Help Us Test This 3D Router Table Plan
MBerger
| Posted in Project Plans/CAD Software on
We’re playing around with a free CAD software program from a company called Alibre and I wanted to get some help from you all to test the file and offer feedback.
Go to this page and download the 2MB PDF file (it’s a plan for a router table). It includes an illustrated drawing by Jim Richey, followed by a 3D rendering that can be rotated in real time, and a smaller 3D rendering that allows you to look at the plan part by part.
Here’s the feedback I’m looking for:
– Could you get the 3D rendering to display properly? We have only been able to get it to work in Adobe Reader 8.
– Do you find this type of 3D rendering useful compared to an illustrated drawing?
Thanks for your time,
Matt Berger
Fine Woodworking
Replies
Here's the feedback I'm looking for:
- Could you get the 3D rendering to display properly? We have only been able to get it to work in Adobe Reader 8.
Likewise Matt... while I could see the basic view with Adobe 7.0, none of the fancy bits would work until I upgraded... 3 attempts later it decides to play. Everything seems to function properly, and the animated parts list was a nice touch.
- Do you find this type of 3D rendering useful compared to an illustrated drawing?
For a project as basic as this? naaaaaa.. I'd get by with a cut list and basic isometric, but then I'm old school, accustomed to working with third angle drawings. That said, it'd be a useful addition to the plans for a more complex project (so many parts in close proximity that the start to obscure each other).
Thanks for your time
thanks for the chance to give something back for a change.. ;)
Mike Wallace
Stay safe....Have fun
Matt-
My comments:
Rendering. If you intended those weird colors, then yes, it rendered properly on my Mac in Adobe Reader 8, It did equally well with Reader 7.0.8.
Usefulness. In this case, Jim Richey's illustration is far more useful. The drawing is visually appealing, the identification of parts is unambiguous, and the relationships of the parts are evident. The computer-generated illustration is an eyesore, mostly because of the colors, but also because of the almost stick-figure representation of the component parts. The attempt to animate the parts identification probably sounded like a good idea, but in execution, it is more confusing than helpful. The part identifications are off to the side, away from the teeny parts, and if you don't catch the movement right away you may have to start again to find which part is which.
There is an abundance of art to technical illustration. As programs like Sketchup in the hands of skilled workers have shown, 3D illustrations can assist in conveying information. My guess is that if you let Jim Richey design the computer-generated illustration, it would be much more useful.
I no longer have Adobe Reader 7.0 on my Mac, but otherwise I'll second DonaldCBrown's comments and add a couple:
Unless you plan to limit the options, the exploding/imploding part-by-part view will probably need to include instructions, or someone like me will use the toolbar to get the thing into a useless configuration and not know how to get back out.
By the time I got down to Part 20 and clicked on it, the Router Plate it referred to was scrolled out of the picture and there was no way to see it. I can see this becoming more of a problem on a more complicated project, so I don't know if it would work better there or not. I looked at the Alibre site and couldn't find a really complex example.
I think at this point I'd have to say it's kinda cute, but probably not worth the effort.
Dan
Hi Matt,
I had no difficulties in loading or operating. Seemed simlple enough, even for an old school guy that just taught himself on the use of a PC.
I'm in my 60's and illustrated drawings are second nature.
How valuable to the average reader/visitor? It would depend upon the complexity of the item. For most simple projects it would be overkill. A novelty at first and then...?
I appreciate the peek and a chance to sort of test drive it.
...The unspoken word is capital. We can invest it or we can squander it. -Mark Twain...
Be kind to your children....they will choose your nursing home.
...aim low boys, they're ridin' shetland ponies !!
Mac OS X 10.4.9
Acrobat 7 Professional: Seemed to work fine. I could rotate the rendering on page 2 & page 3. The animated parts list worked as well. But the Explode/Implode was way too slow for my patience. Perhaps if there were a way to speed it up it might be useful.
Apple Preview: The file opened OK. I could view all three pages. But non of the animation would work.
This type of rendering would be useful for projects that are not as straight forward as this design. But if there were areas that had a reveal, or specific detail, the animated rendering would be more usefule for these.
I WOULD NOT WANT TO GIVE UP THE ILLUSTRATED DRAWING!
Regards,
Greg
Edited 3/16/2007 4:37 am ET by Cincinnati
Matt,
I find 3D very useful in designing my own projects, even if simple. But a lot of the reason for that is the ability to do things like pull measurements or see the impact of some adjustment.
Your rendering software worked just fine but noted that I couldn't do any of the above, so compared to the excellent (3D themselves) drawings, it's not that useful.
Have you thought about using a software like Google's free SketchUp, and encouraging users (those who would like 3D) to dowload it and at least become familiar enough with navigation to look at your files.
I'm attaching a jig drawn with "sketchy edges" (display choice only; immediately converts to precise lines) that I just made for my router table. The drawing is not complete. The jig fits over a Biesmeyer style fence and also faciltates vertical support and rabbet cuts on the table saw. (You'll need SketchUp the first .skp file; the second is just a jpeg.)
iMac 10.3.9 Safari. High speed, unknown Adobe reader.
With PDFs I have to download. Clicking on a link only opens the first page and I can't do anything with it. After downloading, I did not get any animation, 3D views, the parts, implode, explode. It took a while to download the page. Normally the downloads are instant so I imagine dial uppers will have a wait. I can't comment on what I can't see. I have successfully been able to get other 3D renderings to work, just not yours.
Beat it to fit / Paint it to match
This type of thing would be most useful to me when it's a project I might want to change dimensions on.
The drawing rotated fine for me, but I can't figure out how to determine which version of Adobe it is when it opens in an IE window. Have to pull up my stand-alone Adobe? I guess. OK, my computer seems to be using AdobeReader 7.0 Near as I can tell, the drawing displays and rotates just fine.
forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-)
Hi Mat,
Doesn't rotate with Adobe Reader 6.0
Paul
Matt,
I had no problem viewing the results.
I did not find the 3D drawings to be any advantage over the drawn exploded view, but they were not a distraction. I expect they would be more useful for other projects.
Keep trying new things...never get complacent with old ways, no matter how tried and true they may be.
"Could you get the 3D rendering to display properly? We have only been able to get it to work in Adobe Reader 8.
Yes.
"Do you find this type of 3D rendering useful compared to an illustrated drawing?
No.
I got it to render just fine in Adobe 7.0 on my XP machine.
Just to provide a little feedback from left field... I run Suse Linux 9.2 with Mozilla Firefox 1.5.0.7 (browser) and it calls up Adobe Reader 7.0 which seems to handle everything fine although the drawing on page 3 is maddeningly (uselessly?) slow.
Matt,
This worked fine for me using Acrobat 7.0.
I think this would be useful although I like to work from drawings. I would like to see something more complex.
TDF
I am running Linux Ubuntu Edgy with Acrobat Reader 7.0 and it looks good. The colors are a little funky, but I love being able to look at the design from different angles.
Hi Matt,
The 3D view displays and rotates in Adobe Pro, the exploded view has issues...not everything displayed.
I do 3D visualization as part of my profession and plan all my woodworking projects in 3D. While realtime rotation is a great tool for clarification I think it works best alongside quality annotated illustrations.
If you definitely want to use the 3D viewer it might come off better if you used better colors.
Regards,
Bob Babcock
Matt,
The download and rotation of the drawing worked fine for me. And I like being able to see the parts from all sides. It helps with visualization of the final piece. Overall, I think it's better to have more information on what something looks like than less.
Ironically, I just downloaded Google's Sketchup over the weekend, and so was somewhat familiar with the toolbar on the program you used. What I don't know about this stuff would fill a very large volume, but the router table you displayed was easy enough for anyone to figure out. But maybe adding some text that directs the first-time user to the toolbar would be of assistance.
One question: is it going to be possible to display dimensions on the drawing? That's something I haven't gotten into in Sketchup yet, and can't intuitively figure out how to do it. So that might require some more digging. Maybe the program you're using will allow dimension labeling.
Zolton
It worked with Adobe Acrobat 5, and the plan appears to be easy enough to follow.
Hi Matt,
I use Adobe Reader 8, and I was able to view & rotate the 3D model. Rotational speed was poor, and generally speaking I wasn't impressed by that particular model. The colors showed the contrast well, but the individual objects themselves weren't as informative as the exploded parts drawing above the model.
If you're going to use 3D models, you'll want to put more details and annotations into the design. That may drive up drawing time to the point where it's not worth it. I don't know how quickly an exploded parts drawing can be put together vs. the 3D model shown.
BTW, the audio on the exploratory video was saturated and the resulting distortion was pretty obvious to me.
Several folk have suggested sketch-up and I'll add my vote to theirs. One advantage of providing a sketch-up model is that the person viewing the model can then tweak the dimensions in order to make the project fit their needs. Personally, I'd find that a lot more useful than just a 3D model. I often skip over prepared plans as the dimensions I need to fit the project to require completely re-doing the plan.
$0.02. Keep the change. ;-)
Thanks for the chance to provide some feedback.
Worked fine. Firefox 2, Adobe 8. Great for the internet. I use and like SketchUp.
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