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

I'm kind of getting the hang of it, and there's a bunch of cool stuff in there but one big problem is that on my machine anyway the selection mechanism is laggy, there's kind of a lull or something before an edge or face will highlight.

Then various little widgets that pop up get activated automatically just by moving the mouse over them and I'm often getting a whole bunch of little mini menus and sometimes even big help panes trying to load videos popping up right in my face when I'm actually just trying to go and select something different...

- Michael

It's kind of a pet peeve of mine to have too much stuff popping up right in your face, and here's an example why - here I am trying to draw a longer and more complex curve:



There's a command prompt and 2 input boxes floating right over top of the curve that I'm right now trying to draw, making it hard for me to actually see it...

It's the kind of thing that can work ok if you're only drawing something simple like only a line or an arc at a time, but can easily get in the way in other circumstances like the above.

Another thing that I really don't understand is why so many solid modeling programs only have an interpolated (through points) type freeform curve and not a control point curve which is really the main way to draw curvy shapes, particularly because with a control point curve you have inherent control over the end tangents because the first 2 and last 2 points of the control hull define the start and end tangents.

- Michael

Autodesk is a crap. Nothing is free.

For this one, I believe you are not right ;)
Now more than one hour install and not sure of the final works !
So Suspense :)

Installation was more then half an hour for this few functions.

Rudl

one hour and half for me! :) (slow connection I suppose )
But working at the end: a miracle!
Now it's a game aventure :)
Not yet a diff boolean operation realised ???
Selection is some curious ???

Hi Im back ....123 D

very slow not usable ,



Interaction to draw a line you have to enter the sketch mode and select a plane and come out, to many process
Tools I like the Hole Tool MOI could the with one (cylinder and balloon-diff), Edge edit tool is nice but you can’t use it very very slow.

score:
123D=3/10
MOI=8/10

downloaded, installed and now whenever I want to start it I get an error message that I can send to AutoDesk. Very promising start. :D

(Guess I really have to make a restart even though there was nothing mentioned like this as it is the case with other programs.)


What I really want to give a try - is it capable of filleting corners with a different radius on both sides? (say I have a cube and one edge should be filleted but the fillet getting narrower starting with R=x and ending with R=1/2x)

Not yet seen variable fillet but not all seen :)
videos without sound
Arche
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DZc_fj8xJOc

Guitare
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QcFX3IcAk3M

Chair
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jGYPrEfG4no&feature=related

@Andras - There's always at least one Autodesk hater in the crowd... :-)


"There's a command prompt and 2 input boxes floating right over top of the curve that I'm right now trying to draw, making it hard for me to actually see it...

It's the kind of thing that can work ok if you're only drawing something simple like only a line or an arc at a time, but can easily get in the way in other circumstances like the above." ~M. Gibson


That's one of my dislikes about MoI. It's actually the more complex sketches where I appreciate the HUD more. I don't draw at the bottom or upper corner of the screen, I draw in the middle-ish of the screen. I want and like the info right where the mouse is so I don't have to switch focus between the mouse and info center. I find that incredibly distracting. For me the HUD rarely gets in the way of what I am doing and if it does, a zoom and/or pan moves it out of the way usually.

The pop-up stuff would be less distracting if there was no lag/delay. This is a "beta" so I am hoping for better speed eventually. MoI is definitely way faster.

As far as the Shift+middle mouse button... it's second nature to me and is one of the first things I try with a new modeling program, but I think, in the arena of 3D navigation with a mouse Alibre has absolutely nailed it. Bar-none the best system I have ever used. A 3D mouse (3D connexion) doesn't really add much functionality/speed. They just haven't fully realized the extra uses/functions their setup can open up (time sensitive click being a major one).



Sorry no text fields (besides dimensions) that I am aware of. There is something to add "tags," but I have no idea what it actually does. I tried it, but the tag disappears when the dialog is closed. Perhaps something like photo tags? (it's still there if I re-open the tags dialog)

Sorry macray no variable arc radius. The only programs I am aware of that are capable of that are the parametric modelers (Solidworks, Inventor, Alibre, etc.).

Seems that for make boolean operations objects must be first components ! ?


From the video of the guitare at the end seems we can modify measures from enter numeric text
Is that history ?