Transitioning from AutoCAD, Solidworks & Inventor to 3DS on the side.

[stevsmith]

Hey guys, I've just downloaded the student edition of 3ds max and it's lying open & doing nothing. I'm looking for some absolute beginners tutorials.

 

I'm not even sure what I would like to do with it

Possibly a few renders from parts created in solidworks, maybe even a few animations.

 

Any recommendations?

 

Cheers.

[Rewind23]

@stevsmith - Firstly, I suggest get yourself familiar with the User Interface through the built-in tutorial under the Help Tab from that tutorial you can start there. It has some pretty basic tutorials(I'm using 2011-probably you have an updated version with updated tutorials) that's how I familiarized myself on using Max and still learning. In case you need to use some features and stuck try posting it here or consult our friend called Google or Youtube. Since you were venturing on rendering parts in Max, there are lots of books out there to consider you might want to try this: http://www.amazon.com/3ds-Arch-Mesa-College-Bundle/dp/0240808932/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1364098846&sr=8-2&keywords=rendering+with+mental+ray+and+3ds+max

 

for basic modeling check this out:

 

for basic animation check this out:

 

let's also wait for Cad64 & other fellow member's suggestion

 

regards & goodluck!

Edited March 24, 2013 by Rewind23

[Cad64]

Rewind's suggestions are all very good. As he mentioned, start with the built in Studio Max tutorials under the Help menu. Then take a look at the free tutorial sites listed here: http://www.cadtutor.net/forum/showthread.php?29434-***Free-Max-Tutorials***. And if you have specific questions or issues, feel free to ask them here in the forum.