Basic Questions and Initial Thoughts

[Anonymous]

Hello,

I have been looking into switching from the T-Splines plugin in Rhino to SpeedForm and Alias.  I have a few basic questions and some thoughts as I continue to play around with a trial version of Speedform.  I am sure I will have more questions as I dive deeper, I will continue to add them to this thread.  I aplogize in advance if any of these have already been asked/answered.  Any help is appreciated!

Questions:

1.  It seems that Fusion 360 and Speedform are currently very similar at first glance [Other than that Fusion 360 is "cloud enabled"] .  Is there additional t-splines functionality within Speedform that Fusion 360 does not have?...Or is there additional functionality planned for a later date?  The price discrepancy between the two would suggest so, but I have not had a change to play around with Fusion 360 yet.

2.  I can turn on zebra stripes within "Inspect", but I cant seem to find a way to turn them off?...I am sure I am missing something simple here 

3.  I did not see a hotkey for welding vertices?...I use this a ton in T-Splines for Rhino and it seems cumbersome to have to click weld in the toolbar every time...although I do realize the tool stays open for multiple use which is nice

Thoughts:

1.  I know this has been brought up in the forum, but it would be really helpful to be able to customize the hotkeys...I am so used to the T-Splines commands in Rhino I'd like to mimic these [smoothing, welding, extruding, edit-form mode, views, etc.]

2.  I would love to be able to freehand sketch in 3d directly within Speedform [for use with a Wacom tablet]...Myabe as a fourth category Sculpt, Detailing, Render, and "Sketch",  Similar to paint in Alias, but more like Sketchbook Pro for use on a chosen plane would be really helpful... Something similar to uMake would be even cooler.  

Thanks a lot for the help.  

Cheers,

Peter

[Anonymous]

Another question I have come across:

In Rhino, if I convert from t-Splines to "Rhino NURBS", export as an igs, and open in SolidWorks, the surface patches are simplified[visually]...not all of the "isoparms" are shown.

In Speedform, if I convert from t-Splines to "BRep", export as an igs, and open in SolidWorks, the surface patch layout is identical to the t-splines layout in Speedform:

Is there an conversion or export setting within Speedform to get similar behavior to Rhino?  Or is this difference coming from the SolidWorks side [I do not fully understand the back-end of this conversion]?    With the current behavior [t-splines patch layout preserved], it gets pretty messy in SolidWorks, particulary when working in drawings since these edges cannot be hidden.

Thanks!

[msederberg]

Hi Peter,

thanks for your post!

1. Yes. Much of this is in our new product extension (just relesaed). Other SpeedForm specific items include the Lattice command, straighten vertices command, cv curves, different edit form behavior, etc.

2. in the browser, click the analysis lightbulb to turn it off - it's persistent. This usually needs to be explained...

3. Now there is a hotkey in PE 1...

1. See PE 1...

2. Interesting. What about uMake do you find most compelling?

Thanks,

Matt

[msederberg]

yes this is an option in preferences. We default to converting each face to a separate NURBS since we had a lot of feedback that when exporting to Alias, this makes it easier for car modelers to read the design - to still have these isocurves visible. But you can switch to As Large As possible, which is what you're likely used to.

[Anonymous]

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@msederberg wrote:

Hi Peter,

thanks for your post!

1. Yes. Much of this is in our new product extension (just relesaed). Other SpeedForm specific items include the Lattice command, straighten vertices command, cv curves, different edit form behavior, etc.

2. in the browser, click the analysis lightbulb to turn it off - it's persistent. This usually needs to be explained...

3. Now there is a hotkey in PE 1...

1. See PE 1...

2. Interesting. What about uMake do you find most compelling?

Thanks,

Matt

---

Hi Matt,

Thanks a lot for the reply, much appreciated!  That is funny timing...The PE sounds like it has some great enhancements, I look forward to trying it out.

1.  Will the product extension be availble to education trials?

2.  All clear, thanks...seems very obvious now

3.  Awesome

4.  I mention uMake without ever trying it, so I could be way off.  But watching the demo videos makes it look very intuitive/fast to sketch out quick concepts.  I think this is mainly because of the ability to quickly rotate your model and sketch from multiple perspectives...rather than being limited to a single plane/canvas [at one time].  The 3d concept sketching would be nice to use as a starting reference for t-spline surfaces which could then be further refined.

[Anonymous]

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@msederberg wrote:

yes this is an option in preferences. We default to converting each face to a separate NURBS since we had a lot of feedback that when exporting to Alias, this makes it easier for car modelers to read the design - to still have these isocurves visible. But you can switch to As Large As possible, which is what you're likely used to.

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Perfect, thanks a lot Matt.  

That makes sense...It is nice to know I can change this depending on my exporting goals.

[msederberg]

We're in the process of getting the free trial available - I'm not sure what you mean by "education trial" though - this should all be free for you as part of AutoStudio if you're a student? Thanks for your sketching thoughts! Matt

[Anonymous]

Sorry for the confusion...Yes I mean the student trial of AutoStudio.

In the Autodesk Application Manager the only update that comes up is the 2016 SP1 from 06/09/15.  I see the same when logging in and going to product updates.

Is this where the PR would appear?

Thanks

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Sorry for the confusion...Yes I mean the student trial of AutoStudio.

In the Autodesk Application Manager the only update that comes up is the 2016 SP1 from 06/09/15.  I see the same when logging in and going to product updates.

Is this where the PR would appear?

Thanks

---

[Anonymous]

Watching this tutoral on the YouTube AutodeskEd channel, it shows that there are "Auto-Save Options" to set an incremental save option within the General Preferences [Attached Image].  This option does not appear on my current version....Has this functionality been removed?

Thanks

[msederberg]

Strange, I only have Product Extension 1 (the very latest version) installed and the AutoSave options *do* show up there. I can't recall if they were out of SP 1 for any reason.

[Anonymous]

OK, thanks for checking. I will confirm that these options show up in PE1 for me as well as soon as I can get it installed [See issues in previous post].

Cheers

[Michael-GG]

No, it hasn't been removed. This option is new in the latest release PE1, it didn't exist in 2016 SP1.

Cheers,

GG

[Anonymous]

OK, thanks GG.

Will PE1 be availble to download with a student trial?...Currently the only update available is SP1.

Cheers

[Michael-GG]

It is under discussion to make this avaiable as trial. @msederberg will let you know once the decision is made.

Cheers,

GG

[Anonymous]

Great.

Thanks GG, thanks Matt.

For some additional input from my side.  I am looking to purchase Alias Concept shortly for professional use, but want to be certain about the functionality of Speedform and its workflow as opposed to T-Splines in Rhino [PE1 adds a lot of great features I was looking for]...Plus any time I can gain learning before the purchase will really help.  A trial is handy for these reasons.

I look forward to hearing what you decide.

Cheers

[Anonymous]

Some more general feedback:

I have found the edit form manipulator in Speedform to be less intuitive than what I am accustom to in Rhino or Modo.  In these programs the directions to translate, rotate or scale are colored to match the coordinate system.  I am finding it difficult to quickly tell what "arrow" correlates to what direction since they are all colored the same...I end up doing more trial-and-error...choosing an arrow and then undoing if I choose the incorrect direction.  I'd love the see the manipulator colored differently per direction, or as an option, in case others prefer the current design.

[Michael-GG]

Totally agree with you. This is know as 2179, I will try to get this in as soon as possible.

Thanks for your feedback,

GG

[Anonymous]

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@Michael-GG wrote:

Totally agree with you. This is know as 2179, I will try to get this in as soon as possible.

Thanks for your feedback,

GG

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Awesome!

Thanks GG

[Anonymous]

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msederberg wrote:

Hi Peter,

thanks for your post!

2. Interesting. What about uMake do you find most compelling?

Thanks,

Matt

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stretchoranamo wrote:

4.  I mention uMake without ever trying it, so I could be way off.  But watching the demo videos makes it look very intuitive/fast to sketch out quick concepts.  I think this is mainly because of the ability to quickly rotate your model and sketch from multiple perspectives...rather than being limited to a single plane/canvas [at one time].  The 3d concept sketching would be nice to use as a starting reference for t-spline surfaces which could then be further refined.

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I know this is super old...But mayber a better example than uMake to bring up would be Catia Natural Sketch.

Something that could be used intially [in 3d] to develop concepts and direction for t-spline surfaces...And later in development you could sketch directly on surfaces for further refinement/ideation.

Cheers