cajadavid Posted September 12, 2006 Share Posted September 12, 2006 Hi all, I've been working for an environmental consulting firm for about a year now, and am shortly to begin working on visual simulations utilizing 3D software. I'm fairly experienced in Maya, having used it while in school, although I started on 3D Studio Max back in 1999 or so. I've been researching which program would be best to use for my work now. My question is this: I've noticed that nearly everyone on this site at least uses 3D Studio. Is there a particular reason for that? I know that I'll be needing to import CAD files and make terrain maps from them in 3D; I think for a long time 3D studio was the only program that could do this easily. But now it's looking like Maya 8 will be able to do the same thing. Maya is also currently substantially cheaper than 3D studio. Mainly, I'm wondering if there are things other than file importing that 3D Studio does better than Maya, at least for architecture. Thanks! David Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
richmondlu Posted September 12, 2006 Share Posted September 12, 2006 You can search this topic it comes up all the time I can think of three of these discusions. I am a Maya user and love it. I dosen't matter what software you use it depends on the users preference. I like the precision of Maya but thats me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jefferson Grigsby Posted September 12, 2006 Share Posted September 12, 2006 I agree with the above, it is just a tool and most of them can acheive the same quality of results. Having said that, 3dmax does get the most 3rd party and industry support of all the top tiered 3d apps. For architectural visualazation it is a no-brainer to me. With all the tree software, model libraries, custom content, plugins, AND VRAY!!!! etc.. that are native to max, it is hard to find reasons to want to pursue maya for this use. Don't get me wrong, there are plenty of things maya can do better than max, but when you add it all up max seems the better program for architects and environmental designers. In the end, it is best to stick with what works best for you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cajadavid Posted September 12, 2006 Author Share Posted September 12, 2006 Thanks guys--I'll probably go with Maya just because I'm already very familiar with it (I'm currently modeling a gothic cathedral interior of my own design ), and for work I most likely will be creating most things in it from scratch as opposed to using pre-made models. But it helps to know that both packages are fairly comparable now. Back when I switched from 3D Studio to Maya, Maya was awesome at NURBS and ok at polys, and 3D Studio, well, it's NURBS tools were nonexistent but it was good with polygons. David Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FlytE Posted September 13, 2006 Share Posted September 13, 2006 I believe you can get vray for maya too Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
richmondlu Posted September 13, 2006 Share Posted September 13, 2006 if you have any questions about anything with maya and arch viz let me know i have been in the industry for a while now using maya and have had no complaints. It would also be nice to get some of these maya guys together. and start that maya form up again! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cajadavid Posted September 13, 2006 Author Share Posted September 13, 2006 Thanks, I'll definitely keep that in mind as soon as I get the software and start on projects. And I'm very curious to see how compatible arch viz, vray, 3D studio, autocad, and maya all end up since Autodesk bought out Alias. Speaking of which, am I correct in my impression that Maya 8 supports importing of dwg files from autocad? Also, anyone know if it supports conversion of files from Max to .mb? That was always a major sticking point between the two programs for me (I've got a ton of old 3D Studio models I'd love to convert, just for fun), but now that Autodesk owns both, it'd be nice if their programming wizards came up with a way to convert reliably from one to the other. I tried a converter once that didn't work real well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
richmondlu Posted September 13, 2006 Share Posted September 13, 2006 haven't tried 3ds to maya but i did hear about Maya 8 and dwg. files. I have been just converting dwgs to dxfs in CAD and they import just fine in 7 and 6 for that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dani Posted May 28, 2008 Share Posted May 28, 2008 Hi All, I'm a new user of DWG but experienced w/Maya. As a Maya modeler, I convert DWGs in 3DMax to IGES or OBJ and import them into Maya (2008) fine. Sometimes I think that the DWG are just a flat drawing rather than a 3D model. Is that the way DWG are often used or something wrong in my conversion process ? thanks for any help, Dani. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AJLynn Posted May 28, 2008 Share Posted May 28, 2008 Depends on the file. DWG can be used for 2d drafting and 3d modeling. If it's an architect's drawing it's probably 2d. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Neil_cg Posted May 30, 2008 Share Posted May 30, 2008 DWG's can be 3d, but it's never usually a good thing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now