Computer Graphics World articles from February 2001

Computer Graphics World archives from February 2001

Getting Connected.
February 1, 2001... One year ago at Daratech's CAD/CAM/CAE Summit, Daratech CEO Charles Foundyller fingered the basic problem facing industry as it tries to integrate design, engineering, and manufacturing on the Internet: "We see that the Web is creating huge...

Letters.(Letter to the Editor)
February 1, 2001... `Net Milestone Though I was quite interested to read the first installment of your "Graphics on the Internet" series on pg. 32 of the October 2000 issue, I did want to point out an additional and important milestone. In 1985, Omnibus...

Expert Q&A.
February 1, 2001... Virtual Reality and Visual Simulation Q. Which VR/VizSim applications are most in demand? A. The top areas of VR/VizSim applications include VR/VizSim research, virtual prototyping, postgraduate education, design evaluation,...

E&S Enhances Site Modeler.(Product Announcement)
February 1, 2001... Version 2.0 of RapidSite, the 3D site visualization program from Evans & Sutherland, offers virtually unlimited site size in addition to several other new features. RapidSite's customer base comprises real estate developers, civil engineers,...

New Flat Panels, Flat Screens from CTX.(Product Announcement)
February 1, 2001... CTX International has issued eight new monitors in both LCD flat-panel and CRT flat-screen formats, several of which are designed to appeal to content creation and CAD/CAM professionals. The Vivid LCD Flat Panel product group features both...

Faster Graphics for Octane2.
February 1, 2001... SGI has introduced two new graphics subsystems for its Octane2 Irix-based workstations that debuted last summer. The additions to the VPro graphics family--the V10 and V12-will complement rather than replace the company's existing V6 and V8...

Dell, IBM Top ProCDRS Price/Performance List.(Buyers Guide)
February 1, 2001... This month, we list the seven workstation and graphics card combinations that most recently achieved the best price/performance scores per system for the Pro/Designer ProCDRS-03 subset of the SPECviewperf 6.1.2 benchmark. The ProCDRS benchmark...

In Brief.(Brief Article)
February 1, 2001... Animation facility Netter Digital Entertainment (North Hollywood, CA) has ceased operations. Netter produced work for the television series Babylon 5 and the movie Dune, among other film and broadcast properties.... EADS Matra Datavision (Les...

Digital Fusion Goes Modular.(Product Announcement)
February 1, 2001... Digital Fusion, the nonlinear compositing and special effects system from eyeon software, is now being offered with a choice of five specialized modules under the name of Digital Fusion DFX+. The core application, Digital Fusion Version 3,...

FreeForm Gets NURBS.(Product Announcement)
February 1, 2001... The ability to create multipart models and to add NURBS curves highlight the additions to Version 3.0 of FreeForm, the modeling system from SensAble Technologies. FreeForm is a hybrid package that combines modeling software with a unique haptic...

Avatar Advances.(Technology Information)
February 1, 2001... A new image-based technique helps get people into virtual worlds The most critical component to a successful virtual reality application is the ability to make users believe they are actually in the digital environment. A number of factors...

Ghostly Guests.(Virtual Characters' work on 3D display technology)(Company Business and Marketing)
February 1, 2001... With a new 3D display technology, digital characters are freed from the confines of computer monitors In order for people to understand our technology, holographic projection would be a good way to describe it, except that it's not...

Works in Progress.(giving Web sites a chance)(Internet/Web/Online Service Information)
February 1, 2001... Over the past 12 months, I have visited several Web sites that provide products and services to the design and manufacturing community. Offerings vary from traditional software and hardware at discounted prices to applications that can be...

No Bones About It.(Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History)(Technology Information)
February 1, 2001... TO CONSERVE A NATIONAL TREASURE, THE SMITHSONIAN REPLACES ITS TRICERATOPS SKELETON WITH A DIGITALLY ENHANCED REPLICA The Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History (NMNH) is trying to prevent history from repeating itself. More than 65...

interactive fiction.(Technology Information)
February 1, 2001... Without knowing what it is, who's doing it, or how it's being done, interactive fiction just sounds like fun. It evokes mental images of stepping inside a favorite book or film, cavorting with all sorts of interesting characters, and somehow...

Look Who's Talking.(Microsoft, Think3, Autodesk and others)(Technology Information)
February 1, 2001... SPEECH RECOGNITION TAKES US A GIANT STEP CLOSER TO MORE NATURAL INTERACTION WITH CAD SOFTWARE most CAD professionals, including myself, have never felt a close affinity for designing things using a keyboard, mouse, or command line. And...

cad converters.(Product Information)
February 1, 2001... FORMAT TRANSLATION PROGRAMS MAY BE THE BEST HOPE YET FOR CAD INTEROPERABILITY As more users make the move to 3D CAD programs, the need to convert data from one program to another more critical. This data may be a 2D CAD legacy drawing that...

Digital Salon.
February 1, 2001... Computer art, once considered somewhat of a rogue format, finally has gained acceptance in the galleries of New York City. Proudly taking note of this embracement is Bruce Wands, director of the New York Digital Salon exhibition and chair of...

A DRIVING FORCE.(motion capture done by Performance Capture Studios)(Technology Information)
February 1, 2001... A mocap studio test-drives a 3D car `stunt double' Performance Capture Studios (PCS) in Culver City, California, prides itself on breaking pre-established limits when it comes to motion capture. In the past, the company has not only...

GRECIAN GEARS.
February 1, 2001... An animator cranks up an ancient machine One hundred years ago, Greek sponge divers discovered an ancient shipwreck off the coast of Antikythera, an island in the Mediterranean Sea. The contents of the first-century BC vessel--fine bronze...

FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION.(Realise Studio character creation)(Company Business and Marketing)
February 1, 2001... A CG character's facial animation speaks for itself In an ongoing series of UK television commercials for First Direct Bank, a quirky 3D character doesn't just steal the show--he is the show. Voiced by English comedian Harry Hill, the odd...

EasySite 2.0.(Cad Easy's EasySite 2.0)(Software Review)(Evaluation)
February 1, 2001... Easy integration of CAD-based building models with map-based terrain models One of the great frustrations in computer technology for architects, urban planners, contractors, and builders is the difficulty of combining computer descriptions...

project:messiah 1.5.(character animation software)(Software Review)(Evaluation)
February 1, 2001... pmG targets character animators It's been said that the best character animation happens when animators don't have to worry about the computer sitting in front of them and, instead, can focus on the character they are animating. To get to...

Realsoft 3D Version 4.(Software Review)(Evaluation)
February 1, 2001... Open design and NURBS tools highlight new release Known previously as Real 3D, Realsoft 3D, a modeling, animation, and rendering package from Realsoft Graphics Oy, underwent a complete rewrite as well as a name change to avoid conflicts...

SOFTWARE.(Buyers Guide)
February 1, 2001... DESIGN ENGINEERING WIN Femap 8.0 is a pre- and post-processor for engineering finite element analysis, providing CAD-neutral, solver-neutral, engineering modeling, visualization, and results processing. It includes Femap Structural and...

HARDWARE.(Buyers Guide)
February 1, 2001... DISPLAYS FLAT MONITOR The CM722 CRT is a 19-inch, flat-faced, shadow mask monitor. It has a depth of 17.7 inches and a modified deflection yoke to eliminate 90 percent of color purity uniformity issues and convergence problems. It...

INSIGHT.
February 1, 2001... Schizophrenia afflicts approximately 1 percent of the population, yet little is known about what causes the disease or how it affects brain tissue. To gain a better understanding of the disorder, researchers at the UCLA Laboratory of Neuro...