{"id":42004,"date":"2019-09-23T08:00:00","date_gmt":"2019-09-23T12:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.solidworks.com\/solidworksblog\/?p=42004"},"modified":"2019-09-19T16:38:17","modified_gmt":"2019-09-19T20:38:17","slug":"what-is-3d-sculptor-and-what-happened-to-xshape","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.solidworks.com\/solidworksblog\/2019\/09\/what-is-3d-sculptor-and-what-happened-to-xshape.html","title":{"rendered":"What is 3D Sculptor and What Happened to xShape?"},"content":{"rendered":"

You\u2019ve likely heard about xShape, the 3D<\/strong>EXPERIENCE platform, and 3D Sculptor at one point or another on a webcast, online or maybe from a colleague or your SOLIDWORKS reseller, and might be wondering if they are related.<\/p>\n

3D Sculptor, which includes the xShape app, is a 3D design solution on the cloud-based 3DEXPERIENCE platform<\/a><\/strong>. \u00a0It helps you create organic surfaces easily using subdivision (Sub-D) modeling technology.<\/p>\n

For those of you who have used xShape already or are familiar with what it is, don\u2019t worry, the \u201capplication\u201d xShape didn\u2019t go away, it\u2019s just been included inside a \u201crole,\u201d which is called 3D Sculptor.<\/p>\n

What is a role you may ask? \u00a0Think of a \u201crole\u201d like a sports equipment bag.\u00a0 When you go off to play a specific sport, say hockey, you have specific equipment.\u00a0 When you go off to ski, you take a different set of equipment.\u00a0 In these cases your \u201crole\u201d is a hockey player or a skier.\u00a0 Inside your equipment bag you will have many different pieces of equipment to get the job done.\u00a0 For hockey, you need skates, a stick, a puck, a helmet and shin guards.\u00a0 For skiing you need boots, poles and skis.<\/p>\n

Think of xShape, the application, as a piece of equipment.\u00a0 Without it you can\u2019t perform your role, but it may not be the only piece of equipment you need.\u00a0 Today, 3D Sculptor contains only the xShape app, however in the future we envision it will include other applications to enable more capabilities.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

OK, but why would I need 3D Sculptor and what can I do with it?<\/strong><\/p>\n

As explained above, the role 3D Sculptor contains the application xShape, which is a browser-based 3D Sub-D modeling application that enables industrial designers, engineers and artists to create highly stylized ergonomic and organically shaped models faster and more easily than traditional parametric tools. Built on the 3D<\/strong>EXPERIENCE platform, 3D Sculptor complements the parametric workflows of desktop-based SOLIDWORKS 3D CAD as well as cloud-based solutions, such as 3D Creator, which includes the xDesign app.<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Super-fast and flexible 3D concept modeling<\/strong><\/p>\n

Often, early in the concept phase of a design, you just want to make several highly stylized concept models quickly so you can share these designs with colleagues, your management and even customers. \u00a0Rendering 3D models allows others to see life-like versions of your design that they can interact with in 3D, while 3D printing these designs allows others to actually hold them in their hands so they can see what they feel like and even understand better how they perform.<\/p>\n

In these cases, 2D-sketched images just won\u2019t do, and traditional 3D parametric modeling tends to be too slow due to the amount of construction geometry, such as curves and sketches, that have to be created to control the shape of the geometry.\u00a0 In addition, when I need to tweak this geometry, I often have to start my 2D drawings over and even my 3D parametric model might require extensive reconstruction to attain the new shape desired.<\/p>\n

When it comes to having to do it fast and still have the ability to make major geometry design changes quickly, nothing beats subdivision modeling for speed and flexibility.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Create exactly what you want in 3D without the need to be an expert<\/strong><\/p>\n

The other big use case for 3D Sculptor is in creating the surface exactly the way it needs to be.\u00a0 Many artists, designers and even expert CAD users can be stumped trying to make that little tweak to the shape that makes it just right.\u00a0 Let\u2019s face it, parametric surface modeling can be difficult and often requires expert knowledge to be able to make the exact shape you want.\u00a0 Subdivision modeling, however, is a whole different animal.\u00a0 Instead of setting up construction geometry to drive surfaces, you can quickly shape your models using push-and-pull direct interaction with the model.\u00a0 The learning curve is very short, making 3D Sculptor more accessible to everyone, even people who only use the tool occasionally.<\/p>\n

Design free of costly hardware restrictions<\/strong><\/p>\n

In addition to being easy to learn and use, 3D Sculptor runs on the cloud, in a browser, and does not require software downloads or expensive hardware to run it.\u00a0 This also frees you up to work from anywhere there is an internet connection so you can design, share with and comment on others designs and edit designs anytime, anywhere.<\/p>\n

There is an app for this!<\/strong><\/p>\n

Finally, since 3D Sculptor runs on the 3DEXPERIENCE platform<\/strong><\/a>, you have access to a plethora of other solutions on the platform to get your job done from sharing your designs to managing data, product lifecycle, projects and beyond.\u00a0 Just like your smartphone has apps that help you be more productive, chances are the 3DEXPERIENCE platform has the tool engineers, artist and designers need to create awesome products. And since these solutions all run on the 3D<\/strong>EXPERIENE platform, they work together seamlessly.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Learn more about 3D Sculptor, a new Sub-D modeling app on the 3DEXPERIENCE platform that makes the creation of highly stylized shapes easy.<\/p>\n... Continued<\/a>","protected":false},"author":163,"featured_media":42002,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2933,563,826,14,18],"tags":[40,41,2989,1890,28,54,129,133,430,2175,2912],"class_list":["post-42004","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-3dexperience","category-cloud-computing","category-dassault-systmes","category-design","category-solidworks","tag-3d-cad","tag-3d-design","tag-3d-sculptor","tag-3dexperience","tag-cloud","tag-collaboration-2","tag-design-2","tag-engineering","tag-whats-new","tag-xdesign","tag-xshape"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.solidworks.com\/solidworksblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42004","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.solidworks.com\/solidworksblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.solidworks.com\/solidworksblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.solidworks.com\/solidworksblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/163"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.solidworks.com\/solidworksblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42004"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.solidworks.com\/solidworksblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42004\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.solidworks.com\/solidworksblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/42002"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.solidworks.com\/solidworksblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42004"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.solidworks.com\/solidworksblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42004"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.solidworks.com\/solidworksblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42004"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}