BELLEVUE, WA – March 19, 2001 – Nemetschek North America on March 12 announced the release of VectorWorks 9, the newest version of Nemetschek N.A.’s flagship CAD product, and RenderWorks 9, an updated version of its photo-realistic plug-in. The release is the result of two years of development, and Richard Diehl, Nemetschek North America CEO, stated, "We have put in an enormous amount of time and effort in making VectorWorks 9 the most stable, accurate and user-friendly version yet. Our dedication to providing our users with top-quality products is steadfast and is unequivocally evident in this latest version of VectorWorks."
In mid-99, Netmetschek N.A., formerly Diehl Graphsoft, announced that the company had recently signed a licensing agreement with Solid Modeling Solutions for the SMLib product, an advanced geometry and topology library and emergent alternative to ACIS and Parasolid. "We’re very pleased with the SMLib licensing agreement and what it means for our users," offered Diehl. "As early as the next revision of VectorWorks, our users will have more powerful solid modeling tools, including non-rationalized B-spline (NURBS)," he added. “With the incorporation of this technology, VectorWorks’ 3D technology will be on par with leading CAD softwares based on the ACIS or Parasolid technology.”
Sean Flaherty, Chief Technology Officer for Nemetschek N.A., stated, “One of the principal reasons we elected to license SMLib was the fact that the co-author of the seminal book on NURBS is a member of their technology team. This expertise ensures that our future versions will possess a more robust 3D technology since the SMLib kernel will function as the basis for all of VectorWorks’ curve technology.” Nemetschek N.A. officials acknowledged at the time that future releases will provide enriched 3D capabilities comprised of NURBS, curves and surfaces. VectorWorks9 boasts a larger geometric vocabulary making its 3D technology even more competitive in the CAD industry. The SMLib technology further strengthens the VectorWorks engine, increasing the productivity of all users designing in 3D.
SMLib gives VectorWorks the ability to directly represent objects with analytical surfaces (cylinders, spheres, torii, planes) as well as NURBS surfaces. The result is a smaller database size and faster operations on these types of surfaces. The SMLib data structures are stored directly in the Vectorworks database, structures such as linear sweep, rotational sweep, curve based sweeping, and composite curve offsets to generate draft solids and do Boolean operations on them. VectorWorks also converts legacy polygon data into SMLib and uses the resulting solids to do Boolean operations. Finally, VectorWorks uses the SMLib/POPLib tessellation functionality to generate polygons for their graphical display.
Solid Modeling Solutions was founded in 1998 and is a leading producer of geometry kernels. It provides true independence from proprietary data formats and structures. A full range of geometry capabilities and data translation services provide the best overall solution in the industry for addressing robust geometry challenges.
SMLib is released as C and C++ source code and is certified for Windows, NT, Unix, and Linux platforms. SMLib is licensed monthly for unlimited internal use at one site or for use at one development site with unlimited external distribution rights for the resultant applications without payment of any per seat royalty fees. All enhancements, bug fixes, and unlimited customer support are included in the monthly fees. More details can be found on the SMLib website at www.smlib.com. For more information, contact Robert Blomgren, VP of R&D, Solid Modeling Solutions, at (206) 463-1417, or send an email to sales@smlib.com.
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