Two weeks back we had the opportunity to see solidThinking Inc.’s new solidThinking Inspired 8.5 with an evolution of its morphogenesis technology. We spoke with Alex Mazzardo, one of company’s co-founders about the technology, along with Andy Bartels of solidThinking Inc., who gave us a live product demo.
The latest version of solidThinking has over 900 improvements, ranging from small user-interface changes and workflow improvements to significant new features and capabilities in both the core product and the Inspired version with morphogenesis technology.
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solidThinking 8.5, we will remind readers, is one of the world’s top class-A NURBS modeling programs. As Alex Mazzardo noted, “solidThinking is a real idea generator that promotes innovation due to its powerful modeling, easy-to-use rendering environment and interoperability with leading engineering applications.” The product is aimed at product designers, industrial designers, style centers, marketing departments and architects and engineers.
New Capabilities
Version 8.5 is now a faster modeler, with up to 3x performance speed. Loading time with models, especially larger complex models, is halved. Frames per second shading of the model in real-time is 3x faster and select and deselect are quicker as well. There is a new improved Round tool, in most other similar applications known as a fillet tool. With the improved Round tool you get better handling of overflow and overlapping rounded surfaces, plus advanced options for shape control. (see image 01)
01 - solidThinking 8.5 has a new and improved round tool, with advanced options for dealing with overlapping rounded surfaces.
Another new feature is a new Face Extraction tool, for the creation of new faces from existing objects. There are now more snap shortcuts and construction aids, including a revised snap to tangent tool. These all make modeling faster and easier.
A new feature we really liked was the three-level selection methodology. Now in solidThinking 8.5 the first double-click on an object selects objects. A second double-click allows you to access parameters for those objects, and a third double-click allows you to edit vertices or control points.
The user-interface has been simplified for better navigation and scene organization. It is now possible to visualize if the selected objects are part of some groups in the Hierarchy Browser. And there is new and improved selection technology through the use of selection filters with the ability to sort for curves, surfaces, polymesh and pointmesh, et cetera, as well as clarifying selection of dependent and source objects for easier scene organization.
Better Rendering in solidThinking 8.5
One of the largest areas of improvement in solidThinking 8.5 is in the area of rendering. The accuracy of lighting is a major improvement and this includes its progressive, real-time rendering as well. (see images 02-03) In 8.5 there are new real-time photorealistic rendering options integrating raytracing and progressive rendering.
02 - solidThinking 8.5 has a greatly improved real-time rendering functionality, plus improved photorealistic rendering.
New reflection catcher technology adds a reflection below the model in a photorealistic rendering when the model is added to a back plate image. A new improved algorithm improves anti-aliasing in final renders and there is improved support for the calculation of indirect lighting.
03-solidThinking's interactive rendering shows improved handling of light.
You can play with this Flash-based web page to see the difference in rendering quality between version 8 and version 8.5 of solidThinking. Go ahead, we encourage you to explore this interactive graphic. For exploring the difference between version 8 and 8.5 with regard to anti-aliasing go to this page here. The difference is quite dramatic in this particular sample image.
New in version 8.5 are pre-built interior sets and ready-to-render lighting setups. This pre-setup work is very helpful to designers looking to quickly drop their model into an environment and do quick renders for study and evaluation. (see image 04)
04 - new pre-built sets with ready to go lighting help designers quickly test their models in fully rendered environments.
And the render materials library has been enhanced in solidThinking 8.5 with more than 300 new apply-and-render materials with default settings optimized for best rendering results. In an era where there is increased development activity in the area of simplified and instant photorealistic rendering, this new library enhancement is a timely response.
Next page: CAD Connections and Inspired 8.5 >
CAD Connections
Finally, operability is always a critical issue in CAD and 3D workflows and version 8.5 improves here as well. As Mazzardo said, “we have added many new industry standard CAD file formats from the best software in the product design and engineering market. We can now directly import key formats like Catia v4 and v5, SolidWorks, Pro/ENGINEER and many others.”
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New formats include direct import of H3D, SAT (ACIS), Catia v4/v5, Parasolid (x_t and x_b), Pro/ENGINEER, SolidWorks, and UGS NX.
“Other programs require additional costs for these import/export translators,” said Mazzardo. “With solidThinking 8.5 you get all of these at no extra cost.”
New export capability includes Parasolid native format (x_t and x_b). And finally there is improved import and export for IGES, STEP and STL formats.
solidThinking Inspired v.8 with morphogenesis
When solidThinking, Inc. added their morphogenesis technology in version 8 we were very excited to see its implications on architectural and industrial design. Andy Bartels of solidThinking, Inc. gave us demo and touted its new features. Of these, the most important one, in our opinion, is the ability to apply the morphogenesis algorithms on separate parts of a model.
05 - New morphogenesis technology in solidThinking Inspired 8.5 allows for the separate application of generative technology algorithms on separate parts known as design spaces and non-design spaces.
The reasons for doing this are many. Right of the bat, if you are designing an object, like say a bridge, you may want to focus the “generative” technology on just the structural parts of the bridge. (see image 05) Furthermore, you may want to apply the morphogenesis technology to just various parts at various degrees of influence. (see images 07-08)
06 - Another view of solidThinking Inspired 8.5
07 - the top zone in white is a non-design space object inside Inspired, thus the forces applied to model via the morphogenesis algorithms will not apply this form but pass through it.
08 - The result of a morphogenesis calculation. Slider scales allow the user to alter the "generative effect" or deformation of a part.
One question we had right away was answered quickly by Bartels. “You can apply morphogenesis technology to parts of the model that are non-contiguous. For instance, in this chair (image 07) there is a middle zone (lighter color) which could be assigned to be omitted in the morphogenesis calculation. It would thus pass forces and generative effects through the object to only those parts that are selected to be affected by the generative technology. The net result is an example like this, where the top part of the chair was omitted from morphogenesis calculation. (see image result 08)
Parts are defined as “design” and “non-design” in Inspired. If non-design then morphogenesis doesn’t touch them.
Other improvements include the ability to calculate in pounds now. There is also the ability to allow the user to take in many different parts and rearrange them within Inspired using new smart snaps technology. (see image 09)
09 - Inspired 8.5 supports multiple parts snapping technology, which helps with quick third-party assemblies and assignment of design space or non-design space to overall assemblies.
This last feature is very useful in the iterative design process. A user may get unexpected results coming out of the morphogenesis calculations and want to bring in new models to test out. With this ability of part assembly using smart snaps a user can do this easily on a part-by-part basis.
There is also new push and pull modeling capabilities for turning 2D sketches into 3D design spaces. You can also measure static weight distribution of parts or assemblies on supports.
solidThinking and solidThinking Inspired 8.5 continue to evolve. As a product for use within civil engineering and architecture Inspired 8.5 has become more useful with its new updates, especially the parts snapping and multi-part application of the generative algorithms.
To learn more about solidThink and solidThinking Inspired 8.5 go here: www.solidthinking.com. You will also find more information in the Related Article links (below) and in our Cloud Tag at right.