more comments and entries before serious

max would probably be the most popular upgrade from sketchup, although revit will be handy if you wanna get some working drawings from your model too.

here's the perfect combination...learn Rhino and Max...as far as modeling and rendering goes, you should be covered...but eventually, you're going to have to learn Revit...so Rhino+Max+Revit should do it.

i can stumble through rhino, although my aesthetic doesn't really utilize it well.

max and revit i can do without.

Revit to Max

That'll get a you job, too.

To those who've used Max and Maya, which do you prefer? I started out with Max and then tried Maya.

For some reason I hate Max, the layout and tools seem hidden and helluva confusing. It takes me far more time to model something on Max than on Maya. probably because I'm not familiar where the tools are located.

The only drawback with Maya is I cant model as accurately like in Max.


any advice/suggestions?

autodesk i can do with out

anti i know you, like me are a rhino fanatic, but have you ever played with modo?

http://www.luxology.com/

i am playing with DoubleCad now, can i say refreshing??

i have a boat load of modo textures i need to try iti know they have open nurbs support and that is a good sign.

it's what im going to do tomorrow, but a friend says that it handles complex sub-divs with ease (where rhino slows down to a halt and maya...well, sucks), also said the render engine is maxwell quality at v-ray speed. im excited to see what the fuss is all about.

have you used T-Splines?
to me that is the most powerful modeling technique about.
i feel like Brazil is as fast as Vray and that is free for rhino users currently but i have a workflow in vray that is hard to break while studying so much for LEED currently

i have used t-splines, although not the latest version, i think the last time was 6 months ago. its so damn expensive and i got tired of re-installing the trial.

double cad seems interesting, i like the concept, the demo video didn't really blow me away, but then again anything that doesn't involve autodesk is quite refreshing.

Blender is good, and free

any good blender training videos you recommend? the interface always gets me

I've been using modo for almost 3 years now, and absolutely love it... the only downside is that the dwg integration is a bit wonky, no nurbs, and booleans aren't so great. If you can get used to subd modeling, this app is truly fantastic, relatively easy to learn, great online support, rendering is great (and fast), and imports rhino and sketchup files.

however - I still say sketchup + a decent renderer (like maxwell) and/or photoshop and no one can tell - as long as you know how to compose an image it won't matter what you use.

There is also Houdini, but it seems to be a whole other story...
It's more about scripting than any other program, but in terms of rendering it can do more than anything else you know...
Anyway, it's probalby going to ba bought by autodesk sooner or later, just like good old XSi...