Merlin 3D.(Digital Immersion's CAD software)(Software Review)(Evaluation)

Basic graphics package offers promise

DIGITAL IMMERSION'S Merlin 3D is a basic modeling, rendering, and animation package for Windows users that supports a number of advanced features, such as subdivision surfaces and radiosity rendering. At $595, it is priced for users on a modest budget, and as such it competes with packages such as Caligari's TrueSpace and NewTek's Inspire3D.

Digital Immersion sells Merlin 3D as a standalone package, but you also can purchase it as a bundle with the company's Nav 3D navigation device. Nay 3D is a controller that provides six degrees of freedom, enabling you to manipulate objects in 3D. The Nay 3D device connects to your computer via a standard serial port or USB connection, and operates in tandem with other input devices such as a mouse or tablet.

To use the Nay 3D, you grab the puck-shaped handle on top of the device and move it around. This works pretty well, but it took me a long time to get used to it. The main problem was getting the cursor to move in sync with my hand. With a mouse, you can physically move the cursor at any speed. With the Nav 3D, you push the puck in one direction and the cursor moves at a preset speed. The speed can be varied, but I still found myself going too fast and overshooting my targets or going too slowly and waiting for the cursor to catch up.

Interfaces are a personal choice. Some modelers will love the Nav 3D, but others will stick to the mouse. To its credit, the Nav 3D is the better choice for those suffering from carpal tunnel syndrome. Perhaps users would be best served to follow Digital Immersion's suggestion, which is to employ the Nav 3D primarily to navigate through your scenes, and to use the mouse for fine-motor control tasks such as sculpting.

Merlin 3D works just fine with or without the Nav 3D device. The interface is clean and utilitarian. The software opens with one large perspective viewport, with toolbars along the left and top of the screen. You can configure the viewport for orthographic views, such as top, front, left, and right, and you can switch it to other layouts, such as a four-pane view.

Modeling in Merlin 3D is polygon-based. The software can import objects from a wide variety of formats, including 3DS, OBJ, IGES, and TrueSpace COB. You can export models to 3DS or to Merlin's own format. If you're modeling from scratch, you start off with basic primitives, such as cubes and spheres, and modify them. One nice little feature is the addition of a Profile Editor, ...