The MAC 3D Team Presents NICK'S NOTES
Nick Pavlovic is the founder of VIDI and the Mac 3D Team. He has been an Apple developer since 1982 and a long-time fighter to upgrade the reputation and use of 3D on the Macintosh. Here he gets to present his thoughts on events of importance to the Macintosh 3D.

VersaCad & 3DJoy The Mac 3D Team Educational Advisory Board   Maya Port & Pricing Give 3DJoy To A School   Upgrading The Site   Guest Notes   Are you a designer who wants to get a free MAC 3D TEAM membership and 3DJoy? Click here.   Are you a programmer who would like to create new 3D animation capabilities? Click here.

Welcome To Nick's Notes!!! With the coming introduction of Maya to the Macintosh and through the efforts of the Mac 3D Team, I see the beginning of a resurgence of the use and credibility of 3D on the Macintosh. A downside to the introduction of Maya, especially to the education community, is its price and learning curve. On the upside, however, the coming of Maya will add impetus to the Mac 3D Team's efforts to upgrade the credibility and use of 3D in education. See my thoughts on the pluses and minuses of this in my Maya note below. We need your help to take advantage of the added interest in educational use of 3D on the Macintosh by giving them an opportunity to gain access to a professional 3D solution. We are developing two programs that need your involvement. Check my Educational Advisory Board and Give 3DJoy to Schools notes to see what you can do. Check the Guest Note to see how a student is helping. We need the help of educators and more students like this to make us effective. Let me know what you can do by emailing me at nick@vidi.com. Another event of importance to the design and educational community is the return of VersaCAD to the Macintosh. I applaud Tom Lazear, President of Archway Systems, on re-acquiring the rights to VersaCAD, upgrading it to support the new Macintosh computers, and bundling 3DJoy for the benefit of engineering and architectural CAD designers, educators, and students. See my note on VersaCAD below and the article in MAC 3D News for more background information. ------------------------------- VersaCAD Returns To The Mac And Supports the Mac 3D Team and 3DJoy The Mac 3D Team and I are happy to welcome Tom Lazear and VersaCAD, a powerful and popular CAD and architectural mainstay in the heyday of 3D on the Mac, back to the Macintosh. . After a long and unfortunate absence, I am happy to announce that not only is VersaCAD returning to the platform, but the company has agreed to be a corporate sponsor of the Mac 3D Team and to bundle, free of charge, the 3DJoy software. Tom Lazear, president of Archway Systems, Inc. and former president of VersaCAD, Inc. has regained the rights to the powerful VersaCAD architectural and engineering drafting program and is bringing it back to the Mac. This move will greatly strengthen the Mac's CAD engineering and architectural capabilities. For more information visit the 3D News section of the Mac3D Team website. To learn about the company and its new efforts, visit their website at . To learn about the Macintosh version of VersaCAD, go to . If your company or you know of a company that might be interested in becoming a corporate sponsor, you can contact me at nick@vidi.com. ------------------------------- The Mac 3D Team Educational Advisory Board It's been a quiet summer for 3D on the Macintosh and for the Mac 3D Team, but we are gearing up to expand our efforts. The Mac 3D Team message that 3DJoy and the Macintosh can help fill the technology gap that exists in the use of 3D within the education community is starting to take hold. The note enclosed below is an indication of this. It is here that the greatest need and growth potential exists for the Mac 3D Team's efforts to upgrade the use of 3D on the Macintosh. The news that a Maya version for the Macintosh will soon be available is great news and hopefully a RenderMan version is not far off. This will provide a professionally accepted 3D solution that has been missing on the Mac. For schools, students and those who can't afford the $7,000 price with yearly support fees, 3DJoy from the Mac 3D Team provides quality 3D modeling and rendering for just a donation to join the Team (see http://www.vidi.com/cd.html). To provide more effective and very inexpensive 3D solutions to the educational community, we are forming an "Educational Advisory Board" consisting of a core group of educational institutions that would serve in an advisory capacity. This board will provide suggestions and support to enable us to reach and serve those schools who interested in adding or upgrading their 3D offering and getting support for the development of instructional materials. These materials will be shared with all schools that elect to be part of the Mac 3D Team effort to upgrade the use of 3D on the Macintosh. I see the efforts of this group helping to improve the services provided by the Mac 3D Team and helping to get the word out to other schools. To those schools selected to participate in the Educational Advisory Board, we will provide each instructor interested in using 3DJoy in a class or lab with a free copy of the full version of 3DJoy and the school will receive a free lab license. If you are a student or instructor at a school interested who is interested in having your school be a member of the Board, send me a note at nick@vidi.com outlining your interest and a background on the current and future uses of 3D instruction at your school. If you know someone in a school who is interested in having their school participate on the Board, have them send me a note outlining their interest and a background on the current and future uses of 3D instruction. ------------------------------- You Can Donate 3DJoy Software To Schools The Mac 3D Team would like to give you an opportunity to provide schools with professional 3D capabilities and possibly mentor the school in using 3D. You can get 3DJoy for yourself and a copy will be sent to an educator and school selected by you. If you join the Mac 3D Team by September 30, we will provide a free membership and 3DJoy CD in your name to the school and educator selected by you. In addition, we hope you will help the school in learning and using the software as your contribution to upgrading the use of 3D on the Mac. ------------------------------- A Note Concerning the Mac Maya Port and Pricing As reported in the 3D News section of the Mac3D Team website, Steve Jobs announced at the Worldwide Developers Conference that SGI intends to port the Maya 3D software to the Macintosh. Recently, SGI announced dramatic price cuts off its Maya 3D software. Maya Complete, available for the Macintosh, will be cut from $7,500 to $1,999; Maya Unlimited, the full-featured version of the app (not available for Mac), goes from $16,000 to $6,999. The new prices go into effect April 4, 2002 worldwide. There is even abundant talk that RenderMan will be made available on the Macintosh. See the MacCentral report on the RenderMan Upgrade for more information With 3DJoy enjoying the reputation for providing the best RenderMan support, this would be of great benefit to existing and future Mac3D Team members. In spite of its lack of a Macintosh interface, I have no doubt that because of the new pricing that Maya will both be readily accepted by many in the professional 3D community that use the Macintosh and that the SGI move will greatly enhance the reputation of 3D on the Macintosh. Another benefit I see coming out of this move is the need and importance for the availability of professional 3D products like 3DJoy will be more fully recognized by the rest of the Macintosh 3D, graphics, education and web design community who want the use and learning benefits provided by products that support the Macintosh look and feel. ------------------------------- Upgrading the Mac 3D Team Site The effort to save VIDI's Presenter 3D from the software graveyard reserved for companies that go out of business produced a powerful 3D product we called 3DJoy which we happily promoted on the converted VIDI site. It, however, also produced a powerful backlash from the professional graphic design and 3D community. The comments ranged from the cutting (like the slash of a knife) to the profane. Cleaned up, the gist of the message was, "How could an effort targeted at upgrading the credibility and use of 3D on the Macintosh be represented by a product with a "toy" name and a loosely designed and organized site bearing the name of a company the was OUB. We hear you and would like your help in doing something about it. If have web or graphic design experience and are interested in helping, contact me at join3dteam@aol.com. The Team also needs volunteers for the positions of News Editor for the 3D News section on the website; a Mac Community Coordinator to keep MUGs, complementary Mac sites, newsgroups, Apple Center and Education staff informed about the Team's efforts and services; and an Education Coordinator to keep schools and Apple Education staff informed about the Team's efforts and services that apply to education. ------------------------------- Guest Notes From Mac 3D Team Members And Visitors To The Website Presented here are views and comments on the Mac 3D Team's efforts to upgrade the use of 3D on the Macintosh. I have received many suggestions to contact Apple, since it is in their best interests to reverse their declining share in the education market. I and others have tried without success. Go to the Comments Area to see what Steve Wozniak and others have said in this regard. If you have suggestions for helping us or views you would to share, you can email me at nick@vidi.com. A sample note from a student interested in upgrading his and his school's 3D capabilities Hello 3D Mac Team! I downloaded the Lite version of 3DJoy yesterday, and just wanted to let you know that I am very impressed with it! I haven't worked with many 3D programs, but the ones I have worked with are very unintuitive and difficult to learn from (not to mention that they cost a small fortune and thus could never own my own copy!) I have been looking for something like this for a while now, so thank you! I am a student at a private art college in St. Paul, Minnesota, called the College of Visual Arts. I would like to have your software installed on the school's systems, and perhaps even get design teachers that I know well to look at your program and see if they would be willing to learn it and teach it. We don't have any 3D applications or degrees at school, so it would be the perfect opportunity to get it established for a low cost to the school. This is the first thing that I can try to do to get 3D applications recognized on the Macintosh. Thank you very much! Jesse TOP BACK