3ds Max...very nice program

[superboyac]

I've begun to play around with 3ds Max.  I'm very impressed by it.  It's a cool program and very powerful.  I find the interface easy to get used, despite the fact that there are a lot of complex things going on.  I'm a long time user of AutoCAD (Autodesk owns both programs) and i feel like 3ds max is more responsive than Autocad.  Autocad , in my opinion, is much too sluggish for what it does.  in other words, i feel Autocad has become a way too bloated.  But 3ds max seems to be relatively light weight compared to it.  Autocad has some limted 3d capabilities, and it is very, very sluggish with it.  I'm no programmer, but I definitely like the "feel" of 3ds max.

[40hz]

Seems like a cool program - but that $4K price tag puts it completely out of my league. Looks like I'll be sticking to Google SketchUp and Blender for the foreseeable when I want to play with 3D.

Let us know how you make out with 3ds Max. (Sample artwork when you've got some...hint, hint?)

[superboyac]

Yeah, it's expensive.  So is Autocad, which also costs $4k for a license.  The last few years, Autodesk has really been pushing a subscription licensing thing rather than buying the upgrades every year.

I'll show you what I do with it later when I actually learn how to use it.  The truth is, I'm not going to use it that much, at least I don't anticipate using it much.  I was just impressed by the program's overall feel.

[Deozaan]

3DS Max is cool, but as 40hz pointed out, very expensive.

For a free alternative, have you taken a look at Blender (also mentioned by 40hz)? Its interface is way different than most CAD-like programs, but once you follow some video tutorials and get a hang for how it works, you can do quite a bit with it.

I suppose that if you're using it for CAD purposes, it may not be suitable for that. I'm not sure since I don't do any design. I've just played around with a few 3D modeling programs for the fun of it.

[Crush]

Realsoft3D V4 and Truespace V7.6 are also quite cool free programs. It´s worth to mention that both are longer in development than 3DSMAX! I Personally prefer Truespace for fast animations and designing, but there are some very special Features in Realsoft3D and its high-quality-renderer is one of the best I´ve ever seen.
This is made with Realsoft3D 4 years ago (in only 5 minutes):
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