Luxology Product Support

A complete list of changes for modo 501 can be found in the comprehensive modo 501 Improvements document (build 40017), modo 501 Service Pack 1 Details (build 40846), modo 501 Service Pack 2 Details (build 41321, r2 41483), modo 501 Service Pack 3 Details (build 42548), modo 501 Service Pack 4 Details (build 43413, r2 43854 for osx), modo 501 Service Pack 5 Details (build 45398), modo 501 Service Pack 6 Details (build 46546)

Current modo owners can download the latest updates from their Registered Products page.

Update: modo 401 Service Pack 5 Details

A complete list of changes for modo 401 can be found in the comprehensive modo 401 Improvements document. (PDF file), modo 401 Service Pack 1 Details (build 31886) and modo 401 Service Pack 2 Details (build 33252), modo 401 Service Pack 3 Details ( build 34083), modo 401 Service Pack 4 Details (build 34686)

The standard content can be downloaded from your My Account -> Registered Products page. Under the modo 501 header you will see 3 numbered steps. Click on Step 2: Install Content. From that location you can download the content installer for your chosen platform.

Yes.

In order to get the best performance out of modo 501, we recommend running on the latest version of Mac OS X (10.6 or later). If you have an earlier version of Mac OS x (10.4/10.5) we highly recommend you use the modo 501 Carbon release for optimal performance.

This is a known issue. Please do the following:

1. Click on Start -> Control Panel -> Administrative Tools -> Local Security Policy
2. Right click on Software Restriction Policies and select New Software Restriction Policies from the popup menu.
3. Left click on Software Restriction Policies, right click on Enforcement, and select Properties from the popup menu.
4. Under Apply Software Restriction Policies to the Following Users: click All Users Except Local Administrators. Click the Apply and OK buttons then Install the SLIK product again.

Adjust it here: System » Preferences » Display » OpenGL » Selection Rollovers.

Windows and OS X now use the same Python version, 2.6.2, and the same Perl version, 5.8.9.

The License Key can be downloaded from your My Account ->Registered Products page (if you are installing the trial version of modo, please go instead to the Productions Evals and Trials page). Under the modo 501 header you will see 3 numbered steps. Click on Step 3: "Generate License Key". Click on "Generate Key" next to the icon for your operating system to download the license and installer onto your computer. Unpack the ZIP or archive file once it is saved to your local system and then follow the install directions below.

Mac OS X users:

1. Unpack the archive file
2. Drag the license file onto the Apple Script icon called "drop modo license on me" located in the same directory.
3. Done, start modo!

Windows users:

1. Unpack the zip file
2. Run the Setup.exe file
3. Done, start modo!

(Note to Windows XP users: Windows XP will display the contents of an archive prior to the file being expanded. If you try to run the installer from this within the zip folder it will not find the license key. You MUST uncompress the archive to a folder before running the installer.)

Please visit the Try modo page for information on the trial version of modo.

For installation questions about the evaluation/trial version of modo, please see the answer immediately above.

Yes. Please make sure you use modo 501 SP1 which contains several improvements for the 64-bit version of modo for Mac OS X.

Yes, modo 501 has built-in support for loading and saving 3DM files, in Service Pack 4 or higher.

A SketchUp (.SKP) importer was developed for modo 302, but is no longer compatible with newer .SKP files. Starting with modo 401 we have moved to a COLLADA importer for interfacing with SketchUp. Google has indicated that COLLADA will be their intermediary format of choice as well. The COLLADA importer is now included in modo 501.

Alternatively if you have SketchUp Pro, you can export as an .OBJ, which can be imported to modo.

modo 501 can import .LXO files from any previous version of modo, but .LXO files created by modo 501 are not backwards compatible with previous versions of modo.

First, you need to create a user account and make sure you express that preference in the sign-up form.

If you are already a Luxology community member and do not get the Newsletter, please go into My Account » Preferences and make sure you have "Subscribe to Luxology Newsletter" checked ON.

Also, make sure your spam filter allows email from luxology.com to arrive in your inbox.

modo’s built in distributed rendering is based on Bonjour. Bonjour comes with every Mac computer and is bundled with the Windows version of modo. You can use a combination of Windows and Mac machines to render across a network. Once a Bonjour connection is working between your master computer and other workstations that have modo running in “Slave” mode, modo will show the buckets being computed by other computers as different colors in the render window on the Master system.

modo can also be run in a headless or command line fashion, which can be handy for rendering.

The built-in network rendering in modo is best suited to fewer large frames that take a long time to render, and is especially useful when rendering large stills. The biggest gains with modo’s built-in network rendering will be for high resolution images that are dominated by bucket rendering time (as opposed to pre-pass time), such as scenes using non-cached indirect illumination, blurry reflections, depth of field, subsurface scattering, complex refraction, etc.

If you have lots of small, fast frames to render the built-in network rendering is not ideally suited for this. These are best rendered with a conventional “one frame per processor” render controller from a third-party, such as the ones from GwynneR, Paul Lord and others. These control modo in a more conventional manner, where each instance of modo/modo_cl is operating independently of the others, but in unison with a controller that divvies out specific frames for each individual machine.

Yes, for a $100 fee the original person who purchased the software from Luxology or an authorized reseller can contact Luxology and arrange to have the serial number transferred to a new account. The $100 fee is per each serial number to be transferred, and no transfer is available for educational, student or NFR licenses of modo. The person transferring their license will need to send an email to Luxology confirming that they have completely removed modo from their computer, hard drives or any other storage device and have destroyed any backup copies of modo they have made. This can only be done one time, by the original purchaser of modo. All license transfers are at the discretion of Luxology.

All Kits will eventually be compatible with modo 501. Please check this page to determine whether the Kit you are interested in is currently available for use with modo 501. Some Kits have separate downloads for modo 501. If you have modo 501 and purchase a new Kit from the Store, please select the modo 501 version of the Kit when you download it.

Yes, there are two minor things we have discovered in testing; You can no longer orbit in the camera view when using the perspective camera functionality in the Spherical Camera Assembly. In addition, we have seen odd behavior when using Channel Haul coupled with camera viewport navigation without dropping the Hauling tool.

Refer to the modo 401 Action Center reference sheet (downloadable PDF) courtesy of Matt Gorner.