HEX 2 Manual

[Couerl]

At the risk of beating a dead horse, printed manuals are about as helpful these days as stone tablets, pick axes and oxe-carts. They are out of date by the time the ink dries on them and the development cycle is to the point where the software is changing almost daily anyway. I think in a few more years we'll just "subscribe" to a live copy of the software and download quarterly or even monthly updates that have been tested and optimized or something similar. Software code is a "living" language and by that I mean that it is growing constantly and unlike Latin, (a beautiful, though "dead" language) you can't just make a dictionary and call it done since the developers are still inventing the language itself and that language is continually flourishing and adding new words and definitions to itself every single day. I think someday, (a few years maybe) even the pdf manuals will be put to rest (I think they're a waste of MB's too ;) ) and companies will develop much richer and more interactive online learning labs where you can work at your own pace and study what you want when you want to. The internet itself is growing too and new tools are being created at an astonishing pace. Just a few years ago a forum like this (it's really just an extranet sitting on MySQL or some other DB) would have been only available to wealthy big shots. Five years from now we may see Thomas (or anybody) modeling live as his copy of H6 will just be plugged into the web portal when he turns it on and we can go from room to room and see other people sculpting away and sit and visit with them. All very possible and even if the exact implementation is off, the idea that we can all work even closer together and not be hindered or cut-off from information and learning resources at our fingertips is a vision that will become real eventually.

In the meantime you can always go to kinkos and print the stupid thing. ;)
I havn't opened it in almost a year now and it's just eating my hard drive space.
There's just too many advanced users around now who are eager to help if you just ask them and I've learned more from asking them or studying their work than any book or manual could ever teach me.

[WillBellJr]

You are beating a dead horse - and again, don't force your opinions on the way I enjoy learning.

I prefer to read a manual offline - I have a 2 monitor setup and I STILL don't like reading online manuals.

Nobody is right or wrong here. I prefer to read a manual, you don't - lets leave it at that. I'm not interested in how you feel printed manuals are not necessary.

As a side note, my ex-girlfriends son was watching me do some lightwave work and said how "cool" that was and could he learn to do that.

I said sure, and handed him (at the time) the Inside Lightwave 7 book.

He was like "GAWD, I have to read all of that???...." I told him no, just skip around and read what you're interested in learning...

See Frankie judged books by how large they were - he >hated< to read. I used to tell him that if you don't read you'll never "learn anything" - (blanket statement ahead) - Kidds today hate to read unfortunately - my opinion...

I love my books...

Eovia already stated that the Hex2 manuals will be PDF...

This is moot now...

-Will

[Couerl]

Heh,... I'm not forcing anything on anyone and I have as much right to voice an opinion as anyone else. (so there) ;)
FWIW, my undergraduate degree is in English Literature and I'd venture to bet that I've read more printed books than most. I'd estimate between 2500 and 3000 of them ranging from history to poetry to fiction and non-fiction and tech manuals too and I love books and I love to find a nice tree and sit beneath it and read Paradise Lost and I encourage kids to read books as well. That said, I don't take my tech manuals and sit under a tree because I can't make use of them there unless I have my laptop with me and when I have my laptop with me it's hard to carry books too so I'd rather have a pdf.

[Senyac]

Well I like printed manuals and PDFs and online tutorials ect but I really loved the hex PDF with videos seeing something done is heaps better to learn from for me
But your idea about the internet and being able to see what someone is working on,
Well thats already here , Truespace 7 has "shared space" idea where you link with other people over the net, you can both work on the same model at the same time in realtime , I have TS 7 but I dont like it and havent tried the shared space part because i dont know anyone with TS7 .
Hash Animation master are working on a simular idea with the next version so many people can work together .
But personally I like to work alone at my own pace

[WillBellJr]

Sorry Courel, I came off a little heated cause I glanced at your statement about manuals not being helpful and started my reply from there...

Frankly, manuals depending on how they're written are not outdated as soon as they're done.

It really depends on the software house - if they start out with a decent base >that doesn't change< the manuals will pretty much remain sound through updates and feature enhancements.

If the company throws on all kinds of patches and changes and pulls out features etc., then of course the manuals will be a waste...

Adobe supplies a manual with each upgrade to photoshop and whatever is new is either added to a smaller update "leaflet" or just merged into the existing manual text.

Is supplying a manual for every update expensive - YES, we've all agreed on that.
Is it hard writing a manual and keeping it updated? Yes, we've agreed on that as well.

Do >I< expect a decent manual for a "decent" / professional software - YES, I would hope others do too.

I'm sorry but if I pay $500 - $2000 for a software package, I'd kinda expect a manual, yanno?? (And at them prices, I'd hope that the software is complex enough warrant a manual and that price!)

Again, how we like to learn is subjective, granted, one day all forms of books and reading material may fall to an electronic form that provides sound, video and hyperlinks.

Superman had his viewing crystals...

I had already said I'd love a "digital book" that can load digital files, and provide all the features you could ask for (highlighting, searching, bookmarking etc) THEN, I'd be hooraying PDFs and other electronic forms of reading.

For me, I like to read offline - that's it, it's that simple. Even if I have the book next to my keyboard, that's just how I like to read. Clicking between apps (changing focus) is just too annoying to me.

We're all different, nobody is right or wrong when it comes to how they prefer to learn...


-Will

[bwtr]

Will, I think you are a "normal" just like me---whats a normal you may ask if you haven't got a "real" manual!!!

My Carrara4 Manual 99% of the time provides the solutions I need for Carrara5!

[Nate Owens]

That's what it takes to make the world go 'round...
there's Normal.... and then there's his brother, Ab..
Suppose it takes one to balance the other

[bwtr]

REAL men read books!!!!!

[WillBellJr]

Originally Posted by bwtr

Will, I think you are a "normal" just like me---whats a normal you may ask if you haven't got a "real" manual!!!

My Carrara4 Manual 99% of the time provides the solutions I need for Carrara5!

We're ole school - that's all it is...

-Will

PS - Actually the Carrara 5 manual is really good - there's only 1 or 2 items out of sync with the base software.

[etujedi]

"Always read the instructions, even if you will never use them." Very good advice can be found in this statement! Cheers!

[Hexadave]

There are five pages in this thread already, so maybe this option has already been mentioned, but since I find pdf files clumsy to read on the monitor (and they get in the way of the app), I've been printing them on the extra HP printer I have that came with my Mac. It does duplexing, so the pages are printed both sides. I use a three hole puncher and bind the pages together with the little hole stud thingies that they sell at craft shops for people who are into scrapbooking. The main expense is ink cartridges, and I really haven't kept track of how much that is costing me. However, the idea of taking the pdf file to Kinkos and letting them do it with a coil binding sounds good. Now I have to find out if there's a Kinkos anywhere near me, or if Office Max will do the same thing.

The videos are a nice effort, but I find them too fast, and you're following someone else, so there's always going to be something missing, some small step that trips you up, or a hole in their logic, something that they know and take so much for granted that they don't mention it. Result: you're stuck and confused. With a printed book, you work at your own speed (super slow for me!) and have time to think and work things out for yourself.

Just my two cents worth.

[steama]

I think the PDF Hex manual is great!

[mon_stdnt]

Wow 5 pages

I like the idea of printing the pdf file, but this time I'll let a professional do it.
Besides, IF they come out with a printed manual you would have to pay for the book, shipping and tax, which will probably come out roughly the same if you brough it to Kinkos.

I have a gut feeling that their will be a couple of versions with Hex 2, but some of the versions will probably be just bug fixes like Hex 1, nothing major.

Ex: it won't crash when you do certain commands with the paint brush. or
weird polygons appears when using the edge tool.

My opinion is to keep the pdf for video tutorials of showing the new tools of Hex 2, and once in a while update it with every new version released. And if you want you could print that too.

[AndiN]

Heh! And every time I mention anything about the Hex manual, I get shouted down that it's not important. I think five pages of comments on this thread refutes that! :-)

Okay, I disagree with the comments I've read that a printed manual is obsolete before the ink is dried on the paper. I've worked on doc for many programs. And I can tell you that even with the programs that had frequent updates, we had large sections of the manuals and help that didn't need to be revised; the procedures for those functions were still the same. Think about it -- how many things that you do in the current version of Hex are the same as the way you did them in the original version? How many things in Carrara 5 are done the same way they were done in C4, or even C3? While some things change, a lot stays the same. So even if a software company releases a patch the day after the printed manual is shipped, quite a lot of the info in the manual is still going to be useful.

I like the Lulu.com suggestion. Since the Hex online Help is just the PDF and therefore already laid out for print, it seems like a great solution. It won't cost Eovia any extra, so the price of Hex won't go up, and those who don't want a printed version don't have to buy it from there. So, Eovia, have you checked into that?

As far as the Hexagon videos go, I like videos and screenshots in doc. But, as I pointed out when Hex was initially released, they should supplement the text in the manual, not replace it. It's great to be able to see what the text is talking about; it can really cement what you're reading, especially for visual learners. Text with supplemental video and screenshots is my second favorite training method. (The first being sitting next to the students and telling them what to do as they do it -- then telling them to do it without me prompting them.) But as someone mentioned, when steps are skipped in the video because it's a simple thing that the expert didn't think to mention, it's hard, if not impossible, for a beginner to follow along. That's where a step-by-step walkthrough of what's covered in the video comes in. It fills in those gaps. (Of course, the text can't skip steps, either.) Unfortunately, those are missing in the Hex 1 manual, which really disappointed me. I hope the Hex 2 manual has that in the text; audio in the videos is nice, but I can't print it to follow along with when I'm trying to recreate the model or learn how to use the tool.