What do you use to model?

[Francisco Penaloza]

I also believe that software are just tools that we use to help us to make a nice image/videos, that will help the project some how.

Nothing wrong with learning different tools so you have a bigger arsenal under your sleeve so you are not limited to what one tool can do, and you just concentrate in create something great. Photoshop alone can do incredible stuff, just take a look at Vyonyx website. Or you can look at Alex Hogrefe work with photoshop and Sketchup alone. But this been talked here several time too.

 

I do love the idea of linking although I tried the Revit FBX link thing a couple of years ago and that was painful. It took 30-40 min just to reload. I'm sure its better now though. I have even thought of using FBX linking with SketchUp for the same reason... to keep working. Also working in an arch office, we will work the design until the very last moment, then it's a click of the magic button (that has given me an ulcer).

 

I have over 10 years in this business (yea pretty old) and if there is one thing that I learned with time is, that beside software or technology, workflow and identifying the real necessities are the most important thing for this business.

When I started, very young me just wanted render the hell out of everything, it was cool it was fun, it didn't matter over time or long projects. But with the years I realized that, really, we don't need to render everything, if you work in house, like I do now, you need to understand this, and make the Architects around you to understand the same thing, it is not efficient.

 

It is OK to 'visualize', with a V Ray rendering or Mental ray or what not, to see light and shadows that you can't see on Sketchup or REVIT, but you don't need to go all the way to final render to do this. if want to render this is really quick, it can be done in very short time, actually the new 'render ' engine of REVIT is pretty good for this. There is an Ambien Occlusion for Sketchup that helps a lot to see volumes, that otherwise are difficult to understand with regular Sketchup lighting. Shoot there is Maxwell render for free for Sketchup, I have a few architects here using it, they just click render, and inmideatly they can see gap in their mesh or see how light and shadows are affecting the design, no need to render for our, adjusting glossines, people and what not. During design stage, it is really no need it.

 

If you suffer linking REVIT file, because the designer does not make his mind, that is a workflow problem, not that your render engine is slow or complex to use.

 

If you are trying to do a fly through of a large housing master planing, yes this should be done in a beefy 3D software such Max, or Cinema 4D, Blender, whatever. Sketchup is not for this. You could do it, but it may crash, you can't network render, it take forever.

If you only render Scandinavian rooms , Sketchup and some photo real render is OK.

 

But doing 1000 renders of a school design, and think that using Max instead of Sketchup will be better, no that's not the answer. The solution is you don't need to do 1000 rendering to figure out your design. You can see that within REVIT, within regular Sketchup, AutoCAD, and what not.

[M V]

Thank you all for your responses. This is good to hear and I agree with you all. The issue I face was said previously, that the industry is biased to Max/Vray. If I was to search out a job at Neoscape or any of the positions on the job board here, my resume would go right in the trash can. The same can be said with ArchiCAD (sorry but that's the industry). If you don't kneel to the Autodesk beast, you're most likely not going to get a call back.

 

I've been using SketchUp for over 10 years now. I'm on multiple beta test teams for plugins and I consider myself a power user. Hell, my name is even hidden inside the thing. I just feel that there has to be a reason why the "big boys" are using Max, so I was poking around to see what I'm missing out on, if anything. I guess I am just thinking from a career point of view. If this is my end all career and I am thinking where I want to be in 10 years, I need to be confident that I can get a creative director job for any of the top firms. Currently, I have not seen too many of these positions not looking for expert Max skills. SketchUp is great but Max rules the roost.

 

[philippelamoureux]

I'm pretty sure if a pro guy apply for a job and he does real art, he's going to be hired even if he is not familiar with max. Skills are transferable with some adaptation time. Artistic skill is another story. A killer portfolio speaks much more than trying to convince an employer that you know 3ds max in depth.

 

My suggestion is focus on your art and learn max, if you want to, in your free time. I started with max and youtube tutorials. It's not that hard to learn I think. You probably just need to figure out where the tools are in the UI!!!

 

The most important for the future is not to learn 56 new softwares every year but it's to stay informed and interested in the new advancements and techniques imo.

[fuadkareem]

I typically like to model in Revit but I am looking to move into Max to start getting an understanding for complex modeling. Although I do like using the conceptual massing environment that is avaialble in Revit.