#PAR and related hardware
2 messages in this thread
Dear folks,
I am a contractor working for a small corp. (Hughes Space and Communications
Group) in the land of "Preliminary Design". This department
has made an executive decision (read last minute) to purchase 3D Studio and
related hardwares (PAR etc) this week (wk end 9/23) for purposes of creating
in-house launch sequences, satellite deployments etc.. As I am at least
slightly familiar with what goes on in this forum, I brought to their attention
a couple of questions that I had relating to hardware, network rendering etc.
and let them know that I knew possibly the best place to acquire some informed
answers…….
1. Network Rendering and PAR – with the problems I've observed on the network
side of things, does it make more sense to purchase an
additional drive, say the Micropolis 3.0 Gig and do direct net rendering to
that drive, eventually transfering all files to the PAR unit and its
attached drive?
2. Approved Drives – the PAR unit specifications of approved drives at last I
heard included Micropolis IDE drives of various sizes. The
one thing I haven't heard of is whether people are using AV versions of
these same drives. Does the AV version actually do a speed
sync approximately every 2 min and if so, does this affect output of
animation (longer than 2 min) off of the PAR unit?
Much thanx in advance, I know these folks would thank you all for it!
I can be reached via Internet uq602907@hsc.hac.com or post here in case anyone
else is interested!
Thanks again,
Russ
russel –
The largest drive currently supported by the PAR is the Micropolis 2217A IDE
drive, weighing in at 1.6 Gig. SCSIs are not currently supported. You're
correct, this is not one of the SCSI AV drives, but I have yet to see heat
recalibration problems with the drive (I've had it about a month) – although I
bought it a dedicated muffin fan, since it gets incredibly hot, and I've heard
rumors that it can develop problems if left to dissapate heat on its own. (FYI
– I've read about failure problems among the SCSI drives sold by Micropolis as
well).
The PAR supports a slave drive as well (the controller is embedded in the
board) – and two 1.6 gig drives should serve your needs admirably.
BTW, if you are at the Hughes facility here in So. Cal., join us each month for
our 3D Studio user group, which meets in Huntington Beach. If you're a
registered 3D Studio or Animator Pro owner, you'll receive our mailings
directly from Autodesk. Let me know if you're interested.
Hope this info helps.
bob