Upgrading

[tcdavis]

Just wondering if someone could make a suggestion to help narrow down the options. I am a long time Autocad Architectural draftsperson looking to upgrade my skills and potential client base, to include 3D, renderings,walkthroughs. I also am invloved at the begining level of film editing with Final cut pro on the Mac. Im looking at the diff software and trying to get a combination that would serve both areas equally well. Not all the Autodesk products are supported by training in my area though...such as Viz which I understand is a natural fit for a Autocad user...So my question is can anyone offer an opinion on the advantages of say Maya or 3ds Max or Viz? and what would be the best to invest in?

Thank you
Chris

[Steve_Bennett]

I wouldn't recommend Maya - although I would bet you are looking at it because you are running a mac and its supported native on a mac.

If you are already using existing Autodesk products to make your design, 3ds MAX would be a much better fit. Its easier to import data, it understands materials from AutoCAD or Revit and it interfaces well with other Autodesk tools for film and effects that are industry standards. I know, I know, its not on a mac - but if you already have one of the intel based macs, running bootcamp or parallels should help a little.

Oh - and don't go with VIZ - its been discontinued.

[tcdavis]

Thanks for your advice Steve.

Yes I was looking at the Maya for that reason although I am currently running AutoCad on a seperate PC so its not dependent on that alone.

Chris

[Steve_Bennett]

No problem. Also think of Maya and MAX this way:

3ds MAX is like the Millennium Falcon - Punch it hard enough and you can make it do what you want.
Maya is like a Borg Cube - you won't really understand it until you are fully assimilated.

:beer:

[loydg]

3ds MAX is like the Millennium Falcon - Punch it hard enough and you can make it do what you want.
Maya is like a Borg Cube - you won't really understand it until you are fully assimilated.

:beer:

Perfect analogy, Steve! That's gotta go on a t-shirt...

[loydg]

Word on the street is that Revit will ultimately replace ACAD at some point. It also has great materials and walk through abilities and will import efficiently into Max for slick(er) renderings. It's on my list of Apps to learn, just need to find time...