Has anybody out there used Wings 3D (For Mac OS X maybe?)? It looks pretty impressive...and free! I use Cinema now and was wondering if it has any advantages over Cinema in modeling.

wings 3d is basicly a mirai clone to an extent its a very strong app for modeling definetly worth learning

mirai btw was a 6500.00 dollar app so geting wings even with some lesser abiltys is a hell of a deal

Attached Link: http://pub33.ezboard.com/fnendowingsmiraifrm3.showMessage?topicID=126.topic

From the Wings 3D release notes: Wings 0.98 This release of Wings *might* run on Mac OS X 10.1.x (i.e. pre-Jaguar). I have not been able to verify that (I don't have any Mac with 10.1.x installed). Wings 0.97.05 I didn't have time for this release to make a Mac package that could run on pre-Jaguar Mac OS X. I'll try to do it for the next release. On the Mac, the Maya mode now works correctly. (With the latest release of SDL, the built-in three-mouse button emulation, which intefered with Maya mode, can be turned off.). To conform to the user-interface guidelines for the Mac, I have changed the way three-button emulation works for a one-button Mac mouse. Instead of RMB clicking, hold Control and click. To emulate the middle mouse button, hold down Alt. (I recommend buying a three-button mouse; they are very inexpensive nowadays.) Wings now requires Erlang/OTP R9. (Included in the Windows and Mac OS X packages.) The Window and Mac packages includes the latest ESDL (0.91-1009) and latest SDL (1.2.5) releases. Wings 0.97.03 On the Mac, the pre-defined hotkeys were changed to use the Command modifier instead of the Ctrl modifier to be more like other programs on the Mac (for instance, Command+S means Save, just as in Photoshop and most other programs). More Wings on Mac history at the link. jon

Attached Link: http://www.wings3d.com

Hi there, I use Wings on OSX (10.1.3), to use the latest versions of Wings you do need 10.2, whatever it says on the website it won't run under 10.1 If you need an earlier version to run under 10.1 just put up a request in the wings forum and I'm sure the creators will send one. Actually as it's completely open source it may be OK for me to send you a copy, not sure about that. Wings is a very powerful modeller and once you learn to use it it's very efficient. However it does ONLY do sub division modelling. It won't produce single skin meshes, you can't do point by point modelling, no splines, boolean, nurbs or anything fancy. Oh and the renderer is USELESS! Having said all that it's the easiest modeller I've used and the big advantage over Cinema for SubD modelling is that it will allow n-gons. Cinema won't and automatically adds edges when you split a poly, usually in the wrong place! Wings allows any number of sides to a poly so you can construct a mesh exactly as you want it and don't waste time deleting edges that the computer wants but you don't! I'd say wings was the ideal companion to Cinema, use Wings for subd meshes and Cinema for everything else, especially rendering! I'm only just starting to get to grips with Cinema and Lightwave (I'm still very new to modelling) and I prefer Lightwaves modeller to Cinemas, mainly because it doesn't restrict how you construct your model but I reckon Wings has even Lightwave beat at least in the early stages of establishing volume and poly flow. What else, oh yeah the interface of Wings looks very primitive and dated, don't let that fool you, I found it tricky to learn at first, but there was no manual for it at that time, one is available now though I don't know how good it is. If you do have any difficulty figuring it out I'll happily start you off though like I said I'm pretty new to 3d. If you have much experience in modelling it'll probably make more sense to you than it did to me at first :o) though I feel it has more in common with Lightwave than Cinema. If you want to know anything else I'll be happy to answer if I can, the forums on the site are pretty good though probably not quite as good as here and it's not so easy to get help with the Mac version.

Oops a bit long winded, hope it helped!
Baz

WOW! Not long winded at all. Very helpful. I'm mostly doing organic modeling...dinosaurs, actually. When you say you can't create a single mesh in Wings 3D, what do you mean? With Cinema, I made an entire dino from a cube. I just kept extruding until I had what I needed. Thanks again, Baz

I put that badly I suppose, of course you can make a single mesh, I make most of my models in Wings starting with a single cube. What Wings won't produce is a 2 dimensional object like a plane or sheet of paper. It must have 3 dimensions even if one of them is tiny. So something like eyelashes on a poser model wouldn't be possible. However you can assign a "hole" material to any selection of faces and when you export the mesh I believe the faces using the "hole" material are deleted. That ought to get round that problem. There are a few limitations to the version I use, 0.97 or similar but these are being addressed and may already sorted out in the latest versions. For instance my version doesn't support groups and won't import poser models. But, like I said the latest version has a lot of improvements like built in UV mapping and an inflate tool which I think would be really useful for smoothing curved surfaces plus I believe the poser import has been sorted out which may mean Wings will now handle groups! As for your type of modelling, well Subdivision is generally considered the best approach for organics I'd say Wings is perfect for your needs! Baz

Can I assume Wings has the usual four viewports? Is it possible to import a reference picture into the view ports to use as a guide for modeling?

No Wings just has one viewport, I felt this was a disadvantage at first but it really isn't. Using shortcut keys you can move from one view to another in an instant without losing your selection and of course your model is that much bigger on your screen! As for reference images, you can't add them to the background but you can add them to image planes and use them as backgrounds that way or place them in the centre of your model. Not exactly cutting edge but it works just as well so long as you lock the image object so that you don't accidently modify it! Baz

My problem with wings wasn't the program. It was having to download the 25 meg compiler just to get it to work that put me off completely.

I don't think you need to do that for Windows or Macs anymore, and I believe there is a binary that will work for some Linux distributions too. I believe the download is around 2MB nowadays, unless you want to download Erlang so as to do your own modifications. It may also be necessary for some verisons of Linux. jon

jstro is absolutely correct, the download is a little under 2megs and the installation is a doddle on windows and Mac! BazC

I downloaded Wings for Windows this morning. On the installation instruction page, it said to go get the Erlang thing...which I did....all 25megs of it. Are you saying that I don't need to install that (where the instruction page said you need to install that first) before installing the Wings proggy? Thanks in advance.

I downloaded it and it seems to work, but how the hell do you do anything in it? I see no options to create primitives, lines, anything. How the hell does it work?

Attached Link: http://www.wings3d.com/Nov06_User_Manual.pdf

Wings works on the priciple of Context Sensitive Menus. A lot of these menus are accessed via the Right Mouse Button (RMB). So, to bring up a primitive, put your mouse in the workspace and then click the RMB. The Primitives Menu will come up. Just select a primitive with the Left Mouse Button (LMB) and it will be added to the workspace. Most models begin life as a cube. It is a bit out of date now (since Wings updates come out so rapidly) but there is a user manual in PDF (see link) that may get you off on the right foot. jon

Attached Link: http://www.wings3d.com

Djeser - if you've got a recent download everything is included in the installer package about 2 megs. I installed it myself on a PC myself about 2 weeks ago, there is no need for a seperate erlang download. Just make sure you have the latest version available from the Wings homepage. If I remember rightly you just double click on the package (after you've expanded it!) and the installer does the rest. Bonestructure, if you want a quick intro to Wings have a look at my translation of TRAVISB's quadruped tutorial on this forum. That should tell you everything you need to get started with Wings. Baz

Thanks, BazC; I downloaded what I think is latest Windows version....sure wish they had said at the Wings site I wouldn't have to download that dang 25 meg file....I'm on a dialup....took AGES.

I'm a bit odd. I'm primarily a MAX user, but I like to try all the free 3D modeling programs and other programs. Each program has different strengths. I discovered a great paint program named Pixia that way. Wings looks like it might be a good organic modeler, which I have problems with in MAX.