How do you organize your projects?

[dimopoulos_d]

I would like to ask anyone interested to post here, your personal way of organizing your projects. What is troubling me, is the best way to speed up the modeling and texturing procedures. The thing is that noone ever gives you the final 2d drawings. There are always last minute changes, (i'm sure you know what i mean) so you have to keep that in mind too when you work. I use 3d studio Viz and Max.

 

So....some things to consider here....

 

- Import Autocad files or File Manager?

I use File Manager out of habbit mostly.

 

- Do you autosave projects? In what frequency? Doesn't autosave bother you when you are, for instance, tracing a wall?

I save manually.

 

- Do you Xref scenes or objects?

I never do that, although I'm considering it. I'm afraid though, that i will end up keeping 4-5 3dstudio instances running.

 

- Do you ever actually use your imported shapes or just trace them?

I always trace them. A few times I attempted to use them, there were a lot of flipped normals and messed up geometry.

Am I doing something wrong here?

 

- Do you use walls?

I never do that. I always snap trace lines and extrude them. When there is a door or window, I snap boxes to fill the gap.

It seems much faster to me.

 

- Do you use layers? groups? selection sets? schematic views? all of them?

This is my number one problem. If there is a better way to work I am sure i will work way faster.

I dont use layers. I rarely use selection sets. I always use groups, but i begin to get bored with the open/close/attach/detouch

procedure. Yesterday I tried to find a good way to use schematic view. I am not sure at all if it can help me.

The thing is that i never name correctly all of my objects. So if I don't use groups, you know what a selection list will look like.

Any ideas?

 

- Do you use Isolate objects?

I never do. It seems to have problems.

 

- Do you convert to polys a boolean or do you stuck edit modifiers on it?

I always hate it when i have to boolean. And i hate it more when i have to convert it to polys, so i can continue to move some vertices.

Stucking modifiers on boolean object seems a little unstable, converting to polys is a one way procedure...

 

- Do you use multisub materials?

I use them a lot. Although it is a little boring to change material id's when needed, it seems to be a good method for me.

 

If I remember anything else i will post it later...

 

For the last month I also use a wacom tablet and a second keyboard, dedicated to 3d studio shortcuts. I have customized most

of the shortcuts and I have put coloured stickers on the keys. Until now i think it helps a lot. And i have completely forgotten the mouse!!

Do you work with mouse, tablet or anything else? I also have a second monitor, but for now I use it mostly for autocad.

 

I'm waiting for your comments and ideas!

[Crazy Homeless Guy]

everyone will be different....

 

i use windows file explorer as my asset and file manager.

 

i manual save.

 

i xref both scenes and objects, as well as dwg file link. it just depends on what i am doing. i sometimes have 2 running. multiple copies of max running don't hit the system reources as bad as you might think. launching the second instance does not mean doubling the load on your system. don't know why, can't explain why.

 

imported shapes. the reason i use dwg file link is because i do 95% of my modeling for a project in FormZ. i never have a problem with geometry besides maybe having to many faces on a layer.

 

do i use walls. does not directly apply to me for reason mentioned above.

 

i use layers. they match the layer system exactly that i have set up in FormZ. i also use groups frequently.

 

do i isolate objects. no.

 

do i convert to poly. occasionally.

 

do i use multisub materials. rarely. if need be i will.

 

i work with 1 keyboard, 1 mouse, and 2 monitors.

[dimopoulos_d]

Thanx a lot guys for your feedback. You gave me some nice ideas...

[random]

-i use file link manager, although most times i have to bind the dwg because the snaps and viewport get too slow

 

- no autosave anymore, just manual save regularly and before operations where i had crashes before. And i always save the original file and at least one copy in case it gets corrupted.

 

-most of the times i trace the shapes and extrude, no walls.

 

- xrefs works great, it doesn't affect resources much

 

-layers is the best system for me, because unlike groups ,when you unhide objects it doesn't unhide the whole layer content (if you don't want to), also you can select hidden objects and layers. Also you can change objects from one layer to another easily

 

-submaterials, yes

 

-isolate objects , yes

 

- convert to poly, yes, although i dont use booleans

 

i use a standard mouse and keyboard but i'm looking for other options. what your experience with the tablet? is it difficult to get used to? how faster do you work?. Another option i saw is the spaceball mouse, where you handle the viewport navigation and other stuff with the spaceball, and other operations like selecting, moving objects, etc, with a regular mouse using the other hand.

[opus13]

-i file link the dwg, and set up multiple files for each room and landscape, then xref in to a master file. it makes a pretty good web, but its quite easy to navigate.

 

- i have 'designers twitch' (repetitive ctrl-s). i re-save more frequently than autosave, so i dont worry about it

 

- i try to use automatic geometry when possible, but if i need more control i will trace it out.

 

- i like walls when used with the doors and windows in max

 

- i have never been able to effectively use the schematic view, but i recently satrted using layers and selection sets like a madman. i always use groups inide of layers.

 

- i isolate objects quite frequently; it speeds up viewport performance. if i am modeling something in a scene i sually remove most of the scene. it just stays out of the way.

 

- always convert booleans to polys

 

- multisubs are way too useful not to use. it takes a littel bit more setup, but its worth that minute of extra time for flexibility, depeding on required changes, and if the director can make up their mind

 

- for hardware/interfaceing, i use a 22" center display, with a 19" on each side. for input i use a wacom graphire (mostly for texture work), logitech mx700 mouse, and a logitech marble trackball. a variety of devices keeps my wrist in shape

 

- for shortcuts i just make myself look it up on a chart everytime i do something that could have a shortcut. it slows me down to start, but before long i can fly through any application.

 

if you are making a shortcut keyboard for max, you might want to check out

these , and they are supposedly going to offer a 3dsmax version soon.

[dimopoulos_d]

random, I always wanted to get a wacom, and once i did i didnt regret it.I got used to it very quicly and I dont use a mouse anymore. My tablet is A6 size. I think if it was bigger (A5 or A4) it wouldnt be this easy to stop using the mouse. Bigger tablets require that you move your hand a lot more, although i think that A4 have an extra small area that corresponds to the whole screen too.. I dont think I work faster with a tablet, but i like the feel of it a lot better. It feels like "flying" around the screen without having to "drag" the mouse.

I have set up one of the pen buttons as a middle mouse click, and I use it combined with alt/shift/control to move and orbit the viewport. It's great! I also got a new keyboard with an extra zoom button on the left side. That also helps a lot.

 

thanx again guys... zboard look nice opus. I'll keep that in mind.

[vertexART]

HI there,

 

- I don't use file link manager, but import CAD directly. Now Max 7 has cute option of realtime linking with .dwg. Haven't worked much on it,but sounds good when CAD changes occur.

 

- AutoSave Yes, in about an hour, but I 'ctrl+s' a lot more often.

 

- I use Xrefs for very complex projects, and others are right about not wasting too much resources, you should give it try. Schematic view linkage is an easy method, but if you have bad habit of not naming the objects at creation(like I do), then forget about it.

 

- I almost never use imported geometry as such, always trace within Max

 

- Walls... only when I began modeling in Max and used CAD mostly... and now - never. When I look at the mesh when I add some windows, makes me feel sick.

 

- Layers - Yes, constantly, when I finally got a hang on them. Selection sets - very rarely.

 

- Isolate Selection - always! That way you can orbit around an object, without thinking of floor getting in the way, for instance. And a handy left hand shortcut, indeed.

 

- Convert to polys - When I am done with all basic modifications possible with stack modifiers. For every detailing, I always use editable polys. Very fast and clean. Booleans are a no-no for me, much more problems I had with them than any other compound objects.

 

- Multi-Sub - Always! Very easy to handle if you organize them properly, and with 'Material ID' modifier, you don't have to go to sub-object level to adjust.

 

And few new ones:

 

- How often do U use modifiers?

I found myself modeling a simple 'spherification' in sub-object level, soft-selecting, etc... then I remembered about a modifier...

 

- How often do U use 2d shapes, apart from tracing the imported?

Pretty comples shapes can be made in 2d and then extruded, it gives cleaner geometry than a boolean, for instance.

 

- Do U use AEC stairs, for example, or model them?

I never do, I guess noone does, because client's stairs are never typical.

 

....

@dimopoulos_d:

Thanks man, you just ended my dilema whether I should get an A4 tablet.

I always thought bigger the better, but you are right about size and arm-movement.

Cheers

[dimopoulos_d]

- For architectural projects i only use extrude and UV Map. No other modifiers

 

- extruded or lofted 2d shapes? as much as i can. Very clean results and you can easily control the poly count.

 

- AEC stairs? never

 

You're welcome for the tablet issue vertexArt....

 

 

And another question from me....

 

When you convert to spline (a rectangle for example) all the vertices are converted in bezier mode. Do you bother to change them to corner? Does it make any difference in render times? ( If you had created a whole scene in this way for example)