Hi Jody, I have some issues for big models. And what I mean by big in this case is units. (polycount: 86k, 205k edges - that's not that many, is it?)
I had this model of a city planning project that was something like 20km², and I wanted to make a walk-through movie. Complete disaster, because of two things:

1. the camera near clipping plane was way too far away from the camera
2. the shadows were terribly mixed up every 2 or 3 frames or so, resulting in a flickering effect

Now the first point I can understand, but I would appreciate it if it were possible to change this setting for advanced users, instead of automatically having it decided for me. The second point I do not understand.

must say though.... it doesn't look very Dutch!

whohooo supercool!!
I had to try this out at once!
So I did:

also, when you want to enter numerical input, you can see what you are typing in the far right-bottom corner of your screen. You never need to click there, just type away!!

that's a great improvement, FilipAGuy. even a bit lighter would be even better. oh and maybe try to host your pictures somewhere that doens't have ads... you can even simply upload them as an attachment to your post!

Whow real nice shot, davidh! You don't see a rainy shot that often!
I really like the mood - it makes me imagine it must be really cozy indoors
Also the composition of the rainy shot is much better than that of both preceding images.
However I do agree with massimo about the flatness of some materials; the added reflectivity emphasizes this even more.

yeah it's pretty common in Holland, that size. maybe a tad smaller, but not much. I wouldn't be surprised if the pebbles are in the picture that Flipya has photoshopped his render into.

that's odd... it's as if you have a wooden-floorboard-patterned carpet...

thanks!

That should usually work. Unless you scaled the post-component itself instead of the geometry within the post-component...

See attached image for how to make the water move. Just put a checkmark overthere and it'll move.
You do need Artlantis version 3, however. It's a new feature.

So teach me how to make a material have edges in Artlantis!

I already have something like google-TV. Overhere we call it 'add an extra monitor to your computer. a BIG one'. oh and also; live in a student-flat that has a Network

isn't there an i-pad-2.0-wishlist-thread on the apple forums? if they exist?

lol... doh! indeed you guys! That was one of the first buttons I went looking for because I was of the opinion that it should exist I've been using it for years!

Hi I'm back Thanks for all the nice comments

So, mr D-Space.... you want to see a HDRI-lighted image with caustics??
Here it is:

Now as far as I know, Artlantis can't do either, so I rendered with Mental Ray for Maya. Helluvajob. 'scuse my french

So here's the wireframe...

In the middle, the final shape.
On the left, a section cut.
On the right: this is the shape I used to construct.

• The four (or actually five, but I welded the bottom two) curves making up the nearest side of the cheesewedge were the starting point for an 'Extrude Edges by Rails' operation.
• The result rotated+copied, circle drawn on top, push-pulled. Bottom part mirrored to the top.
• Then copied, and scaled a bit in red&green, reversed faces. Then the outer shell extended downwards a bit further than the inner shell; the inner shell was push-pulled downwards just enough to use a maximum radius for 'round corners' to work without self-intersecting. The outer shell has a smaller radius at the bottom.

Someone is advertising for you, Fredo!

or maybe just a SU-file viewer for i-phone? can show my cool stuff on the road - to anyone! customer, friend, etc...
zoom in and out with pinch-move, zoom-extents = shake phone, draw a circle is turn around the model.... yay!

Right. That file is HUGE. 15 MB is just too much, even for such content.
So, I downloaded your file and checked it a bit. It has an image object that is 8MB. Deleted that, then tried to export. Got the same error - bytheway it does not display an error message. The title is merely the title of the exporter; "skp(sketchup) to 3ds"
Then I tried exporting without textures. This went very slow from 57% onward, but worked. I'm guessing there's something of a maximum filesize. Or something wrong with the textures, but they weren't that complex.
You might want to pay some attention to the structure of your model, though. Everything is one big clump; no components or groups (except the imported ones), and the filesize decreased by 2MB when pressing the 'purge unused'-button.
Anyway. By courtesy; 3ds file attached.

Bytheway why is it called Artlantis? were you first planning to export to Artlantis, but picked Max instead?

ARTLANTIS_sans_image.zip

Well, I'm certain it was version 6, since I've never used 5, but have had to deal with max resolution for jpgs. But I've been using pro now for a while and must admit I'm not very up-to-date on the limitations of the current free version

er... I don't suppose your model is so close to the north pole that it might be a difference between the magnetic pole and the geographic north pole?
See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:IGRF_2000_magnetic_declination.gif