3DKiwi

Bug 3 video I can replicate so looks like a bug to me.

It just highlights (and can select) various issues. You find it in the Attributes Manager under Mode > Modeling then on the "mesh Checking" tab.

You realise that the mesh checking utility has a "Planarity Threshold" option? Change it to 5° and you get a lot less non planar polygons with the mesh check utility. By it's very nature applying a bevel creates non planar polygons. Personally I always try to model with Quads and use good techniques e.g. no hard booleans however if it's a hard surface model I'll use N-Gons rather than spending a lot of time trying to make it all quads, just so long as there are no visual artifacts. You actually need to melt / dissolve edges (into N-Gons) in some cases to get the edge bevel to work properly otherwise you can often get uneven bevels.

BTW a similar result can be achieved using the FFD deformer. This has more freedom but it's a bit less procedural.

Maybe I'm missing something but you can get a concave taper by changing the strength to a negative value. The only issue is the taper is reversed but it's a simple matter of rotating the deformer 180° to compensate. Here's what I mean.

Ditto what Vector says. If it was me I would find a tutorial even for another 3D app and do your best to follow that. Some of the Blender tutorials are reasonably straight forward to follow along with in other 3D apps.

I'll try to be fair and balanced (tough I know :) ) Had a bit of time now to look through things. This is clearly the best and biggest update in years and there's a lot of things I like. However it's not the "Big one" as many of us were expecting. The antique UV toolset is part of the old core so with no updated UV toolset R20 is still heavily reliant on the old core. Hence no big improvements in handling lots of objects apart from multi instances. My guess is the core is done and has been done for a few years. Problem is they were late starting on the UV toolset rewrite. To take out the old UV toolset they have to put in the new core completely and they can't put that in until the UV toolset is more or less complete. I think if I was still using C4D I would be reasonably happy with the update although it largely depends on what you do and what version you are running. As a hobbyist who might only be using the Prime version I'm disappointed to see that I wouldn't be getting the new volume modelling, probably the thing that I would get most use out of. Looks like my Bodypaint tutorials are safe for another year with the toolset still the old one as mentioned. MAXON are really dragging the chain updating the UV tools. MoGraph users should be pretty happy and there's plenty for them to play with. So well done to MAXON and their team. Some excellent enhancements but I think you should say when the full new core with updated UV tools are coming. But I can't see anyone using another 3D app busting their gut to jump ship to R20. In fact Blender 2.8 looks like it could pick up a few disgruntled users from various 3D apps. So is Modo that I use any better with their upgrades. Nope. The Foundry aren't piling on the new stuff. It's more about incrementally refining and enhancing things over 3 releases per year rather than dropping everything in one hit. I'm into modelling so the last few versions have focussed a lot on modelling improvements so I'm generally happy. Stability with Modo isn't really an issue any more and it's generally very stable. Not as stable as C4D but a long way from the crash fest it used to be. This means I won't be buying myself a copy of R20 Prime. I can afford it but since there's no updated UV tools, no volume modelling and no Physical renderer I'll be hanging to my money. Plus I can't believe it, but to get Prorender I would need to buy the Studio edition (as per MAXON's product comparison page). Ludicrous!! Enjoy R20 everyone :) Nigel / 3DKiwi

A lot. Modo has some pretty cool modelling systems that I can't see Cinema 4D having any time soon. By that I mean Meshfusion and procedural modelling. That said there are things I miss like spline modelling in C4D. Modo does splines (called curves) but it's rather basic. I think a more likely scenario is I run both. I've just shelled out US $399 for another year's maintenance for Modo so not about to ditch it any time soon. I would just buy the base version of C4D if I was to get back into C4D. I think at a minimum R20 should have a completely new UV editing system. This would include udim support, support for edges and be a lot easier to use than it is now. Anyone that's used Modo for UV mapping knows it's light years ahead of C4D. That plus the new super fast core which I assume will be multi-threaded. XPresso would then also be multi threaded. Highly likely is a nodal material system being part of an updated XPresso. Then there will be a number of enhancements across the app e.g. Mograph, rendering, modelling, remembering that there's a new modelling core that we saw in R19. We'll know in a couple of weeks :)

I expect R20 to be the big one. i.e. new / fast core that can handle a ton of objects, rewritten UV tools, XPresso 2. Possibly as well: nodal material system, modelling tool enhancements, new particle system to replace TP. Fun times ahead.

Here's my effort doing it with the minimum number of polygons that you can achieve the shape with. I'm using edge weighting. If you wanted a slight bevel to the edges then you could either fake it with a bevel edge shader, physically bevel the edges, or crank up the sub-vision some more then mess around with edge weighting. Scene file attached. Scene file: Hex.zip

Your problem is you made the Helix spline editable. If you retain the original procedural spline then you don't get the twisting. However if for some reason you want the editable spline then you need to duplicate and scale it in the X and Z axes and set it up as a rail spline. Attached is what I mean. Also attached is something I knocked up a long time ago. Open the scene and press play. This may help you out. Hope this helps. slinky_0001.zip Slinky3DKiwi.zip

I wouldn't hold your breathe for a R20 review from me. But hey, anything's possible. Things are looking up for MAXON going by the Day 1 blog post from the new CEO. One of my criticism's of MAXON was communication with their customers so it's very good to see something from the person at the top.

If it's the big one that we hope and expect it to be I may just buy the Prime version. I could then use both Modo and C4D. Ironically at the moment I'm doing a Blender hard surface and robot modelling course and learning Blender although I may use Modo instead for the Robot part of the course. I'm using Bforartists rather than the regular Blender.

One of the reasons for rewriting the core was to allow much quicker object handling / viewport speed. Expect to see major improvements in C4D's ability to handle lot of of objects, particles etc.

I also think that this announcement pretty much confirms R20 is the big one i.e. the new core that we've been waiting for, for a very long time. The 3 bosses will then be leaving on a high and at the end of an era and the start of another with the new Cinema 4D.

I would say it's a good thing. Hopefully we'll see a more open MAXON rather than a company that keeps their cards close to their chest.

Yeah excellent interview and I would like to think that the Cafe has played some small part in helping MAXON get to where it is today. When we started our free video tutorials online in 2004 there was virtually no one else doing free online video tutorials. (YouTube didn't start until 2005). Nigel / 3DKiwi

Yup, R20 will be out in September so think about it before parting with your money. That said if you buy R19 now along with the MSA you'll get R20 when it ships. You'll just need to renew your MSA same time next year before R21 comes out.

You've sort of answered your own question. If you want to continue the edge flow then you need to create an edge where the green arrow is. Where the wertex / point is at the end of the NGon, I would weld this to the new point that you create on the edge next to it when you carry on the edge flow.

I would just pay someone to rig it up for you. Couple of hour job at most.

So these were no use? As for your model not lining up, the trick is to get it set up then drop the assembly under a parent null. You then orientate the null however you want. Sorry I do not have the time to be able to help you out any further apart from referring you to my 2 tutorials.