GrimR Posted October 25, 2006 Share Posted October 25, 2006 I am considering getting Lightwave3D v9 for my arch modelling and visualising. I came to this thought based on its seemingly good price-performance-rendering quality attributes. Most people seem to recommend VIZ with vray but its pricetag of $4000 is way above Lightwave's $1350/. I use Microstation for documentation and 3d-modelling. But if Lightwave's 3D modelling tools exceed Microstation, than I would consider using Lightwave, and then exporting it back into Microstation for documentation (as DXF or DWG, I hope?) Any opinions from Lightwave users would be welcome. Say, if you had to do it all over again, would you still use Lightwave? Thanks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thinice Posted October 25, 2006 Share Posted October 25, 2006 Lightwave is a very good general and complete 3d animation software. However, having made the jump from Microstation to Lightwave many years ago, I have to say that it is completely different animal to Microstation. I wonder what kind of documentation that you do. If it is about plan/ elevation drawings; forget about doing it in Lightwave. And forget about exporting Lightwave models to Microstation. Theoretically you can do it but the modeling philosophy is so different for it to be of much use. If you want a full featured rendering/ animation package, Lightwave (+fprime) is a great alternative to Viz + vray. Just forget about Microstation integration. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Graphx Posted October 25, 2006 Share Posted October 25, 2006 You should really double check your prices. Last time I looked the price for Lightwave 9 was $795 US. Or if you look around on the various forums you probably find a use copy even cheaper. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GrimR Posted October 25, 2006 Author Share Posted October 25, 2006 Thanks for your insights. Sukardi, is Lightwave's inability to "integrate" with Microstation due to poor export capabilities? Will it not export in formats that MS will recognise? I will still document plans/elev/sects on Microstation, using the 3d model created in Lightwave as a "base-reference" file. I do wonder whether v9 has made any changes in the export features.. none mentioned in Newtek's website. How I wish there was a demo version of Lightwave v9 available! There aren't seem to be many options for MS users, other than the MAX/VIZ-Vray workflow. BTW, the prices quoted were in AUS$. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IC Posted October 27, 2006 Share Posted October 27, 2006 LW will export to 3DS, DXF and OBJ and EPS but an important thing to build into your workflow is using LW Modeler. It is a truly excellent all round modeller and I generally take a base model from CAD and build it up from there in LW but, especially with the LWCad plugin, you can quite easily model anything from scratch in LW. The new release of Kray (an external render engine for LW) looks really exciting for arch work so it's becoming a more viable alternative all the time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thinice Posted October 27, 2006 Share Posted October 27, 2006 As Ian said, the Lightwave modeler is an excellent general purpose modeler but very different from Microstation. After a few attempts at integration, I end up doing all my modeling in Lightwave. That is the only way to fully harness Lightwave capability in terms of its material system, rendering optimisation, scene management, fast model editing etc. The main thing about Lightwave model is that it is a fully polygonal format (plus subdivision info). It does not really store any type of parametric info - not even for a simple cube. It has its advantages and disadvantages but it requires a totally different workflow than Microstation which can be described as semi-parametric. When you export using DXF, all the polygons will triangulate. You may fare better using .obj but I don't think MS support .obj. So, it is fine if you are using the model as base reference. For anything else, it is quite useless. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IC Posted October 27, 2006 Share Posted October 27, 2006 I seperate the architectural modelling we do in ADT from the modelling I need for viz work. I export the model when it's at an appropriate stage then I work on that model as almost a seperate project. It does mean updating the models isn't automatic but I feel the benefits outweigh that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wilky9 Posted October 27, 2006 Share Posted October 27, 2006 If you email Newtek, they will send you a demo disk in the mail Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GrimR Posted October 31, 2006 Author Share Posted October 31, 2006 Many thanks to all for your very helpful comments and suggestions. I have requested a a demo of Lightwave9 and looking forward to testing the workflow as suggested by many here. It appears that for LW to be effective for archviz, I'll need to get Lightwave + FPrime + LWCad plugin + maybe Kray render. With Microstation's lack of integration capabilities with many rendering software, it looks like I'll have to separate CAD docu and viz-work... so much for integrated BIM! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Limbus Posted November 1, 2006 Share Posted November 1, 2006 If you evalaute LW for Archviz you should also look into the Plugins LWCAD, FPrime and KRay. LWCAD is a modelling Plugin that is focused on a CAD related Workflow. FPrime and KRay are both render engines that are much fast at computing GI (and otehr stuff) than Lightwave. I think that all three of them (or at least LWCAD and one of the renderers) are a must if you plan on doing Archviz with Lightwave. Florian Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
afterglow Posted November 13, 2006 Share Posted November 13, 2006 I used to use (at a studio i used to work at) Microstation and translate it thru Polytrans to LW which worked fine. You can control how facetted it comes in when u do the translation. I wouldn't use lightwave for architectural modelling, especially if you are used to the accuracy and speed of a CAD style 3D modelling package such as Microstation. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Limbus Posted November 14, 2006 Share Posted November 14, 2006 I wouldn't use lightwave for architectural modelling, especially if you are used to the accuracy and speed of a CAD style 3D modelling package such as Microstation. Have you looked at LWCAD? Check out the Videos. http://www.wtools3d.com/ Florian Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Allen Posted November 17, 2006 Share Posted November 17, 2006 Have you looked at LWCAD? Check out the Videos. http://www.wtools3d.com/ Florian I agree. It COMPLETELY changes architectural modeling in LightWave. I'm using 2.0 and just upgraded to 2.1 - great software. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Allen Posted November 17, 2006 Share Posted November 17, 2006 BTW, BIM as it's currently being implemented, is simply overkill for what we do. BIM was not designed to make pretty pictures - it was designed to manage construction and building maintenance through the lifetime of a structure. For what it's supposed to do - BIM has great potential - but usually we're not trying to sell a project to other engineers and architects - we're selling it to political bodies, to buyers, to other developers - for the overwhelming majority of time, only a VERY small fraction of BIM type data is required for an animation or still rendering - that data being walls, doors, windows - you know that stuff that the end customer will SEE. Remember that we need to keep our focus on the needs and expectations of the end customer - not the creator of the plans. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lizard Head Posted November 22, 2006 Share Posted November 22, 2006 and if I can add,, if you go the LW route,, re-think FPRIME as an option... it appears as if it may be broken as the LW9 cycle comes to close and no reason to update it past the 9 cycle as it may not be needed any further. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Allen Posted November 22, 2006 Share Posted November 22, 2006 and if I can add,, if you go the LW route,, re-think FPRIME as an option... it appears as if it may be broken as the LW9 cycle comes to close and no reason to update it past the 9 cycle as it may not be needed any further. Well, I'm using 9 with FPrime A LOT - however, you're very correct in that FPrime doesn't talk to the new node surfacing. I'd likely hold off for a few months, but if you surface using the classic method, then I'd buy FPrime now - as the speed increase just for surfacing and lighting setup is extraordinary. I simply would not work without an FPrime like interface. I look forward to FPrime being updated in the next few months. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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