Ed Huntress wrote:


(...)

Two possible solutions: Marry a teacher, or have a kid in college. My
upgrade cost $95 either way.

You have to weight costs against benefits for these solutions, of course.
d8-)

What Ed said, Larry.

The following is gonna sound like SPAM so go on to the next subject if
you are of delicate sensibilities.

/* Begin SPAM

I wish I could sit you down in front of my computer running Rhino so
that you could experience it for yourself. There ain't *nothing* like
putting together your first few 3D objects using a tool that gradually
'disappears' and becomes part of you.

This is from the perspective of someone who is much happier learning
alone rather than in a classroom, generally speaking. There are
exceptions to that of course. I have taken a couple of Rhino's
self-paced tutorials but no 'official' training at all.

I coached a contractor buddy of mine as he assembled a 3D frame building.
At the end of his *first two hours* he had all four walls up and was
working on window openings. This is absolutely from cold. At the
beginning of the session he barely knew CAD existed.
Contrast that with the weeks of frustration it took me to make U$99.95
Generic CADD 2D do something useful. (And the day from hell trying to
get Autocad to do anything except reject commands.)

At the end of your first Rhino session you'll say "Only about a grand for
that functionality? What's the catch?" There ain't no catch.
It works real well.

I used Rhino to design this bracket to convert my hydraulic cart to
'lift it itself' functionality a while ago.

http://www.metalworking.com/dropbox/...es/HydCart.txt
http://www.metalworking.com/dropbox/...rtOverview.jpg
http://www.metalworking.com/dropbox/...ydCartLeft.jpg
http://www.metalworking.com/dropbox/...ydCartMech.jpg
http://www.metalworking.com/dropbox/...artRelease.jpg

If an untrainable retarded geriatric can do that, (and I did!) then
it means Rhino is just a great tool.


By now, Rhino has lots of competent low - cost competitors.
I am long since flat out of time to evaluate them and for me,
Rhino comes the closest to the perfect CAD software.


End SPAM */


The first taste is free.

BwahHAhahaha!

http://download.rhino3d.com/eval/?p=25

--Winston