From Excel data to 3D drawing anyone?? 2

You might want to take a look at POV:
POV is an open-source rendering program. It's been awhile since I've used it, but as I recall you describe objects using the x,y,z locations of the grid points (using FEM-speak). If you've got all the grid points in your Excel file, then you "just" have to reformat the data for input to POV. The final rendered images are quite nice. At one point I did a converter for finite element data to POV input, and it wasn't too bad a chore.

A good one to try is Rhino 3D. You can import a point cloud, (your XYZ data from the excel file) and create a model from that. It comes with it's own rendering routine which is pretty good, or you can combine it with POV to get excellent results. The help file that comes with it is excellent, and it's very easy and fun to use. You can get a 30 day trial, and I think the URL is

MickE,

Mala in the Engineering Spreadsheets Forum is an expert in preparation of drawing using Excel.


Narendranath R
narenr@narendranath.itgo.com
Pipeline engineering is made easy with state of the art computer software, visit

Naren, I don't deserve such accolade. Pl. allow me to set the record straight.

Here we're talking about 3-D rendered sketches - so far I have ventured into automated generation of typical 2-D engineering dwgs with the usual Plan/ Elevation/ SectionalPlan/ Sectional Elevation/ Reinf. detailing layout.

Still Naren, thank you for the compliment...