pixelplucker

Couple people suggested a Steam distribution but that fell on deaf ears. I did get a response back from Jason about a floating license and his reply was: "We have looked into that and a USB key with the software. At the time we looked into it everything needed for that was not really feasible they way our software works now. But this maybe something we address soon. Most likely it would be the USB key like before."

$79 for single machine locked license or floating license for $99-$120? I wouldn't mind paying up to $120 for the flexibility of AM being licensed to me and not a particular machine. Though the way Graphic Tracer works it seems to be less work for the developer to keep track of licensing and the task is left to the user to maintain their subscription. I see quite a bit of licensing issues popping up here and Jason has to babysit that task and sometimes with a few day delays. If floating was the only option in the store would the saving of labor and licensing babysitting be worth the switch to a new distribution of subs?

Steve over at Graphic Powers said he would love to help. He also happens to be a Animation Master owner. The idea where the users handle their own licensing I think would eliminate some of the tech support issues with the master lic issue some people run into. This is also good if someone's machine crapped out and they needed to jump to another machine they would not have an extended downtime. Rob email me your email, I seemed to have lost it and I can forward Steve's info to you and Jason. Who knows maybe it won't break the bank and for myself 99 a year isn't a big deal either with that flexibility.

I was a long time user of Imagaro and do take advantage of the discount but I highly doubt they are giving the product away. I am not sure if their copy protection is a 3rd party product or something they had developed. There doesn't seem to be much difference between how theirs works and how AM works other than when a user wants to change which machine they choose to use they need to go online to their account and transfer. This works by simply being on the machine they choose to use and login and choose transfer. I assume this is generating a new lic file of some sorts for that particular machine. If I try to launch the program on another or previous machine I need to login and transfer again. I assume the program talks back to the licensing server at start up. Ideally I think this would help many users of AM simply because it is much like the cd version. This could offer flexibility. I could ask the Graphic Powers people what they use and explain if you guys want. As far as the back, old injury, too much standing or sitting and bad weather doesn't help.I don't take any pain meds, not my thing so I tough it out.

I use an ergotron arm that helps a lot but leaning over from a stool won't help since I have a really bad back, had fractured it a few years back. Old age sux As far as cost my sub on that software is approx 20 less than AM sub would be. Software is my auto tracer from Graphic Powers www.graphicpowers.com

One of the big drawbacks for me with the subscription with AM is I am stuck on one machine. For myself I often work more on my laptop and only use my desktop when I really need to. Mainly because I have shoulder problems and reaching up with my Cintiq becomes an issue quickly. I have 1 program that is subscription based and limited to one computer BUT they use a user account where I can sign in and instantly authorize the machine I am using to use the software. This though not a perfect option gives me the flexibility to work from either machine. Possible to implement this with AM?

3d coat has the ability to slice and create joints on characters. You should be able to import the stl or obj you made from AM and modify it so you can articulate the model. Not sure how handy that would be. Nice printing!

Not for nothing but I remember textures on obj's not looking as vivid when imported into or exported out from AM using the mtl files and as I remember correctly I would re-assign the textures and basically junk the mtl file. My hunch is the obj i/o might need to be updated if possible? I'm back using 15 (cd version) here because I hop between machines and sub would only be tied to 1 machine.

I don't think AM renders using an ICC profile as many desktop publishing and photo editing programs do so it shouldn't have a reduced color range when rendering. As far as dynamic range the purpose of color profiles is to restrict the visual representation (what you see on screen) as accurately as possible based on target output. Typically in my 30+ years of color separation and color correction work, ICC profiles pose more problems than they are worth unless your a publisher with a set output (printing presses) that never change. Often the majority of users have the wrong profile, old profile, uncalibrated monitor, wrong gamut setting, and or wrong target printer and the applications often embed the wrong color correction to the final output resulting in washed or overly saturated images when printed. There used to be a profile print called an IT8 that came along with a digital jpg of the same file that you can use for calibrating visually. Surprisingly this old school method yields the best generic calibration of what you see on screen with the real world. Note that this profile I also have the hard copy to go with it. Other methods are color monkeys and other digital calibration devices but the downside of those is they basically create an ICC profile. Many new monitors adjust their brightness depending on ambient conditions of the room. So I don't think they would be very dependable.

Many programs suspend when in the background so they don't eat up resources and others continually run when in the background. Some AV software will grind a system to a halt such as Kapersky and McCafee. Trend Micro will actually cause black screens with some applications. When I got my Dell laptop it came with McCafee. I thought the machine was faulty and actually submitted an RMA on it. Once uninstalled the machine flies and have no issues. I would check background tasks and see what is running and using the most resources.

Issues described are common on many programs when they run out of memory. There could be all kinds of stuff running in the background including AV and misc apps. Possible the machine has 4gb but doubt Dell would ship a machine with 4gb system mem and have an 8gb video, more like the other way around. Dell does balance their machines fairly well.

Does sound like a low memory issue or memory leak. 32 bit version will not see more than 4gb of memory so you are better off with the 64bit version. Are there other programs eating up resources? When I purchased my little Dell laptop I went and removed tons of stuff I wouldn't use and removed quite a bit out of startup. If you can get another 8gb of memory and get your machine up to 16 gig if you plan on running multiple applications at a time.

That looks cool, could make some nice neon signs like that.

I forget the name of the game engine that AM had at one time. Wonder if that is a good route for this sort of thing?

What about simply baking the lighting, textures and shadows on still objects in scenes then let AM be able to export that out as a seqence? This would be more like how a game engine would work and the calculations could be done one or at key frames or nth frames. Doable?

I remember Electric Image had a shader like that well before Houdini. Wonder if something like that could be faked with edge detection and normal mapping? Almost a reverse AO.

For Houdini? I thought about it but saw the spaghetti boxes and the need for 12 monitors just to do simple renderings and figured I have better things to do. eventually I'll snag the new AM. Still like AM's interface and ease of use over the other apps.

I had asked if it was possible for a rounded edges shader in AM a long long time ago. Seems that Houdini 16 has it now. Not sure if much dev is going on with AM these days. Seems awfully quiet.

How do ice cubes rate?

Not going to redact some of the results and put the rest into a 180 day review?

Didn't that happen the last election? Russians?

Fantastic images on there, thinking I should have entered, maybe next time. Great work guys.

Check out FormZ Free, It may have what you need. Workflow in it is pretty straight forward and not that hard to learn if you have any amount of modeling behind you. As far as precision, you can always work 2x in size then reduce the part when importing in your printing software. AM is really suited for organic shapes. That's where it really excels. Depending on how many holes you can model those for the most part but if your making swiss cheese then you may have some difficulty. Most poly models are adequate for 3d printing since it is an additive system and uses poly objects to derive the slices. Precision in cad models isn't really realized in the additive processes but are essential when doing typical machine processes ie cnc where you need tool paths and exacting tolerances. Curvatures need to be smooth for the tool paths and not faceted in the case of poly shapes.

Finest I have gone with a working thread is 28tpi but that was tricky and required 25 micron. Threads worked but as you mentioned the materials are not as nice for mechanical parts on sla.

Not for nothing but modeling bolts and threaded objects is difficult on an additive process unless the threads are really really really course. The resolution to have a working thread on a 3d print requires less than 50 micron and even at 25 micron you will have fitting issues with any thread finer than 20 tpi. I'm not sure but most fdm printers only handle 100-200 micron right? Typically all that can be done post process. I would suggest make your model and toss in maybe a location point. Drill your holes on the print and run a tap through the part. You will have far superior working threads that way rather than trying to print it. Even subtractive cnc systems it is usually easier to post process the part than try to run a slew of g-code, tool changes etc unless your doing some sort of production run. As advanced as all this technology is, sometimes old school still works faster, cheaper and better. Get your base part done and work from that. Just my 2 cents.