AC3D 3D Design Software will help you create amazing 3D graphics with this popular and easy-to-use design software now available for Mac OS X.

AC3D can be used to build 3D models for games; scientific, medical, and general data visualizations; virtual-reality/simulation software; high-resolution 3D renderings and rapid prototyping of 3D designs.

Here are some key features of "AC3D":

· Simple user-interface
· Subdivision-surfaces
· UV Unwrapper/Mapper
· 2D and 3D text
· Boolean operations
· Multiple views
· Navigation
· Wrap and bridge
· Polygon reduction
· Image snaphots
· Object annotation
· Grouping and Hierarchy

Images formats used for texturing and view-background images:
· GIF
· JPG
· PNG
· BMP
· DDS
· PPM
· TGA (Targa)
· TIF

· Fast real-time OpenGL graphics views (2D and 3D) with whiteboard controls for easy navigation
· Multipoint polygon and line editing down to vertex level
· No polygon limits
· Edit at different granularity - groups, objects, surfaces, vertices
· Simple and easy manipulation of selected components
· Powerful mouse selection with add/remove, select through and select closest components
· Surface and vertex loop selection
· Fast subdivision-surfaces with instant switch to view/hide subdivisions
· Extrusion and surface revolution of lines and surfaces
· Built-in fast OpenGL 3D renderer with adjustable field-of-view - instantly see results of your actions in 3D. Spin the model or switch into 'walk mode' for Quake-style control.
· Realtime mirror for symmetrical work
· Six boolean operations: Subtract, Intersect, Union, Cut-Away, Knife, Kife and Cut-away

Manipulate one or more vertices:
· snap together
· snap to grid
· smooth shape
· align to axis
· create new surfaces from
· create a 2D mesh using

Manipulate one or more surfaces/polygons:
· insert/remove vertices
· slice across surface/s
· make holes
· spike
· spline
· bevel
· triangulate
· flip
· divide
· combine
· flatten
· calculate surface-area
· change vertex order
· cut away into a new object
· Manipulate one or more objects: extrude along a path (line)
· Revolve
· mirror
· reduce polygons
· merge surfaces/vertices into a single object
· fragment/explode - split surfaces into individual objects
· align to each other
· replicate

· Object crease angle support - smooth shapes with sharp edges without the hard work
· Texture mapping support with switchable real-time rendering.
· Switch a view into 'Inspect' mode to instantly see the 'clean' image
· Anti-alias 3D views for smoother images
· Snapshot images into the system clipboard for pasting into other software (Windows, Mac)
· Create new surfaces/objects around any selection (Convex hull)
· Objects can be named and searched for within a scene
· Attach URLs to objects for use in VRML files
· Attach string data to objects can be used as special directives for POV or renderman, or custom software
· Navigate/Zoom around the 2D views with cursor keys and other single key presses
· Hierarchical view window with drag/drop and locking/ hiding controls
· Hide/unhide objects for easier/faster editing of complicated scenes
· Headlight and up to 7 other positionable lights
· 24-bit colour palette with adjustable diffuse; ambient; emissive; specular; shininess and transparency
· Adjustable 2D and 3D grid guide lines with grid-snap function
· Distances, positions and sizes of selected objects displayed on screen
· Scale a selection to a specific size
· Configurable to use external renderers such as Povray ( Tools->Render )
· Flip a selection about X, Y or Z axis
· Remove duplicate vertices and surfaces ('optimize')
· 3D mouse (3Dconnexion) support e.g. SpaceNavigator
· Multi-platform program - Windows, Linux and Mac OS X
· Fast and memory efficient, compact program binary.
· Software development kit and plugin interface.

Requirements:

· 256 MB RAM minimum.
· 20 MB hard disk space.
· Preferable, but not necessary - 3D accelerated video card with OpenGL drivers.
· Monitor resolution 1024x768 or higher.

Limitations:

· 14 days trial

What's New in This Release: [ read full changelog ]

· fixed - 3ds file importer - problem with Silo exported 3ds files that had no default material
· added - Collada exporter now outputs scene nodes in a hierarchy (.e.g. AC3D groups)
· added - divide loop plugin to all platforms (Tools menu)
· added - select surfaces from TCE (TCE Edit menu)
· added - misc security fixes
· added - Linux web browser defaults to /usr/bin/firefox
· added - some extra sample models
· fixed - Mac - dialogs now default to the system standard. Existing users need to change File->settings->advanced->use-system-dialogs and restart AC3D.
· fixed - Mac -shorter credits dialog to comply with Mac max-length.
· updated - tcl/tk lbraries 8.5.9