New Items in formZ 6.7

Version 6.7 brings general improvements throughout the program. At the top of the list are updates to AutoCAD 2010 DWG and DXF file support and a new version of Spatial’s ACIS modeling geometry kernel which includes support for SAT r19 files.

All users of the Family Plan will receive formZ 6.7 on DVD automatically. The company expects to start sending these updates out by the end of the week. Non-Family Plan members who are current can update for a minimum fee by ordering directly through the AutoDesSys portal.

Bonzai 3D News – More Langauges

AutoDesSys would also like to inform users that bonzai 3D has now bee localized for Italian, German, Spanish, Korean, Chinese and Japanes.

To learn more visit AutoDesSys online here http://www.formz.com/

DAZ 3D and Gizmoz have merged companies recently and are now bringing together DAZ’s 3D technology and Gizmoz’s leading face recognition technology to create the industry’s best personal avatar platform. DAZ 3D has been the software house for DAZ Studio, Bryce, Carrara and Hexagon.

DAZ 3D and Gizmoz join forces to create ultimate personal avatar platform.

With Gizmoz’s photo-realistic head reconstruction technology the two companies can better serve the virtual goods market which is expected to be in the $3 billion dollar range by the end of 2010. To learn more visit them online and read the full press release here.

Unity releases Third Generation of Powerful Game Platform

Unity Technologies has released Unity 3.0, the next generation of its market-leading Unity development platform for 3D interactive content on multiple platforms, including Web, PC, Mac, Wii and iPhone. The company will showcase its latest wares at Game Developers Conference (GDC) this week. (GDC takes place March 9-13, 2010).

Unity and iPad, et al

Unity will be expanding its target platforms for Apple’s new iPad as well as Google Android and Sony Playstation 3. With XBox 360 support announced last year the company’s mantra “Author Once, Deploy Anywhere” vision now includes all major consoles and two of the fastest growing platforms in the mobile space.

Unity 3 with full pixel shaders on iPhone 3GS. The Apple iPhone is fast emerging as the leading most technologically advanced mobile gaming platform in the world.

“Since our first version in 2005, Unity Technologies has been focused on the democratization of interactive 3D and delivering an impressive list of technological advances making it the technology of choice for more than 100,000 developers today,” said David Helgason, CEO of Unity Technologies. For more info.

Spatial Launches Industry Partner Program

Spatial has launched an industry partner program aimed at supporting third-party developers who integrate its Spatial 3D modeling components into their program. Some key customers Architosh readers may recognize include Lightwork Design and T-Splines, Inc.

The program is aimed at bolstering the Spatial community of developers enabling them to understand the technology needs of third-party developers and improving cooperation. An example case is the use of both Spatial technologies with Lightworks. To read the full story go here.

The Interview

AFR: Dr. Sarkar, can you tell me how you went about making the decision on Parasolid, when did this take place?

BS: Back when I joined the company coming from PTC (Parametric Technology Corporation) my focus was on making Vectorworks strong in modeling. At that time we adopted geometric modeling kernel technology from SMLib. In 2002 Gary Crocker, a co-founder of SMLib, broke off from that group and formed IntegrityWare taking his solid modeling libraries with him. We continued to utilize these libraries until our decision a few years ago to look for a better modeling kernel technology.

AFR: So you were using both SMLib and Solids++?

BS: The technology stayed the same, just the companies changed.

AFR: Tell me how you and Sean Flaherty approached your superiors in Munich about the idea of adopting Parasolid. I’m assuming you needed some approval given the cost considerations, right?

BS: Yes…(laughs). Sean and myself went to Munich and broached the subject with the CEO who at that time was a real technology driven person. We didn’t go ask straight out, we brought it up. It turned out they were very interested with this idea.

AFR: So they said go for it….

BS: Absolutely. They are also interested with addressing the same issues we were having in Vectorworks with ALLPLAN.

AFR: So nearly two and a half years ago you did this. Who else was on your short-list…did you look at Spatial’s ACIS?

BS: We looked at ACIS but in the end we believed Parasolid was the better choice. Everyone uses it, it’s even used in ProE and CATIA.

AFR: Wait a minute, doesn’t ProE and CATIA use in-house kernels?

Unlike Autodesk, which bought the rights to extending Spatial’s ACIS modeling kernel and has since went in-house with a new 3D geometry kernel for most of its key CAD technology, Nemetschek North America isn’t big enough to support that kind of development, despite having over 450,000 users worldwide. Most CAD companies license kernel technology from 3D CAD giants like UGS’s Parasolid, Dassault’s Spatial division’s ACIS, IntegrityWare or SMLib. 

We suspect that Nemetschek has embraced Parasolids over ACIS due to Spatial’s issues with keeping pace with Parasolids as well as the not too recent support and embracing of the Mac platform by Parasolids. UGS turned out to be its own mystery customer when it announced Mac Parasolids support back at COFES the middle of this decade. UGS’s NX (Unigraphics) is used extensively by Apple’s internal industry design and product teams. 

If Nemetschek embraces Parasolids, it would likely place VectorWorks in the most advanced standing in the area of advanced modeling as compared to Autodesk and other competitors. Parasolids today is widely seen as the leading modeling kernel on the market.

Details of Version 6

In addition to the underlying ACIS modeling kernel update, which improves blending, chamfering, shelling, Booleans and direct-face modeling editing, ViaCAD 2D/3D V6 also has 200x faster hidden line rendering (on both Mac and Windows) and 6x faster dynamic repaints. This significant boost in visualization with the updating modeling kernel by Spatial Corporation brings further robustness to an already affordable, general and mechanical modeling-capable native Mac 3D CAD application.

Punch

Architecture Focus

Interestingly, Punch Software has decided to also focus ViaCAD 2D/3D on the architectural market as well, providing numerous new 2D tools for architectural drafting. Such new tools feature associated and auto dimensions, automatic healing between neighboring walls, wall, window and door object types, support for custom wall styles where the user can affect the thickness, lines and fill patterns and more.

Lastly, 3Dconnexion’s SpaceNavigator is now fully supported, which will aid 3D navigation when working on both Intel and PowerPC based Macs.

ViaCAD 2D/3D for Mac and Windows retails for 99.00.USD and is available at most Apple Retail Stores, Staples, Amazon and other leading large-box retailers. Punch Software is the fastest growing retail publisher of CAD software in the United States and a leading provider of 2D and 3D design software solutions. To learn more visit them at:

http://www.punchcad.com/