them.]]> jonored RepRap Host Mon, 14 Jul 2008 02:12:20 -0400 https://reprap.org/forum/read.php?12,13723,14257#msg-14257 https://reprap.org/forum/read.php?12,13723,14257#msg-14257
Ah, that makes more sense. It's a very powerful interface, but, having made my way through the first few tutorials, I agree that as-is it's probably the most awkward out there for a new user who's not willing to spend hours familiarizing himself with the documentation. However, based on that same experience, I'll say that it's nevertheless a very powerful interface, and worthy of its long history. That said, it's somewhat inappropriate for a project like reprap where we want to ensure a low barrier for entry to encourage rapid adoption and extensive modification of designs, which is why the GSoC project for a better GUI is so exciting. If that achieves the success that seems likely, we may well be left with the perfect toolset: a lossless and compact CSG file format accessible through a powerful backend which has both a straightforward and friendly and a powerful but arcane frontend, enabling users to work with whatever fits their needs and time the best.

*ahem*

Kyle,

I'm excited to hear that someone with real CAD experience is interested too. I may think it's the coolest thing since sliced bread, but I'm just another geek with a lot of spare time; my conjecture could be a lot less solidly grounded than I think it is.]]> Ralith RepRap Host Sat, 12 Jul 2008 04:17:40 -0400 https://reprap.org/forum/read.php?12,13723,14254#msg-14254 https://reprap.org/forum/read.php?12,13723,14254#msg-14254 brlcad.org]

As a CAD user, those improvements practically have me jumping out of my seat. If they're able to integrate any single one of those with their project it will be huge, but if all four get into the trunk it will absolutely revolutionize the usability of this program.]]> Kyle Corbitt RepRap Host Sat, 12 Jul 2008 03:05:05 -0400 https://reprap.org/forum/read.php?12,13723,14251#msg-14251 https://reprap.org/forum/read.php?12,13723,14251#msg-14251
Frankly, I should buy Rhino and run it under WINE and get used to a professional tool while waiting for things to improve.

In other CAD news, CollabCAD is promising.
[www.collabcad.com]
The Indian government is helping fund a project to create a closed source, inexpensive CAD program that will run on Windows and *nix. Might work out. Wish it was going to be GPL.]]> SebastienBailard RepRap Host Sat, 12 Jul 2008 02:37:25 -0400 https://reprap.org/forum/read.php?12,13723,14244#msg-14244 https://reprap.org/forum/read.php?12,13723,14244#msg-14244
I'm not sure where you got that impression; it's about as mature as CAD suites get. Admittedly, there's no question about its lack of user-friendliness, but that's being actively remedied by a GSoC project.

BRL-CAD's original focus included things like radar profiling and ballistic vulnerability assessment; things like "will this artillery barrel explode or not?" are much more complicated questions which have never been covered. Said original focus is conducive to the creation of a good CAD suite, and BRL-CAD is developed with flexibility in mind (thus the relatively trivial nature of creating a new GUI). Finally, given the already-discussed importance of CSG for our uses, and as it's the only mature, let alone industry-proven open-source CSG modeling suite available, I think the fact that the current interface has a sharp learning curve is a relatively minor issue, and a soon-to-be-remedied one at that. Given the choice of short-term usability issues (which might well be resolved by the time any decisions made here come into effect) associated with BRL-CAD versus the long-term functionality issues associated with an immature system or a mesh modeler, I don't believe there's any question as to which is preferable.

Edit: Had a thought: Most users are going to be coming in with no 3D modeling experience whatsoever, and I'm not aware of any powerful modeler, CSG or otherwise, open and free or otherwise, which is really userfriendly and lacks a steep learning curve; perhaps this shouldn't be such a major concern.]]> Ralith RepRap Host Fri, 11 Jul 2008 20:15:48 -0400 https://reprap.org/forum/read.php?12,13723,14243#msg-14243 https://reprap.org/forum/read.php?12,13723,14243#msg-14243 usage diagram:
[brlcad.org]

From the website, it seems as though they are working on the drafting and design side a bit, but I don't think it is mature and user-friendly yet.
[brlcad.org]]]> SebastienBailard RepRap Host Fri, 11 Jul 2008 19:45:30 -0400 https://reprap.org/forum/read.php?12,13723,14240#msg-14240 https://reprap.org/forum/read.php?12,13723,14240#msg-14240 A bit of googling found
[www.makino.com]
But I dont have time to read it ATM.]]> Lampbus RepRap Host Fri, 11 Jul 2008 18:02:11 -0400