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Here's a recommendation I ended up using (after a lot more research and trying many different options):
Use plain Visio for this.
Here's why.
Explanation of this approach:
There is no tool that conveniently satisfies all mentioned requirements, not even one that fulfills the main requirements only. Visual Studio 2012 comes close, but lacks theming ...
8
Check out SQL Power Architect. It can connect to pretty much database that you can configure a JDBC connector for, and it can do all the reverse engineering that you are looking for. I only handles basic data types, though, so you have to convert things like DATETIME to DATE when you import them.
You can change the "Table Colour," but, in truth, that's ...
8
SchemaCrawler is a free, open-source database discovery tool that can reverse engineer your existing database.
Important:
SQL Server 2012 databases - SchemaCrawler works with SQL Server 2012 databases
Reverse engineer tables with all columns and Primary/Foreign Key indications - SchemaCrawler will create diagrams with all columns and foreign keys
Reverse ...
4
I would suggest taking a look at the blender physics engine - specifically look for convex hull simulations. It is free and should allow you to do the sort of visualisations that you are looking for, The only down side is the steep learning curve but it is well worth the effort.
4
Blender is a free and open-source 3D modeling tool. I'm not sure if you would call Blender "simple," but it's certainly a capable option worth exploring. Due to its popularity, there should be many learning resources available online.
In fact, a quick search yielded a tutorial about jewelry design in Blender, which may be useful to you!
4
Quite a steep learning curve and probably overkill but you could use Blender 3D to first model your car, (there may already be a model out there that someone else has done and released into the public domain), then apply various colour schemes to the model.
Minus Points:
Large
You have to learn to use it and to 3D model
You may well get hooked
Plus points:...
3
Suggesting these software's without my personal experience but I hope my answers will help you.:)
FreeCAD
FreeCAD is a general purpose feature-based, parametric 3D modeler for CAD, MCAD, CAx, CAE and PLM, aimed directly at mechanical engineering and product design but also fits a wider range of uses in engineering, such as architecture or other engineering ...
3
You can use COLLADA format. It is just a 3d object in XML. Editor such as Blender can export into this format and a lot of 3d engine can read it. Hope it helps
3
While Blender was a nice suggestion I found it quite similar to Cinema 4D. The parametric modelling features were based on plugins and not fully developed.
I did find FreeCAD which looks far more promising. The full feature list can be found here, but it looks very much as an open source SolidWorks.
As this is a project in development there are probably ...
3
Well why only recommend a great program once in day... second time today: Blender has a Mac build.
Blender is so awesome that you can do almost anything with it! I have mainly used it for animation (including via precise constraints between objects) and minor adjustment of TES IV Oblivion models. I haven't really done any parametric modeling with it - ...
3
SketchUp(Free, Easy to Learn, Easy to use) is a great choice for such tasks.
Though SketchUp is mostly used for architectural and interior designs, it's certainly capable of modeling complex objects such as jewelry.
Here is a Tutorial that will get you started.
3
The one that I know is Aimsun, which is defined as a traffic modelling software that allows you to model anything from a single bus lane to an entire region. It's a professional tool and I'm pretty sure it can do what you need.
There's also an Aimsun page on Wikipedia:
Aimsun software is used by government agencies, municipalities,
universities and ...
3
The best answer is Blender 3D:
it can do all that you need and more
Free, Gratis & Open Source
Full 3-D modelling up to photo-realistic results if desired
Animation and Rendering including moving items, lights and cameras
Excellent Shading
Video editing
2
I just had the same requirements as the original question, but Visio already had an advantage for our choice as the ERD diagrams were once generated via reverse-engineering in 2007.
Since, we already have Office 365 subscription Visio Pro was added to it, which gave me Visio 16 (released end of 2015). Then, we installed Database Modeling add-in for Visio to ...
2
Visio 2016 now has an add-in for the reverse engineering
https://support.office.com/en-us/article/Reverse-engineer-an-existing-database-into-a-database-model-fb034862-acfc-45bc-88b2-f33d1e1f8614#ID0EAABAAA=Visio_Pro_for_Office_365
2
If you have a Kinect I think http://reconstructme.net has a good one I know of that the people in the Microsoft Kinect forum have talked about a fair bit from time to time. P.S. you will need mesh lab to convert the 3D object to a format usable for games or simulations.
If I am talking about the wrong software please tell me.
2
I would suggest taking a look at the Blender import and output formats - I am reasonably sure that most of what you are asking for are available. If they are you can run blender from the command line and invoke a python script that will, for example, import a file from one format, export it to your required format & quit.
Numerous Imports & Exports
...
2
Since you already know some python you could take a look at the Natural Language Toolkit - nltk - it has a large suite of tools and the ability to customise most of them.
Of your requirements:
Input text - of course
Gloss/tag/markup (preferably through a context menu as opposed to actual XML-like tags) text so that I can categorize it by rhetorical/...
2
You can use GeoGebra:
Free (+ portable version available)
Works with Windows/Mac/Linux (even Android/iPhone/Windows Phone as well as in Google Chrome)
Can do 3D plotting:
answered Aug 20 '14 at 22:51
Franck Dernoncourt
35.3k27 gold badges103 silver badges214 bronze badges
2
I would use Blender, no doubt!
Free, simple, easy.
It's the open source equivalent of Maya, CAD etc. and probably even better than them.
[see www.blender.org]
also have a look at google scetch - since you prefer something else
2
Perhaps you should consider GraphViz?
You write simple text files, then run therm though the tool to draw diagrams of various sorts. Here's their example of a (very large) network (there are many more examples in their gallery).
Note that the input text file was generated by a network scanner tool. I have often coded similar programs to generate the ...
answered Feb 3 '15 at 13:17
Mawg says reinstate Monica
8,2054 gold badges25 silver badges74 bronze badges
2
I think I'd look at OnShape for CAD-like and parametric 3D modeling, but for the kind of visualization you're looking at, I think you may want to look at Blender, or any other of the major DCC 3D apps out there - so Maya, modo, 3DS, Cinema 4D... but given Blender's free and open source heritage, as well as its extensibility, not to mention both the Blender ...
2
I would say go for Blender.
There are some great tutorials on how to model a tyre in blender, (as a quick Google will show), but they almost all are about how to do it manually. By all means look at them for tips, I recommend this and this, but if you have 500+ tyres to model photo-realistically then you need to generalise, (or you will be years).
The ...
2
Personally I cannot recommend Blender 3D modeller enough.
Free, Gratis & Open Source
Contains just about everything that you might need
Lots of books, tutorials, online demo, user groups, etc.
Programmatic model construction & variation from within Blender
There are even lots of free or paid for models to use as a starting point, e.g. here.
Includes ...
2
You don't say if you require free software or are willing to pay. One suggestion for a free solution is Onshape. This is real 3-D solid modeling that runs in the browser. It does boolean operations (which will be helpful to model the intersections between pipes) and does parametric design. It works really well. I will caution that the free license stores ...
2
Turns out, you can run Blender from the command line:
blender -b -P intersect.py -- a.stl b.stl result.stl
And that's the python script intersect.py:
import bpy
import sys
index = sys.argv.index("--")
file_a = sys.argv[index + 1]
file_b = sys.argv[index + 2]
file_out = sys.argv[index + 3]
bpy.ops.object.select_all(action = 'SELECT')
bpy.ops.object....
1
Try Gliffy
Each BPMN element — flow object, connecting object, swimlane, and artifact — is represented by a shape. Drag and drop these shapes from the Gliffy library into a diagram that depicts how data, activities, and groups are associated. Gliffy delivers the BPMN tools you need to help stakeholders get a clear picture of your business process. Hope ...
1
Typically, the prototype is made in an MCAD package, like Solidworks, Inventor, Proe (Creo), Catia, Siemens NX, Solid Edge, we have many more, but those are many popular. All them have modules for mechanism, assembly and cinematic design and in many cases an pretty decent render engine, from these packages the product goes direct to manufacturing, but ...
1
Freecad is good, but lacks the refinement from software like Inventor or Solidworks (I use the last one). ProE had a linux version until few years ago, lately NX from Siemens is spreading in linux engineering, that is a full size package, closer to Catia than Inventor. That is what you are looking for. It is officially supported in redhat and suse (linux ...
1
You can use FreeCAD. It is an open source CAD program. I don't think it can import Inventor files directly, but it can import STEP, IGES, and other open formats. It is available for download and it is in the package repositories for Ubuntu and Fedora (according to their site).
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