There is no size limit that I am away of - other than whatever your computer can handle.
And as far as history goes - it only really keeps track of features. There is no history like SolidWorks/Inventor/other parametric modelers.

It does keep track of features and what they belong to.

Do you can erase something on this list?

The fillet engine looks really powerfull !

Hi Nick, thanks for the mini review!

That's particularly interesting that it supports some common file formats like .sat and .stp - it should be possible to exchange data with MoI using those formats.

I'll have to check it out a bit later today myself!

- Michael

the interface
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RfrvEZgPiEg&feature=player_embedded

the composants
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sEhUl8Eyfzo&feature=related

the rotations + composants
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nSPdUevSMQQ&feature=player_embedded

It looks like Autodesk is trying to take it one step further than Sketchup with partnerships with a few 3D print shops/suppliers/etc.
They seem to be really hitting the "Maker" movement pretty hard. http://makerfaire.com/ They should have done that with Freestyle before it went belly-up. <shrug>

First impression: 402 MB download!!

Why does everything have to be so enormously bloated these days?

- Michael

Maybe all is not well optimized :)

Well, it's like half of Inventor... actually, I think it's all of the direct-edit stuff that needs a large backend to be even remotely powerful and useful. I think the other major contributor is a materials library. The servers are fast, my DL only took ~15 to 20min on my crappy AT&T DiSmaL.

It's taking me 1 hour to download on my DSL...

Something of that size just does not usually bode well for it being very usable on lower end machines.

Looking at some of the discussions on their group, it sounds like probably one big chunk of the download size is having the .NET framework included with it - that doesn't really have anything to do specifically with direct modeling, it's more likely to have to do with their choice of what system to base the UI off of.

I've worked very hard to avoid this kind of bloat with my own software, so every time I see it, it just is a kind of ugly thing to me, personally... ;)

For me increasing installer size by just 5MB is a big deal that I treat seriously, MoI v3 is going to have some kind of increase in size like that.

- Michael

Hi Nick,

> I think the other major contributor is a materials library.

That should be modularized then - something like include a more minimal set in the default download, and then have some option to download the full library later on when you might want it, if it's going to be something like 100MB in size.

- Michael

No, it's probably not going to run very well on a 3+ yr old lower-end machine and netbooks are definitely out of the picture... Like I said, it's slow, sometimes too slow on my laptop. I haven't tried it on my workstation yet.

The other annoyance is lack of custom-ability/hotkeys/keystroke shortcuts, but it is (supposedly) aimed at home-owner joe types? I am used to professional grade software that lets me configure it exactly how I want. So I am not sure if this is good or bad considering the market. I have been harping on Adsk for over a year now regarding the lack of a mouse zoom direction option in Fusion and this carries directly over to 123D. I hate the default SW and Inventor zoom direction.

Actually the 400MB wasn't even the whole thing, because the installer spent about 15 minutes downloading even more stuff and spewing it all over the place onto the computer...

Anyway, it seems to run ok on my quad core machine. I'm trying to figure out how to use it by just jumping in and trying things without reading the docs first, and I'm certainly having a lot of "WTF?" moments with various mysterious things popping up and fading away, and various little icons.

At the moment I'm trying to figure out how to just rotate the view with the mouse. Middle drag does a pan, and mouse wheel zooms (also for me in reverse direction than what I'd want), and right-drag seems to drag out a kind of magic blue amoeba snake that then slowly fades away, which is kind of cool but I was hoping there might be an easy view rotate method on one mouse button...

It will probably make a lot better sense after reading some of the documentation.

I'd say it would be a huge stretch to call this "easy to use" though... But there seems to be a lot of power in it.

- Michael

You have a very slow Connection :)
Mine who is not very speedy take just 10 minutes for load this gigantism prog :)
After I must transfert on anther computer because i have not the requierment in memory and processor or other things for run it !

Standard Autodesk orbit - Shift+Middle Mouse Button or use the viewcube. The neon snake think is the marking menu. Do a single [right]click to see the menu, a [right]click-drag in the right pattern initiates whatever command is in that pattern (highlighted by the neon snake thingy). Think back to our marking menu conversation.

It's all fairly intuitive to an Autodesk software user. <shrug>

Hi Nick thanks - shift + middle mouse drag is what I needed. Although I really dislike having to push a modifier key for something so basic as view manipulation.

The view cube does not seem to work for me very well for me at least, I get a kind of herky-jerky feel while trying to rotate with it, it seems to kind of stick at some places or something like that.

I'd have to say the right drag snake marking menu thing seems awfully non-intuitive to me, I mean basically the definition of intuitive is that someone can figure it out right away... If you go grab someone off the street and say - what do you think this right drag thing that makes a blue snake does, how many people would you think would figure it out?

I kind of thought at first that it might be a way to select things, like encircle a face or edge that you wanted to manipulate...

- Michael

"The view cube does not seem to work for me very well for me at least, I get a kind of herky-jerky feel while trying to rotate with it, it seems to kind of stick at some places or something like that."

Heh, there's a setting for that.

Under the viewcube there should be an arrow when you hover over it. Click it. Select Properties. Uncheck "Snap to Closest View."

I think only the Beta is for free.

When it comes to release, it is over with free.

Rudl

"To be fair, the logic behind this free product isn’t completely altruistic. Autodesk is, after all, a business — and a large one at that. (The company had sales of nearly $2 billion last year.)

Bass said he hopes that some 123D users will “graduate” up to Autodesk’s more professionally-oriented products."

Maybe it will be free after all ;)

Is there any text facility in it, 'cos I can't find one?

Martin