Polygon Cruncher vs. Meshlab

[krazypoe]

Are there any big differences between Polygon Cruncher and Meshlab? I didn't exactly want to bust out the money for polygon cruncher if meshlab does essentially the same thing.

Any feedback is appreciated! Thanks!

[Ace-Angel]

From what I recall, they integrated the math and code from Polygon Cruncher into Max with ProOptimizer.

So if you have Max, ProOptimizer it is, if not, MeshLab will do just fine.

[malcolm]

Meshlab does a great job, but does not support undo so you literally have to try it, delete your model and start again to iterate. Painful, go with any other solution besides Meshlab if you have the choice and it gives you the same quality optimization.

[bugo]

if you also wanna try something else, Atangeo gets a really nice and clean mesh. It's also VERY fast.

[malcolm]

I should have mentioned Maya's native optimization is not as good as Meshlab. Not sure why.

[r_fletch_r]

if you also wanna try something else, Atangeo gets a really nice and clean mesh. It's also VERY fast.

how does it handle multi million poly models?

[Paradan]

Meshlab does a great job, but does not support undo so you literally have to try it, delete your model and start again to iterate. Painful, go with any other solution besides Meshlab if you have the choice and it gives you the same quality optimization.

but...

it does support layers, so what I do is just duplicate my original layer a few times, then hide all but one, and lock the original. lets me fiddle with settings, etc.

[malcolm]

There are layers in meshlab, had no idea please post a walk through of your workflow.

[bugo]

how does it handle multi million poly models?

Very well, the most I tried was around 8 million.

[Paradan]

view menu > layers dialog
right click on the first layer and select duplicate.

not sure, but I think that even if the layer is hidden and locked it still has to be kept in memory, so i usually just duplicate a few times, or if i'm decimating then ill duplicate incrementally as I go.

[cptSwing]

Softimage's Polygon Reduction tool is cool as well.. does its best to keep quads!

[r_fletch_r]

Very well, the most I tried was around 8 million.

thanks :) that sounds like more than enough for what i need. will give it a look