I received my copy of the ArchiContest CD this past week and managed to get through all of the GDL objects yesterday. Mark asked for feedback here on the list, so here goes ... not mentioning names as anonymous voting at the link above is continuing.

** I'm only commenting on GDL objects here. Someone else should comment on the amazingly detailed and gorgeous objects in other formats. It's just that I have no personal use for non-GDL objects.

There are 28 error-free GDL objects on the CD. (I'm not counting the objects generated by ET Shade here - but add those in if you wish.) Of those, a couple are so-detailed (with no control over resolution or detail) that they are unusably slow - so I'd say that there are 25 genuinely usable and useful GDL objects on the CD.

The price of $50 is not unreasonable even for those interested only in putting the GDL objects to good use - $2 per object - and knowing that all profits are going to charity.

If you are primarily a user of objects - that should be enough incentive (and if the images at http://www.ArchiContest.com/habresults.html tempt you: look for PLA or GSM format to recognize the GDL objects).

But, if you are learning GDL - and even if you consider yourself relatively knowledgeable - the CD is worthwhile as an educational tool as well. There is a LOT of hand-coded GDL demonstrating many useful techniques, some not illustrated (yet) in the Cookbook.

The contest web site (the content is from the contestants themselves) does not do many of the parametric objects justice. For example: The two coffee makers and projector are actually tiny, elegant scripts - not obvious from their large PLA size. The drum set object is actually a library of all of the components that can be used however you choose - as well as a master part that constructs a variety of complete sets. The "food setting" is actually two small and fast objects - a Sangria pitcher or glass, and a Paella pan. Both have options to texture map food or liquids onto them. The foot rest on the Titanic Deck chair can be turned off. The Longcase (Grandfather) Clocks are remarkable in their beauty and fine detail as well as the huge number of parametric options to change their appearance - and can move in walkthrough animations, the pendulum swinging and the hands turning. The two paintings are lovely as original art - but each also has a beautifully detailed frame into which you can place other images. Other wonderful objects describe themselves well and need no expanded description here.

One negative for me is that the first CD's did not have a table of contents and the folders were all organized by author name, not object name. So, serious browsing was required to find which object was where. Mark says that current copies of the CD will have a table of contents, perhaps similar to the contest web page table.

Many thanks to all of the author-participants for sharing your talents, and to Mark, the judges, and the sponsors!

Karl

PS If you were one of the first dozen to receive the CD there are/were some problems with file names which Mark says will be fixed in future copies, as he is burning CD's to order:

- Each author's directory has a text file identifying the author, but this file does not end in ".txt" which makes opening harder on Windows. Just copy to your HD and rename there.

- directory "30" (name omitted while voting is continuing) has a QuickTime movie that cannot be viewed as-is: "Tulikivi flickering firelight 1." is supposed to be "Tulikivi flickering firelight 15fps.MOV" for the links in the HTML README file to work. To view the QuickTime movie on Windows, copy the file to your hard disk and rename it as anything.MOV and open in QuickTime.

- several other directories had files without a file extension; generally these were text file

"Karl Ottenstein" <karl@nidlink.com>

I support all of Karl's observations concerning the ArchiContest CD and the included objects and I would like to thank him for his thorough analysis! I absolutely agree that there are many GDL objects on the CD which are very useful, beautiful and well build. They are definitely worth the price of the CD and I'm happy to see that the profits go the a good cause. Objects not mentioned by Karl are the "Siding Maker" which seems to me a pretty powerful tool to add 3d-siding very quickly and the "Chest of drawers" which has almost indefinite parametric capabilities.

"Thomas Dalbert" <dalbert@mus.ch>