I've been messing around with this program for about a week.

It's pretty interesting.

What I've done so far has been work related but I'm hoping to use it
to draw a tall chest that I want to build.

It is expensive, if purchased for commercial use, but there are
student/teacher licenses available that bring it down to the $150.00
range.

I'd like to figure out how to scan in actual materials to use for the
surfaces, instead of the somewhat limited library of colors and
textures.



Thomas J. Watson - WoodDorker

tjwatson1ATcomcastDOTnet (real email)
http://home.comcast.net/~tjwatson1 (webpage)

On Sun, 27 Feb 2005 19:18:06 -0500, Tom Watson
wrote:



I'd like to figure out how to scan in actual materials to use for the
surfaces, instead of the somewhat limited library of colors and
textures.


not much to figure there... textures and libraries are on the second
cd...(its a 2 cd set)

On 27 Feb 2005 19:00:12 -0600, Krunchy wrote:


not much to figure there... textures and libraries are on the second
cd...(its a 2 cd set)

Those libraries are installed.

My question goes to the possibility of scanning in material to use as
custom surfacing.

The difficulty with doing this, in other programs that I have used, is
that the scale and color are not maintained by the program.

Scanning in a piece of actual cherry does not give you a scaled
version of the surface, which makes it useless for the replication of
grain and pattern.

There is also usually a color shift, which can sometimes be modified,
but never seems to amount to a true replication of the scanned
material.

"Is a puzzlement."

(cf: Rogers and Hammerstein, The King and I, Yul Brynner, etc., etc.,
etc....)



Thomas J. Watson - WoodDorker

tjwatson1ATcomcastDOTnet (real email)
http://home.comcast.net/~tjwatson1 (webpage)

On Sun, 27 Feb 2005 19:18:06 -0500, Tom Watson wrote:

I've been messing around with this program for about a week.

It's pretty interesting.

What I've done so far has been work related but I'm hoping to use it
to draw a tall chest that I want to build.

It is expensive, if purchased for commercial use, but there are
student/teacher licenses available that bring it down to the $150.00
range.

I'd like to figure out how to scan in actual materials to use for the
surfaces, instead of the somewhat limited library of colors and
textures.

Tom -- If you have not already tried this, have you checked the Autodesk
user forums? Or maybe at their website there are free downloads of stuff
that users have offered up for free? -- Igor

On Mon, 28 Feb 2005 23:38:09 GMT, igor wrote:


Tom -- If you have not already tried this, have you checked the Autodesk
user forums? Or maybe at their website there are free downloads of stuff
that users have offered up for free? -- Igor

Yes, I've been on the forums and gone to places like the Thomas
Register site and the private sites that key in on Inventor.

There is some useful stuff there but not exactly what I'm looking for.

The program and its users seems geared towards mechanical work, rather
than furniture, either retail fixtures or traditional wooden work.


Thomas J. Watson - WoodDorker

tjwatson1ATcomcastDOTnet (real email)
http://home.comcast.net/~tjwatson1 (webpage)

"Tom Watson" wrote in message
...
My question goes to the possibility of scanning in material to use as
custom surfacing.

The difficulty with doing this, in other programs that I have used, is
that the scale and color are not maintained by the program.

Scanning in a piece of actual cherry does not give you a scaled
version of the surface, which makes it useless for the replication of
grain and pattern.

There is also usually a color shift, which can sometimes be modified,
but never seems to amount to a true replication of the scanned
material.

I believe what you are looking for is something like 3ds Max or Autodesk VIZ
(well, at least in the Autodesk line-up as I'm sure there are many others).
These packages can render photoreal scenes light-years ahead of what
Inventor can. Your observation in another post is correct; Inventor is for
mechanical design.

In case you haven't found it yet, you can control the color of a texture and
you can make your own custom textures for Inventor. You would need a rather
large scanner or stitch a bunch of normal scans together to get the scale
right on a large piece. The images are .bmp so place that order for more
RAM soon.

Chris Johnson