Topic: A few questions before taking the plunge.

[Adamo]

Hello,

I've met this software just a few hours ago and got so excited that I'm really thinking of buying it. It is really what I need to make my presentations simple, fast and good looking. I use it 3ds max but since I have a small office and I'm the one who do it all, I can't afford to spend too many time with rendering.

I have a few questions though.

1. Undo feature has been improved in 3.0? There will be any kind of update in the future for 3.0 owners regarding this feature?
2. The licence of the software is linked to the machine or the account? Can I have just one account and use it at the office and at home? (Euros are very expensive for me I can barely afford one licence)
EDIT: Ok, found the answer to that one here: http://lumion3d.com/forum/license-and-installation-issues/read-this-first-about-lumion-3-activation/

3. Today I own a Quadro 2000 as my Graphics card. Is it ok? Will a GTX give better performance? I spent some money on that (unfortunately) and didn't want to lose the investment.

[Gaieus]

Hi Adam,

You can check "high end video cards" 3D performance here:
http://www.videocardbenchmark.net/high_end_gpus.html

Your card seems to be in the mid - or even lower mid range regarding the hardware needs for Lumion. Certainly many GTX cards (even the cheaper range) would be better.

[Morten]

Hi adamopinheiro,

1) The Undo functionality has not changed in Lumion 3. Undo only works for certain actions, for example painting/lowering/raising the terrain or moving/rotating/scaling models. The Undo button will appear after you perform one of those actions. Bear in mind that Undo only stores the last action, not multiple actions.



2) Yes, you're right - you can easily switch between your home and office PCs as long as only 1 Lumion session is running at the same time. Bear in mind that you need a working internet connection when starting and quitting Lumion for the license to be allocated and released correctly.

3) Sorry but your Quadro 2000 does unfortunately not meet the minimum requirements for running Lumion (Check the PassMark section in this post):
http://lumion3d.com/forum/f-a-q/lumion-2-minimum-hardware-requirements/

If you do decide to invest in Lumion and you purchase a fast Nvidia GTX card for this purpose, please double-check that the graphics card is compatible with your PC and that the power supply in your PC is capable of providing sufficient Wattage.

[Gaieus]

...If you do decide to invest in Lumion and you purchase a fast Nvidia GTX card for this purpose, please double-check that the graphics card is compatible with your PC and that the power supply in your PC is capable of providing sufficient Wattage.

Also, note that from the same "brand" of video card, there are often different versions with different memory capabilities. Like GTX 680 with 2 Gb or with 4 Gb ram. Of course the higher the memory, the smoother Lumion will work for you. The price difference is never "double" so once you decide to flash the cash, that small difference should not influence you.

[Adamo]

The Video Card will affect the result of the image quality or just increase the rendering time?

[Morten]

Hello again, adamopinheiro.

This question is answered in section #1 in this FAQ post.

[Adamo]

Thank you Morten!

I must say that your quick response to me and others (as I have noticed in this forum) made me take this decision a lot faster. I just bought it!

We'll be seeing each other often now 

[Morten]

Great to hear that and thanks for your support!

A good place to start is the Tips, Tricks and Shortcuts post - I know it's tedious to have to read all that stuff but you will save a lot of time in the long run.

Let us know how you get on.

If there's something that you find difficult to use or unintuitive as a new user, I'd be grateful if you could post your experiences in the Wish List section of the forum. We're always looking for new ways of making the learning curve less steep.