natess44

Yeah, I agree that for most things it's fine but boolean, a stronger constraint system for the modeler and maybe some precise measurement constraint would make it probably one of the best modelers out there for cad as well as animation. I know there are work arounds but it makes it a bit more cumbersome. I wish my skills at programming were stronger, I'd make a plugin or something for it. I've missed the flexibility of the modeler. I think it's crazy that with all the money they put into large cad editors that they can't just make a solid modeler that even comes close to the A:M splines. It was worth a shot anyways. I might pop in now and then and try to get someone to add it for me in the future lol. Nate

I have been looking for years for a modeler as flexible as A:M but for more cad based modeling, 3d printer stuff. The last I checked A:M was still lacking true boolean cutting and I know it wasn't designed for some kinds of constraints and dimensioning. But I'd love to use the simple yet powerful features of A:M for cad style modeling and I don't think it'd be a hard addon for the programmers at hash. I'd really like it if I could just at least model in there and export for finishing in another program that's more specialized. I've been using some cad programs lately and I just really miss the flexibility of good 'ol A:M for pure modeling. Sure you can make a box and square easy in those crappy cad programs but as soon as you try something with more detail it get laborious to deal with. Find it stupid you can't just grab a vertex and move it in those solid modelers. Besides my opinion, Cad has become alot more popular with 3D printers and with a few add-ons to the already powerful A:M it'd add alot of attention to this great software. Even just a side app that just models would be awesome as well with just a couple tweeks to the modeling for cad it'd be solid. Haven't used A:M for quite some time but I do miss its ease of use. Just as it is, it's not useful for what I like to do right now.

I'll check those programs out, thanks. If A:M had some easy patch filling and subtraction I think it'd blow a lot of those crappy programs out if the water for modeling. I'm a little sentimental, I really like A:M but it's just not quite what I need. Thanks, Nate.

I just want simplicity, and for what I want to do, right now, hash splines aren't going to work it seems. The splines are great for most cases but not for my application. I don't feel like spending my time fighting with splines to make a few holes or importing and exporting continually although I know you need to do some of that. But I know it's a rock solid program now and maybe in the future I'll find a us for it again. Thanks, Nate.

Well thanks everyone, I guess A:M hasn't added the features that are needed quite yet for what I'm doing, unless I do it the hard way or manually(although manually isn't all that bad Ken.) Or if I use another program. And I've been thinking about it the accuracy might not be there either with a spline mesh or difficult because I'd have to export it a couple of times into one program then another. 3d printing is becoming a big thing maybe hash should start looking into it more. I mean splines are excellent for animations but maybe A:M needs some direct polygon modeling features as well, or just use the hash splines for animations. What they are made for mainly. I will say though, I've been checking out other programs like DS mechanical (Space claim) and man it is nice but it just doesn't have the ease of use that A:M has. It's close but not there. I really love A:M but it's the modeling I'm after right now. Thanks again, sorry I took so long to respond. Nate.

Ken I'm making a lot of objects with holes subtracted from the surfaces like bolt holes ect. Where do I make a feature request for a mesh merge add/subtract at surface intersect? That'd be so useful. Even if a made an ugly mesh as long as it worked.. I'm not much of a programmer or I'd make a plug-in for it. Okay so that dream is shattered is there anyway to convert an imported model to a usable patch? Thanks, Nate.

So Ken you can use booleans in a obj export? I love the modeling interface in A:M but I am also aware of the draw backs as well. I used it a lot. Booleans are great for mechanical objects as I recall but if they can't be exported it'll be a real pain. I also ran into a page on the site that mentioned something about making a mesh from a prop? I'd really like to go back to using A:M again I'm just unsure if it has all the features I'll need. Thanks, Nate.

Thanks for your quick response everyone. Yeah I realize fuchur that pva is not the solution to everything but that is a good idea none the less. I'm just wondering if A:M is suitable for mechanical objects. I remember that there was a subtractive modeling feature(is that what you meant Ken when you said multiple meshes?), they have probably added a million features since I last used it. So what I'm really wondering is how well A:M works with exported file formats since that's pretty well all I'll use it for. Lately I've been using emachinshops free modeler, it really is terrible in a lot of ways but it has some neat mechanical features that makes it very powerful in a few specific ways. Meshkab looks interesting. Thanks, Nate

Thanks guys that answers my questions. Looks like your dino exported and re-imported quite nicely Rob. Thanks for the link and video fuchur, I learned something today. Build my 3d printer with 2 print heads and use pva(I think that's what you said, need another run through later ) to support my objects. A:M sure has improved over the years. Thanks again, Nate.

I used to use A:M back in version 10.5 and ended up not using it anymore because I didn't have much use for it at the time and I also lost my disc haha. But I never forgot beautiful interface for 3d modeling. Now I'm using some crappy freeware for modeling cad objects. I mean it works but its rather limited and complex to use. So I looked up my favorite software again and I see that A:M exports STL files now. I was wondering how well it does it. Do you have to fix the files after export? Maybe someone could post some sample STL files so I can check them out? I'm doing more mechanical objects now. Thanks, any info. would be great! Nate.

Awsome picture! But I think his fingers are a bit too thick for an skinny old guy( they look like schlitzy's).

Multi-pass works in the older versions of A:M too. You just have to turn it on in the registry(it doesn't work very well for animations, they tend to dift ).

You know, I think I was having the same problem in v11 alpha 8 with the dynamic constraint. Didn't think of it untill you mentioned what you did to create the problem. It seemed that it was calculating from were I scrolled too, instead of from the begining.

Maybe the guys at hash changed the sprites between versions?

Really neat idea. I think that this would be more easy to control than using sprites(it's easier to customize). I think you can have animated procedural textures by the way.