3ds max alternatives?

[plastic_]

I'm kind of fed up with Autodesk.
Obviously I want to keep using Vray but I'm seriously looking at alternatives to 3ds max for modeling.
I noticed that there are Vray versions for Sketchup and Rhino, both programs have good reputation for archviz as it seems.
Did anyone made the switch from 3ds max to Rhino or Sketchup?
I guess there are many things to miss when leaving 3ds max, but maybe also some advantages, like useable spline creation tools...

[super gnu]

all depends what you need.


if its just modelling and stills, and you dont mind an old version of vray, then either of those might be good.

im very biased against sketchup because sketchup models make my life in max way more difficult than it needs to be.. the models are horrible. however its very easy to learn, and can do most architectural things for small jobs.

rhino has an excellent reputation for modelling, and of the two its by far the more "grown up" piece of software (apologies sketchup users!) but ive no experience of vray in rhino.


if you ever need animation, then maya or softimage are a better bet, but then your back with autodesk so may as well stay with max. they all have their quirks and shortcomings.. we just learn to work around the one we know.

admittedly they seem to have let a group of saboteurs loose in the max dev team recently but hopefully thats just a phase ( ha!)

basically max is a very powerful and broad ranging piece of software. does a lot more than rhino or sketchup will ever dream of. but yes. they both do their little specific thing, better than max.

[zeronove]

I'm exactly on the same boat as you Marc,
I'm really tired of reading boring statement on tha adsk forum about something that doesn't work in max or about something that they can't say because they are a big company or whatever...
I do only stills arch viz, so form me max is actually oversized and I'm looking around for viable alternatives; as addition to SU and Rhino I've heard good feedback about cinema4d, is there anyone here using it with VRay?
what about switching from vray for max to vray for something else, I'm hoping in a sort of crossgrade policy but I believe that it's not the case, any info?

[kimgar]

make room in that boat, just got a subscription download link for max 2013 today (release was a month ago?), have been fighting with the flexnet all day, finally got it working and now the installers are corrupted. i have a feeling this whole day will be wasted just to find that all(?) new features just causes further lags and instabilities.
got it installed on one node for one reason only; to import solidworks assembly, guess what? didn't work

[lukx]

nah it's like in life, you won't find perfect woman you may look whole your life but she doesn't exist. I learn to love max as it is. Maybe she is nagging a bit too much or have broken nose but her other parts are okay for me so I'm fine with her, talking about max now You can try new one but man she might be a total b#$% at the end and than what you're gonna do ? You just wasted your time while you might save some money for your first one to do plastic surgery

[plastic_]

Yeah for me it's that I have some business changes ahead which would also mean that I'd partially have to get new software licenses.
The Autodesk pricing model is very unattractive for me with the need to purchase and rent it at the same time. It's darn expensive in the end, even if people always claims that it pays for itself in 3 days, or whatever, it doesn't really work like that for me, since 3d is only a smaller part of what I do.
With Adobe at least there is now an option to rent the package, and there is no question that Adobe apps are improving, not getting worse. I'd hesitate to say the same thing about Autodesk apps. Some recent developments are scary, it seems to me like Autodesk is run by monkeys, or the mob. Apparently that's the side effect of public owned companies.

[rikou]

We will need a big boat !
I'm sick of autodesk and I start to think about another solution..
I would like to use Blender/Vray but I have not enough feedback about this workflow. I'm interested in any others solutions that could get away from Autodesk...
Anyway, it would be interesting to know if it's possible to switch from vray for max to vray for something else

[armilla]

It has been said many times before, but it all started to go wrong with 3ds max when they started on the annual release cycle. That's when it started getting really buggy again and each new release had very few useful new features and was all about fixing the cock ups from the previous release (or not in many cases).

Next year in the UK, Subscription is going up from £360+vat per year to £520+vat, apparently to bring it in line with Maya. It's a complete rip off, but what can you do - they own practically every other decent 3D package.

[simmsimaging]

Some more votes for Vray for modo? I'd have left Max behind a couple years ago if I could have had Vray in there, and I'm not sure how happy I'd be about having to buy new licenses again. That said, I'm with Luke to a large degree - things are tough all over when it comes to software and they all come with their baggage. At least modo is 1/3 the cost though.

b

[glorybound]

I'l tell you what... you better keep MAX in our back pocket, because it works well with the B.I.M. You are going to see a lot of Revit models and interchangeability will be king.

[RE:FORM_STUDIOS]

I propose a user buyout.
230000000 shares @ £35 per share : 3million users (all autodesk products I assume). Means we only need to spend about £3k each to take over the company!

How many Vray seats have you sold for max ChaosGroup?

[vlado]

At least modo is 1/3 the cost though.

For now...

(sorry, couldn't resist )

Best regards,
Vlado

[lukx]

What makes me scratch my head is that google sold Sketchup and it wasn't Autodesk that bought it !!!

[Nicinus]

I didn't even know they sold it, but I agree, sketchup would have been a logical fit.

[PixelJockey]

There is always VrayforC4D. I know lots of peeps that are fans of C4D and keep pressuring me to switch. It would NOT be the cheapest alternative to Max though.

http://www.vrayforc4d.net/portal/