Is there a 4.1 manual?

Is there a 4.1 manual?

Hi,

I downloaded 4.1 a couple of weeks ago, but a manual apparantly wasn't with the download, so I'm using a .pdf version I got from this forum. That, plus I have been studying some excellent examples provided by others.

I would like to start doing more with the animation functions provided.

Can someone steer me in the right direction to obtain the docs, or steer me in the right direction to obtain some tutorials which are up to date with this version of the software?

Thanks in advance,
G.
 
Thank you, Martin, for taking the time to provide this. I'll print this out and add what's missing later.

I'm one of those who prefers the manual at my elbow rather than behind what I'm doing.

And thanks for the great software, I never got into 3D before, but this program was suggested to me by another artist as the way to start, and I'm glad I took his advice.

I find this program very well thought out and fun to use. I'm spending a lot more time using it than I imagined I would.

Best,
G.
 
Yes,- but this manual is very minimalistic and does not realy help a newcomer in this program. It is the type of manual I like so mutch: If you hit the render buton it will render, and if you hit the cube button it will create a cube. A ok, I thought, if I hit the render button the application will quit. Also you can not find realy usefull tutorials here in this forum, (and other pages to) they have a Tutorial Forum but you can only find crap. So I'm not wondering if this program does not sale very good.
 
Yes,- but this manual is very minimalistic and does not realy help a newcomer in this program. It is the type of manual I like so mutch: If you hit the render buton it will render, and if you hit the cube button it will create a cube. A ok, I thought, if I hit the render button the application will quit. Also you can not find realy usefull tutorials here in this forum, (and other pages to) they have a Tutorial Forum but you can only find crap. So I'm not wondering if this program does not sale very good.

Sounds to me like we'd all be better off if you used Blender3d, they have lots of tutorials. Bye!

Martin having a quickfix so the help works in the latest beta would be handy, unless theres another way to manually get to the help files?
Thanks,
AaronC
 
Help

It's in the app package. Right-click (or control-click should you be using one of those old one-button mice) on the app, select "Show Package Contents", (now, be careful here; should you mess something up, you might need to reload the app) and open the "Contents" folder, then the "Resources" folder; and copy (not move!) the "Cheetah3Dmanual" folder to someplace convenient. Inside that folder, you will find index.html; open that in Safari.

Oh, and if you do actually want to use it in the help viewer window, you could copy it to the Resources folder of the beta app; I just tried this, and it does work.


:smile:
 
Hey Targos, that's a bit harsh :)

Silizium: if you're writing software and you're one guy, you kind of have a choice. Do I spend a whole bunch of my time writing software and making it powerful and easy to use, or do I spend a whole bunch of my time writing manuals, which (a) prevent me from writing more software, and (b) make it harder to make improvements (because then I have to update the manual)?

(If you're Blender, there's always option (c) spend a whole bunch of time telling anyone who complains about your user interface that they're an idiot or a loser.)

If you want documentation for its own sake, C3D is not your program. It's very easy to use, especially if you happen to have some kind of 3d background. No 3d software is easy to use if you don't (unless it's basically a "wizard" which essentially lets you configure stuff other people have built, like Poser or Bryce).

And C3D's help is hardly just "if you click the cube you get a cube". For the actually complex stuff (such as how sweep, extrude, etc. work) it's very informative.

Will Cheetah 3d ever have a really good manual? It probably will if it ever gets enough users to make writing one financially worthwhile for a good writer.
 
How about starting some sort of C3Dwiki? - it could maybe begin using the existing HTML manual as a basis, then people could add to it... it would be nice for eveyone's tips and comments to be collected in one place, rather than scattered across old posts in the forum.

Of course, someone would need to volunteer to set this up, and perhaps moderate it, which would be a bit of work. It would also be good to ensure it stays well-integrated with the forum somehow.
 
Manual

Will Cheetah 3d ever have a really good manual? It probably will if it ever gets enough users to make writing one financially worthwhile for a good writer.

Or if the user community steps up to the plate and builds one. As mentioned above, adding a wiki with the existing manual would be a good first step; but we will need Martin's permission to do so (it's his copyright). Also, I think that it should be hosted on the main C3D site, so he would have to do the initial upload to the server. If one of us cooks up the content first, though, it shouldn't be too much work for Martin... (er, well, so I hope! :smile: )


Unfortunatly this is the worst kind of WIKI article: orphaned and a stubbed.

Yeah... I don't have time right now, but when I do I'll see if I can add to that article, and link it in to a few others.
 
I'm glad to see folks have been making changes. When I first found it it was basically an ad for blender.

In my edit I removed the pro-Blender stuff added some text and added every outgoing link I could think of. I didn't do anything about incoming links though :-/

Wikipedia is NOT the place to write C3D's docs though.
 
Last edited:
Re-awakened

Hi All-

My e-mail notified me there was a 'new reply' to my original post, I was surprised to see 800 people looked for the answer to the question. I have some observations:

1. It's quite possible some of the 800 have read the same post again and again, but if even 400 registered users of the program are looking for that answer, I think it should get your attention.

2. The same 3D professionals who I refered to as supplying useful tutorials months ago are the same ones, for the most part, who are following the discussion here now.

3. The tutorials they provide are a quick way of getting into the program with very little suffering. If you take the time to actually perform the tutorials and get your head around how they work, then you begin to realize that...

4. The C3D manual is the most LITERAL manual around. Just do EXACTLY as it says, and you should be all right. I find that typically the biggest confusion comes from being in the proper mode to perform an operation.

With regard to Siliziums post, all I can say is I think he has chosen his username appropriately. What exactly do you hope to gain by complaining?

You should never be ashamed for not knowing something. But you should ask yourself if you have compromised your creative curiosity by purposely, for whatever reason, not finding something out. If you DESIRE to KNOW something, ask someone who KNOWS, don't bitch at them for your ignorance!

Certainly the 3D gurus who hang out here have it under control, but no one should feel any less by offering their own experience. I now realize even the most blindingly obvious tutorial to most may help one user over the hump, and that is the point, is it not?

If I can be said to represent a certain type of user profile here, it is one who is technically advanced in other disciplines who has decided to bring 3D into his repertoire. It is obvious 3D is where it is going and it will be a very useful skill to have.

Just the other day I imported .pdf files from a project I'm working on into C3D, extruded them, and built a model. It worked out perfectly. I picked up on how to do that from the tutorials posted here.

Thanks for your generosity!

Best,
G.
 
Wikipedia is NOT the place to write C3D's docs though
Agreed: I meant 'a wiki' (as in 'a collaborative document'), not a Wikipedia entry (although that's a good thing too, for other purposes).

It would be great if Martin could host it, but not if it distracts him from the more important task of developing C3D. There are also copyright issues, as you say.

I don't know much about what's involved on the hosting side, but there's a good site for comparing wiki software (www.wikimatrix.org) some of which is freeware/open source.

Does anyone else have any experience with this kind of thing who could advise on the best way to set it up?
 
Back
Top