File extension Details of PRT, PSM, PST, PST, PTS, PXP, GET, Q3D, RFT

SolidWorks

Company / developer:
  SolidWorks Corporation

Develop more accurate and reliable product designs through the unmatched 2D and 3D capabilities of SolidWorks mechanical design solutions.

SolidWorks® Office Premium

SolidWorks Office Professional

A robust suite of core productivity tools, SolidWorks Office Professional includes SolidWorks 3D CAD software, a full range of design communication and CAD productivity tools and PDMWorks, an easy-to-set-up-and-use product data management (PDM) solution that is uniquely adapted to managing SolidWorks product data for the individual or workgroup.

SolidWorks 3D Mechanical Design Software

SolidWorks offers unmatched 2D and 3D design capabilities, performance, and ease-of-use.

Solid Edge

Company / developer:
  UGS Corp.

Solid Edge is powerful 3D CAD software that allows manufacturing companies to transform their process of innovation and achieve competitive advantage. A fundamental component of the UGS Velocity Series portfolio, Solid Edge delivers an exceptional return on investment for a low total cost of ownership. With a unique 4-step process for evolving to the productive world of 3D, superior core modeling, embedded design management, built in finite element analysis, and process workflows, Solid Edge delivers the benefits of a fully integrated and managed design discipline that eases the growing complexity of product design.

Solid Edge is built on a foundation of superior core modeling and process workflows that help engineers design more rapidly by modeling parts more efficiently than other CAD systems. Solid Edge harnesses the power of Parasolid ® - the modeling kernel owned and developed by UGS and, at more than a million licensed seats, the de-facto standard for 3D mechanical CAD.

Solid Edge is the only mainstream mechanical system that merges design management capabilities with the CAD tools that designers use every day. Solid Edge customers have a choice of scalable product data management solutions that manage designs as quickly as they are created. Practical tools for managed collaboration help to better coordinate design team activities and remove the errors that result from miscommunication. Product and process complexity is a growing concern for manufacturing organizations. Thousands of companies around the world have come to rely on Solid Edge to battle this increasing complexity head-on.

AutoCAD Land Desktop

Company / developer:
  Autodesk, Inc.

Since the late 1990s, AutoCAD® Land Desktop software has been the design and documentation solution of choice for more than 100,000 civil engineering and surveying professionals around the world. We want to thank those customers who have made Land Desktop a critical part of their workflow over the years and we look forward to continuing to provide solutions that meet your challenges in the future.

As technology has advanced and the challenges facing engineering organizations have become increasingly complex, we have decided it is time to look beyond Land Desktop to technology that better addresses the demands of today’s civil engineering organizations. As a result, AutoCAD Land Desktop will be the last release of Land Desktop.

Depending on your needs, Autodesk has several options for moving to the next generation of civil engineering software:

• AutoCAD Civil provides civil engineering technicians, drafters, and surveyors with a focused design and documentation solution.
• AutoCAD Civil 3D provides a more comprehensive civil engineering solution, with analysis and simulation capabilities for the civil engineer and designer.
• AutoCAD Map 3D provides engineers, drafters, surveyors, GIS technicians, and analysts with a planning, mapping, and infrastructure management solution.

LightWave

Company / developer:
  NewTek, Inc.

LightWave

LightWave (or, more properly, LightWave 3D) is a computer graphics program for 3D modeling, animating and rendering.

LightWave has rendering abilities and unusual user interface (for example, icons are not used; instead functions are all given descriptive titles).

LightWave was one of the first high profile industry standard 3D packages featuring a built-in radiosity render engine, complete with a complex light calculation model for support of caustics.

Some functions within LightWave are multi-threaded, which means that those components can simultaneously use multiple processors in the same machine when performing complex calculations.

Programmers can expand LightWave's capabilities using an included SDK and also a special scripting language called LScript. This SDK is based on the powerful C language and almost anything can be created, from a custom shader to a different scene format exporter. LightWave itself includes dozens of free plugins and many more can be obtained from different developers around the globe.

Modeler and Layout

Unlike other 3D packages, LightWave is composed of two separate programs: Modeler and Layout. Each program is specifically designed to provide the most efficient workspace for specific tasks. Appropriately, Modeler provides tools for creating 3-dimensional objects, whereas Layout provides a workspace for lighting, animating, and rendering. When the two programs are running simultaneously, a feature called the Hub can be used to automatically synchronize data between the two applications via TCP/IP protocol.

Layout contains the LightWave renderer which provides the user with several options including Ray Tracing options, multithreading, and output parameters. This differs from most 3D computer graphics packages such as the popular Maya and 3D Studio Max, whereas they contain the renderer and the modeler all in the main program. This attributes plenty of versatility to LightWave as the user has several specific options they can customise via either program. It creates less confusion as well, and can provide easier methods of organisation.

Rapidform Free Viewer

Company / developer:
  Rapidform, Inc.

RapidForm

Rapidform Basis is a free viewer application for dense point cloud, polygon mesh, NURBS curve & surface data and inspection report. It is a convenient way for both rapidform2006 users and others to review data in any of the 40+ file formats that Rapidform can import natively. It offers the viewing, measurement and information reporting tools of rapidform2006. Using Rapidform Basis, individuals can share data throughout their organization, with the ability to view rapidform2006’s native format, .MDL, including all of the following data entities: Point cloud, polygon mesh, NURBS curves, NURBS surfaces, B-rep solids, notes, reference geometries, Scan-to-CAD comparison deviation plots, Scan-to-CAD sectional deviation plots, annotations, geometric tolerances, dimensions.

In addition to being able to import and view .MDL files, users can access industry standard and proprietary file formats, including:

• Industry-standard Formats:
pts, asc, stl, dxf, wrl(VRML), 3ds, obj, 3dm(Rhino), iv(Open Inventor)

• 3D Scanner Native Formats:
Konica Minolta(.vvd, .cdm, .cam ), 3D Digital(.pmj, .pmjx), Leica Geosystems (.pts), GOM(.view, .cloud), Breuckmann(.bre), Roland DG(.pix), Cyberware(.ply), 3D Scanners(.sab, .sab2), Hymarc(.hym), Scantech(.stb), Perceptron(.sel, .bin), 3rdTech(.rtpi, .xyzi, .xyzrgb), Kreon(.cbk, .grk), EOIS(.xyz), Opton(.xyz, .crs, .lin, .smh, .bin), NEC(.nrf), Surf(.surf), ShapeGrabber(.3pi), Trimble(.soi)

Workgroups use Rapidform free viewer to share information, view 3D models, read inspection results including detailed deviation maps, add notes and freely share information with colleagues. Individual users now have a no-cost product to view and measure dense 3D point cloud data as few other applications can.

3D Studio Max

Company / developer:
  Autodesk, Inc.

3D Studio Max

3ds Max is one of the most widely-used off the shelf 3D animation programs by content creation professionals. It has strong modeling capabilities, a flexible plugin architecture and a long heritage on the Microsoft Windows platform. It is mostly used by video game developers, TV commercial studios and architectural visualisation studios. It is also used for movie effects and movie previsualisation.

In addition to its modeling and animation tools, the latest version of 3ds Max also features advanced shaders (such as ambient occlusion and subsurface scattering), dynamic simulation, particle systems, radiosity, normal map creation and rendering, global illumination, an intuitive and fully-customizable user interface, its own scripting language and much more. There is also a plethora of specialized renderer plugins that can be bought separately, such as V-Ray, Brazil r/s , Maxwell Render, FryRender and finalRender.

POV-Ray with Moray Plugin

Company / developer:
  Persistence of Vision Ray Tracer

POV-Ray

The Persistence of Vision Raytracer is a high-quality, totally free tool for creating stunning three-dimensional graphics. It is available in official versions for Windows, Mac OS/Mac OS X and i86 Linux. The source code is available for those wanting to do their own ports.

Quest3D

Company / developer:
  Act-3D™

Revit Architecture

Company / developer:
  Autodesk, Inc.

Revit® Architecture building design software is purpose-built for building information modeling (BIM), key for sustainable design. Make a change and it’s automatically coordinated throughout your project, so your designs and documentation stay consistent and complete.

Dynamite VSP

Company / developer:
  3am Solutions (UK) Limited

Making the visualisation process more accessible than ever before, Dynamite VSP has revolutionised the process of turning raw 3d civil engineering design data into accurate and compelling rendered 3d visualisations.

With dedicated style driven and intuitive engineering specific visualisation functionality, along with extensive parametric civil oriented object and material libraries included as standard, Dynamite VSP allows stunning results to be achieved with little or no prior knowledge of 3d visualisation techniques.

Providing direct and permanent links between Autodesk VIZ or 3ds Max and 3D civil design applications such as MX, Civil 3D, InRoads and Geopak - Dynamite VSP is capable of updating visualisations automatically when design changes occur.