3d mapping?

[danjr]

Well I am a huge Suzail of the Forgotten Realms buff and have always wanted to render a cheesy diorama of the city.
I've played with a few a long time ago, but nothing really met my needs. Anyone know of a free, easy way to add in basic structures? I am playing with Bryce 7 right now, but that seems a bit over the top for what I want.

Any thoughts?

[RecklessEnthusiasm]

Check out Sketchup, for sure. Google it: it is free and has tonnes of tutorials. It is specifically designed so that newbies can intuitively build 3D models.

[Gidde]

What RE said. I'm a complete newbie with 3d stuff as well, and I'm finding SketchUp to be very easy to use. It also has a ton of cool user-donated free models of castles and things.

[Katto]

Forget Bryce 7. It is unstable, always throws exceptions and crashes. I've kicked it from my HD and try now the Vue PLE Version.

[danjr]

I did download Googlesketch, but am unsure whether it can render a whole environment. I'll goo look that the Vue PLE. Thanks for that info.

[Crayons]

Sketchup looks pretty good and does have a library of buildings around but you are likely limited to "private use" unless you spent time researching any copyright issues. I did a while back and couldn't find anything. So the stuff is copyright, by default. I couldn't see any global site rules about it.
That said, I will just go and do an unashamed bump! of a thread I started a while back with a progress update as my excuse. It's essentially a begging thread anyway!

[danjr]

Beging thread? Seriously lost me there.

[Crayons]

My thread I've just bumped. Here
(Not yours ! If you misunderstood! Sorry!)

[danjr]

OK the context lost me, that's why I questioned it with ? Didn't want to come across as aggressive and misunderstanding.