Paul@macbidouille

Hello !

I am writing you guys as we are facing a big impass. I am desperatly looking for a mature highend class A nurbs modeling tool on mac os x.
I am looking to someting similar to rhino but on a mac. I still have a ppc, so don't mention running rhino on parralels or bootcamp on a mactel please.
I am currently modeling with Maya and it seems to be very fun and solid. however when it comes to precise modeling, prototyping and producing construction drawings, I am getting frustrated and limited. Obviously I need a series of essential features :
- I basicly model organic shapes... involving circles, subdivision surfaces, nurbs and so on.
- a fully working DWG import... dwg import in maya 7 is not perfect. it makes some mistakes while importing circles... it s very annoying. In maya 8 it simply doesn't work. it is not supported anymore (unbelievable from autodesk !!!!). I tried Direct Connect 2.0.. it doesn 't work with my dwg files.. sorry
- I am working and on archicad. So I need a decent communication between the two programs. that's why I need a decent dwg import feature. another problem is the 3ds import plugin in archicad which seems to crash archicad when importing highres object into archicad. in the good old times of archicad 7, the obj import feature was magnificient ! where is the obj import feature ???
- I need a decent surface modeling nurbs tool. no polygon please.
- I tried Maya.... it limited when trying to get out a precise 3d nurbs model out of it... or someone explain me how they do it.
- an accurate unroll 3d surface tool like in rhino. i haven't found on e in maya yet. I need this badly !
- I tried Amapi.. but it seems like a toy. and it crashes when importing heavy dwg files. so that was stripped out of the list
- solidthinking looked very good... but the same problem happened.. importing heavy dwg files did not work
- cobalt. this was the most convincing software I tried... dwg import worked. but however it doesn't seem quite userfriendly. maybe someone can share their experience with it and surface modeling.. not solid modeling
- cinema 4d or maxon... no way... far away from what I need
- rhino is perfect.. as it perfectly imports my dwg... has unroll surface... trim, rounding, blending work like a charm... but it doesn't run on my g5 quad !!!!!
- a nurbs modeling tool with construction history would be very very cool !

I just can't believe I am the only one facing these limits... Can someone please help me in finding something productive. I am googling since weeks and days, and I haven't found any solution yet.
someone ?
thank you for answering.

paul

manta

If Rhino is perfect, I suggest you use it, buy a cheap PC, I saw one at Office Depot for $499, it was A Lenovo, with an AMD X2 3800 a Gig of ram, and it even came with a 19" widescreen LCD monitor, how can you go wrong with that...I'm sure it will do fine for Modeling...

And before you say anything...
If I needed to use FCP or Shake, I'de buy a Mac, simple as that...

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4DM

You have created your own impasse.

You know what the solution is - you identify it in your second sentence ( an Intel MacPro running Rhino in Bootcamp or Parallel) but you are wasting your time (and asking us to do the same!) chasing a different solution that probably does not exist.

Rather than buy a cheap PC, sell the G5 Quad, buy an Intel Mac so you can still run your old software on it, stick it on your credit card if you have to, and get on with it.

In the time you have spent arsing about, you could have been doing some proper work.

Sorry to be so harsh, but you can't expect others to find ways around blind alleys that you have created!

D.

arnold@asylumstudio.co.za

ouch...down boys....

Paul@macbidouille

Thanks for your comments guys....
I don't mind you guys being harsh. I was just synthetising the problem we have here at the office. Upgrading to Mactels will probably happen in the long term. That's for sure. Furhtermore, our policy at the office is to have everything running on mac os x. Our system administrator is afraid of Windows :-).
Nevermind that, I don't think I am asking for that much.
As I said, Ashlar Vellum Cobalt was the best software I tested. FormZ also was very close to it. Can someone just share their experiences in using these softwares while producing complex geometries and organic architecture.
Thnaks.

AJLynn

For what Cobalt costs, you can get Rhino and a high-end PC, or a Mactel, Windows and Rhino, and have enough left to bribe your IT guy. Seriously, IT works for you, not the other way around. If an IT policy like that is getting in the way of getting work done, the policy needs to change, or a workaround needs to be found. (Maybe thy buy you a laptop that does not go on the network and tell the IT guy it's not his problem.)

manta

Excellent solution !!...lets not try and reinvent the wheel here, plus then you can take the laptop home to work on modeling...

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Paul@macbidouille

I m sorry, but that is not a valid solution. I don't see our office switching to windows environment. And also we are 3-4 people in our office for 3d modeling... We are definitely staying with our macs on os x ! I don't want to reinvent the wheel here, I am just simply asking what other offices do, if not rhino, or catia. Anyone out there with some decent complex formz or cobalt experience in a production environment ?

manta

Sorry Paul, didn't mean to sound obtuse...
But can I ask an obvious question though, you said there are 3-4 people modeling...what are they modeling with ?

You said that you were doing some modeling with Maya, and you said it seems to be "Fun and solid" well please tell me that your company didn't go out and buy 3-4 licences of Maya to do this kind of modeling...so back to my original question, what are they modeling with now ?

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DavidR

If you need accurate models, as you state, then you need cad software (Catia, Unigraphics, Alias Studio, Rhino, Inventor, Solidworks, etc), not DCC (Maya, Max, XSI, C4D, etc). Cad stuff is all PC-based, so that's your answer, unwelcome as it may be. If nPower comes out with Powernurbs for Maya on Mac, you may be OK, but don't hold your breath.