Hi All,

3D Canvas 6.0 Revision 3 is now available:

http://www.3d-canvas.com/downloads/3DCanvas6.zip

Fixed since 6.0:

1) 6.0 contained a rather significant memory leak which appears to be correct now.

2) Animation performance has been improved. Animations now perform similar to 5.7a

3) Object visibility has been corrected.

4) Select by Material has been fixed.

5) Fixed problem where adjusting the parameters of the Smooth operation was caused crashes with Windows 9x/Me. This also resulted in improved parameter update speed.

6) Auto-smoothing (sub-division surfaces) has been fixed. The smoothing was not being updated under some circumstances.

Note that 3D Canvas 6.0 now requires that DirectX 8 or higher be installed.

Versions 6.0 and 5.7a can be installed on the same system. You will not be able to open your 6.0 models in 5.7a, but you can export your 6.0 models to the directx format (x) and import them into 5.7a.

If you are wondering where the auto-smoothing/auto-mirroring are they are on the Object Properties window. You may find that auto-smoothing is easier to use if you have rendering of two-sided faces enabled.

Richard
PS Here is the list of changes in 6.0:

What's New in 3D Canvas 6.0
---------------------------

o) Subdivision Surfaces

Objects can now behave as subdivision surfaces where the object is
automatically smoothed in real time as changes are being made.


o) Real Time Mirroring (3D Canvas Pro only)

Objects can now be automatically mirrored in real time.


o) In-place Operations

Many operations can now have their parameters adjusted without
opening pop-up windows.


o) Additional Keyboard Shortcuts

New keyboard shortcuts allow for temporary overrides of the
current modeling constraints and the current modeling coordinates mode.


o) Custom Operation Defaults

Operations now support User defined parameters defaults.


o) Enhanced Primitives Parameters

The parameters for primitives can now be adjusted without the need
to open a pop-up window


o) Custom Primitive Defaults

Primitives now support user-defined parameter defaults.


o) Custom Material Defaults

The material palette now supports user-defined defaults.


o) Enhanced Smooth Operation

The Smooth operation has new options to permit multiple smoothing
levels and tension.

The smooth operation also now retains material information and is
up to thirty times faster than in previous releases.


o) Enhanced Divide Operation

The Divide operation now retains material information when applied
to whole objects and is up to thirty times faster than in previous
releases.


o) User-Defined Default Creasing

A default creasing factor can now be specified for objects. This
creasing factor is used by operations to re-crease the object
whenever the operation can not retain creasing.


o) New Scripting methods (3D Canvas Pro/LP only)

The Object class now includes two new methods GetCreaseFactor and
SetCreaseFactor. These methods are used to support default creasing.

Sweetness.

It works pretty well...I like the realtime smoothing a lot.

The only problem I have (this happens with 5.7a too) seems to be a chipset issue. Textured materials always render slightly translucent. Like, you can just barely see everything through a textured object as if it had transparency set to 5% or so. (Also, I don't know if this is intentional, but the bounding box wireframes in 6.0 are also almost invisible against the checkered grid.)

It's not a biggie since it only happens with 3DC and it's more of a cosmetic annoyance than a real problem.

As an aside, all of my video drivers are up to date, DirectX is up to date, blah blah blah. The graphics adapter is an onboard Trident Blade 3D masquerading as a VIA Apollo PLE133T, in case other people are more offended by that "issue" than I am in the future.

-Mel

Do I have to download the LP/PRO upgrade too to get those things fixed, or can I use the older one?

Mel,

Not sure about that translucency issue. I haven't seen it myself. It could be the video card. I don't have one of those to test with.

Timo,

First you'll need to uninstall both 3D Canvas 6 and associated the LP/Pro upgrade. Once you have 3DC 6 rev 1 installed, you'll have to re-download the LP/Pro Upgrade from the Help menu.

Richard

Definately looking great!

There are a few things I would like to see to make working a little smoother.

1) On the buttons to adjust an operation (e.g. extrude) if you hold the button down for a second it could automatically go up/down in 0.1 increments rather than having to click each time (I know you can type, but it means taking my hand off the mouse)

2) Being able to subdivide more than one line at a time - you can do it with faces, why not lines?

3) Being able to subdivide a face in only one direction.

4) Undo leaves selections intact.

I've also noticed that with subdivision surfaces it doesn't always leave the selection highlighted in blue when selecting faces, which makes it hard to see which ones are selected.

Ken

Has anyone else noticed that some things are just awefully slow to respond?  Like when im working in face/side/point (what ever you call that tool) mode, and I click on a point/side/face it takes several seconds before I can begin editing it.  Its kinda hard to explain, out side of the whole program is rather unresponseive when I select one of the above on my model.  It only seems to be an issue when worrking with that tool, and im pretty sure its not my computer.

Kenlynch,

You should probably save your suggestions for when there is some place to make "suggestions". I probably will forget all about this when the time for 6.1 development comes.

You might want to try double-sided faces if you are using subdivision surfaces. (See Tools->Options->Device)

netmasteroc3,

I can't seem to reproduce this. Can you send me a model that demonstrates this? (submissions@amabilis.com) And instructions on how to reproduce it. I should say that I do see this to some extent is outline mode with a fairly complex model (16k points).

BTW What processor and video card do you have?

Richard

I'm having problems with older models built with 3DC5ish versions imported in 3DC6. Some make 3DC extremely slow. I have imported one model with about 8000 triangles. 3DC needs 12 seconds to switch from one orthographic view to another. To select a face needs at least 5 seconds using the paint tool on one face 7 seconds.
The same model in 5.7 I can paint as fast as lightning no delay in changing the view etc.
Maybe I should revamp my oldies with 5.7 but I'm eager to use 6.01.

edit: I forgot to mention that with models built from scratch with 6.0 I seem to have no problems at the moment. The memory leak was obviously the culprit for most of the misbehavior.

Hannes44,

I had a thought as to what might be causing it. If you can send me a model that shows the difference in 5.7a and 6.0 it would be very helpful (submissions@amabilis.com).

Richard

Model is on the way!

I appear to have spoken too soon, I cant reproduce it today either.  Perhaps it was another process or something that I had running that was causing the problems.  If it comes back, and I can figure out how to reproduce it, I'll let you know.

Richard

Having doudle sided faces on or off makes no difference. Highlighting of faces when using subdivision surfaces simply doesn't work properly - the selection reverts back to the normal line colour most times.

Ken

Ken,

It doesn't actually revert, it is just that depending on the orientation and shape of your model you may not be able to see it. Seriously! 3D Canvas has to draw the neighbouring faces as well as the selected face, sometimes the neighbour faces overwrite the edges of the selected face. With some shapes this happens very frequently. I'll be able to have more control over this eventually, but that won't likely happen until 6.3.

I have some ideas as to how to improve this in the mean time. But I'll have to keep thinking about it and the chances for improvement before 6.3 is remote.

Fortunately, the normal case for working with subdivisions surfaces is to work on one face at a time which is not too difficult to keep track of. Though of course there are exceptions.

Richard

Not sure if this is the same problem Hannes44 is having , but when trying to install 3DC-6 revision 1 I get an error 1931. I didn't try the MDAC or jet upgrade because it's a different error.Is 3DC-6 rev.1 installable with 5.7a ?

All,

I just released Revision 2. It has some very small visual fixes (3DC show an hourglass when adjusting parameters and doesn't show the final object until all changes are made) and a password fix. Apparently some people who purchased 3D Canvas recently couldn't get 6.0 to work :-[

Hannes44,

I never did receive that example model.

KB,

I am not sure what that error is. Was this with 5.7a installed?

Richard

Just sent it again.

If that doesn't work you could try sending it to support@amabilis.com.

Richard

Yes, 5.7a installed. Different HD's, if it makes a difference.

All,

I just released 3D Canvas 6.0 Revision 3 to correct some sluggishness problems that have been reported with complex models.

Rev 3 also fixes a problem where the "Creasing Factor" was not defaulted when converting models to 6.0.

I'm trying to keep on top of the bugs reported. If you aren't having troubles with the version of 6.0 you are running, then there is no need to upgrade.

Revision 3 can be downloaded here: http://www.3d-canvas.com/downloads/3DCanvas6.zip

Hannes44,

Your model helped a lot. Thanks.

KB,

I'm still not sure what the problem could be. This is happening during the install? If so this is what Microsoft Says about it: "The Windows Installer service cannot update the system file [2] because the file is protected by Windows. You may need to update your operating system for this program to work correctly. Package version: [3], OS Protected version: [4]"

Does this prevent you from running 6.0? If not don't worry about it.

Richard

quote:

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I'm still not sure what the problem could be. This is happening during the install? If so this is what Microsoft Says about it: "The Windows Installer service cannot update the system file [2] because the file is protected by Windows. You may need to update your operating system for this program to work correctly. Package version: [3], OS Protected version: [4]"  

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Yes during install, I've asked MS for information about it, I'll wait to see what they have to say. Being the only one with this error is confusing.