Hi All,

3D Canvas 6.0 is now available:

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

The "release candidate" became the final version so there should be no reason to re-download if you have the release candidate.

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.

I have updated the plug-in "extras" for 3D Canvas 6.0: http://www.amabilis.com/mediadownloads.htm#Scripts

Richard

Will be downloading it sometime over the weekend... ;D
Thanks Richard.

Les

i've installed 6.0 and my code for upgrade - not working.
So as I am lost my 5.7a distribute, can u give me a link to redownload 5.7a and pro upgrade for it

3D Canvas 5.7a can be downloaded on the main download page: http://www.amabilis.com/downloads.htm

Richard

The "select by material" option doesn't work for me with the right click menu.
Still not possible to delete objects from the library. 3DC crashes.
Often selecting objects in the hierarchy is quite slow esp. when the model is bigger. (I have 1Gig RAM, Pentium 4 2,0 GHz, Geforce4) 5.7 was never slow in that aspect

CORRECTION: Now it is possible to delete objects from the object library, the earlier version of 3DC6 seems to have destructed the library I used with it and this corrupted library crashed naturally the latest version too.

Are  there not a upgrade from the 5.7a pro version or must I buy a new licence for the 3DC.6 pro ?

I do remember something about this in the Canvas6 forum while it was there.

Can anyone confirm the cost/process for upgrading from 5.7a Pro to the latest pro version ?

It happened the second time to me: 3DC6.0 refuses to load a previously saved 6.0 file. Error #3800.
Be careful and save often with different names! I did so and now I've lost the work of about two hours not two days like the last time.

I installed the 6.0 upgrade and tested it before uninstalling 5.7.

Then I got the "unrecoverable error #429" when I tried to run 6.0(even in safe mode)
I uninstalled the upgrade then ran the repair option and that fixed it.(Just runnning the repair alone might have fixed it)
working fine now.

All,

3D Canvas 6.0 is a free upgrade for those who purchased June 18th, 2002 or later. If you purchased before that date or would like to upgrade from 3D Canvas LP to 3D Canvas Pro 6.0, you can purchase an upgrade here: https://www.swreg.org/cgi-bin/currency-selector2.cgi?s=3389&p=33891003&v=0&d=0&q=1&t=&currency=USD

Hannes44,

I can confirm that "Select by Material" is not working in 6.0.

You could try updating your MDAC: http://www.amabilis.com/faq.htm#MDAC

And your Jet: http://www.amabilis.com/faq.htm#Error3633

The problem that you have had is related to these two in some way. I'm not exactly sure in what way at this point.

Richard

Richard,
my big brother at Microsoft tells me I have the latest version of Jet and when I downloaded the MDAC, windows didn't let me install, because the latest version 2.5 of MDAC is already installed

I don't know if this is known or not, but a cursory search didn't show anything.

Hidden objects on my system appear to be broke. Any hidden objects magically appear when every I try and manipulate any other visible objects, they then disappear again when i move the mouse over them.

I'm running windows 2000 pro, DirectX 8.something.
I can post more info if needed.

EDIT:  And is this right, 3DC is using over 100MB of ram In a relitivly simple sub 100 face model.  Before I rebooted it was using over 300 MB of ram in the same model.  I have no objects loaded, and only one texture in the texture pallet.  The previous version (5.7a) is using something like 50 MB of ram, with nothing open vs. the over 100MB in 3DC 6.

I find this all rather frustrating because I really like some of the new features, but after working with a file for a few minutes, its almost impossible to use the computer.

I think there is a problem with selecting objects also. If I select an object in the hierarchy window there is a  delay between clicking and the changing of the background to blue and highlighting the object in the working window light-blue.
If I select an object in the working area there is a more obvious delay, the left hand window seems to be rebuilt completely. The more complicated the model the slower this rebuilding process seems to be.
As netmasteroc3 says it's a pity because I'd like some of the new features very much too. But for the moment I have returned to using 5.7. It's more reliable, I'm not likely to loose hours work...
I'm sure Richard will sort out these problems soon and looking forward to that

I can confirm there is a memory leak in 6.0. I don't know why it wasn't found previously in the Alpha or the Betas, but it wasn't. I'm on the track of it now and I should have a solution pretty quickly. I'm targeting Friday. This could also explain the database error that Hannes44 has had.

I can also confirm that under some circumstances the visible objects flag does not work as described above by netmasteroc3.

And yes, the left hand hierarchy window is rebuilt at times. I'll have a look to see if there is anything that can be done to make it faster.

Back to work... gotta fix those bugs!

Richard

Richard,
I tried to point that out with my postings around memory usage, but maybe I don't have the right "lingo".
Thanks for tackling this and the hierarchy rebuild.
Can you at the same time look at the speed to refresh the added properties window... As stated before, when I rescale an object through the properties window below the layers, 3DC recalculates and redisplays after each entry (that makes three total renders for an X, Y, Z rescale) and while it is working, the properties window does not have focus. This is extremely cumbersome if you want to delete a value in the properties window and as this does not have focus... it just deletes your object (which does have focus).

Hi Richard.
The new features in 3DC are great.I am getting several "This program has preformed an illegal function" popups using the real time smoothing feature.I can only move the sliders twice before I get the shutdown notice.If need be I will get screengrabs of what the pop ups are saying and post them.This may not be a problem with 3DC6 rather something with my system.


Mike

my first error message..
when during thetexture mapping adn selct the polygons foor the roof.. I get a runtime error 0 with this error message form 3DC 6
#2147418105
?????

I've made some progress on the memory leak in 6.0. There is still more to be done though. XP seems to be fairly tolerant of this memory problem, but it looks as though this problem is causing run time errors with Window 9x/Me.

I thought I could get out a fix today, but it looks like it will be more time consuming than I originally thought. I will likely be a few more days.

Richard

???

I can't get any joy with the lp upgrade. I've downloaded & installed version 6, put in my registration code, registered in October.

The front screen registers as LP; when I press the button to access the 15mb LP file nothing happens. I've tried several times - zilch. I'd expect a download progress screen, at least some sign that I've made contact with the Amabalis site.

I don't remember any problems with the 5.7 file.

What am I doing wrong?

regards
Richard Osborne