Gymnast.

This sculpture is one of three built for the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games. The three were the Gymnast you see here, a Sprinter and a Wheel chair bound basket ball athlete.  Metres tall and several tonnes each these sculptures were mounted on Sydney Tower, in central Sydney, for all to see.

It was recognized early in the project that finding the correct approach to computer modelling and draughting Dominique Sutton's sculptures was important to the success of the project.  Having looked carefully at these requirements and tested the methods necessary I passed this information on to Greg Mansfield and Derek Mascurenhas the two designers responsible for the completion of these tasks using AutoCAD.

An important lesson to be learned here for those of you aspiring to use 3D CAD modelling -  so called ‘higher end’ 3D modelling features and software can and does often hamper creativity and productivity quite severely. There was no question in my mind, after a number of extensive tests, that AutoCAD was the modeller of choice; FLEXIBLE software will always trump rule based functions and software.

Try telling this to Autodesk and other CAD vendors!

R. Paul Waddington
cadWest.