Filed under: Macworld, Software
Macworld 2009: solidThinking offers speed and simplicity -- for a price
solidThinking demonstrated its flagship 3D rendering application (of the same name) that simplifies the process for conceptualizing, revising and rendering for industrial designers.
The application makes it very simple to start with a two-dimensional sketch and rapidly create a three-dimensional model of it. For instance, with two cross-sections, users can apply a contiguous skin to create a solid, and not just a series of disconnected surfaces. Users can dynamically edit the points that define the solid, as well, and solidThinking updates the object in real time.
solidThinking also features the Construction Tree, a history-like area that remembers changes to a file. With the Construction Tree, minor changes to the same model can be contained within one file, and retain the surfaces and textures for the modified object. Entire objects can be replaced as well, while surface and deformation settings are retained.
According to product specialist Darren Chilton, rendering is "stupid fast." A demonstration using a photorealistic model of a car took less than 30 seconds to render.
solidThinking is very much a product for professionals, though, with licenses starting at $5,495 for a single computer. A USB dongle that can be moved from computer to computer (including PCs) is $6,000, and a network license for workgroups is $7,495. But, for those professionals who demand efficiency from their software, solidThinking is a strong candidate for those who want a quick, high-quality 3D concepting app.
solidThinking is at booth 3320 in the North Hall at Macworld.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
AJL said 12:47AM on 1-08-2009
That's not excessively expensive - fast, accurate modeling programs that create geometry at a level that's useful in industrial and automotive design (this is beyond the level of Autocad, 3DSMax and Cinema4D) is expensive. Alias Studio costs a lot more.
Of course, Rhino3D for OSX is in beta, it's almost as useful and it's under $1000. It will probably get its own port of Vray (they have Vray for Rhino for Windows and Vray for Cinema4D for OSX so the technology is pretty much in place) and will almost certainly get Maxwell Render.
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Nick said 7:07PM on 1-08-2009
The big difference between this and Alias or Rhino is that parts have a history and associativity. That means that if you change a profile, all of the opperations that you did after that profile update to reflect the change. In Rhino or Alias you would have to rebuild the part from scratch.
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dallasward007 said 1:28AM on 1-10-2009
I can't wait for SolidWorks to come out with a Mac version.
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