Arch-viz addons for Softimage?

Discussions concerning plugins for SOFTIMAGE©
IslandDreamer
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Arch-viz addons for Softimage?

Post by IslandDreamer » 03 Jul 2013, 19:27

Just came across this useful set of archviz scripts for Modo 701 http://march.thethirdguild.com/modo/.

Has anyone developed something similar for Softimage?

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Rork
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Re: Arch-viz addons for Softimage?

Post by Rork » 04 Jul 2013, 10:48

There are/were some plugins to do procedural window/door frames and such. And some lighting tools.

But nothing in this range afaik. Although some of them aren't that hard to build in SI if you have the skills.
Archviz isn't really a thing most SI users dwell in I'm afraid, only the brave go there... ;-)
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rnk
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Re: Arch-viz addons for Softimage?

Post by rnk » 05 Jul 2013, 08:50

seems out of date but there was some stuff here. download link is dead... maybe it's on rray

http://redmotion.blogspot.de/2007/12/ar ... r-xsi.html

Newcomer (<20 posts) alert: please use the URL tags - HB

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Hirazi Blue
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Re: Arch-viz addons for Softimage?

Post by Hirazi Blue » 05 Jul 2013, 10:21

Version 2 can be found here
(We even have a copy on our "own" server... #:-s )
Stay safe, sane & healthy!

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Re: Arch-viz addons for Softimage?

Post by Eugen » 05 Jul 2013, 10:45

Rork wrote:Archviz isn't really a thing most SI users dwell in I'm afraid, only the brave go there... ;-)
I'm one of those "brave"... or let's say foolhardy...
I don't think there's an addon available of that functional range yet.


Since we are talking about it... I would be interested in everbody's opinion regarding archivs in Softimage.
Here's mine: it can be done, but there can be some "friction loss" compared to for example 3ds Max (which I know), Modo or Cinema4D (which I just had a glimpse).
Yet basically, there's no reason why Softimage should not be capable of archvis, or any other visualization job. It just wasn't (and still isn't) the focus of the developers, so there's plenty of room for development - which is taking place. For example, for "White House Down", Hybride Technologies developed their own city and vegetation generator. That proves something, I'd say.
Softimage as a "serious" 3D application has a lot to offer that lets it stand out among the competition - good interface, clear concepts, good modeling tools and snapping... the potential is there.
In fact, all of the things you could need for archvis can only help in all other scenarios as well, so it makes sense to push in that direction, too.


Here's a list of tools that one might want to look for:

better extrusion tools
curve tools
primitives and how to place them
arrays of objects
asset importing
vegetation
renderer... maybe VRay instead of mental ray. Or Redshift, when it's ready


I'm planning to set up a resource page dedicated to archvis in Softimage as soon as time allows it, if this has not been done before.

Thanks and forgive the little hijack...
Eugen

rnk
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Re: Arch-viz addons for Softimage?

Post by rnk » 05 Jul 2013, 14:05

i'm also one of these fools from time to time.

but i think it works really. as for vegetation ice makes that task really easy i think, combined with arnold it's really great for outdoor stuff. and we got vray too, so that's also a big point! so i really don't see any reason why not to do archviz in soft.

there sure are a bunch of tools it could use to make the process more streamlined, like archviz like transforms and modeling stuff for example...s

sounds great eugen!

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ActionArt
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Re: Arch-viz addons for Softimage?

Post by ActionArt » 05 Jul 2013, 15:41

Hi Eugen,

I have to agree 100% with everything you said. Please let us know when you do set up a resource page.

I used to use LWCAD back in my Lightwave days. I thought it was one of the best at the time. I think most of that could be done in ICE now if someone wanted to develop a serious product. I think there's great potential. Combine that with Redshift and you'd have a real killer system.

http://www.wtools3d.com/product.php

If I remember right I think Keyvis said they were going to work on something similar, I don't know if they ever did. Edit: or was that you? I just recognized the name :)

Like you say, those same tools are useful in so many other areas.

Cheers - Len

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Re: Arch-viz addons for Softimage?

Post by Eugen » 05 Jul 2013, 16:22

Keyvis used to be my partner and me, now he alone is going with that name.

I invested quite some time this year already into a decent extrusion plugin. At this time, there are more important things than that, but I will definitely finish it up. Prototype is in place, but I figured how to implement function libraries in JScript and am still re-writing parts of it.
The hard part is the capping algorithm, which i have a good strategy for without going crazy with Delaunay triangulation and such, but as I said, it will take some more time.

There's Fabricio Chamon's PowerExtrude, which is good, but mine will be a bit different, and optimized for perfect corner mitering.

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ActionArt
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Re: Arch-viz addons for Softimage?

Post by ActionArt » 05 Jul 2013, 16:36

Eugen wrote: and optimized for perfect corner mitering.
Great to hear! Much needed.

I do think there's great potential there but also a lot of work to develop. Best of luck!

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Re: Arch-viz addons for Softimage?

Post by Eugen » 05 Jul 2013, 17:01

Now here's a delicate question: how much would you be willing to pay for such a plugin, if anything at all?
Full-blown extrusion/revolution with proper subcurve support, automatic Material IDs, alignment, capping, additional curve primitives... like the 3ds Max Sweep modifier, with 100% reliable corner mitering.

I know there's so much released for free, and my curve tools are too, but this extrusion tool proved to be hard work, and I'm a freelancer. No big house paying for playing, so to speak.

I'd like the general idea of crowd funding such tools, but I'm not aware of anybody having done it yet.
The AD app store is not particularly attractive at this time, besides that Softimage is still unupported.

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rray
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Re: Arch-viz addons for Softimage?

Post by rray » 05 Jul 2013, 17:24

probably something in the upper range of the "budget" price category would be best, because at anything lower you'll probably not sell _that_ much more. maybe ~40-60$
softimage resources section updated Jan 5th 2024

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ActionArt
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Re: Arch-viz addons for Softimage?

Post by ActionArt » 05 Jul 2013, 17:41

For a real pro tool set I'd be willing to pay. I paid $150 for the first LWCAD and I'd be willing to do the same again.

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Re: Arch-viz addons for Softimage?

Post by Paulrus » 05 Jul 2013, 18:08

I was one of the people begging for a LWCAD-style addon for Softimage, but a few years ago I purchased MOI3D and haven't looked back. I even talked with the LWCAD folks about getting it ported over, but they had no interest in Softimage at all.

If someone could bring MOI's style of curve-based workflow in to Softimage, it would be absolutely amazing. After having used MOI3D for quite a while now, I find Softimage curve tools to just be annoying to work with.

MOI (yes I know it's not a poly modeler so it's not entirely a fair comparison) has fantastic tools for dealing with curves that let you do things like slice, join & mirror multiple curves. Use a curve as a boolean to cut through your geometry. Use a curve as a slicing object to cut through geometry. Overall it has fantastic boolean, bevel/chamfer & extrusion tools for both solid objects & curves.

MOI3D is $295 & it does a very good job of exporting OBJs, so I would say that'd be the top of the price range for any kind of plug-in for Softimage.

Just my $.02.

-Paul

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Re: Arch-viz addons for Softimage?

Post by Eugen » 05 Jul 2013, 18:29

Since we are talking about curves:
sad but true, but Softimage's factory curve tools suck.
On top of that there's this missing feature in the topology operator SDK preventing clusters from being updated properly by 3rd party plugins. This is where it gets really stupid.
Therefore I would like to encourage everbody interested in progress on Softimage's modeling toolset to put pressure on the SI developers to fix this as soon as possible. I filed a feature request in the beta, and nag them regularly, but the more, the merrier.

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ActionArt
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Re: Arch-viz addons for Softimage?

Post by ActionArt » 05 Jul 2013, 18:58

Paulrus wrote:but a few years ago I purchased MOI3D and haven't looked back.
Hey, another MoI fan! I love that program. If we could just get MoI seamlessly integrated into SI as another modeling tab it would be outstanding.

The only thing keeping me from using it more is that it is a separate program which leads to so much exporting time wasted (even though it does a nice job). Having something like that integrated would be so much nicer.

I also tried to get LWCAD interested in SI but as you say, no interest.

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Hirazi Blue
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Re: Arch-viz addons for Softimage?

Post by Hirazi Blue » 05 Jul 2013, 19:10

Eugen wrote:Now here's a delicate question: how much would you be willing to pay for such a plugin, if anything at all?
(...)
I'd like the general idea of crowd funding such tools, but I'm not aware of anybody having done it yet.
The AD app store is not particularly attractive at this time, besides that Softimage is still unupported.
While it's an interesting thread hijack, in more general terms (i.e. with your plugin specifics edited out) this would make for an interesting thread in itself. IIRC, it's been a long time since the Softimage crowd discussed paying for plugins in a more general manner.

Restored edit (as Eugen already quoted it):
Therefore I would like to encourage everbody interested in progress on Softimage's modeling toolset to put pressure on the SI developers to fix this as soon as possible. I filed a feature request in the beta, and nag them regularly, but the more, the merrier.
I sincerely doubt, you'll get Autodesk to change much in that respect anymore, unless you get full backing from the people that got "SOFT-9089" fixed so quickly...
:D
Stay safe, sane & healthy!

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