Architosh Staff (info@architosh.com)

15 Jan 2004

 

Macworld Expo CAD/3D/AEC Summary - Part 2

Part 2- 3D at Macworld Expo

Alias

Let's start from the top. Alias was at Macworld and their big announcement for the show was the return of their successful Maya Productivity Pack. Additionally they announced the New Maya Explorer Bundle. The Maya Productivity Pack includes Maya Complete 5 software with 90 days of support from Alias and includes extensive self-paced learning tutorials. The cost is $2,198US. The Maya Explorer Bundle includes six of Alias' best selling Learning Tools from the Learning Maya 5 series. The price is $199US.

Abvent

Abvent was in AEC Alley next to Piranesi and @Last Software. They were primarily showing their Art-lantis 4.5 3D rendering and animation software as well as their new PhotoCAD (see first page). Abvent is also a distributor for SketchUp and the company has an Art-lantis-SketchUp bundle. Click here on their website for more info. The two products together are $695.US, which is 30 percent off.

For those that don't know, Abvent makes a number of products so we'll summarize them for you below:

• Art-lantis 4.5 - A leading stand-alone photo-realistic rendering and animation program. It is compatible with nearly a dozen leading CAD programs from Autocad, ArchiCAD to VectorWorks. In addition there are several plug-in versions of this software for more direct use with various CAD software.
• AV Works - is a software plug-in for ArchiCAD which enables Artlantis rendering technology directly inside one of the leading building information modeler (BIM) applications on the market.
• PhotoCAD - This is a new and innovative application that we think architects are going to love. We were very impressed with the booth demo, in particular how easy it was to work with. It's a very attractive Mac OS X application with native Aqua interface.
• ZOOM and ZOOM GDL - This multi-purpose modeler has been on the market for quite some time. Not too long ago they introduced the ArchiCAD GDL version which adds market purpose for this application. ZOOM has been updated to Mac OS X in the latest version and there are some screen shots here for you to look at.

auto-des-sys Inc.

auto-des-sys Inc. was at Macworld showing formZ version 4. Their booth was very busy the entire time we were there and we are not surprised. The company has recently delivered a new version (4) which adds full native Mac OS X support and numerous goodies like network rendering, parametrics, and multiprocessor support. Additionally, formZ 4.x adds support for plugins thereby enabling third-party and end-user support for additional functionality.

Just after the show the company announced that formZ 4.1 is shipping, which is great news for those version 4 users. Just a note: Architosh will be publishing a review of formZ 4 in less than a months time.

@Last Software Inc.

@Last Software was at the show for -- we believe -- their second time and the company was doing some great business. There were lots and lots of interest in the award-winning SketchUp. By the way, this company's main web address is www.sketchup.com (the company name doesn't work). This product is very much directed at the AEC market but they told us that they are seeing interest in SketchUp coming from other sectors including things like theater set design, trade booth design and other related environmental design. They also said they are seeing increasing interest in this product by landscape architects. SketchUp is priced at $475US for electronic download. The latest version is 3.1.

The big news, or part of the big news for these guys at Macworld Expo was that they were showing the new plugin architectures and support for third party applications. It is possible to export out directly into Piranesi EPIX format. You can also take your SketchUp work into Artlantis for more advanced rendering.

Lastly, SketchUp now has an ArchiCAD plugin. This plugin allows the direct import of SketchUp models into ArchiCAD's model-centric environment. When this happens the SketchUp faces automatically convert into ArchiCAD entities.

Informatix Software

Newcomer to the Macintosh 3D rendering space is Piranesi. Informatix was in booth 1543 right dead in the middle between Abvent and @Last Software. Piranesi was being shown interoperating with SketchUp and Artlantis 4.5. Piranesi has only been on the Mac OS X platform since September but the company has a strong showing at Macworld Expo, with many people deep checking out the good demos of the software. Piranesi is often referred to as Photoshop for architects.

Eovia

Eovia was not positioned in the unofficial AEC Alley space we spoke of but the company's booth was very busy nonetheless (see photo pages for some pictures of the large screen showing off Amapi and Carrara Studio). Eovia was showing Carrara and Amapi on a large screen and their major announcement was a new Poser plugin for Carrara Studio 3.

The Poser Transporter is a full-featured plugin to dynamically import animated Poser 5 figures into Carrara Studio 3. According to the company, users of Poser and Carrara Studio 3 will soon be offered with the perfect tool to import and manipulate Poser 5 scenes in Carrara Studio 3. The Poser Transporter plugin is expected to be available for the Mac OS X and Windows platforms within the end of Quarter 1, 2004.

REALVIZ

The REALVIZ folks were on hand to demonstrate their products, among them includes a product called ImageModeler. This product is similar to the PhotoCAD product by Abvent but includes more modeling functionality. Architosh reviewed ImageModeler 3.5 not too long ago. This is a good product to compare against Abvent's PhotoCAD.

Closing Comments

Macworld Expo had lots to see if you are Macintosh 3D user. We were totally delighted to walk around finding everyone's booth jammed with people curious to learn about doing 3D on the Macintosh platform. It was a great time. Next year we hope to see even more companies at the event. In particular all of the following companies have attended Macworld Expo in the past or should attend even if they haven't attended in the past. Missing from this year but should attend next are:

• NewTek Inc. (makers of LightWave 3D)
• Strata Inc. (makers of Strata 3Dplus and pro versions)
• BOA Research (makers of the most advanced 3D workplane technology in AEC)
• Electric Image (makers of Universe 5 and the legendary EIAS)
• Pixar Inc. (makers of RenderMan, now for Mac OS X)
• Autodesk Inc. (makers of future things we think may make it to the platform?)

We would love to see Apple encourage more 3D and visualization vendors to attend Macworld Expo in SF and to maybe even host a 3D rendering and animation contest and gallery. That would be an awesome event!

If you would like to comment on this page (or any of our Macworld Expo pages) please write the editor at: afrausto@architosh.com

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