solidThinking version 8.0 intro to the International Design Community

solidThinking, Inc. has announced the new solidThinking 8.0 to the international design community. A global leader in computer-aided industrial design (CAID) software, solidThinking 8.0 delivers an array of new leading-edge technology across both Mac and Windows platforms. 

“Through our latest release, we offer new ways for industrial designers to enrich and accelerate design inspiration,” said Alex Mazzardo, solidThinking, Inc.’s vice president of product strategy and marketing. “In addition to inviting users to free their minds from technological constraints, solidThinking aims to maximize value and provide cost-saving 3D design solutions.”

Many of the world’s leading brands and companies use solidThinking to design and develop their products, including companies like: Bulgari, Cartier, Diesel, Fujitsu, Merck, Nikon, Toshiba, Volkswagen and Volvo. 

01 - solidThinking version 8. A sample of the incredible realistic rendering quality of a product design-developed entirely within solidThinking.

solidThinking version 8.0

“We have seen a number of companies significantly increase and even double the speed of their product development lifecycles using solidThinking,” added Mario Mazzardo, vice president of product strategy and management. “We are eager to help the global industrial design community realize similar benefits and more, thanks to several new productivity boosting features in version 8.0.”  

Key new features include:

• A completely restyled and more streamlined UI (user-interface) enabling a better workflow
• New 3D manipulators for translation, scaling and rotation of objects
• Enhancements to point, curve and surface representation
• New Interactive Visualization options, including wireframe on shaded model and environmental maps
• Real-time rendering during review and visualization phases of design
• Progressive Rendering for immediate feedback on the final image
• Re-rendering of selected subregions of an existing image
• A new materials library functionality — users can now also setup multiple materials libraries
• Optimized Final Gather for increased rendering speeds and lighting accuracy
• Ambient Occlusion for greater depth, performance and realism in the photorealistic rendering phase
• New complex reflectance shaders for generating lifelike visual elements, including the ability to integrate and create glossy and blurred reflections, frosted glass, car paints, plastic and metallic effects
• High Dynamic Range Imaging (HDRI) capabilities and the ability to create spherical images that can be visualized in the background of perspective views while modeling
• Many smaller features and improvements…

solidThinking 8.0 embodies all of the features that current users love, including its first-glass NURBS-based surface and solids modeling and best-in-class Construction Tree technology. 

Longtime solidThinking customer, Italian design firm, Pininfarina Extra, is extremely impressed with the new solidThinking 8. 

“Every time I start solidThinking, I access a 3D world that makes product design a dynamic and flexible process disclosing new horizons,” said Piero Pifferi, designer CAS and rendering for Pininfarina Extra. “The results are gratifying for both the designer and the customer.”