As a software developer, Alias has always been well respected in the dual world of industrial/product design and transportation design. While the main focus of the business was always split between the StudioTools surface and concept development system and the entertainment world of Maya, the company was also very active in the world of visualisation and collaboration, with a number of tools adopted by some pretty heavyweight automotive OEMs and world leading design-led organisations _ such as PortfolioWall, which enables collaboration based on visual data, rather than CAD geometry or text-based methods. It_s against this background that Alias_ new owner, Autodesk, has released the first tool to come out of that environment since the acquisition _ Autodesk Showcase.

Without getting too bogged down in details (that comes later), Showcase is a product built from the ground up for carrying out design reviews and concept evaluation. It does this by providing very efficient 3D data presentation and visualisation technology, combined with a very simple, but fully customizable and programmable, user interface _ and perhaps just as importantly, the whole system has been built to allow the same sessions to be run across a wide area network, allowing true, fully immersive design review irrespective of geographic location. The system_s use can be split into a three stage workflow, so let_s follow that and see what you can do and how.

As with any visualisation system, the first step is to take your design data and prepare if for the process. Showcase currently has a variety of import tools that allow you to bring in data from AliasStudio (formerly StudioTools) .wire files, STEP, IGES, CSB (COSMO Scene Binary), Open Inventor, STL, JT as well as using the range of DirectConnect products, which allow you to connect to SolidWorks, etc. The system also supports Maya. This allows you to fine-tune or correct UV layouts for texturing or adding custom effects such as puffing surfaces for upholstery with Maya and then import that data into Showcase.

Once you_ve identified your data, the next step is to go through the tessellation process. All visualisation tools use the same data reduction techniques by converting your surface-based data into a useable format. This is always a trade off between graphics performance and quality of image _ by having a higher tessellation rate, you_re reducing the display quality of the geometry. Here, Showcase has some very clever tricks up its sleeve. The system loads the data and presents you with a list in terms of parts, assembly hierarchy, groups and layers and level of detail etc. Next to each part, you set the tessellation level you want, with preset levels-of-detail from high quality/heavier data for quality / A class surfaces and exteriors, down to low quality/low tessellation for non-critical parts. The system then does the tessellation in a batch-type process.