I just bought the carrara studio as an upgrade to infiniD. I was dissapointed that the physics plug in wasnot included eventough it was part of the metacreations version. Has anyone found the plug in interesting or helpful? As a physics teacher I though I could do some animations as demos for the kids.

As a student trying to complete his masters in physics I found that the physics portion of Metacreations Carrara was pretty cool. While there were a few bugs (for example some collision detection didn't detect), I think you could make some excellent demos. I haven't tried all of the features of the plug-in, and haven't tried it since Carrara was patched by Eovia. With the plug-in, I have tried a pool-table-type scenario, a ball falling down stairs and more. Animation renders seem to take a little longer using the physics plug-in as compared to key frame animations, but that is likely due to the calculations needed in between each frame of animation. Personally I think you are on the right track. A simple discussion of physics principles is often not enough to maintain interest in the subject. As an undergrad, I worked with one of my profs on setting up relevant demonstrations (not computer generated though) for her first year class so they could visualize what was happening. It is a shame that Eovia wasn't able to offer this tool to their new customers.

I bought the original Carrara 1.0 from Metacreations, and now have the 1.1 eovia patch. I havn't tried yet but does physics still work in Carrara, of is it just with the new full 1.1 version? Or can i still use the physics? Just wondering.

Go to Eovia site under support for a description of the problem. There is reference to the physics plug-in. It was not licensed when eovia bought Carrara. However, if you own Carrara 1.0 you can continue to use the physics plug-in that came withit. If you bought the new studio without having RayDream or Carrara 1.0 you will have to wait until they get the license issue settled or replace it.

Thanks for the info. Since Carrara is new to me, I have plenty to learn and work with. I email the tech support and they confirmed that the liscencing problem had not been ironed out, but when it does the plug in would be available for download.