Tape Dispenser.

There will be nobody that does not recognise this handy office tool.

This ‘solid model’ was the first model I drew using Autodesk’s AutoCAD R12 +AME software as a test of the softwares 3D abilities and to show a still very sceptical customer that 3D may well have a place in their CAD future. It was at this point in time I had adopted a stance that basically recommended to customers that they should be spending some time familiarising themselves with this modeller (and others) giving them the experience and the ability to spot, as it were, the opportunities that may have made using these tools applicable to their businesses.

We had the 2D link built in here, the deficiency that made MicroSolid and AutoSolid (and others) ‘dogs’ to draw with, so shape description was no longer a difficult issue.  The model you see here had ‘draft’ and the only two places that caused me issues were the fact that transparency was not available, so the ‘tape’ to the cutter is simply lines and the cutter was drawn as it would be made, flat, and assembled in that mode not slightly bowed as it was in real life, no great shakes considering what we able to show our customers.

2D output from these models was relatively easy but a real problem for me on several occasions was editing the model.  As a CSG modeller the software stepped back through the ‘geometry tree’ in reverse to edit shapes used for creating the solids.  This meant for me on one occasion waiting four hours on a Sunday morning for the software to refresh to a point that was only six Booleans back; it had taken less than an hour to create those shapes.

For those with a keen eye you will note, in the image, a face description problem, didn't happen often but was difficult to get the developers to look at it, nothing new there.

No turning back now this software demonstrated beyond doubt Autodesk’s 3D PC-CAD was starting to move in the right direction and would feature in the future for many of our customers.  Performance was still an issue and the customer base was still very sceptical but it was gratifying to see how many customers ‘had a go’.  Autodesk was soon to make a very public blunder in assuming, and stating, there were not many of these users, and in the next release removed some of AutoCAD’s critical functionality, a trend they have followed doggedly since.

Next - AutoCAD R13 should never have been maligned as it was!
 

R. Paul Waddington
cadWest.