Some more beginners questions: The boat was modeled in TURBOCAD V7 Pro and originally rendered in Lightworks (which is the default renderer for Turbocad) saved as .3ds with materials applied as bitmaps such as wood and others as glass etc. It looks nice in TCAD. The colors shown here are the assigned layers colors in Turbocad . The realistic Lightworks materials did not come in with 3ds only the layers colors came in - which could just as easily have been all black or whatever. Id like to get the bitmaps and the glass etc. in from the other program OR BETTER be able to apply Vue materials etc. to the model. When in Vue, I cannot select the individual parts of the model to apply individual materials. They are grouped and I dont think TCAD offers any options. What am I missing here? Also, can I get a shadow on the ocean bottom under the boat? And Finally, how would I ge some little wavelets that show tthe position of the boat on the water??? Thanks very much, MUD

As far as the materials go, there is a workaround to your problem of not being able to select individual parts of your model. If your model comes in with these materials already assigned to it, then the materials are separate if you go to your materials summary (it's the button on the toolbar across the top that looks like two dots right next to each other). If you choose each one, you can either edit it to use a bitmap or you can change it to a procedural. Only that part of the model that has that texture will be affected. Then you can change the others as well. Your model may not come in with it's separate parts, but apparently your material layers did and you can change them that way :). I hope I've explained it in a way that you can understand and I hope it helps :). Also, you may want to try double-clicking your model in one of your views. It will bring up a box that will allow you to split the model by material. Just a warning tho...it may cause Vue to crash, so save first. I've only had that happen tho if there were tons of materials or if it had tons of polys. Laurie

Hi, thanks, sorry to be so lame but I cant find any two dots next to each other at he top menu bar...and if I doubl click on the model, all i get is a polygon option dialogue box.... Im using Vue 4. Thamnks. MUD

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

Hi MUD, yep like Laurie said, use the Material Summary to reach the individual materials for the model. To achieve a shadow on the bed of the water, you need a bed for the shadow to land on. Either lower the ground plane to the depth you like, or select the water plane (and the boat) and raise them until the depth is what you like. To create a wake for the boat, that's probably easiest to do using a terrain object. Check out the tutorials at Laurie's website for creating objects of terrains. And, last but not least -- *nice* boat! That's a very good model! :)

If you can't pick out the icon across the top of the screen, use the menu drop-down. Click on Display > Display Material Summary (or click the F6 key) and it will pop right up. :)

Sheesh! I should have given you the menu option for the Material Summary ;). Sorry. I'm so used to using the toolbar icon...LOL. Laurie

Hey thank you all and especially Laurie for enduring whoever it was that took over my computer yesterday - you know , the person here who couldn't find my material summary icons at the top......;) Well, I found them this morning for whoever that was yesterday and it works like a charm. Still, I'd appreciate any advice on balancing reflections with transparency in "glass" procedural materials. Your experience is very much appreciated. MUD

Oh, yes thanks too for the nice word about the boat itself. It will be about 25' in real life - based on old designs for a "camper/cruiser" - very slow (apx 5-8 kts) with a flat bottom and lots of varnished mahogany and painted canvas decks. MUD