To max or not to max

[reddy]

Hi everyone,

I've been racking my brains for ages over this question. I'm an arch student who has been given the opportunity to do some freelance 3d modelling and rendering. I'm stuck tho. In college for my 2d drawings I use autocad but i find the 3d part of this program awkward and the rendering poor without expensive add ons.

I'm also pretty good with revit, archicad and 3dsmax.

The copy of max which i learnt on is a copy and i dont want to use it for professional use obviously. So i'm now preparing to buy a license for a program but i just dont know which one.

I love 3ds max just for its pure unfettered range of possibility. However revit and archicad have the advantage of being capable of producing both 2d and 3d drawings which will really helps speed up my college workflow. Has anyone made a similar decision? I`d really appreciate some insights into this before i make the leap.

Thanks.

[kippu]

just work on whatever you are comfortable in .... i started modelling in autocad because it was more accurate but now i find myself doing a bit more in max ....finally it all ends to what software you like working in

[JamesTaylor]

i model in AutoCAD, link into Max / Viz and light, texture, animate. but as said work how you are comfortable

[Sketchrender]

It really depends on what the client is looking for , when it comes to your renders.

Are they looking very high quality work, and if so i would go the max route, presuming you have the time, thats were artlantis is better, but the quality suffers.

 

From archicad, your on to artlantis, or are you taking it in to max aswell.

Your probably like me in that you can nearly now say you can produce any type of model and fully modeled with out a doubt, and it is always the final hurdle of rendering that lets you down.

 

 

Go with what you know, and give yourself enough time to touch up ,it's amazing what can be salvaged through photoshop.

 

phil...

 

Dublin

[anon]

If your doing purely architectural stuff the go go for viz instead of max, youll save yourself loads of cash.

[STRAT]

it's a very normal thing to use CAD to model then Viz to render.

 

but yes, do what's more comfortable for you. there is no right or wrong.

 

i model 95% in Autocad, maybe 5% in Viz, and i render 100% in Cinema 4D. i wouldn't have it any other way personally

[mbr]

I've found FormZ to be the best overall architectural modeler and Max with Final Render as the renderer.

 

Do what you like. For me, Max is slow to model buildings in, it's booleans suck, snaps are so so at best, and it's opengl performance, even with my new Quadro 1400 sucks.

[BrianKitts]

As its been said four million times on this site, use what you are comfortable in. I will say this though since this thread is guided at max.....

 

Max is a whole different style of modeling compared to say form_z, and for some it's quicker and for some its slower. Again stick to what you're good at. In the words of a coworker, form_z is the best plugin ever invented for MAX. However you will hear some people complain that navagating larger models in MAX is slow and can be cumbersome. Most people who experience this, model in other programs and link or import to MAX. MAX can handle large models very easily.....if you build them in MAX, instead of importing. Yet I find form_z so great for modeling that I still model with it and file link into max. I only model the main structure and architecture features in Form_z. The trick is I try to build all furniture and small stuff that gets instanced alot from scratch in MAX.

 

So enough rambling....to finish up, MAX has its up and downs, biggest up is lighting with third party plugins and animation controls on everything, downside is modeling technique but theres so many options for using other programs, that I still love max. so pick a prog and learn it well :-)

[Brian Cassil]

Obviously, working however you are most comfortable is most important, but if you are just starting you aren't comfortable with anything!

 

Here's my take:

 

If you are doing straigt illustration - in other words - you're renderings aren't under constant design revision, then using the fastest modeling program - exporting - more modeling - exporting to rendering to create final images works great.

 

But, if you are working in a design environment (like me) where changes are fast and furious, I think sticking with a program that can model quickly and do decent renderings is a must.

[reddy]

Thanks for all the replies. Its really interestin to hear alternative viewpoints like the deisn versus purely illustration point. I'm still stuck tho as my design (for personal use) and the requirements of the client are totally seperate. So i may be best to try and get my hands on the (cheap) version of student archicad and then my own version of max. Not sure. I'm comfortable in both but i agree that max can be awkward for modelling buildings. I havent tried form z so i'll get my hands on that to see. Thanks for all the comments. Keep em coming.

[Jim Mann]

i agree that max can be awkward for modelling buildings.

 

What kinds of building are you modelling? Max has great polygon modelling and the parametrics can be a great help. The snaps in Max are good, alignment tools are good. What have you found difficult to model?

 

One point of view that would be worth your considering, when you go out and apply for jobs, you will find that the vast majority of companies that do arch viz, be they architects or architectural viz companies are likely to be using Viz or Max.

 

JM

[Simon Moir]

How about Viz2006 and Autocad LT 2006? You could upgrade both to full on Max and Autocad if you found you needed to later on, but it would cost you a lot less.

 

Why I'm recommending Autodesk products after the 12 email subscription nonsense the've put me through this week I do not know...