![]() Rendering. While Strata today still features its high-quality radiosity engine, the big news in the dot 1 release of Strata 8 (we will simplify its long name now until the end of the article) is the integration of the Embree raycasting engine developed by Intel. It has long had a radiosity engine of particular note and a high-quality and fast raytracer as well. When we last reviewed Strata we noted that it has long been known for its high-quality rendering. Strata Design 3D CX 8.1 is just under $600.USD, and at that price packs one of the bigger punches in the industry. Those applications are often judged as overkill for the types of architects, graphic designers, and environmental design professionals that need to work in 3D. Strata Design 3D CX 8.1 Todayįor most, if not all of its life, Strata 3D has operated in the sub-thousand dollar category Strata has never essentially competed with the tier one professional 3D studio applications, in the current era, like Maya or 3ds max, which operate and cost at much higher levels. To this last group, in particular, Strata tuned its UI and UX to feel familiar to Adobe’s legendary product line and this helped both attract graphics artists to the world of 3D but also helped in ease-of-use, which was always one of its most appealing factors. It follows a classic MacDraw and classic Adobe app UI format which will be familiar to many Mac and Adobe users.Īs CAD tools eventually developed their own native rendering features Strata fell out of use somewhat in the architectural rendering market but it successfully pivoted into new areas to extend growth-particularly packing design, product design, and as a 3D extension for graphics illustrators. By the mid-90’s Strata 3D was a household name in the 3D and CAD software space and CAD tools, like MiniCAD, often had export options to bring models into native Strata file format.Ġ1 – Strata’s Strata 3D CX 8.1 still comes beautifully wrapped in one of the 3D industry’s best user-interfaces. In the early 90’s Strata 3D Pro emerged and StrataVision became the little sister app. Strata itself was among the first wave of 3D graphics applications that arrived on desktop Macs at the tail end of the 1980’s, with a product known as StrataVision. ![]() ![]() Needless to say, there has been a lot going on with this company over the last decade and a half so a quick little history will set the table for this review well. How long has it been? This may surprise you but Architosh last reviewed Strata’s software back in 2003, when Akiko Ashley, senior associate editor, reviewed Strata 3D Pro 3.8. But it has been far too long and we have decided to bring some focus to one of the Mac platform’s oldest 3D software tools and a developer who has always been a staunch supporter of all things Apple. And this version has been out nearly a year. I’ll be reviewing it soon.It is hard to believe that the last review of Strata 3D was back in 2003. Strata also offers Enfold 3D CX, a separate Illustrator plug-in, as part of the suite. Then, you apply textures and materials, either from photographs, or from supplied materials, and further enhance them by porting the model to and from Photoshop. ![]() Strata Foto 3D CX 2 ( ), imported from a third-party source, or used from the included library. A workflow could look like this: You have a 3D model in Strata Design 3D CX-one you may have created in Using Adobe Photoshop CS4 Extended, you can import your 3D model for advanced painting and texturing and send it back to Strata Design 3D with the click of the mouse. ![]() With all that in place, your 3D model can directly connect to and translate between the programs. Why go through the trouble of exporting a model from your current 3D application, and then importing it into Strata Design 3D CX? Because of the tight integration with Photoshop, including the six Photoshop plug-ins that come with Design 3D CX. Its textures were also imported as you can see at the bottom of the interface. Because Strata Design 3D CX works with many standard formats such as OBJ, 3DS, DXF, IGES, OpenEXR, Collada, and others, you can almost always find a way to convert your model, even if standard LWO, LXO, and C4D (LightWave 3D, modo, or Cinema 4D) files won’t load.Īn exported LightWave 3D model imported via Collada in Strata Design 3D CX. Beyond interface and workflow preferences, the program is quite powerful, allowing you to import existing 3D models-such as those created in another program or those supplied by a client. ![]()
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