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Core Design & Modeling

Design & Editing

ViaCAD^® is engineered for precision and ease of use. The LogiCursor™ smartly anticipates your next move, guiding you to potential point selections. The Gripper tool simplifies design edits with its drag-and-drop capabilities, while customizable grids offer precision in various layouts, including rectangular, polar, and isometric.

• LogiCursor™ Technology: Anticipates your next move, guiding your cursor for optimal point selection.
• Gripper Tool: Provides drag-and-drop capabilities, simplifying design edits.

Drafting & Annotations

As a robust documentation tool, ViaCAD^® includes over 20 customizable dimension styles to match industry standards. Enhance your project documentation with features like:

• Customizable Grids: Offer precision in various layouts, including rectangular, polar, and isometric.
• Wide range of Dimension Styles: Cater to various documentation needs with a diverse range of dimension styles.
• Bitmap Import: Incorporate logos and reference images seamlessly into your designs.
• Spell Check: Ensure accuracy in your annotations with integrated spell checking.
• Single Click Fills and Hatch: Apply fills and hatches to your designs with a single click for efficient detailing.

3D Modeling

ViaCAD^® offers a comprehensive suite of 3D modeling tools tailored to meet the needs of professionals and hobbyists alike. Key capabilities include:

• ACIS^® Solid Modeling Kernel: Available in ViaCAD Pro and 2D/3D for precision solid modeling and Boolean operations.
• Basic Solids: Create foundational shapes (cubes, cylinders, spheres).
• Mesh Booleans: Combine or subtract mesh objects.
• Shelling & Blending: Hollow solids or add smooth transitions between surfaces.
• Advanced Surface Tools: Subdivision, Surface Booleans, Surface Extent, Surface Analysis, Surface Lofting, Surface Utilities – including Cut Section, Curved Surface and Explode Curve, Tangent covers.
• Feature-Based Modeling: Track and edit modeling steps via a history tree (Pro only).

Visualization & Animation

Photorealistic Rendering

While ViaCAD^® 2D/3D supports basic rendering features, ViaCAD^® Pro offers advanced capabilities, including Physically Based Rendering (PBR). PBR is a sophisticated technique that simulates the interaction of light with materials to produce realistic graphics. It uses parameters like roughness and reflectivity to calculate light reflection, ensuring materials look consistent under various lighting conditions. PBR is ideal for applications demanding high photorealism, such as architectural visualization and game development.

• Camera Creation and Rendering: Define camera positions, perspectives, and field of view.
• View Rendering: Render from the current view orientation to the drawing window or a file.
• Recent Render Display: Show the most recent rendered image.
• Render Settings Control: Adjust HDRI, backgrounds, textures, and post effects.
• Post-Processing Effects: Improve image quality, including tone mapping and denoising.
• Laser Light Simulation: Add a simulated focused beam of light to renders.

Animation Tools

ViaCAD^® provides a suite of animation tools for generating QuickTime movies by adjusting camera positions. Users can create animations using Walk Through, Fly By, Paths, Object VR, Panoramic VR, and Object-Based Animations. These features enable dynamic visualization of designs, whether following a predefined path or capturing a full 380-degree view. Additionally, Animation Rebound, available exclusively in ViaCAD^® Pro, allows animations to trace a path and return to their starting point, creating smooth, looping motion perfect for polished presentations and continuous demonstrations.

Recording & Publishing

ViaCAD^® includes recording and publishing capabilities, allowing you to capture your screen with QuickTime, including audio, for creating videos and tutorials.

Productivity & Automation

Punch!CAD™ Copilot: The Ultimate AI-Powered Design Partner

Unlock the full potential of your design process with Copilot, the AI-driven companion seamlessly integrated into ViaCAD^®. This integrated AI tool streamlines navigation, expedites your project's progress, and enhances your design endeavors with insightful analysis.

Copilot supports two levels: Copilot Help and Copilot Professional.

All variants of ViaCAD^® include a complimentary 1-year subscription to Copilot Help, powered by Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) technology, providing contextually relevant answers through trusted documentation, FAQs, video tutorials, and more.

Copilot Professional includes Talk to your CAD Data, general AI access, and Text to Image.  Copilot Professional is adept at handling diverse multilingual requests, from guiding you through the initial steps of using ViaCAD^® to sharing intriguing details about your file or providing insights on design trends and principles.

*Punch!CAD™ Copilot Professional is available as an optional add-on for ViaCAD^® Pro, 2D/3D, and 2D. Choose the subscription plan that best suits your needs, with flexible options for a 1-year or 3-year term.

Organization

Layer Sets 

Enhance your ViaCAD^® experience with the Layer Sets feature, a powerful tool designed to optimize your design space. Layer Sets enable you to effortlessly save and manage your layers, view orientations, and zoom levels, ensuring a seamless transition between different phases of your project.

Symbol Manager

Improve your design efficiency with the Symbol Manager in ViaCAD^®. This tool helps you organize, store, and quickly access reusable symbols, making it easier to manage frequently used components and maintain consistency across projects. With intuitive functionality, it simplifies complex designs and saves time by keeping essential elements readily available. 

Fastener Library

Enhance your ViaCAD^® designs with the ANSI Fastener Library, a comprehensive collection of nuts, bolts, and washers. Easily accessible within the Symbol tab in the Concept Explorer, this library simplifies the insertion of fastening components into your projects.

Texture Import

Enhance your ViaCAD^® experience with the Imported Textures feature, which conveniently copies any imported textures directly into your custom texture folder. This integration allows for easy access and management of your textures.

3D Printing & Manufacturing

Prepare and validate your designs for 3D printing with ViaCAD^®’s suite of 3D printing tools:

• 3D Print Check: Verify the print viability of your models.
• Surface Normals Check: Ensure the correct orientation of facet normals for successful printing.
• Overhang and Wall Thickness Analysis: Inspect models for structural support requirements and adequate wall thickness.
• Preview Slices: Slice models to check for closed, non-overlapping sections, essential for 3D printing.
• Auto Position: Automatically position your model within the positive coordinate system for printing.
• Support Structure: Add manual support geometry for 3D printing.
• Printer Volume Display: Visualize the printing boundary as defined in the Printer Definitions dialog box.
• Printer Definitions: Set key parameters of the 3D printer to ensure compatibility with your designs.

Architectural & Woodworking Design

Architectural Tools

ViaCAD^® comes equipped with all the necessary tools for professional architectural planning, enabling teams to draft, print, and collaborate effectively*:

• Architectural Wall Tools: Design walls with precision and flexibility.
• Composite Walls: Visually represent different materials within wall structures.
• Parametric Doors and Windows: Insert doors and windows dynamically into your designs.
• Instant 3D Walls, Roofs, and Floor Slabs: Generate architectural elements in 3D with ease.
• AutoCAD^® DWG File Compatibility: Work seamlessly with files from other popular CAD software.
• ACIS^®-Based Geometry: Create with the same advanced technology used in high-end software.

*ViaCAD^® 2D only supports Doors, Windows, Walls, Multi-Walls.

Woodworking Tools

ViaCAD^® accelerates woodworking projects with specialized tools that simplify the creation of complex joints, including:

• Joints: Apply precision Rabbet, Miter, and Dovetail joints with parametric adjustments for perfect fit and strength.
• Dado Joints: Choose from through, stopped, or blind options for added versatility.
• Edge Treatments: Apply various edge treatments like cove, round, bullnose, and custom profiles.
• Tongue & Groove: Efficiently create tongue and groove joints for woodworking projects.

Advanced Modeling & Editing

Surface Cover from Points

Transform your design process with ViaCAD^®’s Surface Cover from Points feature. This feature empowers you to craft surfaces directly from designated point locations, offering unparalleled precision and customization.

Convert Text to Surface

This feature supports converting text to ACIS surface faces. It is a testament to our commitment to providing versatile and powerful tools for designers to express their creativity without limitations.

Blend Version

ViaCAD^® offers the flexibility to revert the ACIS blend version to a previous setting, providing an alternative solution when the default blend doesn’t meet your needs. This feature ensures that you have more control over your design process, allowing for precision and customization in your blending operations.

Select Faces Same Plane

Discover the power of precision with ViaCAD^®’s Select Faces Same Plane feature. This tool streamlines your modeling process by intelligently selecting all faces of a solid that reside on the same plane, ensuring uniformity and accuracy in your designs. s Same 

Shear Transform

The Shear Transform feature in ViaCAD^® is a dynamic addition to the Transform Utilities palette. This option allows you to apply shear transformations to curves, surfaces, and solids with precision and ease. 

Verify Clearance

Elevate your design precision with ViaCAD^®’s Verify Clearance feature. This innovative tool includes the capability to accurately calculate the spatial clearance between two solids, ensuring your components fit together perfectly.

Interoperability

ViaCAD^® offers compatibility with a wide range of industry-standard file formats, including DXF/DWG, 3MD, ACIS SAT, PDF, STL, SVG, STEP, 3MF, VRML 2.0, OBJ, and many more. It enhances its versatility with the File Options tools, catering to a variety of user needs. The Collada (DAE) Import feature in ViaCAD^® is an addition that allows users to seamlessly integrate Collada files into their workflow. The Save For Review option is a convenient tool for users to save their work in a format that is optimized for reviewing and sharing with others. Reference Files are supported to streamline collaboration and ensure consistency across different project files. ViaCAD^® also supports SketchUp import/export and integrates with Adobe Illustrator^® for graphic design applications, ensuring broad interoperability across disciplines. For those requiring STEP file import/export, this feature is available only in ViaCAD^® Pro, ensuring high-precision 3D data exchange for engineering and manufacturing.

Note: File format support may vary across different model variants. For a detailed overview of supported file formats, please consult the File Format Comparison Chart. This will help you identify which features are included in the variant you are interested in.     

Note: The availability of new features may vary across different model variants. For a detailed overview of feature distribution, please consult the Feature Comparison Chart. This will help you identify which features are included in the variant you are interested in.                               

Multi-Language Support

Support for English, French, and German languages ensures broader accessibility for international users.

Performance Improvements

ViaCAD^® delivers significant performance improvements for handling large files and complex operations.

Up to 12× Faster Redraws

The redraw speed has been improved up to 12 times for large files. In testing, a 2D file containing 148,318 objects—including points, lines, circles, polygons, text, and groups—was repainted much more quickly compared to the previous version. This improvement becomes more noticeable as the number of entities increases.

Up to 22× Faster File Loads

Files with thousands of entities now load up to 22 times faster. This results in reduced wait time and a more responsive user experience when opening complex projects.

Up to 5× Faster PDF/DWG Import Speed

Importing complex PDF and DWG files is now up to five times faster, improving efficiency when working with external design data.

Up to 25× Faster Printing of Large Files

Printing performance for large designs has been optimized up to 25 times faster, allowing for quicker output without sacrificing quality.

Redesigned Custom Tool Creation and Editing

The custom tools interface in ViaCAD^® has been redesigned to support larger m×n icon arrays, providing greater flexibility in organizing tool palettes. Users can now configure layouts such as 3×20 or 10×10, and a new edit dialog makes it easier to modify existing tools, enhancing customization and overall usability.

Arc Slot Polygon Tool

This new drawing tool enables users to create polygons using arcs as defining edges, providing increased design flexibility and creative control.

ISO Part Library

ViaCAD^® Explorer Symbols now includes a 3D ISO part library, allowing designers to access standardized components directly within their projects.

Batch Export Single Parts from Multi-Part Files

A new batch export option lets users save each individual part in a multi-part file as a separate file, simplifying file management and sharing.

SketchUp Import

The SketchUp importer has been updated to support the latest SketchUp versions, with special handling for glass materials.

• Transparent materials automatically receive a glass shader.
• Ensures realistic rendering with minimal manual adjustments.

Part Creator (AI-Powered)

ViaCAD^® introduces an advanced AI-powered feature for generating intelligent parametric parts, available exclusively in Copilot Professional. This powerful tool supports the creation of a wide range of mechanical components, including:

Gears: Spur, Full Spur, Beveled, Ring, Worm, Rack, Planetary, Herringbone Ring, Herringbone Rack

• Screws: Hex
• Nuts: Hex
• Threads: ISO, ACME

Users can customize parameters like diameter, helix angle, and tooth count to generate precise mechanical components.

Copilot – AI Assistant

Copilot has been enhanced with improved instruction-following capabilities and a more advanced language model, making it an even more valuable AI assistant. These enhancements are available in both Copilot Help and Copilot Professional, ensuring users across all plans benefit from its intelligent support.

Features include:

• Step-by-step guidance on using tools
• Answers to common questions
• Data insights for drawings
• Text-to-image generation
• General CAD expertise and best practices

Minor Corrections and Bug Fixes

Since the release of ViaCAD^® 15, hundreds of minor corrections have been implemented to enhance stability and accuracy. Key fixes include:

• Corrected issues with feet/inches unit handling
• Fixed problems with extruding faces from solids
• Resolved performance bottlenecks related to logging
• Addressed WorkPlane switching inconsistencies between views
• OpenGL clipping errors for distant parts
• Outline polygon printing accuracy
• Layer set name validation checks
• Enhanced French and German localizations

Windows System Requirements

Minimum System Requirements

• Operating System: Windows^® 7, 8, 10, or 11 ¹
• Processor: Intel Pentium IV or AMD Athlon64™ class 64-bit processor
• RAM: 8 GB or greater
• Hard Disk Space: 3 GB of free disk space for installation
• Pointing Device: Mouse with wheel button (recommended)
• Graphics: OpenGL/DirectX9-compliant video card with 256MB of dedicated RAM
• Internet Connection: Required for activation, updates, online features, and subscription-based features (if applicable)²

Additional Notes

• Operating System: ¹ Program compatibility is not guaranteed for earlier operating systems (pre-Windows 7) or future unreleased Windows versions.
• Optimal Performance: 16 GB RAM and SSD disk for improved handling of large files.
• Internet: ² User responsible for all associated ISP fees and charges.

Mac System Requirements

Minimum System Requirements

• Operating System: macOS 11.0 (Big Sur) through macOS 26.0 (Tahoe) ¹
• Processor: Apple Mac with Intel^® (x64 architecture) or Apple Silicon (ARM-based M1, M2, M3, or newer)
• RAM: 8 GB or greater
• Hard Disk Space: 4 GB of free disk space for installation
• Pointing Device: Mouse with wheel button (recommended) or 3Dconnexion SpaceMouse
• Internet Connection: Required for activation, updates, and subscription-based features (if applicable)

Additional Notes

• Operating System: ¹ Program compatibility is not guaranteed for earlier operating systems (pre-macOS 11.0) or future unreleased macOS versions.
• Optimal Performance: 16 GB RAM and SSD disk for improved handling of large files.
• Internet: ² User responsible for all associated ISP fees and charges.