Tim Olson, president of Evolution Software, informed Architosh that ViaCAD is now at version 10 with many new powerful features.
ViaCAD 10
ViaCAD isn’t a CAD product range that makes a lot of noise in the blogosphere or with splashy press releases, but the product has been around since the Macworld Expo days in SF—well over a decade—and Olson is a CAD software veteran with extremely deep expertise going all the way back to the days of leading development at Lockheed Martin’s internal CAD programs in the early 1980’s. In other words, while perhaps little known, ViaCAD and its sister app Shark, have some serious CAD chops.
ViaCAD and Shark as well are both based on Spatial Corporation’s ACIS modeling kernel architecture and new in version 10 is support for the very latest ACIS 2017 kernel, with includes features for multithreaded translators and meshing.
01 – ViaCAD 10 includes three products from 2D only to a pro-level but affordable Mac and Windows CAD product with ACIS 2017 geometry kernel at its heart.
Another major new update is support for KeyShot Live Linking in ViaCAD 10. KeyShot is a real-time rendering solution popular within the industrial and auto design industries, among others. With live linking, users can quickly export their models and paper-space layouts with viewports of their models directly to KeyShot where they can add materials and render them. Because the two programs are “live linked” one can go back to ViaCAD 10 and make changes and they automatically update back in KeyShot.
ViaCAD 10 also supports 3D PDF export along with full SketchUp 2016 import/export. But perhaps the big new items, along with those core technologies mentioned above, include its growing robustness at dovetailing with 3D printing workflows. ViaCAD 10 includes several 3D print tools like surface normals, thickness, overhang, and general print checks. The latest version also includes more subdivision surfaces modeling tools.
A Bit More About ViaCAD
ViaCAD 10 has performance boosts with its 64-bit support, multithreaded meshing, and its translators (used for going between MCAD products). The program has solid industry-standard interoperability features working with IGES, STEP, and SAT, as well as other formats like SketchUp, AutoCAD DXF/DWG, Rhinoceros, STL, 3DS Max, Adobe Illustrator, 3D-PDF and more.
This video shows the new KeyShot Live Linking support in ViaCAD 10.
ViaCAD also supports an optional PowerPack, an add-on, that provides additional productivity tools used to validate and repair models for 3D printing as well other tools. Some of the new PowerPack features include Unroll Surface, BitMap to HeightField Mesh, and Select Same functions.
ViaCAD 10 includes access to 90 minutes of training videos, plus free email/phone support. ViaCAD 10 comes in three versions starting at ViaCAD 2D, ViaCAD 2D/3D, and ViaCAD Pro for Mac and Windows platforms. Prices start at $39.99.USD and rise to $249.99.USD.
To learn more visit PunchCAD online here.