Daz's sale of Hexagon 2 for $1.99 seems to have created a real buzz in the 3D community. I can't recall anything happening like this before - a full 3d modeling app for less than two bucks ;) I've used 3DS MAX right from the beginning (even before using Poser) and I don't think I'd use anything else but even I had to buy Hexagon at that price!

It got me wondering though at the sheer number of 3D modeling apps out there of every possible type and price range. There does seem to be so many of them and I wonder how potential users settle on one or the other. I think I've tried most every modeler out there and if I wasn't so heavily invested in MAX I'd probably use Rhino. It has the most intuitive user interface I've ever seen. I moved to MAX 2.0 from AutoCAD though because it seemed to be a natural transition - both were made by Autodesk.

Since everything I do in MAX is to provide Poser content I'd thought I'd put the question out to other Poser users who also dabble at 3d modeling - what modeling app do you use and why were you ultimately drawn to it?

Throughout the week was home with flu, but not flat out bad enough to lie in bed all day, so  manage to do some modelling with Shade7LE and MetasequoiaLE.  Came across the Hexagon 2 offer from DAZ and got that, so going to check it out this weekend.  On occasion, I open up Wings 3D and have a go, but it doesn't "do" much for me.  I'm not a professional nor have I ever been trained in 3D apps.  Just dabbling.

i like blender most, majority of my models are buildings, and only modeled there, so it works
couldnt resist the $1.99 for hex2 though, shadows during modelling made me curious :P

The freeware program Art of Illusion http://www.artofillusion.org/.  To me it is more intuitive and easier to use than the others.  Things that some other people love like Wingz or Anim8tor, I find much more difficult to get into.  Ditto for Strata, Truespace, yada, yada, yada.  Modeling apps are, IMO the most preference prone type of program I've seen.  You may never find one you're really good with if, like me, you're 3D challenged, but one or two will probably just "feel" better than the others.  I've said many times that I think the developers can go a long way toward making modeling more accessible. 

i use maya, though i've tried a lot of others. my very first one was povray, which is about as far from maya as one can be, but i'm a programmer, and it was fun to do algorithmic modelling. i got interested in the whole area at all because of curiosity about l-systems. a while later i moved on to play with terrain modelling (bryce). and then to power animator, and maya, because my partner and i started to work for alias 10+ years ago, programming, and if one has a top of the line app on the screen all day, modelling in it is sort of a natural outgrowth if one's interested in modelling at all. otherwise i would have probably used a much cheaper app; alias software was hideously expensive back then. i keep looking at other software, and experimenting with demo versions, just because i like to know what's out there and what cool stuff other people come up with. among the newest crop i loved hexagon 1.2 when i came across it, it seemed incredibly intuitive to me, and i am eager to play with hexagon 2. so it was mostly chance that i ended up with maya, and any other program has a hard time coming up against what i am familiar with and which also happens to be kick-ass.

I tried every demo and free modeling app there is. I love the block modeling of Wings. I love the splines and curves of Shade8 standard. I then got into Hex1 which seemed to give me the best of both Shade and Wings. Hex 2 is a little buggy but has strong potential.

So. I use Hex,Shade and Wings. Modeling apps are very personal. I can't stand Truespace, I didn't like silo yet they say it is simular to Hex. That's why there are so many different modeling software out there.

I started out using Carrara 3.  Now, I do just about everything in Rhino.  I got hooked on it after trying out their demo.  It seems to have the most intuitive interface/flow to me.  Problem is that it's Nurbs and doesn't do meshes as cleanly as other apps.  So, I usually "refine" my meshes in Carrara. 

Yeah Maya is a great looking modeling app too and along with MAX and Lighwave it's been around for a while and is widely known.  In another forum I was reading what others were saying comparing Carrara to Hexagon. I think I first tried to model in Raydream and wasn't terribly impressed so I never thought much about Carrara either - same thing with Truespace. I've always meant to check out the free modeling apps just for kicks but never got around to it :)

What's been interesting me though is the plethora of new low cost modeling apps that seemed to have come about more recently. Shade, Silo and now Hexagon come to mind. I just wondered what chance any of them had in gaining market share compared to all of the other modelling apps that are already out there. I've already mentioned how much I liked Rhino and considering it's a fairly affordable modeler I'm just surprised to see other apps coming out. That's not to even mention Cinema 4D and FormZ which are also decent and fairly low priced.

Man, there are a lot of modeling apps out there, I wonder how they can all compete with each other. I have to agree with what's been said though - choice of a modeling app is definitely very personal :)

I've tried Maya,Lightwave,C4D,Silo,Modo,3dcanvas,Wings & Blender..the first app I tried that I actualy clicked with was 3dsMax..& that's the one app that offers me everything I could need,other than fluid & paint effects there's not really anything 3dsMax can't do.

it has probably  the best polygon modeling & UV Mapping toolsets around,add to that scripted tools & plugins & it really is hard to beat,

for organic modeling & texturing I've found Zbrush is perfect,if you can apporach it with an open mind & not expect it to be like any other 3d app then you'll do some great things with it.(the UI actualy becomes logical after you've learned how (& why) it works) :-)

my software purchases are based on whether they will help my workflow & offer me something I can't already do...& more importantly if I have the time to learn a new app.

Cheers

Stefan

I use 3dsMax, Rhino,  and Lightwave for my modeling. 

' that's the one app that offers me everything I could need'

I agree Stefan and that's why I stick with 3dsMax as well although sometimes I wonder if I'm missing some benefit that the other modelers could offer. Perhaps it's only my lack of experience with the other apps but I think that 3dsMax is the best application for large assembly architectural models. Many of my own models are composed of many pieces and I love the grouping options that Max offers.

You would expect more from Max, Maya  or Lightwave because they are higher end applications. You can use these apps to make models for Poser or not but the average user of Poser may not wish to invest so heavily in the learning curve that these apps require. So I can understand the need for the lower end apps - but why are there so many of them?!

Any of these smaller apps seem to be alright for single object modeling and this was my original thought on how all of this relates to Poser. If you only wish to make simple models for your Poser scenes - what 3D modeling app wouldn't suit? So I wonder what makes one of these apps more appealing to users then the others.

• Rick

Like Stonemason, I found Max the program to "click" for me. I've tried almost all other modeler out there in some version or another, but I keep returning to Max. I know how to do things there and it seems lovely logical to me.

I HATE wings, so I'm a bit curious about how I'll like Hexagon, once it's downloaded (sometime tomorrow by the look of it) - I've never understood the concept of box modeling to be honest.

Blender? I tried it and couldn't even produce a box in it >_< talk about illogical...

So much is in the individual and the interface that suits them. Max and Maya are just too much for most of us looking to get started, at the high mid-price range there is the limited Softimage (which has no upgrade path!) and Lightwave (which has had a good offer if you also want Vue) and if you want to spend a bit more, Modo, then there are Shade, Silo and Hexagon. These cheaper lower priced apps are where most Poser users can afford to look, each has a very different interface to the others

I think the first program I tried was Amapi 6 that came with a magazine disc. That was ineresting. Ecclectic, powerful, but not what I needed in the end. Shade was the next that I took seriously, there is a lot that I wouldn't attempt with it but I did some TD at school and Shade is just like sitting at a drawing board. Fun. Hexagon was next, by far the easiest to learn, with the most intuitive interface, if someone wants to start building for Poser, I suggest it first.

I'm very pleased with Lightwave. It's modeling tools and animation features seem endless and it's as stable as notepad for me. Intially though what attracted me to it was the way it's toolset is organized and that there isn't an icon to be found. Every tool has a clearly marked text identifier so you know what to expect when you apply it. It cut down the learning curve tremendously for me and has never made me feel like I was in a game of poker against my software. The hundreds of free plugins for it at Flay have left me wanting for very little in terms of things that I "need". If I was told that I could no longer use it I think I'd give my computers to my kids and find a new hobby.

I’ve been thinking about this so much lately that my head is about to explode!

I have a lot of time invested in Max, but I still find myself getting stuck more often than not. I was up and running with Wings almost immediately, but I’ve since realized that it lacks a lot of the advance modeling features that the big guys have.

So I installed Hexagon Thursday and…well…I made a box. The more I look at it though, the more things are starting to make sense to me.

My biggest concern with Hexagon is community support. Its cheap price tag will surely inspire a lot of people to buy it, but I like having dozens of actual books to refer to like I have with Max. (That’s just how I work)

Another thing people are surely concerned with is cost. (Yeah I know; everybody has licensed copies of Max, Maya, and Lightwave lying around.) I have an educational copy of Max 6 that doesn’t allow me to do commercial work with it, so I’m rolling up my sleeves and giving Hex2 a shot!

Given Hexagon 2’s capabilities as well as the number of people in the Poser community who are eager to start making their own content, I really believe that DAZ’s little monster will be THE weapon of choice for the masses. Besides, Hex2 will probably be the first modeler for a lot of people.

One more thing, am I the only who’s thinking that Hex2 was designed with us Poser-freaks in mind?

JT

(Alan Rickman uses Blender!)

I model almost exclusively in CINEMA 4D I find it one of the easiest interfaces to deal with, and its got one of the best collections of modeling tools on the market that I have found. I dabble in Modo and ZBrush, but don't tend to use them for finished work. I guess now I will have to give Hexagon a shot. ;) It does look to have some useful stuff. I also have lightwave 8 and Silo, but neither ever clicked for me.

ernyoka1, i'm thinking that you exaggerate just a little with not making a box in blender :P
not too hard to press space > add > mesh > cube ;x
but if you werent joking, now you know :) hehe

and i always liked blender most, since i can do most of my work without touching my mouse
as long as a program can select tools, and use them, without requiring a mouse, i like it
im not bad with a mouse, very good accually, played too many games :P
just like keyboard controls better, guess hotkeys in the games i played are to blame :D

I also started with POVRay, but when I got into Poser and needed a polygon modeller I downloaded Anim8or. I don't remember why exactly, but I think it was featured in a tutorial on how to make morphs. Since then I've tried Marble Clay, Blender, Wings, trueSpace, Cinema 4D, Amorphium, Silo and gMax, but - this is the important bit - because I already had a tool I sort-of knew how to use, I didn't give any of these enough time to really learn what they could do. Fortunately all were either free or demo versions so I haven't lost anything by it, but inertia is a powerful force in this, as in a lot of marketing situations. "Learning a new modeller" is not a task I have any interest in, so once I'd learned enough of my first one I concentrated on modelling itself, which IS interesting to me. As a result, I'm probably stuck using a very limited toolset, and I would benefit from switching at some point. But my mind doesn't work that way. Given the choice between learning (boring) and making (fun) I choose fun every time. So sue me. :)

very good point EnglishBob, and one I have always believed in (though practice is a little harder.... OOH pretty new tools! 80 ) Learning the software you have inside and out, makes a lot more sense than jumping around and trying everything but not getting really good at any one platform. even rudimentry modeling software can end up with great results if you take enough time working with it, wereas you could have the greatest tool in the world with every option known and if you only are comfortable with one percent of the tools you will be far less likely to get much accomplished.

' My biggest concern with Hexagon is community support. Its cheap price tag will surely inspire a lot of people to buy it'

That's why I thought the 1.99 price tag on it will have a significant impact on the users of Poser who will be more inclined to invest in an application that may or may not prove useful to them. Who would feel the same way about an app that cost $400.00 or more?

' Learning the software you have inside and out, makes a lot more sense'

That is so true and no matter which modeling app you end up using you also have to learn how to model which isn't the same thing as learning the app itself :)

The one thing that has been verified here in the thread is what I said before:

"Man, there are a lot of modeling apps out there"

I can't think of another genre of graphics software that could boast the same level of diversity :)

I started with Blender, and even though I don't render in it anymore, it's always done what I needed it to do. Modeling is pretty easy in it for me, but then I bought the manuals.

Quote - One more thing, am I the only who’s thinking that Hex2 was designed with us Poser-freaks in mind?

It may have been designed for newer users, but I doubt it was designed for the Poser community. If it was, it would have a shrink wrap tool built into it similar to that found in PhilC's Poser toolbox. But, since I can get that from PhilC... Combining the two should get me pretty far. :) I have looked at Wings and Blender but found them difficult to work with. I have looked at Carrara 1 and 5 and found them lacking things all the tutorials I could find for 'general modeling' claimed I needed. So I'm hoping Hexagon 2 proves otherwise - but I have a lot of visualizations in my mind that I want to get out.

I use Hex 1, and I really like it .  It's great for making models quickly.  It's designed more for the graphic arts community, and doesn't have some of the advanced tools found in 3DS Max, Maya, and Cinema 4D (I did my first real modeling in C4D), of course it doesn't have the advanced price either.

It was very easy for me to learn, and is great for making Poser content.  I couldn't afford the upgrades for C4D, so I now use Hex, Carrara, and Poser.  All three applications play very well together.  Hex is also very solid, I've never locked it up or had it crash (though it does occasionally get a little slugish).  I use it (Hex 1) a lot on a laptop with 1Gb of RAM and Nvidia 460Go with 32Mb, and it works very well with the full V3 mesh.  Unfortunately, Hex2 needs more video RAM (128 as I recall), so it won't run on my laptop.

I'd highly recommend Hex, even if you use a high end app, there are many things that will be easier to do in Hex.  If your system meets the minimum requirements for Hex2, it has some great new features! For the PC price of $1.99, you can't go wrong.

DR

  I have used Wings 3D mostly and Amapi 6.1 some. Tried Truespace but didn't like the interface. I bought Carrara 5 and Hexagon 1.2 last month and just got Hexagon 2 installed yesteday so I will probably be using Hexagon more and more. The good thing about Hexagon was several of the features are similar to Amapi and since I have already been using Amapi it should help my learning curve for Hexagon.

Shrink wrap is called line fit in Shade. One of my favorite tools. Curves and Line fit make cloth creation a breeze.

I agree with what was said about learning an app and sticking to it. But I find that there can be an exception. If one app does something better and easier than the other app or vis versa. Learning a couple of apps can be a good thing,  I find that learning the modeling is the real trick. Know where you can get away with low polys and the best place to put them. That takes the most time as far as I have discovered.

I wonder what impact this will have on merchants. I have spent very little on premade stuff since I started modeling a couple of years ago. Then again how many are going to buy and just let it collect dust on the harddrive.

Oh yes, I wasn't suggesting that you should stick with the first app you ever used in the face of overwhelming odds. Many people tend to switch between apps, using the best features of each. I might start in Anim8or, then export into Poser to make use of the cloth room and/or magnets, a bit of UV mapping maybe, then back into Anim8or. I even use Excel on occasions, or direct text editing of an OBJ file. :scared: I suspect that a lot of the people who buy Hexagon will use it once or twice and then give up. Modelling isn't for everybody, it seems. But DAZ should still end up with a hefty user base at the end of the exercise - good for them. To make this work, they must have some enticing updates in mind in order to capitalise on the offer.

I know I've asked this before, but I'm always after more information, so....how is Hexagon at morph creation?  Does it have a mirroring/symmetry feature for use in that task?  I've been thinking about picking up ZBrush for that job (it seems to be the tool of choice for that, I could be wrong), but I'm always open to alternatives.  Anyone find it easy to do morphs in some other program?

Page 116 of the pdf tutorial gives info on creating poser morph targets. And page 77 of the pdf manual covers Modeling with Symmetry.

SketchUp was my introduction to 3D, it's perfect for architectural modelling and by far the easiest modelling software to grasp. It's also great fun, it makes you want to wake the neighbors and get them to come and have a look :)   Empowered by SketchUp, I tried Spatch and then HamaPatch and made lots of poser props with those.

Then I switched to Wings3D and I've used it for years. It took me quite a while to settle into it but I'm glad I persevered, now I really love the efficiency of its 'bare bones', no-frills approach, but it can appear bleak and unwelcoming to newcomers. Once you 'get' the big picture of how wings works it is remarkably simple and surprisingly powerful and its UVmapping tools are excellent..

Just recently I decided to look higher up the food chain and I tried Rhino (didn't like the interface and decided poly modelling for poser wouldn't bring out the best in it), then Hex (didn't fall in love) and Modo. I had pretty much decided Modo was the ticket and then this Hex deal happened so I'm immersing myself in Hex for a bit. Might still spring for Modo though.

It's hard to switch modellers though, it's a complex, long-term relationship you're forging and you've really got to invest a lot of time and effort in getting the right fit.

'It's hard to switch modellers though, it's a complex, long-term relationship you're forging and you've really got to invest a lot of time and effort in getting the right fit.'

Hehehehe - ain't that the truth! lol :)

I was very impressed with SketchUp too - in fact more impressed with this app than I've been in a long while. I still need to spend more time with it to feel comfortable. I didn't really plan on making finished models with it though. I thought it would serve better as a fast prototyping tool. You could work up a fast schematic for your model and then use another modeling app to actually make the model. For architectural models this seemed like a good plan because you could see at a glance how things will fit together before you actually started on the finished model. It's much easier to edit your SketchUp models rather than make the same trial and error edits in a modeler like MAX for example :)

Well I finally installed Hexagon and couldn't do much with it so I guess I'll need to read the PDF manual that came with it  groan :) Oh well, it's not too long at least.

• Rick

Obmate-ninety -

I'd be really interested to hear why you are switching away from Wings. I've just started learning it and I like it better than the other low-cost modellers I've tried. I'd love to hear from someone at the other end of the learning curve. What is it lacking that is making you think of switching away?

As you say, changing is tough. I'd rather spend a little more time and possibly money now learning a platform that I can grow with than putting in the effort on one that is going to hobble me down the road.

I don't model that often, but when I do I turn to Rhino as my app of choice. I just like the way it works and, when I am modelling a lot, I find I start analysing real-world objects in terms of how Rhino would realise them.

I also have Lightwave (6) but as yet I haven't had enough time with it to get beyond a few of the basic tutorials. Maybe that's why I haven't upgraded yet...

Gad..If I'd stuck with my 1st modeler, I'd be using the free version of Amapi (may still be out there..;)let's see if this is still there..

http://www.cbel.com/3d_graphics_software/

that's good for about 1,284 programs (most of which seem to have something to do with POV-Ray, but I could be wrong..;)

Lessee..Amapi (ok, but hard to pin things down), Truespace (GUI designed by Qbert..2nd most confusion interface), Strata 3d (starting to get the hang of it),  Anim8tor (not bad, but how many modelers are 1 file and fit on a floppy?..;) Wings 3d (mainstay. I guess you have to use a few 'bad' modelers to appreciate a 'good' one..;), Blender (hard to beleive something could be more confusing than Truespace, but there you are..;), and at various times, Cararra, Cinema 4d (like the looks that everyone else gets, wish I could as well..;), and the latest is Shade 7 LE (thought this was suppose to be a Poser clone, but so far I can't get the 2 to talk (Poser 3, 4, and Daz studio on one HD..maybe it's just confused..;) Whatever floats yer boat (NOTE- the vast majority of the above were either free, or were found on the English 3d Art magazines..great source to try good stuff..joe Bob says check it out.

Jimdoria

Firstly, I don't think any time spent learning Wings is ever wasted, it'll teach you skills and a way of thinking and approaching modelling which are easily (relatively speaking) transferred to a more advanced set of tools. It has the advantage of having relatively few, very flexible tools, and because you use them all all the time, they become second nature. More complex applications typically have so many specialized and single-use tools that at best you get the hang of them, but as a hobby user you don't get to really master them.

Hobby users of big, full-featured modelling applications typically work within a small subset of the full toolset, but often that subset isn't as polished as Wings.

I like to make low-poly models, as low as possible within reason. So when I model I arrive at the basic form by box modelling and then smoothing once, and then I spend ages tweaking the mesh and tidying up the wires, removing redundant loops, I get a real kick out of it. And Wings is really good at that part (editing at vertex level), so it fitted my needs for a long time.

Just one limitation in Wings frustrated the heck out of me: - once you have chopped your figure into different bodyparts, you can't see the entire figure's UVs on one single UV map (each body part is on a different map). That one thing made me start to look around at other programs, and then I began to wonder if maybe I was wasting time by doing everything using Wings's toolset when more specialized tools would get things done faster.

 You can model almost anything using almost any method if you know your tools, and often it is good to limit yourself to certain tools so you master them. But there's often a method best-suited to modelling a particular type of object and so it's nice to have the option of switching to that different method. For example Hexagon can do box modelling and so includes pretty much everything Wings can do, but it also offers totally different modelling methods such as drawing curved lines in space and then generating surfaces between them using various methods. There are things I can make quickly with that method which would have taken quite a bit of effort in wings.

I really love Wings, but Hexagon is growing on me because of the time and effort savers it offers me. If Hex was the first modeller I used I probably wouldn't have appreciated those features, most of them probably would have got in my way while I had so much to learn.

Wings is very capable and a great way to start, but you could grab Hex at this great price, even if you don't install it for a year.

'Hobby users of big, full-featured modelling applications typically work within a small subset of the full toolset'

I lamented to one of the top merchant/modelers here at Rendo that I feel like I'm only using 30% of what MAX had to offer - he said he thought he used only 20%. So that not only applies to hobby users but also to those of us who use the software commercially :)

If you were to go back even a couple of years ago you would have found that there were already a lot of different modeling apps around (as this thread has already verified). What has intrigued me about all of this is why software vendors and users would continue to keep looking for new modeling apps. When you consider all of the successive versions of the older apps, all the 3rd party documentation/tutorials, all the support forums, etc. - why this continued pursuit for a new modeling app?

I didn't want to come right out and say it but I wonder how much of this is generated by the quest for that mythical 'easy' 3D modeling app? :)

Why keep looking for new apps? 1. Cost 2. Ease of use. It is the search for something that will let you be 'As Shanam' on the cheap - if you have the talent. But it does go farther than that as well. Why switch from Netscape 1.0 to all this 'new fangled stuff'? Why not keep using Corel Draw 1 - if it was good enough in 1989, why isn't good enough now? Demand shifts over time - as people want more and they want it for less time, money, and hassle.

Quote - Shrink wrap is called line fit in Shade. One of my favorite tools. Curves and Line fit make cloth creation a breeze.

I'd be interesting in knowing what apps out there have a tool like this and what each of them calls it.

The two software packages I primarily use are:

1.Maxons' Cinema4D 9.521 because of its modular approach (just buy the modules needed). Excellent cloth and hair creation/simualtion with the Hair and Mocca modules. http://maxon.net/index_e.html

1. RealFlow 3.1.18 from Next Limit Technologies for its fairly good connection with Cinema4D (via a plugin). http://www.nextlimit.com/

Quote - 'Hobby users of big, full-featured modelling applications typically work within a small subset of the full toolset'

I don't think that is necessarily something to be ashamed of. A big application would typically offer several different ways of achieving the same ends, and a group of modellers given the same task will most likely go about it in different ways. That's one of the advantages of the high-end apps: each user is free to choose the tools they get on with the best. > Quote - why this continued pursuit for a new modeling app? ... I wonder how much of this is generated by the quest for that mythical 'easy' 3D modeling app? :)

At the present state of the art, and for most of us, modelling is slightly more work than we feel it should be. My ideal would be this: the world's best modeller comes to my house and sits down in front of the computer. I sit on the sofa and watch what they do on a big screen, while shouting out suggestions. Until I can buy that level of usability off the shelf for the same price as Hexagon 2, there will always be improvements that can be made. :biggrin:

I wasn't passing any judgement as to whether it's good or bad to use just a subset, it was more a comment on how well that subset actually works.

My point is that a simple program like Wings is entirely focussed on a limited number of tools, but they work really well at what they have to do. Those same tools would be just one subset of tools in a big application and as such they might not be quite as good at those same tasks, they don't need to be if there are other ways to skin the cat with other toolsets or more sophisticated (but less-used) tools.

For example I don't think the selection tools in Rhino (selecting edges, verts, faces, converting selections from verts to faces, growing/shrinking selections etc) are anywhere near as good as the selection tools in Wings. But I wouldn't expect them to be because messing about with that stuff is central to Wings (a poly modeller) but a bit of a side-show to Rhino (a nurbs modeler which can handle poly modelling). I'm not knocking Rhino either, just suggesting that using any app for something that isn't its focus doesn't bring out the best in it.

Quote - I wasn't passing any judgement as to whether it's good or bad to use just a subset, it was more a comment on how well that subset actually works. My point is that a simple program like Wings is entirely focussed on a limited number of tools, but they work really well at what they have to do.

Oh no, I didn't intend to be judgemental either, and I apologise if I gave that impression. A limited toolset is ideal IF those tools suit your way of working, because you don't have to wade through loads of stuff to get to the bits you can use. The flip-side is obvious: if the limited toolset doesn't suit you, all you can do is use a different modeller. I use one of the most limited toolsets there is (Anim8or), so I'm hardly in a position to preach against them. :)

Quote - A limited toolset is ideal IF those tools suit your way of working, 

And that's the thing, if you learn to model using a limited toolset then that toolset will, by definition, suit your way of working, so it's natural to become set in your ways.

It's only when you see a new tool in action (like through watching all the Hex training vids) that you think "wow! This tool would have made the so-and-so model so much easier!" But too much looking around can be bad too, you start to covet features in half a dozen different applications and grumble every time you have to do it in modeller X knowing it would be so much easier in modeller Y.