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Think 3D. Think solidThinking

solidThinking 3.5 sr1

solidThinking is a full-featured 3D surface modeling program, produced by Gestel in Italy. Version 3.0 of this program was originally reviewed by John McIver on CADinfo.NET and the review is still accessible. This document examines the highlights of service release 1 for version 3.5, released in Dec 1999.

solidThinking is notable for a number of interesting features. It has a clean and easily controlled user interface. It offers a substantial range of 3D modeling functions. There is a facility to generate rendered images of the 3D objects created, using either an external RenderMan-compatible renderer or it's own high quality internal one. Several common 3D file formats are supported for input and output of model geometry, including support for 3D Studio and Maya.

Overview
solidThinking operates in a very specific area in between several other classes of program. It has 2D drawing functions, but only so far as they can be used in creating 3D surfaces. It has a very good rendering capability, but only a very specific ability to create certain types of animation files, so it does not compete in the classic 3D Studio/Lightwave rendering/animation arena. It is a true 3D surface modeler, so does not directly compete with the mechanical design applications based around solid modeling engines.

What solidThinking does do, it does very well. This is the perfect tool if you need to produce complex sculptured 3D surfaces. It offers a comprehensive set of modeling functions, ranging from the common surfaces of revolution and 3 and 4-sided mesh patches through to the creation of surfaces through multiple cross-sections and sections driven along a path. Among the supported surface construction options are, skinned surfaces, bi-rail surfaces, Coons patches, lathed (revolved) and extruded surfaces, lofted, pipe and blended surfaces, plus the ability to adjust a surface by manipulating individual vertices. In short, it is very well-endowed with 3D surface construction and manipulation functions.

3D wireframe geometry of a 3D test bottle with modeling tools menu, model construction tree menu and object parameter menu, all docked to the sides of the screen.

NURBS (Non Uniform Rational B-Spline) surfaces and conventional polygonal meshes are supported. The surface quality delivered is excellent, supported by a very good internal renderer. The internal renderer is available to check the surface integrity and generates presentation images of excellent quality. For even better results there is an option to export the geometry in RenderMan (RIB) format for processing by a RenderMan compatible renderer. At present this is generally the Blue Moon Rendering Tools (BMRT) renderer, available for downloading from the Internet, but Gestel are also currently looking into the program's operation with the latest version of Pixar's RenderMan 3.9 for Windows.

3D wireframe geometry as above but with a draft test render on the screen and a floating menu. Note the characteristic unWindows-like icons in the menu.

For realistic presentation images, materials can be created and very easily assigned to model geometry. The material assignment process is one of the easiest in any software we've ever experienced. For something a little different in presentation, solidThinking supports the Apple Quicktime VR format. This is the only PC-based program we know of with this support, enabling a rendered 3D model to be viewed interactively on-screen from almost anywhere.

The material library menu shown floating.

Up to four viewports can be displayed at any one time, in various configurations and each viewport has its own set of controls. Easy panning, zooming and viewpoint manipulation are at hand. Doubleclicking the viewport frame expands the viewport to to full screen or back to normal size depending on the context. Tool boxes contain controls for surface creation and editing, the material library, construction tree and entity parameters. These can be either docked at the side of the screen or allowed to float on the desktop.

Ray traced image of the 3D test bottle, using solidThinking internal renderer at best quality. This object was built using one of the solidThinking standard macros available online.

The program has a few unusual features, including the ability to easily build 3D text from any Truetype font, and to construct a surface from a 2D raster image file. The latter applies elevations to the vertices of a mesh according to the intensity of the corresponding image pixel. One very useful feature is the facility to recover a model file if the program suffers an abnormal shutdown (program or operating system error, plug kicked out of the wall, etc). Recovery seems to be achieved by accessing temporary files used by the solidThinking during its normal operation to claw back whatever data is available. Regardless of how it works, this is a welcome and extremely useful feature.

New to Version 3.5 is Point Cloud data input, where a selection of 3D point coordinates can be defined in a text file, and directly imported into the program. This then becomes a single entity within the program, and can be used as general reference geometry, or, if the points define an appropriate surface, a command exists to convert the points to a single 3D surface. This worked as well as one could expect. For best results, the trick here is not to get too ambitious with the number of points and the complexity of the surface they define. This is less a programming issue than one involving the operator and experience.

A hierarchical tree structure is used to display the entities within the current scene and their relationship to each other. This can be used to easily select an existing item and alter its parameters after it has been constructed. This facility was present in the previous version of solidThinking, but appears to have been given more prominence in the new version.

A Macro Replay facility is now available. Although users are still unable to create their own macros, Gestel provide several example macros on their website demonstrating how the program should be used in various applications. This appears to operate by replaying the sequence of Mouse moves involved in an editing session. These are a good demonstration of how to apply the available tools to various aspects of 3D modeling.

Operation
For existing users of solidThinking Version 3.0, Version 3.5 sr1 is a single upgrade 9Mb archive available from the Gestel website. Once downloaded and installed, a new password will be needed in order to unlock the program. As is common these days, when the software is first installed, a grace period of 30 days is provided during which time it is necessary for the user to obtain an authorization code from Gestel in order to permanently unlock the program. Gestel responded within 24 hours to the code request.

The previous version of solidThinking had a few instabilities under Windows 95. With this new version, a strong recommendation is made by Gestel strongly recommends that it be used with Windows NT 4.0 SP5. Despite this, the review software was tested successfully using Windows 98.

Conclusion
solidThinking 3.5 sr1 is a definite improvement on the preceding version of the program. The program continues to offer excellent surface modeling functions, with improved stability and a number of detail enhancements being the changes most apparent. Although solidThinking will run under Windows 98, running under Windows NT 4.0 is strongly recommended.

CADinfo.NET 3D Editorial Team

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