However, there is one significant problem with very mature parametric CAD engines, and that is they were not designed for the AI era. They only understand computer-human input from the pre-AI era and cannot comprehend new types of inputs associated with AI and soon-to-be Agentic AI. Furthermore, parametric CAD limits the user to a preset degree of detail (from conceptual to highly detailed and dimensional) and cannot easily transition between these levels.

The first AEC-related AI foundation model sits in Forma Building Design today. The neural CAD engine enables users to rapidly move from design concept models to detailed building layouts and structural systems quickly and to iterate. (click for larger view)

Imagine if a new tool enabled rapid and iterative workflows that allowed users to explore and test ideas quickly at scale. It could then scale up these iterative tests from conceptual, rough, and approximate forms to highly detailed, dimensional versions, all within the same tool. And imagine if users could input a generative CAD system with voice-text commands, hand sketches, and images simultaneously?

Neural CAD Engines

All of this is possible, but only with neural CAD engines. Autodesk announced the existence of two neural CAD engines, one with a geometry focus aimed at the D&M workflow with Autodesk Fusion and the other with a building logic, structural, and spatial focus aimed at the AEC workflow with Autodesk Forma Building Design.

Now Autodesk asks us to imagine the following scenario:

Autodesk demonstrated the early workings of such a scenario. Using voice for input, Autodesk’s new AI foundation models (neural CAD engines) were able to ingest spoken language instruction and free-hand sketch input for the design of a chair, also pairing instructions that came in the form of a picture of a chair that had aspects the user wanted to see in their neural CAD engine-generated (generative AI) based design.

Beyond LLMs

This is moving far beyond just pairing large language models (LLMs) with existing solutions. Autodesk’s approach for the next level of AI innovation is a complete re-architecting of the traditional CAD engines behind tools like Forma, Revit, Fusion, Civil3D, AutoCAD, and more.

These new neural CAD engines are capable of creating CAD geometry from a multi-input system-level approach. At the same time, unlike the 3D graphics that today’s AI systems, such as ChatGPT, can produce, Autodesk’s new neural CAD engines generate CAD geometry that is fully editable using traditional parametric CAD inputs as well.

In terms of architecture, Autodesk’s new neural CAD AI foundation models (aka: neural CAD engines) currently consist of one dedicated to the future of Forma. It is already forming the basis of Forma Building Design, which is why the system can allow text-box instructions to generatively produce alternative building design layouts.

This view of the geometry-oriented AI Foundational Model (neural CAD engine) can create designs spontaneously from a text prompt. It is an entirely new machine learning approach to generating CAD objects, in contrast to classical parametric CAD engines that have existed for over 40 years. (click for larger view)

Forma Building Design can rapidly produce alternative designs based on changing the structural grid, selecting alternative structural systems, and more. You can ask Forma Building Design to produce a single-loaded corridor design and a double-loaded corridor design, and then the software can let you compare them side-by-side.

But in speaking to the folks at the geometry-oriented neural CAD engine about architecture—and in describing the process whereby architects today use physical trace paper in a recursive iterative process during design at both the plan, elevation, and 3D level—the importance of sketch input (something Autodesk demonstrated) with the geometry-0riented neural CAD engine seemed relevant to architecture in their eyes as well as my own. In other words, I was able to describe and somewhat convince the neural CAD guys that the AI foundation model for Fusion has capabilities that are useful for architects.

These two AI foundation models will likely share common aspects over time. The Fusion-oriented model can produce shapes that Fusion can make now. The Forma Building Design-oriented model seemed to only demonstrate box-shaped architecture. Granted, the vast majority of buildings are rectangular in nature and do not feature curved surfaced bodies or facades, but the common work of “maquee design firms” does.

Reasoning with CAD Geometry

Autodesk AI researchers have been working to teach their AI foundation models to reason with CAD geometry, systems design, and the real world. This, of course, complements their ability to reason with LLMs.

The future of these AI foundation models lies in their availability to customers, who can personalize them by tuning them to their organization’s proprietary data and processes. That is the big picture view of the future of Autodesk’s neural CAD engine models, and it offers an enticing view of the future of design.

Architosh Analysis and Commentary

While Autodesk has shown its hand with its generative AI technologies, the software leader in AEC isn’t entirely in its own space with this capability. There were third-party Autodesk partners at AU25 that had similar or related generative AI technologies, including ones that could do sophisticated automation of multi-step operations inside of tools like Revit. Outside of the Autodesk world, there are competitors that are also offering similar generative AI functions. (see: Architosh, “Architosh 11th ‘BEST of SHOW’ honors for digital technologies at AIA25 Boston,” 2 Jul 2025)

However, what is perhaps most unique about Autodesk’s neural CAD engines is the demonstration of multi-modal input methods, ranging from speech to hand sketches to images to slider user-interface widgets, and the various combinations that are possible. This, combined with the company’s intention of enabling organizations to customize their AI foundational models with their own proprietary data and operate on granular data across the entire Forma cloud platform, is what sets Autodesk apart within its own ecosystem. It’s the vision of the total lifecycle of a building and its data, and where AI technologies can actively participate in various workflow processes. 

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This latest release encompasses a range of editions with various capabilities, all native for the latest Macintosh platform. Versions include Designer, Deluxe, Pro and Platinum. TurboCAD Mac continues to provide innovative tools for mechanical, 3D printing, hobbyist, makers and architectural design communities.

TurboCAD Mac 15

The latest TurboCAD Mac 15 ships with over 100 new features and improvements, including new AI-powered copilot technology.

IMSI Design’s new TurboCAD Mac 15 with new AI Copilot technologies.

The new artificial intelligence (AI) technology delivers benefits across four primary roles:

• AI Help System — can respond to help-related queries about how to use the software
• AI Data-Driven Insights — the user can tap AI to deliver insights about CAD files
• AI Knowledge Base — the user can utilize an extensive AI knowledge base for a wide range of questions.
• AI Text to Image — finally, the user can create textures and backgrounds for photo rendering using Text to Image AI technologies.

The new AI technologies will help users both learn TurboCAD Mac 15 faster and leverage its capabilities to the fullest. The TurboCAD Mac Copilot AI technologies support two levels: TurboCAD Mac Copilot Help (free, 1-year subscription for all TurboCAD variants) and TurboCAD Mac Copilot Professional (available as a 1-year subscription service).

Talk To Your CAD Data

The Copilot Professional subscription includes “Talk to your CAD Data,” general AI access, and Text to Image. IMSI Design says the AI Copilot is “adept at handling diverse, multilingual requests, from guiding through the initial steps of using TurboCAD Mac to sharing intriguing details about a file or providing insights on design trends and principles.”

Reports Tim Olson, Vice President of IMSI Design:

“With the launch of TurboCAD^® Mac and the new TurboCAD^® Mac Copilot feature, we’re not just participating in the technological revolution; we’re leading it. Artificial Intelligence represents a seismic shift in how we interact with technology, a leap forward that will transform every aspect of our lives. Our mission is to empower our users with the most sophisticated and user-friendly design tools available. By weaving AI into the fabric of our products, we’re not merely adapting to a new era—we’re crafting it. Our passion for innovation is relentless, and through AI, we’re unlocking a realm of potential that was previously beyond reach,” outlines Rita Buschmann, Senior Product Manager, CAD and Home Design.

Introducing TurboCAD Mac Platinum

TurboCAD Mac 15 introduces a Platinum version for the Mac version—we believe for the first time. This Platinum version offers an enhanced version for mechanical design suitable for professional uses, including support for more sophisticated surface and solid modeling tools. Platinum can also handle additional blending options such as curvature, three-face, and more, plus enhanced edge modeling treatments with features like flange, lips, and grooves.

TurboCAD Mac 15 Platinum version showcasing TandemCover modeling operations.

Surface modeling now includes commands such as tangent n-sided covers, pressure deform a surface/face, curvature blends, curvature edge matching, rebuild, insert know, and elevate. Finally, Platinum also offers more file support options, including import options for CATIA v4, Pro-E, and VDA.

Precision Tools and Enhanced Modeling

Other precision tools and improved modeling capabilities include:

• Split at Discontinuity: Intelligently splits curves at points of discontinuity to ensure smooth modeling operations.
• Blend Version Control: Revert to previous blend settings for more control over design processes.
• Convert Text to Surface: Easily transform text into ACIS surface faces, expanding creative possibilities.
• Shear Transform: Apply shear transformations to curves, surfaces, and solids with precision.
• Verify Clearance: Accurately calculate the spatial clearance between solids for perfect component fits.

Also new to TurboCAD Mac 15 is Layer Sets that allow the user to have far more control over layers in general, improving layer management. Layer Sets include control for view orientations and zoom levels, enhancing project transitions. The Fastener Library is now integrated with the Symbol tab, simplifies the insertion of ANSI-standard nuts, bolts, and washers into designs. And lastly the onboard help system has seen a major upgrade. Clicking on a tool now displays the associated help context in a dedicated help palette.

Availability and Pricing

All products are available now and the TurboCAD Mac 15 family starts at Designer (retailing for USD 99.99) and goes up to Pro (retailing at USD 799.99) and to Platinum (retailing at USD 1,299.99).

Architosh Analysis and Commentary

Over the past several years, IMSI Design has been rather quiet from our perspective. Since Bob Mayer’s retirement, it has been a delight to hear from the company’s new leadership, with CAD industry veteran innovator Tim Olson now in the vice president role. We have reviewed IMSI Design’s Mac products for years, and our last review was TurboCAD Mac Pro 8 in 2015. In 2013, we reviewed version 7. Looking back at our last review in 2015, we noted how TurboCAD Mac 8 had incorporated the very latest Spatial ACIS 24 modeling kernel (engine). One issue we at Architosh were aware of several years ago was that Spatial was dragging its feet with native ARM chip support for the Mac components of its geometry engine. We note this in comparison to Parasolid. It appears that ACIS 2023.1.0 (released in May 2023) includes support for the Mac ARM platform (thus native support for the M1, M2, M3, and M4 microprocessors.).

It is rather happy news to see the Platinum version come to TurboCAD Mac 15. We noted at our last review that the Mac side of the MCAD market was blooming as more and more computer users were adopting the Mac platform. That general trend has only accelerated since Apple left Intel X86 for its own ARM-based M-series chips. With the big enterprise MCAD tools in the market still a Windows-only affair, 3D MCAD workflows are constrained to more mid-range CAD tools. The Platinum version firmly enhances IMSI Design’s TurboCAD Mac 15’s unique position in the market. 

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KeyShot 11 Overview

As the leading visualization tool across every industry, KeyShot is the solution to solving challenges in the project development pipeline by combining advanced visualization authoring with unparalleled ease of use. KeyShot 11 is at the core of creating eye-catching experiences, taking visualization capabilities to the next level, introducing new ways to explore details, expanding how ideas are presented, and bringing balance to the art of creating 3D visuals.

KeyShot 11 combines flexibility and advanced tools for the creation, management, and presentation of all visualization assets. Model: Cki Vang. All rights reserved.

KeyShot 11 introduces 3D Paint to apply color and textures like never before, new CMF capabilities to manage and organize material information, Physics Simulation to create and capture physical phenomena through KeyShot Animation, Workflow Automation with new headless scripting capabilities, the new KeyShot Web Viewer to upload and share KeyShot scenes online, and much more.

3D paint

KeyShot 11 introduces 3D Paint, a new texture painting tool, that allows users to further customize a model’s surface finishes by directly painting or stamping textures on the surface. With 3D Paint enabled, users may directly paint or stamp bump textures, colors, roughness, specularity, refractivity, and opacity.

KeyShot 11 3D Paint allows users to use adjustable and custom brushes to apply and layer material appearance and textures.

3D paint is an incredibly useful tool for creating unique surface weathering and patinas and can be used to accurately add wear marks to any surface within a scene. The new feature also allows layering effects to create rich, realistic surface patinas.

Material Management and CMF Output

Color, Materials, Finish (CMF) is a term covering the non-functional identity of a product and its relationship with a given environment. KeyShot is frequently a major part of the CMF process, allowing users to easily change and decide on CMF options during the product design review phase.

To streamline this workflow, KeyShot 11 adds both Material Management and CMF Output. This robust feature set eliminates the manual process of aligning rendered output to its corresponding materials by allowing KeyShot users to utilize an expansive Material Library that supports metadata about each material, a custom schema builder, and easy output of ready-made “tech packs” for design review.

Physics Simulation

Physics Simulation is a new Tool in KeyShot 11 that allows users to record the physics of an object and apply it as a “keyframe” animation. This tool brings fully simulated animations to KeyShot users along with more accuracy in scattering objects.

Physic Simulation in KeyShot 11 allows quick application and recording of physics using KeyShot Animation

Simulations may be applied to individual or multiple Model Sets, objects, or groups of objects and simulated as parts or an entire group. Users have control over Gravity, Friction, and Bounciness and the ability to adjust the time, quality, and keyframes per second.

KeyShot Web Viewer

KeyShot Web Viewer is part of the KeyShotWeb module and allows KeyShot users to easily share KeyShot scenes by uploading them to KeyShot Cloud. It brings sharing of interactive scenes to users across browsers, desktops, and mobile devices with a single link.

KeyShot Web Viewer is highly optimized to provide the most realistic visuals available and smoothest interaction possible for viewing 3D in the web browser and on mobile devices. Viewing of any material or environment variations in the scene or any KeyShot Studios is available through the Web Viewer flyout menus. Other features include quality adjustment, texture baking, including a mobile-friendly texture option, and password protection. 10GB of KeyShot Cloud storage is included in the KeyShotWeb subscription.

Workflow Automation

Workflow Automation is an advanced new feature, that allows KeyShot users to automate various KeyShot workflows via the KeyShot Scripting Console (with a user interface) as well as through Headless Scripting Mode (without a user interface). Applications include automating render output and speeding up the generation of product variations.

KeyShot 11 Workflow Automation brings Headless Rendering to automate an array of functions including the Material Graph and Render Output.

KeyShot 11 expands the set of functions that can be called in headless mode, along with adding support for KeyShot Material Graph control with headless scripting. With the update to Python 3.9.5, 257 total features have been added, including 147 new features and 136 new constants that may be declared.

Additional Features

●  Environmental Brightness Animation – Control and adjust the brightness of environment lighting directly with KeyShot Animation.

●  Deformable Animation support – Import .mc/.mcx cache files and FBX files with rigged animations in addition to Alembic.

●  Skin Tones – New skin materials bring a wider array of skin tones to the KeyShot Material Library to drag and drop onto 3D models.

●  GPU Cutaway Material – The popular cutaway material is now supported in GPU mode with all cutaway options.

●  glTF/USDz Enhancements – KeyShot glTF and USDz export are optimized with support for instancing to greatly reduce file size.

KeyShot Subscription Options

With the release of KeyShot 11, Luxion is introducing subscription pricing for all new licenses, which reduces the upfront cost to a pay-as-you-go model. For additional information, please see the KeyShot Subscription FAQ.

The entire list of features and improvements in KeyShot 11, along with information on how each feature works, is available in the KeyShot 11 What’s New Guide. Key features include:

Availability

KeyShot 11 is available immediately for download and purchase at keyshot.com and through all certified KeyShot resellers. All KeShot customers with active annual maintenance will automatically receive the upgrade to KeShot 11. For questions on upgrades, maintenance, or transfer your license to subscription, please contact sales@luxion.com.

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There is a list of known bugs for Rhino on Apple Silicon which McNeel has posted here. So far only one bug has been reported regarding rendering performance.

Rhino 7’s MultiPipe

McNeel updated Rhino to version 7 last year in December, calling it the biggest update in its history. This update’s star feature is MultiPipe, which enables the creation of smooth and complex blends like the ones shown in the bicycle frame image below.

MultiPipe is a new powerful command in Rhino 7.

The MultiPipe technology also works in Grasshopper allowing for the creation of fascinating models. We look forward to seeing how Rhino 7 users tap into the power of the MultiPipe commands.

Other items McNeel wants folks to be aware of include the following:

• An AMD graphics processor is recommended on Apple Macs, notwithstanding the support for Apple Silicon machines.
• Apple users should also use a multi-button mouse with a scroll wheel. 3Dconnexion makes a very good mouse for CAD industry folks, plus their SpaceNavigator 3D mice are also supported in Rhino 7.
• Perpetual Rhino licenses never expire.
• There are no subscription, maintenance, or support fees.
• Users can upgrade to Rhino 7 from any old version for the same price, which is 595 USD.
• There are educational licenses.
• Users can still obtain Rhino 5 and Rhino 6 licenses.

To learn more about all the features of Rhino 7 with Grasshopper read our detailed report here. Or visit McNeel online.

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Big new features include an all-new Materials Library, faster caustics, and much more.

KeyShot 10.2 in Detail

This latest update of KeyShot includes updates in materials, geometry, performance, and workflows. The big leading new feature is the dramatic performance in caustics along with a revamped Materials Library.

An image from the new KeyShot 10.2 demonstrating its stunning rendering capabilities. (click on image for larger picture)

KeyShot 10.2 also features a new touch-friendly Configurator style and new Mesh Simplification tools. Here are some more details below:

• Materials Library — a completely rewritten library now features material-specific thumbnails to visualize materials appearance and properties more accurately. The library now will load resources dynamically and thus not lock up the materials library while loading. There are several other enhancements as well.
• Touch-Friendly Configurator — Touch-Friendly is a new Layout Style available in the Configurator Wizard and provides a minimal, touch-friendly interface for Presentation Mode. The new style provides customization options specific to the interface elements including options for size, color, styling, and icons. Previous configurators may be updated to use the new style by choosing the Touch-Friendly in the Layout Style options.
• Mesh Simplification Tool — This new capability gives users the power to reduce the number of triangles in a mesh while keeping the overall shape. This new feature is beneficial to users taking geometry to KeyVR or other AR applications where performance is improved with lighter models with less triangles. This tool is similar to the Re-Tessellate tool that requires NURBS to calculate the new mesh. For models that do not have any NURBS, the new Mesh Simplification tool prevents the need to reduce the quality in the modeling software only to re-import it into KeyShot. Learn more about Mesh Simplification.
• Axalta Paints — The KeyShot exclusive set of Axalta paint materials now offers the possibility of adding metal flakes to the paint with new options for Flake Size and Flake Density. Additionally, the metal flakes are randomly distributed and will match the specular reflection and color of the underlying Axalta paint material.

The new caustic algorithm written for version 10 saw additional tweaks making caustic even faster. The update can enable the software to handle thousands of lights and runs incredibly fast on NVIDIA RTX Ampere GPUs. It additionally allows details to be seen in the caustics in a fraction of the time, both up close and at a distance.

Additionally, caustics have been improved for smooth environment lighting and more consistent brightness. Read more about Rendering Caustics in KeyShot on the GPU.

Availability

KeyShot 10.2 is available now for download and purchase at Luxion’s website here and through certified KeyShot resellers. A new KeyShot 10 Pro license is USD 1,995 while a KeyShot 10 Floating License is USD 2,995 and that license includes FlexNet based server license (Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux).

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Grasshopper Now Built Direct In Rhino 3D

The biggest news in Rhino 6 is that Grasshopper, the wildly popular visual programming language used for algorithmic design, is fully built into the main Rhino program. It is no longer a separate program and no longer beta. McNeel notes that Grasshopper is a stable development environment and the Seattle-based software firm has rewritten features and renovated workflows.

Key Takeaways

This is the long-awaited moment when Grasshopper not only came out of official beta but became fully integrated into Rhino itself. The new Cloud Zoo licensing may open up the possibility of using Rhino 6 on multiple operating systems (Mac and Windows) in the near future once the Mac version of Rhino 6 is released. On that last note, we knew from prior discussions with McNeel that they would not be released at the same time. This is massive release and likely to further cement McNeel’s leadership in the algorithmic and computational design software market. 

New features in Grasshopper include support for high DPI displays, multi-threaded components, and built-in Kangaroo. It also ships with new components like Make2D, Symbol Display and more. GhPython is also included and features its own GHA compiler and a major node-in-code speed up. Importantly, Grasshopper is now a stable development target, components continue to work with each minor update to Grasshopper.

Improved Visualization

Rhino 6 features several improvements and new capabilities with rendering and display. There is a new fast, interactive raytracer in the main viewport and it’s accelerated by your modern GPU with both CUDA and OpenCL. Other improvements in this category include Snapshots that allow you to save and return to the same appearance of the model. There is an improved default rendering setting mode, better materials library and handling, and also tag and search options with materials. Another feature is “per-face” material assignment, which will make timepiece and jewelry designers extremely happy.

01 – McNeel’s Rhino 6 for Windows is now shipping and includes an all-new upgraded and integrated Grasshopper. (image: McNeel / Architosh. All rights reserved)

Rhino 6 has an all-new display pipeline, the software that ultimately prepares what you see on your computer’s display and sends that info to the monitor. It utilizes GPU compute shaders and memory optimization and overall has dramatic speed improvements.

Rhino 6’s new display pipeline utilizes OpenGL levels based on the capabilities of your graphics card (GPU) on your computer. They have worked the program code to push surface, polysurface, and wireframe extrusions onto the graphics card using GPU tessellation.

Rhino 6 has a new “real-time” raytracing rendering mode, something that means a lot to product designers in particular.

Other Improvements

New in Rhino 6 are improved documentation functions so designers can go beyond just modeling and produce dimensioned drawings based on the models in Rhino. Rich text support and faster and clearer text helps produce better documents. And Make2D has been rewritten for faster, better and cleaner output.

The McNeel folks have done users a huge favor by updating the licensing options. The new Cloud Zoo license option means you log in anywhere in the world to your Rhino account to use Rhino on any computer, wherever you are. Your license is not tied to a computer (which is still an option).  Zoo is another option where you float a single or set of licenses within your private network (LAN).

Rhino is more than just a 3D modeler, it is full development platform and ecosystem with dozens of plugins and development tools which quickly make Rhino and Grasshopper the most advanced platform for algorithmic design and computational design. There are documentation updates, guides, and API references. Food4Rhino (website) has been completely revamped. And RhinoCommon and RhinoScript have many new changes and improvements, as does Rhino.Python.

Getting Rhino 6

Folks interested in Rhino 6 with integrated Grasshopper can buy a single license for $995.USD. At this moment upgrades are available to Rhino 6 for $395.USD but we do not know how a Mac license could contribute to an upgrade to Rhino 6 on Windows. Rhino 5 for Mac is still $695.USD. You can learn more and inquire here. 

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Motion Study in KeyShot for SOLIDWORKS

Luxion says designers and engineers need to show how their products work and KeyShot delivers with its ability to create beautiful animations based on products going through their motions or using motion to explain the product assemblies.

Now with the KeyShot for SOLIDWORKS add-in, SOLIDWORKS users are able to turn their assembly simulations into beautiful animations with new support for Motion Studies. Users import their models with all the assembly hierarchy, appearance data, and Motion Study data maintained, then quickly apply materials and lighting, or take their motion further with KeyShot’s powerful camera and part animation capabilities. The new solution is about speeding up product development workflows.

01 – Luxion’s KeyShot is a real-time renderer with raytracing and global illumination, widely used in product design industries. (image: Luxion)

The add-in bridges SOLIDWORKS and Keyshot using Luxion’s LiveLinking technology to make model updates smooth, maintaining all material, light and camera setups.

Key Features Include:

• Maintain assembly structure
• Maintain part level appearance on face, feature, body, and part
• Option to Separate Materials by part
• LiveLinking (update model inside KeyShot)
• Export KeyShot (.bip) without KeyShot installed
• NURBS import
• Motion Study import

Additional info on the KeyShot for SOLIDWORKS add-on, including download and how to use the features, can be found here.

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Importantly, while the IPO proceeds will help pay down debt the company has made small acquisitions in the past and will be open to further acquisitions.

Altair is Big and Important on Many Levels

Altair Engineering is a software technology company many have never heard of before. However, its revenue is similar to Germany’s Nemetschek SE, the parent company AEC industry design and CAD software leaders like Bluebeam, Graphisoft, and Vectorworks all belong to.

Key Takeaway

At over $313 million in revenues last year with over 2,000 employees, Altair Engineering is a significant engineering software company with a positive impact on product development and engineering segments. The company, critically, is taking its “morphogenesis” technology-based product design tool, solidThinking Inspire, into the cloud where it can reach a wider audience on more platforms. 

Like the Nemetschek group of companies, Altair Engineering owns subsidiaries and is also a solid supporter of Apple’s computing platforms in the engineering and design markets. Altair Engineering and its family of products and companies compete with companies like Autodesk, Dassault Systèmes, Siemens and others in the engineering and design markets.

MORE: solidThinking Brings Generative Design to the Cloud

Besides owning solidThinking, Inc., and its namesake family of 3D design software, the company has touted its Mac support on some of its flagship Altair Engineering software such as HyperWorks. Now the company is putting many of its key technologies—some of which descend from NASA—into the cloud, like solidThinking Inspire Unlimited, which is currently in beta.

Altair’s Innovations—Generative Design A Big One

Altair’s early morphosis technology came together in solidThinking Inspire, a software tool Architosh has reviewed and written about extensively. (see: Architosh, “In-Depth: solidThinking Inspire 8.0 with morphogenesis,” 18 Sep 2009.) Morphogenesis is “generative design” technology—technology that mimics’s nature’s evolutionary design processes.

Altair took an early lead in this type of generative design software, which works to find structurally efficient forms for all kinds of industrial parts and products by eliminating unnecessary material. This makes parts lighter; parts that weigh less but still retain their core strength attributes save on fuel and energy related to uses (auto and aerospace industries), transport (shipping costs), and design (smaller parts change characteristics in designed products).

01 – The result of Morphogenesis technology applied to a stadium design.

Morphogenesis technology was even explored in architecture where new radical forms were utilized. (image 01 above). 

Altair’s CEO James Scapa says the company’s principal focus of operations is simulation software, an area found in engineering and design software solutions. Altair’s revenues were $158.5 million for the first half of the year, up 4% from the year-ago period. Scapa has told MarketWatch that the software space they compete in—the engineering simulation market—is a roughly $6 billion market growing annually at 8% yearly and will be an $8 billion market by 2021.

The company opted for a dual listing with Class-A shareholders having one vote per share and Class-B shareholders having ten votes per share. This was implemented to give Scapa in particular controlling interest in the company.

Architosh Insight

• Altair delivers solutions in aerospace, AEC, automotive and transportation,  marine and shipbuilding, energy, electronics, and consumer products among other industries. Industrial design and product engineering are core areas of expertise due to its digital tools based on two major brands: HyperWorks and solidThinking. 

• One of the largest global architecture firms, SOM, has utilized their software for tall building design, which used the company’s OptiStrut technology solutions. Arup has also used CFD (computation fluid dynamics) software tools from Altair in their AEC engineering work for architect clients. 

• Many of Altair’s generative design and simulation technologies have direct competitors in software solutions from Autodesk and Ansys for example. 

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solidThinking Inspire Unlimited

This new release comes at an interesting time, as the latest versions of solidThinking Inspire—as Architosh noted in a recent report—dropped support for macOS. It now appears that the company has decided to support Apple’s platforms (and Linux will likely run Inspired Unlimited as well) via this new direction with a cloud-supported version.

01 – solidThinking Inspired Unlimited is a SaaS product, bringing generative design to the cloud.

Inspire Unlimited looks and feels just like the Inspire product users know but it functions through a web-browser interface. But the benefits go far beyond desktop equivalency on multiple platforms. Bringing solidThinking Inspire to the cloud in the Unlimited version opens up the generative design platform for team-based collaboration, a la, Onshape.

Collaborative Generative Design

As one can see in the introductory video, one of the first things that happen in testing the beta version of Inspire Unlimited, is you setup an account. At this stage, the product looks similar to its chief rivals from Autodesk, Onshape, and others.

02 – Being cloud-based new collaborative possibilities open up for pros doing generative design in teams and with peers and clients.

Inspire Unlimited offers collaborative features such as model sharing, model review with commenting and annotative screen shots, and ability to save “favorites” and more. There is also something called builds and versions, so you have the ability to view branches of the builds of the model or all versions of the model.

Levering the Cloud—Benefits

Taking solidThinking Inspire to the cloud comes with other advantages. Inspire Unlimited offers the benefits of leveraging high-performance GPU and CPUs in the cloud. The application has an “instant-on” feature because it is cloud based. And new on-demand licensing comes standard since this is essentially a SaaS product.

Finally, data management is completely different because all the models are stored in the cloud rather than in folders on computers on your LAN.

Users can try solidThinking Inspire Unlimited beta for free now. Click here to learn more.

The post solidThinking Brings Generative Design to the Cloud appeared first on Architosh.

The Bicycle Test Case

A good way to think about what solidThinking Inspire does is to think about the frame of a bicycle. Imagine that you invented the concept of a bicycle, with three key points on the frame of the bike, the steering while part, the part where you sit, and the part where the human body translates force into the pedals that power the bike. Did the bicycle really need all that space in the middle of what resulted in a triangular form for the frame? No, it didn’t.

09 – The results of the morphogenesis work led eventually to this finished design of this motorcycle. solidThinking 8 Inspire with morphogenesis technology became the unique basis of inspiration for this stunning bike design. Today Inspire does even more than version 8 does—a lot more.

Everyone knows, however, that bicycle frames are a bit more complex than a simple triangle made of three tubular forms. In turns out, they are quite a bit more complex, even after factoring in the extensions known as the forks for the attachment of wheels.

solidThinking Inspire today is not only used by bicycle manufacturers and designers but by companies like aeronautical engineering firms, industrial designers creating every manner of constructed part or machine and by automobile, aircraft, boat, tractor and even AEC design professionals like architects. At Architosh we have written extensively about solidThinking Inspire in the past (see, Architosh, “Product Review: solidThinking Inspire 2014,” 22 Jan 2015 ).

Investigating Structurally Efficient Concepts

The core purpose of solidThinking Inspire is to investigate structurally efficient concepts and forms that can lead to ground-breaking improvements in both the weight (lightness) and strength of products, assemblies, and discreet parts. Inspire brings simulation into the early stages of the design process helping designers and product manufacturers generate design concepts in minutes.

02 – New Inspire Motion technologies enable product design engineers to simulate parts, assemblies and components in motion.

The company, of course, is not entirely alone in the product design world now with morphological optimization prowess. Architosh recently wrote about Autodesk’s latest generative design technology which used to be known as Project Dreamcatcher.

An interesting note about Inspire though is the product works with solidThinking Evolve, an industrial designer’s creative design app that has unique technologies unmatched in the industry. However, solidThinking Inspire interfaces with other CAD tools as well. Let’s look at what is new in the 2017 release.

All The New Features in solidThinking Inspire 2017

A big new features area in Inspire 2017 is Inspire Motion. As the name suggests, this new feature set enables product design engineers to study a component, assembly or part in motion or a dynamic state. Here’s a run-down on the features regarding Inspire Motion:

• Mechanism Motion Check
• Predicts Loads
• Simulate spring-damper effect
• Study static and transient behaviors
• Estimate motor torque requirements
• Export results and loads

Inspire’s motion setup includes new tools like motors.

Below is an instructional video showing how motion analysis works in the latest solidThinking Inspire 2017.2.

https://youtu.be/rsh1ZIuwuc0

Topography optimization is the next major update in version 2017, where the goals include form or shape optimization, maximizing stiffness without adding mass, maximizing the frequency of a model, and of course accelerating the optimization process itself. Finally, version 2017 includes new features for partitions and bolt pretentions.

Availability and System Requirements

solidThinking Inspire 2017 is available now in its latest iteration but sadly, as of version 2017.2, Inspire no longer supports the Mac. For years this product ran on the Mac we suspect the core reasons why the company has dropped Mac support could simply involve the origin of where some of the new code is coming from. The entire solidThinking product line has grown from two products (Evolve and Inspire) to eight products, with its Click2 series of products offering new features built on core Inspire technologies.

03 – Motion simulation is a huge new benefit to the latest version of solidThinking Inspire 2017.

It certainly has not helped the situation either that Apple inadvertently sent such poor signals to the market about its focus on pro users. Now that the company says it is committed to the needs of pro users again and is working on both an iMac-based workstation as well as an extremely power modular workstation, things can possibly change in the future when individual product designers and engineers decide to embrace such new Mac machines in the near future, prompting new demands on software developers.

To learn more about solidThinking Inspire 2017, visit them online here.

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The post ToolTalk—The New solidThinking Inspire 2017.2 appeared first on Architosh.

Tony Stark For Everyone

Comic fans know who Tony Stark is and Greg Fallon, VP of Simulation at Autodesk, does too. Making the point that Stark uses his brain as an engineer to derive his superpowers, Fallon says the new Autodesk Generative Design technologies take CAD to the next level—using the power of machine intelligence and computation to help the designer design not just document their design.

Incubating as Project Dreamcatcher in a research group, early customers like Airbus and Under Armour got involved.

Generative Design—How It Works

Generative design is not the same as algorithmic design. In the former, the designer feeds the generative design software “goals”—things like strength, weight, size, material type, etc. The criteria are then used by cloud computing to generate massive iterations or possible solutions.

01 – Black & Decker was an early explorer of Autodesk’s generative design technologies. In a video they discuss the many benefits. Autodesk this week unveiled the productization of the technology formerly known as Dreamcatcher. (Image source: YouTube video screen capture, Autodesk).

The key thing about this new technology is that the generative design software comes up with solutions that the designer would likely never come up with. Why?

Because often they are simply too difficult to model or counter-intuitive. But they work. And better. And this is what is truly innovative about where this type of technology is going with manufactured products.

Closing Thoughts

Autodesk is not alone is this space or even first. Many of its MCAD rivals have similar technology, but Autodesk’s generative design technology will fit within its overall cloud-based and subscription-only product portfolio. And this is where the technology becomes more interesting as it can be pluralized across products and sectors.

To learn more visit here.

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The post Unveiled—Autodesk Generative Design Brings Power of Machine Intelligence to Manufacturing appeared first on Architosh.

Designed for Architects and Product Designers

V-Ray 3.0 for Rhino is primarily aimed at architects and product designers, offering interactive and highly optimized rendering workflows.  Highlights of this release include a material library of over 500 drag-and-drop materials and an intuitive interface that has been streamlined to speed up any design workflow.

“Designers want to work as fluidly as possible, without any roadblocks. They want to test ideas, swap materials and render concepts without getting hung up on the technical details,” said Corey Rubadue, VP of AEC and Design at Chaos Group. “Not only did we make V-Ray 3 for Rhino as fast as possible, we streamlined the entire user experience to let designers focus on what matters most to them – design.”

VR is a Focus

Virtual reality (VR) workflows are built into this release via a new VR camera that renders high-quality images that can be easily viewed on popular VR headsets such as Google Cardboard, Gear VR, Oculus Rift, and HTC Vive.

01 – Chaos Group releases V-Ray 3 for Rhino. New features galore and V-Ray Swarm tech included. (image: screenshot from YouTube promo)

For users and studios with multiple computers available, they can take advantage of distributed rendering in what the company calls V-Ray Swarm.

“The new V-Ray for Rhino takes me beyond the limits of my CAD platform and enables new levels of productivity and design possibilities,” said Dustin Brown, Senior Industrial Design Lead at Microsoft and owner of speckofdustin.com. “Studying materials with V-Ray is a joy. The addition of fur and the new material editor opens up, even more, possibilities.”

Features List

• Virtual Reality – Render virtual reality content for the most popular VR headsets (Samsung Gear VR, Google Cardboard, HTC Vive and Oculus Rift).

• V-Ray Swarm – Introducing a powerful, scalable distributed rendering system that’s simple and fast.

• Section cuts – Easily create quick cutaways and cross sections with the V-Ray Clipper.

• Aerial perspective – Quickly add realistic atmospheric depth and haze.

• Denoiser – Automatically remove noise and cut render times by up to 50%.

• Grass & fur – Create realistic grass, fabrics, and carpet with V-Ray Fur.

• Proxy objects – Add highly detailed and complex objects like grass, trees, and cars with memory-efficient proxy models.

• Render elements – Render as separate layers for more artistic control in your image-editing software.

• Frame buffer – Track your render history and fine-tune colors, exposure, and more directly in the V-Ray Frame Buffer.

• V-Ray Scene export – Share complete, ready-to-render V-Ray 3 for Rhino files with any V-Ray 3.4 or higher application.

• HDR Light Studio support – Set up great-looking studio lighting quickly. V-Ray 3 for Rhino seamlessly supports HDR Light Studio, Lightmap’s dedicated lighting application.

• Grasshopper support – Render generative design models with the new V-Ray to Grasshopper add-in.

V-Ray 3 for Rhino comes with twin-engine performance. With both CPU and GPU acceleration, users can choose which is fastest based on their particular hardware. You can also share complete ready-to-render V-Ray 3 for Rhino files with any V-Ray 3.4 or higher application.

To learn more about V-Ray 3 for Rhino go to this page.

Pricing and Availability

V-Ray 3 for Rhino is available now for Windows. Workstation licenses are $695 and are fully compatible with Rhino 5. Upgrades are also available; contact your local reseller for more information.

The post V-Ray 3 Arrives for McNeel’s Rhino Modeler—Adds V-Ray Swarm and More appeared first on Architosh.

The event takes place 17-19 May 2017.

Workshop Details

Daniel will introduce Kangaroo Physics, an interactive physics/constraint solver for designers and one of the most successful Grasshopper plugins. Kangaroo works as a physics engine performing interactive simulation, form-finding, optimization and constraint solving in real time.

The course outline is the following:

Day 1

• Introduction — getting down the principles of form-finding and dynamic relaxation
• Catenary arches and vaults
• Tensile membranes
• Bending rods and grid shells

Day 2

• Collisions/packing/distribution
• Rigid bodies and mechanisms
• Bending shells and origami
• Meshing for simulation

Day 3

• Panels and grids for architecture
• Introduction to using the Kangaroo library via C# scripting
• Individual project development

Course Fee – Limited Participants

The course fee is 795.eur (+VAT); students and university teachers will get a 50% discount upon proof of status. The course is taught in English. The maximum number of participants is 8-10.

To sign up go here now contact Rodrigo at McNeel.

01 – Kangaroo is one of the most popular plugins for Rhino and Piker is a master. This is a great opportunity for those Rhino users over in Europe this May.

The post Event News—Kangaroo Physics Workshop by Daniel Piker appeared first on Architosh.

Next week the Vectorworks folks have an upcoming webinar titled, “Information Modeling’s Role in Sustainable Design Decisions.”

Scheduled for 23 March, 2017, at 2:00 – 3:00 PM EDT (Thursday), the event excerpt reads:

Every day there is a growing concern for creating a sustainable built environment, meaning designers need to understand how their tools can facilitate responsible decision-making.

The AIA-accredited (1 AIA LU) webinar will be led by longtime Vectorworks expert Wes Gardner, Assoc. AIA, senior architect specialist at Vectorworks, Inc. He will show how to investigate how BIM and SIM applications empower designers to create low-impact projects.  Click here to register for the free webinar now.

Design for the Freedom of Additive Manufacturing

Also next week solidThinking is hosting a free webinar titled, “Design for the Freedom of Additive Manufacturing,” on 21 March 2017, at 2:00 PM EDT. The excerpt reads:

What if you could design the ideal structural part with limited constraints, and use the freedom of complexity that metal 3D printing enables to make that part a reality? Too many structural components are designed with more weight and material than what’s actually required. With new simulation and optimization software, structurally efficient parts are easy to design — saving cost, strengthening durability, and improving safety. And with industrial 3D printing, users can easily and cost-effectively print these parts directly or indirectly in their choice of metal alloys. Learn more.

01 – Vectorworks webinar focuses on BIM and SIM for sustainable design.

Key Take-Aways include:

• Learn how to optimization technology coupled with additive manufacturing can significantly amplify the benefits of the manufacturing process
• Capture the secrets of companies that are using this cutting edge technology today to design stronger, lighter parts
• See real-world stories of companies taking advantage of this technology

Register now for this excellent webinar event.

The post In-Brief: Vectorworks and solidThinking Upcoming Webinars appeared first on Architosh.

Redefining How CAD Is Done

Onshape, a company, led by the former founders and leaders of SolidWorks, Inc., has been rapidly advancing its innovative cloud-based MCAD product. In this latest update Onshape’s Darren Henry writes:

Designers want the ability to edit parts within the context of an assembly (top-down design) to ensure fit and function by defining relationships between components.  We believe that traditional approaches to top-down design have demoed well, but have not largely been successful when used in real-world design scenarios.

The issue comes down to unpredictable geometry changes and feature corruption when using in-context relationships. The issue is complex relationships are often stored in multiple files. Users have no control over how and when these complex relationships update. Sometimes the relationship is recalculated when a part is rebuilt and sometimes when the assembly is updated.

01 – The new in-context design features on Onshape push the Cambridge-based MCAD upstart into a leading industry position with respect to this complex MCAD reality.

Due to this complexity, some companies have told Onshape that they have banned the use of ‘in-context’ relationships because of their unpredictability. Onshape has now solved all the problems associated with in-context design.

The latest update to Onshape has these new capabilities: (see video here and details here)

• Models always update in a predictable, controlled manner.
• Motion does not affect in-context relationships.
• You can use multiple assembly contexts and us them to edit a single or multiple parts.
• You can update the assembly in context (the state of the assembly) if needed.

Onshape combines the power of their new Part Studios (multiple-part design environment) and full-cloud CAD ability to restore to any point in time.

02 – In-context editing in action with the latest update to Onshape. Notice, the ghosted elements are parts, perhaps imported parts, as elements of an entire assembly. The manifold (in grey) was edited in reference to the ghosted parts, establishing relationships that are retainable, manageable and predictable.

This latest update also includes enhancements such as named assembly views, the ability to import data with geometry faults, and numerous drawing enhancements. Onshape’s Drawings module is built using Graebert’s ARES technology.

To learn more about Onshape visit here.

The post MCAD News: Onshape Takes Lead On ‘In-Context’ Design appeared first on Architosh.

The new versions boast new features in both visualization and motion, along with topography optimization, symmetry, and depth of field increase usability.

New Motion Allows Designers to Mechanize Models

The new release adds Motion, a unique feature that allows designers to investigate system motion to predict loads for moving parts and systems. It is just one output of a reportedly relentless quest to deliver great new features users have been requesting. “We are incredibly proud of the 2017 release,” says Jim Hassberger, president of solidThinking. “Inspire was the first tool to market that focused on putting generative design in the hands of design engineers, and it continues to a world-class product.”

01 – solidThinking Inspire 2017’s new Motion features in action in this image. Defining the joints that can move.

“With Inspire 2017, we improved our already great generative design product Inspire, by adding motion tools that enable design engineers to investigate system motion to predict loads for moving parts,” explained Andy Bartels, Program Manager. “Never before has it been so easy to mechanize a model or perform a motion analysis.”

Key Updates to Inspire 2017—Hot Items

• New Motion Tools — allows users to easily mechanize their models and investigate system motion to predict loads for moving parts.
• The new Topology Optimization tools — can be used to change shapes of shell structures by introducing stamped bead patterns for better structural performance.
• Updated Partition Tools — allow users to divide a part into design and non-design regions by selecting a hole, pocket, or face to offset.
• The Bolt Pretention tool — allows users to achieve more accurate results when bolts are under pretension.

Doug Hedges, President of Sintavia, LLC., notes, “Inspire does what few programs can; it takes a complex process and makes it easy to understand. My whole team was able to use the program after just a few hours of training and it has led to dramatic time savings in the design process.”

What’s Hot With Evolve 2017

While there have been excellent new features added to the Inspire product, solidThinking Evolve 2017 vaunts new modeling and visualization features like the new Planar Symmetry tool.

02 – solidThinking Evolve 2017’s new Planar symmetry tool in action.

Evolve features a hybrid modeling system with enhancements mostly targeting requests by its users. Program manager for Evolve, Darren Chilton noted, “Our goal for this release was to focus on our customers and improve the usability of the software giving them more freedom than ever before.”

Key Features in Evolve 2017 include:

•  New Planar Symmetry and Radial Symmetry tools — these tools have been added to replace the now defunct Mirror and Polar Copy tools.
• Depth Channel Support — all images rendered inside Evolve 2017 now include depth channel data (TIFF). This z-depth channel can be now saved in the Image Browser and used in post-processing tools such as Adobe Photoshop to simulate the natural blurring of foreground and background scene elements when viewed through a camera lens.
• New and Improved Import/Export — support for the latest versions of SVG, PDF 2D, Autodesk DWG, and DXF formats, allow improved interoperability workflows.
• New Length Parameter — for the Line and Rounded Polyline tool, this new features provides more options for users.
• Improved Curve Offset tool — helps work directly with surface edges.

“Evolve in particular is a powerful software for enabling designs in our fast-paced development environment,” says Jens Andersson Design Lead, Philips. “It helps me gain speed not only in bringing design concepts to life but also in driving fast iteration loops with the development team.”

03 – Depth channel support (z-channel) in rendering in the new Evolve 2017. Evolve is a leading product design modeing and visualization tool for Mac OS X and Windows.

“Evolve’s flexibility and combination of polygonal, solid parametric, and organic surface modeling, as well as built in rendering and construction history make it one of the fastest and most flexible design tools on the market today,” says Jim Hassberger, president of solidThinking.

 Availability and Demos

Inspire 2017 and Evolve 2017 are available through more than 200 channel partners worldwide, and through Altair’s patented HyperWorks licensing model.

Visit solidThinking.com/Inspire or solidThinking.com/Evolve to see video demos, an on-demand webinar, or to request a free trial of the tools.

The post New Motion and Visualization Features Headline 2017 Release of solidThinking Inspire and Evolve appeared first on Architosh.

KeyShot 6.3 now supports all the latest releases of Autodesk Alias, Autodesk Inventor, Solidworks and others.

What’s New in 6.3—Details

The industry’s first real-time ray-tracing and global illumination rendering program continues to advance. In addition to 2017 versions of Autodesk products, including Maya, KeyShot 6.3 supports Siemens NX 11, Siemens SolidEdge ST9, plus enhanced and updated support for Solidworks 2017.

This expands on the previous news about new plugin support for PTC Creo 4 with PTC’s advanced rendering extension (ARX) technology powered by KeyShot.

01 – Luxion releases KeyShot 6.3 with expanded and updated third-party 3D software support.

KeyShot 6.3 also updated KeyShot Network Rendering. The latest version also updates all the native plugins to a wide range of 3D file formats and programs, including apps like Trimble’s SketchUp. The complete plugin list is here.

Availability and Trial Version

Readers interested in KeyShot 6.3 can download a trial here. The trials are pro licenses and include KeyShot Animation and KeyShotVR. Render queue and background render are disabled in trial versions, however, so reader be warned.

To learn or buy go here.

The post Luxion Releases Keyshot 6.3—Advanced Rendering Tool appeared first on Architosh.

Rhino 5 for Mac Pricing Change

Now is the time to lock in good price savings on the Mac version of Rhinoceros, a leading 3D modeling package that dovetails with the algorithmic design tool, Grasshopper.

New buyers can save 100-200.euro until 1 January 2017. A single, commercial license will be $695.USD come January but are currently $495.USD.

Educational licenses will rise to $195.USD but today until the end of the year are $95.USD. School kit pricing will also be available, and the educational lab pricing remains the same at $975.USD.

Rhino 5 for Mac Evolution

The Mac version of Rhino does have some differences, but McNeel has been making great progress adding in the components that truly make the Mac version a complete product. Last fall in 2015, when the product became a real commercial release (and not just a WIP release) support for third-party plugins, (via RhinoCommon Plugins / .NET),  Rhino for Mac reached version 5.1.

01 – Rhino 5 for Mac has been a commercial release since September 2015 at a special lower price. That all ends 1 January 2017, when the price rises substantially. Meanwhile, Rhino 6 for Mac with its integration of Grasshopper is moving along nicely.

This past spring Rhino for Mac version 5.2 was released. This update added in the Layout feature, a major feature that architectural users in particular utilize. Architects have taken to Rhino with Grasshopper in droves since the algorithmic design revolution began several years ago and today Rhino is the leading advanced modeler used by top architecture firms worldwide. (see, Architosh, “How BIG’s influence can reframe the role of BIM in Architecture,” 18 Apr 2015).

Ending 2016 and 2017 and Beyond

Heading into the rest of the year McNeel will continue to enhance Rhino for Mac in the current version. When 1 January 2017 comes, the price goes up.

Version 5.3 will mostly be major bug fixes and refinements, says Belcher. Rhino for Mac may make better use of the new tabs feature in macOS Sierra.

Bob McNeel wrote into Architosh to add: “Most all of the Rhino for Mac development going forward will be focused on Rhino 6 for Mac.” The Seattle-headquartered software will likely not add any new major features to Rhino for Mac in versions 5.3 – 5.4.

However, Daniel Belcher says that Rhino 6 for Mac is another story and is “looking promising.” The company is also working on Grasshopper 1 which operates with the RhinoWIP for Mac. Belcher says it is very popular, as expected.

The key thing for Rhino fans to remember is that currently, McNeel is developing both Rhino 5 and Rhino 6, the latter being developed in a more cross-platform way. This will enable, hopefully, feature parity between the Mac and Windows version in Rhino 6 but not necessarily the same release dates. More to come…

The post Rhino for Mac Price Goes Up Jan 1—Mac Version Nearly Complete appeared first on Architosh.

What’s New

The company rhetorically asks:”What matters more than how fast, smoothly, and reliably SketchUp renders your models?” The answer is obvious—basically nothing matters more.

SketchUp 2017 introduces Graphics Pipeline 2.0, a major improvement to the company’s OpenGL-based rendering pipeline. And the improvement isn’t limited to just SketchUp proper; 3D Warehouse, LayOut, my.SketchUp, and Trimble Connect all render models using the same under-the-hood algorithms—all tuned for what the company is calling “buttery 3D orbiting.”

01 – SketchUp 2017 (on the right) features all new graphics pipeline improving visual qualities such as transparency.

Yes, this new graphics pipeline technology is a baseline for future updates to come as well. So users should expect additional improvements planned in this particular area.

Still sticking to the realm of graphics, SketchUp 2017 features new features for transparency controls, including better displaying of multiple transparencies and the ability to fine-tune control of opacity levels in X-ray mode.

Other key features are listed below:

• High DPI Modeling — SketchUp 2017 has higher resolution snapping.
• Smart Offset — A new Offset tool avoids overlapping and self-intersecting geometry for cleaner offsets, even in LayOut.
• Perpendicular Face Inferencing — new “perpendicular” inference tool helps snapping during modeling.
• Rectangular Tool Improvements — A new arrow-key axis locking capability.
• New Tables in LayOut — Tables are a new feature that enables the management of spreadsheet data. You can create from scratch or import .CSV or Excel files.
• High Fidelity DWG — A completely written LayOut DWG/DXF exporter. It is now possible to export a ten-page LayOut file into just one DWG with ten separate tabs for each page.
• Native Entities in DWG Export — better exporting of LayOut elements to AutoCAD.
• Smart Scaling — LayOut exports are now smart enough to self-scale for paper size or model space. Drawing entities like labels and polygons scale to paper size. Model linework scales to model space.
• Color by Layer — A new Color by Layer option has been added to exports.

Finally, user preferences allow more customization to the app so you can tweak the color of the axes, ground or sky. Associative dimensions are made more powerful, and there is a new Extension Manager to help users visually control and manage all their extensions to SketchUp.

02 – SketchUp 2017’s Extension Manager is a new feature that helps users keep tabs on what they have installed.

SketchUp 2017 is available now. Users who are current with their licenses can update to this version for free. To learn more visit SketchUp online.

The post Trimble Announces New SketchUp 2017—New Graphics Pipeline 2.0 appeared first on Architosh.

• ARES Commander for the heaviest CAD tasks and offline-use on Windows®, MacOS® and Linux® computers
• ARES Touch to create, read, modify and annotate DWG drawings on iOS and Android® smart phones or tablets
• ARES Kudo to improve agility and collaboration with cloud-based viewing and editing features but also with unique sharing and collaboration tools

ARES Commander 2017

With the release of ARES Commander 2017 in November, Graebert will introduce a new dark color scheme in its user interace, harmonizing the look and feel of the three products. The new user interface aims at offering a consistent user experience and facilitating a better sharing workflow. The trinity concept will also impact licensing, with a new customer portal allowing each user to manage licenses and rights across all their computers and devices.

Wilfried Graebert, CEO of Graebert commented: “With the trinity of CAD”, our ambition is clearly to offer the best user experience for DWG-based CAD software. The transition to Mobile and Cloud in the CAD industry will obviously take years and, in the meantime, we will see desktop, mobile and cloud coexisting. Our customers don’t want to be forced into only one of these options. We believe that high synergies can be achieved by combining the three into a unique user experience. Our main competitor is struggling with a difficult transition to a subscription-based business model. With the trinity of CAD offered by the ARES CAD software, Graebert has an opportunity to take a leadership position and grab market share very quickly.

Annual Plan and Perpetual licenses

Unlike many players in the software industry, Graebert takes pride in offering the choice between an Annual Plan and Perpetual licenses. The annual Plan is an all-inclusive subscription that will include the three products, for the flat yearly fee of 250 USD in America or 250 Euros in Western Europe. The Perpetual license includes and unlimited license of ARES Commander for one computer and a renewable one year subscription including ARES Touch and ARES Kudo for 795 USD in America or 795 Euros in Western Europe. Prices may vary in other regions.

01 – The ARES CAD software shares a common subscription structure, allowing the same user to work from several computers, mobile devises and the cloud with the upcoming ARES Kudo. All rights reserved.

The Features of ARES Kudo will be gradually released and synchronized with the release of the Service Packs of ARES Commander 2017. The first version will be introduced with viewing and sharing capabilities by the release of the Service Pack 1 of ARES Commander 2017. The editing features will be further deployed together with the following Service packs.

About Graebert

Graebert is a leading developer of CAD software, solutions and services. We are recognized as a true innovator in the CAD industry and have more than 30 years of expertise. Our DWG-based CAD systems were the first to run on Windows®, Mac® and Linux®. Graebert is also a pioneer in mobile CAD technologies on Android® and iOS®. Most recently, Graebert announced ARES Kudo, a full DWG-based CAD platform for the Cloud.

Graebert’s product portfolio is anchored by the ARES CAD software – a powerful suite of DWG-based CAD software for desktop, mobile and cloud – which also enables developers to create standalone CAD applications. Overall, millions of professionals use our CAD technologies in more than 100 countries. They also specialize in building surveying software and services. The SiteMaster™ line of “as built” surveying solutions, as well as worldwide surveying services are included under Graebert’s iSurvey™ brand and division.

The post Graebert Introduces its “Trinity of CAD” appeared first on Architosh.