CompuServe Thread

Your dealer is a tad on the high side (if it comes with the standard 120 meg IDE drive) compared to current prices in my neck of the woods (S.F. Bay Area CA.), but then again, you might be willing to pay extra for the support that the dealer gives. All those times you might call to ask seemingly simple questions, that aren't all that simple to a new user. Or when something doesn't perform as it should, the dealer is the first one you should call. There are many of us who shop mail order, forgetting what it's like to be a first time user. sometimes a little hand holding can be worth a lot of money, especially when you are recommending an entire system for a corporate installation. It appears that you are paying suggested retail on all the other items, so I am assuming there is no other local source to compare to. ON the plus side regarding your price; Just a short few years ago (5 or more) you would have paid 10k just for a single TBC. As far as the "Walkthrough" application; Lightwave will certainly do the job, but you might want to take a peek at a MAC package called" Walkthru" by Vertis. It's designed for archetectural interior design applications. I'm not sure if it will run under one of the Mac emulators (Emplant or AMAXXII+) but it's something to check out, even for a few ideas to use in Lightwave. Haven't tried 3-D studio on the PC, but you never know, it might run with the proposed 486 bridgeboard. Frank

Doing walk thrus on the Amiga is still in it's infancy. The MAC and AutoCad on the PC are a better choice for this specific purpose. If you need to create and present videos that use a bit of walkthru features the Toaster set up as you describe is the hands down favorite. It is difficult for me to mimic the Hi-End PC walkthru software on my Toaster but nothing can handle video as Toaster can. The line to draw is on how much data you can access of already completed drawings of the plant that can be plugged into AutoCad+. If you're starting from scratch, Toaster is the tool then. You can then render the crap out of anything. If price is critical, you can get it for $8000 or less but without much dealer help or hand holding. Good luck- –Paul < Motorola Inside >

Mike, If youjust want cuts onlyand animation capability, you can wack off a lot of the list. For cost purposes: -Drop Ram to 10 Meg Fast plus2 meg chip. -Drop the 4091 and live with IDE. Take the money yousave on the controller and try to get alarger than 120 meg drive. -Get a Digital Creations Kitchen Sync, two channel TBC on one card, iwth remote and optional upgrade to SVHS. I belive they are available for about $1400. -With the above set-up you need no ToolBox. -Monitors; CBM 108x for Toaster Preveiw, (I've seen old 1084s for $159) use panasonic CT 1382 for video in monitor (about $259) and a cheap Multi-synch like a Loop monitor for the Amiga/Control monitor (CT-1458 is about $350, I think). I think you could do this for around $6500 – independent of the video decks, anyway. For TImecode editing cuts only and animation single frame control, check out Nucleus Personal Editor and Personal Single Frame Controller. (No slot solution). wmc – via Autopilot!