CIMdata PLM Industry Summary Online Archive

25 June 2013

Product News

Designers on Windows and Mac Enjoy a New Level of Control with solidThinking Evolve® 9.5

In 2000, solidThinking became the first company to offer industrial designers NURBS-based 3D modeling software for both the OS X and Windows operating systems. Since then its user community has grown, driven by the value of the software's organic surfacing, construction history, and integrated rendering in a single package, coupled with solidThinking's commitment to creating a tool crafted specifically to the requirements of designers. Now its latest release of the software, solidThinking Evolve 9.5, lets users work in the most natural and unrestricted fashion yet, enabling faster creation of complex products.

"solidThinking Evolve has been enhanced with tools to simplify geometry creation and make editing more intuitive," says Darren Chilton, Program Manager for solidThinking Evolve. "Plus the unique ConstructionTree history feature is now stronger and more elegantly presented. In this release, not only have we maintained our ongoing support to users on OS X, but we have also added a new 64-bit Windows version that maximizes efficiency in managing large files."

More details are available at the new solidThinking.com. The website features a large collection of new videos including a tour of the user interface, a review of the latest features added for 9.5, and an overview of how Evolve fits into the product design process.

Important new features in solidThinking Evolve 9.5 include:

  • Improved Windows Support – New 64-bit Windows support maximizes efficiency in managing large files (a 32-bit Windows version is also available).
  • Greater Modeling Control – All new Sweep and Blend Curve tools provide greater modeling control and an easier workflow.
  • Superior Geometry Creation and Editing – New selection aids such as pre-highlighting, micro-dialogs, and direct hull selection simplify geometry creation and make editing more intuitive.
  • Enhanced ConstructionTree –The construction history is now more visually refined and robust.
  • Localized Language Support – Chinese, English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese and Spanish are now supported.

"solidThinking Evolve is the software I use to design worlds for the films I work on," says top Hollywood concept artist Ron Mendell. "When I started working with solidThinking (Evolve) in 2004, they had the only viable NURBS modeling software available for a Mac. Today Evolve continues to move forward in leaps and bounds, improving upon something I didn't think could get much better."

Mendell continued, "At one time, a huge bulk of my work was building physical models for film and television. As they were replaced by full CG (computer generated) elements, I moved my toolset into the virtual world. Now, with today's 3D printing technology, those CG elements can quickly become a physical model again. The demand for this virtual-to-physical process is becoming commonplace and Evolve is my go-to tool for making this happen."

solidThinking Evolve allows industrial designers to develop forms faster, using either a Windows PC or Mac. Evolve captures an initial sketch, then allows exploration of styling alternatives and the visualization of products with high quality renderings generated in real time. It combines the modeling freedom of organic surfaces and the control of parametric solids with a unique ConstructionTree history feature. Evolve releases designers from the constraints of engineering-oriented CAD tools, while allowing the export of digital models required by others in the product development process.

solidThinking announced the release of solidThinking Inspire® 9.5 last week. Inspire allows design engineers, product designers and architects to create and investigate structurally efficient concepts quickly and easily. Traditional structural simulations allow engineers to learn if a design will support the required loads. Inspire enhances this process by generating a new material layout within a package space using the loads as an input. The software is easy to learn and works with existing CAD tools to help design structural parts right the first time, reducing costs, development time, material consumption and product weight.

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