Plug-in

Reimagine Rapid Modeling of Ship Structures in Rhino

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

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

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!

Maxon and Red Giant to Merge

Maxon and Red Giant

Maxon, developers of Cinema 4D and a part of the Nemetschek Group, and Red Giant, tool designers for VFX artists and motion designers, have announced that Red Giant will be joining Nemetschek’s media and entertainment division in January 2020.

Both Maxon and Red Giant are already established names in the digital content creation industry. The merge is expected to finalise in January 2020, subject to regulatory approval and customary closing conditions.

“This merger is a major milestone, not only for Maxon and Red Giant but also for the design industry as a whole,” said David McGavran, CEO of Maxon. “Our combined technology and knowhow have the potential to progressively reshape the content creation landscape for years to come.”

“The combination of our companies is an exceptional fit of people, culture and technology.” said Chad Bechert, CEO of Red Giant. “We look forward to working together under a shared vision of how to design powerful and approachable software to serve creative artists around the world.”

Rhino for Architecture Workshop

Rhino for Architecture

Join McNeel Europe and Francesc Salla, product manager of VisualARQ, on a 2-day BIM oriented Rhino workshop for architects, engineers, and designers at McNeel’s Barcelona offices.

Rhino for Architecture Workshop using VisualARQ
McNeel Europe (Barcelona)
3rd – 4th February 2020
10AM – 6PM

Contact McNeel to Sign Up

The workshop focuses on learning Rhino, VisualARQ, and Grasshopper as a Flexible BIM solution for developing and carrying out an architecture project from the 3D model to the 2D documentation. The workshop will help you improve your architectural modeling skills and parametric design workflow inside Rhino and Grasshopper.

Requirements to join:

  • Basic Rhino knowledge.
  • VisualARQ 2. If your evaluation version expires during the course dates, you can request a temporary license.
  • Rhino 6 for Windows.
  • The course will be delivered in English

Course Fee: €530. Full-time students and university teachers will get a 50% discount (proof of status required). 
Please note your seat is only confirmed once payment has cleared.

Max. Number of Participants: 10 in-class participants + 5 remote. The course will be cancelled 15 days before if the minimum number of participants is not met.

Sign up now by contacting McNeel Europe

Corona for SketchUp – What Happened?

Corona for SketchUp

While the latest news surrounding Corona for SketchUp may have been announced way back in 2018, we are still seeing search activity on Corona for SketchUp. Here’s a little bit about what happened, and some alternative suggestions.

In early 2018, the team behind Corona admitted that the SketchUp plugin was not successful due to a small team of developers undertaking work before moving on to other projects. Little progress was made and some development roadblocks surfaced, which combined with limited manpower dedicated to the plugin, pulled the project to a halt.

It was around this time as well that Chaos Group released version 3.6 of their highly successful V-Ray for SketchUp plugin. After seeing where their own project was at, and comparing it to Chaos Group’s offering, the Corona developers decided it best to concentrate their efforts into Corona for 3ds Max and Corona for Cinema 4D – especially as the Corona team have since joined to become part of Chaos Group themselves.

It is a possibility that a unified API for Corona and V-Ray, or a universal export format may appear at some point, but this is far from an official plan so don’t hold out hope on this one.

Corona for SketchUp Alternatives

Fortunately, there are a wealth of renderers for SketchUp.

V-Ray for SketchUp offers easy photo-realistic rendering for artists and designers in architecture, interior design, film and games design as well as visual effects and much more.

Maxwell Render is available as a plugin for SketchUp as well as a standalone package. Maxwell Render provides unbiased rendering for stunning lighting and realism.

KeyShot is a standalone render that can be used with SketchUp files. This is ideal for photo-realistic product shots.

If you’d like to know more about which render is best for you, contact us or find out more at CAD Software Direct.

Black Friday is Here (and Cyber Monday on the way!)

Black Friday

It’s that time of year again, and there’s some big discounts to be had this time around. Take a look below for what’s available right now.

20% OFF All New Licenses / 10% OFF All Upgrades
Maxwell Render and RealFlow
Offer until 5pm Monday 2nd December

SketchUp

15% OFF MSRP on SketchUp Subscriptions
Offer until 5pm Monday 2nd December

Enter BFSKETCHUP at Checkout!

SketchUp Offer

Save 15% on Trimble’s MSRP when purchasing up to 5 new SketchUp Pro annual termed subscription seats. Discount only applies to the first year term. Offer available until 03.12.19 06:59 (UTC) through participating resellers only. The promotion does not apply to previously placed orders. Not valid in conjunction with any other offer. Not valid for SketchUp Pro Classic licenses or any other SketchUp license type, Maintenance & Support fees, or Reinstatement fees. Valid in UK and Ireland only. Non-transferrable.

Trimble Inc. reserves the right to cancel or modify part or all of this promotion at any time without notice, for any reason in its sole discretion.

Image result for cinema 4d logo

10% OFF a 1 year or more Subscription of Cinema 4D
Offer valid November 29th only

Contact Us for the Cinema 4D Offer

As for Cyber Monday, December 2nd, watch our blog, social channels and website for deals you won’t want to miss on Vectorworks and KeyShot.

If you’d like more information about any of the upcoming deals, or would like to be notified, email us on contact@cadsoftwaredirect.com

Maxwell 5 Upgrade Pre-Order

Maxwell 5 Upgrade

Next Limit have launched the Maxwell 5 upgrade pre-order!

This release of Maxwell Render has been long awaited, and you patient Maxwell users deserve an exclusive offer to reward your trust and support.

If you’re an existing Maxwell Render user, you can get a Maxwell 5 license before anyone else, at a never seen before price – it’s the lowest upgrade price ever!

Don’t wait to upgrade. This offer will end whenever Maxwell 5 launches.

Upgrades are sold as individual licenses, and the upgrade price is the same whether you’re upgrading from V4 or even V1!

Upgrade to Maxwell 5

Dive into Summer with RealFlow – 21% OFF Deal Extended

RealFlow Offer

We’ve still got 21% OFF RealFlow across all new licenses to celebrate the continuation of a scorching summer!

Enter RFSUMMER at checkout to have the discount applied.

The RRP discount is available for new licenses on Realflow 10, RealFlow Cinema 4D, RealFlow Maya and RealFlow 3DS Max.

SketchUp 2019 Plugin for Artlantis Available Now

Artlantis SketchUp Plugin

There’s great news for SketchUp users!  Abvent has released the SketchUp 2019 plug-in for Artlantis 6.5, Artlantis 7 and Artlantis 2019.

Download the Plugin

To ensure that current and potential users are up to speed, Abvent are hosting two Artlantis 2019 webinars on Wednesday, May 8th. The webinars are free, but space is limited.

Don’t miss your chance to learn how to get the most out of Artlantis!

Register Now