GJACKSON@TACOM-EMH2.ARMY.MIL (05/04/90)
I am not (as yet) a BRL.CAD user. However, a colleague and I got into a
discussion about the merits of BRL.CAD and he made a statement something
to the effect that either BRL.CAD did not work on the Power Series, or a
version for the Power Series is unavailable at this time, or that BRL.CAD
on the Power Series had certain problems. Could someone verify this for
me. I find this hard to believe.
Also, I am interested in using BRL.CAD. Some basic questions first:
1) How does one obtain BRL.CAD?
2) Is it available to Government and Private Industry alike?
3) Is there a cost for Government or Private Industry?
4) How much space does it take on the Iris computers?
5) Approximately how long does it take one (who is well versed in
computer graphics and basically understands CAD systems
in general) to become capable as a basic user of BRL.CAD?
Thanks in advance ... Gerryphil@BRL.MIL (Phil Dykstra) (05/05/90)
[FYI there is a list "cad@BRL.MIL" for discussion of BRL-CAD, but since
you asked here I'll answer it here.]
I am not (as yet) a BRL.CAD user. However, a colleague and I got into a
discussion about the merits of BRL.CAD and he made a statement something
to the effect that either BRL.CAD did not work on the Power Series, or a
version for the Power Series is unavailable at this time, or that BRL.CAD
on the Power Series had certain problems. Could someone verify this ....
Our last release of BRL-CAD (3.7) came out in June 1989. We did not get
our first Personal Iris until shortly after that release. There are a
few problems with the Personal Iris related to use of the color map and
a couple of glitches in the software compilation/installation procedure.
These problems do not exist on the 4D Power Series machines.
Also, I am interested in using BRL.CAD. Some basic questions first:
1) How does one obtain BRL.CAD?
In brief send us a tape and a letter stating that you agree to a few
conditions (mostly that you won't sell it or give it to 3rd parties).
We fill up the tape and send it back along with one copy of the manual.
You can find details by anonymous ftp from ftp.brl.mil (a.k.a. vgr.brl.mil)
in the brl-cad directory. I will send you an email copy.
2) Is it available to Government and Private Industry alike?
Yes.
3) Is there a cost for Government or Private Industry?
No.
4) How much space does it take on the Iris computers?
The source tree is 22MB including contributed code; installed binaries
are ~30MB.
5) Approximately how long does it take one (who is well versed in
computer graphics and basically understands CAD systems
in general) to become capable as a basic user of BRL.CAD?
It varies a lot and depends on what you try to do with it. If you
say follow some tutorial examples in the MGED manual you can get a
good jump on things in just a few days. A few weeks or more to learn
other parts of the system.
- Phil
<phil@brl.mil>
uunet!brl!philmike@BRL.MIL (Mike Muuss) (05/08/90)
Let me add to Phils remarks. First, BRL-CAD works fine on the SGI Power Series. The machine on my desk is a Power Series 4D/240. You may have heard of several current issues between BRL-CAD Release 3.7 and SGI's IRIX Release 3.2 (and 3.2.1 and 3.2.2): *) It is necessary to modify a few files in the BRL-CAD Release 3.7 software before beginning compilation. These changes are listed on the erratta sheet that is shipped with every tape. These changes are necessitated by the fact that SGI IRIX Release 3.2 was not made available until after BRL-CAD Release 3.7, so there was no way the BRL-CAD software could have been tested in advance. *) When running a parallel application that produces images on the framebuffer, it is necessary to bounce the image through RFBD, because SGI has a bug in their graphics library that makes it impossible for a parallel-processing application to produce graphics output (ugh!). This is easily accomplished by adding the flag -F127.0.0.1: to such applications, or setting FB_FILE=127.0.0.1: in advance. I knew of this problem before the BRL-CAD Release was finalized, and spent several days trying to develop an internal "fix", but nothing worked. When SGI promised me that this difficulty would be fixed in IRIX Release 3.2, I gave up. However, it was *not* fixed in 3.2, so the problem lingers on. SGI now claims that IRIX Release 3.3 will have this fixed. Note again that this is an SGI libgl bug, not a BRL-CAD bug, not that you as the user care about the distinction. Other than these two issues, I believe that BRL-CAD Release 3.7 is a good, solid release, and should give you no trouble. Please pass this information on to your "sources". If you have any questions, please feel free to drop me a line. Best, -Mike - - - - - For those wondering what BRL-CAD is, here is a quick summary. The BRL-CAD Package includes a powerful solid modeling capability and a network-distributed image-processing capability. This software is now running at over 600 sites. BRL-CAD started in 1979 as a task to provide an interactive graphics editor for the BRL vehicle-description data base. Today the package totals more than 150,00 lines of "C" source code. It runs under UNIX and is supported over more than a dozen product lines from Sun Workstations to the Cray 2. The package includes: A Solid geometric editor The Ray tracing library Two Lighting models Many image-handling, data-comparison, and other supporting utilities In terms of geometrical representation of data, BRL-CAD supports: The original Constructive Solid Geometry (CSG) BRL database. Extensions to include solids made from collections of Uniform B-Spline Surfaces as well as Non-Uniform Rational B-Spline [NURB] Surfaces. A facetted data representation. It supports association of material (and other attribute properties) with geometry which is critical to subsequent applications codes. It supports a set of extensible interfaces by means of which geometry (and attribute data) are passed to applications. Applications linked to BRL-CAD: o Weights and Moments-of-Inertia o Optical Image Generation (including specular/diffuse reflection, refraction, and multiple light sources, animation, interference) o Bistatic laser analysis o A number of Synthetic Aperture Radar Codes (including codes due to ERIM) o Acoustic model predictions o High-Energy Laser Damage o High-Power Microwave Damage o An array of V/L Codes o Neutron Transport Code o Link to PATRAN [TM] and hence to ADINA, EPIC-2, NASTRAN, etc. for structural/stress analysis o X-Ray calculation