#3D soft. Advice needed
6 messages in this thread
To All:
I need some advice.
I used to own both Mac and IBM environments. I'm a software engineer,
and I do development work on IBM, and had a Mac IIci for personal
productivity, graphics and recreational software. (Actually, graphics
software, for me, falls into the category of recreational software,
too.)
For graphics on the Mac, I really loved the Japanese software called
DynaPerspective. It was, for me, the perfect blend of power,
relatively light computing resource requirements, ease of use, and
the TYPE of 3D drawing that I wanted to do. It did (almost) all the
things I really wanted (the lack of a "punch a window in this wall"
[cake-cutter] tool was the most irritating drawback).
About 8 months or so ago, occurring at the about same time: 1. I saw
the writing on the wall regarding Apple and dumped my Mac 2. Dynaware
USA, the US rep. for DynaPerspective, and Dynaware Japan attempted to
screw me (in my opinion).
When I dumped my Mac, my intention had been to switch over to the IBM
version of DynaPerspective. In view of my execrable treatment by
Dynaware, this never happened, and won't ever happen, period.
For some months now, I have missed having a good 3D drawing package. I
used DynaPerspective to draw my house before building it, and now
want to do some more of the same kind of drawing.
So I'm in the market for a good 3D drawing package. Unfortunately, I
know nothing about IBM PC based drawing, and have no idea of what is
available. I would assume something other than DynaPerspective that
does what DynaPerspective does MUST be available.
I need some advice. What would be a good package for me to buy (or look into
buying). Is Autodesk 3D Studio good for my purposes, or if not, what else?
Basically, I'd like something like DynaPerspective, with DynaPerspective's
slant or bias on 3D drawing, only better.
I want to draw buildings and furniture and such. I think that's called solid
modeling (but I'm not at all sure…).
I ABSOLUTELY DO NOT want to draw clear blue-glass balls with chrome
highlights with my logo wrapped around the surface (or that type of
thing, which seems to be very popular). I have NO use for this at
all. All I would want in terms of surface texturing would maybe be
wood grain (and I don't even need that; solid colors are just fine if
that's all that's available).
I want to draw stairs (a stair drawing tool) and punch windows in
existing walls and have a roof-slant tool. If I take a chair and
embed it halfway thru a window (or something else involving
conflicting planes and hidden surface collision and resolution and
transparent solid surfaces), I want it to look just like a chair
embedded halfway thru a window. If I take a beam and stick it thru a
wall, I want it to disappear at the point of intersection (in other
words, look like a beam embedded in a wall).
I want to work in wire frame and then render as a solid. I'd like a
couple of light sources. And, while I'm biased toward architectural
drawing, I don't want whatever software I buy to be SO biased that I
can't do anything else with it.
If the pillars I draw aren't absolutely smooth but actually consist of
bunches of facets, that's just fine. Hopefully, the facets would be
relatively small.
I want to be able to view what I'm drawing in several different views
all at once. I want to be able to draw with both mouse AND by
specifying Cartesian points AND spatial math (draw a line or a wall
from this point to this-point-plus-2'11.5" along this axis.). In
general, the spatial co-ordinate system must be VERY precise and VERY
flexible and VERY powerful.
I'd like to be able to scale in feet and inches and meters.
I'd like multiple drawing planes and be able to assign and move
objects arbitrarily to and between planes. I'd like to be able to
group and copy objects. I'd like VERY versatile object rotation
capabilities. Object orientation, alignment and movement features
must be very powerful, both object-to-object relative and object to
absolute 3D gridpoint. And point to point distance calculations
should be available.
I DON'T need any French curve object bending and warping crap. Unless
it comes free.
And I paid $800 for this in DynaPerspective. *sigh*
I have a 486/66 with 1/2 meg video, 200Mb hard disk, 20Mb RAM. I have
a LaserJet IIP with 2 MB RAM in it. The LaserJet has no PostScript
capabilities.
Can anyone suggest anything?
What a wish list!
3D Studio does everything you asked for, and a bit more. Should be
perfect for your needs, but a little more than your Mac program. If
you buy it now, you will get a free upgrade to release 3 when it
ships.
It really sounds like you need AutoCAD to me, ideally with an
architectural add on to automatically do many of the things you want.
Of course, this can cost. There is also an inexpensive program to
render these images that is in beta testing right now; it's called
AccuRender. There are a few other image rendering programs out there
too. You might go to the ACAD forum and check in there.
Well, 3-D Studio would probably fill your needs, but, not for
$800. For that kind of money, you COULD look into a combination of
programs that will work together to give you a final image. I say
this because you seem to have a CAD slant. AUTOCAD, however, will
cost more than $800 as well.
I would suggest DESIGNCAD 3-D (around $300 "street" price),
which writes to standard AUTOCAD files (it also has some basic
rendering capabilities), which can then be renderd by various
third-party rendering programs, such as RENDERIZE ( the "Windows
Lite" version lists for $495).
Complete, self-contained packages around that $800 range
include CALIGARI-3-D for Windows ($795 list), an interesting package
that I myself am looking into now. STRATAVISION PC ($995 list) is
another powerful package you may want to look into. Another package
soon to come out is the "PRO" version of PLAYMATION ($895), as well
as the present version ($399).
Of course, you can always plunk $3000 down, and get 3-D
Studio. It depends on how much money you have to burn. 🙂
Well, I hope this helps, good luck!
Steve; Another choice would be MacroMedia MacroModel for windows. they
have a limited time limited time offer for $649.00. it should do
everything you want. Bill Scott 72002,313
I work with 3D-Studio in a video post-production. I did modell some
furniture an I can tell you, that 3D-Studio is the best 3D software
for pc's on the market. You have all the tools you need for
modelling. So I suggest, you by 3DS.