CompuServe Thread

Next week, I hope to accomplish two things. I'm visiting the local AD dealer for a demo on AD Animator, ACAD and 3D Studio. Then on Wed, I'm going to my first Siggraph which should be a gas. I'm an independent product devloper who would like to "flesh out" new concepts, many of which are mechanical. At the SCES in Chicago a couple of weeks ago I saw a demonstration of the SGI/Alias ability to "model" and "render" a product on the screen in real time, complete with action elements. Knowing the big difference in price, what I want to know is there a way to do similar quick animation and rendering using AD products? What are the minimum system requirements and how much of an investment am I looking at to maybe do whatever the SGI setup does in say… twice the time? BTW, is there any support for SGI/Alias here on *CIS*? Thanks for the help. Mike/MA