Autodesk Photofly - Create 3D models from photographs

http://labs.autodesk.com/utilities/photo_scene_editor/getting_started/



Very interesting tool, will give it a try when I have time!

TreeSketch 2.0 for iPad

TreeSketch 2.0 - Promo Video from Steven Longay on Vimeo.

http://algorithmicbotany.org/TreeSketch

This tree modeler looks impressive, hope the developer will release a desktop version

fbx converter

http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/item?siteID=123112&id=7851697

a handy tools to convert obj, 3ds, dfx to fbx version 6, which EI7 able to import, the greatest thing about this little utility is it import UVmap flawlessly!!!

a test on Silo model with UV map, export to obj, convert the obj to fbx, than open the fbx in EI7, it does sounds ridiculous, but the result merit since EI doesn't have Obj2Fac, compare to polytrans, this little tools is free.

fbx converter

http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/item?siteID=123112&id=7851697

a handy tools to convert obj, 3ds, dfx to fbx version 6, which EI7 able to import, the greatest thing about this little utility is it import UVmap flawlessly!!!

a test on Silo model with UV map, export to obj, convert the obj to fbx, than open the fbx in EI7, it does sounds ridiculous, but the result do pay off

Free tree generator

http://dryad.stanford.edu/
http://arbaro.sourceforge.net/

Ivy Generator to EI

found this ivy generator recently in CGTalk forum...read
download the free application here

here is the work flow how I bring the ivy into EI
1. model a building, in my case I model in silo, after finish model, I tessellate the model into Tris (Ivy modeler will convert any quad to tris, but it will cause flip normal problem) add in texture which is optional, than export to obj.

2. import the obj model into IvyGenerator, (read the 'readme' file for view control) double click on the on the building which of desire... for the Ivy growing point, than click on the grow button to see how the little thing "explode" click on the grow button to stop, than click the build button to build the ivy, after that export the ivy to obj (UV will generate by itself).

3. I notice that IvyGenerator will create 3 groups, 2 different leaf, and 1 branch, but when EI import the obj...or via transporter, it will merge the 3 groups into 1, and UV data will lost when save into .fac, sadly we pc user didn't have O2F, so I bring the Ivy to blender to save it separately in to 3 different files(3 groups) than import to EI.

4. I think there is some axis flip when import to EI, but that is not a huge problem, and IvyGenerator do come with some texture, just use it... :)

the render will take some time, the image above take about 20 minutes to render with my amd3800 but using 1 core (1280x1024) and RAM plays quite an important rule in generate ivy, don't push it too hard...