Architosh Staff ([email protected])

11 March 2005

 

Mac CAD/3D Tidbits: Dosch Design, Alias and MAXON news

Dosch releases new Construction XT texture collection

Dosch Design is releasing the newest texture collection in the Dosch Textures product line - Dosch Textures: Construction XT. The new collection greatly expands textures used for construction materials, offering over 100 high-resolution, seamless, tileable textures which can be applied to a 3D model. These 6000 x 5000 pixel textures also include bump maps for the depth of the material, useful for architectural renderings, animations and game-design work.

The product is both Mac and Windows compatible and cost 79USD or 69EUR. For more info go to: www.doschdesign.com

Alias | SketchBook Pro

Alias Sketchbook Pro Users Battle for Exposure

In keeping with some of the spirited user competitions these days Alias has announced the grand prize winner for their recent content. Joshua Maruska has won the grand prize for the Expose Yourself 2 online contest. Alias announced the prize at the GDC tradeshow in San Francisco this week. Maruska was victorious with this hip hop dancer "Girl". He is an industrial designer from Seattle, Washington. Prior to Maruska's contest submission he had never worked with Alias Sketchbook Pro.

For more info on Sketchbook Pro go to: www.alias.com

MAXON: New plugin connects BodyPaint 3D to Softimage XSI

MAXON has released a new plugin that connects BodyPaint 3D to Softimage XSI. Now the unique 3D painting features of MAXON's Hollywood-proven tool are available to all users of the latest generation of SOFTIMAGE|XSI. Character animators, game developers and motion picture artists in particular appreciate the versatility of BodyPaint 3D when it comes to texturing the most complex models without distortions.

BodyPaint 3D has won over many leading studios with its complete set of tools, including its new integrated UV editor, artistic paint tools and the revolutionary RayBrush mode which allows users to paint in a raytraced view in 3D.

For more info go to: www.maxon.net

Architosh Analysis: Unfortunately for Mac users of MAXON's BodyPaint and CINEMA 4D, the connector plugin is of less value to them because SOFTIMAGE | XSI does not yet run on Mac OS X. The latest version of SOFTIMAGE | XSI version runs on both Windows and Linux operating systems on x86 hardware only. SOFTIMAGE is a subsidiary of Avid Technology, a strong competitor of Apple's in the professional video editing and effects technologies market. Clearly, AVID is holding SOFTIMAGE back from Mac OS X platform as a way to prevent Apple from gain further ground in the studio markets. If somehow XSI got on OS X it would be a real win for the Mac OS X platform in the studios as they are already heavily used with such Apple products as SHAKE, Final Cut Pro HD and other Apple applications which are OS X only.

SOM and Revit Innovating at World Trade Center Freedom Towers

Computerworld Article Looks at Advanced Design Tools

An article in ComputerWorld online looks at the use of Autodesk Revit for the new WTC Freedom Tower.

"Angelo Arzano, a technical manager at SOM, said last week that most of the hundreds of subcontractors on the Freedom Tower likely will still use paper drawings. But Autodesk's computer-aided design (CAD) and collaboration tools will help project managers schedule construction phases and can handle tasks such as automatically calculating required quantities of steel and concrete, Arzano said."

The article comments that SOM is using Revit and Autodesk's Buzzsaw Professional online collaboration services. The renowned large architecture firm had to upgrade their 10/100 Ethernet LAN to a Gigabit network to handle the transmission of data. In addition, the company is using dual Xeon processor workstations from Dell.

The article points out that one key stumbling block in front of BIM (building information modeling) approaches and online collaboration is legal liability issues. The article quotes Anthony Delisi, IT manager at WSP Cantor Seinuk, the structural engineering firm on the project, as saying that they will use SOM's online drawings only as a reference against its own renditions. Ultimately, he says, "you are responsible for what you create" and therefore don't want to take other's work for granted that it is absolutely correct. This naturally means that the structural engineers will undoubtedly redraw many aspects of the project just as has always been done.

To read the full article go here.

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