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Old 2nd May 2011, 08:08 PM   #1
Blythe
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Question Thinking of buying, but...

I am old to computers but new to 3D modelling, started because I want to add some 3DS objects to NoLimits Rollercoaster. Definitely hooked now. I have been carefully comparing AC3D, Cheetah, Blender, Sketchup and Autodesk. At the moment I prefer AC3D though it does seem to crash a lot especially when saving. Also the interface seems an uneasy mixture of Windows and Mac with very small text of file names/folders and no file icons available so I cannot see what textures and objects I have.

Is the purchased version any different or more stable than the demo, or is it just a question of time expiry?

I am running an iMac OS 10.6.7. Cheetah seems very stable with a helpful and attractive interface but no obvious way of using existing textures or saving them with a 3DS object. Sketchup is easy to use though the lite version won't save in 3DS. Blender is free but an absolute pig of an interface that had me in tears at three in the morning and Autodesk has far too many features and is too expensive for my modest needs.
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Old 3rd May 2011, 10:08 AM   #2
Andy
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Default Re: Thinking of buying, but...

It is possible to switch to Apple system dialogs in the advanced settings. The default look that you see is set because some users reported problems. The Apple dialogs may be fine if you have a more modern system.

We have many thousands of users who run AC3D every day so it really shouldn't be crashing for you.

Please contact us (http://www.inivis.com/contact.html) with more details on the crashes, if you can duplicate them, please include the operations you did and save any files that caused problems.
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Old 4th May 2011, 03:42 AM   #3
Blythe
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Default Re: Thinking of buying, but...

Found two items in the settings menu: Sergio UI and Use System Dialogs with an asterisk. No explanation what the asterisk referred to. Sergio gave lots of very small icons of dubious effectiveness over the windows. Might be better twice the size. Use System Dialogs turned out to be the Mac appearance I needed.

Respectful suggestions.
Put this info in the manual.
Have 'Use System Dialogs' menu item moved to Appearance, renamed 'Mac OS' and checked by default.
'Preferences' and 'Settings' bring up the same menu. Confusing. Lose 'Settings', which is ambiguous.

Crashes seem to have stopped now I have made the changes. These mainly happened when saving or exporting or flipping through the folders so perhaps there is a link. When exporting to 3DS an occasional alert message tells me that the texture name is too long, It would be helpful to beginners if it also gave info on acceptable length. By wearisome trial and error I find that it seems to be happy with 6 characters for a texture filename.

Wonderful. A much more useable programme now. I shall buy it. Many thanks.
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Old 4th May 2011, 01:08 PM   #4
luuckyy
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Default Re: Thinking of buying, but...

Quote:
Originally Posted by Blythe View Post
When exporting to 3DS an occasional alert message tells me that the texture name is too long, It would be helpful to beginners if it also gave info on acceptable length. By wearisome trial and error I find that it seems to be happy with 6 characters for a texture filename.
Actually you can use up to 8 characters.
__________________
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Old 5th May 2011, 03:40 AM   #5
Blythe
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Default Re: Thinking of buying, but...

Quote:
Originally Posted by luuckyy View Post
Actually you can use up to 8 characters.
Ah what luxury! Seriously, thanks for that, most helpful.

What I find confusing re the texture filenames is that I made some objects with Object Creator, a small, elderly Windows based 3d modelling programme for NoLimits Rollercoaster. The texture filenames were very long in some cases and accepted without problem and opened correctly when the object was rendered in NoLimits. However when exporting 3DS with AC3D the requirement is for 8character max and if this is exceeded the NoLimits programme will not find the file and not render the object. Strange, but nothing to get worked up about. More important things in life, but mildly irritating.
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Old 5th May 2011, 06:12 AM   #6
Andy
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Default Re: Thinking of buying, but...

The restriction is in the 3DS file format see Shortcomings at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/.3ds

There are better file formats these days but 3DS will not die
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