We don't want software reviews, we want testimonials. Now that the design and communication process has been permanently altered by technology, we would like your input on the relationship of ID and high-tech.

What single software application can you not function without?

It could be that you now only communicate via e-mail, or that 3D renderings MUST be done through the computer, or that you deal in multimedia, or any of a million possibilities. At CORE we embrace these changes, but what do you think?


www.inquire.de

heidi boettinger - <heidi.boettinger < a t > inquire.de> - germany

I design fitness equipment for a small company. I would have to say that even though I still do some concepting on paper, the majority of my work is done on the computer. I prefer to use form•Z, even though I have experience with 3D Studio Max and AutoCAD rel. 14. form•Z is a very intuitive program and it allows you to model and design any form you can think of existing( or not existing). You can also export your files to a plethora of other file formats from 2D(TIFF, PICT,etc.) to 3D(DWG, DXF, 3DMF, etc.). It even lets you do stereolithography for rapid prototypingwith its STL file formatting. Plus with it being a solid modeller you also have drafting and dimensioning module in it. I love form•Z; it's the modelling software of the future. I also use QuarkXpress to do presentations of my designs to clients and other intra-office personnel. I've used PageMaker for as long as I've used Quark and I prefer Quark. I also like Photoshop. Finally, I would have to say that I love using e-mail applications such as Microsoft Outlook Express to be able to send my designs to clients and manufacturers around the world instantaneously. It's quicker than next day air delivery and with the various encryption abilities it's much more reliable and safer from interception by unwanted persons.

Robert M. - <rob < a t > ncsi.net> - Springfield, MO

I-deas 6.0

Veikko Viitanen -

Great

Heikko Vatanen -

ALIAS is simply the best.

Don't try it, or you'll be addicted to it.

Robert Chua - <inspirelabs < a t > yahoo.com> - johor, malaysia

I would have to say Alias Studio, cause you can create with no limits virtual objects that can become reality in a matter of days. For fun I would add studiopaint, but once you know and use Studio, you're just as fast in making the real 3D thing.
and it fun!!!!

olivier

Olivier - <boinais < a t > bertrandfaure.com> - paris france

It all depends on what you are IN TO !!
Engineering, ID, Pipping and ARCHITECTURE.

There is no doubt MICROSTATION TRIFORMA is
the only package purposely designed for
Architects.

Have a look at http://www.wizcom.co.za
They have a site for most designers.

I have worked on many packages but this one
blows my mind evey time.

Craig - <cbbarber < a t > hotmail.com> - England

If you have the possibility to see a demo of Matra's Strim (now called styler), you will know how superior it is for product design.
It's really for styling, but it can be integrated in Euclid; a top mechanical application. A project with injection molding? The best tools to make perfect curves and visualize them in Strim, transfer the data to the Moldmaker module, and then to the 5 axis machining module...
All these tools are best in category.

Marc Gibeault - <mgibeault < a t > oricom.ca> - Québec

I hate word and i'll be very happy with
quark xpress

Tony Black Side - <gandalf < a t > hotmail.com> - Spain

I think I got a bum steer from my school last year. I've taken lots of 2D cad classes, and computer graphics classes, but last year I took a class in 3D modelling. We were taught Form-Z. The pieces looked great when they were done, very photo-realistic, but it took FOREVER to build and render them! I'm talkin' an HOUR for a single render! I was informed that the computers were a little slow, and that Form-Z is supposed to be a very advanced software, and very compatible with manufacturing software, but we were only taught this for presentation purposes. But when the semester ended, a friend showed me Lightwave. I just about downloaded in my pants! He was rendering complex objects in SECONDS!! Plus, in the corner of the window was a colorless skinjob of his object that he could spin in space with a touch of a mouse! All the tools for lightwave looked equal or superior to Form-Z, at far less cost in time and money. Am I truly in the dark, is there something I missed here?

cboyd - <cboyd < a t > msn.com> - Chicago

Just to see if something is going to work, I like using Interactive Technology's Electronics Workbench (EWB). I use the thing in class and even with version 4.0, you can streamline your circuits and get an accurate test. Anybody got a spare copy they wanna unload?

jim - <theonlyjim < a t > hotmail.com> - Bloomington, Illinois

The Classic Mac window...

http://www.inch.com/~jhc/homedesktop/hmacdesktop.html

jhc - <jhc < a t > inch.com> - http://www.inch.com/~jhc/homedesktop/hmacdesktop.html

Please let me know if an internship with a software like 3DS MAX is useful for an IDer.
Is it more useful to learn SOFTIMAGE Application
I've got some opportunities to learn one of them.
Please let me know.Thank you for your attention.
Olivier

olivier - <olivier.olivier < a t > usa.net> - Aix en Provence - France

RE: D. Shaw's question:
If you are already familiar with Vellum and want the same intuitive qualities in a rendering package, try Alias Sketch. It too is MacOs suited, incredibly fast, and has a rendering engine just this side of Electric Image (rumor has it that Alias has been so quiet about it lately because its RENDERING engine is dangerously close to workstation level). It doesn't do boolean ops, particles, or animate, BUT it imports perfectly your CAD accurate 2D or 3D Vellum (or Illustrator) wireframes from Vellum (IGES,DXF,RIB,EPS) for surfacing. We have PRO-E and Alias on SGIs in the office, but quite often we use the Vellum/Sketch combo for early phase presentations. Sketch will do distributed rendering on multiple machines, and overnight render spooling. Nicest part of all this? You can get the $900 list down to $300-$400 as a student or side grade user of Photoshop or Illustrator.

S.M. Jost - <jostdsgn < a t > enteract.com> - Chicago

For a designer taking a hand made model into a CAD environment, I don't think I could live without Surfacer from Imageware,

Matt Kreuzwieser - <matt < a t > iware.com> - Ann Arbor

I HAVE NO RENDERING SOFTWARE EXPERIENCE BUT FROM A USEFULNESS VERSUS COST STANDPOINT CADKEY IS GREAT 'CAUSE 3D WIREFRAME DOES THE TRICK...AND REMEMBER YOU CAN RENDER AS MUCH AS YOU WANT BUT NOTHING BEATS THE REAL THING...EVENTUALLY YOU HAVE TO BUILD IT. i HAVE PRO-ENGINEER EXPERIENCE AND IT'S SAD TO SAY THAT PRICE WISE...IT'S NOT WORTH IT. $27 000 IS TOO MUCH TO SWALLOW. A 3D WIREFRAME PROGRAM WITH A CHEAP RENDERER WILL CARRY YOU MUCH FURTHER AT A CHEAPER PRICE.

SERGIO MALORNI - <SMALORNI < a t > SPAR.CA> -

For small design studios and independent designers there is only one good (afordable) software: SOLID WORKS, you can design virtually anything with it, and it's full parametric.

Jurgen Oskamp - <achilles.associate < a t > tornado.be> - Belgium

I use a solid/surface parametric and variational modeler by Intergraph - EMS/POWERPAC. Combined with ModelView - a visualization package from Intergraph, I can build precise databases of very organic forms, make parametric and/or variational revisions, generate great looking photorealistic renderings, export IGES< DXF< STL in various flavors for RP and Production Tooling. Also, Mac is the greatest (eventhough it is too late...)

Yuri Moskovich - <yuri_moskovich < a t > colpal.com> - NJ

Hi, folks
I have some years experience with 3D Studio, Pro/ENGINEER...and many other CAD/craphic/multimedia programs. But I see SDRC I-DEAS demonstration and i's seems most powerful modelling program! You can start freeform sketching without difficult dimensioning, add them last and regenerate full solid geometry. Because of solids, you can generate for example technical drawings and so on what surface modellers can't do(such as ALIAS which is however great for renderings). So I think solid modellers are future programs. It is very fun to create animations and renderings but if you want to create real world objects and devices, they are better to create by solid modellers. (Geometries can if wanted interfaced all animation/rendering programs.)

Petri Kivela, Industrial design student.

Petri Kivela - <pkivela < a t > levi.urova.fi> - Univ. of Lapland/Industrial Design Department/ROVANIEMI,FINLAND

I can't live without ...

Alias! Once you learn it, you want nothing else for renderings and modeling. No other 3D packages, no other CAD systems or paint programs (alias's studio paint 3D rocks out)

... but unfortunetly I have to!

Dan Abrams - <dabrams < a t > cnw.com> -

On a subsidized, quasi-marketing survey level the skinny on my preferences are (in order): 1)Painter...coupled with an ArtzII tablet, this program allows me to kick out concept sketches either during a solo brainstorming session or an initial client consultation meeting where immediate feedback can impress a client. The immediacy of a sketch displayed upon a monitor has proven to be powerful, maybe even more than if on paper (which may be another marker of technology's impact on our lives.)
2)Pagemaker...it is great for layout prototypes in nearly every multimedia and print application, and, yup you guessed it, especially web-site design.
3)BBEdit...as BB Software's slogan goes, "It doesn't suck." The others do, I've tried them.
4)Photoshop...'nuff said.
5)Netscape Navigator...ditto.
6)Mac OS....ditto ditto.

What these tools essentially do for me is to allow my thought processes to flow and be, to borrow from that great article this month on mowers, more PRODUCTIVE. Windows apps don't come close, and UNIX apps are burdensome. However, SoftImage on an NT system is making some noise around my circles.

But we would all be running around in circles for naught if it weren't for that essential piece of software we all must have. Yup! You guessed it again,... grey matter.

Tony McCoy - <tonym < a t > one2velocity.com> - San Jose, CA

i need information about the micro stations program, and courses about this.

hugo mendoza marciales - <jgiraldo < a t > .caller.infi.net.> - corpus christi tx

i am industrial designer from bogota colombia,
i'm interesting in every sofware sistems to have aplication in drawing and renderig.

HUGO MENDOZA MARCIALES - <jgiraldo < a t > caller.infi.net.> - corpus christi tx

http://www.myriadagency.com

Roger - <filip < a t > myriadagency.com> - NYC

Within the technical domain of modern abstract techniques, my indispensible programs (as a web designer) are these; netscape, photoshop, illlustrator, fetch, bbedit, eudora, gif builder, gif scan, drop stuff expander and telnet.

Becasue of the nature of today's web, these programs are utilized adjunctively, rather than independantly, meaning I usually use them all in the course of a day, and more often than not, I have them all open simultaneously, using them to complete a single task.

Check out The Myriad Agency

Blessings.

Filip Stoj - <filip < a t > dieseljeans.com> - NYC

I would have to say Ashlar Vellum CAD software. It is the most intuitive CAD package I've ever used! No designer should be without it! If someone would only come out with an app that is as easy as Vellum that can feature perspective and rendering for the Mac platform! My dream come true. Any suggestions on CAD accurate modelling and rendering software for Macs? Or a good 3D program that handles CAD accuracy either though import or other method?

D. Shaw - <abd < a t > earthlink.net> - San Francisco

I could not live without....
the basic text editors, like simpletext or notepad. These programs are nice because they produce files that are free from platform or processor dependencies. They produce a non-proprietary format that can be sent to anyone in the world without conflict or prerequisit ITG/MIS spending habits. Not to mention they're $ Free $!
Beyond that it's hard to identify one that is pivitol to my work. None of them are outstanding by themselves.
I would have to say Photoshop is my favorite software to use.
Of course StudioPro is fun, but takes too much time to develop detailed models.
I need Quark all the time, because Word makes ugly documents, but Word makes my life better when I'm working on large writtings and don't care how they look when printed (almost never).
Director is my favorite software prototyper, but VisualWorks is the my favorite software development environment.
Although I would feel isolated (and yet somehow releived) without email, I'm not about to sing any praises for any specific programs.
As for Web software I use Netscape because of the implimentation of animated gifs (gif89a). Beyond that I have no prefference of any propeitary www client implimentations.

R. David L. Campbell - <david < a t > thekangaroo.com> - Seattle

This topic generated quite a bit of a debate on the alt.design.product newgroup a while back. Not over which software was superiour, but whether the need for electronically generated materials actually had a 'value added' effect on the design process.

Well, I suppose it all depends on which part of the design process is your focus or function. As far as conceptualization goes, and pen and paper works well for me...but when it comes down acutally 'designing' a product, there is no question that todays' CAD software deffinately has its' place! Knowing the way our office works...revisions to a design are always there, and without our Pro/E the revision process alone would be very time consuming...and that is once all the meat and potato design work is done. Pro/E integration with manufacturing is also a big asset. Then you also have to look at the price of the software and whether it is an economical tool for what you are trying to achieve....and that is a hard question sometimes...

Man has always tried to develop 'Tools' to make a particular task less time consuming/easier/less annoying etc. That is all a tool is...and we must not forget the focus of what we are trying to achieve with these tools!

Shane Moorhead - <shane.moorhead < a t > odyssey.on.ca> - London, Ontario, CANADA

The one program I could do without is CadKey.

tom - <peterson < a t > wakeup.com> - -

I would have to say e-mail. I can render with markers if need be, and I can draft with a pencil, but the e-mail link would incapacitate me and my business.

I think I could definitely do without the Web and the associated software for that!

Steven P. - Boston