thingmaker

Rhino for Mac was released today. I have been using the beta for the last year or so and I really like it. For me it's the closest thing to Modeler (still miss the great layers and other features in Modeler though..) Great introductory price, $295. Doesn't have all of the scripts as the windows version or plugins but those will come as free updates. http://www.rhino3d.com

Steven, I am using Yosemite. Just checked Quicktime 7 works fine and shows the registration code. But it was installed with Mavericks. -Derryl

Thanks Nigel, the model that you sent (exported from FZ7) kept the textures correctly while being deformed but still had shading issues for me around the rounding. Anyone out there who is using FormZ 8 have a moment to send a test file? Preferably a meshed cylinder 1:15 ratio. If it is working for you, it would help me get to the bottom of the this FZ8/Deformation/Texture issue. Thanks. https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/31924077/150129-Cylinder-FZ-EI.png

Nige, Yes, FormZ 7 works better but still problems with textures and shading. Would you mind sending me a meshed cylinder, 1:15 ratio that I can test with? Rounded edges would be great also as that is where most of the issues seem to arise. I would like to apply some deformations and Placer tests with your model/export settings. Thanks! -Derryl

I understand, Tomas. Thanks! Thomo, yes thanks I am familiar with those links especially the 2nd one. Wish I could find an alternative to Modeler (Won't run on the new Mac Pro and can't also use another machine simultaneously with Animator because of the damn dongle). Rhino has stopped their Mac development it seems and FZ8 is the worst upgrade I have purchased in a long time. I am ready to give up on FZ, what are other people using for more organic modeling (as compared to architectural)? -Derryl

I have been having numerous issues with FormZ over the last year or so. Some models come in looking very strange, won't render correctly (solid, no shading), many models come in with strange striations in them. I have exported every possible way from FZ to .fact and .obj and sent the models and renders to FZ. FZ says they have not changed anything. But I have saved the files back to FZ 7 and they work much better. I have sent many examples but they say they can't do anything because they don't get a response from EIAS. Now I have discovered that there is another issue. FZ fact files don't render correctly with deformations or Northern Lights Contortionist. AND they often import with the Diffuse set to transparent (!). Regardless of what FZ says, something must have changed. I created a cylinder in FormZ, Rhino3D, Silo and Uber Shapes and FZ is the only one with screwed up the textures. Can someone at EI please contact FormZ about some of the issues? Thanks. https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/31924077/150115-FZissue.jpg

Thomo, I am on the Mac and use Placer but am not having any major problems. If you would like, I can render a test of your file. If it renders it may show that the problem is PC-centric or something with your system setup. You can message me. -Derryl

Nori, I also have a Mac Pro (late 2013) using Mac OS 10.10 (Yosemite) and EIAS 9.1 but I am not having issues with UberShape (vers. 6.1). I can create and render any of the shapes. -Derryl

If you don't need it to unfold in Animator, you can do a simple extrusion and then move a few points around. I did this in FormZ but it should work in Modeler as well. https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/31924077/paperairplaneSetup.jpg

Hi, it is usually best to do your modeling in a dedicated program like Silo or FormZ, etc. and then bring it in to EI for motion and rendering. After you bring in the model you do have options for changing the shape using Deformations (Animation/Deformation Editor) but these are limited to simple bends, waves, bezier curves, etc. and not something sophisticated like folding paper several times because you don't have much control of polygons in EI. There is a plugin from Northern Lights called Contortionist that gives you much more control but again it is not able to fold repeatably at different angles. -Derryl

I am using MacOS 10.10 (Yosemite) with EI 9.1 and it is working fine so far. Regarding FormZ, I have version 8 and it works ok other than an error message about video card when it starts up (due to it not recognizing the OS version). FormZ version 7.3.4 also works with Yosemite now. They have issued a quick fix so that it won't crash until they do an update. http://www.formz.com/forum/discus41/messages/16/100060.html?1414159658

Yes, it is pretty functional. Still no plugins and the layers will drive you nuts and make you appreciate EI Modeler even more.. :) I did some tutorials on Digital Tutor and was up to speed pretty quick on the Mac version.

Hello, I have been using EXR2Mesh with Placer Deposit and I have noticed anomalies when using Strength Maps. Everything looks fine in Animator (just as it should for the Strength Map) but when rendered in Camera you get different results. It appears to be caused by the Resolution settings in EXR2M. If you have a higher resolution for Camera, the map seems to get completely changed. See image below. If you set the resolution for the same high amount to begin with it is okay. -Derryl EXR

Hello, does anyone know if there is a way to 'bake' textures from shaders? For example, say you have created your textures for your groups with 32bit shaders that haven't been (or won't be) updated from TripleD or Konkeptoine. You can't use these with EI9 64bit camera without an error. Trying to find a way to convert the image that the shader creates into a bitmap texture so that it will render with the 64 camera. I have a new Mac Pro with 64GB of ram and can only use 2GBs of it and for some of these poster images that are 10k x 10k pixels that would be very helpful. Some won't render at all with the 32 camera. Thanks -Derryl

I have always found it a really useful feature that the render times are always in the 'Get Info' window/under Version on the Mac. It always says, for example Raytrace, the image size and the elapsed time. Always great for comparing images. But I have noticed that if you render the image as a .PNG you get different info. For example it usually shows rendering times of about 45 years ago. Example: "16262D 0H 53M 42S, 2000x1458. Hopefully an easy fix as .png as this format is almost a perfect alternative for .img. .PNG works with Quicklook but unfortunately doesn't save a separate alpha channel. -Derryl

When EI7 came out there was a folder called 'Projects for 7'. One of the projects was by Hans Groothuis called Sam's Bike IBL. I had rendered it then and thought man, that looks fantastic but over 14 minutes a frame? So I rendered the file again on my Mac Pro and now it's only 19 secs.! I don't know if the biggest speed gain is the newer computers or EI9 (probably a mix of both) but keep up the great work, EI! Sam's Bike

Tomas, glad you have a good relation with FormZ. They have been making a lot of progress lately (maybe because of Rhino gaining popularity). Have had many problems with FormZ import over the years and they always say 'nothing has changed, talk to EIAS'. If you mean the option 'instant crash' Extended Coordinate Precision, yes it is gone in FZ8. https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/31924077/FormZ-Options.jpg -Derryl

Yes, I discovered that you use numbers instead, thanks. Blair has been updated, he confirmed that it works with older Mac OSes. -Derryl

Tomas, here is a simple project. https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/31924077/AssimilatorProject.zip

When trying to use the Assimilator plugin (64bit) with EI 9.1/Mac OS 10.9.3, I am unable to edit the text in the General Settings/Clipping Volume Group. I can select it but can't type anything into it to reassign the Bounding Volume Group. I have tried it in new projects and rebooted, etc. It has been checked and works fine in 10.8.1. Could this be an issue with how EI works with 10.9.3/Mavericks? Thanks. -Derryl Dialog

Thanks Mark, I had tried that as well but it wasn't working either. I have noticed that if I try to open an image file in Quicktime 7 everything is what you would expect but if I open an EI9 file in Quicktime X the images are scrambled so I suspect they changed the way QT works in the latest versions of the OS. Is anyone using the latest Mac OS and also able to use QuickLook? Thanks. -Derryl

Still not getting this to work. I downloaded the most recent version of EIComponentUB.component (1.5b2) from www.telegraphics.com.au, put it in the System/Library/Quicktime folder with the other component files, rebooted, changed the name of some image files from xxx.img to xxx.image but still not getting QuickLook to work. I am on the Mac using OS 10.9.2, perhaps I am missing a step? Thanks.

Yep, that did the trick hiding the repeating texture when using a master material. Thanks guys! -Derryl https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/31924077/SimpleUVtest.jpg

Thanks Nige, but I couldn't find a reference to that plugin anywhere. Perhaps it has another name. There must be a way. I can't imagine that everyone manually rotates the textures on every neighboring object that shares a master material.

Steven, thanks I am able to make the seamless textures without issue. The problem is when having 2 different objects near each other that are using the same master material. Perhaps the the blueish stones in the attachment will illustrate better what I am trying to say. https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/31924077/140330-BrickTube.png