autodes-sys, Inc, has formally announced its new Bonzai 3D at the National AIA Convention & Exhibition in San Francisco this week. This formal first release sees the legendary formZ modeling and rendering software developer go head-to-head with Google’s popular SketchUp 3D modeling application.
Bonzai 3D promises to take conceptual 3D modeling to a new level by combining the immediacy and ease-of-use of conceptual modeling–popularized by SketchUp–and combine it with serious “modeling head-room” for the architect or designer. Bonzai 3D contains a very robust geometry engine (the same engine that lies at the heart of its much more expensive formZ program). It is combined with a rich array of file format support enabling Bonzai 3D to interoperate with multiple CAD and 3D software packages, including Google’s SketchUp. It supports more than 20 file formats and is directly compatible with its big sister application formZ.
What Makes Bonzai 3D Hot
There are several aspects that make Bonzai 3D a hot application. Firstly, Bonzia 3D looks familiar to anyone who has seen or used SketchUp, utilizing a similar paradigm in user-interface design, marked by simplicity and directness (no more buried tool icons).
Secondly, Bonzai 3D utilizes the same industrial-strength modeling technologies found in formZ, yet advanced and improved with the latest technologies. Thirdly, these powerful functions, like the rich set of Boolean operations, are accessed by a new user-interface (UI) paradigm that will challenge SketchUp on ease-of-use.
Additionally, auto-des-sys, Inc., has gone very far in the direction of ease-of-use by embedding video tutorials directly into the application. The company is clearly taking a lead with this approach, marked by users’ desires to get up to speed with new software faster and master application capabilities without expensive third-party training or instructional materials. In many ways this approach shadows the award-winning video instruction included in Graphisoft’s ArchiCAD BIM product.
Bonzai 3D will support all of these features (partial list):
- Fluid, powerful, smart user interface
- Smart 3D drawing
- All the classic 3D modeling tools
- Real time Booleans
- NURBS and curved surfaces
- Dynamic Graphic Editing
- Advanced OpenGL rendering
- Sculpting Editing Tools
- Graphic Texture Mapping and Editing
- Extensive Texture and Object Library
- Google Earth and SketchUp Compatibility
- Embedded video tutorials
Bonzai 3D will retail for 500.USD. Architects at the AIA show can pick up the new application for a show special price of 299.USD. To learn more visit auto-des-sys, Inc. here.
Architosh will report more on Bonzai 3D in the days ahead.