What is Autodesk Showcase?

About Autodesk Showcase

Autodesk® Showcase™ is a real-time design visualization software package that enables you to quickly and easily prepare and present high-quality 3D presentations with:

Visually compelling Hardware rendering and interactive Ray Tracing
Material alternatives, so you can step through a series of predefined materials.
Geometry alternatives, so you can step through and discuss a set of alternative parts.
Positional alternatives, so you can place a model in various scene locations, compare various positions for a model component, or show exploded views of model components.
Lights, so you can add controlled illumination and highlighting to your model to enhance presentations.
Cross-sections, to provide internal views of the objects you are presenting.
Environments, so you can visualize your work in various high-quality backgrounds with realistic lighting and reflections.
Shots, so you can save camera views and add cinematographic movements.
Behaviors, so you can showcase a model on a turntable or add complex animations.
Storyboard slides, so you can assemble your scene elements and tell your story.
Multi-user collaboration, so you can present your work over a network.

About Autodesk Showcase products

Depending on your needs, you can choose from three Showcase products:

Autodesk Showcase addresses the needs of designers, engineers and marketing professionals, providing tools for interactively exploring design options and creating highly realistic renderings for sales and marketing purposes. The Showcase 2011 software includes support for industry-standard 3D CAD formats, geometry tessellation, photorealistic materials, HDRI environments and lights, easy-to-use camera and object animation, interactive 3D triggers and storyboards with precise timing control, and image, movie, and Flash rendering output.

Autodesk Showcase Professional is designed for specialized display environments involving multiple-screen displays, high-speed ray tracing clusters, stereoscopy, and remote attendees. The software includes all the features of Showcase 2011 plus this additional functionality. Autodesk Consulting can help design and implement the right Showcase Professional solution for specific needs.

NoteThis document covers all features of all versions of Showcase and Showcase Professional. A statement under the heading of each feature will indicate when features are available only in Autodesk Showcase Professional.

Autodesk Showcase Viewer is a free application, available for download from Autodesk.com, that allows non-Showcase license holders to view and navigate Showcase scenes. For the first 30 days of use, the Showcase 2011 Viewer is a fully functional trial of Autodesk Showcase 2011.

About Autodesk DirectConnect

The Autodesk Showcase software automatically installs the latest Autodesk DirectConnect software CAD file translators as part of its installation procedure. These translators enable CAD data to be imported into Autodesk Showcase software, and other Autodesk software

CAD files are first translated by Autodesk DirectConnect into Autodesk Packet (APF) files so that they can be read into the Autodesk Showcase software.

For information about the Autodesk DirectConnect software, select Help > Autodesk DirectConnect or go to http://www.autodesk.com/showcase-directconnect