AutoCAD's 3D solids were last updated in v2000 with the addition of the SolEdit command. The lack of subsequent enhancements has given third-party developers a niche, such as AutoSolids (US$495). It features:
- Constraint-free parametric creation and editing of solids
- Realtime previews of all solid modeling operations.
- Cutting solids with open or closed 2D profiles, direct extrusion of text objects into solids, retraction of boolean operations, and more.
- Automatic generation of multiview 2D drawings.
- Exclusive 3D command center
A demo version can be downloaded from autosolids.com. AutoSolids v3.13 supports AutoCAD Release 14.01 through 2006, as well as all versions of Mechanical Desktop and Architectural Desktop.
Why doesn't Autodesk just buy AutoSolids like they have just done with Alias and incorporate it into the standard AutoCAD software. This will give a big boost to 3D AutoCAD without Autodesk having to do anymore development or enhancement on there own. Also this would perhaps stem the tide of small to mid-size companies abandoning AutoCAD for other higher price mid-range CAD software such as SolidWorks or Solid Edge. This could effect Inventor of course however Inventor would be offered to these small to mid-size companies if they needed a stronger parametrically based solid modeler instead of the boolean based AutoSolids.
Posted by: Saud Handy | Oct 13, 2005 at 05:46 AM