Bonzai 3D First Impressions
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Thanks, I see.
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Well I have played with Bonzai for a few evenings now. It is too buggy to really start working with it, but that will probably improve soon.
I must say I like it. This is close to what I wished SU7 would have been like, and some more.
Some parts of the UI still feel a bit unintuitive and some stuff could have been streamlined, but on the other hand there is a bunch of stuff I would really like to see in SketchUp. There are things that SketchUp definitely does better, like inferensing, so it is still hard to decide. I think some parts of the UI are still not completed, like the materials editor, so Bonzai will still improve (will SU?).
So far I have not found anything that I would consider to be a dealbreaker, if considering it as replacement for SketchUp. But they need to solve some of the bigger bugs before it is possible to put it to a real test.
Sheik -
Gentlemen,
This is just the first public beta of bonzai3d, and there are definitely more improvements in the works.
While Redranger is not on our staff (he may be a "bonzai3d guy"), he does quote our price right -- or almost right -- $499. See our following post, where we will repost our announcement, that some of you may or may not have received.
Pixero,
Sorry, we found an issue with patching bonzai3d on Vista with UAC on. If you either temporarily turn this off, or if you simply move your bonzai3d folder outside the Program Files folder, then the patch should work properly and fix the majority of the Windows crashes.
If anyone finds a specific action that causes a problem, please let us know the specifics. We are working hard to make bonzai3d as good as possible -- as quickly as possible, so anything that we are able to reproduce will be corrected ASAP.
Hebrides,
I think that it is a little unfair to compare a beginning user's "game play" in one software with an advanced user's play on another software. If you want to see an advanced user with formZ, please see our Demo Videos:
http://www.formz.com/downloads/video/video.php
Perhaps see the Penguin or Birds Nest -- or Amphitheater demos...
And of course the interface is being improved substantially with bonzai3d, so this will only make things better and easier.
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Bonzai3d PUBLIC BETA TEST LAUNCHED!
The much anticipated bonzai3d is now available to use in beta version. Enjoy and revel in simplicity coupled with power and ease of use. Those who have tried it out so far have left a few comments ranging from -"I love it", "simply amazing", "this is a sketching program with a spine", to "Great app, well executed and powerful", "bonzai is going to be phenomenal!", "Bonzai3d is everyone's built-to-order 3D Solid thinking tool. Not only it offers all I wanted from a smart 3D modeling environment, but also other things I did not know I needed" We'll let you be the judge. Bonzai3d will sell at the introductory price of US $499.00 at its expected release date in April.
Download your copy HERE: http://www.bonzai3d.com/form.Z SPECIAL ANNOUNCED!
To celebrate the release of bonzai3d public beta, AutoDesSys is offering form.Z RenderZone Plus with a special discount at 25% off all new user licenses along with a free update to version 7.0 when it is released in the second half of 2009. This special offer ends April 30, 2009.
For more details click HERE: http://formz.com/products/formz/formz_offer.htmlform•Z STUDENT AWARDS PRESENTED AT ACADIA
AutoDesSys has been involved in the education of students wishing to master 3D since the early 90s. This year its president, Chris Yessios, presented the awards in Minneapolis at the 16th annual form.Z Joint Study Awards ceremony during the ACADIA conference. Students were honored for their accomplishments in the fields of Architecture,Interior Design, Visualization, Fabrication, and Animation. Read the article HERE: http://formz.com/informz/feb_2009/page2.htmlFEATURED USERS IN THIS ISSUE
The following form.Z users are featured in this issue:
Nikalete Funk, Burgess & Niple, Inc., Columbus, Ohio
Dan Manoim, M. A. Ganor Ltd. (D.S.E), Tel Aviv, Israel
Bernd Meissner, meissner>dokuteam, Kissing, GermanySee samples of their work HERE: http://formz.com/informz/feb_2009/user1.html
INTERFACE MULTIMEDIA CREATES THE GALLERY MODEL OF SAARINEN’S TWA TERMINAL
Some of us are old enough to remember when TWA (Trans World Airlines) dominated the sky and its famous terminal at JFK airport in New York City. While the airline is a long lost memory by now, Eero Saarinen remains one of the 20th century’s most prominently acclaimed architects and the designer of this impressive structure at JFK. Interface Multimedia assisted in the creation of the gallery model of the TWA Terminal using form•Z to design it as part of a touring exhibit piece in Europe and the US until 2010, the centennial of Saarinen’s birth. Check it out HERE: http://www.ifmm.com/project_page.asp?c=4&type=714936&ccc=719572
form.Z USER IN THE NEWS
Renowned architect and form•Z user, Giorgio Boruso was honored in New York City at the Interior Design’s 2008 Best of Year Awards for his design of FORNARI HEADQUARTERS Milan.
Explore - Design - Deliver
Let there b3d
Bonzai3d is a new 3D modeler developed to fill in the demand for a quick, easy, simple but, most importantly, geometrically robust approach to 3D, based on design industry essentials and designer requests. More HERE: http://www.bonzai3d.com/
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My first impression on seeing the $500 price confirmed is that Bonzai won't be on my computer for much longer.
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500 would be about 10% of the price of AutoCad, and half of Rhino. I think it is a fair price.
It is less than an architect would charge for a day, so I tink it is not too big an investment.
But SketchUp free is free, so no cometition there.... -
@johnsenior1973 said:
My first impression on seeing the $500 price confirmed is that Bonzai won't be on my computer for much longer.
I agree with Sheik that 500 dollars is a fair price for a modeling suite.
However, after trying the beta, I am not convinced it would become my modeler of choice.
It hasn't got the intuitive approach Sketchup has (3 selection tools etc...).
On the other hand, maybe when practicing more ....
Having Nurbs is the way to go, so that is definitely an advantage.A disadvantage is that there doesn't seem to be an animation option and no link to 3td party major render engines. But I guess those can be added in a later phase. However, making a render plugin takes a lot of time so I reckon a year later would be the time to judge again.
That is the beauty of Sketchup
: all the high end render engines are already available, a big community, a great model resource with a lot of potential a.k.a 3d warehouse, a large professional user base because of the existance of both a free and Pro version..... a lousy developer though 
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i think at this point the plugins and the community are what makes SK what it is. just try and imagine using it without any plugins; ouch
. BTW, thankyou every ruby master out there. that being said, there's really no way for anyone to ever replace that that.period, full stopGoogle should be on there knee's to the people that really make SK what it is! IMHO
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@xrok1 said:
i think at this point the plugins and the community are what makes SK what it is. just try and imagine using it without any plugins; ouch
. BTW, thankyou every ruby master out there. that being said, there's really no way for anyone to ever replace that that.period, full stopGoogle should be on there knee's to the people that really make SK what it is! IMHO
I couldn't agree with you more
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@kwistenbiebel said:
Do you guys use an auto responder?
I saw the exact same text in the other Bonzai thread.Probably Pilou is right...
Well, I merge the threads anyway...
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@plot-paris said:
when I had a look at the beta of Bonsai 3D, I was a bit shocked - because that little application showed me how limited SketchUp really is. in the few moments between crashes of Bonsai 3D tools such as the 'bend tool' the 'round edges' tool or the 'twist tool', alongside with the truly fantastic real-time boolean operations (that are so much cleverer than what SU does), showed quite plainly how far SketchUp still has to go.
Gentlemen,
We have now released the third update to bonzai3d. This update focuses on stability issues, and it should now be in much better shape. If you would like to try it, visit the bonzai3d web site (also still under construction) here:
We have also released a number of introductory videos that you can view to see if you want to try it.
We hope you like it. If you have any feedback, please don't hesitate to contact us.
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Gentlemen,
We have now released the third update to bonzai3d. This update focuses on stability issues, and it should now be in much better shape. If you would like to try it, visit the bonzai3d web site (also still under construction) here:
We have also released a number of introductory videos that you can view to see if you want to try it.
We hope you like it. If you have any feedback, please don't hesitate to contact us.
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I had crashing issues before, but it's been working with the latest update. Even on Windows 7 beta.
But I can't get the Place Window tool to work properly. The viewport goes all haywire when I try to use it. it zooms way into the model when I activate that tool. -
So far my sessions with Bonzai3D have been:
open crash
open crash
open crash...This is on an XP-64 OS, AMD 9950 x4 BE 2.6GHz CPU, 8Gb RAM running an ATi 4870 PCI-X card with ATi Catalyst 8.11 drivers.
[EDITED by IdahoJ -- Some comments were not constructive.]
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IdahoJ,
This behavior is definitely not normal, and crash issues should now be fairly isolated. Do you get the crash just launching, or do you need to do something else afterwards to cause the crash?
And did you make sure to install the Microsoft vcredist.exe component?
ThomThom,
There is a known issue with Place Content with Metric units that can cause a zoom problem on some systems. We are working to get this corrected, but if you go to Edit: Preferences: Language, and select English Units, you can then test the Place Content without this problem.
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@bonzai3d support said:
There is a known issue with Place Content with Metric units that can cause a zoom problem on some systems. We are working to get this corrected, but if you go to Edit: Preferences: Language, and select English Units, you can then test the Place Content without this problem.
I see. Thanks for the tip.
Looking forward to the metric fix. And the Right-click-draw-blank-viewport fix.
btw, When changing the language the messagebox said that the settings won't take effect until "formZ" is restarted...
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@unknownuser said:
...And the Right-click-draw-blank-viewport fix.
Due to some OpenGL issues on Vista, it may be necessary to turn off Desktop Composition with some graphics cards. The symptom of this problem is that when the context menu (right click) is selected in a modeling window, the window will draw blank while the mouse button is pressed. We are working on a solution for this.
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I find it quite strange that in 2009 a piece of software can have trouble with metric but work OK with imperial.... After all, back in 1958 Imperial units were re-defined as a function of metric units; they no longer have their own special definition.
So all software should be designed to work internally in metric, and use Imperial only for input/display purposes if the user needs it.
Some three weeks ago SketchUp saved my life as we were measuring a parking lot and the longest measuring tape we had was in feet and inches, but the shortest, easier to handle one had both English and metric units, and I needed to print the result in metric. In SU, you don't need to do any switching, simply type any unit you want.
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@unknownuser said:
Postby bonzai3d support on Tue Mar 10, 2009 11:23 am
IdahoJ,This behavior is definitely not normal, and crash issues should now be fairly isolated. Do you get the crash just launching, or do you need to do something else afterwards to cause the crash?
And did you make sure to install the Microsoft vcredist.exe component?
Crashes on launch and I have both the 64 and 32 bit MSVC++ 2005 Redistributable v8.0.56336 installed.
Cheers.
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IdahoJ,
We have seen a few "windows customization" settings that have caused problems in the past. We have fixed these with the latest update (bonzai3d indicates build 7218 at startup, right) but it is certainly possible that there is still a problem we have not seen yet. If you logon as Guest, do you still have this problem? Or if you change your Theme to a standard "Windows Theme" -- does this prevent the crash?
If not, can you email a screen capture showing the bonzai3d startup window as well as the crash message so we can look into this further?
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