ViaCAD 12 Professional

The innovative design tool for professionals Professional use!

• Powerful 3D tools such as mesh, surface and solid modeling, intersection, bevel and hollowing.
• Check your 3D printer for optimal results
• Over 275 Smart Tools - A collection of easy-to-use tools to help you draw and design with precision.
• NEW! 3D Design Advance
• NEW! Design and comment updates
• NEW! Improved usability
• NEW! Interoperability Updates

designed with professionals in mind,
ViaCAD 12 Professional provides the flexibility of mesh and solid modeling to help you quickly move from 3D design to implementation. With our 3D CAD software, you can easily work on your architectural, mechanical, prototype and design projects. All you need is an idea and ViaCAD. ViaCAD 12 Professional is smart software at an affordable price that offers 2D drawing tools and advanced 3D modeling with easy switching between 3D and 2D views. With ViaCAD, you can professionally create 3D prototypes, photorealistic renderings, product manufacturing designs, product packaging, architectural drawings, home improvement plans, interior designs, inventions and more.

PROFESSIONAL 3D CAO SOFTWARE THAT PACKS A PUNCH!

ViaCAD 12 Professional puts the power of 3D design in the palm of your hand. ViaCAD's solid modeling and precise drawing tools are perfect for anyone involved in CAD design for a living. The combination of mesh-based modeling and subdivision technology makes creating 3D concept drawings a breeze. There is also a 2D view where you can switch back and forth as needed.

WITH VIACAD YOU CAN CREATE PROJECTS SUCH AS

• Architectural drawings
• Conversion drawings
• Inventions and patent samples
• Prototypes with 3D printers
• Mechanical drawings
• Furniture design, woodworking and carpentry
• Jewellery making
• Musical instruments
• Graphics and technical illustrations
• Product and packaging design
• 2D drawings, diagrams and schematics
• Custom manufacturing from CAD to CNC

Compatibility and file sharing

ViaCAD 12 Professional is compatible with AutoCAD® and offers up-to-date DWG import and export capabilities. This allows your team to collaborate without everyone having to use the same CAD software.

ViaCAD also supports more than a dozen popular CAD and graphics formats, so you can provide files that can be opened and modified by users of other popular design software. In our latest version (version 12), you can import PDF and Adobe Illustrator files and are able to import/export SketchUp 2019 and Collada files.

• ViaCAD offers compatibility with AutoCAD® DWG files.
• DXF/DWG versions from R12 to 2019
• STL import/export for 3D printing
• SVG import and export
• 3MF import and export
• VMRL 2.0 texture support
• OBJ texture support
• Adobe Illustrator® import.
• PDF import
• SketchUp 2019 import/export.
• Collada™ (DAE) Import/Export.
• Full support for metric and imperial units.

Feautures

 VIACAD MAKES ADVANCED 3D AND 2D DESIGN WORK EASIER:

Achieve professional-quality CAD design results without pulling your hair out. Our software includes a wide range of tools, so the right tool for the job is just a click away. ViaCAD has a 3D mesh modeling feature with subdivision technology to go from rough to smooth surfaces. You (and your clients) will be amazed at how photorealistic your finished designs will look.

• Design complex organic shapes with NURB surface modeling tools.
• Geometric and dimensional 2D constraints to manage geometric relationships between 2D shapes.
• Push/pull modeling allows 3D surfaces to be modified with the mouse and cursor.
• Powerful 3D editing tools, such as blending, chamfering, and peeling.
• Architectural and carpentry tools, such as rabbet, miter, and dovetail joints.
• Extensive 2D drawing tools such as text, dimensioning, 3D-to-2D drawing, bill of materials.
• Multiple windows allow you to view and switch between 2, 3 or even 4 views of your design.
• Built-in photorealistic rendering and support for Keyshot LiveLinking™.
• And much more!

INTUITIVE DESIGN AND EDITING TOOLS

Accurate drafting is easy with ViaCAD! We designed it to be user-friendly and intuitive. The LogiCursor™ anticipates your next action and guides your cursor to possible point selections in the drawing. Gripper features drag-and-drop functionality for easy design editing. Customizable grids make everything even easier by allowing precise drag-and-drop in rectangular, polar (circular), and isometric layouts.

DIMENSION DESIGNS AND DIMENSIONS

ViaCAD is a robust design documentation tool with over 20 customizable dimension styles, including standard dimension formats.

Other great features help you document and annotate your projects:

• 26-dimensional styles
• Import bitmaps for logos and reference images
• Spell check adds another level of accuracy.
• One-click filling and hatching

ARCHITECTURAL DESIGN TOOLS

ViaCAD Pro includes all the professional architectural tools you and your team need to design, print and collaborate on projects together.

• Architectural wall tools
• Composite walls to represent materials
• Parametric windows and doors
• Instant 3D walls, roofs and floor tiles
• Compatibility with AutoCAD® DWG files
• ACIS®-based geometry means you are working with the same technology as software that costs thousands of dollars.

WOODWORKING TOOLS

ViaCAD Pro includes tools to speed up your woodworking projects. You can quickly create otherwise tedious joints such as dado joints and miter joints.

• Joints, including rabbet, miter, and dovetail joints
• Key joints, with options for continuous, stopped, or blind joints
• Edge treatments, including cove, round, bullnose, dupont, waterfall, ogee and custom
• Tongue & groove

3D MODELING TOOLS

ViaCAD offers powerful solid modeling technology found in many higher-end products. In addition, ViaCAD Pro provides surface modeling tools to expand design capabilities.

• Feature-based history tree for editing
• A complete design tool with extrusions, Boolean mates, surface modeling for more complex smooth surfaces
• Precise geometry suitable for concept to manufacturing
• Associative surface modeling

3D PRINT CHECK
Checks for printability and displays warnings or errors to the user.

CHECKING SURFACE NORMALS
Bevel normals define the inside and outside areas of a part. If the facet normals are facing the wrong direction, the 3D printer may have problems creating the part. This checks for problems and we have several commands that can help you fix this.

OVERALL ANALYSIS
This will help you visually inspect modeling areas that may need structural support for 3D printing. The normals of meshes, faces, and solid facets are compared to the direction of the working plane. Angles less than or equal to 45 degrees are highlighted in red.

WALL STRENGTH ANALYSIS
This tool allows you to visually inspect modeling regions that may be too thin for 3D printing. Meshes, surfaces, and solid facets are examined using ray cuts.

PREVIEW Slices
This interface helps you slice models with a specific direction and thickness. The dialog box allows you to animate through the slices and single step. Use this feature to verify that a part has closed, non-overlapping sections, a requirement for 3D printing.

AUTO POSITION
The Auto Position tool moves the model to the positive x, y coordinate system at z=0.

SUPPORTSTRUCTURE
Manually adds geometry to the support material as it is created by the 3D printer. Support structure controls include "Attach Radius", "Center Radius", "Base Radius", "Base Thickness", and "Drag Base and Centers" to change the position of the structure.

DISPLAY PRINTER VOLUME
Toggles the boundary of the default 3D printer. The volume is defined in the Printer Definitions dialog box.

PRINTER DEFINITIONS
Sets the major parameters of the 3D printer, including the length, width, and height of the volume that can be reached by the printer. The parameters in the Printer Definitions dialog box are used for commands such as 3D Print Check and Auto Position

New Features

3D DESIGN PROGRAMS
SPLITMESH

This tool divides a mesh into two parts based on a cutting plane. Split Mesh is an ideal tool for those working with faceted data along with 3D print manufacturing processes.

MESH BOOLEANS

This advancement provides a way to add or remove material from a mesh body. Previous versions only allowed boolean operations on ACIS-based solids. With the introduction of mesh boolean operations, you can now add/remove material imported from STL, OBJ, 3DS, and SketchUp.


WRAP

With our new wrapping tool you can place text, company logos or complex 2D patterns on 3D surfaces. The results are perfect for printing, embossing or engraving.

PHOTORENDER-SPOTLIGHT

This new visualization tool creates a soft shadow directly under a group of objects. It is an alternative to the standard photo rendering method of using a light shift at a specific distance.

WEIGHT AND VOLUME TABLES

Whether you are designing an airplane, a car, or a picnic table, weight is an important control parameter in design. V12 introduces a new BOM attribute specifically for creating a weight summary table.

UPDATES DRAWINGS AND MODELS AND COMMENTS
BEST-FIT LINE AND CIRCLE

Excellent for drawing accurate curves on rough sketches. Use this tool to best fit a line or circle from a sample of points.

ANGLE TOLERANCE UPDATES

The Angle Tolerance interface has been updated to dynamically provide data from the Inspector dialog box.

USERFRIENDLINESSIMPROVEMENTS
SAVE FLOORS WITHVIEWS

You now have the ability to save planes associated with view alignment.

REPEAT PREVIOUSCOMMAND

This "right-click" feature saves you a lot of time by providing a list of the last drawing commands you used. Select an item from the list to quickly switch tools.
You can now work with the file types of these other programs:

• PDF Import
• Import from Adobe Illustrator
• SketchUp 2020 import/export
• Import/Export from Collada (DAE)

System Requirements

Windows
Version 12
Operating System Windows 7 64-bit, Windows 8 64-bit, Windows 10
Microsoft® Windows® 64-bit 10, 8, 7
64-bit systems only!
Intel® Pentium® IV or AMD® Athlon64™ processor of 64-bit class.
Mouse pointer device (scroll wheel button recommended) OpenGL/DirectX9 compatible graphics card with 256 MB of dedicated RAM.
3 GB hard drive space
8 GB RAM

MAC
Version    12
Operating System    Mac OS 10.11 El Capitan, Mac OS 10.12 Sierra, Mac OS 10.13 High Sierra, Mac OS 10.14 Mojave, Mac OS 10.15 Catalina, Mac OS 11.1 Big Sur
1 Macintosh® OS 10.11 to 11.01 or later¹ x64 Intel® Mac® 3 GB hard drive space 8 GB RAM or more Mouse pointing device (wheel button recommended) OpenGL compatible graphics card with 256 MB VRAM ¹ Program compatibility is not guaranteed for later operating systems ²User is responsible for all Internet access and phone charges. PC & Mac require a computer with an x64 (64-bit) architecture operating system.