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3darchitect

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  1. 3darchitect
    Scott, I've been looking for a better way to organize my assets and materials. I am a small time freelancer in this industry so I don't have a huge library, but want to start organizing properly so I can expand and grow without creating headache down the road. Can the Connector app organize materials as well or just models? I do not use 3ds Max so I'm not able to use any of the organization plugins for that - looking for something that's Windows based.
  2. 3darchitect
    Greetings! The possibility of offering an animation to a client is presenting itself to me, but I need to provide an estimate to see if it would be financially feasible for them. I understand that animations are priced out either as a flat fee or by the minute or second. This would likely be a 30-60sec animation, so maybe I'd be looking at a $/sec figure. Does anyone know of what a rough figure would be for a small studio would charge for that? Any help is appreciated. Thanks!
  3. 3darchitect
    Hey Everyone, I've been using Sketchup for years for all my arch modeling. I use Revit at work but not when I'm focusing on a piece for visualization purposes. Recently Blender 2.8 came out and I've been reading up on it and want to start experimenting. Sketchup can be great once you have a million plugins, but I've been looking for a more powerful modeling software to take over for a while now. Does anyone use Blender (specifically the latest version) as their primary modeling package? Not talking about rendering of any kind here, just modeling. I think one of the reasons Sketchup is popular among architecture professionals is that it functions more similar to CAD based software than other modelers such as 3DSmax. Blender doesn't seem to be much closer to a CAD environment, but I'm intrigued by the new UI and functions and its promising future. Please share your thoughts and suggestions. Thank you!
  4. 3darchitect
    I'm working with a rather complicated site that has lots of ups/downs and retaining walls. I have contour lines from Civil but because there are so many retaining walls (and buildings acting as retaining walls) I'm not sure what the best way to go about modeling this in Sketchup. Right now my approach has been to clean up the contours as best as I can but I'm not even sure how to best create geometry out of them in Sketchup because of all the disconnected contours (due to retaining walls). Does anyone know of any good tutorials out there for how to address this?
  5. 3darchitect
    Hey Ben, I came across this thread and really appreciate your response. I'm in the process of trying to select a software to learn and learn well. Nothing worse than knowing a few bits of lots of software. As we all know, good images can be achieved many different ways and there is a skill and practice involve no matter what programs you're using. I use Sketchup for 100% of my modeling. Although I'm learning Revit in my job, I can't see it as a good free modeling software and don't plan on using it that way. If I ever look into a different modeling program, I'd like to learn Rhino because of it's powerful manipulation with geometry. But right now I don't have time to try and bring that up to the speed I have with Sketchup. For rendering, I've been trying to learn Lumion as I believe it has the most all around capabilities that I need. Lately though, I've come across a few things that it lacks that I can get out of Vray for Sketchup. Parallel projection being a big one, the rest I think I can manage once I learn Lumion better. I also have the beta version of Unreal Studio and desperately wish I had time to learn that, as I believe that is definitely going to be a big player in the arch viz industry soon. But again, I don't want to spread myself too thin and need to be able to produce work and improve. I saw that you posted this 4 weeks ago, any additional thoughts on this topic since then?
  6. 3darchitect
    Hi David, Thanks for responding! Project Manager looks great but unfortunately I don't use 3DS, I model exclusively in Sketchup. If I ever transition to another modeling software, I'd be looking into Rhino but that is very low on my to-do list.
  7. 3darchitect
    Hey all you viz people, I was wondering if anyone has any tried and true methods for organizing your material library images. Do you just use folders with a certain naming convention for the files? Or do you use a software to navigate and organize the images? (like Lightroom maybe?) Right now I have a number of main category folders and organize the materials via a numbered system within them. For example - carpet_001, carpet_002, carpet_002_bump, etc. Also do you generally keep your images as jpeg's and only convert to png when you need transparency? Right now my library is made up of free materials I've acquired through websites or searches. I realize that I need to invest in high res materials, I just don't have the finances to do so yet. Any other tips for library organization would be greatly appreciated. -- Luke Holdmann
  8. 3darchitect
    Thanks Francisco, that also is a good summary. I've heard before that the software doesn't play as big of a role, and that talented artists can get great outcome out of different tools. At this point, I'm torn about what direction to take this. So far my freelance has asked me to do modeling almost as much as rendering, so I am thinking that may also continue.
  9. 3darchitect
    Thanks for the reply James, that makes a lot of sense. My issue is that I often come to a point where Sketchup just can't model as well as I'd like it to, thus my thinking to switch to Rhino. For visuals, I can still import to 3DS for the best of the best, but right now I'm more concerned about what the best move is for my modeling workflow. Perhaps I could look into some better plugins for sketchup as well.
  10. 3darchitect
    Greetings CG people! I'm at a point in my personal and professional career where I want to make some software changes but am struggling with the best route. My background is in architecture and I am working toward getting licensed in the near future. However I recently started doing some more serious 3D freelance work and want to continue developing this path. Right now I am proficient in AutoCAD and Sketchup. Per the industry standards in Architecture, learning either Revit or ArchiCAD is best for working in a firm. However, if I were to focus on modeling/rendering, I was looking at switching to Rhino or 3DS. I can work pretty fast and detailed in Sketchup, but have come across a number of recent projects where it just can't handle the detail I put into my models. Bottom line is I'm struggling with what direction to take and where to focus my efforts to learning a new software. Yes, if I want to progress with BIM, I'm looking at Revit or ArchiCAD. But if I want to just work on building detailed architectural models for rendering purposes, does anyone use Rhino? Or is it mostly 3DS or Sketchup? Thanks!
  11. 3darchitect
    Hey All, I work full time at a design/build firm and want to start up my own freelance illustration business on the side (yes, I am already approved by my office to do this kind of work on the side). I searched through some threads but can't find anything too recent on this subject. I'm just wondering what people use for accounting software, taxes, etc. At this point I am a single person operation with a registered LLC. My two contending options are WaveApps or QuickBooks Online. I realize there are a gazillion options out there, so just trying to narrow it down as much as possible. Anyone else in a similar position - what do you use? Thanks!
  12. 3darchitect
    Thanks for the link John!
  13. 3darchitect
    You make a good point about the original owner. My target client will be existing rental spaces (apartments, commercial spaces, etc), so I am not working with new or remodel design projects. I am producing marketing material for something that already exists, so it would be good to have something protecting me in case there is a discrepancy between the material I provide and what is actually there.
  14. 3darchitect
    Hello CG World, I am in the process of starting my first business, and would appreciate some feedback on the legal aspect of things. In a nutshell, the business will provide digital documentation (images/drawings) of existing spaces (mostly rental properties) to be used in the marketing and advertising of said space. A couple things I need to consider: 1) Requiring written credit (to me) with all usages of the image 2) Fee - flat rate per image, or royalty/usage based fee? (I'm guessing flat rate) 3) Copyright Release or Usage Agreement? (Artist License Agreement?) 4) Examples or templates of contracts that I can modify for my use Any other thoughts on this would be well appreciated. Thanks!
  15. 3darchitect
    So textures on curved surfaces have always been funky in Sketchup, and I can't seem to get this one to work properly. The problem is that I'm working with a cylinder with two different radii at each end. So the typical method of mapping a texture to the cylinder surface results in the texture being rotated from a point and curves up as it wraps the shape. Any thoughts on how to make this work? Here are samples of the shape and the texture.
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