Technical Illustrators.org Forum

Both Catia and 3Dvia training has been pushed off for a little further into the fall unfortunately. But I will ask about the surface modeling, and keep the thread updated.

Keep it up MichaelH

Here is an update of my progress on keeping my skills moving forward . Im taking a cource in Mechatronics at local jr college. should make my confedence using 3DVia Composer for many other industries that much stronger.

I practice what I preach.

Well I did my (what turned out to only be one week) of training on Catia. Have you ever drank from a firehose? It was kinda like that. And the trainer even said that we were just scratching the surface after that. It was some intense stuff. And it is not very user friendly. I REALLY miss SolidWorks. But I have my fort-Knox styled locked PDF and a lic for it on my computer so I can play with it and try to do my own refresher training whenever I like. The training was in December I think? I don't think I could create a washer with it at this point. HUNDREDS of icons for the different tools. and everything is backwards. Just for example if you want to cut something, you have to select what you want to keep not what you want to cut, and then you select what you want to cut. Yay! Extra steps!

I also did 2 days of 3dVia composer training. That was easy. A very simple program. Kind of a rip-off actually. you know how most 3d modeling programs have an animation feature? Yeah, that is what this is. they simply broke it out of catia, repackaged it and are selling it as a standalone program. Its neat and all, but I don't see much actual use for it. My marketing and training guys think its awesome, and it could be... but they don't want to pay for my time to actally produce the time consuming animations. And like Rahul found, it is only marginally useful for actual technical illustration for line art for an actual manual....you know, 99% of what most manufacturing technical illustration is used for. You cannot create parts with it. You cannot 'draw' with it for line art output either. The program is dependent on ALL your companies products to be up-to-date- and modeled correctly, and having quality models from all your 3rd party suppliers too. uh huh, I know of no company that has that. Plus it turns all ellipses and curves into pologons as has been already mentioned. And on several of our in-house models, (both Solid Edge and Catia files) output SVG files were missing significant lines, that would need to be redrawn in...but not with Compser, because you cannot draw with composer. my lic of IsoDraw is not going ANYWHERE.

And the biggest issue of all... the magical propitiatory composer player is available for PC only. No mac, no tablets, mobile devices, smart phones...nothing...Just PCs. Its been around for 5 years, and they SAY they are trying to get it on other platforms, but as of today...nothing. So you're stuck outputing non-interactive AVI's for all the other platforms.

Anyone with any questions, feel free to ask away.

Hi,

I have used 3D Via Composed and Solidworks composer. Both are cool.
For 3DVia i use CATIA file and SOlidworks Composer i use Solidworks assemblies.
These are cool softwares for creating animations and exploded views.
For editing illustration, we use IsoDraw.

I have been working for about 4 years with this software for a major aerospace company. It is slowly making it's way as a standard for creating down flow communication of your 3D data, from Training Manuals, Assembly instructions, Maintenance Manuals and Marketing.

Yes it has it's quirks, but that is a part of the learning curve. You need to tough it out instead of regress to the familiar and back to your old habits. Some people also say it is the beginning of the end of the technical illustrators profession. But it comes down to fantastic results, done in less time and ultimately give greater insights to your products to your customers.

I have been on the front lines for many years leading change and the software continues to surprise me in it's capabilities and opens new doors all the time.

If all your products you create are done in 3D and you need to communicate it faster and be able to change it as quickly as the designers change their minds before it even reaches the clients hands, I really think 3DVIA (Now CATIA composer) can get you there.

I had even considered going into consulting to help companies take on this transformation, It's best I test the waters and see how the market is. But I am certainly optimistic.

I use Composer everyday to create technical Illustrations for a medical device company. It works fine for me. I do tweek my graphics with illustrator a bit before final output because I like to have complete control of lineweights and coloring. One of the benefits of using this software for me is that it is also being used in engineering and manufacturing for their documents. We have created a user group within our company so that we can share each other’s models, projects and knowledge. The software is not well documented and the interface can be confusing. Its good to have people around who can give you quick answers to problems with easy but not intuitive solutions.

I am also in the Aerospace industry, and while the animations are popular with our training guys, the actual field mechanics prefer their printed books.

Besides, composer relies completely on complete, up to date, 3D models. Our company as with 95% of other other companies use 3rd party parts, and those companies are not about to hand over their 3D data. So either our designers have to model 3rd party parts or you go without. And convincing your design group to model parts that we don't need made is an uphill battle. Especially when they can be drawn in IsoDraw quickly and easily.

While the animations are cool, Illustration is not going anywhere until 3D data is easier to create.


Is anyone using their modeling animations in conjunction with video editing software like Final Cut Pro? I am training on Adobe Premier now so as to integrate more information and usability into the final videos produced.