What's New in Evolve 9.0

"We have been testing solidThinking Evolve 9.0 for a few months in our client projects and this new update enhances the software with very good improvements in workflow, visualization quality and speed, yet it feels very familiar. It has proven to be very stable and to handle larger files better. For us the ultimate proof is the ‘wow’ reaction we get from our clients. We highly recommend it!"

-Ari Salonen, CEO of Fokusdesign

User Interface/Workflow

• Improved model shading and visualization options.

• New flag notifications for objects needing to be updated or repaired.

• New “smart delete” for hiding/un-hiding source objects when deleting items.
• Updated User Interface (UI) - new color scheme - new icons for better visual communication
• Editable IU Colors - added option for the user to edit all the colors in the UI in the Preferences Panel
• Preferences UI tab - new tab in Preferences panel to control UI
• Undo Buffer Toggle - new on/off checkbox - current status is indicated in application titlebar - no longer need to restart to take effect
• Modeling Tool Panel (MTP) - cleaner interface and new default dock position
• Layer On/Off toggle - consolidated the two icons to simplify the workflow
• Layer Lock toggle - the Layer Lock option now works as a toggle to turn the layer on and off
• Modeling window visualization modes - new icons - added zebra strips - improved environment shaders - independent control of edge lines, isoparms, or neither
• Camera icons Show/Hide option - ability to show or hide the camera icons in each of the modeling windows
• Improved surface shaders - ability to control color, shininess, reflectivity, and transparency per object
• Improved model tessellation - new tessellation calculation for higher quality visualization and increased speed for handling large files
• "Maximum" View Detail button - additional button added to the View Detail window for highest visual quality
• Curve Extract tools relocation - curve extract tool icons have been relocated to be more visually intuitive
• Curve selection filter hotkey - pressing the "1" key while selecting applies the curve selection filter
• Improved Snap tolerances - increased snap strength and tolerance
• Object naming - objects include modeling tool name and are uniquely numbered
• Flags for broken objects - in the event an object in Construction History is broken a flag is added to that object in the World Browser
• Copy/Paste - ability to retain Construction History, and ability to copy/paste between multiple sessions of sT
• Translation/Rotation/Scale persistent - transformation tools now stay active allowing multiple edits - spacebar and right-click are shortcuts added to close the tool
• Translation auto-activate - Translation manipulator is activated in the Instances tool and when an object is pasted
• 3D Connexion support - added support for the 3D Connexion devices
• User feedback option - added "Submit Feedback" in Help to report issues or requests

Modeling interaction

• New Instance tool allows copied objects to be controlled from a source object.

• Multiple object support for Trim, Boolean, and Intersect

• New Loft and Patch tools improve surface continuity control.
• Improved Modeling tolerances - tolerances are adaptive for more robust geometry creation
• New Split Surface tool - allows a surface to be trimmed by another surface without altering the "tool" surface
• New Make Manifold - improved robustness
• Improved Blend Surface - added options for Isoparm constrants - added Start Over option to rebuilt the surface to maintain construction history
• Improved Polymesh tools - added Edge Loop option for better workflow
• Polymesh visual tessellation - added option to use the modelling view settings for creating the polymesh tessellation

Rendering

• Improved functionality for controlling multiple textures and materials per surface.

• Added Keyshot support – files can be saved in .bip format and directly launched in Keyshot
• Interactive Rendering - formerly Realtime Rendering - renamed to be more descriptive
• Interactive Rendering for selected objects - added ability to perform Interactive rendering for selected objects
• Labels - simplifies ability to apply and control multiple textures/images to a single object
• Shadows for default lights - Shadows have been added to the default lights with the option to set hard or soft as the default
• New rendering shortcuts - added and modified keyboard shortcuts for the various rendering methods

Input/Output

• All file formats - updated to current versions
• .obj - added import and export capability for .obj files
• Improved H3D support - MBD - flex body - primitive support

Plugins

• SolidWorks - plugin updated to support SW 2008 - 2012

Items Removed

• Tolerance Wizard - this is no longer needed due to improvements internally
• X,Y,Z icons - Application Tool Panel - no longer needed due to improved functionality in modeling tools
• Group Mode icon - icon removed from Application Tool Panel
• Layer "On" icon - Layer "Off" now functions as a toggle