CompuServe Messages

I'm glad to hear you're able to transfer your models successfully, Ben. It sounds like there's some miscommunication on how to accomplish AutoSurf transfers. What were the main things someone needs to remember to get their models acorss to 3DS? As for the memory usage, it's true that EVERY version of 3DS has had a problem with memory being used and not released efficiently. From what we've been able to gather, it's a problem with the Phar-Lap Dos Extender that our products use. Even AutoCAD will appear to not release memory, but it's far less noticable. Every time you render a scene, 3DS will use a little memory. For instance, if you load one of the sample files and look at the Current Status, you'll notice some memory has been used. If you render that scene, more memory will be used depending on your resolution, model complexity, shadows, reflections, texture maps, etc.. After the rendering, you'd expect all the memory to be returned. This does not occur. If the settings you've specified for a rendering use all your memory and force the creation of a swap file, the swap file will continue to grow with each consecutive rendering. If, on the other hand, you have 32mb ram and your render settings do not exceed 32mb, you should not get a swap file. In this case, your memory usage may vary slightly form one render to the next. There are several samples in the Memory Usage section of the Installation Guide (or maybe it's the Advanced User Guide) of how certain render setting will affect memory usage. I hope this helps, and we'd love to know what your source on the Internet told you about importing AutoSurf models. Bob