ISEN-ASTC-L is a service of the Association of Science-Technology Centers
Incorporated, a worldwide network of science museums and related institutions.
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I use TurboCAD Professional for 3D designing and drawing. It also makes
quite nice photo-realistic renderings. The top picture on this web-page is a
drawing, not a photograph (the finished exhibit looked exactly like this,
but I didn't manage to get a photograph of it).
http://www.interactives.co.uk/hands_moscow.htm

Here's another example showing photos of the actual exhibit alongside my
TurboCAD renderings. http://www.interactives.co.uk/hands_videomicroscope.htm

And here http://www.interactives.co.uk/hands_video-microscope-table.htm

The importing and exporting of AutoCAD files has been mentioned. This seems
to work reasonably well. Another thing to bear in mind is that CAD software
has different ways of managing colours and textures, so these don't
necessarily appear when files are exchanged. In practice, though, this is
seldom a problem.

Having invested so much time learning to use TurboCAD as a creative tool, I
am reluctant to change over to another package. I would like to emphasise
how important CAD has become to my creativity, though. Being able to think
of an idea then see it a few minutes later slowly rotating in 3D, in colour,
on the screen in front of me, is an awesome thing. Also, the discipline of
HAVING to sketch everything out to the correct relative scales and sizes
avoids a huge amount of difficulty later on in the workshop. Scribbling on
paper has its place, but accurately scaled CAD 'scribbling' needs to follow
immediately afterwards.

[log in to unmask] * http://www.interactives.co.uk
*
Give people facts and you feed their minds for an hour.
Awaken curiosity and they feed their own minds for a lifetime.
*
Ian Russell 
 
  

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