CAD station of your dreams

[zulks]

Hi all,

 

My senior project this semester is to design a computer specifically for creative professionals (CAD, Adobe, etc.).

 

I have my own wishes for such a computer, but I want to know what you all would want to see. I'm trying to get rid of the keyboard/mouse and move to something more tactile. I think it would be faster and more enjoyable to use.

 

What are your dreams for a CAD station?

[Zdravko Barisic]

What are your dreams for a CAD station?

 

 

Two blondes+one brinette playing tetris on my "lap top"

 

Serious:

-Every boxx lab or dell station above 3-4 000 is dream station, check the forum about that+the sites for companies above

[kainoa]

I'm trying to get rid of the keyboard/mouse and move to something more tactile. I think it would be faster and more enjoyable to use.

 

Not really. KB/Mouse is essential for CAD, IMO. Ever try a Wacom in AutoCAD?

[rpompeu]

Completly agree with jason, KB + mouse is mandatory but another input method like a wacom is always a plus when working with photoshop.

For me, a very important part is a good and huge monitor ( I use a 22" and a 17" but planning to upgrade one to a 30").

[chiquito]

If you were to design a work station, inalambric conection, and no CPU.

just keys and a huge monitor. Two huge monitors

[Sketchrender]

We just got the new work stations.

Long over due.

Dell precision 690, quad core 4gb ram and nv_3500 graphics card, with 2no.24" dell monitors.

it's a pleasure to come in to work, and even look at them.

We were on old work horses for many years.

 

phil

[AJLynn]

I'm on a workstation I built - OC'ed Quad, 4GB, 8800GTS, RAID5, good case, MB and PSU, 24" monitor, good keyboard and a Razer Krait mouse. Sometimes I pug in the Wacom tablet I have for carrying around with my laptop. I figure it's almost the ideal CAD station - the only changes I could have made would have been spec'ing everything a bit higher and a 30" monitor, but that would have been overkill.

[chiquito]

I feel like a primitive with my 1GB cad.... haha

[AJLynn]

1GB is fine for CAD. Unless you have Vista.

[chiquito]

It works fine, im on XP, would like to go back to 2k, but mr gates wouldnt allow it. Anyway, im planing on upgrading in the next couple of months, any hint as to specifications? Alienware? boxx? Do you know of any motherboard that could be compatible with a trend of preferable processors?(for upgrades latted on) actually im on a asus av8 deluxe with a 939 socket for amd. Something capable of handling 2 procesors maybe...? at the time I got my asus there wasnt any motherboard that handled two amd´s.

[AJLynn]

Do you need to buy a whole PC from a vendor or can you build your own? If you can, there's a ton of info in the backlogs. Current MB of choice would be an Asus P5K3 Deluxe.

[chiquito]

thanks! Ill check into it.

the Idea, or at least what I have done previously, was to get a technical specification from a manufacturer and put it together myself.

If possible Ill put together a new one, and upgrade this one to use as a library or render slave.. il see how the quotations come along

[AJLynn]

You can see what I used

here as a starting point. There's also a rough draft of instructions on building it here.

[zulks]

thanks for the input guys, i think a huge display is definitely in order

[AJLynn]

So, what are you actually supposed to be doing? Spec'ing a computer or coming up with new ideas? If it's just spec'ing a computer that doesn't sound very interesting.

[zulks]

Definitely not spec'ing

 

I'm trying to come up with new ideas. I'm also going to try to make use of technologies that are on the horizon.

http://www.nextgendesigncomp.com/

 

I chose CAD work because it can present some interesting interaction challenges.

[AJLynn]

Now you're talking. After looking at the competition web site, I think it would be much more interesting to take a somewhat futuristic approach. Forget a computer for running CAD on - CAD is boring - and think about what comes after CAD. The D used to mean Drafting, now it's going toward meaning Design, then... well, maybe we don't actually need it to be a D word. For example, look at what Gehry does. When he was starting the Stata Center design somebody in his office asked people I was working with at the Media Lab whether they could come up with a wearable computer to assist in the spatial understanding of constructing a Gehry building, on site in a visual overlay type augmented reality. (At the time we didn't have the technology to make it happen, but maybe now, or in the near future.)

 

Think of design and construction as an exercise in information management - you have a idea and you need to get it into a format that's usable, to express your design intent to the people who sign off on it, to make it workable and constructable, optimize it in whatever ways you need to and convey it in detail to the contractor/construction manager/etc, who needs to estimate, schedule, order materials and build. Plenty of opportunities for error and inefficiency.

[zulks]

I wanted to be vague at first to see what people responded with.

 

You kind of got at my overall plan: to create a computer for people with creative ambitions to realize what is in their head in a way that others can understand.

 

I hadn't thought of the chain of command in construction, I guess that's comparable to production of products. It's definitely important and mostly overlooked.

 

I could make millions if I found a way to make it easy for archis and engineers to communicate with each other;)

[kainoa]

Oooh, it's on...sorry kid, you're on your own. Best of luck to you.

[Sawyer]

SILLY PUTTY!!!

 

I am serious. To me the main problem with a cpu is that its a world away from paper. I can sketch something in a second and yet it takes me a long time to put that into the computer. My mom is a realtor and I have had to watch her try to deal with contracts that are hand signed and get them into a file. Its painful. I know there are solutions I have suggested a few but my mom is 60 and hasn't really taken to computers yet. She has been using them for 15 years I don't think she will. So take silly putty - it can transfer data (remember making comic negatives?)

 

I really like 3ds max but one thing that I have found is how impossible it is to sketch in. Everything has to be planned out and then brought in you cannot doodle. But if you had silly putty you could model with your hands paint on it with your wacom...

 

Imagine this - you take a lump of clay you model a building - you give it a scale and you have created a 3d model. Then you take the lump of clay smash it up and model the door, smash it up and model a cup, smash it up and model a pillow, a sink. Smash it up and roll it over a color swatch you have on your desk and that brings in a true rgb color, or over a carpet sample photo. Then you take it and smash it onto your cell phone and it makes a model. Could you place it on the monitor and have it copy an image? Maybe.