CompuServe Thread

Hi Bob, I've always hade a love/hate relationship with the program, because there were so many good things about it….and then there were absolutely absurd or annoying things. This is true with most any program, but this was an extreme case of split personality. The release numbers don't seem to mean anything much <g>. WRT the *modeler*, which is all that I'm interested in, I've always like it, but there was about 5-10% of the whole which just annoyed the He** out of me. The latest release (2.5) not only has made improvements in the right direction, but it's much more stable and things *work* that didn't used to work. 3.xx, which I use now, is better still, and will be released soon. I'm led to believe that 4.xx could really be outstanding, and is a re-write with NURBS, possibly with the modeler packaged sperately. Still, back a couple of years ago, I could create pretty nice geometry with it. That's also about when I started using 3DS, and fell in love with the program, quality & speed of rendering, etc.. And, there was no way to get the geometry into 3DS, which I prefer to use for everything else. Of course, I like the 3DS modeler as well. Anyway, now I can use the R3D geometry in all the ways that I have mentioned in the uploads and my related messages. So, things are better now, and I can connect with 3DS. It's still not perfect as I've said here recently, but in consideration of all that it can do…vs…the downside, I feel that it's worth mentioning here. And, with the priced reduced to that of an IPAS these days, it's worth the money. Besides the shortcomings past & present, a lot of people were put off by the complexity of using freeform spline modeling, and their rather vaugely documented modeling features. Since I guess I've worked more with spline tools than polygonal, it wasn't that hard for me to pick it up. But the book is necessary for most people, and I could write it. There was a *need* for it. I used to like Microstation better but I don't now (talk about a need for good documentation for the 3D features, MS is surely at the top of the list). I *assure* you the deal was a flat fee, thus not related to sales, and wasn't NEARLY ENOUGH to lie about it here <GG>. For architectural applications, I don't know if it would be of much service over 3DS, AutoCad, etc.. Unless you do a lot of designs with freeform surfaces, …although it does feature numerous polygonal and solids tools. See all the stuff in the uploaded doc's. Regards, BILL