B. Ludin

Thanks Chris. I must somehow have overlooked it. Now I've got the toolbar working and I've loaded the piping catalog, but I can't detect any special behavior when I drop items from the catalog into the scene. If I drop them on an attachemnt point, the part gets aligned as always, regardless of the connector type being ocrrect or not. If I drop the parts anywhere else, they just stay where I dropped them. Am I still missing something?

I can't seem to get it to work. Is the respective DLL existing somewhere already, or does it have to be compiled first from the C++ project files? Beat

It shouldn't be a problem to add a solid sweep shape. Just select the "Sweep shape tool", click the part the shape should be added to or removed from (preferentially where you want the guide curve to start) and chose "add material" in the first dialog box. No need to use Proutils. Beat

Instead of using the chamfer function, remove material by sweeping a profile along the upper edge. Beat

Tom, I'm not sure whether your approach gives the result Johan wants, since the bounding edges of the top surface are not planar anymore after the spherical subtraction. Johan, I think you will have to use a UV-mesh and subtract it from the top (see file , based on Tom's example). IC used to have a tool that would let you deform a surface very easily but with very little detail control over the end result. Alas, they dropped that function in IC6. A UV-mesh gives you much more control, but it takes a much greater effort to create it, too. Cheers, Beat tri_button2.ics

BTW: Theoretically, it should be enough to switch of Smooth Edges since this is the only kind of "edge" that exists on a torus (or sphere). Does anybody have an idea why this doesn't work? Beat

Nick - Unlike TC, IC was born a true solid modelling program. So you will find full interactivity only for solids but not for 2D objects. While there's no reason why 2D objects shouldn't share that same "rights", apparently the functionality has just not been implemented (yet) because most people don't need it due to the way they work with IC. Cheers, Beat

Just to throw in my $0.02: We're dealing with TWO optical phenomena here, one is reflection, the other one scattering. The left part is gray and is set two 10% reflection, i.e. it scatters mostly, but you also see some reflection. The right part is set to 80% reflection, i.e. it's not a perfect mirror, but it scatters also. So there are 4+ ways by which light from the lamp will reach the eye of the observer: 1. Light reflected by the right part and reflected by the left part. Basically you look at the lamp by the way of two mirrors provided your position is right. In IC you won't see anything, probably because IC defines lights as point constructs (so they are infintely small) doesn't do diffraction-limited rendering. These are very common limitations for raytrace algorithms. 2. Light scattered by the right part and reflected by the left part. That's what you see in the picture by IronKevin. Because you look at a reflection, the apparent position is dependent on the position of the observer. If you set the reflectivity of the left part to zero, the light spot vanishes. 3. Light reflected by the right part and scattered by the left part. That's what Floris wants to see. Because you look at scattered light, the apparent position is independent on the position of the observer. This isn't rendered at all, i.e. there's a bug or a limitation in the raytrace algorithm. 4. Light scattered by the right part and scattered by the left part. Basically, this results in the left part being diffusely illuminated by the right part . (5. Light scattered and reflected several times by the two parts, figure those out by yourself. Hint: Delete all other lights, set background to black and ambient light to zero). Cheers, Beat

Now would you happen to know how to make patterns of patterns?

So PU2 is out already - great. But hey, I have to uninstall IC6 with PU1 then re-install IC6 and then install PU2. What's that all about? Is there a chance you will be releasing a more user-friendly installer in the next few days? Beat

I get almost the same results as Steve with my Dell Inspiron 2.4GHz (1GB RAM, nVidia 4200 64MB), i.e. approx. 2s for the block copy test 33s for the part regeneration and no problems whatsoever with rotating the part at 1920x1200 or while sharing the screen with Rick's swirling masks (rate drops from 65 to 55fps) Cheers, Beat

Only in Precise mode. Switch it off before applying the chamfers and you'll be fine. A hassle, agreed, but a minor one, IMHO. Beat

The 1920x1200 screen on the DELL Inspiron 8500 is great (and they do like the rest, too). Cheers, Beat

Amen!

You're welcome. BTW, it works with hole shapes, too. Combine it with the make opposite ends match option, and you can inset a certain area of a complex surface, for instance. I can envisage some (artistic) applications for this. I'll have to ask Carlo to pay royalties, if I should ever see this used on one of his creations... Cheers,

Hmmm. It doesn't seem to do anything and it turns itself off whenever you close and/or re-open the dialog. Seems like a function that has not really been implemented... Beat

Two things to consider: This function sections the shape with the surface to be matched but it doesn't extend it. And it does care about shapes, even if they are suppressed. Do the following: drop a cylinder into the scene and drop a block onto its side surface. Grab the sizebox handle of the start section of the block and drag it into the cylinder. Now turn on the surface matching for the start section of the block. Apparently nothing changes. The result only becomes apparent if you supress the cylinder shape or if you check "Make opposite ends match". BTW, see what happens if you further drag the start section handle of the block until it sticks out from the other end of the cylinder. This might occasionally be useful, too. Cheers, Beat

Thanks for the compliment. It's the only way to project a 2-D curve onto a bent surface, at the moment. It would be nice if there was a direct function to achieve this along with the possibility to create a 3-D curve with the option to have it attach to a surface. The latter would actually be hugely useful for the new surface functions and allow you to create the most convoluted blends you can think of Still, a variable blend (a la Vellum) would be much more efficient for everyday industrial design. Cheers, Beat

Unfortunately, the loft doesn't follow the locator curve between the cross sections (you can try to adjust the tangency handles, but that takes a lot of fiddling) so the blend is only tangetial at the planes of the individual cross sections. You can easily see that if you section the part. That's why quite a few of us have asked for a sweeping loft (i.e. a loft tightly following and staying perpendicular to the guide curve. With that, you could do pretty much any kind of blend you can think of (and much more). Currently, the only way I know to create a fully tangetial smooth variable blend is to create a UV mesh and the split the part with it. It's a lot of work though and if you want to change the radii, you basically have to start from scratch again. The attached file might give you a hint how it can be done. You can unsupress the section tool and move it through the part to see that the blend is always tangetial. Cheers, Beat UV mesh variable blend.ics

Thanks Cary. I had actually looked at this but didn't get the idea to try and TYPE "Part Number" into the field, since it doesn't appear in the pop-up list (why?). Whatever, it works and that's what counts. Cheers, Beat

Is there a way to have IC display the part# instead of the item# in an item bubble? Cheers, Beat

I agree. IC6 is very stable indeed. The interface enhancements are real time savers. However, there are some new bugs, too. Most notably (for me) the one described in http://www.ironcad.com/support/community/index.php?showtopic=511. But I don't regret having migrated to IC6 and I'm not currently using the surfacing functions either. Cheers, Beat

Actify's Spinfire isn't free. IMO, a good free VRML viewer which does a nice rendering job is Cortona from www.parallelgraphics.com. That's what we recommend to our customers, when we send them 3D models. Cheers, Beat

Utterly cool! I just created 2 edge surfaces and created a solid from them by boolean addition. Very nice. I 've even been able to blend the edge. But appart fromt that, the thing behaves like something from a mirror universe. Add a hole intellishape to it - it becomes a solid. Add a solid intellishape to it - it becomes an "inverted hole". More over, the thing counterrotates when you rotate the camera. Great optical illusion. And when I analyze it... it has NEGATIVE MASS! As I said already - utterly cool!!! Have a look, the file's attached. Beat antimatter.ics antimatter.ics

Andy - That's a rather sad story. When the router finally got installed with much delay, it didn't perform quite as well as advertised (to put it mildly). After a bit of a fight, the manufacturer is now going to provide us with a upgraded model that should at least approach the specs we've been given originally. That's taking a while though. I'll let you know as soon as I have something (good) to say. Beat