This looks like it could be of use.
It's available for Windows, Mac and Linux and runs in Java.
I've already been playing with it some.
It seems to have quite a few interesting features like hinges, hydraulics, motors and gears which can all be powered (I think) - along with sensors, switches and timers. The powered items can be controlled with a drawn curve or from keyboard input - determining force, acceleration or speed.
http://golemgame.com/
Here's an example of a gear train:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YdLJ95djkYs
Rube Goldberg Machine:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SrW-nT3j4nw
A little bit of a tutorial:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=20gQ7nO8SIU
I'll probably say more about it later after I've worked with it some, but it looks like it has some features that we sometimes need in our 2d programs that aren't available without complicated workarounds.
Golems 3d sandbox physics simulation program
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Furcurequs
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Golems 3d sandbox physics simulation program
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re: Golems 3d sandbox physics simulation program
Hey Zhyyra,
Sorry I didn't respond sooner, and you're welcome.
I had seen the name of this program in the past, but I had somehow failed to check it out. Maybe the fact that the web address has "game" in its name had put me off of it. I really don't know for sure, but if that was the reason, it might have been a mistake on my part.
I forgot to mention in my post that the program was free, too, and so thank you for pointing that out for others. Being free is always a nice feature. I use Linux, and so most of the programs I run tend to be free open source software anyway, so that little detail slipped my mind.
I've had more of a chance to use the program now, and it seems to be pretty good at what it does. Once you get used to how everything is set up, it's fairly easy to model things, and you can definitely do things with it that can't be done in a 2D program.
I'd like to be able to graph my own functions and the energy of the moving parts and whatnot, too, but I'm not yet sure if it has that sort of capability. It may be there and I just haven't found it yet, though.
It will, however, let you display information about the parts (position and speed and whatnot) by hooking up sensors and an "oscilloscope" to them. Other than that, though, I'm just not sure if it has much in the way of data analysis tools.
The physics engine that the program uses is the Open Dynamics Engine (ODE), which has apparently been used in many commercial games and quite a few open source academic programs, too, over the years, so it seems to be a mature and trustworthy engine - so the simulations should probably be fairly reliable.
The program can record video of the simulations and even of your work when modeling things, too, if need be - which is a nice feature. It's output seems to be motion jpeg images in an .avi container.
Here's a still shot from the video I've attached below. I converted it to a regular jpeg to reduce the size.
As you can see, I've modeled a Newton's cradle. I used "spheres," "cylinders," "motors" that were converted to "bearings" by ticking a check box in their properties window, and then two "cubes" I expanded to beams and made "static" in space by ticking a check box in theirs.
I converted the video to a different format so that the file size would be small enough to upload. I hope it will play for everyone. I noticed it wouldn't play in one of my players, though. Let me know if there is a problem, and I can try another format.
ETA: I may need a different video file format for the forum. I'll upload the video a little later.
ETA: Okay, I've uploaded the converted video as an .avi file. It has h.264 encoding and my browser can play it, so I hope it works for others. Again, let me know if it doesn't.
Sorry I didn't respond sooner, and you're welcome.
I had seen the name of this program in the past, but I had somehow failed to check it out. Maybe the fact that the web address has "game" in its name had put me off of it. I really don't know for sure, but if that was the reason, it might have been a mistake on my part.
I forgot to mention in my post that the program was free, too, and so thank you for pointing that out for others. Being free is always a nice feature. I use Linux, and so most of the programs I run tend to be free open source software anyway, so that little detail slipped my mind.
I've had more of a chance to use the program now, and it seems to be pretty good at what it does. Once you get used to how everything is set up, it's fairly easy to model things, and you can definitely do things with it that can't be done in a 2D program.
I'd like to be able to graph my own functions and the energy of the moving parts and whatnot, too, but I'm not yet sure if it has that sort of capability. It may be there and I just haven't found it yet, though.
It will, however, let you display information about the parts (position and speed and whatnot) by hooking up sensors and an "oscilloscope" to them. Other than that, though, I'm just not sure if it has much in the way of data analysis tools.
The physics engine that the program uses is the Open Dynamics Engine (ODE), which has apparently been used in many commercial games and quite a few open source academic programs, too, over the years, so it seems to be a mature and trustworthy engine - so the simulations should probably be fairly reliable.
The program can record video of the simulations and even of your work when modeling things, too, if need be - which is a nice feature. It's output seems to be motion jpeg images in an .avi container.
Here's a still shot from the video I've attached below. I converted it to a regular jpeg to reduce the size.
As you can see, I've modeled a Newton's cradle. I used "spheres," "cylinders," "motors" that were converted to "bearings" by ticking a check box in their properties window, and then two "cubes" I expanded to beams and made "static" in space by ticking a check box in theirs.
I converted the video to a different format so that the file size would be small enough to upload. I hope it will play for everyone. I noticed it wouldn't play in one of my players, though. Let me know if there is a problem, and I can try another format.
ETA: I may need a different video file format for the forum. I'll upload the video a little later.
ETA: Okay, I've uploaded the converted video as an .avi file. It has h.264 encoding and my browser can play it, so I hope it works for others. Again, let me know if it doesn't.
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re: Golems 3d sandbox physics simulation program
Thanks Furcurequs.
I can't play the animaton on my tablet but, I'll check if I can tomorrow on my PC.
Once I've finalized my design for my latest build I'll probably see what it does with some of the parts.
I'm just not getting all the time that I want for the wheel at the moment.
I'm designing a plastic injection mold to earn some bread and the corpo-rats are on my back to get it finished.
Well done with the Newtons cradle.
I can't play the animaton on my tablet but, I'll check if I can tomorrow on my PC.
Once I've finalized my design for my latest build I'll probably see what it does with some of the parts.
I'm just not getting all the time that I want for the wheel at the moment.
I'm designing a plastic injection mold to earn some bread and the corpo-rats are on my back to get it finished.
Well done with the Newtons cradle.
Persevere to succeed.
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Furcurequs
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re: Golems 3d sandbox physics simulation program
Hey Zhyrra,
I've attached the same simulation using mpeg1 compression which should have a greater chance of working for most people, just in case. I've reduced the screen size some to bring the file under the forum's video file size limit.
Good luck with your build. I'm trying to concentrate on my own, too, but unfortunately it's my health that's hindering me most in that. Because of this I spend way too much time on my butt, and so it seems that about the only thing I can accomplish is piddling a little with the software.
Whether corpo-rats on your back or the monkey on mine, it seems there's always going to be something to get in our way!
Oh, when I was investigating which physics engine Golums used, I found this page:
http://ode-wiki.org/wiki/index.php?titl ... at_use_ODE
It shows other programs which use ODE.
There are some listed which might be worth investigating, too, especially some of the robot simulation programs.
This one looks like it might have a lot of potential. V-REP (Virtual Robot Experimentation Platform)
http://www.coppeliarobotics.com/
It's available for Windows, Mac and Linux and may have the sorts of tools I was looking for. It's a professional commercial program, but it is free for those using it for educational purposes and the hobbyist is included in that, so until we have success with a working device we are probably covered.
I've downloaded it, but I haven't been able to get it to work yet, probably due to issues with my current stripped down version of Linux. Maybe others will have better luck, though.
Dwayne
I've attached the same simulation using mpeg1 compression which should have a greater chance of working for most people, just in case. I've reduced the screen size some to bring the file under the forum's video file size limit.
Good luck with your build. I'm trying to concentrate on my own, too, but unfortunately it's my health that's hindering me most in that. Because of this I spend way too much time on my butt, and so it seems that about the only thing I can accomplish is piddling a little with the software.
Whether corpo-rats on your back or the monkey on mine, it seems there's always going to be something to get in our way!
Oh, when I was investigating which physics engine Golums used, I found this page:
http://ode-wiki.org/wiki/index.php?titl ... at_use_ODE
It shows other programs which use ODE.
There are some listed which might be worth investigating, too, especially some of the robot simulation programs.
This one looks like it might have a lot of potential. V-REP (Virtual Robot Experimentation Platform)
http://www.coppeliarobotics.com/
It's available for Windows, Mac and Linux and may have the sorts of tools I was looking for. It's a professional commercial program, but it is free for those using it for educational purposes and the hobbyist is included in that, so until we have success with a working device we are probably covered.
I've downloaded it, but I haven't been able to get it to work yet, probably due to issues with my current stripped down version of Linux. Maybe others will have better luck, though.
Dwayne
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re: Golems 3d sandbox physics simulation program
Hey Zhyyra,
Sorry it couldn't be of more help to you. I think I'll be able to use it, however, to try out a few of my recent ideas that I couldn't get set up in my 2D program Physion.
I'm actually finding Golems fairly easy to work with. It does take a little while to get used to thinking in 3D, though, after having mostly used a 2D program up to now.
I would highly recommend skimming through the short user's manual if you haven't. Knowing which keys on the keyboard are the "undo" and "redo" is very helpful (if you are as mistake prone as I am, at least) - as well as the "copy" and "delete" keys for the parts.
I've also found that it is much easier altering the shape of the parts and positioning them by typing their dimensions and position coordinates in the relevant text boxes rather than using the mouse. You can select a part and hit "enter" on the keyboard and change lots of variables.
An "axle" can be a motor or bearing or rotary spring. The hydraulics can be a motorized linear actuator or a linear spring or simply a linear guide. So, there are some pretty nice features hidden in there.
With "cylinders," you can change the outside and inside diameters but you can also use just an arc segment too, if you'd like, by entering the number of degrees (less than 360). This means it allows for concave surfaces, which was a problem with some other programs, I believe.
Piecing together different arc segments might give a more complex curve, but something like that might be better done in a more full featured program like Blender which has better modeling tools.
For a "sandbox" type program, though, I think Golems is pretty nice. You can also move objects around and push on things using the mouse while the simulation is running.
Of course, this information is for anyone who is interested (so don't feel obligated to respond if you don't want to, Zhyyra).
Here is a screen shot from where I was playing around with a segment of a cylinder. I tried reproducing (roughly) an idea I had seen on youtube.
I've also uploaded a video of the simulation in which I drop an "iron" cylinder onto the curved part. After the swinging settles down, I meant to give the pendulum a gentle push but ended up giving it a nice jolt instead due to my defective computer mouse.
Anyway, I hope this is helpful info for those who can use the program.
Oh, for those who use a backing disk and pin things to it in their real builds, that is pretty easy to model. Just use an "axle" and type in a very large diameter for one side of it and stick it in a box that you make "static" in space. ...then pin whatever to it.
Dwayne
Sorry it couldn't be of more help to you. I think I'll be able to use it, however, to try out a few of my recent ideas that I couldn't get set up in my 2D program Physion.
I'm actually finding Golems fairly easy to work with. It does take a little while to get used to thinking in 3D, though, after having mostly used a 2D program up to now.
I would highly recommend skimming through the short user's manual if you haven't. Knowing which keys on the keyboard are the "undo" and "redo" is very helpful (if you are as mistake prone as I am, at least) - as well as the "copy" and "delete" keys for the parts.
I've also found that it is much easier altering the shape of the parts and positioning them by typing their dimensions and position coordinates in the relevant text boxes rather than using the mouse. You can select a part and hit "enter" on the keyboard and change lots of variables.
An "axle" can be a motor or bearing or rotary spring. The hydraulics can be a motorized linear actuator or a linear spring or simply a linear guide. So, there are some pretty nice features hidden in there.
With "cylinders," you can change the outside and inside diameters but you can also use just an arc segment too, if you'd like, by entering the number of degrees (less than 360). This means it allows for concave surfaces, which was a problem with some other programs, I believe.
Piecing together different arc segments might give a more complex curve, but something like that might be better done in a more full featured program like Blender which has better modeling tools.
For a "sandbox" type program, though, I think Golems is pretty nice. You can also move objects around and push on things using the mouse while the simulation is running.
Of course, this information is for anyone who is interested (so don't feel obligated to respond if you don't want to, Zhyyra).
Here is a screen shot from where I was playing around with a segment of a cylinder. I tried reproducing (roughly) an idea I had seen on youtube.
I've also uploaded a video of the simulation in which I drop an "iron" cylinder onto the curved part. After the swinging settles down, I meant to give the pendulum a gentle push but ended up giving it a nice jolt instead due to my defective computer mouse.
Anyway, I hope this is helpful info for those who can use the program.
Oh, for those who use a backing disk and pin things to it in their real builds, that is pretty easy to model. Just use an "axle" and type in a very large diameter for one side of it and stick it in a box that you make "static" in space. ...then pin whatever to it.
Dwayne
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Furcurequs
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re: Golems 3d sandbox physics simulation program
I bought a new hard drive this week to replace my flaky old one (...and, wow, 2 TB for the same price as I paid for my old 500 GB, too! ...woohoo!), and so I should soon be able to get a full version of Linux set up again. (...if not hundreds, lol.)
I've been using a stripped down "live" version of Linux during the down time which has made evaluating some of these programs a bit more difficult than it otherwise would be due to missing libraries and related software that has to be tracked down and installed.
I hope to soon, then, be able to give another look at Blender and also evaluate the V-REP robot simulation program that I mentioned above - which really looks to me like it might have some promise.
There is certainly a lot of powerful free software out there, but it would be nice to find that magical combination of features, ease of use and functionality in but a single program.
I'm thinking that Blender may ultimately be the most powerful program to use with its modeling ability and with its new physics engine. With all that's packed into it, however, and its rather unique GUI, it probably would fail in the "ease of use" department.
Anyway, to be continued, I suppose...
ETA:
I've seen some amazing Blender simulations on youtube. Since they actually use a physics engine, they really are more than just animations and so the objects in them do appear to behave like objects in reality. Plus, visually, the renderers now available with the program appear to output some stunningly realistic imagery.
This one models dropping glass balls (I guess) onto chainmail. I think the renderer used here took advantage of the power of the Graphical Processing Unit (GPU) found in certain graphics cards, however, to speed up the rendering process.
"Festive chainmail physics simulation test -- Blender Bullet Physics SmallLuxGPU"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MhTGX_ou1EM&hd=1
Here is another nice video showing simulations of some mechanisms like those designed by Theo Jansen. If it can handle stuff like this, I'm sure my simpler wheel designs should be no problem. It looks like it could even model Renato Ribeiro's stuff. ;)
"Series of robots and "new forms of life" using Theo Jansen mechanism - Blender Bullet SmallLuxGPU"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kKSDgIhc8GI&hd=1
I've been using a stripped down "live" version of Linux during the down time which has made evaluating some of these programs a bit more difficult than it otherwise would be due to missing libraries and related software that has to be tracked down and installed.
I hope to soon, then, be able to give another look at Blender and also evaluate the V-REP robot simulation program that I mentioned above - which really looks to me like it might have some promise.
There is certainly a lot of powerful free software out there, but it would be nice to find that magical combination of features, ease of use and functionality in but a single program.
I'm thinking that Blender may ultimately be the most powerful program to use with its modeling ability and with its new physics engine. With all that's packed into it, however, and its rather unique GUI, it probably would fail in the "ease of use" department.
Anyway, to be continued, I suppose...
ETA:
I've seen some amazing Blender simulations on youtube. Since they actually use a physics engine, they really are more than just animations and so the objects in them do appear to behave like objects in reality. Plus, visually, the renderers now available with the program appear to output some stunningly realistic imagery.
This one models dropping glass balls (I guess) onto chainmail. I think the renderer used here took advantage of the power of the Graphical Processing Unit (GPU) found in certain graphics cards, however, to speed up the rendering process.
"Festive chainmail physics simulation test -- Blender Bullet Physics SmallLuxGPU"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MhTGX_ou1EM&hd=1
Here is another nice video showing simulations of some mechanisms like those designed by Theo Jansen. If it can handle stuff like this, I'm sure my simpler wheel designs should be no problem. It looks like it could even model Renato Ribeiro's stuff. ;)
"Series of robots and "new forms of life" using Theo Jansen mechanism - Blender Bullet SmallLuxGPU"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kKSDgIhc8GI&hd=1
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I don't believe in conspiracies!
I prefer working alone.
I prefer working alone.
Hi Dwayne,
Blender is a really good open source 3d software. It's improving all the time as well and great features are being developed and added by the Blender community. I love using it for 3d modeling some things and for realistic rendering of some of the work I do in my Cad/Cam package.
Thanks for the examples above. The physics side of blender is something that I still have to get round to.
At the moment though I'm placing it on hold as I really want to get started with a real-life build.
Enjoy the new hard drive.
Blender is a really good open source 3d software. It's improving all the time as well and great features are being developed and added by the Blender community. I love using it for 3d modeling some things and for realistic rendering of some of the work I do in my Cad/Cam package.
Thanks for the examples above. The physics side of blender is something that I still have to get round to.
At the moment though I'm placing it on hold as I really want to get started with a real-life build.
Enjoy the new hard drive.
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Furcurequs
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re: Golems 3d sandbox physics simulation program
Hey Zhyyra,
I played with Blender a little bit in the past when I was interested in computer animation. That may have been over a decade ago now, though. So, it will be nice to see how the program has changed and what new features have been added.
It looks like the physics engine is certainly a new addition as well as the nice ray tracing renderer(s?) - at least since I last played with it. I think it only had a built in scan line renderer last I used it.
They were working on scripts to convert the output to formats that could be rendered with some of the free ray tracing software available at the time, though. One of the best of the free ray tracers back then was probably Lightflow Rendering Tools, which people in the Blender community were pretty excited about.
I was excited about it, too, and even wrote some Python modules to convert some of the models generated by other free software to something the renderer could handle. I probably should have made those python modules public, too, but I didn't.
Anyway, the guy who wrote the Lightflow Rendering Tools only made the software available for noncommercial use, sadly. Since he didn't open source it or make it available for free commercial use, the Blender folks pretty much had to concentrate on other less impressive renderers.
Check out this image:
http://www.lightflowtech.com/images/mech3_b.jpg
That was rendered over 15 years ago! None of the other free renderers at the time could come close. ...but, again, the programmer just wouldn't open source it or let it be used for free commercially.
Since he made it available with Python bindings, I was even able to add features that it didn't inherently support. I even figured out how to illuminate a scene with High Dynamic Range (HDR) images. ...hehe
If I can find some of my old experiments, I'll try to upload some examples.
It seems the renderer Blender uses now may have finally caught up to Lightflow when it comes to the quality of the output. It's a shame they couldn't have gotten there 10 years earlier, however.
The guy who wrote Lightflow went on to work on the movie Avatar, I believe. So, his work got the right people's attention, I guess.
Here's the link to the old Lightflow site (the home page of the image above). I don't think it's even been updated in the past 15 years.
http://www.lightflowtech.com/
I played with Blender a little bit in the past when I was interested in computer animation. That may have been over a decade ago now, though. So, it will be nice to see how the program has changed and what new features have been added.
It looks like the physics engine is certainly a new addition as well as the nice ray tracing renderer(s?) - at least since I last played with it. I think it only had a built in scan line renderer last I used it.
They were working on scripts to convert the output to formats that could be rendered with some of the free ray tracing software available at the time, though. One of the best of the free ray tracers back then was probably Lightflow Rendering Tools, which people in the Blender community were pretty excited about.
I was excited about it, too, and even wrote some Python modules to convert some of the models generated by other free software to something the renderer could handle. I probably should have made those python modules public, too, but I didn't.
Anyway, the guy who wrote the Lightflow Rendering Tools only made the software available for noncommercial use, sadly. Since he didn't open source it or make it available for free commercial use, the Blender folks pretty much had to concentrate on other less impressive renderers.
Check out this image:
http://www.lightflowtech.com/images/mech3_b.jpg
That was rendered over 15 years ago! None of the other free renderers at the time could come close. ...but, again, the programmer just wouldn't open source it or let it be used for free commercially.
Since he made it available with Python bindings, I was even able to add features that it didn't inherently support. I even figured out how to illuminate a scene with High Dynamic Range (HDR) images. ...hehe
If I can find some of my old experiments, I'll try to upload some examples.
It seems the renderer Blender uses now may have finally caught up to Lightflow when it comes to the quality of the output. It's a shame they couldn't have gotten there 10 years earlier, however.
The guy who wrote Lightflow went on to work on the movie Avatar, I believe. So, his work got the right people's attention, I guess.
Here's the link to the old Lightflow site (the home page of the image above). I don't think it's even been updated in the past 15 years.
http://www.lightflowtech.com/
I don't believe in conspiracies!
I prefer working alone.
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re: Golems 3d sandbox physics simulation program
Interesting stuff Dwayne.
I still have my old Turbocad 3d modeler software by IMSI from 1998 it used ray trace and as I can remember it had very good rendering capabilities for it's time. It has chess pieces on the back of the box very similar to the ones in the gallery at lightflowtech.com.
All the rage with blender now is it's cycles render engine. It makes use of the latest OpenGL software and large amounts of graphic ram. You can virtually work in rendered or a semi-rendered mode if you like. Or as you manipulate you model on screen to move it and rotate it, it remains rendered. My PC woulld chug out smoke signals if it had to perform like that.
At the moment I like to use it's standard render engine for my models. All my clients require are stills of there products so that's fine.
Here's a pic of a paint mixer that I designed for a recent client. I designed the plastic injection mold for them too and they are in the process of having the mold made.
I still have my old Turbocad 3d modeler software by IMSI from 1998 it used ray trace and as I can remember it had very good rendering capabilities for it's time. It has chess pieces on the back of the box very similar to the ones in the gallery at lightflowtech.com.
All the rage with blender now is it's cycles render engine. It makes use of the latest OpenGL software and large amounts of graphic ram. You can virtually work in rendered or a semi-rendered mode if you like. Or as you manipulate you model on screen to move it and rotate it, it remains rendered. My PC woulld chug out smoke signals if it had to perform like that.
At the moment I like to use it's standard render engine for my models. All my clients require are stills of there products so that's fine.
Here's a pic of a paint mixer that I designed for a recent client. I designed the plastic injection mold for them too and they are in the process of having the mold made.
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re: Golems 3d sandbox physics simulation program
Hey Zhyyra,
I've not worked much with CAD programs, but I did look at a few free ones back when I was seeking out free modeling and animation software. I don't remember the rendering ability of any of the free ones being all that impressive, though they were probably adequate for that purpose, I guess.
I've not worked with Turbocad at all.
I've seen a youtube video showing someone working with Cycles in Blender as they modeled a scene. It really does look quite amazing, but I'm sure one would need a rather fast computer for that, as you suggest. My current computer only has a Celeron D 3.3 ghz processor and I salvaged it from the dump! ...lol So, no multiple cores nor fast graphics cards for me.
I do have quite a few old computers I once had networked together. I was up near 15 or 20 ghz in total processing power, I think. (A fraction of my 27 old Dells I bought used off of ebay for $200 and upgraded to faster processors.) I'm not sure how they would stack up against a modern multiple core computer, though.
Nice paint mixer. Do they have automated equipment that make the injection molds directly from the CAD files? ...as in actual CAD/CAM. I've been away from engineering for 2 1/2 decades, so I'm not familiar with just where things are.
I last worked for a contract firm that was involved with designing and documenting the production lines in chemical plants. The CAD they used was for just producing the hard copy drawings.
I found some of my experiments with the Lightflow Rendering Tools. Since it didn't have a standard interface, not very many people have worked with it.
The free POV-Ray ray tracer was quite popular on the internet at the time and there were lots of modeling tools available for it, however. POV-Ray used its own scripting language and so model information was in the form of large text files with mesh co-ordinates and whatnot.
I therefore wrote a python module to convert POV-Ray model files to a format that Lightflow could use. I was then able to use some of the POV-Ray modeling tools to create objects to put in my Lightflow scenes.
The lamp and chess piece in this I modeled in a nice little program called Hamapatch, I believe, which used spline based modeling. I then added those objects to the overall scripted scene. Lightflow's radiosity and caustics make for some quite realistic renders.
Oh, and I apparently added a couple of attractive e-mail order brides to decorate the fake room. ;P
I think I modeled the ball and cup in Hamapatch here, also, and placed them into my scene, but I then illuminated the scene with an HDR image I found on the internet. So, the background scene is an actual picture.
Lightflow did not have that feature built into it, but I was able to cheat, so to speak, by extracting multiple exposures from an HDR image and then use features in Lightflow to scale their magnitude and then add them back together within Lightflow itself. It seems to have worked quite well.
In the animation, I think the helmet is a Hamapatch model, too, but one I found on the internet, I believe. I set the material to be orange glass. The chrome mask is something I whipped out really quickly in Hamapatch.
ETA:
Oh, and these are approximately 10 years old, too. So, it's a shame that Lightflow could not have been integrated into Blender back then. I think it was used in some commercial programs, however.
I'd forgotten, but I think Hamapatch may have been able to export files that could be rendered by Lightflow. So, I might not have needed my python module here. I can't remember for sure.
I've not worked much with CAD programs, but I did look at a few free ones back when I was seeking out free modeling and animation software. I don't remember the rendering ability of any of the free ones being all that impressive, though they were probably adequate for that purpose, I guess.
I've not worked with Turbocad at all.
I've seen a youtube video showing someone working with Cycles in Blender as they modeled a scene. It really does look quite amazing, but I'm sure one would need a rather fast computer for that, as you suggest. My current computer only has a Celeron D 3.3 ghz processor and I salvaged it from the dump! ...lol So, no multiple cores nor fast graphics cards for me.
I do have quite a few old computers I once had networked together. I was up near 15 or 20 ghz in total processing power, I think. (A fraction of my 27 old Dells I bought used off of ebay for $200 and upgraded to faster processors.) I'm not sure how they would stack up against a modern multiple core computer, though.
Nice paint mixer. Do they have automated equipment that make the injection molds directly from the CAD files? ...as in actual CAD/CAM. I've been away from engineering for 2 1/2 decades, so I'm not familiar with just where things are.
I last worked for a contract firm that was involved with designing and documenting the production lines in chemical plants. The CAD they used was for just producing the hard copy drawings.
I found some of my experiments with the Lightflow Rendering Tools. Since it didn't have a standard interface, not very many people have worked with it.
The free POV-Ray ray tracer was quite popular on the internet at the time and there were lots of modeling tools available for it, however. POV-Ray used its own scripting language and so model information was in the form of large text files with mesh co-ordinates and whatnot.
I therefore wrote a python module to convert POV-Ray model files to a format that Lightflow could use. I was then able to use some of the POV-Ray modeling tools to create objects to put in my Lightflow scenes.
The lamp and chess piece in this I modeled in a nice little program called Hamapatch, I believe, which used spline based modeling. I then added those objects to the overall scripted scene. Lightflow's radiosity and caustics make for some quite realistic renders.
Oh, and I apparently added a couple of attractive e-mail order brides to decorate the fake room. ;P
I think I modeled the ball and cup in Hamapatch here, also, and placed them into my scene, but I then illuminated the scene with an HDR image I found on the internet. So, the background scene is an actual picture.
Lightflow did not have that feature built into it, but I was able to cheat, so to speak, by extracting multiple exposures from an HDR image and then use features in Lightflow to scale their magnitude and then add them back together within Lightflow itself. It seems to have worked quite well.
In the animation, I think the helmet is a Hamapatch model, too, but one I found on the internet, I believe. I set the material to be orange glass. The chrome mask is something I whipped out really quickly in Hamapatch.
ETA:
Oh, and these are approximately 10 years old, too. So, it's a shame that Lightflow could not have been integrated into Blender back then. I think it was used in some commercial programs, however.
I'd forgotten, but I think Hamapatch may have been able to export files that could be rendered by Lightflow. So, I might not have needed my python module here. I can't remember for sure.
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I don't believe in conspiracies!
I prefer working alone.
I prefer working alone.
re: Golems 3d sandbox physics simulation program
Yes Dwayne virtually the whole process is a CAD/CAM process. They will take the cavities that I have supplied them with in 3d CAD and use a CAM package to machine out the cavities with CNC machines. Or they will use CNC's to machine the positive forms from copper or graphite and EDM (Electric Discharge Machining) the cavities into the mold plates.Nice paint mixer. Do they have automated equipment that make the injection molds directly from the CAD files? ...as in actual CAD/CAM. I've been away from engineering for 2 1/2 decades, so I'm not familiar with just where things are.
Some nice renders that you did there. I like the picture within the picture (the email brides), can have the email addy? :-)
Persevere to succeed.