Okino Computer Graphics ships its 15th Yearly Release of PolyTrans-for-3ds-Max & PolyTrans-for-Maya 2012

Toronto, Ontario - Okino Computer Graphics, a leading provider and pioneer of data translation solutions to the DCC/Animation and professional production markets, announced today that its long standing 3D DCC/Animation/Skinning and CAD/MCAD/Architectural conversion software PolyTrans-for-3ds-Max (for 3ds Max 2012 & 3ds Max Design 2012), and PolyTrans-for-Maya (for Maya 2012), are now fully qualified and shipping to customers. This is a general notice to those Okino customers who have not upgraded to the 2011/2012 releases yet, and for those not aware of Okino‟s software for 3ds Max & Maya.

PolyTrans-for-3ds-Max and PolyTrans-for-Maya have provided the defacto conversion systems for 3ds Max and Maya, since their original software releases, that allows these programs to freely exchange 3D scene data with all key 3D software packages or file formats, such as (click on any file format to jump to its Okino WEB explanation page):

Autodesk Softimage and dotXSI, ACIS SAT, Autodesk Inventor, BVH/Acclaim, CATIA v4 & v5, Cinema-4D, Collada, DirectX, DGN, DXF/DWG, DWF-3D (AutoCAD/Navisworks/Revit), ESRI, FACT, FBX, HOOPS, IGES, JT, Lightwave, NGRAIN 3KO, OpenFlight, OpenGL C code, Parasolid, PDB, PLY, Pro/Engineer (using an embedded copy of PTC‟s Pro/Engineer), Rhino, RIB, Solid Edge, SolidWorks, SketchUp, STEP, STL, SW3D, U3D, Wavefront OBJ, VET, VRML, XAML, X3D, XGL and others. Third party plug-ins and integrations are also available from companies/products such as Act-3D/Quest-3D, CATS/Pytha, Maxon/Cinema-4D, Realicon/VirTools-Exporter and Visual Components/3Dcreate.

Each file format has been developed over years to decades, and are full reference implementations. We are well known for providing exacting, professional-level conversions and very good, hands-on support for the software. While there are many formats listed above, and all are supported equally well, our software has been particular popular: for Pro/Engineer (using an embedded copy of PTC Pro/E), SolidWorks and CATIA v4/v5 since 1997; as the only dedicated and bidirectional professional 3ds Max <-> Maya conversion system on the market; for guaranteed animation & skinning conversions between 3ds Max, Maya, Lightwave, Softimage, DirectX, FBX, Collada and U3D; and our long term staple conversions of: Autodesk Inventor, DirectX, IGES/Parasolid/STEP, Lightwave, OpenFlight and Softimage dotXSI. Newly popular conversion pipelines over the last few years have been: SketchUp, DWF-3D (AutoCAD/Revit/Navisworks), Collada, U3D and XAML-3D all of which Okino has spent several years on each converter‟s development. All Okino file formats are fully documented online with hours of reading material. Click on a link in this press release to read the converter‟s online docs.

"As something I have long wanted to do, I would like to dedicate this press release, and the 15th yearly release of our mirror twin PolyTrans-for-3ds-Max and PolyTrans-for-Maya products, to the Internet forum readers," said Robert Lansdale, CEO & founder of Okino Computer Graphics, Inc. "I have been actively reading the 3ds Max and Maya forums since their beginnings, and there isn‟t a week that goes by when someone doesn't ask the questions: „How does one read in Pro/Engineer data‟, „I can't get my Maya data into 3ds Max properly – how do I do it?", "Getting Maya skinned meshes into DirectX does not work – what program will do this?" and " do I get full SolidWorks assemblies into 3ds Max without owning a copy of SolidWorks?" and many other common questions.

While few initially know of, or believe, that one program exists which does all of these conversions, we have spent 23 years developing the industry standard conversion system for both 3ds Max and Maya that does everything from bidirectional Max/Maya conversions, ideal CAD import from ProE/SolidWorks/CATIA/Inventor/etc, guaranteed animation + skinning conversions, and much more. These are statements of functionality and robustness personally made by the development team at Okino, not a marketing person, and only come about from having this software used in mission critical production pipelines for decades. That is the comforting aspect of using Okino software, knowing that the software has been made stable long ago in real production environments.”

Okino Releases v5.6.1 "PLM" (Product-Lifecycle-Management) 3D File Conversion Pipeline

Based on the "JT Open" Initiative. Ideal for Enterprise-level Data Management, Sharing and Data Re-Purposing.

Okino Releases JT v5.6.1 CAD Importer (Including 'PMI' Support) and Exporter Modules, Compatible with 3ds Max® /Maya®/Softimage®/AutoCAD®, Lightwave®, CINEMA-4D®, U3D, SketchUp & Dozens More.

Toronto, Ontario - Okino Computer Graphics today released its newest v5.6.1 set of JT PLM/MCAD bidirectional import and export converter modules. The 'JT' converter modules allow geometry, hierarchy, materials and texture mapping data (assembly data) to be imported and exported to native JT disk-based MCAD files (otherwise called "DirectModel" files). At no additional cost, the JT importer module also allows PMI graphical data to be imported and then re-exported to such compatible Okino export file formats as SketchUp and U3D (for further import into Adobe Acrobat®-3D), among others. The modules are built upon the official "JT Open" Toolkit which has been licensed from Siemens AG. The use of the official "JT Open" toolkit ensures consistency of JT files across the enterprise and throughout the PLM supplier chain.

“Having been one of the early adopters of the JT Open toolkit, our v5.6 release of the bidirectional JT converter modules are a real gem in our line-up of Okino CAD modules and of our dedicated CAD software development,” said Robert Lansdale, president and CEO of Okino Computer Graphics, Inc. “Using our long standing JT solution, end-users are able to bring together a wide range of 3D data file sources into one cohesive work environment, add optional materials/lights/cameras/textures, add complex animation data (such as via PolyTrans-for-3dsMax/Maya/Softimage/Lightwave/CINEMA-4D), reduce the data size by 80-95%, optimize the parts count and hierarchy, then optionally re-export to top quality 3D file formats and WEB streaming formats. This end-to-end CAD repurposing concept and pipeline has been pioneered by Okino over the last 23 years. The JT import and export converters are also directly accessible from within the user interfaces of 3ds Max, Maya, Softimage, CINEMA-4D and any other third party vendor products which support Okino's integration API.”

Okino Ships Certified Autodesk Inventor® 2012 CAD Conversion System

Okino's Industry Standard PolyTrans Provides Robust Support for Converting Autodesk Inventor® 2012 files (and all other major CAD file formats) into major downstream 3D packages and file formats.

Toronto, Ontario - Okino Computer Graphics, a leading provider and pioneer of data translation solutions to the DCC/Animation and enterprise Fortune 1000 markets, announced today that its software products have been certified for Autodesk Inventor 2012 software under the Autodesk Inventor Certified Applications Program. Certified applications must meet certain implementation guidelines and demonstrate the highest levels of robustness, quality, and interoperability with Autodesk Inventor software.

Now into its 23rd year of development, Okino’s PolyTrans|CAD is one of the most complex, robust and widely used products within the 3D graphics market, allowing cross conversion between all major MCAD, DCC/Animation and VisSim 3D file formats + programs. Okino’s Inventor importer solution allows crack-free geometry, hierarchy (assembly data) and materials to be transferred cleanly and robustly from native disk-based Autodesk Inventor files or from a running copy of the Autodesk Inventor directly into any Okino data-conversion-compliant program: the stand-alone Okino PolyTrans & NuGraf products, PolyTrans-for-3dsMax, PolyTrans-for-Maya, PolyTrans-for-Softimage and within many third party products such as: 3DCreate (by Visual Components), Cinema-4D and its “Engineering Bundle” (by Maxon Computer), EON Reality, NGRAIN military training products, Pytha (by CATS Software), Quest-3D (by Act-3D), VirTools (“4DC” .nmo pipeline by Realicon) and others.

"Okino's software products are industry standards used world wide by almost every major corporation with robustness second to none," said Robert Lansdale, President & CEO of Okino Computer Graphics, Inc. "Since 1988 our entire company philosophy has been to provide the best of experiences for the import of large CAD assemblies into Okino software where the assembly data can be manipulated and viewed in real time, optimized, composed, reduced, tagged with materials and rendered with ease. Our software is also the industry standard for the conversion and re-purposing of CAD data to all major animation programs and downstream 3D file formats. Downstream uses include product documentation and manual creation, animation and rendering software, visual communication and review of data, and for accessing simpler and easier to manipulate versions of the original CAD datasets. Okino's NuGraf and PolyTrans products provide the "swiss army knife" of features, functionality and problem solving capabilities that the Autodesk Inventor user had not had access to before."

Okino Ships Revised .3dm 'Rhinoceros®/OpenNURBS v5' Import/Export Converters

Okino celebrates its 10th Anniversary of supporting Rhino/OpenNURBS .3dm File Format by releasing a new version compatible with Rhino v5. Provides robust support for converting Rhino .3dm files between all major 3D packages and file formats.

Toronto, Canada – Ten years after releasing their first Rhino/OpenNURBS .3dm file format support, Okino Computer Graphics announced today that it is now shipping its rewritten, revised and optimized import/export converters compatible with McNeel's Rhinoceros® v5.

Now into its 23rd year of development, Okino's PolyTrans|CAD is one of the most complex, robust and widely used products within the 3D graphics market, allowing cross conversion between all major MCAD, DCC/Animation and VisSim 3D file formats + programs. Okino's revised .3dm import/export converters work within the stand-alone PolyTrans & NuGraf products, PolyTrans-for-3dsMax, PolyTrans-for-Maya, PolyTrans-for-Softimage and within many third party products such as: 3DCreate (by Visual Components), Cinema-4D and its “Engineering Bundle” (by Maxon Computer), EON Reality, NGRAIN military training products, Pytha (by CATS Software), Quest-3D (by Act-3D), VirTools (“4DC” .nmo pipeline by Realicon) and others.

The newly released .3dm converters provide exacting support for the following core aspects of the .3dm file format: full cloning of Rhino's recursive instancing of block definitions + its nuances during import (conversion of instancing is one of the hardest aspects of professional 3D file format conversion), recursive layer recreation, trimmed NURBS surfaces, NURBS curves (single, composite and multi-segment), polyline curves, mesh geometry (with vertex normals, vertex uv texture coordinates and vertex colors), import of child render meshes of Breps, 3D point clouds, import of 2D vector text annotations, viewport cameras, ambient/spot/point/directional light sources, materials and diffuse+bump+environment texture maps.

“This is an important release for our Okino software users who connect to Rhino through our .3dm conversion pipeline,” said Robert Lansdale, president and CEO of Okino Computer Graphics, Inc. “14 years ago we began working with McNeel & Associates to create one of the first, if not the first, external conversion systems for their Rhino v1 software, using the little known and esoteric NURBS capabilities of the Wavefront OBJ format. In January 2001 we released our native Rhino .3dm import and export converters for Rhino v2, which have been revised with each new subsequent release of Rhino. With our new v5 release, complex Rhino files with recursive 'block' usage, alpha-textured objects and full scene attributes can flow out to our popular export formats such as SketchUp, U3D (for 3D PDF), Collada, FBX, OpenFlight, 3ds Max, Maya, Lightwave, C4D, etc. with proper retention of the original Rhino scene data. In the reverse direction, Okino has been the main provider of all main CAD + DCC formats for the last 3 decades, and can move data ranging from SolidWorks to Collada into Rhino in a robust + error free manner.”

Major Benefits to Rhino Users

3D users implicitly assume that the free 3D converters which come bundled with their modeling or animation systems are complete and error free. This is typically not the case. Okino spends several years developing & refining each of its main conversion file formats, resulting in robust, fully supported and error free implementations. Import from these packages and formats into Rhino .3dm format (click to jump to Okino WEB page): Autodesk Softimage and dotXSI, ACIS SAT, Autodesk Inventor, BVH/Acclaim, CATIA v4 & v5, Cinema-4D, Collada, DirectX, DXF/DWG, DWF-3D (AutoCAD, Navisworks, Revit), ESRI, FACT, FBX, HOOPS, IGES, JT, Lightwave, OpenFlight, Parasolid, PDB, PLY, Pro/Engineer (using an embedded copy of PTC's Pro/Engineer), Solid Edge, SolidWorks, SketchUp, STEP, STL, U3D, Wavefront OBJ, VRML, X3D, XGL and others. Export from Rhino .3dm files to these packages and formats (click to jump to Okino WEB page): Autodesk Softimage and dotXSI, BVH/Acclaim, Cinema-4D, Collada, DirectX, DXF/DWG, DWF-3D, FACT, FBX, HOOPS, JT, Lightwave, NGRAIN 3KO, OpenFlight, OpenGL C code, PLY, RIB, SketchUp, STL, SW3D, U3D, Wavefront OBJ, VET, VRML, XAML, X3D, XGL and others. Other file formats supported through third-party plug-ins, http://www.okino.com/third_party_plugin_modules.htm. Native Rhino .3dm support within 3ds Max and Maya using Okino's PolyTrans-for-3ds-Max and PolyTrans-for-Maya plug-in systems. These have been the defacto, professional conversions systems for 3ds Max & Maya since 1995. Export Rhino .3dm to all main WEB streaming and downstream viewing formats: Collada, DirectX, DWF-3D, JT OpenHSF, U3D (3D PDF), Viewpoint VET, VRML, XAML, X3D and XGL. Import parts, assemblies, hierarchy and materials directly from a running copy or native file of Autodesk Inventor, Solid Edge or Solid Works into Rhino. Unique! Strong ties to the visual simulation (VisSim) community with proven OpenFlight, VRML 1.0+2.0 and X3D support. Okino provides free, quick and highly educated support for its software direct from its development team.

The hidden magic in the conversion process is Okino's unique and proprietary CAD optimization processor, integrated into each of our CAD importers. This processor is by far the most complex aspect of our entire 3D CAD conversion software pipeline. Turn it on and it'll wrangle large and unwieldy CAD assemblies into refined datasets. Most importantly, Okino does not use reverse engineered CAD modules as is done by others, but rather licenses, utilizes and/or accesses the industry standard CAD geometry engines from Autodesk (Inventor), Dassault Systemes (CATIA), PTC (Pro/E), Solid Edge, SolidWorks, Spatial (ACIS solids engine), UGS/Siemens (JT Open toolkit) and others.

Okino Ships New Solid Edge Synchronous Technology CAD Importer

Okino celebrates its decade-long support for Siemens' Solid Edge by releasing new version compatible with Solid Edge Synchronous Technology. Providing robust support for converting Solid Edge CAD data into all major downstream 3D packages and file formats.

Toronto, Canada - Okino Computer Graphics announced today that it is now shipping its newly rewritten Solid Edge CAD conversion system, compatible with the ground breaking Solid Edge Synchronous Technology modeling software which is taking the CAD world by storm in 2008 and 2009. The conversion pipeline allows native Solid Edge assembly, part, weldment and sheet metal files to be converted to all major animation + authoring packages, 3D downstream file formats and VisSim programs. Okino is one of the longest standing Solid Edge solution partner developers, providing excellent and well refined 3D data translation solutions for Solid Edge users and independent users of Solid Edge data.

Okino's NuGraf and PolyTrans software imports crack-free geometry, hierarchy and materials (assembly data) from native disk-based Solid Edge files or from a running copy of Solid Edge, and subsequently provides high-end rendering, viewing and scene composition of the data, or have the data optimized and then pipelined into all major 3D file formats, animation packages and third party/OEM integrations. Most importantly, Solid Edge assemblies, parts, weldment and sheet metal files can be effortlessly and directly imported into all key animation systems such as 3ds Max, Maya, Softimage|XSI, Cinema-4D and Lightwave, as well as any third party product which integrates Okino's PolyTrans 3D converters and all major downstream file formats ranging from COLLADA to DWF-3D to SketchUp and dozens more. A resident copy of the Solid Edge software is not required, but having it installed on the same machine as the Okino conversion software will provide extended control and options over the process.

"It is quite fitting that we are releasing our new Solid Edge Synchronous Technology version 10 years after the first major release of our Solid Edge CAD conversion pipeline," said Robert Lansdale, president and CEO of Okino Computer Graphics, Inc. "We have worked with the Solid Edge development team to produce another cutting edge and robust version of our Solid Edge importer, fully compatible with the new Synchronous Technology release of Solid Edge. The new version handles native Solid Edge files, with or without a local copy of Solid Edge present, including new support for weldment and sheet metal files. The CAD conversion pipeline allows all disparate departments of large enterprise companies (such as engineering, design, marketing and support) to easily exchange product data without the need to rebuild their CAD datasets -- downstream uses include product documentation and manual creation, animation and rendering software, visual communication and review of data, and for accessing easier to manipulate versions of the original CAD datasets. In addition, our software implicitly provides support for photo-realistic rendering and scene composition, 3D data and hierarchy optimization and built-in polygon reduction for handling those truly huge scenes that other downstream applications can't handle without reduction. Our solution is particularly popular for importing Solid Edge assemblies into the 3ds Max, Maya, Lightwave, XSI, Cinema-4D, AutoCAD and SketchUp programs, amongst many other OEM and third party vendor integrations."

"We're excited to hear that Okino has revised their 3D conversion and visualization software to work with our new Solid Edge and its Synchronous Technology version," said Dan Staples, Solid Edge director. "The ability to directly read Solid Edge data will give our users another pathway to creating photorealistic renderings and animations of their products. Our partnership with Okino has reached the 10-year milestone and we see many more years to come."

"Arpifrio has been a core user of Okino's Solid Edge CAD conversion system since its first release over 10 years ago," said Marino Arpino, director of Finamac Arpifrio manufacturing. "It has become an indispensable 3D tool for creating imagery and content for our manufactured products' documentation and manuals. We are able to effortlessly and accurately move large and complex CAD assemblies into all of our preferred rendering and animation systems, where we can easily create photo-realistic pictures and animations of our manufactured products. This has shortened and simplified the work needed to create our product presentations and documentation/manuals."

Okino Ships Certified Autodesk Inventor 2010 CAD Conversion System for 3ds Max, Maya, Lightwave, XSI & All Major Downstream 3D File Formats

Okino's Industry Standard PolyTrans Provides Robust Support for Converting Autodesk Inventor 2010 files (and all other major CAD file formats) into the newest DCC/Animation Package Releases.

Toronto, Ontario - Okino Computer Graphics, a leading provider and pioneer of data translation solutions to the DCC/Animation and enterprise Fortune 1000 markets, announced today that its currently shipping software products have received the "Autodesk Inventor 2010 Certification". Okino has been a registered Autodesk developer since 1995 and has been shipping this completely robust and error-free Autodesk Inventor conversion pipeline since Inventor v5.

Certification by Autodesk, as per the "Inventor Certified Applications Program" validates the overall completeness and robustness of the Okino Inventor importer solution again. The certification is made by Autodesk's Inventor support staff by performing a series of strict tests for adherence and conformance to the Inventor API, robustness, completeness and overall design quality.

Please refer to this URL on the Okino WEB site for the Autodesk Inventor solutions page: http://www.okino.com/solutions/autodesk_inventor.htm

The Autodesk Inventor solution from Okino allows crack-free geometry, hierarchy (assembly data) and materials to be transferred cleanly and robustly from native disk-based Autodesk Inventor files or from a running copy of the Autodesk Inventor directly into any Okino data-conversion-compliant program, such as PolyTrans, NuGraf, 3ds Max and Maya (via native plug-ins), EON Reality software, MAXON Cinema-4D, Visual Components' 3DCreate, NGRAIN, and dozens of other packages as outlined below.

"Okino's software products are industry standards used world wide by almost every major corporation with robustness second to none," said Robert Lansdale, President & CEO of Okino Computer Graphics, Inc. "Since 1988 our entire company philosophy has been to provide the best of experiences for the import of large CAD assemblies into Okino software where the assembly data can be manipulated and viewed in real time, optimized, composed, reduced, tagged with materials and rendered with ease. Our software is also the industry standard for the conversion and re-purposing of CAD data to all major animation programs and downstream 3D file formats. Downstream uses include product documentation and manual creation, animation and rendering software, visual communication and review of data, and for accessing simpler and easier to manipulate versions of the original CAD datasets. Okino's NuGraf and PolyTrans products provide the "swiss army knife" of features, functionality and problem solving capabilities that the Autodesk Inventor user had not had access to before."

Major Benefits of the Inventor Importer to Okino Customers

- Import complete assemblies (including assembly cuts and patterned geometry, as well as multiple sub-assemblies) from a live running copy of Autodesk Inventor, or from native Autodesk Inventor .iam and .ipt files on disk (no copy of Autodesk Inventor required for this latter feature).

- Autodesk Inventor assemblies can be imported directly into Maya (using the PolyTrans-for-Maya native plug-in system) or directly into 3ds Max (using the PolyTrans-for-MAX native plug-in system). The native PolyTrans plug-in systems for 3ds Max and Maya have been refined for well over a decade, specifically for importing large CAD assembly models.

- The ability to quickly transfer assembly data into Okinos' NuGraf product for interactive scene manipulation, real-time OpenGL shaded views and object manipulation, complex material assignment, 2D bitmap and 3D procedural texture assignment, and rendering by Okino's stable, proven and fast scanline or multi-threaded ray tracing renderers. Once inside NuGraf (or PolyTrans), the data can be easily re-exported to any of the supported Okino 3D file formats.

- Okino's "CAD Scene and Hierarchy Optimization System" has been integrated right into the Autodesk Inventor importer. This is most important when importing large CAD models into 3ds Max, Maya, XSI or Lightwave. These animation packages can have performance problems when the source CAD model is large, and/or has a large number of individual parts (which is often the case with the BREP model topology of data provided by Autodesk Inventor).

- Complete control over material parameter modification on an automatic basis. Many CAD systems like Autodesk Inventor have basic material parameters (like color, ambient + diffuse shading coefficients, opacity, etc) but when they are transferred over to a rendering and animation system they often look "too bright" or "highly ambient". This can be expected and is quite normal. The material tweak parameters easily allow such saturated shading values to be automatically compensated for.

The Autodesk Inventor to Okino Software Data Conversion Process

When importing part or assembly data from a live running copy of Autodesk Inventor, the data is transferred from Autodesk Inventor to the Okino side of the pipeline using the Autodesk Inventor "Automation Server Interface". This is an exposed set of functions which Autodesk Inventor "publishes" to the outside world. Okino's Autodesk Inventor importer queries all the part, assembly and material data from the running copy of Autodesk Inventor using this COM interface. Such a pipeline is exemplified in this diagram:

Autodesk has also created a smaller stand-alone "Inventor View" application which exposes this COM interface to Okino software. This allows the Okino importer to read in Inventor .iam assembly files and .ipt part files directly from disk without requiring a local resident copy of Inventor to be installed on your machine.

Okino Computer Graphics Ships 2009 Version of Its Popular SolidWorks® CAD Conversion System for 3ds Max, Maya, Lightwave, Cinema-4D, XSI & Al

Okino's Industry Standard PolyTrans Provides Robust Support for Converting SolidWorks 2009 CAD Data (and all other major CAD file formats) into all major downstream 3D packages and file formats.

Toronto, Canada - Coinciding with the "SolidWorks World 2009" conference in Orlando Florida, Okino Computer Graphics announced today that its very popular SolidWorks CAD conversion system has been updated for SolidWorks 2009 and is now available to current customers still within their valid maintenance period. The conversion pipeline, a de facto industry standard for the last 12+ years, allows native SolidWorks BREP CAD assembly, part and presentation files (disk based, or from a live running copy of SolidWorks) to be converted to all major animation + authoring packages, 3D downstream file formats and VisSim programs. Okino is one of the longest standing SolidWorks solution partner developers, providing excellent and well refined 3D data translation solutions for SolidWorks users and users of SolidWorks data. Simply put, our SolidWorks conversion system is our most popular and robust CAD conversion solution amongst our user base of tens of thousands of enterprise + 3D professional companies - it just works!

Okino's NuGraf and PolyTrans software imports crack-free geometry, hierarchy and materials (assembly data) from native disk-based SolidWorks files or from a running copy of SolidWorks, and subsequently provide high-end rendering, viewing and scene composition of the data, or have the data optimized and then pipelined into all major 3D file formats, animation packages and third party/OEM integrations. Most importantly, SolidWorks assemblies, parts and presentations can be effortlessly and directly imported into all key animation systems such as 3ds Max, Maya, Softimage|XSI, Cinema-4D and Lightwave, as well as any third party product which integrates Okino's PolyTrans 3D converters ( such as noted below) and all major downstream file formats ranging from COLLADA to DWF-3D to SketchUp and dozens more.

Okino has built its reputation on being an open and accessible company, developing and selling software that is needed in mission + production critical environments. For those who have never heard of Okino, or of our SolidWorks conversion solution, the following is some key background information and facts:

- We use the actual SolidWorks source code, or connect directly into the inner core of a running copy of SolidWorks, so the conversion process will always result in crack free and technically accurate 3D models. We do not use intermediate file formats or hidden toolkits from unnamed companies. This process will work "out of the box" for all customers, for CAD expert or animator alike.

- Over the last 21 years Okino has pioneered the entire concept of bringing complex CAD assemblies into all downstream non-CAD programs, 3D file formats, animation systems and DCC packages. These are very refined and efficient CAD pipelines, being used by tens of thousands of our enterprise companies, production houses and 3D professional users. A typical complex CAD conversion process only takes a few minutes or less, including full scene optimizations. There is no concept of spending days or weeks "trying" or "struggling" to get CAD data into these programs, where no such process existed before, because this has been Okino's primary calling card and forte in the 3D industry for decades.

- The hidden magic in the conversion process is Okino's unique and proprietary CAD optimization processor, integrated into each of our CAD importers. This processor is by far the most complex aspect of our entire 3D CAD conversion software pipeline. Turn it on and it'll wrangle large and unwieldy CAD assemblies into refined datasets for efficient animation, rendering or interactive viewing.

- You may already be using the Okino's SolidWorks conversion system and not know it. Okino licenses, resells and/or integrates its CAD conversion system with many OEM and third party companies/products such as: 3DCreate (by Visual Components), Cinema-4D and its "Engineering Bundle" (by Maxon Computer), EON Reality, NGRAIN military training products, Pytha (by CATS Software), Quest-3D (by Act-3D), VirTools ("4DC" .nmo pipeline by Realicon), and others who wish to remain anonymous.

- In addition to direct import of optimized SolidWorks CAD assemblies to the many Okino-supported 3D programs as noted above, the CAD data can be transparently converted into such common downstream 3D file formats such as COLLADA, DirectX, DXF/DWG, DWF-3D, Electric Image FACT, FilmBox (FBX), HOOPS HSF, JT, Lightscape, Lightwave, NGRAIN, Open GL C Code, OpenFlight, PLY, POV Ray, Renderman RIB, Rhino-3D/OpenNURBS, Shockwave-3D (Adobe Director), SketchUp, STL, U3D, VET, VRML1/VRML2/X3D/SGI-Inventor2, Wavefront OBJ, XAML-3D, XGL and 3D Studio .3ds. Perfect tolerance-based animation and skinning cross conversion is also provided where applicable.

- Okino's core philosophy over the last 21 years has been to "bring expensive CAD software to the masses, at affordable prices". A very important point for our animation users is that for 1/3rd the price of what others charge for a single CAD converter, Okino licenses its entire suite of industry standard, native, CAD modules in the Dual-CAD-Granite/Pack for US$510 (minus native JT and CATIA). The SolidWorks conversion pipeline is available by itself in the CAD/Pack for US$245. These are not reverse engineered, second rate CAD modules but rather de facto industry standard implementations, including: our equally popular Pro/Engineer importer (native and encrypted files, using the real Pro/E core software from PTC), ACIS SAT, Autodesk Inventor, DXF/DWG (native AutoCAD), DWF-3D (Revit and all key Autodesk CAD products), IGES solids, Parasolid, Rhino-3D, SketchUp, SolidWorks, Solid Edge, STEP solids, STL, U3D, VDA-FS, XGL and X3D. Dozens more file formats are also provided in the base-level PolyTrans, as well as in the DCC/Pack license, the "JT Open" import/export license, and the native CATIA v4 + v5 licenses (which are licensed copies of CATIA from Dassault - very unique in their price range).

- Okino provides free, quick and highly educated support for its software direct from the main management team and senior developers, and not from online forums or untrained front-line tech support people. We know CAD conversion. Unlike faceless companies where support may be non-existent, we personally know thousands of our customers by first name, email address and company background.

"Our SolidWorks 3D data conversion system is by far our most popular and requested CAD conversion pipeline software," said Robert Lansdale, president and CEO of Okino Computer Graphics, Inc. "We have dedicated a great deal of effort into making our SolidWorks 3D import conversion, repurposing and rendering pipeline the best in the industry over the last 12+ years. We have seen demand grow quickly since the original release of SolidWorks, demonstrating that SolidWorks is the dominant solid modeler for its price range and market. Our pipeline solution allows complete SolidWorks parts and assemblies to be converted cleanly and professionally to all other major 3D file formats, animation packages and visual simulation programs. It also allows all disparate departments of large enterprise companies (such as engineering, design, marketing and support) to easily exchange product data without the need to rebuild their CAD datasets -- downstream uses include product documentation and manual creation, animation and rendering software, visual communication and review of data, and for accessing easier to manipulate versions of the original CAD datasets. In addition, our software implicitly provides support for photo-realistic rendering and scene composition, 3D data and hierarchy optimization and built-in polygon reduction for handling those truly huge scenes that other downstream applications can't handle without reduction. Our solution is particularly popular for importing SolidWorks assemblies into the 3ds Max, Maya, Lightwave, XSI, Cinema-4D and SketchUp programs, amongst many other OEM and third party vendor integrations. We also have kept prices affordable for all of our CAD solutions, including free support and maintenance."

"SolidWorks is the standard for 3D mechanical design software," said Brian Houle, Partner Program manager for SolidWorks Corporation. "Combining it with Okino's product line gives engineers the tools they need to do their jobs faster and better by allowing SolidWorks 3D data to be re-purposed for additional downstream uses and applications. Engineers and designers can now re-purpose 3D data to suit their enterprise, including animation and rendering departments, documentation teams, product manual creation staff, and external third party services who want to use SolidWorks data in other 3D software applications that may not understand or accept SolidWorks data directly."

Okino Computer Graphics Releases CATIA 4+5 & ACIS SAT Modules

Okino Computer Graphics Ships Precise, Solids-Based CATIA® v4 & v5 R19 CAD Importers for 3ds Max®, Maya®, XSI®, Cinema-4D®, Lightwave® , OEM Vendors and all Major Downstream 3D File Formats

Next generation of CAD importers provide direct and dependable access to native CATIA v4 + v5 R19 files for data translation, viewing, rendering & animation.

Toronto, Ontario : Okino Computer Graphics, a leading provider of high quality 3D data translation solutions to the enterprise Fortune 1000 market, announced that its third major generation of precise solids-based CATIA v4+v5 R19 and ACIS SAT CAD importers are now shipping. Based on components from Dassault Systèmes (the developers of the CATIA 3D modeling software) and Spatial Corp, the importers provide the most accurate, rock stable and the highest quality import conversions possible since they share the same runtime code as used by the CATIA v5 modeling software and the Spatial ACIS modeling engine.

The CATIA stand-alone program (made by Dassault Systèmes and distributed by IBM) is an integrated suite of Computer Aided Design (CAD), Computer Aided Engineering (CAE), and Computer Aided Manufacturing (CAM) applications for digital product definition and simulation. It allows manufacturers to simulate all the industrial design processes, from the pre-project phase, through detailed design, analysis, simulation, assembly and maintenance. CATIA is primarily used by the automotive and aerospace industries for automobile and aircraft product and tooling design (it is well known for being used by Boeing to design their massive airplanes, or NASA to help design the Space Shuttle). There are roughly 20,000 companies worldwide using CATIA with roughly 30,000 seats sold per year.

Spatial's ACIS is the prominent 3D modeling engine used by hundreds of software developers in more than 14 industries worldwide, including CAD/CAM/CAE, AEC, animation, and shipbuilding. ACIS provides some of the world's most recognized software developers and manufacturers with the underlying 3D modeling functionality necessary for creating innovative, high-performance applications. Okino's new importers use the ACIS kernel as a key component to handle the BREP solids from the CATIA and ACIS SAT files. "SAT" is the native file format supported by the ACIS modeling engine and is supported natively by many third party CAD modeling programs.

When combined with Okino's CAD data optimization routines (for hierarchy & part count simplification), very complex assemblies can be imported, optimized, reduced, composed, then loaded into 3D packages and 3D file formats such as 3ds Max, Maya, Lightwave, Softimage|XSI, Cinema-4D, AutoCAD, Adobe Director, Quest-3D, Rhino, VisualComponents 3DCreate, Collada, DWF-3D, FBX, HOOPS HSF, JT, NGRAIN 3KO, OpenFlight/Creator, PLY, Sketch Up, STL, U3D, X3D/VRML2, XAML-3D and many others.

"This is one of our most important and crucial set of CAD importers for our PLM and large enterprise users, such as Boeing, GM, Ford and other key customers," said Robert Lansdale, President & CEO of Okino Computer Graphics, Inc., "My focus since initiating Okino software in 1988 has always been to provide the highest quality CAD data repurposing and conversion solutions, and to allow all disparate departments of large enterprise companies (such as engineering, design, marketing and support) to easily exchange product data without the need to rebuild their CAD datasets. With a huge number of existing CATIA and ACIS seats, our third generation of CATIA v4+v5 and SAT importers allow such users to easily repurpose their native CAD files to a dizzying number of downstream software applications and file formats supported by our PolyTrans and NuGraf packages. Downstream uses include product documentation and manual creation, animation and rendering software, visual communication and review of data, and for accessing simpler and easier to manipulate versions of the original CAD datasets. Our third major release is based on the ACIS R19 modeling engine and the newest Dassault Systèmes CATIA v5 runtime libraries. As such, these importers provide top notch, completely robust, and dependable performance. They have also been extensively field tested prior to this open release."Major Benefits of the CATIA and ACIS CAD Importers to Users of Okino's Software
• Supports CATIA v5 parts (.catpart), assembly (.cadproduct) and mesh visualization (.cgr) files, as well as the import of the assembly structure information.
• Supports CATIA v4 .model and .dlv (mainframe), .exp (export) and .session files. The .model files are generally used for one part files while .dlv and .exp files are used for multipart creation.
• Supports ACIS SAT (text) and SAB (binary) files up to ACIS R19 (the current release from Spatial).
• Many options to control the import of the data. Import by body, face, bodies + faces or bodies + shells + faces. This allows rendering materials to be applied at the finest granularity (faces) or the coarsest (bodies).
• Extensive tessellation controls (see WEB page references below for explanations).
• Model healing (for CATIA v4) and erroneous surface repairs (for CATIA v4 & v5).
• Selective layer import for CATIA v4 and v5 files.
• Importing via the CATIA and SAT "solids-based" file formats ensure that adjacent NURBS patches are "stitched" together via topology information (BREP data) and thus creates "crack free" tessellation when the NURBS or parametric solids are converted to a polygonal mesh.
• Imports CATIA and ACIS SAT CAD file formats directly into the user interfaces of 3ds Max, Maya, XSI, Adobe Director, Cinema-4D, Visual Components, Quest-3D (and other third party programs) via native PolyTrans plug-in systems. These are by far the most refined, developed and best methods to directly import
solids-based CAD files into these programs.
• The CAD importers include a vital built-in Okino hierarchy/part optimization tool to reduce the complexity of the imported CAD files before re-exporting to other 3D animation packages and downstream file formats. This processing is particularly important when importing large CAD assemblies into 3ds Max, Maya, XSI and Lightwave. Model imported from AutoCAD via Okino's ACIS SAT Converter.

AGI & Okino Announce Collada Pipeline

Toronto, Ontario – After 10 years of collaborative activity, AGI ‘Affiliated Product Partner’ Okino Computer Graphics announced today that a secondary, complementary data conversion pipeline in Okino’s PolyTrans|CAD (using the COLLADA format) gives STK users the ability to evaluate the new COLLADA model import (beta) capability of AGI’s STK software. For over ten years Okino has been a primary provider of cost effective and robust 3D data translation software to STK users around the globe.

Okino’s PolyTrans|CAD converts from native CAD file formats such as ACIS SAT, Alias .wire, Autodesk Inventor, AutoCAD DXF/DWG, CATIA v4+5, DWF, IGES, JT Open, Parasolid, Pro/Engineer, Rhino-3D, Solid Edge, SolidWorks, STEP, STL, XGL, U3D, VDA-FS, XGL, X3D and many others. Complete control is provided over final scene complexity, as well as tools to handle small parts removal, robust hierarchy/scene optimization and polygon reduction. Okino's DCC/Animation side of the company provides conversion to STK from all other major 3D animation packages and DCC file formats such as 3ds Max, Maya, Lightwave, Softimage XSI, COLLADA, DEM, DirectX, ESRI, FACT, FBX, OBJ, OpenFlight, PDB, PLY, SketchUp, VRML1+2, XAML and X3D.

“I am very pleased to have supported STK users for just over ten years now," said Robert Lansdale, President and CEO of Okino Computer Graphics, Inc. “We have had a very friendly and ongoing relationship with AGI and its STK user base over the years. We are now pleased to announce that an additional 3D conversion pipeline is available from Okino conversion software using COLLADA. We have one of the most extensively developed and feature rich COLLADA exporters in the 3D industry, which will benefit STK users requiring top quality CAD, DCC and VisSim file format conversions. Our conversion pipelines have been in development and use for up to 20 years, and hence they are rock stable and used extensively by tens of thousands of enterprise and 3D professionals around the world.”

For those not familiar with AGI’s STK software, it calculates the positions of land, sea, air, and space assets and their movements over time. Multiple analytical and numerical propagators compute vehicle positions in a wide variety of coordinate systems. Effects such as Earth oblateness, pole wander, leap second, solar radiation pressure, lunar effects, atmospheric drag, light time delay, and terrain are taken into account to compute results with the highest accuracy. The analysis software can be used as a standalone, out-of-the-box desktop application; integrated into an enterprise or service-oriented architecture; or embedded into other applications.

Applicable WEB pages

http://www.okino.com/conv/conv.htm = PolyTrans home page

http://www.okino.com/nrs/nrs.htm = NuGraf home page

http://www.okino.com/conv/filefrmt.htm = Supported 3D file formats

http://www.okino.com/conv/exp_collada.htm = COLLADA 3D exporter documentation

http://www.okino.com/conv/exp_lw.htm = Lightwave 3D exporter documentation

About Okino Computer Graphics

With development starting January 28th 1988, Okino Computer Graphics, Inc. (Toronto, Canada) is an industry leader + pioneer in the development and deployment of 3D data re-purposing software that allows professional 3D software users to intelligently and accurately convert/view/render/modify 3D data and assets between most major CAD, DCC and VisSim software packages. Okino software is used the world over by all major Fortune 1000 companies, 20 of the top 21 defense contractors, the top 15 automotive manufacturers, and tens of thousands of production studios, 3D content creation, game development, CAD, engineering and product design companies (as broken out in the Okino customer user list at www.okino.com/conv/users.htm). For more information about Okino, please visit www.okino.com.

About Analytical Graphics

Analytical Graphics, Inc. (AGI) provides commercial off-the-shelf software to national security and space professionals for integrated analysis of land, sea, air, and space assets. The technology can be applied to a variety of solution areas. AGI is well known for the following product suites:

* STK Product Suite: Design, analyze, visualize, and optimize land, sea, air, and space systems.
* NavTK Product Suite: Analyze performance of dynamic SATNAV systems.
* Orbit Determination Tool Kit: Perform orbit determination and orbit analysis support for satellite tracking systems.

STK is recognized as a proven aerospace standard with 32,000 worldwide installations at more than 500 unique national security and space organizations. With a user-friendly work environment and an open architecture that readily supports integration and customization, STK transforms the way users perform tasks and share knowledge.