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3D program selection....HELP


RawB8figure
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I am looking for some help choosing some 3d software and rendering programs. My background in is inventor solidworks and autocad designing industrial machines. I would use one of these but they are expensive and would probably do what I need but I cant work with it from home. I am looking to do residential and maybe small consumer products for myself. I run a mac with boot camp so platform doesn’t matter.

 

As far as residential is concerned I would like to be able to do some quick visualizations and then get into some detail as far as running ducts and water lines as I have had a few problems in the past.

 

Thanks

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Coming from your background Rhino would be easy to pick up. If you are looking to be able to manufacture the small consumer products you are talking about I would use Rhino.

 

However, I suggest 3ds Max if you are looking to get into Architectural Rendering. I made the switch to Max from Rhino a few years ago and have loved it. I haven't used C4D much, but it could be a good option for you as well (others would have to chime in on this)

 

In the long run it really depends on what you are wanting to do with your stuff. If you are purely wanting to do Renderings/Animations then Max is always a great choice. If you want to manufacture your products then Rhino would be a good choice. You can use Max to manufacture items but it's not a pretty process at all.

 

In the end, these programs are just a tool that you use to achieve your vision. They all have their ups and downs.

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Rhino isn't a bad choice for architecture, and it's capable of drafting too. It wouldn't be my choice for construction plans of a hi-rise, but for smaller projects like a house it will do fine.

Vray for Rhino may be a an option for your rendering needs, and the whole bundle will cost a less than a single copy of Max.

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Good choice with 3ds Max. I've wanted to mess around with inventor but never have. I hope the learning goes well for you.

 

As far as Tutorials go... It really depends on what you want to learn. I've listed a variety of resources below.

 

I would highly recommend frequenting the forums at CGarchitect, Evermotion, and CG Society. You can learn a ton by either asking questions or just looking thru older posts to see what solutions people have come up with.

 

If you decided to purchase VRay for 3ds Max, there are a ton of people in the architectural visualization industry that can help you achieve some great results.

 

The 3ds Max Help files are an invaluable resource as well.

 

Hopefully you find these useful.

 

Purchase (Books & DVD's):

Gnomon Workshop DVD's

 

3Dats Architectural Visualization Books

 

VRay The Complete Guide

Amazon.com 3ds Max 2009 Books

3D World Magazine

CG Academy DVD's

 

Free:

GGarchitect Tutorials

 

Evermotion Tutorials

 

CG Society Tutorials

 

CG Society Forum Tutorials

 

3D Total Tutorials

CG Arena Tutorials

 

Useful Sites:

 

ScriptSpot - Great place for customizing 3ds Max and learning some advanced scripting features.

 

Vray-materials.de - Lots of good materials for vray.

CG Textures - Free textures

MR Materials - Materials for Mental Ray.

 

CG Academy 3ds Max Resources

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Thanks rmccoy,

 

So vray would be strictly for high quality rendering. So can 3ds do quality renderinds too? I see people using like 3 programs for rendering is it preference or do some programs do certain things better than others which requires you to use 3 programs to do one rendering..

 

Thanks again,

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