3D Visualization Software

[carsonld]

I am looking for a software to where I can have a 3D rendering of the sets and lights I design. I recently was you GMA2 and MA3D but didnt like it much. I would prefer free but I will probably have to pay for a good program. I looked at the section on the Wiki tab but didnt find anything.

Thank you!

 

[RickR]

You somehow missed: http://www.controlbooth.com/threads/lighting-visualization-software.15187/#post145232
The only free tools I'm aware of are Capture Student (which naturally has significant limitations) and GrandMA offline that only works with GrandMA consoles, so free is not complete.

 

[Catwalker]

MyDMX (the first one) comes with a 3D visualiser.

 

[Judge]

I bought the Capture Solo edition for around £300. It only does one universe, and I think is missing some report functions. Other than that its complete and brilliant and very good value.

 

[Bubby4j]

There's also EasyView http://www.nicolaudie.com/en/easyview.htm

Freestyler DMX has it built in. I don't know that it's very fancy, but it'll do basic stuff.

 

[wolfman005]

EasyView is decent if you just want beams but it started lagging a lot on my PC when I used 10 heads with gobos. Might just be my PC.

Chamsys has a Visualizer that works great with my PC. It only works with Chamsys though.

In terms of cheating the system, you could probably take Chamsys or GrandMA's PC software and pipe in art net from the software of your choice so you can use their visualizers.

 

[Bubby4j]

EasyView is decent if you just want beams but it started lagging a lot on my PC when I used 10 heads with gobos. Might just be my PC.

Chamsys has a Visualizer that works great with my PC. It only works with Chamsys though.

In terms of cheating the system, you could probably take Chamsys or GrandMA's PC software and pipe in art net from the software of your choice so you can use their visualizers.

It gets laggy if you have the quality turned up. If you have a nice graphics card I've seen it work pretty well. On anything with integrated graphics you'll have to turn the quality down quite a bit, showing only a line from the fixture to the stage & the light on the stage. No beam in the air.

Other software might be less resource intensive, not sure.

 

[wolfman005]

It gets laggy if you have the quality turned up.

Well who wants low quality previs?

 

[Carl75]

I use Show Express it's free to download and has a decent 3D view. The stage objects are really generic as far as placing a person or instrument on stage. but, it works great to give yourself a visual idea before you start setting up lights in the real world.

 

[MikeJ]

MA3D does a pretty decent job with lighting, but for scenic stuff I would probably use Sketchup, then import those to 3D. For little or no, money though, you won't get anywhere close to the capabilities of WYSIWYG.

 

[MikeJ]

What about MA3d, or MA2 did you dislike?

 

[carsonld]

The scenic stuff I couldnt do, and maybe I just couldnt figure it out but I noticed that I could only use certain fixtures on the 3D part, once again I am an ETC user so had to learn how to use MA just to use it.