AC3D

1. Platform, Price, and Company

• Windows, Linux, and SGI-IRIX
• $49.95
• Author: Andy Colebourne at Lancaster University, England:    http://www.ac3d.org/
• Copyright: Inivis Limited, developers of 3D design software

2. Applications

• AC3D is a popular 3D object/scene modeler. It's is very easy to use but powerful too - anyone can create good looking 3d objects in minutes. It outputs POV-Ray, VRML (1 and 2), RenderMan, Dive, Massive and other formats.
• AC3D^TM is used to create 3D models for:
  • games
  • virtual reality and flight simulation
  • scientific, medical and general data visualisation
  • rapid prototypes of 3D designs
  • high resolution 3D renderings

3. Examples/Samples

• http://www.comp.lancs.ac.uk/computing/users/andy/ac3d.html#Examples

4. Functions

   • Multi platform program - AC3D file format compatible across platforms
   • Easy to use intuitive interface.
   • 4 views - 3 orthographic and one 3D at once or individual views.
   • Named objects can be searched for within a scene
   • Navigate/Zoom around the 2d views with cursor keys and other single key presses
   • Hierarchical view window
   • Hide/unhide objects for easier/faster editing of complicated scenes
   • 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.
   • Headlight and up to 7 other positionable lights
   • 24-bit colour palette with adjustable diffuse; ambient; emissive; specular; shininess and transparency
   • Texture mapping support with real-time rendering.
   • Adjustable 2D and 3D grid guide lines with grid-snap function
   • Edit at different granularity - groups, objects, vertices
   • Full polygon editing. Not just sphere's, cubes etc - make a sphere and move the points (vertices) to deform the shape.
   • Manipulate individual surfaces:
   • insert/remove vertices
   • make holes
   • spike
   • spline
   • bevel
   • triangulate
   • flip
   • group into new objects
   • Create new surfaces/objects around any selection (Convex hull)
   • Configurable to use external renderers such as Povray and BMRT - just select Tools->Render to start.
   • Attach URLs to objects for use in VRML files
   • Attach string data to objects to be used as scripting in Dive or special directives for POV or renderman
   • Supports many output/input formats including:
   • 3D-studio
   • Lightwave
   • Alias triangle
   • DXF
   • VRML1 and 2 and Inventor
   • Povray
   • RIB
   • Triangles
   • Direct X (via plugin)
   • Extrude and revolve 2D lines to make 3D shapes.
   • scale a selection to a specific size
   • flip a selection (mirror) about X, Y or Z axis
   • Optimize duplicate vertices and surfaces
   • Simple documented file formats allow easy conversion from other forms of data - ideal for visualizing your own data in 3D.
   • Plugin interface (registered versions only) with source code for existing plugins and a software development kit.
   
   
5. Web Resources
• Project ac3dloader: http://code.j3d.org/impl/ac3d_loader.html
• More web resoures: http://www.on-the-web.ch/3dc/
• Manuals:
• http://ac3d.org/ac3d/tutorials
• http://web.mit.edu/ac3d_v4.0/ac3dman4.pdf