pixelplucker

Does the Mac have static or dynamic memory pool (bad memory chip will kill some programs at a given spot with static memory pool)? Do any other programs quit like that? Anything new you might have installed prior to it stopping to work, maybe an antivirus update or some sort of utility that is running in the background?

One of the main reasons I stopped using Apples is because of the lack of legacy between os upgrades and the hop scotching of chipsets that pose additional compatibility issues. Good news thought is I ended up going over to AM from Electric Image because EI at the time wasn't as slick on the pc side as it was on the mac.

Sounds like you need to change Internet Explorers compatibility mode under the tools menu. I stopped using IE because it seems to dog out.

Great Stuff!

What AM needs is a new auto rigger to replace TSM since TSM is no longer supported. How difficult would it be to make a joint based rigging system that can assign articulation through names? Such as naming a null "knee", another ""right ankle" and so on. Have the plugin draw bones based on hierarchy and apply appropriate constraints. It is nice to encourage people to learn how to rig but it can be a daunting task for most that are new to the field, most will be discouraged and quit. On the licensing side which seems to be coming up more and more with the sub version, is it possible to use a fingerprint reader in place of a dongle? AM would be licensed to the Person and not the machine they are on or are machines considered people too (part of citizens united?). Obviously have AM talk back at launch so the system isn't abused. BTW I am still using Win 7 here, not too crazy about the giant smart phone menus on 8. It has to be about the clumsiest way of working on a desktop that I have seen in a long time. Suppose it might be ok if I junk my 21" Cintiq for a 3x5 lcd. Considering my options down the road when Win 7 becomes obsolete, and yes Vista was about the worst they had.

Some pencil sketches of side and front scanned in would work too.

If you look at the stamp of the original model there was a spline that connected from top right of one seem down to the bottom left of the other side of the seem rather than just a clean seem with no connecting spline. I suppose it would be easy to just split that cp out but you might lose part of the uv causing a blank spot. Not sure if that model was originally built in another program and imported. If I do a cylindrical map on a model built in AM even just a cube the seem is fine.

Ahh good, glad to help, sometimes it takes an extra set of eyes to see something.

I looked at the stamp and the uv's looked a little odd where you used a cylindrical map on a cube. There was a straggly spline where the seam would be. I made a new box and used bitmap plus instead of a stamp which is procedral. Tossed the normals facing inward so try a test render on that. You can change the repeat of the texture in the material options menu. Not quite sure why the uv came out weird maybe an order thing or maybe because of the shape and map type combo, hope this works. texjit2.zip

I agree, any model you should have some rough sketches at the minimum to work from or you run into snags where proportions and general look of what you want gets lost. Snag some basic pictures of real fish and once done you can modify the model.

Can you post a prj that has it? I can see if it does it here.

Looks like co-planer faces. Are there double patches on the background model?

I made this gold fish a long time ago, might be a good starting point or you can just fiddle with it and have some fun. goldfish.zip

There are redraw or refresh issues with the Quadro cards. Though not nearly as severe as version 16. You will notice that as you model the screen will only refresh in a tiny box. Simply minimize the model window and bring it back up. Some reason F5 doesn't do anything. More of a subtle annoyance than anything.

With the wall thickness being so thin a usable part off of any 3d printer would be unlikely. In comparison the Makerbot will make a more durable ABS part while Objets and FormLabs will make a slightly less durable uv curing photo polymer. The knurl pattern would produce better on an Objet or FormLabs type systems. Your best bet is to bring that part to a machine shop and have them make one. Looks like a fairly simple job for a lathe.

Figures, I got the early full upgrade for almost that price. Can't imagine trying to uv map a model with anything over 2048 in that because it tends to run out of memory on my machine. $99 is a really good deal for that especially for the 3d painting.

There is a private use version of 3d Coat? I'm using v4 here and texture size is 16kx16k max. UV mapping anything huge in that can be a problem because it runs out of memory and you can't esc out. Nice character btw

The stop action effect really worked well with that piece, very well done. Hope to see more of his work.

Actually not since most laser carvings are well under 1/4" which would translate to .00098". Smaller step than a 3d print. Half that set on an item that has a 1/8" deep carving. This is ideal for lapel pins, challenge coins, key chains etc.

Lasers don't use exr but can import common formats such as gif, bmp, png and jpg so basically they can only use 255 levels max. I suppose you could make a scene, render out an exr, convert it to a bmp and use it as a displacement map on models. Anyways that converter is free and has batch capabilities. Just something I thought others could find useful.

I just found an OpenEXR converter that will produce basic bmp files or what ever format you may want to convert it to... http://www.xnview.com/en/xnconvert/ I have been parsing out the exr to multiple layers (Robcats suggestion) and carving them on my laser engraver. The people that made the driver software for the laser added a new function to simply input the number of passes for a set grayscale height map. This feature was only available on the $50,000+ machines but now is available on the desktop models > $1,500.

More of a portability issue over economics. The CD version allowed users to simply load it in and run AM on any number of machines so long as that CD was in the machine. AM being tied to the CD and not a specific machine. Since that is no longer available, a hardware dongle where a subscription tied to it would give users the same portability with a single license. Users would still have to subscribe to AM. Does that make sense? Maybe a memory stick version might work in this case.

Is it horribly cost prohibitive to implement again?

I wouldn't mind spending the extra money for a dongle and have the ability to run on my main system or laptop (not at the same time). I recently asked AM if there was any other version besides the reg sub but didn't hear back. Many companies allow 2 installations (one computer one laptop) which works out well. I'm sure there are abuses with that but this seems to be a common wish many AM users seem to have. I have engraving software that uses a dongle. I believe the replacement of it is in the $300 mark. EIAS 3d is dongled and offer theirs at $50. Hard to tell if it is cost effective or even feasible with AM.

Now thats pretty cool.