<div dir="ltr"><div>After a pretty decent struggle, I designed my first object with BRL-CAD last week. It's a 6-hour print, and I am currently on about hour 4. So far, so good!<br><br></div>-- CHS<br></div><div class="gmail_extra"><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Fri, Nov 11, 2016 at 2:25 PM, Horkan Smith <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:ale@horkan.net" target="_blank">ale@horkan.net</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">+1 for interest, but I haven't spent any time on it at all....<br>
<div><div class="h5"><br>
On Fri, Nov 11, 2016 at 01:46:43PM -0500, Charles Shapiro wrote:<br>
> Anyone here familiar with BRL-CAD ( <a href="http://brlcad.org/" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">http://brlcad.org/</a> ) ? It's a pretty<br>
> interesting 3d-modeling software suite which is designed specifically for<br>
> CAD/CAM. That makes it different from and (I hope) better than things like<br>
> Blender ( <a href="http://blender.org" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">http://blender.org</a>) and Artofillusion ( <a href="http://artofillusion.org" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">http://artofillusion.org</a><br>
> ) for designing printed objects. It's a pretty simple install on my Debian<br>
> Jessie system. I haven't tried it on other distros. I believe it is<br>
> available for proprietary OSs but that is outside my expertise.<br>
><br>
> This software was developed in the mid-'80's by the US Army, but only open<br>
> sourced in 2004. Amusingly enough, Mike Muus, the guy who headed the<br>
> development team, was also the first author of ping(1). The UI dates from<br>
> 1984, the documentation also. The result of this is that it is a<br>
> fantastically rich program with all kinds of nifty features accessed<br>
> through a command line with a creaky GUI built on top of it. The doc<br>
> devotes no less than 2 illustrations and 5 paragraphs to explain the zoom<br>
> feature, but is notably silent on important concepts like vectors,<br>
> vertices, and object trees. The web is also pretty silent on most specifics<br>
> (e.g "How do I rotate a shape in BRL-CAD?"). The extensive built-in<br>
> documentation often doesn't explain anything about command-line arguments<br>
> beyond their existence and function. A glossary would be a huge step<br>
> forward for a n00b such as myself.<br>
><br>
> I had a small breakthrough in understanding last night and succeeded in<br>
> building a rough model of a "standard craft stick" (114.3 x 9.5 x 1.5 mm).<br>
> It took me about 2 hours to grok some basic facts on how BRL-CAD works,<br>
> partly because I lack strong background in 3D design and partly because the<br>
> tutorial is heavily slanted toward buttonology. The original GUI ("mged")<br>
> seems to require a 3-button mouse, but a later iteration ("arrow") is more<br>
> compatible with my current setup.The tutorial, of course, assumes the<br>
> former.<br>
><br>
> Has anyone else tangled with this software? It seems really interesting but<br>
> somewhat difficult. Mastering it might be a Useful Life Skill for a<br>
> well-rounded 3D printing hacker.<br>
><br>
> Heck, at the very worst it might make an innaresting ALE talk?<br>
> -- CHS<br>
<br>
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<span class="HOEnZb"><font color="#888888"><br>
<br>
--<br>
Horkan Smith<br>
<a href="tel:678-777-3263" value="+16787773263">678-777-3263</a> cell, <a href="mailto:ale@horkan.net">ale@horkan.net</a><br>
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