Chasteen

If you have a subscription for Max 2010 just download the Connection Extension to import skp files directly into Max.

If you are using Max, why not use Tools>Manage Scene States...?

Would ordinary electrical tape provide a permanent barrier? I don't think it can withstand the high heat generated from OC'ing. I've never heard of covering this pin either, but if it does work I would use a high heat paint instead of electrical tape.

I agree with sandman. I have run a network mixed with XP and XP64 since 2006 and have never had any network issues. It is true that you will need to use a different printer driver specifically for XP64, but once installed you should be able to print over the network the same as anyone else. Nearly all 32bit versions of software will run on XP64 with the exception of anti-virus and software based firewalls. I would recommend installing both the 32 and 64bit versions of Max(only one license needed). Be aware that a 32bit renderfarm cannot render a bb project submitted from a 64bit version of Max. You solve this by submitting the scene from the 32bit version of Max on your XP64 workstation.

A client disputing my estimated turn-around time. "How hard could it be? All you have to do is press some buttons." The most absurd comment I've ever heard from a client. "Our printing service bureau needs you to courier the digital image to them because the Internet turns images yellow when you e-mail them." At least with the second one it was clear that introducing reason would be a waste of time.

First professional job in '92. It was for 2 stills and a short animation. All of it was done on a 486DX running at 66MHz (Ouch). Opened an office in '95 and I've been a recovering "All-Nighter" since 2003.

When it comes to navigating within Revit for presentation purposes I've read that Revit prefers lots of RAM and a Quadro video card. 2 Gigs of RAM doesn't qualify as a lot these days and even a 3GB switch isn't really a solution. So using a 64bit OS would seem to be recommended except OpenGL is crippled on XP64 and all flavors of Vista. So it seems you can't have both. Can anyone provide some real-world comments about this? Is it better to have more RAM or a powerful Quadro card using OpenGL? Is there a way to have both?

I'm having problems with semi-transparent particles being placed on a layer other than the same layer as the background footage. Below is a cropped screen capture image of my viewport and workspace. Shoot Smoke 1 is on the same layer with the green background and it looks great (just like it should). Shoot Smoke 2 is on a separate layer placed just above the layer containing the background. It should look identical to Shoot Smoke 1, but as you can see being on a separate layer from the background creates problems for the semi-transparent part of the smoke. If having a cws file makes it easier for someone to help me I've included a link just below to a zipped c3 file (for compatibility even though I use Combustion 4). If anyone here thinks they might have a solution I'd love to hear it. http://www.dc-studio.com/posts/SmokeProblem.zip Additional Details: Both the help files and a couple of Combustion books suggested placing emitters/particles on their own layer as a way to provide easier control for more complicated animations of emitter/particles.

XP Pro allows 10 simultaneous connections as I understand it. I do not believe it is related to cpu's or cores. What this means is one render slave could consume multiple connections (i.e. one for an xref, one for a bitmap, and possibly more for additional bitmaps). It is depends on how many separate paths you have defined for a scene's various resources. All these different paths not only use up your 10 simultaneous connections quickly they also create a lot of unnecessary network traffic. I've solved this problem several ways over the years, but I think short of using server software the best solution is to copy your maps directory to each render slaves hard drive. Then all your bitmap paths could be something like C:\maps. This will eliminate the majority of your connections, lower network traffic, and greatly speed up the responsiveness of your render slaves for both bb and DR.

I would create a sphere object, adjust the number of divisions to match, add 2 slice modifiers, adjust the polygons' material ID's (1 for cladding, 2 for glass), create & apply a multi-subobject material, add a FFD modifier to adjust for the dome's less than perfect spherical shape, and last add a shell modifier. I can't see the trusses well enough to comment so I assume it's just the dome cladding your inquiring about.

The lager your scenes the more of an impact a gigbit LAN will have on lowering your render times. If you distribute rendering an image that takes an hour to render then the gigbit LAN will have almost no impact.

Correction 2'-0" x 0'-8"

I was just using .018 as an example and pointing out that when you check real world you get feet and inches instead. Sorry for the confusion. Once you check real world you need to type in more realistic dimensions for your tiled bitmaps. For example if you have a brick bitmap that is 3 bricks long and 3 bricks high your tile numbers would be 2'-0" long x 1'-0" high. Make sense?

Are you using ADT or plain AutoCAD? First, if your modeling in ADT I would recommend linking to Max instead. If you really need the model to be disassociated with the dwg file I would still link it and then bind it. ADT sets up all uvw maps at 1 unit x 1 unit with the unit almost always being an inch. Therefore your material bitmaps must typically read as something like .018 x .016 in the tile slots to be properly scaled. Near the tile slots is a radio/check button for real world coordinates. Check that and a tile of .018 will change to something like 1'-2". This should make it easier to scale your bitmap tile setting. Adjusting all your tile settings will be easier than remapping all of the AutoCAD objects. You can also reuse the materials for your next AutoCAD project.

Would 8 Revit workstations really need a true Windows Server? Could a PC with a hardware RAID controller running XP Pro on a Gigabit network provide enough speed for 8 Revit workstations? XP Pro allows 10 concurrent or simultaneous connections. A Revit ws wouldn't typically need more than one connection to the data files or directories would it? I'm familiar with ADT, but not Revit. I'm thankful for any help that can be provided.