Topic Title

What ever happened to the companion program Visual Reality. It came with DataCAD 9 I believe. The architecture firm I work for still uses it as its main rendering program, but it is now some 12 years old!
I would love to know if that program is still around and if there is some sort of new version of it out there.
Thanks for any leads to this information

The company that created Visual Reality was bought out in the early to mid 90's by Micrografx. They took part of the program and called it Simply 3D and basically threw away the rest. They dropped support for VR and never upgraded it. Datacad aquired the rights to include VR with DCAD. That lasted until about version 10, I think. But VR hasn't been upgraded since version 2 I beleive back about 1993. Ibought it at version 1 and loved it and yes I still use it.

So are there any good 3d rendering programs that work as well with DataCAD as VR did?
I did a search for other postings on this site and someone said Artlantis?

So are there any good 3d rendering programs that work as well with DataCAD as VR did?

I really like using "Vue" by E-Onsoftware with DataCAD. "Vue" is a 3D landscape program. You can export a model in DXF format from DataCAD and import it into Vue (similar to VR). After that you can easily add nice 3D mountains, trees, shrubs, flowers, and other objects by just clicking to select the object and then clicking to place it. Since all objects are in true 3D, you can get a very nice looking landscape around your building and easily render or animate it from any angle. You can also add an atmosphere to the scene so that tree branches and clouds move during the animation (the amount that they move depends on the setting for the wind). I posted a couple of quick renderings that I did in Vue in this post: http://forum.datacad.com/viewtopic.php? ... c&start=15
More info can be found on their website: www.e-onsoftware.com
The only current disadvantage is that you can't export your textures from DataCAD (although VR had the same problem). Hopefully, this can be changed in the near future.

So are there any good 3d rendering programs that work as well with DataCAD as VR did?
I did a search for other postings on this site and someone said Artlantis?

Most renderers work the same way and, as long as they can import DXF models using DataCad layers, they will work just as well. RL wasn't designed with architecture in mind and I think it shows with the shadow controls and the scaling problems with textures. Simply3D had raytraced shadows and it was a crying shame it was not developed just a little bit further. I had alook at Artlantis a few years ago and saw nothing of interest. The only other renderers I know that offer somehting exciting is Lightwave for interiors, and Piranesi, for serious arty farty stuff. I have never used the former (see Ernest Burden lll's work) and the only work I have done in the latter looks like it came out of Renderise Live.