Wednesday, April 6th, 2011 Posted by Jim Thacker

Maxwell Render gains plug-in support for bonzai3d

Next Limit Technologies and AutoDesSys have released a new plug-in for Maxwell Render enabling users of AutoDesSys’s conceptual modelling tool bonzai3d to render their work inside Maxwell.

First released in 2009, bonzai3d is intended as an easy-to-use but CAD-accurate tool for the concepting phase of product design. Maxwell Render already supports AutoDesSys’s flagship modelling package, form.Z.

PRESS RELEASE (Excerpts)
Next Limit Technologies, creators of Maxwell Render and AutoDesSys, developer of bonzai3D, are very happy to announce a new plugin for bonzai3d users. The new plugin will now allow bonzai3d users to render with Maxwell Render directly inside their platform. With this plugin, users can convert materials between the two programs as well as view Maxwell materials directly inside bonzai3d.

B3d is a relatively new comer in the 3D industry. It is quick, easy to use but quite powerful and very robust. Designers can use b3d in the conceptual and sketching stages of their projects workflow. The CAD accurate models can then be used further down in the pipeline for final renders, construction design, fabrication and animation. Embedded tutorials make it easy to use while its robust geometry standards make it a choice for professionals.

“We kept bonzai3d’s motto – ‘small but powerful’ – in mind when developing the plugin for Maxwell Render,” says Ben Dean, plugin developer. “You’ll get photorealistic renderings from your existing Bonzai projects in no time with the materials auto-translate feature, which uses verbal material hints, like ‘glass’ and ‘aluminum’, to guide the translation. Of course, you can use MXM materials for even greater accuracy. The plugin adds five new light types for illuminating your scenes, including Maxwell’s Physical Sky, IES for manufacturer-accurate lighting, and a parametric ‘soft box’ which works just like its photographic counterpart. These light types help you leverage Maxwell Render’s legendary Multilight feature. You can promote your designs with stunning, physically accurate images.”

Maxwell Render is a next generation rendering technology based upon the physical equations governing light transport. It enables users to digitally create highly accurate and believable imagery of the real world. Maxwell Render produces incredibly realistic illumination without resorting to the tricks/approximations used by many current industry standard renderers. Moreover, it supersedes existing renderers through its incredible ease-of-use, enabling professionals in a very broad range of disciplines to quickly learn and exploit its capabilities. Maxwell Render is now used as the render software of choice for companies in many industries including Architecture, Automotive, Product/Industrial Design and Media & Entertainment.

Bonzai3d offers a fresh take on 3D modeling. Prior to b3d, 3D modelers tended to be easy-to-use, or accurate and powerful, but rarely both. Bonzai’s fluid, contemporary interface is backed up by robust geometry based on AutoDesSys’ proprietary modeling algorithms coupled with other solid modeling kernels, so you can go from 3D sketch to production in record time, with solids, NURBS or both.

Download the demo version of Maxwell Render (includes the bonzai3D plug-in)