IMSI/Design Releases TurboCAD Pro, Platinum 2015

NOVATO, CA, USA, Mar 21, 2015 - IMSI/Design, the developer of CAD in retail, announced the release of TurboCAD Pro 2015 and TurboCAD Pro Platinum 2015.

"We are continuing our support of Simple BIM with the addition of import support of Industry Foundation Class (IFC) files," stated Bob Mayer, President of IMSI/Design. "Enhancements like this, coupled with the robust suite of mechanical, architectural and general purpose drafting features, make 2015 one of our most innovative releases.”

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TurboCAD Pro 2015 and TurboCAD Pro Platinum 2015 new and enhanced features include:

Architectural / Simple BIM

• New IFC Import (Platinum only): Simple Building Information Modeling (BIM) is now more advanced with the ability to import intelligent Walls, Doors, Windows, Slabs and Roofs saved in the Industry Foundation Classes (IFC) format, the industry standard for BIM information.
• Improve Roof Angles (Platinum only): TurboCAD now makes it easy to control the rise/run and/or degrees of a roof angle.
• New Slab Roof Object Types (Platinum only): TurboCAD now allows users to make a roof slab object type. With one slab, you can quickly create a flat roof, or use in conjunction with new roof angles, mitering, and edge cut tools to join several slabs together and create nearly any roof style.
• New Mitering of Roof Slabs (Platinum only): Select two or more roof slabs and have them “meet” automatically.
• New Roof Edge Cut Orientation (Platinum only): A new “Edge cut” roof property for roof slabs allows users to select different methods of roof building, either plumb or square.
• Improved Roof Modifier (Platinum only): Now you can quickly create holes in roofs for chimney’s, skylights, etc. and trim edges of roofs.

3D Modeling / Mechanical

• Improved Quick Pull: The popular Quick Pull tool now offers multiple selection, so you can manipulate several co-planar faces simultaneously. You can also thicken ACIS surfaces with the Quick Pull tool, and dynamically switch between Quick Pull and Imprint modes.
• New Wire Wrapping: Wrap a wire around a 3D solid for use as an extrusion or sweep path.
• Create Surface from Faces: When using the ACIS tool ‘Create Surface from Faces’ users can now retain the source object.
• Create Surface from Solid: When using the ‘Create Surface from Solids’ tool, users can now retain the source object.
• Improved Smooth Surface Mesh Tools (Platinum only): TurboCAD now offers a set of tools for editing a Smooth Surface Mesh (SMESH) as symmetrical model.
• Improved Drafting Object Breaks (Platinum only): When a drafting object is too large to display fully, TurboCAD allows users to add a break gap to abbreviate the displayed object, adjusting the break line properties including type (straight, zig-zag, wave, or heartbeat), gap value, color, and extension length. New TurboCAD 2015 supports multiple breaks per drafting object.
• Improved Unbend Sheet Tool (Platinum only): Now users can generate the required bend lines when the Unbend Sheet tool is used.

Productivity and Usability Enhancements

• New Conceptual Selector: Manipulate and modify 3D objects like never before. The totally flexible design of Conceptual Selector allows users to customize any visual and editing parameters available in the application (eg. Move, scale, or rotate).
• Improved Nudge: The TurboCAD Nudge function now offers more efficient pick-up and placement of selected object(s) using the numbers pad.
• Improved Block/Group Editing: While in block/group edit mode, users can now snap to objects outside the block or group.
• More Flexible UI: Users can now re-size dialog boxes as needed for their design environment. Adjust the screen size, resolution, and more. Works with the majority of dialog boxes including general property pages, multiline text, dimensions, program setup, and Drawing options pages.
• New Contact Manager & File Sharing: Users now have the ability to create and maintain contact lists and send files to individuals or groups from within TurboCAD.

Rendering and Visualization

• Improved RedSDK Rendering: Updated engine (to v3.5.0.2) and new displacement shader for more realistic materials.
• Dynamic Cutaway Plane (Platinum only): Cut away plane, for looking inside a 3D model, works in draft mode, in mixed draft and wireframe, and in mixed draft and hidden line modes.

Drafting and Detailing

• Improved Format Painter Tool (Platinum only): Use the Format Painter to transfer Custom Properties and Property Set Definitions (PSD) from one object to another. This huge productivity improvement is also a crucial feature for extending BIM/IFC models.
• New Dimension Units Format ‘By Drawing’: Users can now globally define dimension units at the drawing level.
• Improved Dimension Text: Dimension Text can be set to non-rotatable. With this property selected, dimension text will always face the user no matter the orientation of the drawing.
• Sorted Layers in Drop Down Lists: The Layers in the drop down and simple lists are now sorted as per the Design Director. If you change the control view order in Design Director the same ordering will be in all other Layer controls.
• Improved Trim Tools: New ability to trim hatched or closed objects and maintain the hatch or closure.
• Improved Join Polyline Tool: The Join Polyline Tool now works on Beziers and splines without converting them to a polyline, so that their original curve status is maintained.

Drafting and Detailing

• Improved AutoCAD (DWG/DXF): Read/write filters for 2013-2015. Dynamic blocks are imported as simple blocks.
• New SketchUp (SKP): Read/write filter based on SketchUp 2015.
• New Visual Effects for Exported Images: For any image that has been added to a TurboCAD drawing, you can now control the brightness, contrast, saturation, and transparency.

Pricing and Availability

TurboCAD Pro 2015 is priced at $1,495 while TurboCAD Pro Platinum 2015 is priced at $1,695 and both are now available. The annual subscriptions is also available.

For more information, download a 30-day trial, or to upgrade online, visit www.TurboCAD.com or call IMSI/Design at 1.800.833.80821.800.833.8082 FREE (+1.415.483.8000+1.415.483.8000).

About IMSI/Design

IMSI/Design is the global leader in retail CAD (Computer Aided Design) and a pioneer in mobile solutions for the AEC (Architectural, Engineering, and Construction) industry. With over 16 million products distributed since 1988, IMSI/Design products include the award-winning TurboCAD, DesignCAD, TurboFloorPlan, TurboViewer, TurboReview, and TurboSite families of precision design applications for desktop and mobile. For more information, visit www.IMSIdesign.com.

Luxion KeyShot Integrates with IronCAD

IRVINE, CA and ATLANTA, GA, Nov 22 - Luxion, makers of KeyShot and a leading developer of advanced rendering and lighting technology, with IronCAD, LLC, a leading provider of design productivity solutions, today announced the integration between KeyShot and IronCAD, bringing the single-click transfer of IronCAD data into KeyShot along with the ability to keep model geometry updated to streamline the 3D visual creation process.

This tight integration between KeyShot and IronCAD, featuring Luxion's LiveLinking technology, allows IronCAD users to develop their design within IronCAD, export the data to KeyShot, maintaining assembly structure and all appearances, while continuing to work on the design inside IronCAD. As the design development proceeds, users can select to update the model inside KeyShot from the IronCAD interface with the click of a button without disrupting previous applied materials, views or animations set up within KeyShot.

Integration between KeyShot and IronCAD provides users faster creation of 3D visuals

This new integration both compliments and bridges the modeling flexibility available within IronCAD and the rendering flexibility within KeyShot to deliver an efficient workflow to design engineers. With the installation of the 2014 or later versions of the IronCAD Design Collaboration Suite of products, users can launch KeyShot directly from the IronCAD interface without the need to export to another file format. Options include the ability to Export the IronCAD model directly into KeyShot, update the model within KeyShot and export a KeyShot .bip file without KeyShot installed. Color assignments at the part and assembly level are maintained while assembly structure and camera views are transferred accurately into KeyShot.

"The KeyShot integration is a valuable extension for the IronCAD community, extending the capability to quickly develop high quality visual representations of their products," commented Cary O'Connor, V.P. Marketing at IronCAD. "KeyShot is providing a simple to use, high quality product that ties perfectly to IronCAD's commitment to deliver increased productivity to our users and we are excited to bring this integration to our customers," he continued.

"IronCAD is an incredibly flexible 3D modeling application combining both parametric and explicit modeling in the same interface." says Thomas Teger, Vice President of Products and Strategy at Luxion. "With the new KeyShot integration with IronCAD, users can extend that flexibility with the ability to quickly create stunning visuals from their IronCAD data while continuing to refine their design."

Pricing and Availability

The KeyShot Integration for IronCAD will be available free of charge and is included in the IronCAD Design Collaboration Suite release 2014 and newer.

About Luxion

Luxion is a leading developer of advanced 3D rendering and lighting technology. KeyShot is the first real-time ray tracing and global illumination program for 3D rendering and animation that uses a physically correct rendering engine certified by the CIE (International Commission on Illumination). Addressing the visualization needs of designers, engineers, marketing professionals, photographers and CG specialists, KeyShot breaks down the complexity of creating photographic images and animations from 3D digital data. Luxion's customer list includes many of the Fortune 1000 product manufacturers and major industrial design companies including Chrysler, Fossil, Microsoft, Tesla, Procter & Gamble, IDEO and SMART Design. For more information, visit www.keyshot.com.

About IronCAD

Based in Atlanta, GA, IronCAD is a leading provider of 3D Design Productivity Solutions that deliver the highest levels of customer satisfaction and productivity. Individual components of this solution can be used standalone, complementary within an existing design environment, or can be used together to collaborate effectively throughout the enterprise to extend productivity. Its flagship product IRONCAD has won many industry awards for its innovative technology and leads the industry in its ease of use and design productivity. IronCAD products are being used successfully by thousands of customers worldwide. For more information on IronCAD, call 1-800-339-7304 or visit www.ironcad.com.

MAXON CINEWARE Upgrades Available in Adobe After Effects CC

FRIEDRICHDORF, Germany, Nov 9 - MAXON, the leading developer of professional 3D modeling, painting, animation and rendering solutions, announced upgrades to MAXON CINEWARE, now available in the latest version of Adobe After Effects CC . The enhancements symbolize the ongoing strategic relationship between MAXON and Adobe to deliver improved integration and performance between MAXON’s powerful 3D application, CINEMA 4D, and Adobe’s industry leading software.

Since the June introduction of Adobe After Effects CC, creative professionals have benefitted from the seamless integration provided by CINEWARE that establishes a bridge between the two applications and allows users to open any 3D file that CINEMA 4D supports directly in After Effects that can be edited and enhanced using the “Live 3D pipeline.” Compositing passes can also be selected directly in After Effects for editing, even by users who are new to 3D. This version of After Effects CC also debuted CINEMA 4D Lite, a limited, yet feature-rich version of CINEMA 4D integrated within After Effects that gives artists access to an exceptional selection of the software's functionality.

The new updates to the CINEWARE workflow, available in After Effects CC, are designed to optimize performance and enhance creative capabilities in the video workflow. Last month, MAXON introduced CINEMA 4D Release 15 (R15) marked by powerful enhancements to modeling, text creation, rendering and sculpting. Access to many of the new capabilities in R15 are also available in the latest version of After Effects CC.

Updates to CINEWARE include:

• Options Dialog Box - New settings are available in the CINEWARE Options Dialog Box allowing users to select which version of CINEMA 4D (R14 or later) should be started automatically. This is especially beneficial to users who have fully-featured versions of CINEMA 4D Studio or CINEMA 4D Broadcast installed so that they can select the preferred CINEMA 4D software version of choice more easily.
• Rendering Enhancements - New rendering capabilities are available in the After Effects CC CINEWARE viewport for users who choose to use an edition of CINEMA 4D other than CINEMA 4D Lite including the Physical Renderer.

MAXON's Physical Renderer gives artists real-world camera functions for added cinematic and creative possibilities. It works with Intel's highly optimized Embree Raytracing Engine, for rendering speed improvements without compromising image quality.

CINEMA 4D Upgrade Path

For After Effects CC users wishing to experience the more powerful versions of CINEMA 4D beyond CINEMA 4D Lite, MAXON offers an attractive upgrade path to CINEMA 4D R15 for an even richer 3D content creation experience. For more information, visit CINEMA 4D Broadcast and CINEMA 4D Studio.

About MAXON Computer

Headquartered in Germany, MAXON Computer is a developer of industry-leading professional 3D modeling, painting, animation and rendering solutions. Its award-winning CINEMA 4D and BodyPaint 3D software products have been used extensively to help create everything from stunning visual effects in top feature films, TV shows and commercials to cutting-edge game cinematics for AAA games, medical illustration, and architectural and industrial design applications. MAXON has offices in Germany, USA, United Kingdom, France, Japan and Singapore. MAXON products are available directly from MAXON and its worldwide distribution and reseller channel. For more information, visit http://www.maxon.net.

Autodesk Maya 2014 Service Pack 3.0 Available

Autodesk Maya 2014 Service Pack 3 includes several important fixes.

For more information and to download this Service Pack, click here.

MAXON Offers Free CINEBENCH R15 for Windows, Mac

MAXON Computer, leading developer of 3D software solutions for motion graphics, visual effects, 3D painting, animation and rendering, announces the immediate availability of CINEBENCH Release 15. CINEBENCH is a cross-platform testing suite that measures hardware performance and is the de facto standard benchmarking tool for leading companies and trade journals for conducting real-world hardware performance tests. With the new Release 15, systems with up to 256 threads can be tested. CINEBENCH is available for both Windows and OS X and is used by almost all hardware manufacturers and trade journals for comparing CPUs and graphics cards.

CINEBENCH is based on MAXON’s award-winning 3D software, CINEMA 4D, which is used in production studios worldwide for the creation of 3D effects in blockbusters such as Iron Man 3, Oblivion, Life of Pi or Prometheus. Contrary to artificial benchmarks that only perform abstract tests on specific functions, CINEBENCH measures system performance based on actual production processes in CINEMA 4D. The test consists of two modules, that evaluate CPU and graphics card performance separately.

Main processor performance (CPU)

CINEBENCH test procedures include a comprehensive test of the main processor’s performance by rendering a photo-realistic 3D scene. This scene, with approx. 280,000 polygons, uses various algorithms and all available cores. The test result is displayed in points.

Graphics card performance (OpenGL)

This test uses a car chase consisting of complex 3D scenes to ascertain the graphics card’s OpenGL render performance. This scene contains a large amount of geometry (approx. 1 million polygons), high-res textures and numerous effects. The result is displayed in frames per second.

System requirements:

The CPU benchmark requires a minimum of 1 GB RAM and supports processors with a minimum clock frequency of 1 GHz. The OpenGL benchmark supports graphics cards with 512 MB RAM and higher and OpenGL 2.1. CINEBENCH independently ascertains whether or not all required functions are supported by the graphics card to correctly display the scene. For additional technical information, visit CINEBENCH technical page.

CINEBENCH has been comprehensively developed further to take full advantage of the performance of state-of-the-art hardware. CPU and OpenGL test results for CINEBENCH R15 can therefore not be compared to the results of previous versions! The algorithm used to calculate render results was fundamentally re-written and now delivers results in a different and clearly recognizable value range.

Availability

CINEBENCH is available immediately as a free download at the MAXON website.

About MAXON Computer

Headquartered in Germany, MAXON Computer is a developer of industry-leading professional 3D modeling, painting, animation and rendering solutions. Its award-winning CINEMA 4D and BodyPaint 3D software products have been used extensively to help create everything from stunning visual effects in top feature films, TV shows and commercials to cutting-edge game cinematics for AAA games, medical illustration, and architectural and industrial design applications. MAXON has offices in Germany, USA, United Kingdom, France, Japan and Singapore. MAXON products are available directly from MAXON and its worldwide distribution and reseller channel. For more information, visit http://www.maxon.net.

SiTex Graphics Releases Air 13, Air Stream v2, SketchAir Beta

SiTex Graphics releases its 2013 suite of rendering products, including version 13 of the Air renderer, version 2 of the Air Stream plugin for Maya, and a beta version of SketchAir, a new plug-in for Sketchup.

New Features in Air 13 Includes:

Physically Plausible Shading

Release 13 of Air introduces a new set of physically plausible surface shaders. The new shaders are based on new shading language functionality that allows reflections to be sampled based on a specular response function. Because specular highlights and reflections are treated in a consistent manner, the new shaders require fewer parameters, simplifying material setup and providing physically plausible results.

Interactive Retexturing

Air 13 includes a new Retexture application for interactively altering materials in an image as a post-process. Rexture works with "deep" images rendered by Air that include extra information that allows Retexture to recompute the final image as materials are interactively edited. Retexture's simple interface allows even non-technical users to experiment with different materials by, for example, dropping a texture file onto an object and seeing the image update in real time.

Faster Global Illumination

A new radiosity cache for indirect diffuse illumination can greatly accelerate rendering by allowing shading results for indirect sampling to be re-used. Rendering with indirect bounce light can now be almost as fast as rendering with ambient occlusion. Ambient occlusion has also been further optimized to work better in complex scenes when rendering with many processing threads.

Carpet Shaders

Air 13 includes several new shaders for creating and shading carpet. A new carpet instancer shader "grows" carpet on a surface at render time based on user supplied parameters. The carpet is created as groups of light-weight curve primitives that provide the detail needed for close viewing in a manner that is also efficient to render. For cases where less detail is required, a new fake carpet surface shader traces a virtual field of fibers to produce a carpet appearance without the memory overhead of creating large numbers of curves. Air 13 includes a new curve tapering option that can be used to the fine tune the appearance of carpet fibers or other curve primitives.

Air Stream for Maya 2.0

The Air Stream 2.0 rendering plugin for Maya includes builds for Maya 2014. Maya fluids can now be rendered as surfaces or volumes using Air. Air volume shaders can be used for global atmospheric effects. Air Stream now automatically handles hair or fur created with Joe Alter's Shave and a Haircut, and Shave hair and fur can be interactively shaded using TweakAir just like other scene elements. Stereo rendering is now much easier: Air Stream automatically adds the extra image and camera information required for stereo rendering to the exported scene file when a stereo camera rig is detected. Finally, Air Stream 2.0 includes support for additional Maya shaders, as well as new controls for the radiosity cache and curve tapering capabilities in Air 13.

SketchAir Beta

SiTex Graphics has announced the first beta release of a new SketchAir plug-in for SketchUp. SketchAir provides a simple and efficient way to render with Air from within SketchUp. SketchAir is available as a free download on the SiTex Graphics web site.

For more information, visit SiTex Graphics at www.sitexgraphics.com.

MAXON CINEMA 4D R15 Available

MAXON announces immediate availability of CINEMA 4D Release 15 (R15), a milestone release of its flagship 3D motion graphics, visual effects, painting, and rendering software application. Marked by new features and powerful 3D workflow enhancements to modeling, text creation, digital sculpting, advanced rendering optimization - including all-new network rendering capabilities - Release 15 expresses the company’s commitment to deliver its customer community with continued innovation and the most advanced 3D creative solutions in the industry.

Ideally suited to broadcast motion graphics and visual effects artists, game developers, architects and designers seeking exceptional stability and performance, CINEMA 4D Release 15 offers spectacular image quality, unmatched integration with leading 2D compositing applications, and a straightforward, efficient and flexible interface to handle the complexities of today’s cross-collaboration production environments.

MAXON will internationally debut CINEMA 4D Release 15 next week at IBC2013, the premier annual conference and exhibition for professionals engaged in the creation, management and delivery of entertainment and news content taking place September 13-17 at the Amsterdam RAI. The MAXON Booth/Stand at IBC will be located in Hall 6, # 6.C19.

David Lewandowski, director and animation artist (Oblivion, Tron: Legacy, Tiny Tortures, Going to the Store) states, "Release 15 is an exciting update for users of every skill level. The all-new Team Render and Bevel alone make this a must-have upgrade for me.”

Availability

CINEMA 4D Release 15 is available through MAXON and its authorized dealers. Customers with an active MAXON Service Agreement (MSA) valid through September 3, 2013, will receive an automatic upgrade. Release 15 is available for both Mac OS X and Windows.

For further information about CINEMA 4D Release 15 (R15), click here.