HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: garyh@sdsc.edu (Gary Hanyzewski)
Newsgroups: comp.graphics.animation,alt.cad,comp.graphics.visualization,sci.engr.mech
Subject: Re: Need CATIA translators
Date: 27 Jan 1993 19:34:23 GMT
Organization: San Diego Supercomputer Center @ UCSD
Distribution: world
Reply-To: garyh@sdsc.edu
NNTP-Posting-Host: bashful.sdsc.edu

In article 18675@ntuix.ntu.ac.sg, escmar@ntuix.ntu.ac.sg (~{BmOHIz~}) writes:
chris williams (chrisw@fciad2.bsd.uchicago.edu) wrote:
: >> 	I'm looking, somewhat desperately, for a CATIA to ALIAS, 
: >> 	WAVEFRONT, DXF, IGES, or just about anything else translator. 
: >> 	The basis for this need is that as part of a large scale 
: >> 	visualization attempt, I would like to bring a CATIA generated model 
: >> 	into either ALIAS or WAVEFRONT for rendering and fly-through 
: >> 	animation.  The model itself is much to large and complicated to 
: >> 	consider generation from scratch in WAVEFRONT or ALIAS.  I am
: >> 	aware of several, outrageously priced, commercial translators,
: >> 	but at $10,000 each these are not really options we can 
: >> 	afford to consider.  So if anyone has any information on
: >> 	reasonably priced or public domain CATIA translators I would
: >> 	love to hear the information.  Even some idea as to the
: >> 	CATIA EXPORT FILE format would be helpful since the makers
: >> 	of CATIA are conspiratorially tight-lipped with any sort of
: >> 	file format information.

:    Sorry, but I don't have anything to offer but my own experience
: converting CATIA files to TDI. We had to send a 9-track tape to France
: in order to do a translation, as the only translator available had to
: run on a mainframe and they had no plans to port it over to a
: workstation. Sorry.

:                                   Chris Williams
:                                      chrisw@fciad2.bsd.uchicago.edu

   Is this the CATIA from MSC/Nastran? I'm interested in this 
   discussion because I also have a project that is using CATIA.

	The original question dealt with CATIA the high-end CAD
	package produced by Dassault, a french company.

	Gary H.

	

---
////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
         Gary Hanyzewski                | "... There are more things in
         garyh@sdsc.edu      		|      heaven and earth than
                                        |      are dreamt of in your 	
     >>                       <<        |      philosophy ...."
////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

Newsgroups: comp.graphics.animation
From: tfish@world.std.com (Tex Fish)
Subject: Translation program
Organization: The World Public Access UNIX, Brookline, MA
Date: Sun, 24 Jan 1993 23:00:07 GMT

	Does anybody know of a small (maybe even freeware/shareware)
program that'll translate between QuickTime and PICS?  And heck, any other
animation standards wouldn't be bad either.


-- 
					-tfish@world.std.com
Newsgroups: comp.graphics.animation
From: mnemonic@netcom.com (Rev Lebaredian)
Subject: Re: Amiga Power (Was RE: Babylon 5)
Organization: Netcom - Online Communication Services  (408 241-9760 guest) 
Date: Sun, 24 Jan 1993 13:38:54 GMT

  If you are interested in using the Amiga for 3D animation, take a look
at DMIs Vivid 24 board.  Fully populated(four TI34020s), DMI claims it
can render 100,000 gourard shaded polygons per second and give you
160 mflops of raw power.  This is compared to 70 mflops on a $200,000
SGI.  A fully populated Vivid with a amiga 3000 and an 040 board(for some
mips) comes in at about $12,000.  Not to mention that it also gives
2048x2048x24(1280x1024x24 non-interlaced).

  It is supposed to be fully supported by Real3D v2.0($599) which should
be coming out in a month or two.

  You could concievably network 10 Amigas each with a Vivid24 and 040
to get 1600 Mflos (1.6 GFLOPS!) for about $120,000.  When compared to 
an equivolent SGI setup, it seems many times more cost efective.
From: wmbfmk@rw8.urc.tue.nl (Marc van Kempen)
Newsgroups: comp.graphics.animation
Subject: Re: Amiga Power (Was RE: Babylon 5)
Date: 28 Jan 93 01:34:28 GMT
Reply-To: wmbfmk@urc.tue.nl

mnemonic@netcom.com (Rev Lebaredian) writes:


>  If you are interested in using the Amiga for 3D animation, take a look
>at DMIs Vivid 24 board.  Fully populated(four TI34020s), DMI claims it
>can render 100,000 gourard shaded polygons per second and give you
>160 mflops of raw power.  This is compared to 70 mflops on a $200,000
>SGI.  A fully populated Vivid with a amiga 3000 and an 040 board(for some
>mips) comes in at about $12,000.  Not to mention that it also gives
>2048x2048x24(1280x1024x24 non-interlaced).


Has anyone realy seen these boards? They sell MPEG-boards too. Never seen
those either.

Please stop spreading those "I've heard about a Zilion Phong Shaded
Z-Buffered  Polygones per second for just $9.95" - rumours.

Give me facts.



Marc.
From: cyberman@exucom.com (Stephen R. Phillips)
Newsgroups: comp.graphics.animation
Subject: Re: Mac Version of POV
Date: 28 Jan 93 03:53:27 GMT
Organization: ExuCom Multimedia Inc.
X-Newsreader: TIN [version 1.1 PL8]


Chris Trichel (christ@crash.cts.com) wrote:
: Can anyone tell me where the Mac version of POV is up? Archie is no
: help cause I can't tell what version is what... also if you could
: give me an exact path name... (I have to use mail servers to 'FTP'
: stuff)

	Try the POV distribution site!
	alfred.ccs.carleton.ca

Cyberman
-- 
This is my sig file!
Read rec.games.programer!
Newsgroups: comp.graphics.animation
From: jonathan@rahul.net (Jonathan Heiliger)
Subject: Re: Amiga Power less than SGIs
Reply-To: jonathan@mecca.epri.com
Organization: Electric Power Research Institute
X-Newsreader: TIN [version 1.1 PL8]
Date: Wed, 27 Jan 1993 17:49:19 GMT

Andre T. Yew (andrey@cco.caltech.edu) wrote:
> woolstar@gumby.cs.caltech.edu (Derek Woolverton) writes:

> $12K for an Indigo isn't going to give you a usable machine.  Plus
> there's the overhead cost of maintainence every year which sucks
> another $2K to $4K.  Also, Amigas are much easier to maintain and
> administrate than an Indigo.  Besides, the most valid proof that
> networked Amigas do work is that a TV series' effects were all
> produced on one. 

    Well, there are many problems stil here.  A good/useable Indigo will run 
you at least $20k.  Now software wise, it will be VERY HARD to pay $100k for 
a package, unless you are going for customization.  Alias just lowered their 
PowerAnimator package to $15k for base with 2 advanced modules for $15k each, 
Vertigo is about $22k with Wavefront running in the same area.  TDI I don't 
know off hand.  As for support yes; that will take a bite.  The rough price 
(which we pay) is between 15-20% of the software cost, PER YEAR!
 
 
-- 
Jonathan Heiliger .... Electric Power Research Institute
Senior Animation Engineer ... 3412 Hillview Ave. 
Internet: jonathan@mecca.epri.com .. Palo Alto, CA
Telephone <*> [415].855.2888 ....... 94303
Newsgroups: comp.graphics.animation
From: robert@slipknot.rain.com (Robert Reed)
Subject: Re: Macintosh PlayMation experience
Reply-To: robert@slipknot.rain.com.UUCP (Robert Reed)
Organization: Home Animation Ltd.
Date: Sun, 24 Jan 1993 21:50:00 GMT

In article <1993Jan24.093443.6267@midway.uchicago.edu> chrisw@fciad2.bsd.uchicago.edu (chris williams) writes:
|In article <C1CI80.Iq@taligent.com> Jack Palevich <Jack_Palevich@Taligent.com> writes:
|>Cons:
|> * Weird user interface. Doesn't work like a Mac program. Limited Undo.
|
|    Different user interface. Most parts of the Mac paradime don't
|apply. Most 3D programs have *no* undo at all.

Weird or different, it's still not as good.  Node selection is not a natural
extension of typical point selection techniques, but a completely different and
nonintuitive offshoot.  Spline curvatures are edited by nonintuitive curvature
control parameters attached to the nodes, and when nodes are used as control
points for multiple splines, many of the curvature parameters are lost to the
editor.  (Sure, you can get at them by editing the ascii model file, but what a
pain.)  There is pointer based control of these curvature parameters, but it's a
crude second order effect (e.g., you move the cursor back and forth, and the
curvature parameter is modified over SOME range, which shows up as some one or
two axis flex of the curve.
________________________________________________________________________________
Robert Reed			Home Animation Ltd.		503-656-8414
robert@slipknot.rain.com	5686 First Court, West Linn, OR 97068

When I'm really bored, I hope to drive downtown, get a great parking spot,
then sit in my car and count how many people asked me if I'm leaving.
--Steve Wright
________________________________________________________________________________
Newsgroups: comp.graphics.animation
From: watters@cranel.com (David Watters)
Subject: Re: >>>Amiga Power less than SGIs
Organization: Cranel, Incorporated, Worthington Ohio
Date: Mon, 25 Jan 1993 23:10:15 GMT

In article <1993Jan21.113500.20077@mpifr-bonn.mpg.de> mlelstv@speckled.mpifr-bonn.mpg.de (Michael van Elst) writes:

>The board uses JPEG compression and decompression in real-time. A 1 Gig HD
>(which is about $1500) will hold about 5-10 minutes of an animation. Few
>animations require such long takes.

Be careful about this.  The board (and boards like this) have varying levels
of compression which are couple to image quality.
I will say though that this board looks very promising, and it sounds like it
is going to edge out the Mac and IBM work alikes due to the Amiga's Zorro III
bus speed and this boards ability to use smaller compressions and still achive
30fps. However, I have not eval'ed on yet.
It also has a 32bit pixel bus that interfaces directly to their high speed
render board (TI34020+multiple 34082's).

David
Watters

-- 
David R. Watters (watters@cranel.com)    Cranel Inc. Development & Engineering
"Porsche.  The very name is, to many, the last word in sports cars. Any car
 blessed with these magic seven letters is sure to be the very best. Period!"
Newsgroups: comp.graphics.animation
From: nowinski@sciborg.uwaterloo.ca (Andrew Nowinski)
Subject: More Questions
Organization: University of Waterloo
Date: Fri, 22 Jan 1993 16:18:26 GMT


What computer was the ballroom scene in Disney's Beauty and the
Beast made on, and what resolution did it use?

What resolution does Typestry have? What graphics resolution does
Infini-D have?

What TV shows are PCs used for titles/animation etc. 

What computer was the movie Terminator II made on? What graphics
resolution did it have?


Thanks in advance.

--
Jack Nowinski
E-Mail: nowinski@sciborg.uwaterloo.ca

Newsgroups: comp.graphics.animation
From: cpb1001@phx.cam.ac.uk (C.P. Brown)
Subject: Re: Amiga hi-res monitor
Organization: U of Cambridge Computer Lab, UK
Distribution: comp.graphics.animation
Date: Fri, 22 Jan 1993 16:45:52 GMT

In article <wyk3dhf@rpi.edu>, johnc@porsche.cs.rpi.edu (John Colasante) writes:
|> 
|> Can someone please explain what resolution is acceptable to
|> produce commercial quality animation with an Amiga? In other
|> words is 640x400 good for videotape. What other hi-res options
|> are available for use with Amiga? I am interested in large
|> screens and many colors. What comes with the Amiga out of the
|> box and what do you need to purchase that is extra.

With one of the AGA Amigas (1200 or 4000) you can record direct to videotape at
1280*400 NTSC and 1280*512 PAL (plus overscan)

These modes both work in the Amigas HAM8 mode, which allows at least 262144
colours on screen from the full 24-bit palette. If you don't want to record to
tape, then you can use 800*600 or 640*1024 (interlaced) on a VGA or multisync
monitor.

The A1200 and A4000 come, out of the box, with the ability to produce all the
above outputs.

Hope this helps,
                Chris Brown
Newsgroups: comp.graphics.animation
From: chrisw@fciad2.bsd.uchicago.edu (chris williams)
Subject: Re: Macintosh PlayMation experience
Organization: FCIA Univ. of Chicago
Date: Tue, 26 Jan 1993 02:37:45 GMT

 
Robert Reed writes:
>chris williams writes:
>|Jack Palevich writes:
>|>Cons:
>|> * Weird user interface. Doesn't work like a Mac program. Limited Undo.
>|
>|    Different user interface. Most parts of the Mac paradime don't
>|apply. Most 3D programs have *no* undo at all.
 
>Weird or different, it's still not as good.  Node selection is not a natural
>extension of typical point selection techniques, but a completely different
>and nonintuitive offshoot. 
 
   Intuitive in the real sense, or "intuitive" is the Mac-buzzword sense?
Press the "g" key for group. Press "Return" to un-group all. About two minutes
to get it, tops.
 
>Spline curvatures are edited by nonintuitive curvature control parameters
>attached to the nodes, 
 
   Complain to Ed Catmull. Catmull-Rom splines behave differently than the
Bezier splines that you are used to. The advantages of these splines for
easy objects creation are fairly obvious. Bezier patches are difficult to
control when you want to create a mesh, while continuity between Catmull
patches is simple. B-Spline patches have continuity, but require "ghost
points" outside the object.
 
>There is pointer based control of these
>curvature parameters, but it's a crude second order effect (e.g., you 
>move the cursor back and forth, and the curvature parameter is modified
>over SOME range, which shows up as some one or two axis flex of the curve.
 
   I have built *many* objects, and have *yet* to use the curve controls.
I suspect that you are trying to force the Catmull-Rom splines to behave as
Bezier patches, and are getting frustrated. Read up on Catmull-Rom patches.
(...and why you shouldn't put <tab>'s in an ASCII forum)
 
>________________________________________________________________________________
>Robert Reed                    Home Animation Ltd.             503-656-8414
>robert@slipknot.rain.com       5686 First Court, West Linn, OR 97068
>
>When I'm really bored, I hope to drive downtown, get a great parking spot,
>then sit in my car and count how many people asked me if I'm leaving.
>--Steve Wright
>________________________________________________________________________________
 
                             Chris Williams
                              chrisw@fciad2.bsd.uchicago.edu

Newsgroups: comp.graphics.animation
From: BARILEJB@ctrvax.Vanderbilt.Edu ()
Subject: Re: Help with Camera Positions....
Organization: Vanderbilt University
Date: Tue, 26 Jan 1993 23:12:40 GMT
X-News-Reader: VMS NEWS 1.24

In <1993Jan26.141942.1@orion.yorku.ca> as000232@orion.yorku.ca writes:

>        The problem that I am having, however, is that it is difficult to 
> deal with the camera position.  What I'm really trying to find, is some 
> software that resembles a flight simulator, but will let you fly past 
> your own 3D creations/landscapes and monitors and keeps track of your 
> path.  I've seen such programs as CAMPATH and AEWIRE, but neither were 
> of any help.
> 
>        If anyone has any ideas/pointers to software or source of one 
> kind or another that might help me out a bit, I would appreciate if 
> someone could pass it along.  As well, since I'm doing this for fun and 
> not for profit, I'd like to try to keep cost to an absolute minimum.
> 
> Suggestions?
> 
> Graham TerMarsch
> as000232@Orion.YorkU.CA

Graham,
  One of the best utilties I've found for POV it called SP - Dave's Spline-
Path Generator.  You can find this on the You Can Call Me Ray BBS.  Basically,
you make a data file of a number of points and some other information, and
SP will calculate position and rotations for your camera.  You can do
acceleration/deceleration, etc... with it as well.  It's downfall (at least
as of version 0.3) is that it only does one frame at a time (you tell it
which of the N frames to compute).  It's realtively easy to make a batch
file for this though.
 
Let us know if you find anything else.
 
-Jason Barile
 barilejb@ctrvax.vanderbilt.edu


Newsgroups: comp.graphics.animation
From: Thomas.Herlyn@arbi.informatik.uni-oldenburg.de (Thomas Herlyn)
Subject: Re: >>>Amiga Power less than SGIs
Organization: University of Oldenburg, Germany
Date: Thu, 21 Jan 1993 18:50:17 GMT

philb@cats.ucsc.edu (Philip Brown) writes:

>umkormil@ccu.umanitoba.ca (Sean Craig Kormilo) writes:
>> This board allows you to play back 24bit animations in
>>high resolution at real time(30fps) for recording. This doesn't take a big
>>chunk out of the old wallet either. Also ellimnating the need for a single
>>frame recorder.

>Oh, of course. Just need a few thou $$ for a CD-worm drive , or a 1-gig
>hard drive :-)

No, definitely not.
Digital Editmaster is a full JPEG comp.-decompression-Board, so the
anim files will be very little compared to the original graphics
data and will so will load fast from harddisk, too (sure, HD
should be fast).
D.E. costs about $2500, I think.

	  Bye, Thomas
Newsgroups: comp.graphics.animation
From: lionel@cs.city.ac.uk (Lionel Tun)
Subject: Re: >>>Amiga Power less than SGIs
Organization: City University, London
Date: Fri, 22 Jan 93 14:38:05 GMT

In article <1jiusmINN4sr@darkstar.UCSC.EDU> philb@cats.ucsc.edu (Philip Brown) writes:
>
>umkormil@ccu.umanitoba.ca (Sean Craig Kormilo) writes:
>> This board allows you to play back 24bit animations in
>>high resolution at real time(30fps) for recording. This doesn't take a big
>>chunk out of the old wallet either. Also ellimnating the need for a single
>>frame recorder.
>
>Oh, of course. Just need a few thou $$ for a CD-worm drive , or a 1-gig
>hard drive :-)

Eh? I have seen 1G scsi hard drives advertised in AmigaWorld for
about 1000 quid.

--
  ________  Lionel Tun, lionel@cs.city.ac.uk  ________
 / /_  __/\       Computer Vision Group      /\ \__  _\
/___/_/_/\/ City University, London EC1V 0HB \ \___\_\_\
\___\_\_\/        071-477 8000 ext 3889       \/___/_/_/
Newsgroups: comp.graphics.animation
From: nowinski@sciborg.uwaterloo.ca (Andrew Nowinski)
Subject: Pixar's RenderMan
Organization: University of Waterloo
Date: Wed, 27 Jan 1993 16:55:05 GMT


Does any one use Pixar's RenderMan? Does any one use it on a PC?
How does it work? It is better than POV? Can the images from the
PC version of RenderMan be recorded to NTSC?

Thanks in advance.

--
Jack Nowinski
Newsgroups: comp.graphics.animation
From: chrisw@fciad2.bsd.uchicago.edu (chris williams)
Subject: Re: Macintosh PlayMation experience
Organization: FCIA Univ. of Chicago
Date: Sun, 24 Jan 1993 09:34:43 GMT

In article <C1CI80.Iq@taligent.com> Jack Palevich <Jack_Palevich@Taligent.com> writes:
>I bought the Macintosh verson of Playmation, and I'm not entirely
>satisfied with it.
>
>Playmation is available on the Amiga, the Macintosh, and Windows. It's
>originally an Amiga program, and it's kept its Amiga style user interface
>as it's moved from machine to machine.

   The Windows version is not exactly Windows standard either, but that
does allow easier support.

>Pros:
> * Cheap! $300, plus another $100 if you want the not-yet-released 24-bit
>renderer.
> * Superb character animation features. You can use animated motions as
>subroutines. You can edit the individual surface definition points. You
>can use a "spine" to quickly animate complex objects.
> * Nice incremental redraw in modeler.
> * Spline surfaces. No more jaggy polygons.
> * Supports QuickTime
> * Comes with lots of sample models and animations.
> * Comes with a tutorial video.
> * Files are ASCII, and they provide limited documentation of the file
>format on their BBS system.

   This one is a bigger pro than you know. ASCII files will allow
movement from system to system. Model on a Mac, Animate on an Amiga
and render on a number of PCs.

>Cons:
> * Weird user interface. Doesn't work like a Mac program. Limited Undo.

    Different user interface. Most parts of the Mac paradime don't
apply. Most 3D programs have *no* undo at all.

> * Comes in five stand-alone pieces. (Model objects, apply surface
>attributes, combine objects into actors and design animation subroutines,
>combine actors, render.)

  This is a good thing. Interfaces are optimized for function, and the 
size of the executables is smaller. Really, I am quite happy with a
modular program as it forces one to adopt good work habits, saving your
work when you exit each module. Also, most modules allow "updating"
i.e. create the animation, fine-tune the objects later, and select
update to load the new objects from disk or the running modeler.

> * Crashes all the time. (This is the first release; quality may improve
>in time.)

   The Windows version is fairly robust.

> * Slow renderer. Only allows ray-tracing.

   A very fast ray-tracer, but I do want a scan-line option.

> * Only renders 320 x 200 x 8, which is pretty crude by Mac standards.

    The 24-bit renderer should not be considered an option.

    In my experience the 24-bit renderer is pixel-per-pixel faster than
the screen renderer. In the DOS version, everything is done in Windows
except 24-bit rendering which is done at the command line. It's uses
a DOS extender. As near as I can tell, all rendering is done 24-bit
and quantized to 8-bit for display. Actually it's a true 32-bit
renderer, and I've been able to alpha-channel matte images over TARGA
backgrounds.

                                Chris Williams
                               chrisw@fciad2.bsd.uchicago.edu

Newsgroups: comp.graphics.animation,alt.cad,comp.graphics.visualization,sci.engr.mech
From: shafei@zurich.ai.mit.edu (Nayel el-Shafei)
Subject: Re: Need CATIA translators
Cc: shafei
Organization: M.I.T. Artificial Intelligence Lab.
Date: Thu, 28 Jan 1993 20:58:40 GMT

garyh@sdsc.edu (Gary Hanyzewski) writes:

> 	I'm looking, somewhat desperately, for a CATIA to ALIAS, 
> 	WAVEFRONT, DXF, IGES, or just about anything else translator. 
> 	The basis for this need is that as part of a large scale 
> 	visualization attempt, I would like to bring a CATIA generated model 
> 	into either ALIAS or WAVEFRONT for rendering and fly-through 
> 	animation.  The model itself is much to large and complicated to 
> 	consider generation from scratch in WAVEFRONT or ALIAS.  I am
> 	aware of several, outrageously priced, commercial translators,
> 	but at $10,000 each these are not really options we can 
> 	afford to consider.  So if anyone has any information on
> 	reasonably priced or public domain CATIA translators I would
> 	love to hear the information.  Even some idea as to the
> 	CATIA EXPORT FILE format would be helpful since the makers
> 	of CATIA are conspiratorially tight-lipped with any sort of
> 	file format information.

Cambridge Automation offers Spartacus, a reversible-grammar parser, that
translates between various (CAD) formats.  The system is successfully
used for Calma DAL migration to various CAD systems.  Other CAD
formats were used as origination and destination, including CATIA.
The translator is incremental, i.e., on encountering a new command it
asks the user to define it once (in any of 12 other formats,
preferably the standard PDES Express).

For further information contact Cambridge Automation on (617)
484-1209, fax (617) 484-1299.

Cheers!

	-nayel shafei