Unity Technologies has acquired Pixyz Software and its suite of products for preparing CAD data for real-time use and importing it into the Unity game engine. The financial terms of the deal haven’t been disclosed.

Pixyz’s products, including data-preparation tool Pixyz Studio and Unity importer Pixyz Plugin, will continue to require separate subscriptions to Unity itself, and their pricing remains unchanged.

In the longer term, Unity says that it expects the acquisition to lead to new workflows inside the Unity Editor, including for games artists, specifically namechecking the creation of LOD (Level of Detail) assets.

Unity’s closest equivalent to Datasmith
Launched in 2018 in partnership with Unity, Pixyz’s products are the Unity game engine’s closest equivalent to Unreal Engine’s Datasmith toolset, preparing 3D assets created in CAD applications for use in Unity.

Pixyz’s software supports over 30 common 3D file formats, including those for Autodesk’s Alias, AutoCAD, Inventor, Revit and VRED; Dassault Systèmes’ Catia and SolidWorks; PTC’s Creo; and Siemens NX.

Key products include data-preparation app Pixyz Studio, which provides tools for fixing common issues with CAD models, like holes and hidden faces, and tessellating and decimating the meshes for real-time use.

Sister application Pixyz Plugin then imports the processed CAD assets into the Unity Editor.

Other products include CAD model viewer Pixyz Review, data processing automation tool Pixyz Batch, and Pizyz Scenario Processor, intended for tasks like converting assets for use in web and AR experiences.

Still commercial products requiring separate subscriptions to Unity
Anyone hoping that Unity Technologies would make Pixyz’s toolset available free – as Epic Games did with Datasmith after it acquired the technology from original developer Motiva – is going to be disappointed.

For now, Pixyz products will continue to require separate subscriptions, for which pricing remains unchanged. New users can continue to take out subscriptions through Pixyz as well as Unity itself.

In the “mid to long term”, Unity says that it expects the acqusition to lead to new workflows inside the Unity Editor and “other Unity data platforms”, for both visualisation and games artists.

For the latter, Unity’s blog post comments that “Pixyz allows Unity to build an LOD solution with a full suite of workflows integrated into Unity”.

Pricing and availability
Pixyz Software’s products are Windows-only, and are recommended for use with Windows 10. Pixyz Plugin is compatible with Unity 2018.3 to 2020.2.

The software is available rental-only. When renting via Pixyz itself, subscriptions for Pixyz Plugin and Pixyz Review cost €1,000/year, and Pixzy Studio costs €1,800/year. The other products are priced on enquiry.

When renting via Unity Technologies, Pixyz Plugin costs $1,500/year and Pixyz Studio costs $2,100/year.

 
Read Unity Technologies’ announcement that it has acquired Pixyz Software

Read more about Pixyz Software’s products on the company’s website

Find more details about the current 2020.2 releases of the products in the online documentation

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