Maxwell Render | Official public forum

I've been recently thinking about switching over to a nurbs based modeling program....it seems like these have some advantages whe ndoing package and product design, which is what I am doing. I currently just do poly modeling in Maya for everything and have been doing that for the past 8 or so years. Do you think switching over to a more technical modeling package would be beneficial for me, and if so, what do you recommend looking into?

Rhino, Rhino, Rhino.

http://www.rhino3d.com/

forgot to mention, really important, the Maxwell plugin for Rhino is absolutely outstanding.

And there's always Rhino Lite > Moi 3D.

I actually recommend people start with Moi first, ....helps ease the learning curve a bit. It's a friendly little program. All nurbs of course.

Yes, Moi3D is great, easy to use and there's a new version coming soon..

another vote for Rhino 3D

Rhino really is great and with its maxwell plugin very useful for rendering the designs
... But I don't know moi3d

yeah .. go Rhino!

if you have been modelling with maya , and know it's nurbs a bit, i think you could skip moi, although it has a few good features (eg. mesher) and is not so expensive, so maybe get both.

i am working fully on 64bit (maxwell rhino plugIn !) for a while now, it's stable and rocks!

RHINO 100%

Personally, I adore the way Rhino has "layers", makes working on complex models so much easier

another thought that is a MAJOR issue with me, is that Rhino is STABLE....no crashing.

It would seem to me a perfect choice for package/product design.

Maybe it's because of my Autocad background, but I find Rhino the easiest 3D program to learn, and I've tried a few over the years I was able to get up and running very quickly...no huge learning curve (for me anyway).

if you got the money - have a look at moi it's really cheap. the new version got something like layers as well. even if this was not working with the last v2beta you already give the object(s) name and hide/unhide these to have a nice workflow.

I really like it and as it is programmed by the guy who invented rhino (and left them a while ago) I'm really looking forward to where it goes.

Moi is very stable and better than the v1rhino that I knew way back in time, but not that professional to my taste. Don't have an idea about the actual rhino version though.

Can anyone recommend some good training material for Rhino? I have the OSX beta and want to get more into it but the only thing I've seen is the VTC training and it's deadly dull: "the arc tool makes arcs - click and drag to make an arc".

The benchmark for me is Modo's training - I'd like something similar which takes you through a project of building something you'd actually want to build. Not abstract blobs that you can practice bevels on etc. What's the documentation like with the paid for PC version?

By the way, I too own Moi which I like a lot and has lead me to Rhino.

i think one of the best ways to learn rhino is to print out the command list, and read it every day before going to bed... lol ... i am serious.. that way you bypass all the toolbar madness
doing dry runs in software i always find difficult, the best is if you have a certain problem to deal with, and look for it's solution.... otherwise you totally depend on the quality of the training material.
Although i think the standard (free) McNeel training (Rhino 4.0 Level I and II Training Guides) is pretty good, and contains all of the important things to get going..

hook up into the support newsgroup, and keep the command-help window open.. if you already know moi you'll be into Rhino quite fast by yourself. Just be sure to check out all the nice snap/helpers/feedback options, like elevator, tab key, visual drag modes, gumball, s-track, .. and assign the osnap toolbar to your middle mouse button (can pop up during during commands for one time osnaps)

Have a look at http://www.rhino3d.tv

There are both PDF and video tutorials covering a variety of commands and some 3rd part plugins' use also.

Thanks for those suggestions guys. I've just discovered this site too that has some nice basic projects for getting used to the workflow:

http://www.rhino3dhelp.com/