Are you sure that you don't mix it with the old versions up to 6.6? TS 7, better said the workspace side, is highly customizable.

and finally ....

Wings3D is excellent for starting off with. TruesSpace 7.6 is free and you can use it on college networks (they need to know a few things though) but the interface is "interesting" to say the least. You will require sun glasses.

I can do fairly basic stuff with Blender but Wings3D is definately the place to start. It is so easy yet powerful. There's no animation, which is a pity.

Daz3D is free because they want you to buy their models. It come with a naked women who gradually gets clothed in pants and a sports bra - ready to play volleyball. My wife walked in as I was looking at it and it took some explaining ......

LOL. "It's for school ... really"

Anyone know of an add-on to export TrueSpace to mdl format? Maintaining animations & skin would be a bonus, but not critical.

Mark

Not yet.

What i do for static stuff is to export to OBJ, then load it into Blender and save it to MDL then. You need of course the MDL Plugin for that. This works even better than trying to import the OBJ into MED which nearly always makes trouble.

For Animation we have to wait for the FBX plugin which is in development but not finished yet. I hope it appears in the next few weeks.

I think it's time for an update of the MED. MED cannot read the newest X with its DeclData blocks. Which results in white meshes with destroyed UV mapping. A shame, because the animation arrives. And while at it, Collada support would also be nice

Meanwhile, there is a working art pipeline through Ultimate Unwrap. But UU is unfortunately not freeware. And so i would wait a bit for the FBX plugin