What’s New In Rhino 6 For Mac?

Essentially Rhino 6 is now pretty much the same for both Mac and Windows operating systems. When you buy Rhino 6, you can use whichever operating system to install it.

We’ve covered the new features for the CAD modeling software when Rhino 6 for Windows was launched last year. They also apply to the Mac edition.

You can check out updates and improvements in this article with highlighted videos, tutorials, and resources. Or, check out the product page for more details.

Are There Any Feature Differences Between Rhino 6 For Mac Versus Windows?

They are essentially the same. The differences are minimal but we would just like to point them out in case you are wondering:

• Plugins: Rhino for Mac has selected plugins available, while for Windows has wider plugin support including Bongo, Penguin, Brazil, Flamingo, and Mesh2Surface.
• Developer Tools: Rhino for Windows supports C/C++, Rhino for Mac doesn’t
• Large Projects: Rhino for Windows supports worksessions, Rhino for Mac doesn’t
• Compatibility: Rhino for Mac supports fewer file formats (45) than Rhino for Windows (52)

Take a look at the chart for a quick comparison between Mac versus Windows.

What Are The System Requirements for Rhino 6 For Mac?

Rhino 6 for Mac supports macOS 10.14.5 (Mojave) and macOS 10.13.6 (High Sierra).

Check out the full system requirements before purchasing.

Best Price Guarantee

If you find better pricing on Rhino 6 for Windows advertised online, in-store, or in print, contact us with the information and we’ll match the price when you buy from us.

The post Is Rhino 6 for Mac Available? Yes! It’s Finally Here. appeared first on GoMeasure3D.

Let’s look at the highlights of the new features that Rhino 6 for Windows have to offer.

Looking for the Best Price for Rhino 6 for Windows?

Rhino 6 for Windows New Features and Improvements

1. Grasshopper

   

   The biggest update to Rhino 6 for Windows is that Grasshopper is no longer beta. It’s a stable development environment fully integrated into the latest version of the CAD modeling software.

   Grasshopper is a graphical algorithm editor tightly integrated with Rhino’s 3D modeling tools. It provides the foundation for many third-party components ranging from environmental analysis to robotic control.

   

   Grasshopper Guides

   Want to learn more on Grasshopper and what it has to offer?

   Check out the Grasshopper guides from the Rhino Developers. It explains more about what Grasshopper does and how to get started.

   

   Grasshopper Video Tutorials

   If you are interested in learning more about Grasshopper capabilities, David Rutten, the creator of Grasshopper, has a 13 part series of video tutorial basics that will help you build a foundational understanding of Grasshopper.

   New Components

   

   Rhino 6 for Windows have new components including Make2D, Symbol Display, Bend, Flow, Maelstrom, Splop, Splorph, Stretch, Taper, and Twist.

   Lab for Architectural Singularity demonstrates a few of these components in this video playlist.

   Kangaroo

   Kangaroo, the interactive dynamic relaxation solver/physics engine, is now included in Rhino 6 for Windows.

   Here’s a quick video demonstration of Rhino 6 and Kangaroo 2 in action.

   High DPI

   Rhino 6 now supports High DPI displays.

   

   Multi-Threaded Components

   

   Some components now use using parallel computing to solve much faster.

   GhPython

   

   GhPython is also included in Rhino 6 for Windows and it features its own GHA compiler and a major node-in-code speed up.

   

   In-Depth Video Tutorial: Designing a Water Bottle with Rhino 6 and Grasshopper

   Want to see the new Rhino 6 in action with Grasshopper? This video session from Rhino will demonstrate a model built from scratch using the popular water bottle model.

   Watch Video

2. Presentation Improvements

   

   Show off your best work! Rhino 6 aims to present your work in such a way that communicates your ideas across effectively and get buy-ins from clients, customers, and collaborators. It now easier and faster to present, discuss, and make decisions, and iterate with people you work with.

   Quickly Capture Your Ideas

   With snapshots you can save and return to the states of the appearance your model.

   Better Materials Library

   It’s now easier to create and assign materials with the revamped materials library:

   • Access to hundreds of textured materials–now easily identified with a better naming system
   • All of the materials are real-world–no need to fiddle around
   • “Tag and search” for materials in the Material Editor
   • Search/filter by name, tag, or even by the notes in the material itself
   • Add custom tags to those you use to sort them into groups that are meaningful to you, like favorites

   Real-Time Rendering Raytraced Viewport Mode

   Rhino 6 now supports fast, interactive raytracing in the viewport. The software is GPU-accelerated for CUDA and OpenCL graphics cards.

   

   Video Tutorial: Modeling and rendering a simple glass with Rhino 6

   This video tutorial shows how to model and render a simple glass (reflective and transparent surface) and water using Rhino 6 for Windows. The latest version has Clarity Controls for reflections and transparency, and even mirrored textures.

   Watch Video

3. Display and Rendering Improvements

   

   Rhino’s new display pipeline is faster, more stable, and uses features found on modern graphics hardware, like GPU sensitive shaders and memory optimizations. This results in fewer GPU-specific display glitches and more consistent, beautiful, and frequent frames, even with large models. In some conditions, display speed can be up to 300% faster.

   

   Horizontal axis represents time to regenerate the view 100 times. Shorter bars are better.

   Speed and Performance Improvements: Comparing Rhino 6 to Rhino 5

   Here is a short video showing the performance improvement comparison between Rhino 5 and Rhino 6. The video shows for that particular task, Rhino 6 is 100 x faster than Rhino 5.

   

   Video Tutorial: Display and Rendering Improvements

   If you want to learn more on the display and rendering improvements for Rhino 6 for Windows, this in-depth video tutorial shows its capabilities using a car as an example.

   Watch Video

4. Refinements in Documentation

   

   Modeling is just one part of the design process. You also need to show how to build your design. It’s now easier to accurately and clearly convey the what and the how of your designs.

   Changes include:

   • Display: Faster, crisper on-screen display in model views and layouts.
   • Annotation-Style Interface: Control the look of dimensions, leaders, and text with annotation styles. Update your drawing look by changing the properties of the dimension styles assigned to each annotation object.
   • Rich Text: Lets you set multiple fonts, bold, italic, and underline in a single block of text.
   • Fields: Support to display data from the document or objects in text and annotations.
   • Tolerance options: Plus/plus, symmetrical, and deviation.
   • Stacked fractions: Now supported in all annotations (For example: 10½ ).

5. Bugs and Refinements

   In Rhino 6 for Windows, there are hundreds of minor bug fixes and streamlined similar features into single commands, making Rhino much more refined and efficient to work with.

   Make2D

   Make2D has been completely rewritten to provide faster, better, cleaner, more customizable results. Make2D is a command that’s especially powerful for architects and designers. You can take 3D models from any view and make a 2D drawing out of it to take into Illustrator or AutoCAD.

These are only some of the highlighted features and improvements for Rhino 6 for Windows. If you have any questions about Rhino 6 or Rhino in general, please feel free to contact our technical specialist and they would be happy to help out.

Best Price Guarantee

If you find better pricing on Rhino 6 for Windows advertised online, in-store, or in print, contact us with the information and we’ll match the price when you buy from us.

What about Rhino 6 for Mac?

There is still some time before Rhino 6 is released for Mac so the latest version currently for Mac is Rhino 5. At this time, there’s no update as to when Rhino 6 for Mac will be released. We’ll keep you posted when the there is an expected date for Rhino 6 for Mac release.

Image and information source: www.rhino3d.com

The post What’s New in Rhino 6 for Windows? [With Highlighted Videos, Tutorials, and Resources] appeared first on GoMeasure3D.

Technology should enhance productivity, not hinder it. What makes SpaceClaim special is that it takes the complication out of CAD modeling.

SpaceClaim is a great alternative solution for CAD modeling. It can get the job done—faster, simpler, and at a more affordable price when compared to feature-based CAD software which can be expensive, rigid, and require a CAD specialist to run the program. SpaceClaim is a direct modeler that gives any engineer, designer, and machinist the power and flexibility to edit, repair, and create any geometry with ease—without worrying about where the file comes from and without any specialized training.

The new SpaceClaim 2017 released earlier this year is full of new features and enhancements to make CAD modeling even more intuitive for creating and editing 3D models quickly.

From large changes to behind the scenes enhancements, the new version will speed up your workflow and create better models for design, reverse engineering, manufacturing, additive manufacturing (or 3D printing), and simulation.

Let’s take a look at some of these new features.

3D Modeling Improvements

Minimal Distortion for Unfolding of Surfaces

The Unfold feature is especially useful for sheet metal designs. When you design a model, like a stamp sheet metal part, it would be challenging to unfold because it’s distorted as it’s manufactured with all the different curvatures.

With this new feature, SpaceClaim can now flatten multiple connected faces of complex sheet metals or modeling surface skins to a 2D profile surface with a single click. The software will first minimize any changes to the overall area of the set of faces. Secondly, it will minimize the changes to the length of edges, essentially the perimeter of the model and its geometry features (ie. holes).

SpaceClaim 2017 also added new bend annotations. When used with the Unfold feature, it gives a better graphical display of information to your manufacturer for bending the sheet metals to make sure your product is bent to the right bend angle and direction.

Volumetric Sweep

This new functionality can take a solid body and sweep it along an arbitrary path. The result is a faceted body that is useful for creating and visualizing motion paths or envelopes, or for creating cuts from the path of a moving tool bit in machining operations.

Stopped Chamfers

This new feature provides the ability to have chamfers stop at a given distance along an edge. When you add chamfers to a model, you now have control options on either ends of the edge.

Additive Manufacturing Improvements

Produce Faceted Models with Lattice Structures

Lattice structures are difficult to manufacture using traditional manufacturing processes such as casting. However, with the rise of additive manufacturing, more and more mechanical designers are taking advantage of building parts with lattice structures as they produce lighter and stronger parts. They are compelling to use for manufacturing better parts built for rigidity with lower material costs.

With SpaceClaim 2017, you can shell out any part to a specified thickness to remove the material on the inside and to replace it with an infill of lattice structure. Different lattice patterns are available to choose from depending on applications, the different types of forces and stresses needed for the part. The result is a faceted model ready for additive manufacturing.

Improved Selection Tools

New slider bar tool provides the ability to do more precise selection on faceted models. Sliding the bar allows you to select more facets based on angles. This is extremely helpful because it selects exactly what you want instead of using the static tolerance value. It makes selection a lot more easier.

New Analysis Tools

SpaceClaim 2017 has new inspection tools to detect issues prior to printing to ensure there are no problems including cavities errors, overhang detection, thickness improvements, and sharp edges. You can use these tools on solid models and on STL files after you converted them.

Other Notable New Features

Dynamically Move Through the Model with Fly Through View

Very often, SpaceClaim users are modeling complex assemblies where they want to visualize the components of their designs from the inside. Previously prior to this version, SpaceClaim gives a camera perspective from the outside of the part or assembly, where you are looking at the model from far away.

With this new feature, you can change the way you render a scene in SpaceClaim and you can look at things from any vantage point from inside the assembly. You can display and manipulate the camera position to control the field of view (how much you can see) and angle you want to see.

This new feature provides users with a new perspective to design and concept modeling. For example, users now have the ability to look at a 3D model of a building from different perspectives for architectural design—not just from the outside, but from the inside as well.

Scripting

Scripting gives users the ability to automate your modeling, for repetitive tasks or for creating custom geometry.

SpaceClaim 2017 has now expanded the available commands for use in macro-like recording feature. You can now perform a wider array of edits on a model, and SpaceClaim will record the necessary script. The data captured is in the Python language, so you don’t need not be proficient in scripting code or programming in order to use it.

Scripts can be replayed on imported versions of a model. You can record the initial changes to a version of a model, then replay those same changes to a later version of the model. SpaceClaim will recognize the ID’s of faces, bodies and other characteristics, and will intelligently apply scripted changes to later versions of any file. This improvement will reduce your remodeling time as you can capture your changes and transfer them to other models automatically instead of doing them manually.

New File Format Compatibility

Key to the use of SpaceClaim for most people is the ability to import and export files of 3D models in all the major CAD formats, including neutral file formats. STEP is probably the most popular neutral file format amongst SpaceClaim users. If you work with STEP a lot, you’ll know that STEP has published a new standard called STEP AP242 and it’s starting to gain adoption. The new version supports STEP files AP242 as well as import graphical PMI for dimensioning and tolerancing for part manufacturing information.

The latest version of SpaceClaim 2017 can now open and import the following file formats:

• Inventor 2017
• NX 11
• Solid Edge ST9
• SOLIDWORKS 2017

For a complete list of files that SpaceClaim is compatible with for importing and exporting, please read SpaceClaim’s File Compatibility Document.

We’ve only highlighted some of the new features and enhancements to this year’s SpaceClaim CAD modeling software. To learn more about SpaceClaim 2017, including the latest SpaceClaim 2017.1 release that just came out in May, you can view the webinars using the link below:

Webinar: What’s New in SpaceClaim 2017 Release →

Webinar: SpaceClaim 2017.1 Release →

The post What’s New in SpaceClaim 2017? appeared first on GoMeasure3D.

Perplexus is a 3D puzzle designed by Michael McGinnis that challenges players to navigate a ball through a labyrinth contained in a clear plastic sphere, using gravity and their own steady hands. Ever since he was a high school student, McGinnis had been making 3D mazes made from wood he built by hand. McGinnis teaches sculpture and design at a local junior college and spends his free time in his shop, designing and building. His dream was to turn his maze creation into a toy for mass-production. 

Challenges with Product Design and Development

The first prototype and iterations of his design for Perplexus Original was built from styrene plastic sheets until it was time to send the final version to manufacturing. The manufacturer would then hire a CAD expert to work with Michael during the modeling process. After several attempts and close calls, Perplexus successfully found worldwide distribution in 2002, nearly 25 years after he built his first 3D maze.

Even after his success, modeling continued to be a tedious and time-consuming process. McGinnis knew there had to be a better way. He was spending hundreds of hours on his designs. There are CAD packages in the market, but knew he couldn’t learn to use them due to the complexity of the software. He wanted more control in the 3D modeling process and didn’t want to depend on others to model his very intricate hand-built designs.

Finding an Easy Way to Streamline the 3D Modeling Process

McGinnis found out about SpaceClaim CAD modeling software from his student. “As soon as I saw SpaceClaim, I knew this was what I was looking for,” he says. 

“I had no CAD experience up until SpaceClaim. It [the software] was just intuitive—I found that I could figure out how to build things. An obvious feature of SpaceClaim I love is the simplicity of the tools.”

Michael McGinnis Perplexus Inventor

The toy inventor taught himself how to use the software, and built the entire concept design from scratch. SpaceClaim became Michael’s go-to 3D modeling software. He replaced his physical design process with 3D modeling and saved many hours in every iteration of a design. Michael took his designs to the next level by using SpaceClaim from concept modeling, prototyping, to preparation for manufacturing.

Becoming a CAD Specialist

Gone are the days of wood and holding the CAD expert’s hand hoping he doesn’t make a mistake. McGinnis now creates his prototypes with 3D printing or waterjet cutting, then sends the completed design to partners in Utah to prepare them for manufacturing. 

Over the years since discovering SpaceClaim, he has refined his software-design skills, creating models that are more complex, and need fewer modifications for printing. His 3D printing service commented that McGinnis’ models never need to be prepped for printing, compared to other customers that require significant amounts of work. From carving wood to flawless 3D models, McGinnis has become an accidental expert in creating concepts in SpaceClaim and empowered him on his creative process.

Video Case Study

See firsthand how McGinnis develops his Perplexus creations using SpaceClaim:

Since its inception, Perplexus is the winner of 16 toy industry awards, including Game of the Year for Perplexus Epic, the first maze project McGinnis ever used SpaceClaim to work on his design.

– – –

Reference:

Perplexus Case Study, SpaceClaim. 
GoMeasure3D is an authorized distributor of SpaceClaim.

The post Perplexus Solves 3D Modeling Puzzle With SpaceClaim appeared first on GoMeasure3D.