Maya and 3DS Max have just been added to the students.autodesk.com website as part of the free tools that you can download for free. Previously, Maya and Max were only available for a one month trial period - after which you would have to buy it. Now, they are available for download and you get a student license, just like all the other Autodesk products. The only difference is that for Maya and Max, the license is for 6 months instead of a year, after which you will need to renew it (which you can do, as long as you are still a student).

Maya and Max are both advanced modelling/rendering/animation packages used a lot for games and movies. They are also great tools for architectural explorations. Both are very sophisticated tools with built in parametric and kinematic modelling tools - of the two, Maya is the most advanced.

For 3DS Max, there are now two types - 3DS Max and 3DS Max Design.  It appears that 3DS Max Design is a cut down version of the normal 3DS Max, targeted towards architects and engineers.

There is a talk on Ectoect by the software developer Ander Marsh. It is a very good introduction to Ecotect. It is one and a half hours long!

In order to view this talk, you need to create an account at the Autodesk University wesbite (http://au.autodesk.com/) - it is free.  Note that this is not the same as the Student Community website (http://students.autodesk.com/)

Log into the AU website, and then view the talk called Practical Sustainable Design Workflows with Ecotect and Revit

Autodesk have uploaded some great new training materials for Ecotect.

• Go to Autodesk Student Community website and login
• Then go to Learn > Tutorials > Autodesk Ecotect

 

The DDM blog has been silent for a long time - sorry about that. The DDM site has been growing steadily, but the blog has not been kept up to date. I will make an effort to give more frequent updates here.

The NUS library now has a set of Rhino videos available online. These videos go step by step through all the Rhino commands, so if you are wondering how to use one of the commands, check the video.

• Rhino3D Videos on NUS Library Video Server

To access these videos, you need to install a special bit of software called  'client viewing application'. Instructions are below.

• Instructions on how to access videos

For example, have a look at section 6 on Precision Modelling. For architectural modelling, these tools are really useful.

I have updated the SketchUp page with a whole bunch of links and information. If you have more useful things to add, please let me know and I will add it.

On the blogs, I came across this project by Lewis Wadsworth. An interesting set of rendering techniques are used, starting with SketchUp, rendering images, and then manipulating these images in photoshop.

I have updated the Rhino page with a whole bunch of links and other information. If other people have more useful things to add, please let me know and I will add it.

Welcome to the Digital Design Media site! At the moment, the site is still largley empty and under construction. Will will be adding information gradually, so please come back regularly. Alternativley, you can also stay up-to-date via an RSS feed. (If you don't know what that is, we will cover soon :)