Thanks Agiel. I had to reinstall the whole thing. But for next time I'll keep that in mind.

That little icon says "new collection". When I clicked that it brought up a dialog box that asked for the desired folder. I thought the "Metal" folder would be under Material folder. I can only highlight the "material" folder and then it wants to give it a name, but I don't see any "Metal" catagory.

I will try it again tomorrow

Thanks so much Shari,

Thanks guys. I found one also on line called " Altros 3D". It it pretty nice for a sharware I guess.

Thanks again,

Nick

Thanks so much for your response. I do appreciate the link and it could be helpful and yes I will pay the fee if I can use it properly. I played around with it but have not figured out how to make the thumbnails of the files or rather see the thumbnails of the files.

Thanks again,

Nick

Thanks guys. I really appreciate that. Maybe I go to that reflection parameter and see if it works. What I am about to say might sound dumb, but wouldn't it be nice to have materials set so it generates exactly the same look as the thumbs regardless of where the sun or other light sources are. Yes I know it can't be, but wouldn't it be nice?!

Thanks again,

Nick

Hi Peggy,

Thanks a lot for the rendercow advice. I will have to try that.

Peggy,

How does one use the old computer as a render farm?

Hi FV- Yes I tried the file with all those settings as far as open gl. Somehow when I import the 3ds file which was exported from Wings3d into Vue 4.x, everything works well regardless which display setting I use, but when importing the same 3ds file into Vue5i, it would only show it in "wireframe box" and " shaded" mode and not in "wireframe" mode. I think somehow Wings3d's 3ds format might not be compatible with Vue5i's wireframe display mode.

My compute specs:

Windows XP Pro.64 bit,Intel Dual xeon Dual Core 3.2 Ghz, 4 GB of Ram, Nvidia Quadro FX 4500 with 512 MB of video ram, and so many other stuff that my computer guy knows more about. I just upgraded from XP Pro. 32 bit and I also had the same problem . On e-on site, it claims that all the Nvidia Quadro graphic cards are recommended and works well and when I click the "test" button under File>Option>Display tab to test the video card, it says that it is working well, but when I start the program, it says that "my video board is not found on the list of qualified hardware....". How can that be?

Thanks again FV,

Nick

Well Lin, you might be so right. I just made a model in SketchUp and exported it as a 3ds file and everything showed up perfectly and when I select the camera, sure enough I can see the other object in black color. The previous model was modeled in Wings3d and I also exported it as a 3ds file and when imported into Vue, it would not show. I guess there is something about the way wings3d exports 3ds files. It is probabely the latest release issue because I did not have this on their last release, but then again that is another story.

Thanks again.

Lin, Thank you for your input. It is a bit strange since I never had any such problem with version 4.x and even when initially started on v5. I'll figure it out one way or another.

Nick

Thank you so much for looking into this. I did try what you mentioned and still no go. Not only I disabled the "maintain instant.....", I copied exactly what your picture showed for all parameters under the display tab and still no go. The only thing I can think of that might have caused this could be right after I tried something with EcoSystem. Right after that I have been having this problem and it does not go away even though I have uninstalled and re-installed the app couple of times.

Thanks anyway for your efforts. I will have to wait and see. here is an image if I can post one.

Well, as you see in the attached image file, when the camera is selected, the object is not displayed in black color, but you can see the object in the rendered view port. All the display tab parameters are the same as what you had on yours.

Thanks again,

Nick

Hi FV, Well you can have different display settings as you know. I usually set mine to "wireframe" and all the orthagonal view ports show the objects in wireframe except the lower right view port whcih displays the rendered image. Somehow as I mentioned it worked fine in v4.x, but in V5i is acting a bit strange. Yes I tried setting all to default, but no go. Are we the only ones having this problem? It is just puzzeling me how you can move your camera around or inside your imported model if in wireframe mode your imported object does not display( while camera is selected of course)in the default black color! I recently got a super computer and my video card is the top of the line Nvidia Quadro FX 4500 and when you press the test button for the video card it says that is is working well. So I have no idea what is going on. Trial and error i guess would be the call of the day. If anyone know please help. Thanks, Nick

With all due respect, I wish we could get our old forum back. I truly don't like this. So confusing at least for me. But if I have no other choice, then I will have to enjoy it, won't I. Nick

I am in the same field. As far as a simple modeling program for architects and architectural purposes and as much as I love Wings3d, I would highly recommand "SketchUp 3D". It is easy to learn just like Wings3d, and much better suited for architectural modeling. I have used a number of architectural and/or modeling/rendering/animation applications and if you are just concerened about the modeling aspect, by far SketchUp3D would be the easiest and funnest approach. Their website is: www.sketchup Best of luck, Nick H. Noakhtar