From: Robert Karlsson [robkar97@astud.chalmers.se]
Sent: Monday, October 11, 1999 3:52 PM
To: 3d-ui@hitl.washington.edu
Subject: Re: 3d modeling packages

Hi,

having been into modeling for some time I reckoned I could share some
thoughts with you all.

> I've used Wavefront (actually the 'model' module of the Wavefront
> Advanced Visualizer), Alias, and just a taste of 3D Studio Max
> and the free Blender. 

Whatever kind of objects are you going to create, I guess you'll want to
keep the polygon-count to the minimum. Even though my experiences in
Alias is limited, it is my impression that 3D Studio MAX or VIZ offer a
very nice range of tools for low-poly modeling. After all, NURBS is
hardly an issue here, and with 3D Studio you can work *quickly* with
*control* over the mesh.

Sub-object modeling, optimize-modifiers and snap-functions make it my
choice.

Take some time to look into 3D Studio, and feel free to e-mail me at
robkar97@astud.chalmers.se for some advice.


>Wavefront is old and has a horrible interface,
> but is fairly reliable (plus the VE software I use already has
> a file parser for OBJ files). Alias is nice, but way too expensive
> and really geared more towards animation than just modeling.
> 3DS Max I couldn't figure out at all, but I understand architects
> and other design types love it. 

Yeap. :-) It's great. And really, it's the easiest modeling program
around once you get the hang of it.


>It doesn't output OBJ files, to my knowledge. Blender (my apologies if >anyone loves it) has an
> incomprehensible interface, but it *is* free.

3D Studio outputs 3DS, which normally can be imported into most PC-based
programs. As for UNIX, I searched the Internet for programs to convert
it to OBJ, but the one I tried didn't do a good work. :-(

Any tips on converters 3DS<>OBJ would be appreciated.
 
> So, what else do people use? What are the pros and cons? What platforms does it run on, and what file formats does it support?

If you're working in a windows environment I would strongly recommend 3D
Studio MAX or VIZ. The difference between MAX and VIZ is that MAX is a
little more complex in terms of animation, where as I guess is a subset
of MAX with some bells and whistles added on for architects and that
kind of guys.
 

/Robert Karlsson
________________________________________________

architecture student, Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden
e-mail: robkar97@astud.chalmers.se
site: http://artoo.hemmet.chalmers.se/i2

	"Never tell me the odds!" - Han Solo


> Best,
> --Doug
> 
> --
> Doug A. Bowman, Ph.D.          (540) 231-7537
> Assistant Professor             bowman@vt.edu
> Computer Science        www.cs.vt.edu/~bowman/
> Virginia Tech