Designing ships

This site has a lot about modeling for Sins, including the necessary needed programs.

ya myfist0 made me aware of it the other day and i completely forgot lol dam uni work, maths maths maths maths electronics electronics electronics etc lol thanks

Softimage|XSI Add-on Scripts and Softimage|XSI  the main two programs i need or should i look for others as well?

Softimage XSI is the program you should use for all the finishing touches, tangents, hooking up textures, hardpoints etc. I don't think it matter what program you use to actually model the shape, other than it needs to be exported to a format XSI can import (.XSI or perhaps better .obj).

what program would you recommend for actually modelling the ships and which format changing program incase the modelling program saves it in a different format and there is not an option for .XSI.

EE?

3ds Max and .obj. Softimage will import .obj without issue.

Yes .OBJ is best and I have not seen a 3d program that cant export to object. Does not export nulls (meshpoints though).

There is no right answer to this, it depends largely on personal preference, how familiar you are with the program, and if you don't already have it how much it costs. 3DS is widely used in the industry, XSI was apparently used by the Sins developers, etc.

Why limit yourself to one single program... each 3D software have they strong and weak side...

As myself, i use wing3d ( free ) for modeling... meshlab  ( free ) for check the model for potential mistake... UVLayout pro ( not free ) for segment/UV optimization... UVviewer ( free ) for create the map template... Gimp ( free ) for texturing... notepad ( free ) for hardpoint... somebody else make the xsi stage because xsi mod tool hate me...

There is a lot of free software and demo of the non-free software... try a lot of them until you found the one ( or these ) that you like...

if by EE you mean engineering then yes im studying aerospace, astronautics, space and technology degree i know its a mouthful lol

ok so use 3ds max is the modeller and can save to .obj type and soft image is the importer. thank you.

well price and user friendly would be the things for me, as this will be brand new to me.

ok ill give it a go

If you can learn Blender right out of the gate, it's free and it will help you in lots of areas aside from Sins but it has a big learning curve of features.  Milkshape (costs) is easy to use but has a lot of quirks and limitations.  Sketchup is free but requires some work and conversion of models to be useful.  Wings 3D is very popular and free and pretty well featured.  A lot of online help is available for it. 

What you first learn will most likely be the thing you tend to stick with.  Choose wisely--it's easier to step down than up in complexity after learning.

gonna go with blender for now and i plan to rape and abuse :- 

http://www.blender.org/education-help/tutorials/

to learn the basics but thank you guys for the tips / suggestions

I actually meant electrical engineering (since you mentioned electronics and math)...but aerospace is just as bad if not worse...of course, once you have the degree, it's worth it....

Very true but yea im in my first year so gotta learn all the basics etc, and at the moment most of what ive bin doing is for electronics / mathematics  coursework / exam revision loving life right about now. 

Softimage. Much better than 3DS Max in my opinion.

i have blender at the moment, xsi soft image wouldnt install, and i couldnt find the trial version for 64 bit win 7. and blender is free

How do you guys actually start the modelling of spacecraft/structures do you just go and play around till u get a look you like or do you have actually blueprints/plans so to speak, if not any of those 2 do you just go from concept art too give you a reference point?

I agree 

Blueprint images can work great in XSI with a display option called Rotoscope. If not just get as many images as you can to get all your angled views.

I've used Blender. Steep learning curve, but great and quick results. If you're looking for something free, more user firendly, but probably fewer overall features than Blender, check out TrueSpace. The download is under 'store' and is free.

Softimage is free.

doesnt work with windows 7 64 bit, otherwise i had that, tryed downloading it several times and i get an install error. and under file information for that download link it says win 32.exe i have 64, you know i can get a 64 bit version or?

I started by making a cube, then making a slightly more complicated cube, then I made something unbelievably deformed and just kinda improved from there.

If you want to get decent, expect six months of training before you can competently do most of the basic techniques. Expect to do this for at least a year before you can try more complicated stuff without spending two days on a two hour job.

Btw, concept art is great if you know what you are doing, and most of the 3D packages have some sort of rotoscope option so you can overlay the concepts in your viewports and work directly over them.

For absolute beginners, I recommend just playing with the software and/or freestyling, at least until you get a solid feel for the interface and tools.

Wise words. I was working on another game with friends and they were doing 3D but didn't have coherent ship concepts. For some things I was able to just throw together concept art and for other things I drew up detailed, measured blueprints. That seemed to work well for them. Again, it's a matter of what you can wrap your head around. Even still, the freestyle play is great for getting to know the tools, learning tricks on the fly, and developing the ability to work without intensive concept art.