Punch Software news: ViaCAD Pro, Shark.

#1

I’ve received an email invite to a beta of ViaCAD Pro and Shark, plus links to several QT demos of new ViaCAD Pro features (multiple viewports, texturing, more flexible history trees’ element replacement, etc.). Shark seems to be a prototype manufacturing-oriented variant of the app. It’s all a bit surprising, and the Punch forums suddenly seem quite active. I am browsing through the entries to know what this is really about.

This is part of the letter:

"…2007 has been a busy year at Punch! with the
successful introduction of three new CAD products–
ViaCAD 2D,
ViaCAD 2D/3D, and ViaCAD Pro. We’re now pleased to
announce plans for two additional products targeting
the professional CAD user. These two products are
Shark and Shark FX.

Shark provides a complete set of 2D & 3D design tools
used to create precision digital prototypes suitable for
manufacturing. Shark FX adds a collection of
photorealistic rendering and animation tools to enable
designers to create stunning images and animations…

…The Shark products build upon the proven
technology of the Concepts products. Shark V5 is
follow on release for Concepts Unlimited V4. This
release introduces parametric dimensions and
constraints, multiple viewports, more 3D modeling
tools, OBJ export for data sharing, spline to arcs,
OpenGL display of textures, updated modeling kernel
(ACIS R17), AutoCAD 2008 DWG support, and
updated PRO/E and CATIA translators…"

#2

These are some pieces of Tim Olson’s entry about it all (Punch! Cad Forums > ViaCAD & Concepts > Beta: “Introducing Shark v5 Betas” Thread").

"…Since the acquisition of CSI by Punch, we have been working steadily on rebranding and revamping our CAD product line up. Our CAD strategy consists of two branded products utilizing two distribution systems --retail/internet and professional. Retail/Internet is an area where Punch has quite a bit a familiarity and was thus our first focus for the introduction of ViaCAD 2D, ViaCAD 2D/3D, and ViaCAD Pro.

We’re now shifting our attention to the professional products. The first two professional products will be Shark and Shark FX V5. These products will be released this year. Shark FX replaces the Concepts Unlimited product at $1795. Shark is priced at $1295 and does not include rendering or animation. Shark FX is the V5 upgrade path for CU v4. The sales guys are still working on the upgrade price from V4 to V5.

The V4 SP4 service pack we are about to release is the last planned update for the Concepts products. The migration path for Concepts is:
Concepts 2D ->ViaCAD 2D
Concepts 3D ->ViaCAD Pro
Concepts Unlimited -> Shark FX…"

"…The ViaCAD product line consists of three products:

ViaCAD 2D $69
ViaCAD 2D/3D $99
ViaCAD Pro $495

Relative to Concepts products:
ViaCAD 2D = Concepts 2D v5
ViaCAD Pro = Concepts 3D v5…"

"…according to our sales guys upgrades from any PunchCAD product is as follows:
Price =Price of product(msrp) - price you paid(msrp) - $10.

So upgrading from ViaCAD 2D/3D to ViaCAD Pro is…

$495 - $99 - $10 = $386…"

The Shark product seems to have resulted from licensing or adquiring some real serious pieces of code from top CAD providers (Dassault, etc.). ViaCAD 2D/3D would be upgraded once Shark is stable.

#3

I saw that too.

I watched the movie on constraints/dimensioning with history - that will be very useful as one of my complaints with the way Concepts deals with curves will be solved. There were no such thing as joined or bezier style curves before where-as now, with the constraints, all ajoining curves can be effected…and that’s just the start.

#4

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