TimV

Hi Tony Thanks for the fast reply. I just read the "how to use" in the tool options above where you select which axis you wish to put the reference image on. The end of the note says not to use reference images more than 256x256. What I am trying to use is a ship's deck, which shows the layout of the walls on the surface of the deck. Do I have to scale down all the drawings? Tim

Hi Tony thanks for the quick response. Without doing anything other than loading the program, I now have 17 options available in the sculpt tool window. Sketch is there now, and also Cloth. I can get started now! I still don't have a Voxel heading in the Paint line, but I will check after I get something created Switching back and forth between V and S in the volume and root entries doesn't have any effect on the room options in the paint line. It is still Sculpt and does not switch to Voxel. Thanks Tim

Hi Again. Arrrrrrrg. I'm wondering why my 3dCoat doesn't seem to look like anyone else's. I have not modified anything in preferences so it should be as shipped. I can clearly see in the video that the "Sketch" tool is being selected. From what I know of the screens, it looks like the Spacebar was pressed to call up the tool menu. After replaying the video many times, I can see that the icon for the sketch tool is in the "Objects" section. When I hit the spacebar on my machine, I get the tools list and there are 15 items in the "O" section. None of them are the Sketch tool. I changed my screen display on the left side of the sculpt menu to text rather than icons. There are 15 items is the text list under the Objects heading and they exactly match what is in the "O" category when the spacebar is hit. There is no Sketch Tool here either. Also, in many tutorials, I see that people are in the "Voxel" room. I have Paint, Tweak, Retopo, UV, Sculpt and Render. I have no "Voxel" heading. The Sketch Tool is defined on pages 56 and 57 as a "very important addition to the toolset" (I did not replicate the spelling error; "the the toolset") I am using 3D-Coat 4.1.17(CUDA)(GL64)(educational). I did note a few different start icons. Am I using the wrong version? Is the Voxel room not available in the education version of the software? Did I do something wrong when I installed it? Did I buy something that I can't use for what I want to use it for? Thanks Tim

Hi Tony and ajz3d Thank you both for all of your help. It's up to me now to work through it. I really appreciate the video. That is very helpful. Tim

Hi ajz3d A couple of questions if you don't mind. After you finished cropping and cleaning the image in photo shop, what file type did you save it as? When you traced it with Path>Trace Bitmap, what parameters did you choose? How did you specify the vector EPS file on the way out of Inkscape? I cropped out a section from the original PDF. I clicked off the background in nkscape so that I would not pick it up. It went out as a PNG. In 3dCoat, I chose the option to import an image into a mesh, with the png as the top and bottom textures. I have a hollow box with the textures on the top and bottom. How does one have the traced image extend through the box? This is new to me, so please forgive me if my questions have obvious answers that are eluding me. Thanks, Tim

Hi ajz3d Thanks for posting the tutorials. I find them too hard to follow with screens that are too small to read. I was able to open and view the stencil file that you attached. How did you get such clean lines? Thanks, Tim

Hi ajz3d I have downloaded Inkscape and had no issues loading one of the complete plans from the drawings set. Everything I need to get started is here. I have found a raster plugin for Gimp which I hope will do what is needed. Thanks again Tim

Hi ajz3d and digman Thank you both for taking the time to look closely at the model. I really appreciate the detail of your inspections. I bought 3dCoat because I could see from the demos and tutorials that I would have better options for modelling. I have the entire ship done and since the approach for each of the objects is done the same way, the number of issues that are in the model is likely huge. ajz3d I am really impressed with the model that you created and for the detailed description of how you did it. I will look up stencils in the documentation and hopefully find a way to create them. Your process gives me an entirely different way of approaching the modeling process which is what I was hoping for when I started this thread. I think it is likely that I can find a way to create a good stencil using layers in Gimp since I can trace the section of the .pdf directly. The floating panels are textures which are the windows and doors that are drawn on the diagrams. I was not able to place them on the model properly and in some cases there are several sections for a piece of geometry so I created flattened cubes to have a surface that I could put them on in order to place them where they are shown. I'm sure the paint room will provide a better way for me to do this, but I haven't started anything there yet. Again my thanks. You have both helped me a great deal. I wouldn't be able to learn this by trial and error on my own as my frame of reference is limited. I'm a great believer in forums and look forward to being able to give back as I move forward. Any further suggestions or directional approach advice would be sincerely appreciated. TimV

Hi digman Thanks for the quick response. I think for now that I would like to bring it in as a voxel object. Once I learn that tool set I will move on to surface mode. I have added my obj file and the hexagon file. Sorry, it won't let me upload the hexagon file. Tim sheet3aftpasseggiata.obj

Hi Folks Very frustrated user here at the moment. I have a model done in Hexagon. It has been saved as a series of *.obj files and I have spent the entire day trying to import into 3DCoat. I can bring in the file, and 3DCoat picks up the individual objects and as long as I don't try to convert them to vertex objects, all is well. I am trying to learn this program and trying to start from what I know from Hexagon, which is lines and points and faces. All of my objects are simple shapes although many have been created by using extractions. As I start converting from S to V, I can do only a few and then 3DCoat reports that it is out of memory and crashes. These are small individual 3D blocks. I even deleted all the textures and I still can't get it to go in. I then tried putting up a background image with the intention of recreating everything in 3DCoat as original blocks. My background image shows just fine, but when I add a box (I'm in the sculpt environment), it shows in the master object list but it nowhere to be seen in the sculpt environment. I have attached a PDF of the plans that I am working from and a screen shot of the assembly that I created in Hexagon. If it will help, I'd be happy to upload the *.obj file of the assembly. The tutorials that I have looked through on getting started are great demonstrations of the power of the software, but I'm not ready for the kinds of things they are doing. Can someone help me get started with basic block construction like I have done with Hexagon? Thanks, TimV3.pdf

Hi AbnRanger I did indeed subdivide when I brought the hull in, but I think you are right that I need to add more edge loops before I import it. Thanks for your suggestion. Tim

Hi. My name is Tim. I live north of Toronto in Ontario Canada. I've been involved with 3d modelling for about 5 years. I "have some experience with XSI, but mostly with Daz3d, Poser, Hexagon, Carrara and Vue. I have certainly discovered that there is no single solution, but I am hoping that I am wrong and that 3D-Coat will become that for me. I have only very recently purchased the software and I am taking my time with the tutorials. I'm finding that I don't have a frame of reference for 3D-Coat just yet. Everything I have done has been from polygon modelling and I am trying to start from there. I have tried importing an object to try to smooth it using 3D-Coat, but I'm having trouble with some of the tools. I would love any suggestions on which tutorials might make my transition smoother. Here is a sample of what I am fighting with. This hull came from Hexagon, exported into Daz3d. From Daz3d it was exported as a Collada file which I then imported as a mesh into 3D-Coat. I have added resolution, but not been able to smooth. I "painted" with the smooth option on, but I didn't see it doing anything. Thanks