Design 3D CX 7.6 Windows Upgrade (Standard License) VR17
Professional Level 3D Modeling and Animation Software for Creative Designers
Strata Design 3D CX is our professional-level 3D modeling and animation software for Windows/PC that delivers end-to-end power for the entire 3D design workflow. Quickly bring your creative ideas to life with a simplified learning curve, tight integration with Adobe Photoshop and award-winning rendering quality rivaling any software at any price.
All the Power for One Simple Price
Simplified 3D Learning Curve
Model Anything in 3D or Import Existing 3D Assets
Apply Surface Textures with Precision
Set-Up Your Scene with Lighting, Backgrounds, Cameras
Render Photo-Real Images and Animations at Blazing Speeds
Connected to Virtual Reality with VR17 Release
Learn Design 3D CX Online at Strata 3D University
Tightly Integrated with Adobe Photoshop®
Strata Design 3D CX for Windows – Get the most highly requested features to help you build, texture and output your models.
Strata Design 3D CX 7.6 is a powerful modeling and texturing upgrade, which includes many of the most requested features from long-time Strata Design 3D users. We’ve combined new VR rendering and publishing features, along with previously released 7.5 features including: UV texturing components that allow you to more easily visualize the exact layout and placement of your textures, with polygon manipulation features that provide a new level of control over your 3D objects, and added in some very useful import and export options to make version 7.5 more compatible with CAD programs and 3D printing services.
Virtual Reality Features with VR17 Release
New Feature Videos And Wrench Tutorials
Modeling and Edge Control Features and Enhancements
UV Editing and Texturing Features and Enhancements
3D Print, File Import and File Export Options
Decimation / Polygon Reduction
New Features in 7.5
Modeling Menu – New Entry
- Decimate
Poly Edit Mode – New Commands & Features
- Show Face Normals – Helps identify inverted normals, which can interfere with rendering and 3D printing.
- Select Perimeter
- Rotate Connected
- Split Edge
- Segment Edge Dialog – Splits an edge into a specific number of equal segments.
- Select UV Seam Edges – Selects any previously designated UV seams.
- Toggle UV Seam Edge – Toggles (on or off) one or more selected edges as UV seams – to designate unwrapping seams for Burn UV and UV edit mode.
- Color Coded UV Seams – Helps identify UV seam edges in poly edit mode.
- Move Commands: Move to Grid, Move to X, Y, or Z, Move Center to X, Y or Z.
UV Edit Mode – New Commands & Features
- Conform – For LSCM (Least Squares Conformal Maps) UV mapping.
- Conform Connected – For LSCM UV mapping.
These two commands perform the conform or unwrap on selected UVs.
- Select Perimeter
- Fit to UV, U or V
- Fit Each to UV, U or V
- Rotate Connected to Grid, U or V
- Select Pinned UVs: Selects previously pinned vertices.
- Toggle Pinned UVs: Toggles pinned vertices on or off. Allows you to pin points in a UV map to particular spots on a poly mesh.
- Move Commands: Move to U, V, Move Center to U, V.
Burn UV Dialog
- New Conform to Mesh Option – Unwrap an object’s UVs after designating seams.
Import/Export
- STL Import and Export – Uses model units.
- Set Model Units on STL Import – Standard and custom units available on import.
- Improved Collada Import/Export – Support for bump and normal maps in import/export of Collada files.
Miscellaneous
Upgraded Convert of Poly Meshes – Convert function now retains texture, vertex/edge hardness, UV seams and face sets (subsets).
Sort by Face Sets on Export to Collada, OBJ – Now only a single entry for each face set on export.
In-Depth Feature List
Strata Design 3D CX makes it easy for 2D designers to get started in 3D. You can import 2D elements from applications like Adobe Illustrator or you can draw 2D objects directly in Strata Design 3D CX.
- 2D/3D Text
- 3D Primitives
- 2D Drawing Tools
- Bezier Lines/Regions
Modeling Features
Strata Design 3D CX offers an incredible array of modeling options. You can model using familiar Bezier splines, but now in 3D: traditional polys- but now with Quad Polysplines; MetaSurfaces to meld objects together; Extrude and Lathe; Boolean to combine or subtract: Skin; Mirror and more!
- Polyspline SDS
- Meld MetaSurfaces
- Bezier Surfaces
- Extrude
- Lathe
- Boolean
- Skin
- Polygonal Modeling
- Path Extrude
- Construction Objects
- Shy Objects
- Shape Instancing
- Replicate / Duplicate
- Object Manipulation
- Drop a Curve
- Hide Objects
- Fillet
- Thickness
- Mirror
- Hull Surface
- Deformation Lattice
- Grids – World, Custom & View
- Guides – Custom and Default
- Smooth Mesh
- Decimation (v7.5)
- Segment Edge Command (v7.5)
- Show Face Normals (v7.5)
- Point Snap
View Features
Unlike your favorite 2D applications, Strata Design 3D CX gives you the opportunity to examine artwork from any angle. With the power of 3D perspective comes new challenges for control. Strata 3D rises to the occasion with split-able views, multiple views, depth cueing and even special views for cameras and light sources.
- Familiar Interface
- Split Views
- Camera View
- Multi-Views
- Depth Cueing
- Image/Movie Backdrop
- Spotlight Views
Environment Features
Sometimes great design is about the “negative space” – the area that surrounds your 3D model. Strata Design 3D CX gives you many options and an easy to use interface to control your “environment”.
- Ground Plane
- Air Refraction
- Visible Backgrounds
- Reflective Backgrounds
- Atmosphere
- Gravity
- Wind
Lighting Features
You’ve heard of “looks good in any light” – now you’ve found the tool that gives you that elusive “any light”. Strata Design 3D CX gives you point lights, spotlights, global sun-style lights, environment based lightdomes, High Dynamic Range Image lighting, glowing surfaces, gels – all unlimited and fully controllable.
- Point Lights
- Spot Lights
- Directional Lights
- Glowing Surfaces
- Lightdome HDRI
- Intensity
- Host Object
- Soft Edges
- Ambient Light
- Gels
- Animatable Lights
- Overflow Handling
- Spotlight Window View
- Effects Applied to Light
- Direct Manipulation Interface
Special Effects Features
Any image or animation can be spiced up with special effects like Lens Flare, Auras, Particles – and the new Script FX. Add multiple effects, place effects on any object, even animate the effects.
- Lens Flares
- Particle Collision Detection
- Script FX
- Auras
- Caustics
- Fountain Effects
- Global Gravity Control
- Global Wind Force Control
- Global Air Control
- Fire & Smoke
- Hair
- Hotspots
- Pixie Dust
File Import/Export Features
Being able to talk to other programs in your design studio is an important issue. Strata Design 3D CX offers a number of options in this area.
- U3D (in)
- Collada (in/out)
- Illustrator/EPS (in)
- Photoshop PSD (in/out)
- STL (in/out version 7.5 only)
- XMM (out)
- Quicktime (in/out)
- PICT (in/out)
- Quicktime VR (out)
- TGA (in/out)
- TIFF (in/out)
- BMP (in/out)
- JPEG (in/out)
- 3DS (in)
- PDF (in)
- DXF (in/out)
- AVI (in/out)
- MiniCAD (in)
- Amapi (in/out)
- OBJ (in/out)
- VRML 1 & 2 (in/out)
- Flash SWF (out)
- True Type Fonts (in)
- Postscript Type Fonts (in)
The core of what makes Strata Design 3D CX so good – and what it’s famous for – is the high quality rendering. Rendering is the process of taking the design you worked to put together and creating the final image.
- Toon
- Photons
- Raytracing
- Raydiosity
- Render to Layers
- Flat Shaded
- Hidden Line
- Outline
- Pointcloud
- Smooth Shaded
- Wireframe
- Scanline
- Transparency
- Alpha Channel
- Anti-Aliasing
- Oversampling
- Glow
- Reflectivity
- Blurry Transparency and Reflectivity
- Instance Rendering
- Anti-Matter Effect
- Field Rendering
- Atmospheric Effects
- Shadows
- MIP Mapping
- Soft Shadows
- Stereoscopic
- Custom Environments
- Specular Highlights
- Suspend Rendering
- Marquee Select Rendering
Animation Features
Strata Design 3D CX takes a simple approach to animation: Everything can be animated. And it takes a simple approach to controlling animation: keyframes, a timeline, and scripting. Even if you’ve never booted it up, you already know how to use it.
- Scripting
- Hierarchial
- Visible Paths
- Everything Time Variable
- Animation Preview
- Shatter
- Explode
- Jiggle
- Convert to Path Event-Based
- Cycle Back & Forth
- Key Frames
- Velocity Graphs
- Life Checkbox
- Align to Path
- IK (Inverse Kinematics)
- FK (Forward Kinematics)
- TCB, Spline & Natural Paths
- Proportional Event Scaling
Texturing Features
“What if” is as simple as drag-and-drop in Strata Design 3D CX. Select from the palette of hundreds of pre-made surface textures or make your own using features like live-linking to native Photoshop files – make a change in Photoshop and Strata Design 3D CX automatically updates the model surface. Older CX Version Photoshop plug-ins require Adobe CS 4 or CS 5.x. Design 3D CX no longer includes Photoshop plug-ins, but maintains tight integration with Adobe Photoshop.
- Native UV Mapping
- Scripting
- Hierarchical
- Visible Paths
- Photoshop Linking
- Displacement
- Box Wrapper
- Normal Maps
- Mist
- Image Textures
- Corrosion
- Starfield
- Rainbow Reflection
- Mock Tile
- Shadow Catcher
- Ripples
- Solid Brick
- Silk
- Solid Candy
- Solid Concrete
- Solid Marble
- Solid Moonscape
- Solid Rock
- Solid Stone
- Solid Terrain
- Solid Wood
- Wildlife
- Mock Plank
- Surface, Solid & Volume
- Layer & Mix
- Fog
- Haze
- Clouds
- Burn UV
- New Conform to Mesh option; using Least Squares Conformal Maps technology (v7.5)
- LSCM unwrap (Conform, Conform Connected) Unwrap entire objects, single UV island or just selected polygons (v7.5)
- Pin UVs (Toggle pinned vertices on or off) (v7.5)
- Fit (to UV, U or V) (v7.5)
- Fit Each (to UV, U or V) (v7.5)
- Rotate Connected (to Grid, U or V) (v7.5)
- Move (to U, V; Center to U, V) (v7.5)
- Select Perimeter (v7.5)
- Select Pinned UVs (v7.5)
- UV Edge Seam Assignment (v7.5)
- Select UV Seam Edge (v7.5)
Camera Features
A great camera can make even the novice photographer look good. Just think of what Strata Design 3D CX will do for you with all these imaging options at your fingertips.
- Scripting
- Hierarchial
- Visible Paths
- QTVR
- Motion Blur
- Depth of Field
- Boom
- Pan
- Dolly
- Arc
- Pitch
- Yaw
- Roll
- Host Object
- Target Object
- Focal Distance
- View Angle
- Panorama Camera
- Spherical Camera
- Cubic Camera
- Shutter Speed
- Stereoscopic
- Live Window Updates
Strata Design 3D CX includes a Lua-based scripting language. Lua is a widely used language, particularly in gaming, with companies like Blizzard (World of Warcraft), Criterion Studios (NBA Ballers, ESPN Major League Baseball), BioWare (Neverwinter Nights), UbiSoft (Far Cry), Double Fine Productions (Psychonauts), Nival Interactive (Blitzkrieg) and many more. Even new favorites, such as Adobe Lightroom, utilize Lua.
With Lua you can script shaders and textures to: access the rendering pipeline; lens scripting for the creation of custom lenses, effects and warps; Filter FX which allows you to write custom Lua scripts to apply filters based on an object’s surface normal, direction, lighting, volume, and by pixel color, depth, transparency, layer within the PSD file – and much, much more. In fact, Design 3D comes with a whole series of special effect shaders created using Lua. These “Script FX” let you do things like bounce, vibrate, alter acceleration and more. Each Script FX gives access to the full Lua source code, so you can edit them if you like.
Additional features are implemented directly in Lua throughout Design 3D such as Match Motion and Instance Node Control. If you’re somebody who’s interested in scripting, Lua gives you the opportunity to extend Design 3D in a variety of important ways.
System Requirements
Windows Minimum System Requirements
- Windows 7 or later (64-bit preferable)
- Pentium 4, Athlon, Intel or better
- 4GB of RAM (more highly recommended)
- NVIDIA or AMD Graphics Card
- 1.7 GB of available hard-disk space for full installation
Photoshop User
MacWorld UK | Editor’s Choice Award
Layers Magazine, Four and a Half Stars
Digit Magazine
MacUser UK
Compare Design 3D Versions
FEATURES | DESIGN 3D CX 7 | DESIGN 3D SE 7 | DESIGN 3D CXi 7 |
Basic Tools Move, rotate, scale, grids and guides, history stack |
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Environmental Tools Ground plane, visible and reflected backgrounds |
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Lighting / Basic Point lights, spot lights, directional lights |
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Lighting / Advanced Lightdomes |
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3D & 2D Primitives | |||
Import / Basic EPS (v8), S3D, OBJ, Collada, VRML, 3DS and more |
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Import / Advanced AI, PDF and U3D |
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Export Collada(DAE), S3D, OBJ, VRML, BMP, JPG, SWF, PCT, TIF, TGA |
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Export / Advanced Quicktime |
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Bezier Modeling Tools Pen tool, extrude, lathe, path extrude, skin |
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Bezier Modeling Tools / Advanced Hull, thickness, fillet |
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Text Tool | |||
Boolean Operations Subtract, intersect, union, cut |
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Polygon Modeling Tools / Basic Move, rotate, scale, bevel, extrude |
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Polygon Modeling Tools / Advanced Magic wand selections, inset, inflate, flatten |
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Advanced Smoothing Techniques Subdivision surfaces |
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Advanced Smoothing Techniques 2 Meld |
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Deformation Tools Deformation lattice, bones |
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Animation Keyframing, animated textures |
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Animation Effects Shatter, explode |
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ScriptFX Heartbeat, bounce, rotate, etc. |
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Texturing Tools / Basic Multi-channel stackable textures, stone, wood |
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Texturing Tools / Advanced Linked PSD textures, most procedural texture types |
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Rendering / Basic Raytracing, raydiosity, openGL, toon |
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Rendering / Advanced Suspended renderings, fields, stereo, panoramic, motion blur, render to layers |
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