DisenchantmentWell, I hate to say it, but I am rapidly becoming more and more disenchanted with the Sweethome3d program. I have 3 computers and have been fighting to get the program to run properly on even one of them.
Computer One: An old Dell GX270 running Windows XP Pro. Two years ago, I installed the program and it ran just fine (a few bugs - no copy and paste function - but I was able to render out some nice pics). Then I uninstalled it a year ago. Recently reinstalled it, but now it won't even start up.
Computer Two: A Dell Inspiron Laptop. Also older, running Windows Vista. The program loads and runs, but is god-awful slow. It's literally taking me about 4 to 5 days to render out a single image. And that's when it doesn't simply abort and dump everything after 4 days of rendering. After waiting 4 freaking days to see the finished image, seeing the render screen go blank...arrrgggghhhh! And as far as animations go, Half of the objects in my scene are blinking in and out of existance in the finished animations which is very frustrating.
Computer Three: A Dell Dimension 8400 also running Windows XP Pro. Yes another older computer, but newer than the other two and more powerful with more resources. Problem. The program either refuses to start up. I finally have to use the Java Web Start. Even then, 3 out of every 4 times, I get an error message saying to update my video card drivers. Impossible since I have the newest drivers now. Then it tells me to download and install directx. Been there, done that. On about every 4th attempt the program actually loads. I can render still images (although still very slow), but video animations are out of the question. My video card either goes into convulsions constantly resetting itself until finally my screen goes completely black forcing me to reboot. Or the render process starts but never actually produces any frames. Or...the render process starts and produces frames but then freezes about mid-way through the procedure. End result - no animation.
Between all three computers, over the span of the last 3 weeks, I've been able to produce 1 still image, and 1 animation with multiple glitches. This is unacceptable.
I am just about at the point of ceasing to use Sweethome3d for anything but floor plans and then exporting them in object format and doing all my rendering in Blender. I hate this option because I love the ease and simplicity of the program, and when it works it does produce lovely images.
Not really expecting any solutions here. Just venting.
