Very impressed with 3D studio max

[Sketchrender]

Hi

I have taken a chance and downloaded the trail version of 3ds max 6, and have to say, it is very impressive to use from all aspects.

I have been using formz for years now in work , and have been fighting to stay away from microstation, as I find it sucha headach to use,and long winded to be honest.

I know one is a cad package and one is a visualisation package.

But try and explain to your bosses that what you do at the end of the day is product pretty pictures and not cad drawings, is like spitin in the wind.

 

So I will stay with 3ds max and fight the good fight.

Can anybody point me to a good architectural tutorial as I want to get the basics down, snapping, punching holes, andlighting , materials etc.

 

and placing a model for photo matching, ie eis reports etc.

 

 

thanks

 

phil

[Jason Matthews]

Hi Phil,

You should check any of the bookstores (Barnes and Nobel, Amazon, Borders, etc.) Look for any of the 3d Max 6 books. I would have to say stay away from 3d max for dummies. Go with the authors that have written some of these books before. I know Ted Boardman writes very good books, so try "3ds max 6 Fundamentals", by him. Good luck. Also, check out all the tutorials you can online.

 

-Jason

[mbr]

There are some good tutorials on here.

 

One problem with Max is the boolean operations - it's not nearly as nice as FormZ. Personally, I still think FormZ is faster (I've been using it on and off for many years) for regular architecture stuff. Max needs a really nice graphics card to run smoothly (and where I am working now, they've got them and it is still slow in wire frame, moving around, etc., that FormZ does really well with).

The way you make windows and doors will be different than FMZ, at least for me. Most people seem to make a spline outline of the wall, attach the windows/doors, then extrude. But Max 6 has those nifty AEC walls and doors, that if you get a handle on, can be great. What's really nice about Max is the edit stack, where you can go back (in most cases) and work on the original object.

 

Where Max really shines is the rendering. Even the normal lights seem to be better than FMZ and easier to use. If you get into MR (I am a Final Render user, so I'll stay away from MR for the time being), or 3rd party renderers, you'll be working with the best/fastest stuff out there.

 

Enjoy. Good luck explaining to your boss why it costs 50% more than FormZ!

[Sketchrender]

thanks for advice, but as for convincing the bosses , I don't really see a major problem.

I had to spend 1000 euros to upgrade formz 3.9 to 4 recently, and all I wanted to do was change plate forms and they would dom it, i have to upgrade to do so.

Gangsters.........

so We have about 50 full microstation liciences and about 30 powerdraft licences, and the full version is 4000 a pop.

 

So I will put my case, but like of the upper managment all they see is pretty pictures, and its all push the big button technology to them.

 

thanks anyway.

 

phil

[Crazy Homeless Guy]

[edit: i strated this before your post above, so ignore a lot of it]

 

i take it your office uses microstation for drafting? which is by far and away my choice for drafting, more intuitive than autocad. anyway, back to the subject. maybe you should consider ADT(which is basically Autocad,viz, and some type of solid modeling all together) over 3dmax. ..or maybe a version of Viz depending on what you are trying to do.

 

Personaly I model in FormZ, and render in 3dmax using Vray. I have it down so the process is smooth, and the model can be updated seemlessly at any point during the process. But you are talking $1500?for FromZ, at least $3000 for Max. You can do nice things with Mental Ray, so no need for Vray.

 

The reason I was suggesting using ADT is because in theory, at the end of the day you would have both CAD drawings, and renderings. But I stress in theory, I have never done this myself.

[Crazy Homeless Guy]

I had to spend 1000 euros to upgrade formz 3.9 to 4 recently, and all I wanted to do was change plate forms and they would dom it, i have to upgrade to do so.

Gangsters.........

i would have recomended against this upgrade, at least for the time being. tehre are still several speed issues and smoothness issues that v4 (or 4.2) does not have worked out yet when compared head to head against v3.9