On the net I am getting the impression recently that Rhino might even be becoming superior to Alias (excluding auto industry that itself is imploding). Rhino seems like a GP motorbike and Alias a huge truck from 1950s. This is an interesting post from Alias guy/software trainer.
Taken from this very interesting thread “Is Alias dying”-
http://discussion.autodesk.com/forums/message.jspa?messageID=5993836#5993836
I personally can’t make much sense out of the post. Seems like lot of fluff in there. I love the “Rhino rhino rhino” part.
Can you analyize the thread and the post for me? What is your view?
Certainly alias will not die. i would say its the other way.
We invest into industrial design as well as into automotive design. we deal globally with lots of new and interesting design styles and technology developments that are apart from normal NURBS modeling.Autodesk integrated alias software into their huge school program globally. it will take some time until these effects will be visible to the original alias community. Technical product development is my field here in autodesk. Everybody understand that this here is not the forum to explain what we do developing the software. But i can assure you that the alias train is running. i am very happy that we can have access into technology we always wanted and that will be visible in our software in the future.
Rhino, rhino, rhino, this topic always comes up and i will find some words for it.
we can chat about it in detail, if you want, and there is no reason to argue about the function details. i ran icem surf for almost 6 years and surface studio for another 6 years, i feel quite comfortable about it.
but lets take a step back! We see more and more design agencies and designers selling their data instead of a physical model or an image. Those data run into CAD systems. Unfortunately there are lots of those CAD systems and i don’t see that a designer has to run pro E for one client and solid works for the other client. as well, i don’t think that solid modeling systems are good for creative design.
good, lets say we need a NURBS modeling system. I dont believe that such a system is the best for design and styling either, but it allows some more freedom. so what do we have. Alias, Rhino, one other system, not more.
NURBS quality becomes more and more importaqnt when you go into CAD systems. its about fitting tolerances as well as about NURBS representation and about highlights. If this doesn’t play a role for you, well, then its rhino. its a battle i wouldnt take.
but if you think strategical you might look into alias. they invest into hybrid modeling where polygons will play a bigger role. think about a surface modeling approach that is closer to a wacom skecthing approach! who said that you cannot erase surfaces, who said that the photoswhop layering variations cannot be recognized into a 3d software?
with all this i want to say that rhino NURBS modeling is nice, but not more.if you see that designers more and more sell a digital model too, then you might think about the value of such a kmodel. a typical rhino file is useless. as you said, it has to be rebuild by engineers. i would conmsider the value of such a model as kind of low. imagine a good NURBS model that can be touched by somebody else, can be used in acd software! i see there much more value.
this has nothing to do with design? well spoken, but i might find this a bit short-term-viewish. especially universities should think a bit bigger. JUST_NURBS technology is not up to data anymore and i advice every design student to reach for the best tools.
using alias will ask you for NURBS patch layouting. this is an important skill, not just for alias, even for classical clay modeling, …
rhino is a tool that you sue to sketch some ideas, but why do you do that in NURBS??? when it is just about sketching an idea i would think about tolls like mudbox, maya and others that are dealing with polygons or subdivs.
if you need NURBS i dont get it, why you want to do a typical RHINO NURBS representation???tool level:
a modern modeling is a mixture off curve based procedural methods and direct modeling methods. you need the curves to layout a model and direct moving of CV’s if you want to shape it in detail.
Oh yes, you can do the same in RHINO, i know.
but its the queestion how a tool is implemented, reachable to use it again and again and again. alias is designed for this combination, rhino not.
we should see what we can do with construction history, with conform rig, witch transformer rig, where you model surface sets instead of single surfaces. what do you do when you lost the history of a curve based four sided surface? in this case you could work with an align that matches two surfaces in any quality you want. and then tolerances come into the game …its a question of the design job you do. i know that there are jobs that are good for rhino, but i wonder why a deigner should use BMW 3series instead of a maserati???
Uwe Rossbacher
