Hexagon vs. SketchUp

[bwtr]

Oh Dear! Shaun it looks like you are making life difficult for your self. As suggested above, give VISUAL examples of your problem. I think, from reading that last, that you are tring to do something by going down a series of ? unrelated steps. whereas you could go straight to the end without all the itermediatries?
From the start point, can you not go directly to X to solve/create a solution?
Sorry if I have missed your point.

[AlainK]

Like I've already indicated in this very thread, I don't trust booleans in any sub-d app. Personally, I would only use Rhino when using booleans.

I haven't check Carrara's Spline modeler fully, but I've read somewhere in the manual that it can handle these types of modeling probs, which are called "compounds". It can also import AI splines.

I see no reason why you can't do this directly in Hexagon without using booleans. All the curve tools are there as well as the surface tools to draw the profile or section to prepare for extrusion, then the editing tools like bevel, chamfer, etc. It would help greatly if you post a pic.

[medeamajic]

shaunmckinnon,

i originalli purchased ac3d after reviewing the gallery, (waste of money unless you're REALLY good). I then purchased Shade 7 thinking I could get something better. navigating through that program is near to impossible it seems. So then I bought Bryce 5, and Poser 4. At this point I'd started an addiction. After seeing the gallery in Carrara, I had to purchase it thinking it was the begin all and end all product. Boy was I wrong. The gallery was mostly work done in 3DS Max and other top of the line programs, then rendered in Carrara, (and I even wonder if that's true). Then when Hex was released, I thought, finally something to make life easier. And I was pleasently surprised at how much functionality it had. I feel sometimes that Carrara 4 should've offered that functionality right off the bat. I guess Eovia's growing with their clientel.

No 3-D animation program is going to work the way you want 100%. You are going to have to find the one or two programs that work best for you. It may or may not be Carrara 5 and Hexagon 2. In my opinion Carrara 5.1 blows away, Vue, Bryce, Shade and many others. Carrara does not have the best animation/assembly room previews or the best figure animation but Carrara gets better and better much faster than the competion. The same is true for Hexagon

As far as the Carrara gallery is concerned you can not go by the gallery of any 3-D sofware program. What can be done with Hash's AM, Maya or XSI and what you can do with them is a different story. What I see done in the gallery for Carrara I can do. I can not do anything with Hash's AM and I find Carrara much easier than my Maya PLE. I admit the Maya gallery and AM gallery look very good but the programs were harder to use than Carrara in my opinion. Carrara does not do everything great but the GUI is easy to use so I continue to use it. I imagine Carrara 5.5 or 6.0 will have a better preview engine. That is what I want most to be added with hair/fur and cloth next.

I think Maya was used for Spider Man 2. It can produce great results with the right 3-D artist. You may or may not be one of them. Maya can produce bad work in the hands of a bad 3-D artist. You may or may not be one of them.

I do not want to offend you. I am only stating that Carrara and Hexagon can do some great things but so can many other 3-D programs. You must find the one that works for you.

[marcovth]

"A good trades man never complaints about his tools".

I think about it when I want to throw out the computer. I assume some of you came
across some nice renders of objects made by other "3d engineers", you tried to make but never really was able too ?

BTW, I can not wait for Hex 2 to get some more tools. Modo 201 takes forever to come out. I like Hex better than Modo because it`s easier to use Hex with a pen on a tablet PC.

[Patrick210]

Shaun, to answer your actual question:

You can bring your ".ai" files into the Carrara spline modeler and select "combine" and it will punch out the holes for you, as Alaink said. It usually works better to save out your '".ai" file in an older version. You can also add another level in front and then bevel the front or rear edges. It works well and is easy to do.

[ronjurman]

With the cost of Maya, 3DMax, and (up until recently, anyway) XSI, I would imagine that the majority of the users of those programs (at least those who post in galleries) are pros who purchased them for their livelihoods, and that level of expertise certainly seems reflected in their gallery renderings.

Carrara has been mainly targeted to illustrators and casual users at a modest price, but its capabilities are quickly moving into the pro range, thus I don't think that Carrara's galleries quite yet reflect what the program is capable of.

rj

P.S. Yes, I certainly would like Hex to add more precision/snapping tools/options as well, if only to keep connecting/perpendicular lines from getting skewed, and objects from getting off kilter (once an object gets rotated, how to ever get it realigned again).

[WillBellJr]

Originally Posted by TheRetiredSailor

Thanks for the reminder about landscapes and plants in XSI and Lightwave, Will. I imagine that the inability to use Poser characters as easily as you can in Carrara is another strike against XSI and Lightwave as well.

Exactly!

I do have Tree Designer for LW from Polas but that's certainly a far step from landscapes, skies, water and vegetation. Same with XSI and other mainstream Pro 3D apps.

Dynamic Poser import was the icing for me with Carrara...

Sometimes you just don't want to model everything from scratch - if you can get your environments (and at times your secondary characters and props) out the way without too much pain, you're definitely a leg up on your production...

-Will

[TheRetiredSailor]

Originally Posted by WillBellJr

Dynamic Poser import was the icing for me with Carrara...

Dynamic Poser import was a big deal for me as well. I find myself thinking of that feature when I look at the other 3D packages.

Originally Posted by WillBellJr

Sometimes you just don't want to model everything from scratch - if you can get your environments (and at times your secondary characters and props) out the way without too much pain, you're definitely a leg up on your production...

I agree, but I suspect that Poser and DAZ characters have a bad reputation with professional illustrators (*snicker*, can you believe that he used a Poser character in that ad?). Pretty silly (IMHO), they have come a long way in realism, especially for background and secondary characters. The same goes for terrain and landscape. Look at some of the work out there in the galleries.

[WillBellJr]

I too have seen that perception but ultimately any model is just a >mesh< Poser models ultimately boil down to a mesh. The rest is texturing.

I've seen some very fine quality Poser renderings; the faces had freckles and excellent looking skin - your results will always vary based on 1) the amount of time you put into your work and 2) your skill level and trick bag...

The Wing Commander series of games back in the nineties made me switch from electronics design engineering to software engineering because I wanted to become a game programmer (most game houses certainly weren't looking for hardware design engineers!)

Wing Commander Privateer was the most influential in stirring my passion for games programming.

It was the first game I purchased after buying my (at the time) brand spanking new 2x CDRom drive/burner AND it had speech!

The lipsync was TOTALLY OFF and you know what - it didn't make a difference to the enjoyability of playing that game (the fact that it was open ended made it totally rock!)

Looking at the characters in that game I can EASILY create similar characters and rendered animations in Poser (all by itself actually) and it would look WAY WAY better, and the lips are in sync with the speech too!

So for the things I like to do and want to achieve, Poser is a wonderful tool, which is how I view ALL my applications; tools to engineer pixels on a computer display...

-Will

[TheRetiredSailor]

Yep, I remember Wing Commander. LOL, I remember playing the original game on a "screaming" 80286 PC. Looking back, it reminds me of how far the technology has come. In those days the idea of an affordable package like Carrara was a "pipe dream."

Competition is good for the marketplace. It tends to motivate companies to do better. I truely believe that we as consumers will benefit as the mid-range packages like Carrara and Hexagon get better, along with the price going down on XSI and Lightwave. I see this as being a very competitive market.

[AintNoSin]

Originally Posted by TheRetiredSailor

In those days the idea of an affordable package like Carrara was a "pipe dream."

Can you imagine even trying to render a scene with Global Illumination and Radiosity on a 286 back then? Your first frame would finish rendering sometime next week.

[TheRetiredSailor]

LOL, I have trouble trying to imagine rendering anything on a 286.