We have many ViaCAD users who also include Adobe Illustrator in their tool chest. One common use is to create text in Adobe Illustrator using their advanced text tools (kerning/tracking) and then importing into ViaCAD. Once in ViaCAD you can extrude into 3D and perform operations such as blending and chamfering. This video shows how you can share data between the two applications.
Archive for the ‘PhotoRendering’ Category
Importing Text From Adobe Illustrator
Wednesday, January 25th, 2012Customer Success Story: XYZ Marine Products
Tuesday, April 12th, 2011Dragomir Ivicevic is the founder of XYZ Marine Products which is known in the marine industry for its highly rated Extreme Boat Anchor. Dragomir is also the inventor and mastermind behind the novel design approach that makes this anchor rated #1 in the industry and a preferred choice by demanding customers such as the US Navy and Oceaneering International. The Extreme Boat Anchor was designed using Shark FX.

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ViaCAD Pro v7 Open Beta
Tuesday, February 15th, 2011Encore is pleased to announce open beta testing of ViaCAD Pro v7 for Mac and PC platforms. Over 120 changes and enhancements have been addressed in this major product upgrade relative to v6. Most notably, ViaCAD Pro now includes photorealistic rendering to produce high quality images from your 3D digital designs. Come visit our new lab site to access the beta and join in on the discussion of this exciting upgrade.
PunchCAD Labs
Download the beta and join the discussion at the labs.
Preliminary Release Notes
Review over 50 pages of new features and changes in the release notes.
ViaCAD Pro v7 Demos
Watch ViaCAD Pro v7 take on modeling a snowboard.
How to use ViaCAD Pro to model a bolt.

Shark FX Tip: Creating a Custom Decal
Friday, September 24th, 2010Here is a tip for those of you creating custom decals for Shark FX’s photo rendering tools. In this video, Nick Johnson shows the steps to create the image and mask using PhotoShop and how to assign these images to a body within Shark FX.
Shark FX Tip: Creating Glowing Lights
Thursday, September 23rd, 2010Check out this tip from Nick Johnson regarding creating glowing lights with Shark FX. This tip shows you how to set the light attribute to cast volumetric shadows and to turn on fog for an atmospheric condition.
HDRI
Friday, January 8th, 2010High Dynamic Range Images (HDRI) is a special
image format that accurately specifies brightness values in a scene which create subtle lighting effects without having to specify light positions. The Shark Rendering Library provides access to a variety of interior, exterior, and studio HDRI maps which can be quickly dragged and dropped into a scene.
The article provides a brief overview of the HDRI types supported by Shark, some interesting links, and where to place custom images such that they will show up in Shark’s Render Library.
Tutorial: Introduction to PhotoRendering
Friday, January 8th, 2010The Shark FX tutorials were updated for V7 including a
new tutorial for photorendering. Like all our Punch tutorials, the tutorial consists of a video, step by step guide, and an example file.
The new photorendering tutorial demonstrates drag/drop materials, the apply similar option, plus how to add a High Dynamic Range Image (HDRI) environment.
Click on the image to play the photorendering video.

