WOW! Truly blown away! There is a new standard to strive for with SU!

Maybe have a look at Wings3D. It is a free polygon modeler that should model rocks just fine.

http://www.wings3d.com/index.php

@unknownuser said:

Although its really pointless guessing im not sure Autodesk would have moved SU in such a bad way.
They took on Revit and it looks to be in a pretty strong position now!

Maybe they would have taken on SU and progressed it further and at the same time taken some of its ease of use and bolted that onto AutoCad.
Thats how I feel when I look at AutoCAD Architecture (formely ADT) It is this cumbersome Autocad product that is very powerful, but not user friendly at all. It is a sort of hybrid of ACAD and Revit.

What im getting at, we all seem to slag off Autodesk, but that does not mean they would have stood still or ruined SU.

I agree completely. While I do feel that AutoDesk charges too much for it's software I see others do it as well. I do think that AutoDesk would have developed SU more to what "we" would like to see instead of simply a tool to populate Google Earth. I for one dreaded the day Google bought @Last.

[quote="Tim M"]Currently I have a G4 450 MHz running on OS 9. It has been and still is an excellent machine. I have had it for 8 plus years. Of course I can't run SU on it unless I upgrade to OS 10. One of our IT guys at the office advised against it saying I would be better off in the long run with a new computer. What I don't know is if OS 10 would work on my current computer or not. Is anyone running SU on a computer like this? Maybe there is hope in an upgrade.

I will compare both platforms. Thanks for the advice.
Tim

I'd have to agree with him. What is the ram in a G4 450, PC-100? Does this one even have an AGP video card? Sure OSX will run on it but why do it?
Looking at http://www.everymac.com I see that these could have a 2X AGP slot and they did have a 100mhz system bus speed. Looks like a mini would be a faster machine that these in OSX. I got rid of my old PowerMac6500 for this reason. Not worth the upgrade headaches

301 Moved Permanently

(www.everymac.com)

@lewiswadsworth said:

Apparently, Glenn, it's not as easy as that...I have to assume that they have tried and there is some problem, or they wouldn't ask for alternatives. However, in a design studio I don't specify or require particular pieces of software, or use of a computer at all, so in the end it's up to them.

Well I haven't tried so I cannot say how hard or easy it is. I was pointed to this site a while back on the CADTutor forums. I do understand that it is simply an option of theirs as to what if any software they use. Just pointing to maybe a helpful link, that's all.
Cheers

@lewiswadsworth said:

@cb2 said:

I've been recommending this since you posted it, Jon, to my graduate architecture students who cannot afford student licenses to AutoCAD or one of the other major professional CAD programs. So far no one has complained, but it is possible they haven't really put it through its paces yet. I'm curious to know if anyone else has had issues with it, especially if they are students.

Lewis, why would your student have to "buy" student copies of AutoCAD? AutoDesk gives it away to students.

http://students5.autodesk.com/

All they have to do is register and they can get free educational copies of most of AutoDesk's software. I have not tried it since I am not a student but might be worth a look for them.
As for ProgeCAD I have tried it and it seems to work as advertised. It seems to feel like a version or 2 back as compared to the newer releases but it works.

What else can be said? Wonderful work. I too love the section render. Some of the best work I have seen.

Thanks Mike, I'll check into those.

Thanks Dave, this works great with an "Arts and Crafts" style design I did a few years ago.
Thanks a bunch

Thanks for the list all, as a new comer to OSX is there a freeware theme changer? Something like ShapeShifter?
TIA

@solo said:

From SU ----> .3ds ---> gmax.

Yeah, I believe that is what I asked? I just wanted to be sure

Great stuff. What is your process, SU to GMax via 3ds output? Is there a SC plugin for GMax?

GroupWise (an older e-mail program)
Lotus Notes
MS Project
PowerCADD - I downloaded the demo and hated it. Way too much clicking on buttons for me. You can have my AutoCAD when you pry it from my cold dead fingers
OpenOffice - bloatware
Blender - awful GUI

Good ones:
AutoCAD 2007/2008. I honestly don't see why people have so much trouble with it
AbiWord - Great MS Word replacement
Macromedia FireWorks
Lexisoft HighDesign - great start for an OSX 2D cad program.

Not real happy with OSX. My #1 gripe so far, I can't rename/delete a file from a "File - Open" dialog box. Real nice feature to have. I use it a lot in Windows.

Wow, great work! I really liked that show. Thanks for sharing

@kwistenbiebel said:

Nowadays I have the same feeling with Sketchup I had in the nineties with the Commodore Amiga.
The Amiga was wonderful hardware back then (definitely compared to the PC's )...but that wasn't enough to keep development going.
I would hate seeing Sketchup die a slow death like that.

I hope this doesn't happen either but as long as my copy keeps working
I would hope that if Google did let it die that they would at least take offers to buy it and keep it going.

Wow, such hate for AutoDesk Why? They are no different from MS, Adobe or even Apple! They ALL buy up the little guys!

As for the lack of updates and growth of SU I seem to recall the joy of when it was announced on the old forum that Google was buying and there was an almost unanimous cheer that "at least it wasn't autodesk". I myself wondered what Google would bring to the table and path did they intend for SU. At least if a CAD company bought SU that it might continue to grow in that field. I feel freer to voice this now that the forums are not run by Google. I guess we'll see what comes of SU7. Perhaps if I don't expect much we'll get a surprise

Nice as always Eric (Boofredlay)

Nice Eric

Got a little mix right now going on in WinAmp....

Edson, can I ask what do you do while kerky is rendering a scene? How long does this take? Since you obviously already own a copy of WindowsXP to run under Boot Camp while not just have a PC for your Site Builder and Kerky? I did this for a while when I was using the POVRay plugin with SU. I had a spare PC just to use with POVRay. I would export the files to a shared drive and then let the POVRay box render while I did other things. No sense waiting and tying up my main box for a rendering application. Just my $.02