Well, like i said, im new to this stuff. My TurboCad receipt is dated 10-23-03..in the afternoon. I have a lot to learn and thats the whole reason im playing with it. Heck, it was a puzzler trying to figure out how to color the rendition i made.

By checking in on the forum that Bart mentioned above im gaining more info on various features of the program. Besides that..its point..drag..click...REDO..until i figure it out. Im doing it all for my own enjoyment more than anything. Heck, i may even measure out the engine bay and stuff and create a block rendered engine too see if it will all fit under the hood....even though i know it will. Andy's great work is proof of that! I just enjoy this kind of stuff. Besides, what else am i to do sitting around on call all day at an airport! In the end if i come up with a design that fits..works..Ill try and build my own set up for my own use and satisfaction.

"lead in angles" ?? i assume that is the angle the intake runner meets the ports ? Shows you what i know! That rendidtion is only 1cm thick if i recall...i havent even allotted for the water manifold in the front yet.
Camfered edges..holes of varying diameters in depth...heck, how to slope the hoodline of the engine bay!!....all stuff i have to figure out yet.

if you guys ever check out some of the art work and renditions guys have created with these programs, its amazing! Especially using CadPRO! Makes me appreciate the cartoon my son watches on Disney "Rolle' Polle' Ole'" ..they animate the stuf!!
Would be cool to have a 3d rendered cutout of a running 928 engine on the computer huh..check back with me in 20yrs..maybe ill have a schedule that wont have me on call by then

 

"Would be cool to have a 3d rendered cutout of a running 928 engine on the computer "

That won't take to long if 3-4 people did it, maybe a few weeks. You don't have to do every part but the main stuff. Depends on how fast you can model. I'll be posting some stuff to this thread later this week. Having been working on a 928 convertible like Randys it only took 40 minutes to cut a 928 apart and remodel most of the sections. I'm working on a GT wing to see what it looks like on Randys car.

 

Hey, i can contribute 8 injectors!!



Not perfect , i need to figure out a couple of more "tools" yet.
Gaawd, my eyes are square!

this progam can get addictive. I bet the "Professional version" is amazing!

 

WOW, You're really picking this up fast Tony!
Andy K

 

how about 62 degrees. Sound about right?? Give or take 90'

 

Tony,

You might want to look for any options that can 'harden or soften' edges. This would be labeld under poly normals. I recently found this option after months of dealing my the software. Then I have control over how edges are smoothed or harden for effect.

Looks good so far.

 

Under properties - Extrusion shape you can set the number of lines used for approximation..... Up to about 80. This gives a smooth look as well.

 

Some work I did on Randys shark.

 

That looks great!
I'm having trouble with getting the proper colors selected.
How much affect does lighting have on color rendering?

I'm not worthy!

 

Scott,

Were probably using different programs but the pricinples of 3D art is the same. A ambient light used can bleed out the image to total white and has some bearing on colors.

I think the key you might be looking for is spectular shading. This is how the 'paint' reflects surround surfaces and give it a realist look. I'm at the point of mapping on leather textures and bump mapping that and spectular shading to finish off my models.

The car or parts can only look so real unless its reflecting properties of objects around it to enhance the look.

 

Do I hear some computation fluid dynamics calculations going on?

Pro E is very impressive but huge $$$, the Solid Works is great for the money. We used Pro-E at RA Jones for designing our high speed pouch filling machines with complex parts.

If you just need a simple CAD program, I would recommend AutoCad Lite....it does a good bit and most places out there have AutoCad, so compatibility is good as well. I used this for my intercooler design, although that was just a 2D drawing that only took a few hours (I actually built a model first out of styrofoam....don't laugh it works great and is cheap). The power of the model in fitting to something you have no cad file for is priceless

You guys are right, the average Joe (or Fiance) does not have a clue how long some things take from concept to reality. Come to think of it, I realized this again yesterday afternoon. Sales people also suffer from this "cluselessness" in virtually all industries as well. But as they say, if we were all alike, the world would be a boring place to be.