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Amapi Pro 7.5 and Amapi Designer 7 family of software ?

Omega ManOmega Man Posts: 76
edited December 2019 in Hexagon Discussion

I realise these are old software, but I understand they used to be bundled with Carrara at one time.  Is there any chance I can get hold of these today anywhere, or were they ever released free in a magazine (with the serial number) ?  I am intrigued by some of the old reviews and wonder if "less is more" in some ways compared to some of todays modelling software.  Thanks for any input.

Post edited by Omega Man on

Comments

  • DartanbeckDartanbeck Posts: 21,548

    I've seen copies floating around (boxed software) at Amazon. Not sure about magazine freebies.

    I've recently learned that the link to download 3dXtract e-zines is now defunct. Bummer. While it didn't have Amapi software freebies, it did have a few tutorials, which came with working files, etc.,

    I wonder if Hexagon was a replacement for Amapi in Eovia's eyes? Hexagon has that elegant, solo-purpose design and has that cool interface that we grow accustomed to with Poser, Carrara and Bryce.

  • DartanbeckDartanbeck Posts: 21,548

    Hmmm... Amapi 3D 6.1TE Free Trial Download

     

  • DartanbeckDartanbeck Posts: 21,548
    edited December 2019

    3dXtract e-zine was in the Carrara 3 and 4 days and was for Carrara and Amapi users. I'm glad I downloaded it while it was available. One day I'd like to see if I can contact the authors and gain permission to host the download. It's a treasure trove that should not be lost.

    (image is a screenshot I took of one of the issues)

    Post edited by Chohole on
  • Omega ManOmega Man Posts: 76

    Thanks for your insights Dart.  You mentioned Hexagon and it does indeed appear that it has inherited some sort of Amapi DNA.  I wonder if it is against the rules to also ask in the Hexagon part of forums ?  Thanks again.  smiley

  • WendyLuvsCatzWendyLuvsCatz Posts: 38,200

    you can move your thread enlightened

  • WendyLuvsCatzWendyLuvsCatz Posts: 38,200

    https://archive.org/details/tucows_196100_Amapi_3D

    dunno if this is any different to the Tucows download 

  • Omega ManOmega Man Posts: 76

    As suggested I've just moved this thread from Carrara to this Hexagon forum.

    Did anyone ever buy the above Amapi versions and might consider selling please ?  Or does anyone have any user tales of Amapi, eg is Hexagon's Dynamic Geometry feature every bit as comprehensive as Amapi 7 ?

  • rk66rk66 Posts: 438

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amapi

  • rk66rk66 Posts: 438

    Here the data sheet > www.videostation.info/produkte/amapi75_datasheet.pdf

  • ShawnDriscollShawnDriscoll Posts: 375
    edited December 2019

    3DArtist and 3DWorld had issues with Hexagon 1.21 CDs. I think they have merged together by now. Maybe old issues can be bought on Ebay. I don't remember seeing Amapi 7.x anywhere for free. Amapi Pro 7.51 was $150 when eFrontier was still a thing. It died with them. I still use both programs for my modeling.

    Post edited by ShawnDriscoll on
  • Omega ManOmega Man Posts: 76
    edited December 2019

    Shawn, thanks very much - your input is always appreciated.  I did discover that Amapi 5 was apparently bundled with Carrara 3 Pro, and the subsequent Carrara 4 Pro had Amapi Designer 7.  All rare as anything now.  Makes me wonder what happened to all the sold software of that era, if people are still using them like yourself  or just moved on and threw them away. Oh well..... laugh

    Post edited by Richard Haseltine on
  • ShawnDriscollShawnDriscoll Posts: 375
    edited January 2020

    I can't remember when, but there was a time when Carrara was kind of inbetween Fractal Design and Eovia. I upgraded to a version of Eovia Carrara (there was an Eovia Corp. building in my neighborhood at the time) which had a coupon sale for Eovia Amapi Designer 7. AD7 was the first program I ever used for polygon modeling. I used Carrara just for renderings because I could never figure out how to model with it. The same was for RayDream Designer and Studio. Just used them for rendering.

    Then I updated to Amapi Pro 7.1 and then 7.5.

    7.5 is to 7.1 what Hexagon 1.21 is to 1.01.

    Anyway, Amapi Pro 7.5 has all the NURBS tools that I still use today. Plain and easy to use. Not as robust though as say Moi, Rhino, or ViaCAD Pro can do NURBS. But AP75's GUI is way more intuitive than the other modelers. Hexagon can do circles around Amapi though as far as polygon modeling is concerned. But Hexagon can't do NURBS at all. I use Hexagon for all my non-NURBS modeling. Whichever modeler I use, I export stuff out as OBJ into whatever renderer I use.

    Post edited by ShawnDriscoll on
  • Patrick210Patrick210 Posts: 20

    I have a copy of Amapi 8.0 (public beta 4 build 27) that someone sent me - can't remember who. It was put out by "e frontier" in 2007. It's actually a pretty good version, but I had gotten used to Hexagon and never used it much.

  • Omega ManOmega Man Posts: 76
    edited January 2020
    Patrick210 said:

    I have a copy of Amapi 8.0 (public beta 4 build 27) that someone sent me - can't remember who. It was put out by "e frontier" in 2007. It's actually a pretty good version, but I had gotten used to Hexagon and never used it much.

    Patrick210 - now that's what I call rubbing it in...laugh  I'm soo envious, would certainly love to have one of those...  smiley

    From what I can make out, Amapi 6 was the last version which came in a box with a printed manual, but went to download only at version 7.  I'm still not clear what the reasoning was for splitting into Designer and Pro versions, as I believe even the file suffix was different and not cross compatible...

    Post edited by Omega Man on
  • ShawnDriscollShawnDriscoll Posts: 375
    edited January 2020

    Amapi 8 looked really cool.

    My Amapi Pro 7 came with a book. Eovia was big on books. I have a Hexagon book.

    Post edited by ShawnDriscoll on
  • Omega ManOmega Man Posts: 76
    edited January 2020

    Did the serial number come enclosed in the Amapi boxed versions or was there some cumpulsory registration process required ?  There are versions of Amapi 3D free in old PC and 3D magazine issues, but no sign of any serial number, so the software just stalls in demo mode.  A couple of older version boxes have been on Ebay recently, but expensive, and it is not clear the serial number would be inside.

    Post edited by Omega Man on
  • ShawnDriscollShawnDriscoll Posts: 375
    edited January 2020

    The serial numbers are on the disc sleaves.

    Post edited by ShawnDriscoll on
  • ShawnDriscollShawnDriscoll Posts: 375

    Just installed Carrara Pro 5.1, Hexagon 1.21, and Amapi Pro 7.51 on my brand-new Windows 11 computer. All three run much better than they did on my old Windows 7/10 computers.

  • Omega ManOmega Man Posts: 76

    ShawnDriscoll said:

    Just installed Carrara Pro 5.1, Hexagon 1.21, and Amapi Pro 7.51 on my brand-new Windows 11 computer. All three run much better than they did on my old Windows 7/10 computers.

    Thanks for reporting Shawn.  Do you feel it is because your new machine is more powerful or because Windows 11 is somehow more "smoother" than 10 ? 

  • ShawnDriscollShawnDriscoll Posts: 375
    edited October 2023

    Windows 11 seems optimized, GUI-wise. Whereas Windows 10 just seemed bolted onto Windows 7. Windows 7 being the clunky 64-bit-er with dated GUI.

    Windows 11 treats legacy apps (ca. 2005) with respect, as though written for Windows 11. My Carrara Pro 5.1 has 32 buckets being thrown at it for rendering.

    Post edited by ShawnDriscoll on
  • Omega ManOmega Man Posts: 76

    ShawnDriscoll said:

    Windows 11 treats legacy apps (ca. 2005) with respect, as though written for Windows 11. My Carrara Pro 5.1 has 32 buckets being thrown at it for rendering.

    Very interesting.  Carrara 5 is 32 bit I believe.  So does running on Windows 11 mean that Carrara 5 (and other 32 bit software) is now free from the RAM limitations of being merely 32 bit ?

  • WendyLuvsCatzWendyLuvsCatz Posts: 38,200

    how about Bryce?

    on Win11

    I am on Win10 and it's still slow as molasses cheeky

    I have a crap CPU though too

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