3D Canvas(tm) 7.0 3D Canvas is a freeware real-time 3D modeling and animation tool that incorporates a drag-and-drop approach to 3D modeling. Complex models can be constructed from simple 3D primitives, or created using 3D Canvas' Object Building Tools. Creating an animated scene is as simple as positioning the objects within your scene for each point in time in your animation. 3D Canvas will ensure that the resulting animation runs smoothly. No complicated scene timelines are required. Your animation can be stepped through a frame at a time, viewed in real-time, or recorded to a Video (AVI) file so that you can distribute your creation. Minimum System Requirements --------------------------- Microsoft Windows 2000/XP DirectX 9 16 MB video card, with a minimum resolution of 800x600 Installation ------------ 3D Canvas is distributed as a Windows Installer document in order to reduce its download size. Most computers will be able to install 3D Canvas by double-clicking the 3DCanvas Windows Installer file. If double-clicking the 3DCanvas Windows Installer file does not install 3D Canvas you will need to download the Windows Installer. Windows Installer is available at: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/release.asp?ReleaseID=32831&area=search&ordinal=1 If installation still won't start when you double-click the 3DCanvas installation file follow this procedure: 1) Select "Run" from the Start Menu 2) Type the following in the "Open" entry box: msiexec /i "path\3DCanvas.msi" where "path" is the location of the 3D Canvas installation file. 3) Click "OK" If you receive a warning that your computer requires Microsoft Data Access Components 2.5 (MDAC) you can download it at: http://www.microsoft.com/data/download_250rtm.htm If you receive error 1904 "3dcsg.dll failed to register" you will need to download the latest version of Microsoft's DirectX which is available here: http://www.microsoft.com/directx/homeuser/downloads/default.asp To install 3D Canvas for all users of a Windows XP computer: 1) Logon as an administrator 2) Select "Run" from the Start Menu 3) Type the following in the "Open" entry box: msiexec /i "path\3DCanvas.msi" ALLUSERS="2" where "path" is the location of the 3D Canvas installation file. 4) Click "OK", and follow the installation instructions 5) Run 3D Canvas. 3D Canvas will make a number of registry entries needed for the next step. 6) Run Regedit using the Start menu's "Run" function. 7) Right click on the key "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Amabilis\3D Canvas" and select "Permissions" from the popup menu. 8) Select "Users" and click the "Allow-Full Control" check box. 9) click "OK" IMPORTANT NOTICE TO PREVIOUS USERS OF 3D CANVAS: Previous users must remember to uninstall the previous version of 3D Canvas prior to installation of a new version. What's New in 3D Canvas 7 ------------------------- o) Spherical Environment Mapping Simulated reflections are now supported via spherical environment mapping. o) Specular Mapping Simulated specular highlights are now supported via specular mapping. o) Object Instance Cloning (3D Canvas Pro Feature) Objects can now be cloned using instance cloning. All changes made to a cloned object are immediately applied to all clones. o) Material Plug-Ins (3D Canvas Pro Feature) Material plug-ins are now supported. This allows third parties to extend the material features of 3D Canvas. o) Near Viewing in Perspective Views It is now possible to view objects ten times closer than in previous releases. o) Material Editor The Object Properties window now displays an editable list of materials used by the object. o) Object Locking Objects can now be locked so that accidental changes do not occur. o) Title Bar Hiding 3D Canvas' title bar can now be hidden to provide more modelling space. o) User Defined Fields for Objects Custom fields for objects can now be defined by users. These fields can be used for documentation or as inputs for plug-ins and operations created by third parties. o) User Defined Fields for Materials Custom fields for materials can now be defined by users. These fields can be used for documentation or as inputs for plug-ins and operations created by third parties. o) Adjust Alpha Test Material Plug-In (3D Canvas Pro Feature) The texture translucency level that should be rendered as transparent can now be adjusted via the Adjust Alpha Test material plug-in. o) Set Specular Color Material Plug-In (3D Canvas Pro Feature) The color of specular highlighting can now be set via the Set Specular Color material plug-in. o) Material Palette Improvements The Material Palette has been redesigned to better group related items. o) Improved Solid Outline Rendering Solid Outline rendering has been improved to display clearer lines. o) Support for DDS Textures Microsoft DirectDraw Surface (DDS) textures are now supported. o) New Texture Formats for the Freeware Version The freeware version of 3D Canvas now supports all the texture formats of 3D Canvas Pro. o) Additional Background Image File Formats Background images can now be in any texture format supported by 3D Canvas. What's New in 3D Canvas 6.6 --------------------------- o) New 3D Renderer The 3D Canvas 3D renderer has been completely re-written so as to allow for the new rendering features of today's 3D graphics cards. o) Real-time True Shadows True shadows can now be rendered in real time. o) Bump Mapping The new 3D Canvas renderer supports Dot Product 3 bump mapping. o) Cartoon Rendering Real-time Cartoon Rendering is now supported. o) Anisotropic Filtering Textures can be filtered using Anisotropic filtering. o) Improved support for Targa and PNG textures 3D Canvas now loads Targa and PNG textures more quickly. o) Improved Point and Face Selection The selection of points and faces on heavily deformed objects is now more accurate. o) Improved Outline Rendering Mode Outline mode now renders lines more clearly. o) Hardware Anti-aliasing of Snapshots and Videos (3D Canvas Pro only) 3D Canvas now renders snapshots and videos using hardware anti-aliasing. o) New Edge Operation Features The Edge operation can now create edges between existing edges. It also allows multiple points to be joined in a single operation. o) Enhanced Group Selection Tool The Group Selection Tool can now be used to select multiple edges. o) Rendering of Complex Faces 3D Canvas now renders concave and highly distorted faces o) New Import Options There are nine new import options including automatic centering with a scene, resizing, creasing, defaulting textures and geometry manipulation options. o) Hover Object Details Hovering the cursor over an object now displays the name of the object, the size of the object, the number of faces and points, and the name of the texture applied to the object o) Hover Position Details The position the cursor is hovering over is now displayed. o) Distance From Selected Point Displayed When a point on an object is selected, the distance from the selected point to the hover position, or point position is displayed o) Improved Consolidate and Merge Triangles Operations (3D Canvas Pro Feature) These operations can now optionally merge faces and triangles of dissimilar materials. o) Five New Import Formats (3D Canvas Pro Feature) Maya (rtg) RealiMation 4.1 (rbs) StereoLithography (stl) VideoScape (geo) XYZ (xyz) o) Eleven New Export Formats (3D Canvas Pro Feature) Lightscape (lp) Open Inventor (iv) Maya (ma) Quicktime 3D Metafile (3dmf) RealiMation 4.1 (rbs) Softimage 3.5 (xsi) StereoLithography (stl) TurboSilver (ts) VideoScape (geo) Viewpoint (mtx) X3D (X3D) o) Improved Support For Materials during Import and Export Translucency, specular, ambient and diffuse material properties are now preserved during import and export. o) Enhanced Support for Backdrop Plans Backdrop plan support has been enhanced to support non-square plans and automatic scaling of plans. o) Improved Support for Non-Square Textures Non-square textures are now displayed in the original proportions. o) Improved Import/Export Speed Files now import and export more quickly. Note that not all features are supported by older computers and older 3D Graphics cards. What's New in 3D Canvas 6.5 --------------------------- o) Enhanced Boolean Operations (3D Canvas Pro only) Boolean operations now produce fewer faces and points. o) Renderer Improvements The 3D Canvas renderer now displays multi-layered translucency and transparency. o) Improved Divide Operation The Divide operation has a new option to allow for horizontal and vertical divisions. o) Enhanced Crease Operation The Crease operation now creases faces that have collinear edges. o) New Repair Geometry Operation (3D Canvas Pro only) The new Repair Geometry operation corrects problems with model geometry such as collinear edges and concave facets. o) Auto-Creasing 3D Canvas now automatically re-creases after many operations in order to correct creasing problems introduced by geometry changes. o) Enhanced MD2 Export (3D Ca...
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