Autodesk Showcase 2009 Overview

Autodesk® Showcase™ saves time and money by creating accurate, realistic imagery from 3D digital design data. Autodesk Showcase software addresses many of the roadblocks that delay decision-making in the design process, including:

• Expensive, time-consuming design review and decision-making processes
• Limited evaluation of multiple design variations due to time and cost of building physical prototypes
• Low-quality digital prototypes hindering the design approval process Time consuming data preparation for visualisation and review Design models changing while visualisation imagery is being prepared for design review
• Expertise and expense required for creating high-quality design presentations

Make Better Decisions, Faster

Autodesk Showcase software addresses the important issue of decision-making on digital prototypes. It enables designers to create accurate, realistic imagery from 3D CAD data to not only convey form and function, but also create environmental context to communicate brand character. Showcase helps users present and review models in an environment in which team members can make reliable decisions locally and via remote sessions—resulting in an efficient and economical design review process.

Power Up Your Digital Prototype

Use high-quality digital 3D visualisation to evaluate multiple design variations and communicate ideas. Showcase helps users reduce the time and cost of building physical prototypes in early design phases. Interact with digital models in real time. Use a variety of materials and geometry during presentations, and switch between variations with a single mouse-click. Facilitate the approval of designs by using Showcase to bypass client or management reluctance to approve designs based on low-quality imagery. Showcase generates photorealistic imagery with superior visual fidelity that accurately represents real-world materials, lighting, and environments.

Make Visualisation Accessible

Showcase makes realistic, interactive visualisation accessible to designers and provides advanced functionality for visualisation experts by combining the latest technology with an easy-to-access architecture. With its well-documented API (application programming interface) and scripting language, Showcase can be accessed on a programming level to meet specific customer needs. It provides tools to prepare, process, and present 3D design data in a single application, simplifying the preparation of data for high-quality visualisation and further use. Because Showcase allows design model changes while preparing imagery for design reviews, it significantly reduces preparation time so design and visualisation work can be done in parallel.

Multiple Design Display (Side-by-Side)

Review design alternatives side-by-side to better evaluate design differences or visualise them with other products in the same brand family. Load and display multiple scenes in the same session to visualise multiple objects or vehicles simultaneously.

Remote Collaboration—Enhanced

Enable multisite, multiuser collaboration by connecting concurrently running versions of Showcase over any network, including the Internet. With a network connection available, Showcase presentations can be driven from a different host machine. The presentation data can reside in a central location or be distributed across the network to allow faster access if only a low-bandwidth connection is available. Pointer capabilities enable users to highlight areas in a scene. Save travel time and costs by conducting reviews with staff in different locations.

Input Devices

Use a variety of standard input devices, including game controllers, to control a presentation. These input devices are easy to learn and handle, empowering decision-makers and inexperienced users to control a presentation.

Cluster Support

Show a single image distributed over multiple projectors or screens driven by one computer per projector for maximum performance. Clustering enables designers to present their designs on high-resolution, real-size displays without compromising quality or performance.

Operating Systemm

• Windows® XP Professional with Service Pack 2 or higher
• Windows® XP Professional x64 Edition (Showcase runs as a 32-bit application on 64-bit operating system)
• Windows® Vista 32 or 64 (Vista Business, Enterprise or Ultimate) with Service Pack 1
• Recommended Hardware Configurations

Minimum

Performance may be limited in scenes with large numbers of objects.

• 2.4 GHz Intel or equivalent AMD CPU
• 2 GB RAM
• NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GTS or Quadro FX series graphics card with 512MB graphics memory
• 7,200 RPM Hard drive with 100GB free

Recommended

• 4 CPU or 4 cores 2.8 GHZ Intel CPU or equivalent AMD CPU
• 4 GB RAM
• NVIDIA Quadro FX 4600 (768MB graphics memory) or better
• 7,200 RPM Hard drive with 200GB free

Laptops

Laptops are limited to those systems meet the following requirements. Use of laptops should be limited to small to medium size models.

• 2GB RAM
• NVIDIA Quadro FX 2500M (512MB Graphics memory) or better Minimum 162.65 graphics driver