Tech Soft 3D Releases v 14.0 of HOOPS 3D Application Framework

RealDWG, DWF and PDF Integrations, C# Wrappers Among Highlighted Features

Tech Soft 3D (TS3D), the leading provider of graphics components to the CAD/CAM/CAE software industry, today announced the release 14 of their flagship HOOPS 3D Application Framework (HOOPS/3dAF).

HOOPS/3dAF serves as the core application foundation for over 175 unique applications from companies such as Autodesk, SolidWorks, Bentley, PTC, UGS, MSC.Software, Mitutoyo, Metris, Trimble Navigation, COADE, Fluent, Landmark Graphics, Minitab and others.

"HOOPS 14.0 is a particularly feature-packed release," commented Gavin Bridgeman, Tech Soft's Director of Product Strategy. "Our recent aggressive investment in R&D has enabled us to deliver more features than ever before. We're answering our customers' immediate needs while also providing the future-focused R&D our customers will need to build successful next-generation applications."

More details on the release, including demos and a sneak peak of what the HOOPS dev team is working on for HOOPS 15.0 will be shared in a web cast September 7, 2006. Click here to find out more about the web cast and enroll: https://techsoft2.webex.com.

Some of the highlights of HOOPS 14.0 include:

Automatic Optimization of HOOPS database -- One of the key elements of graphics performance is the optimal organization of an application's graphics database. New HOOPS routines now handle this automatically to ensure optimal performance.

Cutting Plane Collections -- This new interrogation tool gives developers the ability to define a cutting volume via a collection of separate planes. Think of a pie slice into an assembly or building. Now think of a cube. You get the idea.

Anti-Alias Rendering of Line, Edge and Text Geometry -- This is one of a number of ongoing enhancements to HOOPS/3dAF as we strive to set the standard for visual fidelity in the engineering software marketplace.

Optimizations for Point Cloud Data -- With the increase in the use of scanned data in markets such as Laser Scanning and CMM, we've added several optimizations for fast rendering of large point clouds, including extending our Level-of-Detail algorithm to simplify this type of data. Collision detection between clouds and tessellated objects is also now supported.

Depth Peeling for Transparency -- This will offer significant performance increases for customers who have scenes with large amounts of transparent geometry.

C# Wrappers -- To accommodate the increase in the use of the C# programming language, we've introduced an initial wrapper interface to our C and C++ APIs. This wrapper will continue to be extended in HOOPS 15.0 to make the interface even more complete and more natural for experienced C# developers.

DWF Read/Write -- Through an integration with Autodesk's DWF Toolkit, all HOOPS-based applications now have the ability to publish to DWF. Please contact us if you are interested in reading DWF.

RealDWG Integration -- TS3D has become a channel partner of Autodesk, providing direct licensing and support of the RealDWG Toolkit. Through an integration with this SDK, HOOPS/3dAF now supports the import of native DWG/DXF files. Export may be added based on customer demand. Contact us for licensing!

PDF export -- The use of the PDF format among engineering/manufacturing continues to grow as a method to share, collaborate and archive data, including 3D information. HOOPS/3dAF now has the ability to publish PDF files, including 3D PDF and U3D. For advanced 3D PDF support, TS3D also offers licensing and support of the Adobe PDF Library SDK, independent of the HOOPS Framework.

About HOOPS 3D Application Framework

HOOPS 3D Application Framework is a set of extensible, high-level components that dramatically simplifies the design, development and maintenance of high-performance, interactive 2D/3D applications for Windows, UNIX, LINUX, MAC OS X and Windows CE devices. HOOPS components provide the technology building blocks for developers to create completely custom, high performance applications. Developers work from a high level to extend and customize the framework, taking advantage of the power of the underlying set of libraries. Rather than attempting to re-invent the vast functionality already encapsulated within the HOOPS product set, they can focus their development efforts on their true value-add.

About Tech Soft 3D

Tech Soft 3D (TS3D) provides building block technologies and relates services, enabling its partners to rapidly deliver world-class technical software. The company's flagship HOOPS technology has been incorporated into over 175 commercial software applications, including many of the leaders in CAD/CAM and CAE software. The company also resells premium components such as the Autodesk's RealDWG Toolkit, Adobe PDF Libraries, Parasolid Modeling Kernel from UGS, and Spatial's 3D InterOp translation toolkits. The company maintains corporate headquarters in Berkeley, California and can be reached through www.techsoft3d.com.

HOOPS is a registered trademark. Other brand and product names are trademarks of their respective owners. © 2006 Tech Soft 3D