#GIF
22 messages in this thread
Wasn;t there supposed to be a Gif convertor from you guys recently???
There will soon be a converter called RGBExchange that will allow you to
convert between much more than gif & rgb8 formats… It will include these
formats:
RGBN / RGB8
Sculpt/Animate 24 bit
DGVW 21 bit (Digiview)
IMG8 (Progressive Perip.)
Targa Tips / ICB 16 and 24 bit
Gif
IFF
It will convert to or from any of these formats, and will let you scale the
images to other sizes if needed.
The program is just about finished (VERY SOON)…..
Troy Barlow PS: There are some sample images
floating around here. Some are in RGB8 form,
and there are some in DGVW form. Check DL4 here and DL1 in AmigaArts…
Will it be a PD prg or will it be for Diamond??
It will not to PD, and its output can be used with Diamond, but it has no
ties with Diamond…
Troy
Speaking of translators, anyone want to take a crack at a Turbo Silver to IGES
format – I'm trying to learn GDS ( a Mcdonnell Douglas program ) at school, and
thought it might be fun to move some stuff back and forth….
Kevin
Wish you had caught me about 9 months ago; I wrote a BJD to IGES converter
and pretty well knew IGES inside-out. It's all slipped away, now…
<sigh>
Dear Richard – Slipped away !?! Back to work ! Actually, I spoke with a
guy at school about such graphics conversions, apparently theres alot of
problems in converting data, at least in the workstation world, and IGES is
at best a lowest common denominator standardbut still, the more
interconnectivity the better, I say….
Back to work??? Hah! I've been hard at work on far more interesting things
than BJD -> IGES converters lately, thank you very much. The IGES
converter was a nice challenge, but once done there's VERY little
encouragement to remember all the gory details. 8)
While not exactly a TS to IGES path, the recently announced program ACAD
Translator from Access Technologies, Inc., P.O. Box 202197, Austin, TX
78720, (512) 343-9564 is supposed to be able to translate AutoCAD .DXF
files to Sculpt-3D format. Since AutoCAD Release 10 is supposed to be able
to read IGES, and the Interchange program from Syndesis will handle the
Sculpt to TS conversion (with the addition of a TS conversion module), IN
THEORY you could get from IGES to TS (whew!). I don't know about going the
other direction. Theres's a review of ACAD Translator in the April issue of
The Amiga Sentry. It retails for $179.95. I've been considering it for
going from our mainframe CAD system at work to the Amiga via a 386 PC
running Autocad. Not exactly elegant, but if it works…
ACad doesn't go the other way. It can't convert Sculpt to AutoCAD, as far as
I've heard.
That's too bad. I hope that as more high-end CAD software for the Amiga is
developed, there will be a path (perhaps provided by you?) for interchange
of data bases with the PC world. IGES, for better or for worse, appears to
be a standard that Amiga CAD will have to contend with. At least with
something like ACAD on the street, the possibility is there to take very
detailed data bases from the mainframe CAD at the aerospace company I work
for and get them to the Amiga for rendering and animation. I'm working on
selling this concept (and a high-end Amiga configuration) to the powers
that be for doing PR-type stuff, product visualization, etc., without
having to rebuild the data base from scratch in Sculpt or Turbo Silver
(TIME is MONEY!). At any rate, I owe you guys a debt of thanks for what
you've done with Interchange – it works, it works well, and it's been worth
its weight in gold to me as I transition from the Sculpt learning curve to
Turbo Silver. I love being able to use each program for what it does
best. Looking forward to your 3.0 module… Your Fan, Joe Pizzicaroli
Both Impulse and Syndesis: I to must extend thanks to both of your
organizations for the effort you have have put into your products. I have
been using Turbo SV for a few days now and enjoying it imensly. (well
something like that). I was assuming that when Stan said the editor would
have grid snap and grid size, that it would also be displayed. How bout
next time OK guys?? And I find Interfont to be an indispensible part of my
environment as well and I am looking forward to the upgrade. Last but not
least.. thanks for being on CIS so that we can communicate with you.
Duane – We opted to not display the grid, cause it just looked too messy.
The other problem, that without having square pixels on the AMiga, it get s
to be a problem editing fine detail. <–Stan
I think your message was meant for either Impulse or Syndesis reps. I am
neither – just another happy user like yourself. I'm using TS for a major,
major spacecraft video animation project and am constantly delighted to
discover a feature or capability that's just what I'm looking for. I
originally did all my object creation in Sculpt-Animate 4D (before I
purchased TS), and I'm indebted to the folks at Syndesis for saving me
many, many, many hours had it been necessary to rebuild all from scratch.
If you like "space stuff" check out my animations TDRS.ARC and ORBITR.ARC
over in the AmigaArts forum (look out, George Lucas!). [Apologies to
Stan/Mike – those animations were BTS (Before Turbo Silver) – wait 'til you
see what's coming!]
Dear Joe – thanks for the info about the AutoCad translator, I'll check it
out. As a grad student studying architecture, I am always interested in
ways of using the "standards" in the mainframe and PC worlds, connecting
said standards to the Amiga, etc.. I love the Amiga, especially because of
software such as Turbo Silver, Interchange, etc…and I'm glad and
heartened to hear that you are utilizing the Amiga in your profession.
Sadly, the Amiga does not fit well into the Architectural profession as
yet. I am still waiting for a decent CAD system, as well as a 3-D program
with boolean operations (for windows, doors, etc), not to mention plotter
support. I am using Mac II's at work and school, as well as attempting to
use GDS at school. Until the next generation (IF) of Amiga modeling and
CAD stuff comes out, I'll stick with the Mac. that said, i have yet to run
into a Mac or workstation computer program which is as FUN and enjoyable to
run than Turbo. If only it could be output to a plotter…
Joe: I have been working a similar problem for Boeing for some time now. I
can give you some very good information about why it is possible to go from
a CAD program (we run CATIA on IBM mainframes) to a graphics arts,
publishing, technical illustration, or paint or rendering program, but not
vice-versa. Also, you of course are aware that IGES is soon (1992) to be
superceded by PDES (Product Data Exchange Specification) with an increase
in functionality of at least an order of magnitude. Several new database
technologies will play a major part in the PDES specification. Also, the
FEDS and the military are ready to jump on PDES and will include it in CALS
(Computer Aided Logistics Support) as soon as it becomes available. By the
way, what Aerospace firm do you work for?
No, actually I am not familiar with PDES. Another "standard" – where
does it end. Actually, if the trend results in all machines/software being
able to share data files, then I'm all for it.
In response to your question, I work for Ball Aerospace – Space Systems
Division in Boulder, Colorado. I'm really not very familiar with CAD,
either mainframe or PC-based. I have just tossed around the idea at work
of rendering and animating our spacecraft and other product designs via the
Amiga. There is a lot of interest, but nobody's rushing out and buying
hardware just yet.
Recently, our PR department spent $2800 to have an outside firm render a
flashy chrome flying logo for a corporate video. I quickly slapped
together a comparable product with my Amiga and made their chins drop. No,
it didn't have the resolution/crispness of the professional product, but
they couldn't believe that such things could be done with a PC, much less
one that doesn't speak MS-DOS!
Just for info… I checked out ACAD Translator a month or more ago, and
found thatt it worked fine with its demo files, but that it failed on two
of three release 9 files I downloaded from the ACAD forum… Also, I am
doing some work rendering for a fellow who uses ACAD alot, and he bought
it, and has found real incompatibility problems too… so… it's ability
is highly questionable… (It seems to get really fouled up with a lot of
ACAD commands in files, and have real problems with extra spaces in
lines??) Maybe they have fixed by now?? I've suggested to Syndesis that
they release a working A-Cad module; it would be GREAT! (cause I know it
would work!) –jp–
That's the general impression I'm getting about ACAD. Too bad, it can
only be a good thing for the Amiga if we are able to pull in 3D data bases
from elsewhere for rendering (and Autocad Release 10 is VERY widely used
out there). Syndesis – any takers?
Yea it SURE would be nice if one could just pop an AutoCAD file in and…
whoosh* there's your rendered object*** (natch you would need to do some
cleaning up, but that's ok…) By being able to access AutoCAD files,
there could be the largest collection of 'clip' 3d objects available* (oh
well… heck, I'm still looking for a GOOD plain old IFF –> 3d obect
converter… I WANT to be able to take a logo (digitized/cleaned up/etc)
and automatically clean it up, and create a Sculpt/Silver/V3D file. There
are several attempts out there, but I have yet to find one that works well.
It can't be THAT difficult?? oh well…
I hear you! The only time I've played with 3d logos, I wanted to animate
my company's logo, all chromed up (just like the big boys do). What I
ended up doing was enlarging the logo via a photocopier, making a
transparency and then taping that to a piece of graph paper and copying
that. Then I hand-drew points at appropriate spacings around the logo and
read off the (x,y) coordinates. Next step, make a script file for Sculpt,
read in the contours and connect the dots to create appropriate faces.
Finally, extrude to desired thickness, set surface attributes, lighting,
motion, etc. and render away. Talk about Stone Age Brute Force! – but it
worked and was quite impressive. But it would have been WONDERFUL to just
digitize the sucker, press some magic software button and there you have
it! Oh well, give it time… – Joe
I think Syndesis (in the vendor seg) has a program which permits you to
import iff fonts, draw around them on screen with the mouse, and thereby
create 3d objects for Silver, Sculpt, etc.
I'm not sure, but it might also be usable for a single iff object like a
logo. Why not ask them about it if you plan ot do more of this sort of
thing?