- Sat Aug 13, 2005 5:45 pm
#55626
I would like to first thank Juan for his help and support while getting this plugin out to all of us on the forum.
I think users of the SW need to give Juan feedback on how they use the SW plugin and what are the most important things to them, so that he can assess these suggestions against what is possible within his programming buget and technical feasability of Maxwell. Without user feedback Juan runs the risk of wasting programming time on features etc that might not be as productive to the user base as other features.
These are my first thoughts on using the SW plugin.
1 - I use SW as a design tool to create designs. The renderings are a part of that process to give myself and clients confidence that the aesthetic of the concepts are the right routes forward. The result of this requirement is that a single rendering has to be easy to set up because a presentation could have many alternative routes. We are not paid for renderings ( unlike other users who sell specific rendering skills to architects magazines etc) but rather for design developements.
The main time spent in the past with Photoworks was just getting the scene to 'light' correctly - if at all
I have to say that with Maxwell this is no trouble at all !! 
and what literally could take hours to set up in PW takes 5 minutes in Maxwell. So strike one to Maxwell.
I have noticed that Maxwell sets its emitters in Watts - however in the brief and limited knowledge I have the LED backlights, LED powers etc are all in Lumens, Candelas but nevers Watts. Could other units be added to the list? Not a high priority as there are conversion Websites available to do the conversion.
Material assigments to parts and faces.
This is where PHotoworks is easier and more flexible to use that Maxwell. I am not saying that the Photworks way is by anymeans the best, it is just better at this. Maxwell should take a long hard look at how they want to implement this as it will be the most used part of the interface.
For example in SW I often make 3 or 4 different configuartions of an assembly. Each configuration is a subtle change in the design. It would be great if Maxwell could be able to apply material properties to a part or also a configuartion within a part. It would be nice if a material applied to a part could stay with it as it went into an assembly. But of course in a assembly it should be possible to change the material on the part if needs be. This can all get very complicated and perhaps this is something that Maxwell is dealing with in its own standalone version.
In a previous post I asked about drag and drop materials. I think some form of file for each material spec is desirable and these can duplicated and stored in project folders and even in the SW Design Binder
.
I don't know how others feel, but I think using the SW property manager on the left side makes everything very cramped - File names etc can't be seen and material lists need scrolling etc. I think most people now are using 2 monitors - could the Maxwell menu be a standalone window that can be moved onto another window and so enlarged to allow alot of screen size? Or is this not possible if Maxwell wants to become a 'Gold' SW plugin?
File storage.
I don't know how others work but I have often forgotten to change the name of the outputfile and so overwrite a good rendering. I have been doing low res trial renderings to check the material and lighting. Could there be a 'Trial Render Button' that does not create a file but just renders to the screen at a default (but changable resolution). Then when one hits the 'render' button to get a proper file output to disk, Maxwell then asks for the file path with a windows dialogue box before commencing rendering. This is a prompt and hopefully I will rember to change the file name
F stops and shutter speeds
I know with digital photography , knowledge of fstops and shuuterspeeds etc is dying out, but could the fstops scoll up in proper increments 1.7 2.8 4 5.6 8 11 16 22 with each click of the scroll arrow. Perhaps a Ctl Click for half stops. Similarly with shutter speeds, it is confusing - is the shutter speed in hundreths of a second. If so how does one do seconds except by 0.1 being 10 seconds? - Set the unit as hundreths of a second except when followed by and 's' so we could we click on the scroll buttons to go 2 ( equivalent of 1/2 sec) 4 (equivalent 1/4 sec) 8 15 30 60 125 250 500 1000 and for seconds we would type in 1s 2s 3s etc. Of couse these default increments could be overriden by just typing in the shutterspeed required - say 121 for 1/121s if on was being very fussy 
I'll leave it there - Not a long list - I think you have done a good job getting this far. Now I really think it is the handling of the materials and how they can be quickly changed to show concept designs in different colours and textures by using SW configurations will be a great leap forward.
TTFN
Jonathan
I think users of the SW need to give Juan feedback on how they use the SW plugin and what are the most important things to them, so that he can assess these suggestions against what is possible within his programming buget and technical feasability of Maxwell. Without user feedback Juan runs the risk of wasting programming time on features etc that might not be as productive to the user base as other features.
These are my first thoughts on using the SW plugin.
1 - I use SW as a design tool to create designs. The renderings are a part of that process to give myself and clients confidence that the aesthetic of the concepts are the right routes forward. The result of this requirement is that a single rendering has to be easy to set up because a presentation could have many alternative routes. We are not paid for renderings ( unlike other users who sell specific rendering skills to architects magazines etc) but rather for design developements.
The main time spent in the past with Photoworks was just getting the scene to 'light' correctly - if at all
I have to say that with Maxwell this is no trouble at all !! and what literally could take hours to set up in PW takes 5 minutes in Maxwell. So strike one to Maxwell.I have noticed that Maxwell sets its emitters in Watts - however in the brief and limited knowledge I have the LED backlights, LED powers etc are all in Lumens, Candelas but nevers Watts. Could other units be added to the list? Not a high priority as there are conversion Websites available to do the conversion.
Material assigments to parts and faces.
This is where PHotoworks is easier and more flexible to use that Maxwell. I am not saying that the Photworks way is by anymeans the best, it is just better at this. Maxwell should take a long hard look at how they want to implement this as it will be the most used part of the interface.
For example in SW I often make 3 or 4 different configuartions of an assembly. Each configuration is a subtle change in the design. It would be great if Maxwell could be able to apply material properties to a part or also a configuartion within a part. It would be nice if a material applied to a part could stay with it as it went into an assembly. But of course in a assembly it should be possible to change the material on the part if needs be. This can all get very complicated and perhaps this is something that Maxwell is dealing with in its own standalone version.
In a previous post I asked about drag and drop materials. I think some form of file for each material spec is desirable and these can duplicated and stored in project folders and even in the SW Design Binder
.I don't know how others feel, but I think using the SW property manager on the left side makes everything very cramped - File names etc can't be seen and material lists need scrolling etc. I think most people now are using 2 monitors - could the Maxwell menu be a standalone window that can be moved onto another window and so enlarged to allow alot of screen size? Or is this not possible if Maxwell wants to become a 'Gold' SW plugin?
File storage.
I don't know how others work but I have often forgotten to change the name of the outputfile and so overwrite a good rendering. I have been doing low res trial renderings to check the material and lighting. Could there be a 'Trial Render Button' that does not create a file but just renders to the screen at a default (but changable resolution). Then when one hits the 'render' button to get a proper file output to disk, Maxwell then asks for the file path with a windows dialogue box before commencing rendering. This is a prompt and hopefully I will rember to change the file name
F stops and shutter speeds
I know with digital photography , knowledge of fstops and shuuterspeeds etc is dying out, but could the fstops scoll up in proper increments 1.7 2.8 4 5.6 8 11 16 22 with each click of the scroll arrow. Perhaps a Ctl Click for half stops. Similarly with shutter speeds, it is confusing - is the shutter speed in hundreths of a second. If so how does one do seconds except by 0.1 being 10 seconds?
- Set the unit as hundreths of a second except when followed by and 's' so we could we click on the scroll buttons to go 2 ( equivalent of 1/2 sec) 4 (equivalent 1/4 sec) 8 15 30 60 125 250 500 1000 and for seconds we would type in 1s 2s 3s etc. Of couse these default increments could be overriden by just typing in the shutterspeed required - say 121 for 1/121s if on was being very fussy I'll leave it there - Not a long list - I think you have done a good job getting this far. Now I really think it is the handling of the materials and how they can be quickly changed to show concept designs in different colours and textures by using SW configurations will be a great leap forward.
TTFN
Jonathan
Thanks a lot!
- By hwolfejr
- By choo-chee