@krisidious said:

Dylan, I just noticed that you joined SketchUcation 11 minutes before I did...

I guess we must have been looking at the old @Last forum at the same time when Coen announced he was opening this place up

I always advise Nvidia cards, but I do happen to have an ATI that came fitted to my current computer thats works very well with SU.

ATI Radeon HD 5750
1GB

Model your own house, if it is a house you live in.
Easy access for dimensions!
That's what I did when I started out.

Very useful.
Not sure why I never tried this plugin because it looks excellent.

A fantastic image, beautifully rendered

Nice work John.
Good looking model and a great render.

Which rendering program?

I think the grass and the front hedge look great.
I guess these were done in PS?

Amazing tools. Maybe I should upgrade my CS4!

@design1 said:

Thanks honoluludesktop can you or anyone recommend a render program that that is a good starter package, simplicity in default but has potential to tweak? Thanks again.

This brings up many different answers but the one I would recommend is Twilight.
Fantastic results, good default settings/templates, great forum and constantly developing. It has become very popular with the members here which you may see from searching through the Gallery.

I like it, nice design.
Phil did you model the house also?

Fantastic image and a really good style you have created. Some very good skill demonstrated there.

Well I have never tried Lightup before, but visiting the site and checking the software out a little further, I must give this a go. It looks really good.
Nice work Adam.

@ultimatez 32 said:

Hi Guys,

Looks like I'll be getting the 27" iMac then with the ATI Radeon, that is, if the ATI problem is just a MSW problem. Thanks for all the help guys.

ultimatez

Would be useful if you post your findings here once you have the machine.

jsteacy I think those are fantastic.
A great advert for Twilight in my opinion.
Did you use the studio setup or create your own?

Not tested it yet but Path Array on 1001 Bit Tools Pro has this function I think.

It's a really tricky one.
I would suggest Nvidia every time where SU is concerned, but I can see the predicament you are facing because I also want the 27" iMac. It is a beautiful machine and I would buy one straight away if only I could get one with a Nvidia card and unfortunately it is not an option on the upgrades.
I don't want to risk spending all that money with it not running SU to it's best potential.
A real shame you have to downgrade from 27 to 21" just to get the better GPU for SU.

First thing to try is Purge your drawing to remove any unused materials or components.

Window/Model info/Statistics/Purge

@stillhouse said:

Sadly I'm not sure how to do that.

It's a beautiful render and nicely detailed.

I like that a lot Bob, good find!
I will model that one tomorrow when I get a free 30 mins.

I was searching a few furniture sites this weekend and saw a few things I liked.
Whilst having a spare hour I modelled two tables.

These are not modelled for efficiency, I used the 30minute challenge rules to model as quick as possible to get some practice.

The colourful one has a lot of rounded edges and high sided arcs. Could look nice rendered!

The wooden one is very basic and in my haste to model it I forgot to increase the arcs sides, hence the visible straight edges on the curve.
I can quickly re-model this should anyone want a better version.

Funky Table One.skp

Coffee Table One.skp