Strata 3D CX 7.0 - 3D software for design professionals using Adobe products.

Awards & Reviews

"This could be the Adobe-devoted designer's must-have modeler... Seamless integration with Photoshop, user interface familiar to Adobe users, robust, stable and mature." - MacWorld UK | Editor's Choice Award

"[Strata]Design 3D's subtools offer impressive roundtrip capability: you can send a 3D model from Photoshop to Strata Design 3D, add textures and send the model back. You can continue the texture editing/modeling process, or close and render it...This integration sets Strata's tools above the rest of the applications on test." - DigitalArts Best Buy Award in recent product comparison

Strata Design 3D CX - 3D for Creative Designers

Strata Design 3D CX is our professional-level 3D modeling and animation software that delivers end-to-end power for the entire 3D design workflow. Quickly bring your creative ideas to life with a simplified learning curve, plugins to the Adobe Create Suite and award-winning rendering quality rivaling any software at any price.

Strata Design 3D CX brings it all together. With an interface that Adobe users will recognize, Design 3D connects to your creative toolset with links to Photoshop, Illustrator and Flash.

Powerful spline and subdivision surface modeling gives you the power to create virtually any form. Sophisticated texturing lets you apply materials and labels. Lighting and scene tools let you set up the perfect shot. And speaking of the perfect shot, the legendary Strata rendering engine is better than ever.

Bring in content from Foto 3D and Enfold 3D, render images and animations, export to Live 3D. Strata Design 3D CX is design at a higher power.

Top New Features

Native UV Mapping for Perfect Textures - Design 3D CX7 introduces a powerful new UV Mapping environment that makes exact placement of textures easier and faster than ever. UV texture mapping is a technique used to accurately wrap a 2D image texture onto a 3D model, where the image texture can then be stretched, squeezed, and rotated to fit correctly. UV coordinates maintain the relationship between the texture and 3D model, even when the model is further manipulated.
A New Standard in Rendering Perfection - Design 3D CX7 establishes rendering superiority with an array of updates that advance overall output quality and speed. Added support for blurry transparency and reflectivity produces stunningly lifelike realism. Instance Rendering Properties offer control over how an individual object's shadows, caustics, reflections and transparencies are rendered, or whether an object is even displayed at all. Version 7 handles higher oversampling settings, and lower block and threshold settings without loss of speed.
Modeling Evolved with Polygon Editing Enhancements - Ample improvements to the polygon modeling toolset and workflow include new Flatten, Weld, Unweld, Flip and Save Subset features. When combined with more intuitive mouse interactions and visual feedback, hard edge handling, selection options and new customizable keyboard shortcuts for common modeling tasks, Design 3D CX7 takes one giant step towards modeling bliss.

Customizable Keyboard Shortcuts Let You Define Your Workflow - All graphic designers rely on at least a few keyboard shortcuts in their favourite design programs. Others can tell you every shortcut that's available. We all have our own preferences and opinions on what key combinations make sense for certain tasks, so who are we to decide what's right or wrong? Design 3D CX7 allows you to take control and create your own Keyboard Shortcut Sets to match your favourite design programs or you own personal preferences.
Boolean Modeling Refined - Boolean Modeling allows you to add, subtract, intersect, and cut 2 different objects to create a new 3D object. It is not new to Design 3D, but version 7 unveils an entirely new Boolean engine that utilizes the same workflow, but produces cleaner, more accurate and reliable results.
New Texturing Options with Normal Maps - In addition to grayscale Bump Maps, Design 3D CX7 ushers in the ability to use Normal Maps for creating realistic surfaces details through the use of an RGB image. Normal Maps can also be used to "fake" lighting details of an object instead of modelling all of the details. It's just one more way that texturing in Design 3D CX7 makes your life easier.
Time Saving Project Templates - New 3D scene templates offer designers an easy way to jump start their 3D projects, without beginning in the vacuum of a New Empty Project. Scene templates include advanced lighting with soft shadows, environments, backgrounds and more, which can all be edited to suit your needs. Working with templates is also a great way to learn how to formulate your own 3D scenes.
Unique Surface Realism Through Anisotropy - Anisotropy is an advanced surface property that yields subtle, yet realistic effects to surfaces and reflections. An example of Anisotropy is a surface that blurs in a vertical direction, but not in a horizontal direction, such as brushed metals. Anisotropy settings are a new addition to the Image Texture controls.
Grid Templates Make Modeling Easier - To aid in certain modeling processes, images can now be applied to X,Y, and Z Grids for use as a template. The opacity of the grids can be adjusted to behave similar to tracing paper, which allows you to quickly model to proper proportions and accurately locate the components that make up your 3D model.
Match Motion Brings the Real World and CG World Closer Together - Visual effects artists often use a combination of live action and 3D action, which visually match up to create a realistic scene. Match Motion imports camera data from Pixel Farm's PFHoe to create a 3D scene, which matches the motion of a live camera scene.
Sun and Sky Backgrounds add More Reality to Your Environments - A new background type is available in Design 3D CX7 that will give your projects a real world feel. Sun and Sky backgrounds change colors to mimic a real sky and horizon as you move your light source. Features like haze and turbidity provide additional realism. If you want your scenes to change from sunup to sundown this is your feature.

		All the Power for One Simple Price Unlike some 3D applications, Strata Design 3D CX gives you all of its 3D tools for one great price. We don't force you to decide how you're going to use the product in the future, or make a guess ahead of time about which tools you might need for future projects. The only pricing decision you need to make is whether to buy Design 3D CX by itself, or as part of the Strata 3D CX Suite.
		Simplified 3D Learning Curve Strata Design 3D eases the learning curve for 2D designers who are new to 3D. Quick start templates, libraries, predefined effects, backgrounds, environments and more allow designers to create complex scenes in minutes. With a user interface and tools that are familiar to today's 2D designers, you invest your time learning 3D design concepts rather than a new design paradigm.
		Model Anything in 3D or Import Existing 3D Assets For many, the thought of 3D modeling is a daunting task. Design 3D offers an extremely friendly modeling toolset and environment for manipulating your polygons, splines, and primitives into any 3D object or scene you can imagine. If you're working with existing 3D assets, Strata Design 3D CX utilizes a host of filters and options to accurately import third-party 3D models and scenes.
		Apply Surface Textures with Precision In the world of 3D, texturing may just be the most important component in creating convincing final renderings. Once you have designed your 3D model, Strata Design 3D CX gives you powerful tools to create, apply and manipulate surface textures with beautifully accurate results.
		Set-Up Your Scene with Lighting, Backgrounds, Cameras, etc. Scene composition is a critical step in producing stunning images. Design 3D CX makes it easier to control the environment than any photography studio you could imagine. Position your 3D objects and then place lights, reflection panels, cameras, backgrounds, environments, reflection elements and more produce a superior final render or animation for your design project.
		Render Photo-Real Images and Animations at Blazing Speeds Design 3D is well known for its extraordinary rendering technology. Whether you're after photo-realistic results or some other style for your static or motion graphics, you will find the rendering options to suit your needs and output the results using one of the fastest rendering engines in the industry. After all, it's all about the final results and Design 3D delivers.
		Learn Design 3D CX Online at Strata 3D University Learning 3D doesn't have to be difficult. Especially with Strata's online training library at your fingertips, covering every aspect of Strata Design 3D CX and the entire 3D design workflow. Strata 3D University makes it simple to find the subject of interest and quickly get up to speed with short, informative videos created by professional 3D designers.
		Tightly Integrated with the Adobe Creative Suites Design 3D CX comes with six, Adobe Photoshop plug-ins that connect you directly to your favorite image application and improve your design workflow. Interoperability is also a key part of Design 3D with the ability to read in Adobe files including psd, eps, .ai and pdf. Note: Photoshop Plugins require Photoshop CS4 or CS5 Extended running in 32-bit mode.