Maya as an Architectural Visualization Tool ?

# 1 24-01-2004 , 03:10 PM

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Maya as an Architectural Visualization Tool ?

A month ago Alias was presenting a certain Australian studio as an example of the fact that Maya is being used as an architectural visualizations tool.

Apart for the fact that the works they showed there were not super professional (if you compare them to works done by many pros that are everywhere on the web - many lightwavers and 3DSMaxers) , I feel a bit laughed at as being a Mayan architectural illustrator because I feel that many times I am forced to invent methods to achieve some very basic results (basic when done in other packages). Maya seems to lack many features that are architectural oriented and are IMHO very easy to implement once Alias decides it wants to.

Snapping tools , orientation tools etc, are only a portion of is missing and 3DSMax wins easily here.

I love Maya but I cannot seem to avoid cursing every once in a while when modeling...

comments appreciated

NIR

Nir Sullam
Architectural Visualizations Page: www.orvatsel.com/index2.html
Maya Page: www.orvatsel.com/maya
www.nirsullam.com

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# 2 24-01-2004 , 03:18 PM

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I find all the snapping and orientation tools I need. Not sure what to tell you. So far, I've not seen anything done in another program that couldn't be done just as well in Maya.

:shrug:

-Mike
The Maya Toolbelt

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# 3 24-01-2004 , 03:30 PM

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Mike

Coming from AutoCAD (10 years ...mmmm....and counting...) I got used to the great snapping tools and also to something called UCS which allows you to orient a working plane to whichever plane you want , the Construction Plane in Maya is a joke when compared to this one.

I do manage to do almost everything I wanted so far in Maya but it is not as straight forward as I would like it to be.

and when working with buildings a good layer management tool would be helpful - Maya's Layers are so basic - they are hardly usefull at all.

Nir Sullam
Architectural Visualizations Page: www.orvatsel.com/index2.html
Maya Page: www.orvatsel.com/maya
www.nirsullam.com

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# 4 24-01-2004 , 03:43 PM

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Personaly i think lightwave had fairly good layering as even being new to the program i could minipulate the layers easily and confidently. Also a few other features i would like to see... Alias should check maya forums as well as other 3d application forums to see whats succesfull and whats needed to append to future products.

i just wish there was a knife tool for maya 4 user added image

(but from what i understand theres a version in maya 4.5 and 5)

I agree with the snapping though... also if there were more grid options(im not sure if theres not because im fairly new to maya), sometimes i find the grid is the right size in one part of the project, but too small or large in another...

I dont know if i helped your arguement though.

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# 5 25-01-2004 , 02:27 AM

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Just wandering but you talk about a lack of tools. I can easy see whare maya wouldn't have the same tools as autocad. ( that sure dosn't meen that its not posible to have them ) but I'm wandering what tools do you think 3ds or lightwave has for this that are better ? could it be that just more people are using thoughs apps for that ? (keeping in mind that just becouse there used more dosn't make them better choises )

Just me personaly, I would be more conserned about render quality which as less to do with the 3d app even.

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# 6 25-01-2004 , 10:48 AM

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Pony

I tried every 3D package before selecting Maya. 3DMax is not as nice to work with as Maya and LightWave has some strange stuff in it but modelingwise I feel restricted when working with non orthogonal geometry.

When working with a curve - I need to know its center (or centers if it has more than one center).

In arch. modeling unlike characters - precision is everything.

Nir Sullam
Architectural Visualizations Page: www.orvatsel.com/index2.html
Maya Page: www.orvatsel.com/maya
www.nirsullam.com

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# 7 25-01-2004 , 11:42 AM

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Nirsul.
Yeah I could sure see that. I was just thinking maybe with a bit of mel used you might could bring a lot of precision in to the process. Yes very true the controls in maya are geared more to intuitive artistic use, but the underlying engine is very capable of precision I believe. its just not very assessable.

would the channel box give you precision on some things, that your looking for?

I am more inclined to see the big gaps in tools though when it comes to circles and arch’s in maya. If I remember right even the early versions of AutoCAD had some really nice tools for them. Like being able to select 2 intersecting lines and tell it how much of a bevel arch you want in there with out having to know the center of the arch.

really curiosity is just killing the cat hear. because when it comes to drafting, I only learned barely enough to get my self in to trouble. Nothing but kudos and respect from me for your knowledge in that area.

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Maya as an Architectural Visualization Tool ?

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