iVisit 3D is an innovative and easy way to present panoramas of your projects online or on an iPad/iPhone. iVisit 3D uses only still images and not a real 3D model or animation, making the calculations and navigation very fast. Developed especially for architects and designers, iVisit 3D allows users to view and share a project by navigating between viewpoints on the floor plan, in a palette of thumbnail preview images, or directly within the 3D views.
Create a realistic virtual tour inside your project with multi-node panoramas. Artlantis 4 automatically creates everything needed to view the panoramas. iVisit 3D app is available in two versions (Lite and Pro). iVisit 3D Lite is free, but is limited to one viewing per day.
Abvent has released a couple of Artlantis update patches and a new export plug-in. Artlantis 4.0.16 includes the following fixes:
On Macintosh, the obj and fbx importers are corrected, as is the obj exporter
On Windows, when the User_Name of a session was written with Japanese characters, the textures were ignored in the preview and in the list of materials
On Windows, the dwg, dxf and 3ds file formats weren't properly read by Artlantis 4 64-bit version on some computers
Artlantis 3.0.8 includes the following fixes:
On Windows platform with a Japanese User-Name, textures were ignored in the preview as well as in the list of materials
When creating an object, the anchor point defined by the target of the camera wasn't taken into account
Abvent has also released an export plug-in from SketchUp 8 to Artlantis 4. All of the updates and plug-ins can be downloaded for free from artlantis.com. If you do not already have an account on that website, you may be required to create one in order to download the files.
Artlantis 4 incorporates a number of new features that greatly streamline the process of getting from unfinished 3D model to final rendering. A new Horizontal material projection method simplifies working with complex roof surfaces, automatically orienting the direction of all roof textures to line up with all soffit edges in one simple step. A new Explode by Mesh function automatically separates the different meshes of a model to simplify the material assignment.
A selection of multiple objects can now be edited at the same time. In the 2D view, a series of duplicated objects can be automatically positioned on the underlying surface using gravity. The batch rendering queue can be reorganized and filtered before starting the batch job.
If you've been looking for a better way to work, this video about the productivity improvements in Artlantis 4 will show you how it can be done. Ease of use has always been one of the core philosophies behind Artlantis, and this video makes it easy to see how Artlantis 4 has raised the bar yet again. Project set up in Artlantis 4 has been refined and simplified, and processes that previously took multiple steps have now been reduced to 1 or 2 steps. Enjoy!
Do you use billboards in your Artlantis renderings? If you don't, or are unfamiliar with what a billboard is, read on to learn how billboards might benefit you. Billboards are flat 2D objects, usually positioned in an upright or "standing" orientation, onto which photos or textures are mapped. An alpha channel is often used to remove an unwanted background from the billboard's photo. Billboards offer the benefit of allowing you to place photo-realistic objects (in this case, people) into a scene without the downside of adding hundreds or thousands of polygons to the rendering calculations, since a billboard is composed of only one rectangular polygon. The result? Fast renderings without any sacrifice in image quality.
If you've resolved to create better renderings in 2012, you'll want these high-resolution billboards. From now until February 14, 2012, Artlantis Shopping & Travel Billboards volumes 1 & 2 are on sale at 10% off. We're also discounting the 2-pack bundle. Take advantage of this offer to expand your media collection today!
ArchiStair 2 is an ArchiCAD Plug-in that allows stairs to be created even when the design constraints of the new project or remodel prohibit them from having a regular shape. With its simple and rapid graphical interface, ArchiStair 2 allows users to create stairs with treads and landings that have customized, creative shapes.
ArchiStair 2 is available as part of the ArchiSuite ArchiCAD plug-ins bundle. ArchiSuite "manages" Cigraph's plug-ins (those available now and in the future). Through the add-ons palette, ArchiSuite simply provides access to all the Cigraph add-ons present in the add-ons folder.
