3DPlaying with AutoCAD

rojren

I worked on this a coupla years back. I thought I'd go back to it, and try, yet again, to learn a bit.

This is a Bose-Einstein Condensate Tanker. It carries a metallic hydrogen cargo. This is the support frame.

frame.png

I have also played a bit with AutoCAD's 'animation' output.
http://www.rogerrenfrow.com/mpg1.mpg
It's a pretty large file.

rojren

Adding to the structure.

frame2.png


Trying a suggested file format and compression.
http://www.rogerrenfrow.com/mp4_1.mp4
It's a somewhat smaller file

rojren

frame3a.jpgdrive1a.jpg


http://www.rogerrenfrow.com/mpg4_2.mp4

evil_genius_180

This is pretty cool so far. Is it from an existing universe or something you made up yourself?

rojren

It's all from my poor, bored, damaged mind.

It's the same 'universe' as http://www.scifi-meshes.com/forums/showthread.php?49757-Citadel&highlight=citadel

evil_genius_180

I like the Citadel a lot.

(I posted that here so that nobody fishslaps me for necro posting. )

Knight26

Interesting concept I like to so far, will like to see how it progresses. Oh and welcome to the autocad club, few of us here.

rojren

Thank you, evil_genius_180, and Knight26.

After I got the download notice for AutoCAD 2013 today, I realized I've been playing with AutoCAD for around 21 years now. I'm not sure what to think about that.

rojren

Adding some details to the sublight drive unit.

drive2a.jpg

evil_genius_180

Looks good.

rojren

Adding more stuff to the drive unit.

drive3.jpg


drive section rotated view

rojren

Added more stuff to the sublight drive unit. Let's call it a "tunneling ion drive". The disk toward the bottom is the translight or "teleportal drive".

drive4.jpg


link

evil_genius_180

Looking good.

rojren

Added the tank support/isolation structures.

0412b.jpg


link to animation

rojren

Added fore/aft dock stations. I'll have to remake these. Something funky happened to the fillets and chamfers.

build0413.jpg

rojren

Rebuilt the dock stations.


dock build 0416.jpg

Knight26

I like what I see very much, now do you plan to apply any texturing to this, if you do I know quite a lot about how to texture in AutoCAD, feel free to ask, just see some of my WIPs to see the results, though not all those are the best, FYI. Also are you using the ACAD renderer or a 3rd party?

rojren

Thank you. I haven't thought much about textures yet. I still have a few chapters of my 3D modeling book to get to that cover that. The last time I looked at any of this (a few versions back) I wasn't much impressed with what AutoCAD (and my POS work computer) could do.

Right now I'm just using the Realistic or Shaded 'visual control' setting to get a screen cap that I tweak in Paint Shop Pro.

I'll be sure check your WIPs and see what ideas I can steal.

rojren

AutoCAD was being a b*tch today. Commands just decided not to work.

Anyway. I managed to get the valve dock added.

build 0417.jpg valve dock 0417.jpg



link

rojren

I've added some navigation thrusters, a keen racing stripe and after trying and failing for three days, managed to figure out how to add numbers to the spherical tank.

0419a.jpg

rojren

Started working on the habitat section. Not too happy with it at the moment. It reminds me of the Iron Giant.

build0420.jpg habitat build0420.jpg

akb1979

rojren wrote: »

It's all from my poor, bored, damaged mind.

It's the same 'universe' as http://www.scifi-meshes.com/forums/showthread.php?49757-Citadel&highlight=citadel

Link not working.

Liking what you've done so far.

rojren

akb1979 wrote: »

Link not working.

Liking what you've done so far.

Thank you. Hmmn... It looks like that thread was culled. Here it is again.

citadel_small.jpg

here's the big version:
link

akb1979

Thank you, me likey.

evil_genius_180

It looks good to me. But, I also haven't seen The Iron Giant.

Doomsponge

That Citadel beastie's a really interesting design. Not enough starships have what I can only describe as fuel tanks and loading cranes. If they aren't, fair enough, but it's not meant negatively. Not enough starships do have fuel tanks or cranes.

rojren

evil_genius_180 wrote: »

It looks good to me. But, I also haven't seen The Iron Giant.

I recommend it. The movie. I couldn't get into the book.

Doomsponge wrote: »

That Citadel beastie's a really interesting design. Not enough starships have what I can only describe as fuel tanks and loading cranes. If they aren't, fair enough, but it's not meant negatively. Not enough starships do have fuel tanks or cranes.

Yeah, those are storage tanks. Since I drew this back in the 1980's (pencils, T-squares, etc.) I'm not completely clear on what some of the rest of the features are. I remember that it is a ridiculous 40 kilometers long, was loaded with scads of weapon, troops, ships, factories, and was a boondoggle and out-dated before it was completed. I may have the back-story written down somewhere.

This tanker is a much more modest size. The tank is about 80 meters.

rojren

Worked on the habitat, added consumables storage and played with output options. I still need to figure that out.

build0423 Model (1).jpg build0423 Model (2).jpg

rojren

I have found COLOR! Then I lost it. Actually, I'm experimenting, trying to find out how to get a good jpg / png from AutoCAD. It's pretty kludgy. I'm getting weird white lines across the image.


build0424 Model (1).jpg buggy Model (1).jpg

The other, less colorful image is an early idea for a ROV or 'buggy' for the tanker.

rojren

Some more work on the buggy - mostly on the robot arms.

buggy0425 Model (1).jpg

rojren

The buggy, shown with its redesigned arms deployed, and stowed.


buggy0426 Model (1).jpg build0426 Model (1a).jpg


It was going to be quite a bit smaller, but it didn't end up that way.