Subject:
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Re: The Artemis Project
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.cad, lugnet.publish
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Date:
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Fri, 25 Aug 2000 12:50:07 GMT
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Viewed:
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574 times
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In lugnet.cad, Karim Nassar writes:
> The Artemis project is the result of work & research I have done on interface
> design both in classes and on my own for the last couple of years. The purpose
> of this project is to hopefully make an impact on the course of LCAD software
> development.
WOW. From what I got a chance to read on this, Karim, your ideas are
excellent. I didn't get past the screenshot, due to lack of time. I've been
on the road the last two days and now I'm in Rumney, NH.
> Keep in mind, that this is not necessarily a proposal for a new LCAD program,
> but rather an attempt to demonstrate that with all of the talent at our
> disposal, there is no reason why, working together on one project, we can't
> develop a piece of software equal to or superior to the software that TLG uses
> to make their instructions, CDROMS, etc.
*well* - you wouldn't believe where I just was. I just came from TLC's
Special Events dept, aka the Model Shop (Enfield, CT). And I did talk to them
about their CAD stuff while I was there. I didn't get a chance to mention
your project though. But I know the shop uses AutoDesk for their designs, and
they have parts libraries inside. I didn't get a chance to see the software
itself, but I saw nice printouts on the walls in their offices. One of the
guys there who was in town from Denmark commented he did have MLCad and LDraw
installed on his machine and does use it for smaller (private, I assume)
designs he has done.
Unfortunately I didn't get a chance to see their instruction software. They
don't have it at the SE dept, because all of the product design occurs in
Denmark.
As far as parts naming conventions (this opens up another whole can of worms) -
pretty much, they aren't going to be changing theirs (I suggested interfacing
the LCAD and TLC naming conventions), so somewhere along the line we will have
to adopt their convention if we want to be compatible (big IF). Their English
naming convention often comes from direct translations from the Danish, and
when you deal with direct translations you don't always get the best word in
the second language. The guy there said he even started renaming some of the
LDraw parts to conform to TLC's naming convention - because that's what he was
used to. I neglected to ask him whether he used the English translation or
the Danish.
But as far as your project goes, its an awesome idea. I would hope that
something like this is a possibility if some of the bigger programmers we have
(Mike L, Steve B, Lutz, Lars, Paul G, etc...) would get together and work on
it. I believe that this is one of the next great steps LCAD needs to take.
The only real problem here, if there are any, would be learning curve. It
would be great to have a beginner and advanced mode (beginner could be added
in later versions if too difficult at first) - so that new users can get into
this too. One of the main problems with the ldraw.org site is its
unfriendliness to new users. Gradually, I'm working on changing that, but
unfortunately, I have a bazillion and one things to do in the near future. It
will get there, though.
I do hope this gets the ball rolling on something new to improve LCAD so more
can be done with it. Faster rendering is a MUST if people want to design
sculptures in CAD (either pre or post production). I just came away from
seeing some pretty huge sculptures - they have a wide plotter there where they
print out huge sheets of brick graph paper to trace or design models. They
can even print out a sheet with a picture (non LEGO-ized) and have the graph
overlayed, so its easy to go through with marker and mark it up to design a
model.
(Of course, I'll be posting later on about the tour, and when I get access to
a faster connection, uploading what pictures I can to my Brickshelf account) :)
See ya!
-Tim
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Message has 2 Replies:
 | | Tim visits the Model Shop (was: Re: The Artemis Project)
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| (...) So, what did he say about MLCad / LDraw? Did he make any comments comparing TLC's software to LCAD? Does he do stuff in MLCad because he enjoys it, or just as a matter of keeping aware of what's going on? (...) Drat! One thing I like about (...) (24 years ago, 25-Aug-00, to lugnet.cad)
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Message is in Reply To:
| | The Artemis Project
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| As some of you may know, I am a student of Industrial Design, specializing in product and interface design. I will be graduating in December, and hopefully putting some of that to work ;) I have really appreciated all the work that everyone in the (...) (24 years ago, 22-Aug-00, to lugnet.cad, lugnet.publish)
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