My experience with Modo

Hi guys.

After 7 years using solidworks and new to the furniture industry I embarked on a bit of an epic journey into the world of Modo last Sepetmber and am starting to reap the rewards for my hard work put in.

Basically, I am using solidworks as the primary tool for 3D modeling design work, and then rendering in modo. I have to say, Modo is a pain to learn, but the effort is worth it and the community is great. I was using keyshot for basic product shot style renders, but modo’s global illumination (light rays) is off the chart compared to keyshot.

Take into account the computing power needed for modo though, if you’re thinking about going down that path. I have an i7 3770 and 16gb of ram and it’s fairly slow.

There is also the added bonus, with the cad loaders to create sub-divided surface shapes in modo, import them into solidworks to add holes, features, and then import back into modo for rendering and animation.

If anyone has any questions feel free to ask. Here’s my latest, but am still refining it.

Looks good. I’m also in the furniture business now and I have been using rhino and vray with good results. I just use those because is the ones I have been using for long. Is similar technology to modo but I will check it out.

I’ve really enjoyed using Modo. Its a great modeling/rendering tool. At my first job, we’ve even used it to render ProE files. Scott Robertson has done some amazing things using that program.

@Azrehan: Agree 100% across the board. Keyshot is "ok’ but once you get into Modo’s shader system and now the new nodal system, there’s just endless possibilities. I highly recommend taking a look at anything Richard Yot puts out. He breaks down and explains just about every aspect of the rendering system inside and out.

I started out much like you and using SW mainly for modeling and Modo for rendering, but once you start to pop open Polygon/SubD modeling and really start to wrap your head around it, there are times when I just don’t want to go back to SW. IF…and this is a big one, but IF they ever put just simple 2D ortho drawing capabilities I don’t know if I’d ever leave.

Also don’t forget about the Power SubD plug-in, that converts the SubD model into something that SW/Rhino/Pro/E can digest much easier.

Thanks for sharing the info. Nice rendering. I’ve recently been getting to grips with autodesk VRED which I have been using in conjunction with Alias, Maya and Rhino. A friend the other day was singing the praises of Blender over Maya and now I have heard great things about Modo. I know personal preference counts for a lot but I’d be interested to know if Modo is thought considerably better for industrial design than anything else.


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“Better for industrial design” is extremely subjective.

Ultimately ask what is the main thing you want to be rendering, and how much time do you have? Different tools have different strong suits, learning curves, and industry adoption.

Most full up modelling and animation tools like Blender, Maya, Modo are not though of as traditional ID programs. They’re basically useless for making real world objects that you can give to a manufacturer vs Solidworks, Pro E, etc.

If you are doing interior renderings, complex materials, softgoods, etc modelling tools are great.

I agree to some point about modo not being better for industrial design than solidworks, but if they want to get there, they could.

While solidworks is great for hard components, fluid forms and complex surfaces are a lot harder to model than in modo.

It’s exciting to see where software is going though.