In so many ways, ViaCAD could be months away from providing the capabilities visible in CAFE, but we simply do NOT have scripting, or external/3rd party tools, and little to no extensible way for individual users to customize the tools to behave how THEY need or want them to.
Watch this to get the gist of what I mean:
http://www.as2con.com/software/cafe.htmlBut, the pricing (which I found out after a few hours, and which is at a PDF URL in the page) is way beyond my ability. 5,000 Euros, plus 1,250 Euros maintenance price after the first year is well beyond my price range. I'd have to buy it on credi... wait, for me, that is not an option right now.
But, such a tool would probably save me enormous amounts of time, especially if it turns out to have sophisticated layer management. It already has hydrostatics and that might remove a lot of work I do in Free!ship and DelftShip, although FS has a number of powering, wind, turning, and stability reporting tools, plus engine selection, propeller predictions and design assistance and more.
If VCP had the ability to allow us to select and tag items that are the boundaries, and select items which are those to be cut and "green material" automatically tagged and shifted to an associated layer, then it would be very time saving indeed.
What VCP could use for modelers, ship designers, airplane, and car designers is a way to create via import from table (generic spreadsheet, not specifically a vendor) in a spreadsheet or database (.dbf as a lowest common denominator) a table of offsets, a table of boundary positions for bulkheads, and a column-based setting for stiffeners that apply to deck panels, sideshell selections and bulkheads. Instead of or in addition to a rail sweep macro, a table would be easier to set up in advance, and then so long as the stations in the model that is imported match up with the user-defined columns in the spreadsheet or dbf or organic table inside of VCP into which the offsets and stations are imported, then the VCP auto-sweep would or could happen in MINUTES rather than hours of by-hand, one-by-one rail sweeps, followed by thickening, followed by trimming, followed by re-dos if later adjustments happen.
So, with stiffeners, one could create web/flange combinations that drive what is created or updated in the model.
VCP is in a position (or could be in such a position) to in only a few months of committed effort hurl something out for me and those doing what I'm doing to start banging away. Ultimately, this could come from Encore's/Punch!'s home design software
http://www.punchsoftware.com/p-...tudio-pro-nexgen-v2.aspxsince frames and foundation work are not terribly mathematically far from what I need, except that ships have compound curves to work for hydrodynamics reasons whereas home builders square off and build vertically and horizontally as much as possible for most of the house if trying to save money on non-custom homes.
I was hoping that CAFE was around $700 or $1000, but i guess for 5,000 Euros, it must be QUITE a package. I'll at least check out the demo, but, I'd have to win a lottery to afford the program as things are now. Or, solicit 50 people for $100 each... maybe some beggars outreaching, hehehehe...
