Hey rcheltrvel,
I too am new from MC. Actually, as I mentioned in another post, I'm in the process of switching over.
Since I'm also new, I don't have solid answers to your questions. But here's what I've discovered over the last month of using 3DCart.
1) On the product details page, is it possible to just roll over a thurmbail and have the large product image change? Right now you have to click on each photo to get it to change. I assume I can just go into the script and change it from "onClick" to "onMouseOver" but I wanted to check that there was not some template or functionality built into the card to do this first.
I'm not exactly sure about this, but when I asked about making changes to this feature, I was told by someone at tech support that I could probably find a script online that would allow me to do what I wanted to do with the image. I was able to find something at
www.dynamicdrive.com
2) Is there anything built into the program to be able to add a link with a pop up for sizing charts? If not, can I just add that? How would I do so (file wise)?
I'm actually searching for the same answer on this one. But I do know that you can add a link from Products>View/Edit. On the actual edit product page you click on the "Options" tab and then "Info" under Actions. You can then enter a URL for a popup window that is displayed as a "?" next to the product option on that particular product page on your website. What I'm trying to find out is how to add custom text with a link. So perhaps this is not exactly what you're looking for either. But if I come across the answer or figure it out, I'll be sure to post it here.
3) Product details page... is there only one basic layout we have to choose from? Playing around with the 10 templates, they all seem basically the same. Is there any template where you can have the photo to the left with the product options and add cart to the right with then the description under that? Or is this something I will have to move around myself on the html / template page?
I found the same thing (one basic layout). So, basically I ended up having to create my own product page. Once I studied the templates, figured out what to do, and started with my design in place - it was pretty simple to create. Here's a link to one of my product pages (I'm still working on the site and tweaking things. It's also not live yet).
https://scribetime.3dcartstores.com/...p_43-334.html#
You can also see a couple of other things that I refer to in this post (i.e. the image thumbnail script that I got from Dynamic Drive and the "?" next to the product options)
If you decide to create one yourself, post your questions here and hopefully between me and some of the others who have done this can help answer some or all of them. I was amazed at how you can pretty much do anything once you have the right code in the place.
4) Is there a way to hide the shopping cart even when there are items in it? My current website at monster ecommerce has just a icon in the top right of a shopping cart and when a customer click on that, they come to a shopping cart page. Can I do that? Is that a function that is built into the system?
I'm not sure about this one either. Did you check under Settings>General>Store Settings? There are a couple of options there for Hiding or Viewing the Shopping Cart.
Best wishes!