Your prefered modelling software?

[antoniomitalia]

How it sounds! What do you prefer for modelling: lightwave, modo, rhino, other?
Of course lightwave is so fast, but sometimes it's difficult to reach precise industrial forms. Do you remember a tutorial from the nineties by Thomas Suurland? modelling the New Beetle in Rhino?, it's out of his site actually, but it was really interesting.

[Janusz Biela]

How it sounds! What do you prefer for modelling: lightwave, modo, rhino, other?
Of course lightwave is so fast, but sometimes it's difficult to reach precise industrial forms. Do you remember a tutorial from the nineties by Thomas Suurland? modelling the New Beetle in Rhino?, it's out of his site actually, but it was really interesting.

I think each software offer best solution. I would like to have some thinks from max, some from Z-brush and some from Moodo. I would like have in Modeler finally good and complex tool for UV mapping (I did not test UV Unwrap yet..can be really good)...so in this case LW the worst . But power of modeling comes from user skill , not from what offer software

[3dworks]

using formz by autodessys here for many years! solid modeling, parametric modeling, nurbs, facetted and smooth objects, etc etc... outputs as LWO.

http://www.formz.com

[antoniomitalia]

Thanks guys for your replys. I'm with you Janusz, the player makes always the diference (you specially!), but talking about flexible and precise industrial design, well, simply LW wasn't done for that. I love LW, but its goal is different.

I used Rhino in the past, working for some industrial design studios, and it's one of the most common packages for this target, cause of its flexibility (curves are always embeded inside the final nurbs and its very easy to re-edit them in the future, if needed). Problem is that Rhino doesn't export very good to LW and wasn't available for OSX till last year, so sometimes when I'm just droping out quick ideas, I work directly on LW.

Just want to know some of your preferences and have to say thank you, 3dworks, for your advise about FormZ, haven't heard it before. I'll try it.

What about LW-CAD have anyone try it?

[Janusz Biela]

Thanks guys for your replys. I'm with you Janusz, the player makes always the diference (you specially!), but talking about flexible and precise industrial design, well, simply LW wasn't done for that. I love LW, but its goal is different.

I used Rhino in the past, working for some industrial design studios, and it's one of the most common packages for this target, cause of its flexibility (curves are always embeded inside the final nurbs and its very easy to re-edit them in the future, if needed). Problem is that Rhino doesn't export very good to LW and wasn't available for OSX till last year, so sometimes when I'm just droping out quick ideas, I work directly on LW.

Just want to know some of your preferences and have to say thank you, 3dworks, for your advise about FormZ, haven't heard it before. I'll try it.

What about LW-CAD have anyone try it?

I am not good in modeling , but is enough what I do and slowly I increase my skill (I stick with LWCAD and Modeler because I know well this software. I know another software has more possibilities but I remind again: Skill and imagination is the most important ...so I do not drop LW because in Rhino or Moodo modeling is better ...maybe it is but differences are not worth to jump for me. I know Modeler from positives and more important: negatives sides. Also I see power of LWCAD which is perfect tool for arch modeling but also need a lot of trainings, not because is difficult to use, but because there are a lot possibilities. In good hands LWCAD is powerful.

[antoniomitalia]

Yeah, thanks again for your advices master, I did an overview on LWCAD in the past and found it as you say. Really to do only archviz (without exporting plans) is not necessary, if you've got good skills on Modeler. Rhino is other thing, more focused on nurbs, maybe I'm going to re-open some past models and try to render them on Kray, to post somethings here.
Ah!, and thanks again for your advices on buying my new CPU last month, I posted the thread "Mac vs PC" on forum, and finally decided to buy an i7 3930K 4.6Ghz, it's arriving to my studio next week, I can not wait to play it!!!

Good renders,
Anto

[Janusz Biela]

Yeah, thanks again for your advices master, I did an overview on LWCAD in the past and found it as you say. Really to do only archviz (without exporting plans) is not necessary, if you've got good skills on Modeler. Rhino is other thing, more focused on nurbs, maybe I'm going to re-open some past models and try to render them on Kray, to post somethings here.
Ah!, and thanks again for your advices on buying my new CPU last month, I posted the thread "Mac vs PC" on forum, and finally decided to buy an i7 3930K 4.6Ghz, it's arriving to my studio next week, I can not wait to play it!!!

Good renders,
Anto

This will be score ~ 13 pts in Cinebench I have 8.6 on i7 3.3 Ghz

[jure]

I think all you need it LWCAD. Especially with new version with shape instances nothing can beat that...

[antoniomitalia]

Yeep, Thanks! I used it in first version and found it little tricky, maybe I have to try it again, that features you say sound great...

[CHRIS.PI3]

Most important is what do you need to model and what you are doing it.
For Archviz stuff lw+lwcad is a no brainer , even if you take into account other tempting solutions
like archicad+cinema4d or revit+3ds max (given you have the cad files from the architect).
For uses other than visualization you are entering deep waters and big $$$...

[antoniomitalia]

yeah, I think so... moreover it's now 11 years since I started with LW, it was at v.4 more or less. I'm not any "crack" but don't want to waste all these years, I know 3dMax+Vray was a real temptation in the past, but actually with the presence of Kray in the playground things have changed radically. My use of 3D in the present is pure visualization (half archviz, half graphic design), so it's the right choice. In the past I worked for some industrial design firms and Rhino was the tool, but as you say, to have visual presentation as the final goal, LW+Kray is the cheapest and easiest solution, and in good hands for 2 years now, as powerfull as Max+Vray. I think when Kray 3 arrives it will really shake the scene!!!