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Over at SolidSmack, they’ve got the latest press release and details on the newest Luxion Keyshot feature: Animation support.

KeyShot 3 delivers an all new, patent-pending animation system making product and camera animations easier than ever before. In addition, KeyShot 3 delivers significant improvements to user interface and workflow with improved asset management and part interaction. KeyShot’s import pipeline has been significantly expanded to now support Parasolid®-based file formats such as NX, Solid Edge and SolidWorks on both PC and Mac and also includes over 400 new materials and over 40 new lighting environments.

It’s available as a $500 addon to the existing KeyShot, and features the same simple interface they’ve done so well with in still imagery.  Definitely go read the release if you’re a KeyShot user.

via Luxion Drops KeyShot 3 Bomb, Animators Rejoice – SolidSmack.com.

Graphics keyshot, luxion

SolidSmack brings us news that PTC Creo 1.0 has finally hit the streets, and coinciding with the release is the announcement from Luxion that KeyShot 2 is ready to go from day 1.

“We are excited to offer the first visualization solution for Creo”, says Dr. Henrik Wann Jensen, Chief Scientist and co-founder of Luxion. “This demonstrates a strong commitment to our joint customer base. Creo customers immediately have the ability to use the best rendering solution in conjunction with the world’s most advanced modeling solution.”

High-end rendering in CAD Modeling is frequently forgotten in the pursuit of easy & fast.  It’s becoming more important, and lots more obtainable thanks to offerings from companies like Bunkspeed and Luxion.  Having it integrated so tightly on Release Day is a big win for PTC and Luxion.

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Last week, Luxion announced the immediate availability of KeyShot 2.2, the newest version of their impressive rendering package.

“Version 2.2 is a huge improvement for all Keyshot users,” says Kevin Quigley, principal at Quigley Design, a provider of high-end product development services to many well renown manufacturers and a beta tester of this new version. “Not only does Keyshot 2.2 import  SolidWorks 2011 and CATIA v5 files, but  there are some great improvements made to other translators as well, with more options and faster import.”

In addition to import of SolidWorks and CATIA files, they’ve improved several other format imports like SketchUp and Inventor.  Also, they have an impressive boost of 15x for some of the more complex materials, which should make some of your bigger scenes render even faster!

“The new scene manager tree makes applying and editing materials much easier,” Quigley continues.”Combined with the new part highlighting it makes moving around and editing more complex models a simple task. Not only that but the render times continue to tumble! On some models I noticed a reduction of 50% in render times between 2.1 and 2.2…..and 2.1 was already fast! I won’t be able to use the excuse ‘waiting for the render to finish’ anymore!”

Get the full details after the break.

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Graphics keyshot, luxion, software

A new whitepaper from Intel brings in some statistics and stories from Luxology, Luxion, and Modo on the power of CPU’s for ray-tracing and how they can smoke any GPU on the market with CPU-only solutions.

“Modern GPUs offer a brute force solution to ray tracing, but the memory available to GPUs is relatively limited compared to the system memory available to 64-bit CPUs such as Intel Core i7 and Xeon processors. That means that GPUs typically can’t handle the huge scene files required in full-scale production rendering, which may involve tens of millions of polygons and hundreds of high-resolution texture maps. And CPUs offer greater flexibility in terms of shading complexity and plug-in shaders, which may or may not have been ported to run on a GPU.”

These are the same arguments I’ve been hearing for the last year or so.  And I have to admit they’re right, if not a bit short-sighted.  It’s my belief that most of the arguments they use are going to fall apart soon.

• They always talk about the power of Moore’s law in CPU’s.  Well, that same law applies to GPU’s too, they’re going to get faster just like CPU’s will.  Even more so, most likely, as they not only optimize individual cores but add more cores as a rate exponential to CPU’s.
• They always talk about Memory limitations.  There was a time where CPU’s had rather restrictive memory limitations (the fabled “640k is enough for anyone” comment?).  GPU’s will continue to grow in memory.  In fact, Sandy Bridge and Fusion offer the first step towards eliminating the distinction between GPU and CPU memory.
• They always talk about the limited instruction set.  This one isn’t likely to change, and will always be a hindrance to GPU computing.  However, newer algorithms come along at a steady pace showing that you don’t really need the type of complex branching mechanisms of CPU’s, since the GPU has enough horsepower to just compute both sides of the condition and drop the unnecessary one.

In fact, I think within the next 5 years we may see the distinction between CPU and GPU disappear almost entirely, as they both wind up on the same die (similar to how Processor and Math Co-Processor eventually merged several years ago).

It’s a good whitepaper tho, full of some concrete numbers on attempts to GPU-ize code unsuccessfully and benefits achieved from using some of Intel’s newest CPU-optimization technology.

Check it out, and see what you think?

via Why CPU is better than GPU for rendering from Intel with Luxology, Keyshot and Maxwell. – SolidSmack.com.

Science cpu, gpu, intel, luxion, luxology, modo, whitepaper

Popular CAD suite “Pro/ENGINEER” is no more, now known as “Creo Elements/Pro”, thanks to a global product rename by parent company PTC.  CoCreate and ProductView have been renamed as well.

“We believe Creo could be significant and a positive advance in PTC’s product offerings.” said Mike Galbraith, Global Engineering Systems & Services, Tyco Electronics. Creo could allow the teams involved in designing new products and bringing them to market…across different functions, different locations, etc… to productively use the same toolset throughout the product life-cycle process. We’re looking forward to working with PTC and their other partners in shaping these new capabilities.”

At at the naming event, they announced launch partner Luxion who have revamped their KeyShot rendering plugin for the new software.

“Selecting Luxion as a launch partner enables us to demonstrate that Creo in combination with Luxion’s KeyShot rendering technology allows other members of the community such as sales and marketing to be involved early in the design process and utilize the digital data directly for the creation of product imagery” said Michael M. Campbell PTC’s Divisional Vice President of Design and Visualization Products.

I have to admit, I’m not a big fan of the name.  The previous name was more than just a product name, it was a job description (Professional Engineers use “Pro/E”, etc).  The new name reminds me too much of the Pleo or the Treo.

Nonetheless, I’m glad to see a company like Luxion brought it at the ground floor.  High-end rendering has traditionally been forgotten in CAD packages, and I’m glad to see it available at-launch for a new product (even if it is just a rename of an old product).

via Press Releases: PTC Introduces Creo Design Software – PTC.com.

Graphics cad, luxion, pro/e, software

Luxion today has just lauched KeyShot 2.1, the newest version of their CPU-based high-speed raytracing suite, which adds several useful UI improvements but, most importantly, support for several new file formats like Pro/E, ALIAS, and SolidEdge.

“KeyShot 2.1 is a major leap forward in terms of render quality and productivity,” says Peter Kossev, principal at Pixelmathematics, a provider of high-end product development consulting to many of the world’s top manufacturers and a beta tester of this new version. “The ability to import ALIAS files into KeyShot directly saves us hours on a big project.”

You can download a free 15-day trial from their website, or buy it at prices from $395 (basic upgrade) to $1995 (Pro Version).  Full release after the break.

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Over at SolidSmack, they’ve got a great review of Luxion’s new KeyShot2.0.  They open with a quick cliff-notes on the history (the Luxion/BunkSpeed drama) and quickly transition into the new features of KeyShot2.

If you were a Hypershot user, you know how easy it was to create a quick rendering. KeyShot blows that away and not only makes getting a rendering easier, but also makes the workflow to get that rendering easier. You have three areas where you do the majority of your work. The Realtime window, the Library and the Options. You size the model in the Realtime window, drag and drop materials and environments from the Library and adjust your light setting and material in the Options. The settings in both are split into tabs so you don’t have boxes littering your workspace. It makes for a set-up you can jump around in smoothly without going mad wondering what to do next.

I had a chance to see it demonstrated in the Intel booth at SIGGRAPH, and for a pure-CPU renderer it’s pretty impressive.  Of course, they had it running on a 24-core machine, so obviously it’s going to be fast, but I was glad to see this in his review, which they left out of their SIGGRAPH presentation:

Part of the disagreement that divided Luxion and Bunkspeed, is what processors should be used to create the renderings. Bunkspeed maintained that utilizing the GPU was the way to go, while Luxion maintained the CPU was more capable. True, you can usually get more CPU power for the money, but there are realtime benefits and power the GPU also provides. So, this will change with KeyShot 2.1 where support for additional GPU rendering is added.

This is the true direction of this argument: Merging the CPU & GPU into hybrid solutions, exploiting the power of both sides to their fullest.

via KeyShot 2.0. All the Raw, Realtime Render Juice You Can Squeeze [Review] >> SolidSmack.com.

Graphics keyshot, luxion, software

Alibre has just announced that the new version of Alibre Design Expert and Profession 3D CAD software, priced under $500, will include the Luxion KeyShot 2 photorealistic lighting and rendering technology.

“KeyShot 2 is the next generation of photorealistic real-time rendering,” said Max Freeman, VP of Marketing, Alibre Inc. “Alibre Design and KeyShot 2 is the complete end-to-end solution for our customers, combining extreme ease-of-use, a high level of capabilities, and native BIP export.”

The result is a fast real-time lighting and rendering solution to rival most of their competition, at a great price-point.  Available now, full details after the break.

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Graphics alibre, luxion, software