[yanada]

Credit Card Ready

http://www.core77.com/blog/business/aut ... _12669.asp

[yolk]

not worth the 4000 bucks...get rhino and maxwell or get a hybrid modeller like solidworks, proE or catia..where you don't have to break the construction history now and then to be able to continue modeling and where fillets and chamfers actually work..have used alias for years..when it was still power animator..what a sissy app - not in a ubersissyappy way like formZ but still for sissies

[yanada]

not worth the 4000 bucks...get rhino and maxwell or get a hybrid modeller like solidworks, proE or catia..where you don't have to break the construction history now and then to be able to continue modeling and where fillets and chamfers actually work..have used alias for years..when it was still power animator..what a sissy app - not in a ubersissyappy way like formZ but still for sissies

Rhino, I love McNeel's philosophy it has helped countless designers over the years but when it comes to nurbs Moi does a better job for less.
SolidWorks, I have used for over five years great software but I am skeptical about their future, Dassault is not giving them any juice same goes for Siemens which owns the technology SolidWorks uses. Solidedge with synchronous technology it seems a better deal to me .
Catia well that's a beast, also I had the privilege to use Imagine & shape on a previews job and I have to say that's the coolest tools ever, it combines Nurbs & Subdivision surfaces and is by far the fastest tools for conceptual design.
StudioTools, sorry mate is the best surface tool out there IMO now if you cant afford it is different story.
Now the hole industry sifting to direct modeling you talk about construction history Well that's a long one to explain, but you see what I'm interested is what designers will use in the future and not what they did twenty years ago with ProE, after all we are designing the future.

[yolk]

very valid points. i also felt for years solidworks got hindered by daussault to include better surfacing to the point i now don't recommend it to new potential buyers. but the numerous times where alias could not achieve tangency or continuity drove me nuts..i imported the same surfaces in rhino or solidworks an the had no problem closing the patch with correct tagnecy or continuity. and for the advanced surfacing stuff in alias (i liked the blend curves alot) you'd have to get the 20k or 60k package..then you are in the proE with icem or catia territory anyway.