hi guys,      i remember you experienced CAD gurus said "NOT" to
use one of
 the graphics cards. the problem is i can't remember which one!
Is nVidia
 or ATI compatable with CAD? Is an 80 g SSD big enough to use as
my sole
 hard
 drive for Rhino and/or Alibre CAD. if so is it worth the extra
money to
 keep a laptop cooler and save battery?  The renderings with
rhino and solid
 works looked good.would alibre be a suitable sub for sw? I
can't afford
 sw!
 James Whitehurst

James,   Several user forums have found difficulties with ATI / Radeon
video cards not working on their cad systems. Nvidia cards from
the 9500
series and upward are all open GL2 compatable. This is the GE
Force series
of Nvidia chips sold under numerous venders. Look for 1 GB video
ram like on
a GE Force 9800 as an example.  I get these for about $72 on Ebay.
There are
also 220 and 250 series with as many as 130 processors on the
video card for
real time gaming. These are $635 currently and overkill for CAD.
ASUS has
one which is available for around $250 on Ebay.

      The renderings I submit from Rhino have a wonderful render
engine which is standard to Rhino, but does not come with the
materials library in
the standard package which did come with my autocad 14 and is
included in
solid works. If you want to do photorealistic renderings which
look like
photographs you need the materials and surfacing bumpmaps as an
add on if
they don't ship with your brand of software.

         I personally have 1.3 Tb of storage in the desktop but
80 Gb would
be plenty.  You don't need or want to store everything in one
place. All the
drawings for my airframe are 378 Mb and all the drawings for the
aluminumrotary engine are about 138 Mb which could be less except
that I save the
drawings with render meshes applied in the perspective viewport. When
designs are finished I put them on a USB stick and make 2 DVD
copies of the
files. You really don't want someone to cary off your computer with
everything stored in it.  Also I upgrade hard drives with the new
operatingsystem resulting in a used hard drive with software and
drawings available
for backup.   If you also want to store a lot of downloaded high
def movies
then massive storage is necessary. I don't store movies and use a
laptop for
internet so I would be comfortable with 80 Gb on the CAD system.

      I think C. Smith is working with Alibre as well as Jean
Prudome. I was
hoping they would do the Rv10/20B cowl contest to see what their
renderlooks like. Maybe they could post something they are working
on. For
instance yesterday afternoon I did a canard airframe using the
cross section
curves from my Trex conventional airframe to see how the hardware and
seating arrangement would fit. It looks doable so I will be
designing an
actual working airframe with the proper canard airfoil,  weight
and balance,
and cooling ductwork. The placement of the cooling air outlet
somewhere that
the prop will pull air through the radiators on the ground seems
to be the
most challanging aspect.

george grimes

Jeff and I went to Westec yesterday and were stunned by the samll
size.It is 1/5th of what it has been in the past. Apparently
manufacturingis disappearing in Southern California.

Jeff also told me something about Solid Works. When you "buy"
Solid Works you don't really get anything. The program
stays on their computer. They just provide you with access to it
through the Internet. You must be connected to the Internet.
All your drawings are stored on their computer. You just bye what
they call a "seat".

No Thanks.

Paul Lamar


Re- Video cards, it depends. Best to check w/ the software provider as
they will have [or at least should have] tested cards and be able to tell you
what works best.

I use an ATI FireGL V5100 at home on my Solidworks desktop and it
has performed better than some Nvidia's I've tried.  I use an M1600 Nvidia
on my laptop and it works great. My work PC has a ATI FireGL V7200
that has been working just as good also. Just remember all video cards
are not build the same [there are different 'levels' of cards, just like everything
else in the world, cars, boats and airplanes included]

Btw Paul re Solidworks being via the net.. is very incorrect..

I use my laptop on the road all the time.. no Internet connection and SW works
just fine.  What Jeff mentioned is probably to do w/ Cloud computing. Various
companies are now starting to offer hardware/hosting services where you can
operate the CAD software on a properly configured PC at a remote location. This
eliminates the need to upgrade hardware on a bi-annual basis as the company
does it for you. By doing this you could operate Solidworks [or whatever higher
level program you choose] on a cheapo Atom driven netbook and still get the
same performace [or better] than say a quad core-2-dual Desktop running 16GB
on 64B [similar to my work Desktop]].

Currently its not offered nor is it required for Solidworks.  You do need a internet
connection to validate the install [first time you run the software] and even then,
if you want to go the long route you can simply email them and they will provide
you w/ a code to enable the software. It's a tool to eliminate piracy of software
[they are able to see how many copies of the software have been installed and
validated]

Also, no-one ever 'owns' the software [well I know of one rare case where this is not true]
we all buy the right to use it, and they provide the actual 'code' to us. Thats probably never
going to change.


Fwiw

Jarrett

Yes I got that wrong. Jeff just corrected me.

When you obtain a Linux program you own it. It is in your computer to do with
it what you want. The Linux O.S. and some Linux
programs are updated on a weekly basis for free if you allow it. You
are always given the option of saying no. I just updated the Linux O.S.
I am now using  about an hour ago.

I hate validation and I refuse to buy any program that requires it. It
becomes a real problem when you try to upgrade the hardware.  It is also
a real problem if I want to run the same software on several computers I own.

It is another hassle I just don't need.

Paul Lamar