For the longest time, I was modeling with AutoCAD and exporting DXF files, converting to raw triangles and rendering with POV-Ray. I had a project modeling oil tools that was kinda cool, but the software tools were math intensive. You had to keep track of every X,Y,Z in a database and animations were done by calculating coordinates and entering them into the database rather than with any sort of graphical user interface. Sent it to a rendering engine for ray-tracing to crunch through all the frames. Man, oh, man though, when an animation came together, the final result seemed glorious!

Good memories.