Thanks to Otterman's trailblazing efforts on the 3d design frontier, I thought I might have a look into it too. I reckon I'll probably find it all a bit difficult though - learning computer programs drives me a bit insane...

But if anyone else wants to have a go, Microsoft have recently bought out Caligari, the company who produce TruSpace. It's a pretty decent program by all accounts, and Microsoft are hoping it'll become the standard package. As a result, they've made it available free to download, along with the video tutorials as well. It's not a demo, or limited version, it's the full program. All you have to do is register at the site.

Now, if I can just figure out how to sculpt with a mouse instead of a Wax 5...

Link for anyone who's interested:
http://www.caligari.com/

Regards,
Reaver

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You and me both!  But I have a feeling I've just got another reason to dump my 10-year-old machine and upgrade.

Ta for the heads-up.

And there is no catch to this? I'm always a bit sceptical when companies such as Microsoft start to offer stuff for free...

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The computer program is all well and good, but where the hell did you find a wax 5!? I've been looking for years!

Anyway, yes caligari is ok, bit clonky with a mouse, the £15000 resisting sculpter arm pen thingy works very well though.

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£15000? I reckon a Wax 5 is a cheaper option...

You can get one here for £5.99:
http://tinyurl.com/26kay4

They call it the SG dental tool, but it's a Wax 5 in all but name; and it's got the same initials as Specialist Games - I reckon that's a sign from the God of Sculpting (if we've got one!)

Regards,
Reaver

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No STL support? Useless for my purposes. Thanks for the spot, though.

While I don't know anything much about all this 3d design stuff, I'm told there's a number of free programs which will convert TruSpace files to STL files a the click of an icon.
If I ever get round to trying it, I'll let you know how it works!

Regards,
Reaver

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The pen sculpty thing is cool, I tried one out at Gamesday in Birmingham two weeks ago, good fun but difficult to use. thanks for the link.

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Blender is a free 3d modelling package with a native linux port. it's almost as powerful as max, maya etc, but has a weird control system imho.

http://www.blender.org/

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Word to your mother.

(To non US English speakers, and youthful US English speakers, this means "I agree wholeheartedly, and am respectful to your mother.")

I have AutoCAD, is this stuff capable of doing things CAD can't?

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possibly, especially when it comes to curved surfaces.

Depending on the version of AutoCad you've got it can be really easy or a bit fiddly to export into STL. I've yet to try it but:
either 'save as'
or

AutoCAD (Versions: R14-2000i)

   * At the command prompt type "FACETRES"
   * Set FACETRES between 1 and 10. (1 Being low resolution and 10 high resolution for STL Triangles)
   * At the command prompt type "STLOUT"
   * Select Objects
   * Choose "Y" for Binary
   * Choose Filename

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