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Autodesk recently made a very generous gift of software to CSA. CSA received copies of AutoCAD R14, 3D Studio Max®, Softdesk® Civil/Survey, CAD Overlay®, Autodesk Worldtm, and Character Studiotm.
Having two copies of AutoCAD makes it possible for Mr. Eiteljorg to work with AutoCAD on a project away from the office (on a laptop) without leaving the office bereft of a working copy.
One copy of 3D Studio Max was given to George Tressel to continue his work on the 3D Studio model of the older propylon. The newer version of the program will enable Mr. Tressel to work more wonders on his version of the model. Mr. Eiteljorg and others in the CSA office will then be able to work with those models, not only to see them but to modify and experiment with them. Character Studio will permit us to add simulated people to the models.
Civil Soft is Autodesk's civil engineering package, and Mr. Eiteljorg will be exploring its capabilities in conjunction with AutoCAD. Both the older propylon and the Pompeii models include basic survey information for which the program will be very useful.
CAD Overlay is the Autodesk program for tracing lines in raster images to make them into vector lines. We will be experimenting with that program as well and will report on its use with pottery profiles and other kinds of drawings.
World is the new Autodesk GIS program designed to use a wide variety of data types - both maps in various formats and data files from many sources. Mr. Eiteljorg hopes to use World to revive the mapping project on Mesopotamia begun some years ago. (See "Progress on Mesopotamia Data and Mapping Project," and "Mesopotamia Data and Mapping Project," VII, 1; May, 1994, p. 11. Note that the May 1994 issue is currently unavailable on the Web.) That work stopped with the departure of the graduate student who had carried out the initial computer work. Using a program like World, one that accepts many file formats, should make it possible to use all the data gathered in that earlier work.
CSA is extremely grateful to Autodesk for this software - and for the support of the work of CSA that the gift implies.
Next Article: Exploring the Lost Maya - A Review
Table of Contents for the Winter, 1998 issue of the CSA Newsletter (Vol. X, no. 3)
Table of Contents for all CSA Newsletter issues on the Web