NPOWER Software - Advanced Modeling Plugins for 3DS MAX, RHINO, modo, SolidWorks®

Power Surfacing for SolidWorks®
     
  Plug-in for SolidWorks®  
spacer
 
TL T TR
L
Power Surfacing
spacer  
spacer

- Do you struggle to create freeform/organic shapes with SolidWorks®?

- Do you avoid making changes to surface features because the resulting solid body will not rebuild correctly without a lot of time consuming rework?

- Do you have difficulty creating aesthetically pleasing "Class A" surfaces with tangent and curvature continuity?

- Are you forced to utilize software other than SolidWorks® for Industrial Design part of your product design?

- Do you need to import polygonal objects created outside of SolidWorks®?

We have an answer that may work for you! Power Surfacing is a revolutionary SolidWorks® plugin product that will fundamentally change the way that engineers and designers design parts in SolidWorks®. Power Surfacing makes it easy and fun to design complex free form aesthetically pleasing "Class A" surfaces in SolidWorks®. No longer will you have to fight with patching a set of trimmed surfaces together to form complex curved shapes; manipulating Power Surfacing parts is as simple as modeling with clay. Power Surfacing allows great flexibility and productivity in designing those difficult surfaces by pushing and pulling on the faces, edges or vertices of the part. You will have so much fun designing with Power Surfacing that you won't want to stop.

Power Surfacing Getting Started Video - Screen Shot

Power Surfacing provides SolidWorks® users with two primary workflows:

  • Import Workflow:
    1. Import Sub-D models from products such as Modo, 3DS Max, Blender, Z-Brush and Maya
    2. Make adjustments to the shape, surface grouping, and edge creasing of the imported objects
    3. Convert to SolidWorks® NURBS bodies then apply standard SolidWorks® features such as holes, bosses, fillets, shell, etc.
    4. Optionally export modified Sub-D models in a Sub-D compatible format (*.obj and *.fbx)
  • Design Workflow
    1. Create initial Power Surfacing objects inside of SolidWorks® using a sketch as a reference
    2. Design the shape using the Power Surfacing tools provided inside of SolidWorks® environment
    3. Convert the shape to SolidWorks® NURBS body
    4. Apply standard SolidWorks® features such as holes, bosses, fillets, shell, etc. to the converted body
    5. Edit the Power Surface shape and the subsequent SolidWorks® Features get reapplied in most cases automatically without user intervention

Once the shape is designed with Power Surfacing it is a single unified object which can easily be modified in both subtle and significant ways without pulling apart the resulting NURBS surfaces. With Power Surfacing, design changes and creating design alternatives is a breeze.

Game Controller Turntable Game Controler Build using Power Surfacing
Animation of Game Controller by Paul McCrorey of McCrorey Digital. Game Controller build with Power Surfacing by Paul McCrorey at SolidWorks® world.

Power Surfacing can convert virtually any Sub-D model (even Sub-D models that have some triangles) into a precise NURBS representation that is understood by the SolidWorks® system. 

When converting Sub-D models into SolidWorks® geometry, Power Surfacing creates high quality surfaces, which accurately interpolate the vertices of the original Sub-D mesh. Once Power Surfacing converts the Sub-D geometry into SolidWorks® native geometry, you can easily Boolean operations, filleting, shelling, perform analysis, etc. Even after converting the geometry to a native SolidWorks® format, you can then go back to the original Sub-D model and perform additional Sub-D operations. See an example with our video tutorials.

Combined with our Power SubD-NURBS plugin for modo, Power Surfacing allows designers who use the powerful and popular modo product to import modo models into SolidWorks® with the ability to edit those modo models as if they were native SolidWorks® parts.

 


Download Power Surfacing informational flier

R
BL T BR
 
 
 
TL T TR
L
R
BL T BR
 
TL T TR
L
Benefits
R
 
Neither Sub-D modeling nor NURBS modeling can effectively solve all 3-D design problems. Each has strengths and weaknesses. Sub-D modeling is great at producing and modifying complex freeform / organic shapes with smooth surfaces. NURBS modeling is good at combining shapes via. Boolean and Feature operations as well as refining shapes with operations like filleting, blending and face editing. We really see Power Surfacing as a novel and powerful unification piece between these two technologies. Being able to use both modeling paradigms together in the modeling process provides huge productivity advantages in both the design and revision process. Power Surfacing freeform design combined with SolidWorks® parametric design provides Solidworks users with a ground breaking Industrial Design toolkit.
 
     
BL T BR
 
 
TL T TR
L R
BL T BR
TL T TR
L
Power Surfacing News
R
   
     
BL T BR