Rhino for Mac

[Brian]

Has anyone figured out how to get nice clean geometry out of rhino and into EI?

 

-Brian

[kikems]

exporting via OBJ

[maher]

You can also export .SAT files, import it in EI Modeler if you have it and a computer that still can run it and reexport in FACT from there. It a tedious process but it was a path Paul Sherstobitoff told us because you get a FACT file much cleaner from Modeler (lot less polygons for the same quality).

 

Maher

[Brian]

Thanks for the responses. I've been trying to figure out a way to ditch EI modeler (because it requires an older system and I would LOVE to upgrade but....)

 

The biggest problem I've had with OBJ is "tearing" on the rounds.

 

I may try the OBJ again but the problem is it seems like almost no NURBS modeler tessellates well in contrast to EI modeler. I get so much "tearing" in every export I make from a NURBS based modeler if it's not coming out of EI Modeler. That's why I was asking if anyone has had success with it.

 

According to AutoDesSys they are still trying to figure out how to get clean models out of Form•Z and Bonzai. Apparently, Spacial (the company that makes the ACIS system) doesn't have a good solution for tessellation like EI Modeler had.

 

I tried the demo of MOI and it seemed great at first until I looked closely at the rounds. I could not get the tessellation clean Like in Modeler.

 

I'm trying to figure out how everyone is dealing with NURBS models without EI Modeler. :-/

 

 

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On a side note for those who may need to get EI Modeler running on a new Mac that ships with 10.7/8

 

My new Mac Pro 12-core shipped with 10.8. I imaged 10.6 onto a firewire drive and used carbon copy to bring over the image of 10.6 onto the second hard drive in the Mac Pro. Option boot and choose your system an BAM!! EI Modeler does work perfectly  when running 10.6 on an Intel machine.

 

JUST BE SURE TO MAKE SURE YOU INSTALLED ROSETTA into 10.6. This is what allows Mac PPC apps run on an Intel Processor!

 

Hope that helps.

 

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Well, I hope we find a solution for this tessellation problem some day.

 

-Brian

[Frankg]

I use ViaCAD/Shark for fact-export. It works fine.

As it read Rhino-files and can repair them automatically it's my first choice to get rhino-models into EIAS.

Another good solution, but a bit pricy is solidthinking evolve. It has an adaptive tessellation-tool which allows you to decide how much polygons you get at a particular part of your model.

 

regards

 

Frankg

[Be.eM]

According to AutoDesSys they are still trying to figure out how to get clean models out of Form•Z and Bonzai. Apparently, Spacial (the company that makes the ACIS system) doesn't have a good solution for tessellation like EI Modeler had.

 

FormZ has lost the ease of FACT conversion sometimes around FZ v3 or EIAS 4 (I don't remember the exact versions). Before, when both were at 2.x.x, it went smoothly without too much thinking.

 

Today it's still possible to get good geometry from FZ to EIAS, but it won't work with any of the simple tesselation settings. You need to override the display resolution settings with detailed settings, especially the maximum segment length and the surface deviation are important. Both settings need to be optimized relatively to the absolute object size.

 

The ACIS engine from Spatial is not necessarily the only culprit. It's also used by ViaCAD and Shark...

 

I use ViaCAD/Shark for fact-export. It works fine.

 

Yep. Did they fix the color issue meanwhile? With Shark 7 objects still come in black (until you disable "use Polygon color").

 

Bernd