Plug-in

Twinmotion – Create Stunning Visualisations in Just a Few Clicks.

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Twinmotion

Special Introductory Offer – 50% OFF Twinmotion until September!

Twinmotion is an easy-to-use visualization tool for architects, urban planners, and landscape architects that transforms CAD data into stunning visualizations so you can share ideas and communicate designs quickly and easily.

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Twinmotion is designed to be simple, easy to use, and easy to learn. Get started quickly and be productive straight from the box by using one-click workflows, drag-and-drop assets, all under and icon driven interface.

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Achieve a realistic look in no time, thanks to over 600 physically accurate materials that react to your environment, and smart features that allow you to visualise vegetation across seasons, study the impact of the sun’s position, and much more.

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Easily create amazing scenes without all the hard work by using the library of thousands of static and smart assets. The library is always growing and includes furniture, ambient sounds, lights, animated vehicles, animals, dynamic plants, and much more.

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Twinmotion offers one-click synchronisation with SketchUp Pro, Revit and Rhino so you can keep your existing workflow. As well as direct compatiblity, Twinmotion supports 21 other CAD formats including FBX, SKY, C4D, and OBJ.

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Twinmotion for SketchUp, Twinmotion for Rhino and Twinmotion for Revit are also available and include a discount when purchased together.

V-Ray 5 for 3ds Max – Out Now!

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V-Ray 5 for 3ds Max

The latest version of V-Ray has been released for the 3ds Max platform. With V-Ray 5 for 3ds Max, experience new features including Layered Compositor, Material Library and Browser, Light Mix, Material presets and previews, and much more, to streamline your entire workflow.

To find out more about V-Ray 5, join Chaos Group presenters Vlado Koylazov, Lon Grohs and Peter Matanov for a tour of the new features, followed by a live Q&A session.

V-Ray 5 Webinar
Tuesday, June 23rd 2020
6pm BST / 8pm EEST

Register Now

What’s New?

Light Mixing
Using LightMix with the new V-Ray Frame Buffer lets you experiment with lighting changes after rendering to explore lighting possibilities interactively and in real-time.

Layered Compositing
Fine-tune and finish your images directly within V-Ray Frame Buffer, eliminating the need for a separate post-processing app.

Material Manager
Efficiently browse from a library of over 500 render-ready materials including metals, glass, wood and more.

Material Presets
Save time creating common materials with presets for aluminum, chrome, glass and more.

Material Previews
New rendered material swatches show you exactly what your materials will look like.

Coat Layer
Add reflective coatings directly in the updated V-Ray Material, saving you both material creation and rendering time vs. using Blend material.

Sheen Layer
Create soft microfibre fabrics like velvet, satin and silk with the new Sheen options in the updated V-Ray Material.

Texture Randomisation
Add variety to your scene with the new VRayUVWRandomizer map and enhanced VRayMultiSubTex controls.

Stochastic Texture Tiling
Automatically remove texture tiling artifacts with the new Stochastic tiling option on the VRayUVWRandomizer.

Extended V-Ray Dirt
Weathered streaks and dirt in crevices are now easy with the enhanced V-Ray Dirt, which now employs both ambient and inner occlusion.

New Sun & Sky Model
Reproduce the subtleties of twilight when the sun is below the horizon with the new Sun and Sky model.

Existing V-Ray Users

If you’re already using V-Ray Next, you’ll be able to take advantage of upgrade pricing to get going with V-Ray 5. If you’re on V-Ray 3, contact us and we will help explore your options.

V-Ray Collection

V-Ray Collection is the ultimate 3D rendering and simulation toolset. One license gives artists and designers access to 15 Chaos products all with that single license — and total creative freedom and flexibility. With the V-Ray Collection, users can work freely between 3D applications, applying their own mix of photorealistic rendering, fluid simulation and real-time scene exploration to any project.

Free Webinar: Preparing Renderings in Artlantis from a Vectorworks Model

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Artlantis Webinar

Preparing Renderings in Artlantis from a Vectorworks Model
Thursday, 25th June 2020
10:00 AM – 11:00 AM BST

Sign Up Now

Join us on Thursday 25th June as Ildikó Szabo, Abvent Product Specialist, shows how Artlantis, Abvent’s stand-alone rendering application for architects and designers, can take a model produced in Vectorworks, and use it to produce stunning, photo-realistic renders.

Artlantis is the perfect software for Vectorworks users, allowing them to present their projects with 3D photorealistic renderings.

Learn about high resolution shaders, 3D objects and textures which give your presentations the look you want, and help you accomplish even the most ambitious projects.

Equipped with an intuitive interface and great tools, Artlantis 2020 boasts a number of new features elevating your architectural visualisations to new heights!

There will be time for Q&A at the end of the webinar, and a recording of the webinar will be available at a later date.

Sign Up Now

Online Course: Generative Design Workshop Using Wallacei

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Generative Design, Wallacei - Rhino

Generative Design Workshop Using Wallacei
Online course hosted by McNeel Europe
6-8 July, 2020

Contact McNeel Europe to Sign Up

McNeel Europe presents a 3-day webinar with Mohammed Makki and Milad Showkatbakhsh, co-founders of Wallacei.

Wallacei is an evolutionary engine to run simulations through genetic algorithms for solving multi objective optimisation problems. Wallacei incorporates highly detailed analytic tools coupled with various comprehensive selection methods, including unsupervised machine learning algorithms, to assist users and make more informed decisions at all stages of their generative design processes.

In the 3-day online course, learn the detailed features and functions of the Wallacei platform through a hands-on approach, gaining a thorough understanding of the methodologies associated with the applications of evolutionary concepts in design. The workshop will teach participants Wallacei through the design of an architectural tower, focusing on two primary scales that address both tower morphology as well as tower façade.

Day 1: Fundamentals

  • Theory behind the application of Evolutionary Principles in Design and Problem Solving:
    • Significance of the biological evolutionary processes in nature.
    • Translation of biological evolutionary processes within computation.
  • Genetic Algorithms: case studies in design.
  • Generative Design with Wallacei features and contributions.
  • Running Wallacei: Environment, Goals, Objectives, and Gene pools.

Day 2: Wallacei Generative Design Workflow

  • Setting up the generative design workflow, environments, and frameworks in order to set up a meaningful tower optimisation problem.
  • Understanding the Wallacei.X user interface and reading the simulation’s results:
    • Wallacei Settings: population, parameters, search space and dynamic charts.
    • Wallacei Analytics: standard deviation, diamond chart, and fitness values.
    • Wallacei Selection: parallel coordinate, selecting solutions, Pareto front, and phenotypes.
    • The Wallacei.X Component Output: genomes, phenotypes, and data.
  • Selecting Solutions for starting the second simulation

Day 3: Selection Strategies

  • Setting up the workflow and design problem for the second simulation
  • Running the genetic algorithm, analysing the results and extracting solutions
  • Visualisation and presentation strategies of the final solution set

Course Requirements: Basic knowledge using Rhino and Grasshopper.

Online Course Fee: 397.50€ (+VAT)
Full-time students and university teachers (proof of status required) will get a 50% discount. Please note your seat is only confirmed once payment has been cleared.

Max. Number of Participants: 25. If there is no quorum, the course will be cancelled 15 days prior to the start date of the workshop.

Language: English.

Educational seats are limited.
Sign up now by contacting McNeel Europe!

VisualARQ supports Cloud Zoo!

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VisualARQ 2.8

Did you know that VisualARQ 2.8 supports Cloud Zoo to manage floating licenses online? All you need to do is add the license to your Rhino account to use the same license on any internet connected computer!

Download VisualARQ 2.8

This latest version of VisualARQ features new plan cut and visibility settings. Objects above or below the cut plane can be displayed in plan views and objects above cut plane can be displayed using overhead attributes.

Example of the overhead attributes of a roof in a plan view.

To see this feature in full, check out the video below:

System Design and Signal Flow Diagrams with ConnectCAD and Vectorworks

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ConnectCAD

If you need to create signal flow diagrams and would benefit from system design software, look no further than ConnectCAD for Vectorworks.

Managing connected systems has never been easier as ConnectCAD offers the ability to create easy-to-read schematic drawings and diagram rack layouts. You can work in a hybrid 2D/3D environment, check for errors and easily make changes, all while generating detailed reports.

As ConnectCAD is built to work with Vectorworks Spotlight, you can be confident that industry standard, flexible, robust design and documentation capabilities are in your hands.

Take advantage of an extensive manufacturer library, giving users everything they need to design with confidence.

ConnectCAD diagram worksheets with amp servers

Connect signals with a wide variety of cable types and lengths. Create reports once you’ve completed your layouts in a convenient format, great for updating as a final list. Then, easily compare what has been changed through iterations when showing to a client.

connectCAD

ConnectCAD is ideal for broadcast system integrators, AV integrators, home automation contractors, CCTV installers, marine luxury yacht system installers, and sound/lighting/exhibition designers etc. ConnectCAD makes it easier for system designers to start from an idea all the way to installation.

If you would like to try Vectorworks, request a free Vectorworks trial.
Interested in ConnectCAD? Contact us and we’ll add it to your Vectorworks trial!

NBS Chorus – Intelligent Construction Specification

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NBS Chorus

NBS Chorus is a cloud based, cross-platform specification system available for both Mac and Windows. Dynamically link models to the NBS online specification database, while keeping the model as the central source of project information. NBS Chorus integration is available to users of the Vectorworks Design Series with an active Service Select membership.

Users will be able to open a web browser-based palette in Vectorworks, and work concurrently with both the model and NBS Chorus. Any data modified in NBS Chorus via the web palette will update in the data record of the model, ensuring accurate and up-to-date specification information is accessible at all times from the model.

NBS Chorus is ideal for teams who which to standardise their model using defined specifications such as CAWS Work Sections and Uniclass 2015. As it is a web palette, it can be freely enabled and disabled right within Vectorworks, and is also accessible independently of Vectorworks.

The licence is user-based, which means all users need to do is close the Vectorworks application, and the NBS Chorus licence will be available for use elsewhere.

NBS Chorus is available to Vectorworks Design Series users with an active Vectorworks Service Select membership.

Reimagine Rapid Modeling of Ship Structures in Rhino

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Rhino Webinar

In this upcoming webinar, learn how parametric structural modeling with ExpressMarine can jump-start your ShipConstructor project.

Thursday 2nd April 2020
12:00 – 13:00 BST and 19:00 – 20:00 BST

Register Now

Join this webinar to see how the ExpressMarine structural modeling plugin for Rhino is used to rapidly create a parametric model of a ship structure, with the ability to easily make changes that flow through the model.

The webinar will showcase how to create decks, bulkheads, floors, frames, stiffeners, cutouts, etc. See instant updates of the weight and centre of gravity of the ship. Exports of the ExpressMarine data will then be passed to ShipWeight, an Advanced Bill of Materials (ABOM), and ShipConstructor.

The demonstration will also show how to save hundreds of hours of modeling time with the ShipConstructor stock material library, utilised in building the ExpressMarine model.

You will learn:

  1. How to initialise an ExpressMarine model
  2. How to create objects that are associative to 2D drawings
  3. How to create repetitive structure through parametric and associative rules
  4. How to create non-repetitive structure, such as stringers on the shell
  5. How to export to ShipConstructor

Attendees will be provided with information to download a free trial of the software and access to exclusive pricing offers.

Thursday 2nd April 2020
12:00 – 13:00 BST and 19:00 – 20:00 BST

Register Now

Rhino is available now at CAD Software Direct .com

Register for the Orca3D Marine CFD Webinar

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Orca3D Webinar

Maneuvering and Other Advanced Features
Orca3D Marine CFD Webinar

9:30 AM – 10:30 AM Eastern Standard Time (14:30 – 15:30 GMT)
Wednesday, February 26th

Register Now

Join the Orca3D team as they showcase the advanced analyses available in the Premium version of Orca3D Marine CFD. Computational Fluid Dynamics experts from Orca3D and Simerics, Inc. to learn how you can affordably improve your designs with CFD.

If you missed the last CFD webinar, Rob Kaidy shows how he implemented Orca3D Marine CFD at SeaVee Boats, first benchmarking it on some of their existing boats and then using it to validate their latest high speed, stepped hull, offshore fishing boat before committing to the tooling. You can view it here.

Register Now

Opening Times and Christmas Deals

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Christmas Deals

It’s been another strong year for 3D modeling and rendering. We’ve seen major releases in Vectorworks 2020 demonstrating considerable performance boosts, KeyShot 9 adding GPU rendering and RealCloth, a Maxwell 5 engine re-write built for speed, and so much more than we can list here.

As always, we’d like to extend our sincere thanks to all of our customers and partners for making this another great year, and we wish you all a Merry Christmas and a prosperous New Year. With both the year and decade drawing to a close, it’s time to send off 2019 in style.

CAD Software Direct Opening Times

Our offices are open as normal on December 23rd, so any orders placed before then will be processed as usual. We will do everything we can to get late orders back to you before the break, and there will be limited order processing between Christmas and the New Year. Otherwise we’ll be back to work and sending out orders first thing on January 2nd.

Christmas and New Year Offers – Up to 50% OFF RRP

Vectorworks

25% OFF All Purchases
Offer until December 31st

Vectorworks Offer

Excludes Service Select renewals, Dongles, Shipping, Reinstatements, and Prorated cost of adding to the service select contract.

Maxwell Render

20% OFF A New Licence
Offer until January 6th

Maxwell Render Offer

Realflow

50% OFF New Licences, 30% OFF Plugin versions
Offer until January 6th

RealFlow Offer

Rhino 6

15% OFF RRP on Rhino 6 Licences and Upgrades
Offer until January 2nd

Rhino Offer

15% OFF the V-Ray + Rhino Bundle
Comes with FREE Affinity Photo
Offer until January 2nd

V-Ray Rhino Bundle Offer

£50 OFF A New ZBrush Licence
Offer until January 2nd

ZBrush Offer

£50 OFF A New Artlantis Licence
Offer until January 2nd

Artlantis Offer

If you have any questions or would like further information, give us a call on 01206 804984 or send an email to contact@cadsoftwaredirect.com

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year
from all of us at CAD Software Direct!