Altair Inspire Studio 2019.3
Evolve was renamed Inspire Studio for the 2019.3 release.
Welcome to Inspire Studio, our modern, updated version of Evolve that features a brand new user interface based on Inspire. Every tool and workflow in Inspire Studio has been reimagined to optimize ease of use, and the user interface has been simplified and reformatted to provide a more intuitive and organic design experience.
Inspire Studio version 2019.3 includes the following new features and enhancements.
Licensing
- Units-Based Licensing
- Inspire Studio now supports units-based licensing for both solidThinking and HyperWorks customers. To activate your license, launch Inspire Studio, select , and enter your credentials in the License Setup window. solidThinking customers have the option of using Offline Mode so you can continue to run the application when you are not connected to the internet. Details about how to activate your license are provided in the Licensing and Installation Guide available on Altair Connect and the solidThinking Portal.
User Interface
- New Inspire Studio File Name Extension
- The file extension for model files is .iStudio.
- New Modern and Intuitive User Interface
- The user interface has been completely redesigned to include a ribbon and many more interactive, intuitive features.
- Toolbelt
- You can now customize up to four tool belts for 3D modeling, sketching, PolyNURBS, and rendering to more quickly access your favorite tools.
- View Cube
- The View Cube provides visual feedback for camera orientation and allows quick access to all six true orthographic views with a single click.
- MatCap Mode
- You can apply a material capture to an object. A MatCap is a complete material that includes lighting and reflections.
- Real-Time Mode
- You can get a quick, real-time view of textures and materials applied to your model.
- Guide Bars
- Guide bars clarify the workflow of the tools. These appear centered at the top of the modeling window and are enhanced with tooltips and workflow help to assist you in using the tools.
- Microdialogs
- Microdialogs are small dialogs that appear when a tool is active. They allow you to quickly access commonly used options for that tool.
Modeling
- Simplified Construction History Structure
- It is now possible to visualize only the top level of each construction tree, making complex scenes cleaner and more manageable. In addition, a Show/Hide All Source Objects toggle is now conveniently located at the top of the Model Browser.
- Constraint-Based Sketching
- The sketching tools have been streamlined, and now feature constraints that allow you to fix objects to certain conditions in space (e.g., origin points, axes, or directions).
- Round Tool Edge Sets
- Edge sets allows you to apply a radius value to a set of edges, rather than assigning a value to each edge individually. Multiple edge sets can be added or removed in a single round operation, making the Round Tool more powerful and faster to use.
- Deformation Performance Improvements
- The deformation tools now update in real time when you drag interactive handles or change parameters using a quick preview mode. The final, precise calculation is applied after the edits are confirmed at the end of the drag.
PolyNURBS
- Improved PolyNURBS Editing and Selection Features
- The right-click context menu changes based on which PolyNURBS editing mode (vertices, edges, or faces) is selected. Editing features now include collapse, extract, bridge, weld, unify, and many more. The Advanced Selection feature allows you to easily make complex selections of faces and edges.
- Auto Curve Alignment and External Curve Alignment
- These curve alignments provide a powerful new way to sculpt. This allows you to align selected vertices with an existing curve, or use an auto-generated curve with 2, 3, 5, 7, or 9 control vertices, giving you unprecedented control over vertex positioning.
- Full Sharp End Creasing
- You can now create 100% sharp edges without the need to control crease strength or add additional loops.
- Double Chamfer
- Quickly add two chamfers of equal value to a single edge. The result is symmetric, equidistant edges.
- Option to Hide/Unhide Selected Vertices
- Customize the design space by viewing or hiding the vertices of your object or scene.
- Symmetry
- Symmetry planes can be added to any PolyNURBS object for efficient editing.
Rendering
- High Accuracy & Performance
- Inspire Studio features innovative techniques and algorithmic optimizations that help achieve superior performance. The application explores possible paths of lighting transfer, delivering supreme accuracy.
- Unique Material Editor
- The material system is physically-based and allows materials to be layered. These features together enable the most realistic and convincing renderings.
- Full Layering Support for Materials
- Layer various types of materials, textures, and colors to fully customize your design.
- Fast Interactive Rendering
- Interactive rending allows you to quickly and easily set up materials, environments, and lights. It uses both GPU and CPU to maximize speed and quality.
- Drag-and-Drop Support for Materials, Textures, and Colors
- Use the drag-and-drop feature to apply materials and textures directly onto an object.
- Full Support for Thea Models and Materials
- Allows the use of existing Thea models and materials without the need to edit or convert anything.
- Interactive Light Placement
- Add various types of lights to support the appearance of your design, including natural light, IES, and spot lights, etc.
- Denoiser Support
- Compensate for noise in your scene with the denoiser filter. There are two denoising methods to choose from. NVIDIA® OptiX™ delivers fast, unsurpassed, denoised renders. If an NVIDIA graphic card is not available, our built-in denoiser can still be used to accelerate production rendering.
- Triplanar Mapping
- Triplanar is a special mapping technique, similar to cubic mapping but with the addition of blending together the projections from each axis (x, y, z). Triplanar mapping, along with the Cut-Off and Sharpness parameters, can be used to eliminate the seams of a texture without the need of proper UV coordinates.
- Support for LUT Files
- LUT stands for Lookup Table. These files can be used to change the overall color and tone of an image.
- CUDA 10 Support
- Inspire Studio supports CUDA 10, making it possible to use high-end GPUs like Titan-V and RTX.
- AMD Open CL Support
- Support for AMD graphics card rendering has been added through OpenCL. Please note that this feature is only for Windows and under continuous updates.
- Tone Mapping
- Inspire Studio features two new tone mapping techniques, Filmic and CRF.
- Auto-Beveling
- This feature can be used to smooth the edges of an object with controls over the radius of the effect and the minimum angle of the adjacent faces.
- Bucket Rendering
- Inspire Studio provides high resolution images with multiple channels, which overcomes the GPU memory restriction with improved scalability and larger render clusters.
- Depth of Field
- Customize the field of view in your design space.
Darkroom
- Image Editor
- The Darkroom features a built-in image editor with an array of post-processing options.
- Render Queue
- The render queue shows which scenes will be rendered in what order. Play, pause, or stop any rendering in the Darkroom.
- GPU and CPU Processing
- You can choose to render using the GPU, CPU, or both.
- Network Rendering
- Use additional available computers and servers in your network to complete large jobs faster.
- Relight
- Relight is a unique, multiple light, rendering option with explicit lighting control. Produce light animation sequences, or edit your lighting with a single render.