Interesting, thanks for that info. Running on linux and being free is important to me. Sketchup looks nice though.
Thanks! > On Nov 1, 2016, at 8:30 AM, Bob Anderson <[email protected]> wrote: > > If you are doing machining, it is quite cumbersome to add fillets and > chamfers to BRL-CAD regions. In our models we ignore them and in some cases > remove them to reduce complexity. Sketchup does these quite well. There are > a lot of add-ons for Sketchup that people have generated using Ruby code for > woodworking and machining that would make this very easy to do. There is > also a Sketchup dtabase of existing models that you can download. I > mentioned that I used Sketchup to model my house, but I downloaded sink > basins and toilets so I would not have to reinvent the wheel. > > I don’t want to discourage you from using BRL-CAD, because it has some really > nice features, but its usability really does depend on your intended use. > > Robert Anderson > <> > From: Alexander Wallace [mailto:[email protected]] > Sent: Tuesday, November 1, 2016 9:50 AM > To: BRL-CAD Users Mailing List <[email protected]> > Subject: Re: [brlcad-users] Hello and Mged command-line vs GUI. > > Hello Robert, > > First thanks a lot for answering, makes me feel good to see active users of a > product I pick up for learning :) > > What you write makes sense. > > It took me a while to find out that there was a “sed” command, almost by > chance, but then googling for it made me find > https://brlcad.org/wiki/Changing_the_properties_of_primitive_objects > <https://brlcad.org/wiki/Changing_the_properties_of_primitive_objects>, and > so on. I was able to use it yesterday to select a solid and scale it and move > it. This was good. > > The approach you point out sounds interesting as well! I shall play with it. > > Thanks for sharing the ability to script things using the source command. I > had seen an example of someone piping commands to populate a database but I > didn’t know about the ‘source’… Information seems good on some subjects and > hard to find in others. Some of the ‘help’ texts on commands are very cryptic > and isolated (commands sometimes need to be used in combination but the help > does not tell you that, such as “sed -> sca -> accept”), but it is what it is > and I’m sure it will get easier for me with time. Luckily there is a list > like this and people like you to help us newbies! > > Is there a reverse of source where the steps to produce a database be output > to a file? > > On your question: I’m not a profesional designer, but a hobby > fabricator/inventor and from time to time it makes sense to put some ideas in > CAD before doing it on the metal. I have never picked up a tool deeply, have > only superficially used a few, and I would love to pick up one that I can > develop better skills for… > > I love how PovRay scene building works, but it can’t easily be used for CAD > as far as I’ve seen and don’t seem to have some advanced tools for design > checking like materials and geometry checking that (i’ve no idea how to use) > BRL-CAD has.. > > Anyways, thanks a lot for your answer, it was illuminating! > > I’m sure I’ll come back with more questions once I start building some parts > I need to make… > > Take care! > > > On Nov 1, 2016, at 7:11 AM, Bob Anderson <[email protected] > <mailto:[email protected]>> wrote: > > Hello Alexander, > > I’ve been using BRL-CAD now for 19 years and can tell you that it is very > good at some things and very poor at other things. One thing it does not do > very well it continuous curved surfaces. I usually build those in something > more parametric like solidworks, save them as an STL file, and then import to > BRL-CAD. So if you are looking to model the body panels of a Lamborghini > Veyron, BRL-CAD is not your tool. > > That said, everything in the GUI can be done from the command line, however I > found using a combination of command and mouse is the most efficient. The > easiest way to start is by typing a ? at the command line and pressing enter. > This provides a list of all the commands that are available. Some have > obvious names while others you just learn by doing. There were some tutorials > in the past when the GUI was not as robust as it is now that I used to learn > to build individual solids that may still exist somewhere. > > Solid editing is a fairly simple thing. The sed command will put you in solid > edit mode from the command window. Add the solid name as an argument and you > can begin editing. If no argument is used, you must use the mouse to scroll > through all the solids in that are currently in view. If the pointer is at > the very bottom of the graphics window it will select the first solid that > was brought up, if at the top of the window it will select the last solid. > Everything in between can be selected in the order that they were brought > into view. Select the desired solid using the center mouse button. This is > tedious if there are a lot of things on the screen, and if a particular solid > appears more than once you will get a “multiply referenced” error when using > sed which forces the use of the mouse to select the solid. > > Once a solid is selected, you can expand the menu on the left side of the > screen If you see no window, press F7 to toggle it on. Each of the options > in this menu can be selected at the command line using the Press command > followed by the full menu option name. If there are spaces you will need > quotes around the name. I prefer to just grab the mouse and click the option > and then come back to the command window to enter the values. For example, > if I wanted to change radius A of a sphere to 1 inch, after selecting the > sphere to edit, I would select with the mouse “Edit A” from the menu and the > come back and type “p 1”. Really the only time I use the Press command is to > press the accept button to accept any changes I made or if I am doing some > scripting. BRL-CAD allows commands to be placed in a text file and then be > sourced in using the source command. This sometimes requires the selection > of a menu option where “Press” becomes important. > > I hope I didn’t overload you, and you can certainly ask questions if you get > stuck. May I ask what you intend to use BRL-CAD for? Another option that may > be easy to learn, although requiring more mouse use than keyboard is google > sketchup. There’s a free version that I used to model my entire house and it > was perfect for that. > > Enjoy! > > Robet Anderson > > From: Alexander Wallace [mailto:[email protected] > <mailto:[email protected]>] > Sent: Monday, October 31, 2016 7:19 PM > To: [email protected] > <mailto:[email protected]> > Subject: [brlcad-users] Hello and Mged command-line vs GUI. > > Hello All, > > Hope you're doing great. > > I've been recently trying to choose an opensource CAD software to pick an > learn sort of deeply (as much as required) and I'm a big fan of they keyboard > more than the mouse. > > BRL-CAD definitely looks powerful to do what I need and a lot more, but have > a few questions, perhaps a little bit of concern. > > I've been going through the tutorials and at some point they start combining > the use of the GUI with the command line in a way that makes me wonder if the > command line lacks means to do things that are done in the GUI, I then have > to spend a good amount of time to find out the commands to do what is being > shown with the GUI and it is sometimes hard to find. > > For example, entering Edit Mode for a Shape. I spend maybe an hour and found > the equivalent (sed) by almost pure chance. > > I would like to do most if not all the editing using the command line in MGED > but I'm finding it very hard to find examples/documentation on how to use > commands not covered in the tutorials. > > For instance, can someone point me to a doc, or help me understand how to do > a full Edit cycle with sed? I mean, once I type sed and the shape's name, how > to use the commands (like translate, scale, etc) to modify the desired > attributes and then apply the changes? > > The biggest concern right now: Will I be able to find documentation, > examples, help, for BRL-CAD? I am almost certain it has all the power I could > ever want, but will I be able to figure out what I need? I can certainly look > at the code but it will take me ages that way probably. > > Thanks to all for keeping such a great project alive. I hope I can find the > answers I need as I would very much lie to embrace it. > > Thanks! > ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ > Developer Access Program for Intel Xeon Phi Processors > Access to Intel Xeon Phi processor-based developer platforms. > With one year of Intel Parallel Studio XE. > Training and support from Colfax. > Order your platform today. > http://sdm.link/xeonphi_______________________________________________ > <http://sdm.link/xeonphi_______________________________________________> > BRL-CAD Users mailing list > [email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> > https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/brlcad-users > <https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/brlcad-users> > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ > Developer Access Program for Intel Xeon Phi Processors > Access to Intel Xeon Phi processor-based developer platforms. > With one year of Intel Parallel Studio XE. > Training and support from Colfax. > Order your platform today. > http://sdm.link/xeonphi_______________________________________________ > <http://sdm.link/xeonphi_______________________________________________> > BRL-CAD Users mailing list > [email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> > https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/brlcad-users > <https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/brlcad-users>
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