May I ask - what program was the sofa modeled in originally?

I use SketchUp, HyperShot and now modo. They all have different commands for orbit, pan, zoom, etc. Wouldn't it be great if there was a universal standard? I know it's impossible for many reasons but it can drive me crazy in the middle of the day to find that my model isn't orbiting in modo because I'm using the command from HyperShot. Or vice versa. I was doing Alt LMB in SketchUp a minute ago (I'm tired - the day is long) and I was completely confused as to why nothing was moving! That's orbit in modo!

Just a rant.

Thanks for that tutorial on 3D Warehouse Gaieus. I have several models of stairs that revolve around a central wood column and I could never get that quite right - your tutorial solved the problem. Now I want to experiment with the method on the front bullnose edge of a stair tread which can get kind of messy when textured.

I guess that's what I'm asking - can I use two different bitmaps. I'm away for the holiday weekend and I don't have V-Ray on my laptop so I can't do it here to see what happens. If I wanted to add nicks and scratches to a wood surface in a 2D image editing program, I might choose to do it as a separate layer. I'm curious if there's any way to do that in SK/Vray.

TIA

A question - can the SketchUp / V-Ray combo handle texture layers? In other words more than one layer like in PhotoShop. I've been operating on the assumption that this isn't something you can do in SK/Vray, that you'd need to have Modo or another program to do this. But maybe I'm wrong?

Scott -

An update on my modo trial -

Modo is a great program and I will definitely be buying it when my trial ends.

I made the mistake of spending most of my trial time trying to import a SketchUp model to work on. I wasn't very successful with those attempts - models that were grouped would come in but models that were exploded wouldn't, but I couldn't figure out how to ungroup models once they were in Modo, but if I didn't ungroup them the painting tools wouldn't work (insert an image here of me pulling out my hair).

I realized that just creating some primitives within Modo to paint on, layer, texture, etc. was a better way to clarify what the program can do than struggling with the whole Sk to Modo import issue. I figure that can be dealt with later.

Someone in one of these threads made the comment that the rendering program isn't important, they all do essentially the same thing, it's the person running the program that makes the difference. My experience is that he's wrong in thinking that. Modo produces a very different looking object/image than SketchUp/Vray. I find that exciting and challenging. It's like being given two very different mediums to work with.

I'm still just playing with primitives, adding layers, trying out textures. I have a $50 video tutorial from Digital Tutors that's helping me along and I'll probably buy the new Dan Ablan 401 tutorial on 3D garage. His videos are very highly praised on the Modo forums.

Whatever, I'm just moving out of the frustration phase into the excited phase - which is great.

Just wanted to say -

Threads like this are more useful to many of us than anything in the users manual or the various video tutorials you can find on the net. It really helps.

So thanks to the gurus -

Man is that spectacular! Nothing in my workflow would justify buying or learning a program like Vue which is frustrating. That must have been fun to do!

Maybe I need to do an animation of a stair spiraling through space for one of my clients - And here's a view of your project falling out of an airplane and plunging to earth! Cool, right?

Scott -

Thanks for the comments about Modo.

I managed to get a link to the SketchUp importer (I found it in a thread on this forum) and was able finally to import a simple model into Modo.

That broke the ice for me. I didn't have the time to master the modeling features in Modo during my trial period but I was more interested in the painting and rendering capabilities anyways, so being able to import a model to start with was key. And, of course, now I'm very impressed with what the program can do - especially the painting tools.

Now I have a dilemma - I will probably have achieved a very limited ability with Modo by the time my trial period is over - about 10 days from now - and that means I'll have incorporated two new programs - V-Ray and Modo into my workflow but I definitely can't afford both of them.

What should I do? Flip a coin? Sell my car?

dalomar -

Thanks for the informative post.

I've registered on the ASGVIS forum, sent emails to support (twice) but still haven't received an activation email. I'm coming to the end of my trial period and would like to ask some questions on the forum over there.
Any advice on how to get through this logjam?

TIA

teofas -

Thanks so much for making that carpet tutorial. It's simple, direct and easy to master. I'm just learning V-Ray so it really helped me.

Alex

I'm doing a trial of V-Ray and a trial of Modo right now so let me comment a bit on them - but keep in mind that these comments are from someone who's experience is limited to about 2 weeks of use.

V-Ray has immediately become a part of my daily work flow. I can't really afford it but now I can't imagine working without it. It is complicated but if you go through the user manual and follow their suggestions you'll be able to get out basic renders in no time. I just learned today how to do bumps and displacements. I modeled a simple plank of wood using a wood grain pattern I got on this forum and it looks fantastic.

I am struggling mightily with Modo. It's rendering and painting abilities make me want to own the program - but I'm not sure it's well oriented towards the architectural profession. It's really more about making complex shapes than it is about making accurately dimensioned 3D models. I've had no success with bringing a SketchUp model into the program - the models come in with hundreds of stray lines and many lost polygons. There's a SketchUp importer but the importer isn't part of the trial package so I can't comment on it but the comments on their forum and the forum at PushPull suggest that it doesn't work very well.

I like Modo, I like the idea of being able to paint on the surface of a 3D model and I like the real time rendering capability. But it hasn't become useful to me in any obvious way. V-Ray, on the other hand, has already become an essential part of my day.

Hope these comments are helpful in some way.

I will send them an email and make a post on the forum over there. It seems at a time when it's common to use several different software programs to arrive at a final image, having the renderer tethered to just one program is a bit inconvenient.

I'm doing a trial of Modo and I plan to try out Rhino after my Modo trial is up. The price is similar but Modo has it's own built in rendering engine so it wouldn't be such a problem - assuming the renderer can do what V-Ray can do.

Thanks for the link. I'll contact Support and see if I can get it worked out.

Makes it quite expensive if you wanted to go back and forth between Rhino and SketchUp. I guess that would be a deal breaker for me as far as Rhino goes.

Sorry for posting this question over here but I've registered on the ASGvis forum but haven't received a confirmation email.

V-Ray license question - if you have SketchUp and Rhino, do you have to buy separate licenses for each program or is there a combined version?

I don't have Rhino, just SketchUp but I'm looking around at different programs, including Rhino, so I'm curious.

TIA

Is there any way to do the opposite? Make the texture follow the curve rather than go perpendicular to it - as in the grain of wood following the curve in bent wood furniture? Or following the line of a railing?

Does V-Ray have any kind of output recording? In other words, is there any way I can print out a list of all the settings I've made for a scene?

I'm just teaching myself the basics and I'm generally going about it in a systematic way but sometimes I just start changing settings to see what happens. When something interesting occurs I write out the settings by hand but that's pretty tedious.

It would be great if there was an option to output a version of the PNG with the settings printed on the surface for reference.

Just wondering.

Thanks for the link.
When I'm done with my 30 day trial of Modo I'll try 3D Paint. $140 would be real cheap if the program can do all it says it can.
I have many other reasons to be interested in Modo but the painting tools intrigue me.

I'm interested in Modo for it's ability to paint surfaces. That is to say to be able to paint patterns, images, etc. on 3D surfaces rather than just coloring or texturing a surface.
Question - do most of the programs such as rhino, modo, etc. have this ability or is this unique to modo?

Next question - has anyone used Arroway textures and if so are they as great as they look? How about the maps? Can they be used in V-Ray?

TIA for any input I can get.

May I ask which renderer did you use? And where are the wood textures from? They have a perfect medium grey brown of exterior wood that I find hard to achieve convincingly. You have it nailed.