Has anybody out there tried the Calimax Pov modeling program ?
I was just at their site and it appears to be a pretty capable
program. It has even been upgraded with support for Pov V3.1.

http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/andreas_koepke/index1e.htm

I would like to hear your comments.

Thanks !

-- 
Ken Tyler

tyl### [at] pacbellnet

Post a reply to this message

I've used it, and found It a bit better than most.
It was still slow in previes of a text object(Not surprisingly)
It was a bit cumbersome to remove/add objects, but it was as good or better than most
I
have tried.

//Spider

Ken wrote:
> 
> Has anybody out there tried the Calimax Pov modeling program ?
> I was just at their site and it appears to be a pretty capable
> program. It has even been upgraded with support for Pov V3.1.
> 
> http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/andreas_koepke/index1e.htm
> 
> I would like to hear your comments.
> 
> Thanks !
> 
> --
> Ken Tyler
> 
> tyl### [at] pacbellnet

Post a reply to this message

Ken schrieb in Nachricht <36AD7354.3EE0E76F@pacbell.net>...
>Has anybody out there tried the Calimax Pov modeling program ?
>I was just at their site and it appears to be a pretty capable
>program. It has even been upgraded with support for Pov V3.1.
>
>http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/andreas_koepke/index1e.htm
>
>I would like to hear your comments.

I have. It is, like Spider said, better than most. What I particularly like
ist the fact I can fine tune (almost) every aspect of every object by hand.
I don't like the fact one must always pop up the context menu und from there
the properties dialog to do this. This should be on screen permanently
(either like in Moray or as a non-modal dialog box).

It lacks one thing almost all other modellers lack too: the definition of
cylinders by their respective end points and not as scaled, translated and
rotated version of a standard cylinder. But the philosophy of this modeller
is a bit different from most modellers (every object has it's own settings
dialog here), so it could be the first modeller to include this.

It has a nice OpenGL preview window, something even more expensive modellers
don't have. This makes it much easier to judge the placement of objects,
cameras and lights, than a wireframe preview. Of course this preview can't
do textures.

Of the freeware (for private use) modellers it is IMHO the best. It would be
even better if it could what I described (I need this for blobs: if you use
a scaled standard cylinder, the rounded edges of a blob cylinder will be
scaled too: they're not spherical anymore). It should be a bit more like
Moray, where you can set all parameters directly on screen (and not as a
popup).

All in all, a pretty impressive piece of software!

--
Rudy Velthuis

Post a reply to this message

I have to add a few lines here... Comercials...
Breeze designer. If you havven't tried it, it is worht the download.

As far as I understand it is a beta, and freeware.
It can do manu things that I think are pretty interesting, It's layout is somwhat like
Calimax.

More : It also has openGL preview and the like, all the primitives for pov, and can
break
them down into meshes (interesting, IMHO).

I'd recommend this for you who look for a modeller...
I liked the first look of it, and haven't tried much, but I feel it is good.

Here's the addy :
http://www.imagos.fl.net.au/

//Spider

Post a reply to this message

I tried it out.  It's got a nice looking windows interface, but the
modelling interface is realler cumbersome.  Scaling and rotating are
handled in seperate windows and must be entered numerically and exited
before the changes take effect.  It's kind of like hand coding the hard
way.

What's the point of a modeller if it doesn't speed up the task of
modelling?

-Mike

Ken wrote:
> 
> Has anybody out there tried the Calimax Pov modeling program ?
> I was just at their site and it appears to be a pretty capable
> program. It has even been upgraded with support for Pov V3.1.
> 
> http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/andreas_koepke/index1e.htm
> 
> I would like to hear your comments.
> 
> Thanks !
> 
> --
> Ken Tyler
> 
> tyl### [at] pacbellnet

Post a reply to this message

Spider schrieb in Nachricht <36AE07D1.EF62A0D5@bahnhof.se>...
>I have to add a few lines here... Comercials...
>Breeze designer. If you havven't tried it, it is worht the download.
>
>As far as I understand it is a beta, and freeware.
>It can do manu things that I think are pretty interesting, It's layout is
somwhat like
>Calimax.
>
>More : It also has openGL preview and the like, all the primitives for pov,
and can break
>them down into meshes (interesting, IMHO).
>
>I'd recommend this for you who look for a modeller...
>I liked the first look of it, and haven't tried much, but I feel it is
good.


I had tested Breeze before Calimax. I don't know why I didn't like Breeze,
but liked Calimax instead, anymore. I have tried both again now and Breeze
is easier to use, altough the interface is really similar. Calimax has the
bad habit (I already mentioned that) of making you change everything in
modal dialogs (a dialog is modal if you can only continue with the rest of
the program as soon as the dialog is closed). Breeze at least has some a bit
easier ways of transforming (scaling rotating, etc.). There was one thing in
Calimax I particularly liked, but I can't exactly remember what it was (I'm
slowly getting old, I'm afraid). At least Calimax has more objects to offer.

Currently I use Moray 3.1 and hand-coded POV. I still like hand-coding best,
but I'm propably one of a very few who still like that. I like the
flexibility of it and I don't like the code generated by modellers, which
are always a bit bloated (this is inherent to the way they work). I mean: I
would make a building with 40 equal windows in a loop. Modellers declare
every single window, with a name etc.

I myself would like to see a modeller which declares a

  box { <-2, -2, -2>, <1, 1, 1> }

not as

  box

    <-1, -1, -1>, <1, 1, 1>
    scale <1.5, 1.5, 1.5>
    translate <-0.5, -0.5, -0.5>
  }

but really as the original box.

Also in POV I have the freedom of choosing the order of scale, rotate and
translate, and not always depend on the order given by the modeller. In the
model I'm currently trying to do, it would really be much easier if Moray
would translate before rotating.
--
Rudy Velthuis

Post a reply to this message

Rudy Velthuis wrote in message <36af6b69.0@news.povray.org>...
[snip]
>
>Also in POV I have the freedom of choosing the order of scale, rotate and
>translate, and not always depend on the order given by the modeller. In the
>model I'm currently trying to do, it would really be much easier if Moray
>would translate before rotating.


A hint for that:

When you say you want to translate before rotate, I guess that you *want*
the object to orbit around the origin, when you rotate.
Try this: Translate your object as wished, then create a group and add the
object to it (it will probably be the only object in the group). Then rotate
the group as wished: Voila! Same effect as "first translating, then
rotating" - at the expense of some additional "bloated" code ;-)

Greetings,
Johannes.

Post a reply to this message

Rudy Velthuis wrote:
> 
> Spider schrieb in Nachricht <36AE07D1.EF62A0D5@bahnhof.se>...
> >I have to add a few lines here... Comercials...
> >Breeze designer. If you havven't tried it, it is worht the download.
> >
> >As far as I understand it is a beta, and freeware.
> >It can do manu things that I think are pretty interesting, It's layout is
> somwhat like
> >Calimax.
> >
> >More : It also has openGL preview and the like, all the primitives for pov,
> and can break
> >them down into meshes (interesting, IMHO).
> >
> >I'd recommend this for you who look for a modeller...
> >I liked the first look of it, and haven't tried much, but I feel it is
> good.
> 
> I had tested Breeze before Calimax. I don't know why I didn't like Breeze,
> but liked Calimax instead, anymore. I have tried both again now and Breeze
> is easier to use, altough the interface is really similar. Calimax has the
> bad habit (I already mentioned that) of making you change everything in
> modal dialogs (a dialog is modal if you can only continue with the rest of
> the program as soon as the dialog is closed). Breeze at least has some a bit
> easier ways of transforming (scaling rotating, etc.). There was one thing in
> Calimax I particularly liked, but I can't exactly remember what it was (I'm
> slowly getting old, I'm afraid). At least Calimax has more objects to offer.
Well, I can say that Breeze seems very discontinued.... But I still have hope :-)

I agree with you on modals, it shouldn't be likee that. And I like the Moray style of
a
static dialog to the right...

> 
> Currently I use Moray 3.1 and hand-coded POV. I still like hand-coding best,
> but I'm propably one of a very few who still like that. I like the
> flexibility of it and I don't like the code generated by modellers, which
> are always a bit bloated (this is inherent to the way they work). I mean: I
> would make a building with 40 equal windows in a loop. Modellers declare
> every single window, with a name etc.
No, I mostly hand-code. I can't find the patience to get as good with a modeler as I
can
with a simple loop...
(making a stair, for example... )


> I myself would like to see a modeller which declares a
> 
>   box { <-2, -2, -2>, <1, 1, 1> }
> 
> not as
>   box
> 
>     <-1, -1, -1>, <1, 1, 1>
>     scale <1.5, 1.5, 1.5>
>     translate <-0.5, -0.5, -0.5>
>   }
> 
> but really as the original box.
I agree... Would be far better. But, it is hell to create such a modeller...
One must first take the translations and scalings, compute the points, and then...
*shudder*
and you'd loose the translate/scale parts as well..


> 
> Also in POV I have the freedom of choosing the order of scale, rotate and
> translate, and not always depend on the order given by the modeller. In the
> model I'm currently trying to do, it would really be much easier if Moray
> would translate before rotating.

I like pov.. But then, I see myself as a pov coder, not artist...


//Spider

Post a reply to this message

Johannes Hubert schrieb in Nachricht <36af6f3b.0@news.povray.org>...
>Rudy Velthuis wrote in message <36af6b69.0@news.povray.org>...
>[snip]
>>
>>Also in POV I have the freedom of choosing the order of scale, rotate and
>>translate, and not always depend on the order given by the modeller. In
the
>>model I'm currently trying to do, it would really be much easier if Moray
>>would translate before rotating.
>
>
>A hint for that:
>
>When you say you want to translate before rotate, I guess that you *want*
>the object to orbit around the origin, when you rotate.
>Try this: Translate your object as wished, then create a group and add the
>object to it (it will probably be the only object in the group). Then
rotate
>the group as wished: Voila! Same effect as "first translating, then
>rotating" - at the expense of some additional "bloated" code ;-)

I did exactly that. But I still didn't like the fact I had to do it. IMHO,
it's much clumsier (and slower) than just writing out the code by hand. But
that's perhaps because I'm just not familiar enough with modellers to do
this stuff intuitively.

I hated the way GUIs work in the beginning too. I though it was much easier
to write "copy C:\x\y\filea d:\z\f\fileb" than clicking on a file, choosing
copy, go to another directory and click the menu again, choosing paste and
then renaming the file using another menu item. Of course now we have drag
and drop, but it's still clumsier than a command line sometimes. But I
wouldn't want to miss the modern GUI anymore.

--
Rudy Velthuis

Post a reply to this message

Rudy Velthuis wrote:
> 
> Johannes Hubert schrieb in Nachricht <36af6f3b.0@news.povray.org>...
> >Rudy Velthuis wrote in message <36af6b69.0@news.povray.org>...
> >[snip]
> >>
> >>Also in POV I have the freedom of choosing the order of scale, rotate and
> >>translate, and not always depend on the order given by the modeller. In
> the
> >>model I'm currently trying to do, it would really be much easier if Moray
> >>would translate before rotating.
> >
> >
> >A hint for that:
> >
> >When you say you want to translate before rotate, I guess that you *want*
> >the object to orbit around the origin, when you rotate.
> >Try this: Translate your object as wished, then create a group and add the
> >object to it (it will probably be the only object in the group). Then
> rotate
> >the group as wished: Voila! Same effect as "first translating, then
> >rotating" - at the expense of some additional "bloated" code ;-)
> 
> I did exactly that. But I still didn't like the fact I had to do it. IMHO,
> it's much clumsier (and slower) than just writing out the code by hand. But
> that's perhaps because I'm just not familiar enough with modellers to do
> this stuff intuitively.
hmm.. I don't feel that I want to be more familiar ;-)
> 
> I hated the way GUIs work in the beginning too. I though it was much easier
> to write "copy C:\x\y\filea d:\z\f\fileb" than clicking on a file, choosing
> copy, go to another directory and click the menu again, choosing paste and
> then renaming the file using another menu item. Of course now we have drag
> and drop, but it's still clumsier than a command line sometimes. But I
> wouldn't want to miss the modern GUI anymore.
Or miss the NC styl, one directory at each side, hit F5...
Just love WindowsCommander...

//Spider

Post a reply to this message