Just got plasticity...Xnurbs seems awesome...
UI is weird to me...
So it seems it will end up the way I am using vcarve....Everything is done in Moi then send to vcarve....
Hopefully Moi can get xnurbs as well in the future...
I tried Rocket3F and NVil. Prefered Rocket3F as Nvil has a very confusing ui (IMHO) and much preferred the commercial app Silo3D over both.
Hexagon3D has some more advanced tools then Wings3D. Silo3D also has a some advanced tools over Wings3D but not as much as Hexagon3D.
Hexagon3D can be prone to crashing on Windows 10 or 11 as it has not been supported or updated in several years.
Curvy3D is an inexpensive app that is fun to play with. https://www.curvy3d.com/ but I rarely use now that I have 3D Coat.
I bit the bullet and fought with Blender, now that I understand it, it is quite simple. But it took me close to 6 months to get comfortable with it.
And there are a ton of addons (both free and paid) that can simplify things quite a bit.
I now longer use Hexagon3D or Silo. However I will fire up Wings3D a few times an year.
I would suggest try Wings3d or Hexagon3D (but beware it can be quite unstable). But going the Blender route will pay off in the end.
Modo is free to download with its license...got it from their site.. but I got the V16 Since PaQ mentioned the newer version crashed allot.
Nvil seems daunting...but once you get used to it ...it is very quick and relaxing to work with.
What actually sold me on Nvil was this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZjU31ij6BzA&list=PLJDFMG25S3D8yzhjUo4UWi1hnVZYzUVmP Zbrush,Nvil to Moi3d....on top of that that clean looking ui.
You can modify the ui completely to your needs...but I just need dark mode in the apps I work with and I am good.
Coming from Moi which is the only 3d program I work with basically every day...to polygon was very confusing (even after all the years looking at blender tutorials and making nothing )
On top of that learning a new program.....I asked allot and I mean allot of questions(pages).. He took the time to answer all of them...including posting youtube videos
Of what I was stuck with...he deserves my money lol. https://www.youtube.com/@mrshikun/videos
MeshFusion is included with version 17.1 of Modo I installed and registered with their free 10 year license.
However I am finding the interface of Modo more confusing then Blender was to me when I first started using Blender 2.9.
And MeshFusion is not as friendly as Groboto3D's interface.
IMHO the best user interface of any software app is MOI3D.
In a day I felt very comfortable with it.
I love Blender but I have a big hate on for some of their add-ons like Hard Ops, Boxcutter, Fluent to name a few. Reason being they rely on memorizing short cuts.
Plasticity also relies heavily onshortcuts.
Tried Nvil and hated it. Terrible user interface. Rocket3F was better but did not like it.
MOI3D does not seem to rely on shortcuts and I've never had to use s single one.
I simply use too many apps (Photoshop, Adobe Lightroom, Topaz Studio, Corel Painter, Rebelle, ArtRage, Blender, 3D Coat, MOI3D, Daz Studio, e-onsoftware's Vue and sometimes Curvy3D or ZBrush Lite) to retain shortcuts.
I also maintain at home two Unraid NAS, an Ubtuntu samba server as well as two Windows computers (10 & 11).
I also plan on creating a pfsense firewall.
My issues with MOI were never with the app. It was other issues which continue to annoy me.
I still have a love for Hexagon3D but it is very unstable on my Windows 10 and 11 computers.
I would still being using Silo3D if Nevercentre had not stopped developing it for a while. However they recently started offering updates to a newer version but I thought the cost was a little too much.
Wings 3Dis fun and free, but has limited capabilities compared to Hexagon or Silo3D.
One big thing I dislike about Blender (besides shortcuts) and each install of a newer release requires you re-install your add-ons. Unlike Photoshop which seldom requires an re-install of a plugin.
That's the real beauty of MoI. You can operate it entirely with a single mouse button without ever touching the keyboard, or you can go all-in with shortcuts. The fact that shortcuts can also run scripts makes it incredibly powerful.
As for Modo, I feel that at some point, they started adding features to the UI mainly to satisfy their existing customer base (and perhaps the shoe industry) without much thought for potential new users.
I do agree with you KENMO, heavily based addons software like Blender are always a nightmare to keep up to date, new release break things, Blender dev's dont really care (and they shouldn't imho). It was already the case with 3dsmax, even if usually there was a 2y cycles before going full break.
That said in the little poly modelling landscape, I still think Blender is the wise choice if you start from scartch. Not the easiest to learn, but on the long run it will pay off. There is so much content for it now too.
Been playing a bit with Modo ver 17.1, Wow, what a piece of crap. Very slow on my Ryzen 3700 8 core / 16 thread with 32 gbs of memory. Prone to a few crashes.
And to think Foundry was selling this app for $1200.00. Silo is just over $100, Blender and Hexagon are free and MOI is a steal at the price it is currently selling at.
MeshFusion is a complete disappointment to me. I find it very confusing as I was expecting something more like is sibling, Groboto3D.
Perhaps the earlier versions of Modo are more stable and have better performance? Anyone know what is the best version of Modo?
Playing around in Modo 17.1 gave me a greater appreciation for 3D Coat, MOI and Blender.
Nope, it has always been like that. Version 101 (102?) was essentially a pre-alpha sold 300$. Things got a little better around 701-801, but to me, it was still something I’d describe as a beta release.
I think it’s the only app I know of that could crash just from selecting things—especially on "old" AMD graphics cards.
That said, I was also using 3ds Max and trialing Hexagon at the time (around version 801), and neither was particularly great either. I remember testing an early version of NPower NURBS for Max (based on the same library used in MoI ?), and it was impossible to complete even a single basic tutorial. I suppose we were more resilient back in the days since we didn’t know any better anyway.
As for the price, they indeed went nuts ... even free now I won't touch it. The fact I can't even upscale the UI (no options in the app and windows fractional = blur interface) doesn't help.
I did lost a good amount of direct modelling tools/function switching to Houdini, but that last version of Modo looks very alien to me now ... I supposed we get used to anything after few years.
And I don't think MeshFusion has much to do with Groboto. I know Darrel Anderson was doing very "groboto stuff" with it, but it's indeed way more complex to use ... that freaking strip management is insane, I would rather to use something like SoftBoolean in Houdini, or MoI ofc.
I purchased Groboto 3.3 on the promise that Darrel Anderson was working on ver 4. I realize he ended up with a serious illness in cancer and that delayed it.
However after regaining his health he concentrated all efforts on MeshFusion.
Now that Modo has died, I wonder if Braid Arts will pickup on Groboto3D?
And for the record, I truly believe Nvil is pure trash and would not recommend as long as Blender is free or Silo3D is still being developed.
Wings3D is also still being supported and has a very friendly and quite helpful user base.
The simplicity of Wings3D and Silo3D' user interface is awesome, as is MOI3D.
PS: I see Nvil is being offered on Steam for $35 (Canadian dollars). That is damn cheap and perhaps worth a try at that price. But the UI when I last tried it about 7 years ago was awful. Perhaps it is better now.
