I've been involved in Packaging Design for about 5 years or so, with a long history or Graphic Arts before that. When we started a Packaging Design department and made the jump into 3D, we started with Strata, which seemed to be an all-in-one program geared towards those familiar with Adobe CS products. It served us fairly well, but as we became more proficient we began running into problems when it came to any compatibility with the CAD department, which uses SolidWorks for tooling and mold creation. Mesh and Solid modeling don't mix very well. We started using ViaCAD to do project modeling and would import into Strata for rendering. This was better, as we could have two way data exchange with CAD, and we used this combination for about a year. I was introduced to MoI in the Strata forum and was intrigued by it, a powerful 3D NURBS based modeling program for creative types. I played with the demo and liked it. I purchased a license and have started using it exclusively on recent Pkg. Design projects. I love it. Even though I'm still in the learning stage, I'm surprised with how well it works. I've been able to do somethings that I couldn't with either Strata or ViaCAD and it's easier, too! I am now an official MoI convert. I've not had one crash or freeze-up with MoI, something I had often with Strata and ViaCAD. Now I just need to find a good stand-alone rendering package, using Strata strictly as a rendering program is less than ideal. I'm trying out KeyShot, which is cool and runs on a Mac. If anyone has other Mac based rendering software suggestions, I'd be open to them.
Anyway, MoI is a great tool and I'm now an official MoI user and hope to participate in this forum in the future!
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