scott wrote:
>> Some pretty insane technical drawings happening in there! ;-)
>>
>> (I wonder how they do that BTW. Must be quite a challenge to draw 
>> something that complex...)
> 
> You don't draw it by hand

Well, not unless you're *insane* at least... ;-)

> the CAD software will draw it based on the 3D 
> CAD data.  You simply set the view mode to wireframe with hidden edges, 
> orthographic projection etc and then save as a PNG at whatever 
> resolution you desire.  Takes about 30 seconds, see attached.

So... is something like this drawn from the real manufacturing data that 
the plant uses? Or do they build specialised models simplified for 
display purposes?

> Actually making the 3D CAD data is not really a challenge, the software 
> is designed with drawing things like this in mind, so there are lots and 
> lots of features to make your life easy :-)

I've often wondered how CAD manages to produce complex, detailed 3D 
objects. I have yet to see a modeller that makes it feasible to produce 
any moderately complex 3D shape. And yet, the world around me abounds 
with intricately machined objects, so there must be somebody who knows 
how to do it.

(Just sweeping my head from side to side right now, I see several CD 
jewl cases, some external HD bays, an MP3 player which *could* be a 
simple cube, but isn't, the casing of my computer... All of them have 
pretty intricate shapes.)

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