AC3D

AC3D project is a drawing software for anything in 3D.

AC3D can draw:
- games
- virtual reality and flight simulation
- scientific, medical and general data visualisation
- rapid prototypes of 3D designs
- high resolution 3D renderings

Features:

• Simple, intuitive 'click and drag' user interface
• Truetype font 2D and 3D text generator
• Integrated graphical texture coordinate editor
• Subdivision surface modeling
• Boolean operations
• Fast real-time OpenGL graphics views (2D and 3D)
• Multipoint polygon and line editing down to vertex level
• No polygon limits
• Extrusion and surface revolution
• Software development kit and plugin interface.
• Fast and memory efficient, compact program binary.
• Built-in fast OpenGL 3D renderer with adjustable field-of-view - instantly see results of your actions in 3D. Spin the model or switch into 'walk mode' for Quake-style control.
• Edit at different granularity - groups, objects, surfaces, vertices
• Full polygon editing. e.g create a sphere and easily move the points (vertices) to deform the shape.
• Create and edit multi-point polygons and lines - not just triangles.
• Manipulate individual surfaces
• insert/remove vertices
• make holes
• spike
• spline
• bevel
• triangulate
• flip
• subdivide
• Texture mapping support with real-time rendering.
• Texture/background image file formats supported:
• GIF
• JPG
• PNG
• BMP
• DDS
• PPM
• TGA (Targa)
• TIF
• Graphical Texture Coordinate Editor (UV Mapper)
• Assemble surfaces into new objects
• 4 views - 3 orthographic and one 3D. All at once or individually.
• Named objects can be searched for within a scene
• Navigate/Zoom around the 2d views with cursor keys and other single key presses
• Hierarchical view window
• Hide/unhide objects for easier/faster editing of complicated scenes
• Headlight and up to 7 other positionable lights
• 24-bit colour palette with adjustable diffuse; ambient; emissive; specular; shininess and transparency
• Adjustable 2D and 3D grid guide lines with grid-snap function
• Create new surfaces/objects around any selection (Convex hull)
• Configurable to use external renderers such as Povray and BMRT - just select Tools->Render to start.
• Multi platform program - AC3D file format compatible across platformsAttach URLs to objects for use in VRML files
• Attach string data to objects to be used as scripting in Dive or special directives for POV or renderman
• Supports many output/input formats including
• 3D-studio 3DS
• Lightwave
• Alias triangle
• DXF
• VRML1 and 2 and Inventor
• Povray
• Renderman RIB
• Triangles
• Direct X
• Milkshape
• Quake 3 bsp
• MD2
• Wavefront OBJ
• OFF
• stl (ascii)
• sof (airfoil)
• SMF
• T3D
• LDRAW .ldr (Lego)
• Extrude and revolve 2D lines to make 3D shapes.
• scale a selection to a specific size
• flip a selection (mirror) about X, Y or Z axis
• Remove duplicate vertices and surfaces ('optimize')
• Simple documented file formats allow easy conversion from other forms of data - ideal for visualizing your own data in 3D.
• Developer SDK.

What is new in this release:

• Free Aston Martin model:
• The stunning AC3D-branded Aston Martin model shown above is included with this release. It's made by Sergio of X-Plane fame and is a great example of a low-polygon model with great texturing. You'll find this model, along with other samples, in the ‘Models' folder inside the main AC3D installation folder. Alternatively, access it from Object-Library (File menu).
• Texture Coordinate Editor:
• Ever wanted to find the original surface/s from a texture mapping? Now you can simply select the texture parts in the TCE, then Edit->Select-TCE-Surface-in-AC3D and the surfaces that have the selected mapping are now isolated in the main AC3D selection.
• Divide Loop:
• Supercoldmilk's excellent plugin is now included with all versions. This slices a strip of 2 or more surfaces along its length. It also works well with clusters of surfaces. Very useful for adding extra detail to an object. (find it on the Tools menu)

What is new in version 6.7.15:

• A Collada importer was added.
• Arrow keys now nudge the selection in the Texture Coordinate Editor.
• A Render to Texture plugin is now included.
• The Knife plugin is included with all versions by popular demand.
• There were many other fixes, tweaks, and minor changes.