Subject:
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Re: Converting AutoCAD/3D Studio/etc. to .dat with 3DWin
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.cad
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Date:
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Mon, 24 Feb 2003 21:36:02 GMT
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Viewed:
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925 times
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In lugnet.cad, Miguel Agullo writes:
> Hi,
>
> With all due respect, a big problem that I see here is that 3dWin is a
> shareware application. Personally, if I do not pay for the likes of Ldraw,
> MLcad, Lpub, POV or Blender, there is no way I am going to even consider
> paying for a format translator.
snip
> IMHO the efforts from the
> Ldraw community should be centered around the file format, and not some
> application that "also" converts to and from .DAT.
Hi Miguel,
I've been discussing this with your co-author Kevin Clauge about this as well
(BTW, I'm enjoying your book very much!). Let me try to clarify my position if
I can..
I'm not trying to say EVERYONE should be using 3DWin. I'm not saying the whole
LDraw community should stop doing what they're doing and work on this problem.
I'm also not trying to tout 3DS as a way for all AFOL to author parts, or
trying to convert all AFOL to commercial CAD, etc.
What I AM trying to do is make it easier for people who already have commercial
CAD packages to ALSO have access to the LDraw universe. In short, I want to
play too! I'm asking those of you with LDraw parts authoring/programming
experience (and have the time/desire) whether you can help Thomas make his
product better. Just from this short discussion on Lugnet, we've made a few
important improvements! (Color, edge lines) Steve Bliss has been a big help as
well.
Also please note that while I've been dealing with Thomas over at TB software,
I have no financial interest in his product. If someone else's freeware program
does what I want, I'll be using that. I WILL say I have used Thomas' software
in the past, and he's been very supportive (he's an AFOL to boot). So my
preference would be to stay with his product. Of course, YMMV.
As far as cost goes, I realize most AFOL won't want to pay for conversion
software. But if you're using commercial CAD professionally (which is the
audience I'm trying to help out), $85 is loose change. Try buying a full seat
of Pro-E or CATIA, LOL.
>
> What I think would be nice is a freeware two-way translator from .DAT to say
> .3DS that generated proper files proper files at both ends. Since 3DS is one
> of the standard 3D formats, this would allow conversion to and from .DAT
> into virtually any other 3D format.
Yeah, what you said! This is what I want as well. }^) 3DS is a good transfer
point, as software from both the CG and CAD industries can read/write to it.
> There is a very good freeware translator
> called Crossroads that will convert between 3DS and several other formats.
> And the large majority of 3D software can import 3DS files and save them as
> other formats.
I haven't heard of this one (do you have a url?). Does it convert the files
perfectly? Edge lines, Primitives, etc.? If it does, I'll use that.
>
> Ldraw.org lists some DAT-to-other-format translators, but I have only a very
> limited experience with them.
I've tried STL2DAT, but haven't had great success with it. The reason I've used
3DWin primarily is it allows me to go from .dat to .dxf (AutoCAD). The reason I
posted the original message is I was excited to go the other way (.dxf to
.dat).
Darrell
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Message has 2 Replies:
 | | Re: Converting AutoCAD/3D Studio/etc. to .dat with 3DWin
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| Hi Darrell, My point was that asking people to help someone develop their commercial software is somewhat of a bold proposition. However, I did not know that 3Dwin had a free version with batch-convert de-activated and that is something worth (...) (21 years ago, 25-Feb-03, to lugnet.cad)
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Message is in Reply To:
| | Re: Converting AutoCAD/3D Studio/etc. to .dat with 3DWin
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| Hi, With all due respect, a big problem that I see here is that 3dWin is a shareware application. Personally, if I do not pay for the likes of Ldraw, MLcad, Lpub, POV or Blender, there is no way I am going to even consider paying for a format (...) (21 years ago, 21-Feb-03, to lugnet.cad)
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