Hi Danny,

> I'll have to disagree with you there, when your talking high
> end cad packages (where you have to sell your first born to
> purchase) you are paying for just that, a swiss army knife of
> cad it knows all does all, in nurbs that is, <....>

Those are definitely missing the "easy to use" aspect which I certainly view as an actual kind of technology and "tool" in itself. This aspect is often kind of pushed under the rug, but I think that is kind of a shame. In a certain sense it is kind of mutually exclusive with the "swiss army knife" type stuff.

I'm still not so sure that even the "highest" of the high end really has every single thing in it. I mean the fields are so vastly diverse, just off the top of my head:

Hydrostatic analysis for ship design.
Hull design tools
Computation fluid dynamics for airflow analysis
structural analysis
inverse kinematics for armature simulations
subdivision surface modeling
sound wave analysis for acoustical design
optical analysis for lens design
Thermal analysis for cooling systems
Building information management for architecture
Generative modeling for algorithmic architecture construction
Jewelry specific stuff
Automotive exterior "Class A" surface design
Shoe / last design
Apparel and clothing design, fabric unwrapping tools
Civil engineering / site stuff
Plant design / piping


Do you know of a program that has all of these tools simultaneously available in it?

I mean it is not always about technology itself, some areas need custom tools that just automate tasks that are things specific to a particular domain and not used for sort of more general consumer product type manufacturing...

Probably the closest thing would be Catia. But as far as I know it does not cover every single one of these areas at the top level of effectiveness. For example, does Catia have a jewelry design module that makes it easy to have a library of settings, stuff like that? I mean if it doesn't then it really is not the best tool for someone who is doing rings, even though it is a "high end" super expensive tool.

Another simple example kind of closer to home - do you know of any existing high end CAD tool which will allow you to export NURBS to polygon mesh data using multi-sided polygons instead of just triangles and quads?

- Michael