Soooo....with the latest version of Blender we still have to hack it to get it to see/import .ac files?
I'm trying to use all/as many Open Source applications as I can for continued Development for FlightGear but for the life of me I still cannot make Blender do a damned thing. Is this a joke? Or is Blender deliberately developed to frustrate and bewilder anyone who just wants an intuitive and simple user interface?
I don't wanna spend a bunch of dollars to get another version of AC3D but trying to use/learn Blender is just out of my league.
Any other Open Source 3D software available to work with .ac files available? I really do not need all of Blenders resources (reminds me of Adobe Photoshop where normal humans need about 10% of what it can do) but I *do* need something that will not take me months to get up and running.
I've been trying to find a similar solution for years VooDoo.
I was going to say just spend the $30 on AC3D and save the time you'd spend trying to find an alternative.
Then I had a look and realised it's not $30 anymore - when did that happen!?
No wonder so many people are pirating it now and I stopped getting my updates (I think my license is from about 2011)
I've no doubt from all the use I've had from it over the years $100 isn't that unreasonable but it feels like a huge chunk of cash for a bit of software that doesn't go out of it's way to do anything other than the basics.
So, in short, I don't think there is an alternative - but AC3D really shouldn't be the price it now is.
Sorry for being absolutely no use at all
The following user(s) said Thank You: Vodoun da Vinci
I downloaded Blender and played for a while....then I just broke down and installed the 14 day trial of AC3D and in the time I spent trying to make Blender do *anything* useful I accomplished breaking out all the needed objects on an aircraft so I can animate them.
Blender is *Way* better in terms of the user interface now but it is still light years behind AC3D in doing the top 10 things that need done.
If you look at the AC3D page the default "buy" option is for a group commercial license. If you use the dropdown to select individual (or similar) it's $99.
Not *much* cheaper but better than a kick in the nuggets.
The following user(s) said Thank You: Vodoun da Vinci
According to stuff I'm reading, the latest version of Blender should import/export .ac right out of the box.
I'll have to spend more time looking at it....I'd really like to use Blender and save $100 but how much is hours of free time worth?
Anyway....
There needs to be a Blender Elements with a GUI like AC3D has that is quick and intuitive way of doing things, import/export of support file extensions and moving/rotating Objects.
The key to Blender is keyboard shortcuts, in my opinion - it's by far the easiest way to transform and rotate meshes. I personally think Blender is amazing once you've cracked it - and it's not as hardcore as people think, once you have those shortcuts down. Adding in meshes is a cinch. I'd be quite happy to spend an hour on TS with you and take you through the basics if you like? You can then make a decision as to whether you want to stick with it...
Importing and Exporting is very simple - and if it does .ac out of the box, all well and good.
The following user(s) said Thank You: Vodoun da Vinci
Voodoo, cmon, you can do it!
I used youtube to learn the 10 things....that I learned. It is possible. But after a frustrating first 5 days Blender starts to do things for you.
But if we approach it from a FlightGear perspective, covering the things we do most - taking an existing model and doing separations of vertices, doing textures, creating instruments from simple 3D shapes - I think the frustration can be kept to a minimum. It still requires patience, of course, but so does all 3D modelling when you're doing it right...
If I only had the time to sho how things are to be done because its actually not that hard.
Btw - due to the internal architecture change, Blender plugins need to be written in a different way now and our import/export plugin is one of them.
There is also Wings - a relatively unknown modeller for free - maybe that suits you but I doubt it.
The nthere are the big packages like Maya or 3dsMax - we use them at work but they are huge packages just like Blender and its not so easy getting into them.
I dragged the jaguar.ac onto the app window and it gave me the choice to change the format to obj or gltf and I chose obj. I could then edit all verticies, edges and faces. There are also modeling tools avaiable. But I did'nt try it further.
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The following user(s) said Thank You: Vodoun da Vinci
I appreciate the offers of help and support...my biggest frustration is that my available time is limited to literally minutes a day. So, spending *hours* trying to make Blender go is just not for me...I'm simply not patient enough.
And while I have no time, I *do* have $100 so as much as I do not want to spend it, buying AC3D again will save me many hours of having to learn Blender. In the end it unfortunately comes down to money and time.
If it takes me 10 hours to get up to snuff in making Blender work (and I have already expended that much time and more and gotten little/nothing done) it would have been far more expedient to buy AC3D and get on with it.
Which I have now done. Bugs me support The Money Machine of Capitalism but I simply have too little free/creative time to spend it getting nothing done. Lot's of aircraft living on my machine and the new computer has be revved up to finish/release some of these.
I'm hearing people with inadvertently admitted Blender skills. Get yourselves over to the Diamond DA40 thread and fix the front wheel. Maybe make some knobby fat tyres too.
GO! You've been outed.
G
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