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What are 3D Design Pro default options and can they be changed?

J

Jerry B

PRO Member
I personally cannot stand ShetchUp, and want to design certain vessels with my 3D Design Pro software,
I am somewhat proficient with 3D software as I use Autodesk Maya, but SketchUp irritates the heck out of me and don't want to use it .........

1. what is the default for the grid size layout in 3D Design Pro? and can it be changed?
I would prefer my grid to be minimally 1/4" incremental squares.
also, is there a way to "zoom" into the grid, being able to see better when making minor changes to a vessel profile
(I was a custom cabinet/furniture maker for 30+ years and am accustomed to working in 1/32 - 1/16" increments/tolerances ......)

2. Is there a way to set the actual thickness of a vessel wall once created (ie. to either 1/4" thick wall, or 3/8" thick wall)
so when transferring to Woodturner Pro everything is correctly set for me to apply segments sizing & coloring???

3. If the above changes/settings are not possible,
then is my only other option to scan a design I've done on graph paper and use that as a background guide for laying out the vessel the way I want ?

TIA for any help
 
Jerry,
I have some bad news and some good news.

The bad news is that 3D Design Pro doesn't understand dimensions because it was only intended to be about shapes which was to allow you to create a wall profile that is pleasing to you. Dimensions only come into play when you transfer it to Woodturner PRO.

The good news is that you can import a scanned image (or any existing image) and use it as a background. Just go Tools > Add background image and then browse to your file. When you import it, you can either leave it at its current perspective, or you can change it's width or height by changing the aspect ratio.

After importing it, remember to drag the image to the left so that the centerline of the vessel is on the left edge of the window.

SketchUp is a bugger alright, perhaps I'll do a video to show how I use it to create wall profiles. The problem is once you've done that in SketchUp there isn't much more you can do with it, because it is not a good program for creating models of segmented bowls.

Lloyd
 
Thanks Lloyd
I've watched tons of tuts/videos on SketchUp the last week or so, still can't stand the program ........
might be just because I'm so used to the advanced level of control I have using Maya (vertex's, faces, polygons, etc etc)

I'm quite proficient working with drafting paper and doing things to exact dimensions, especially when using a french curve ;)
did all my cabinet/furniture work like that for decades so no problem there.

Last question, what kind of files are 3D Design, or Woodturner Pro able to import?
anything besides just a .jpeg ?
Maya has a boatload of exporting options, maybe I can create model in Maya, and export that model into Woodturner Pro.
Again, if only .jpeg's still no issue, and when I scan graph paper, I'll just scan the 1/2 profile needed to work in 3D Design.
I have no issues scanning layout and importing into 3D Design, just hoped I could bypass that step.
As long as scan is proportionate to scale, there shouldn't be any reason to change perspective is there?

Again, TIA for any help :)
 
Jerry,
Since all my code was written from scratch without the benefit of using libraries, no importers exist unless I write them as well. Reading the various file formats is trivial, but transforming the data into something usable would be prohibitively time consuming and expensive and only useful to a handful of people.
So all my limited programming resources have to go to supporting my software only.
Lloyd
 
Alex, I doubt it's a matter of pride
As Lloyd is still gainfully employed I imagine it's a matter of time.
I know he's spent tons of hours creating/tweaking the programs he's been generous enough to create so far,
and to add all the code/options for the imports would be even more time consuming, especially with all the different options/devices in use today.
I'm sure once he retires, we'll see some definitive improvements in the current programs, and until then there are workarounds, just takes a few extra clicks.........

I've taken and created a vase in Autodesk Maya, saved the wireframe mode in jpg format, then imported image into 3D Design, then into Woodturner Pro
gave me the cut list I was hoping for, so has solved my issues.
Personally, I'd like to see a melding/merging of 3D Design with Woodturner Pro (with Woodturner Pro being the prominent software) so that you'd just have to use the 1 program to do all the different shaping/designing.
I'd also like to be able to change dimensions on the fly if I decided to (right now height adjustment cannot be made without going back into 3D Design)

My problem is I'm going from a highly advanced 3D modeling program (Maya) to these and expecting/hoping I'd have the same kind of control ;)
 
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