First look: Autodesk Inventor Fusion for Mac
01/26, 6:05pm
Autodesk continues to focus on Mac ecosystem
After a successful year on the Mac App Store, Autodesk is continuing to focus on the Mac platform for its 2012 product lineup.
After a successful year on the Mac App Store, Autodesk is continuing to focus on the Mac platform for its 2012 product lineup.
Apple CEO Tim Cook may be about to vastly increase his personal wealth, notes an executive compensation tracking firm, Equilar. Parts of two separate restricted stock unit grants belonging to Cook are vesting in the current quarter. Based on Apple's closing stock price on December 30th, the shares are estimated to be worth about $96.2 million.
Autodesk has released Motion FX, a free app for OS X Lion. The title is essentially a showcase for the fluid effects in Maya, Autodesk's professional rendering suite; as it samples video from a Mac's camera, one of over 80 preset effects responds to the motion. Some example presets include Fire, Smoke and Rainbow Plasma.
Autodesk has announced that AutoCAD LT 2012 has been released on the Mac App Store. The LT release serves as a downsized edition of the full AutoCAD 2012 package, which is set to late in the week. Users can take advantage of 2D drafting and detailing tools for creating and editing technical drawings, saved in the popular DWG file format supported by the range of AutoCAD software for Mac and Windows machines.
Autodesk engineers are "working round the clock" on OS X Lion support for AutoCAD 2011 for Mac, according to a notice on the company's support pages. The developer in fact warns of "undesirable side effects" when trying to use the design suite in Lion. These include "issues with printing/plotting, Customer Error Reporting (CER), and more."
Autodesk on Tuesday said it planned to bring AutoCAD WS to Android-based smartphones and tablets before the end of the month. The version comes after the iPad and iPhone adaptation and will have the same basic editing and collaboration tools intact. Company Senior VP Amar Hanspal told AllThingsD it was a reaction to demand after the iOS version and that it would likely do well in "certain geographies" where Android was popular.
In tandem with the announcement of 3ds Max 2012, Autodesk has additionally revealed Maya 2012. The modeling, effects and animation suite is getting several improvements, such as a new viewport with fullscreen rendering options like motion blur and depth-of-field. The viewport has also gained a new API, batch rendering functions and component and manipulator displays.
Autodesk has taken the wraps off of 3ds Max 2012, the next major upgrade of its professional modeling, animation and rendering suite. One planned improvement is the switch to a new, multithreaded graphics engine, claimed to improve both speed and quality. The engine should better exploit modern GPUs and CPUs.
Autodesk has updated its flagship iOS app, Autodesk WS, bringing it to v1.2. The CAD tool has gained several critical upgrades, including layouts and the ability to cut, copy and paste text or objects. A feature called Snap Preview magnifies an area to help with selections or drawing.
Google on Friday gave Google Docs its first real file format update with 12 new standards. The release supports an Apple-specific format for the first time and will let users read Pages documents in-browser. Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop images also now work, and modelling gets its first support through recognition of Autodesk's AutoCAD.
OnLive at the D: Dive Into Mobile show today expanded its scope beyond just gaming with plans to stream regular apps and websites to other devices. The company targeted it at mobile users and showed apps and features running through the OnLive Viewer iPad client (free, App Store) that wouldn't have been possible otherwise. Users could run an instance of Internet Explorer with Flash on Apple's tablet, or even a high-end professional rendering app like Autodesk's Maya, chief executive Steve Perlman proved on stage.
As promised in August, Autodesk has begun shipping the first new Mac version of AutoCAD to be released in over 18 years. The program carries over most features of the recent Windows editions, and uses similar interface tropes. Some notable differences include the ability to browse files through Cover Flow, or use multi-touch gestures on Apple controllers like the Magic Trackpad.
Autodesk has launched AutoCAD WS, an iOS version of the company's desktop CAD software. The app lets users view, share and edit DWG files. External references, layers, and image underlays are incorporated, and while editing users can move, rotate and scale objects. Special tools allow for shape creation, text annotations and distance measurement.
Autodesk has confirmed earlier reports suggesting AutoCAD will return to the Mac platform sometime in October, alongside a companion app for iOS devices. The popular 2D/3D design and engineering software spent the last 15 years as a Windows-only offering, although early versions were offered for both platforms.
AutoCAD is indeed coming to the Mac, a report says. In April, code comments in ObjectARX 2011 SDK files were noted to be pointing to a Mac port. These have been backed up with new screenshots of an early beta, codenamed Sledgehammer Beta 1. The release is said to be 64-bit native, and already supporting multi-touch gestures via a Magic Mouse.
Autodesk has released an online home and garden design application, Homestyler, and is rumored to be about to release a Mac-native version of AutoCAD 2011, according to Architosh. Homestyler is a cloud-based 3Ddesign application oriented toward non-professionals but capable of exporting 2D/3D info in Autodesk DWG and Revit versions. It quickly creates floor plans with manufacturer-based items, using drag-and-drop to relocate items. It has been released as a public beta and is free.
Autodesk on Tuesday announced Maya 2011, along with updates to its Mudbox and FDX utilities for Mac OS X. The latest version of Maya features a redesigned user-interface based on Nokia Qt, with simpler customization and dockable elements. The graphics core has been revamped to improve performance with complex scenes, while also enhancing the viewport feedback.
Autodesk has begun shipping the Mac version of Smoke 2010, its high-end video production suite. The software is described as an editorial finishing tool, combining normal timeline editing with visual effects. Users can for instance implement 3D titles, color correction, compositing and/or rotoscoping.
GenArts has announced Sapphire 5, an upcoming upgrade for its signature plug-in suite. The current collection includes over 200 processing and synthesis effects, in categories such as lighting, film, warping and textures. Versions are available for several different editing platforms, including Avid, Autodesk, After Effects and Final Cut Pro.
Autodesk will soon launch a Mac version of Smoke, a demonstration at Japan's InterBEE expo confirms. The software is a high-end video production suite, costing approximately $15,000. It is capable not only of conventional editing tasks, but also handling audio, painting, text and various visual effects.
Autodesk has released SketchBook Mobile, a new app for the iPhone and iPod touch. The title uses the same engine as the desktop-based SketchBook Pro, and attempts to imitate many of its illustration functions. SketchBook Mobile includes an assortment of pencil, pen, marker and airbrush tools, and supports the creation of custom brushes on top of 25 preset ones.
Autodesk has unveiled a new standalone version of its mental ray renderer. The application is used to create photorealistic or stylized 3D imagery by utilizing a ray-tracing engine. The software works independently of other Autodesk 3D programs using a command-line interface, while an enhanced shading language enables users to extend the Autodesk 3D shader library.
Autodesk has released the Mac version of Mudbox 2009, one of its newest graphics utilities. The software is designed for texture and modeling artists, and provides tools for painting, texturing and retouching 3D models. The texturing workflow -- which supports bump, diffuse, specular and reflection textures -- is said to be new, with options like a Projection brush and the ability to apply multiple maps to multiple meshes at the same time.
Autodesk has finally brought its Alias design and rendering suite to Macs. Though well-known, the software was previously only available for the Windows platform, limiting its practical application in an industry where Mac software is relatively common. A senior product marketing manager at Autdoesk, Rob Hoffmann, is however known to have said the Mac is no more or less important than Windows or Linux.