Bring 3D Product Design Closer to Reality with Centric v7.6

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Digital Product Creation (DPC) has come on in leaps and bounds in the last few years, and each new release of 3D design applications and viewers produces more stunning photorealistic realizations of product visuals.

PLM needs to keep up and ensure that design and product development teams can get the most out of 3D images, both while working in their familiar 3D design environments and when interacting with them through PLM. Equally, teams outside the 3D development process, from merchandising to marketing, need to be able to access photorealistic 3D images of products in development to deploy imagery in product presentations and make informed decisions.

This concept of accessibility and collaboration using 3D images in PLM is at the heart of Centric Software’s 3D strategy, which has centered around 3D viewing in Centric PLM and connectors with popular 3D fashion design softwares such as Browzwear, CLO, SOLIDWORKS, Rhino, Optitex and Alvanon.

Centric PLM™ v7.6 has been developed in partnership with customers and introduces a host of new 3D enhancements to bring the 3D product design process even closer to reality.

Kickstart Realistic Design with Alvanon Avatar Support

Centric’s industry-first integration with Alvanon, the world’s largest 3D digital avatar provider, is now available through CLO3D. Alvanon uses the latest technology and body shape data to enable the world’s leading apparel brands and retailers to improve garment fit, reflecting modern-day consumers.

Now, Alvanon avatar files can be uploaded into Centric PLM’s avatar library. CLO users can then connect seamlessly with PLM to search the library for Alvanon avatars, select and download them into CLO to kickstart designs. Uniquely, Centric PLM, Alvanon and CLO work together to protect your 3D assets by ensuring that security permissions are met before avatars can be downloaded.

Store Adobe Substance 3D Materials for Future Use

Adobe Substance is quickly becoming a dominant force in 3D materials, and many 3D design applications now accept Adobe Substance files. Centric is laying the groundwork for viewing and interacting with Adobe Substance materials in future releases of Centric PLM by making it possible to import and store Adobe Substance materials in Centric PLM libraries. Centric will automatically recognize the Adobe filetype (.SBSAR), validate it and store the 3D material for future use.

Support for Adobe Substance files creates a foundation for genuine interoperability between the most common 3D material types, 3D applications and PLM, feeding into a connected 3D ecosystem where Centric PLM is the single-source-of-truth hub for storage of materials that can be exchanged through multiple 3D design applications.

Boost interactivity with Turntable views

While 360-degree 3D models are very useful for inspecting fine details, the files involved are too heavy for many browser-based applications and not necessary for many day-to-day viewing tasks. However, product images that can be examined from different angles are critical to make informed decisions.

Centric PLM v7.6 brings 3D gallery views and line reviews to a new level with interactive turntable views. 99% of 3D applications have a turntable function that takes snapshots of the original 3D image at different points as it rotates, generating a lighter 3D image file that still shows the product from multiple angles. These turntable views can now be exported to Centric PLM. They can be configured to show as many views as needed, will populate gallery views throughout the system, can be opened in the Lightbox viewer and automatically display image rotation in the Centric PLM interface.

HDRI Lighting Empowers Better Decision-Making

If your teams are making decisions about which products to take forward based on 3D models, they need to be as true-to-life as possible. That includes the way that products appear in different lighting environments. V7.6 improves the visual quality of Centric’s 3D viewer so that it displays models more accurately with enhanced lighting and shadows, and adds High Dynamic Range Image (HDRI) lighting to the 3D viewer toolbox. HDRI is environment lighting that is wrapped around the model to provide a realistic lighting environment and generate reflections of the environment in the model when it interacts with the physical base rendering of the material.

The addition of HDRI lighting enables customers to upload their own HDRI lighting environments (such as a photo studio), save favorite custom lighting environments and add downloaded generic HDRI files to generate images that can be used for merchandising, marketing or sales purposes. Checking out how products look in different lighting environments saves on physical studio costs and empowers more accurate decision-making.

Enjoy More Options with Lightbox Enhancements

Centric PLM’s Lightbox viewer now offers additional color selection capabilities, including fill and transparent background colors, an information panel to view 3D image data, and turntable image support. Recently used colors are automatically populated in the view, which remembers the last background color used every time it is opened. These enhancements mean that users spend less time searching for colors and information and more time doing what they need to do – view, interact with and assess a realistic product image to make better decisions.

With these new 3D capabilities, Centric PLM v7.6 paves the way for even more realistic and interactive 3D design, product development and decision-making with PLM as a central hub for all teams to use 3D imagery.

These are just the new features on 3D, V7.6 is filled with many other enhancements, including new reporting capabilities, the ability to link or unlink multiple size charts, mass updates to styles, proofing enhancements and as always, UI improvements. Contact us to see what it can do for your teams.

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