Hi All,

Beta 2 of 3D Canvas 7.0.1.2 is now available for download: Download 3D Canvas 7.0.1.2 Beta 2

Beta 1 of 3D Canvas 6.6.5.16 is now available for download: Download 3D Canvas 6.6.5.16 Beta 1


What's New
----------

o) Support for Windows Vista

The install program of 3D Canvas has been updated to provide files required by Windows Vista

o) Automatic Removal of Duplicate Faces

The Optimize operation has a new option to remove duplicate faces.


What's Fixed
------------

o) The Chamfer Operation no longer produces duplicate faces

o) Faces with large numbers of points can now be rendered

o) Shift operation Z rotation is available again.


Unfortunately I have no test system currently, so the installation could well fail. If so, you can uninstall and revert to a previous version of 3D Canvas.

If anyone can test this installation with Windows Vista/XP/2000 etc, I'd appreciate it. Thanks.

Version 7.0.1.2 no longer requires a download of additional features. The "Download the Pro Upgrade" function on the Help menu is gone. It has been replaced by a "Download Updated Help". So, if you don't need the help there is only one download required. This makes it so there is no chance of mismatched Pro Upgrades. It also means that the download is now 10MBs. I couldn't do this before because the cost of providing downloads was too high. But it's went down recently.

Even though this version does support Windows Vista, there is a real possibility that it won't run on your Vista system. Graphics card drivers are a likely cause. Another possibility is that there are bugs in 3D Canvas that do not cause problems on my system.

Richard

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Amabilis Support,

If you have used the Chamfer operation in the past, you may have additional duplicate faces as a result.

To fix this:

1) choose an object (any one will do) and then right click on the "Optimize" operation and select the "Remove Duplicate Faces" option.

2) Select a hierarchy and use the "Optimize" operation on the hierarchy.

This operation will delete intentionally created (inverted) faces also, so you probably don't want to leave the option set to remove duplicate faces.

same old on the vista front but im optimistic considering not even google have solved this yet!

Hi Richard,

Just installed the 6.6.5.16 on my laptop which is running vista ultimate and it installs ok, but it won't launch the program. All I get is "unexpected error, quitting!". Not much to go on i'm afraid. The laptop is running a ATI radeon card and had no problems running 3DC when it was an XP machine.

Cheers, Chris

quote:

Originally posted by Amabilis Support:
If you have used the Chamfer operation in the past, you may have additional duplicate faces as a result.

To fix this:

1) choose an object (any one will do) and then right click on the "Optimize" operation and select the "Remove Duplicate Faces" option.

I installed 6.6.5.16; The optimize operation doesn't seem right clickable like, for example, the mirror operation.

quote:

Originally posted by Amabilis Support:
This operation will delete intentionally created (inverted) faces also, so you probably don't want to leave the option set to remove duplicate faces.

Something could be deleted which is not part of the additional faces due to the chamfer operation?
What's to be checked in such a case? What is needed to create those faces again?
Thanks in advance for your explanations.

quote:

Originally posted by smudge5609:
Hi Richard,

Just installed the 6.6.5.16 on my laptop which is running vista ultimate and it installs ok, but it won't launch the program. All I get is "unexpected error, quitting!". Not much to go on i'm afraid. The laptop is running a ATI radeon card and had no problems running 3DC when it was an XP machine.

Cheers, Chris

Exactly the same here, running on a laptop with intel graphics card (crap i know but it worked with xp ) and vista home premium

DOM107,

You should be able to right-click on the Optimize operation. But you need to select something first. I neglected to update the icon to show that options are available. But right-click works despite this.

The optimize operation will delete inverted faces also. For example if you used a plugin that duplicates the outside of something to make the inside.

All,

It would be nice to know which graphics chips are having problems and which works.

I'll start this:

I have an ATI Mobility Radeon X300 and it works well with Vista 32-bit. I upgraded from XP to Vista. This is not a fresh install.

Anyone else?

quote:

Originally posted by Amabilis Support:
You should be able to right-click on the Optimize operation. But you need to select something first. I neglected to update the icon to show that options are available. But right-click works despite this.

The unchanged icon didn't stop me from clicking: I don't see any window to set an option.

quote:

Originally posted by Amabilis Support:
The optimize operation will delete inverted faces also. For example if you used a plugin that duplicates the outside of something to make the inside.

… like after using double-sided plugin?

quote:

Originally posted by Amabilis Support:
It would be nice to know which graphics chips are having problems and which works.

… and the driver version of video card and chipset driver.

A bad (for the consumer) combination:
Windows Vista : Code 43 Error in Device Manager in Systems with ATI AGP Cards and Nforce3 Chipset Motherboards
I read reports on web sites saying that AMD is asking to report to Nvidia... but Nvidia asks the consumer to report to AMD…

This message has been edited. Last edited by: DOM107,

Richard - are you only after this information from vista users ?

if not....

Windows XP Home (32) - nvidia gforce 6600 - driver 6.14.10.9371 (22/10/2006)

No problems noted

DOM107,

Very strange. I just tried this in 7.0 and 6.6.5 and it worked for both. I'll have to think about this. In the mean time, you can just apply the operation to a cube, change the option to "remove duplicate faces", and click the "remember" button. That's the same effect. If you don't have the option that way either, then I would guess that the wrong version of the operation is installed for some reason.

Yes, the "double sided" plug-in produces duplicate faces. If you have a problem and faces are removed that you don't want to be removed, you could delete faces manually instead. But, it may be easier to re-run the "double-sided" plug-in.

Unfortunately, it seems that driver problems with Vista are going to be with us for a while. We developers should've been more prepared for Vista than we were. Thankfully the problems specifically related to 3D Canvas seem to be very small so far.

Alan,

Yes, that's good to know. Thanks. Did you get any installation warnings? I am installing a new file that could cause warnings. (D3DRM.DLL)

Yes there was an install warning - something about not able to update a window file (or something like that) but I just carried on and there was no problem.

With XP, I only saw the usual warning about dx8vb.dll (not D3DRM.DLL).

quote:

Originally posted by Amabilis Support:
If you don't have the option that way either, then I would guess that the wrong version of the operation is installed for some reason.

No. I don't have this option (there isn't any option / parameter with "Optimize").
I have 2 optimize.dll: one in "Operations" (version 1.0.0.396; 36,864 bytes) and one in "Upgrader" (version 1.0.0.205)

Richard, A few details for you. The graphics is a ATI Mobility Radeon 9600/9700. Driver version 8.31.100.321 under vista ultimate 32bit.

Cheers, Chris

Error #372 while starting under Vista Ultimate 64-bit. 7.1 drivers from ATI on an X1600Pro

The error says it can't configure DirectX

I have an extreme suggestion ill PM you support

DOM107,

That's the right version. I'll have to do some more testing to see why this is happening.

All,

In a few days I'll be home from holidays and have my test systems back. That should help in finding a solution.

I have my test systems back. I have two systems with Vista on them. One is a fresh install, the other is an upgrade.

I tried running 3D Canvas on Vista and got the "Unexpected Error, quiting" error.

3D Canvas is doing something that requires administrator rights. I'm going to look into what it is specifically. When I right-clicked on "3D Canvas7.exe" and chose "Run as Administrator" 3D Canvas actually ran. The first time it produced an error. The second time it actually ran fine, but without any operations/plugins. That's because 3D Canvas runs REGSVR32 to register operations/plugins, but can't run it at administrator level.

I haven't tried this yet, but I think 3D Canvas should run properly on Vista if you turn off "User Account Control". If you search Vista help for it there is an item on how to turn it off. But, that reduces Vista's security level back to something like that of Windows XP.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Amabilis Support,

Bellerphon,

I had the same error come up with the 32 bit version of Windows XP. If I run 3D Canvas again it runs properly.

All,

I may have to get a new installation generator (or whatever you call it). Visual Studio Installer 1.1 is just not doing the job. It doesn't seem to provide the control I need.

Also, I finally managed to reproduce the error 380 that is occuring for some people when clicking on a material in a material library. I have my fingers crossed that there's an easy solution.

Tried the method of using 3DC with admin mode but it threw up the following error:

quote:

Error #372 occured when 3D Canvas attempted to configure Microsoft Direct X. Updating the drivers for your graphics card may resolve this problem

Got the latest direct X and graphics drivers