Great Eastern Technology

Just a reminder to everyone that effective Feb. 1, 2015 Autodesk's upgrade policy is changing and upgrades from previous releases will no longer be available!! 

Here is some information from an Autodesk FAQ that could help you understand how you'll be affected.  If this info doesn't answer your questions, please give me a call and I can help you sort out the best option for your situation.   

Thanks and Happy New Year - 

Steve (800) 875-0025 or sberge@greateasterntech.com

General Upgrade Policy Information

• What is changing around the upgrade policy?
  As of February 1, 2015, Autodesk will no longer offer the option to purchase an upgrade version of the latest software release if you own a perpetual license^* to a previous version. New versions will be available through purchase of a new perpetual license for the current version or as a Maintenance Subscription or Desktop Subscription benefit.
  
  Note: A perpetual license grants the license holder the right to use the version of Autodesk software that is purchased for as long as desired.
   
• Why is Autodesk eliminating upgrades?
  Autodesk is evolving its business model to achieve a stronger and ongoing relationship with its customers, offering perpetual software licenses with Subscription and Desktop Subscriptions (software rental) as the primary purchasing options.
  
  Starting in 2015, we will stop selling upgrades to simplify the offering and in recognition of the fact that most of our customers are on Subscription.
  
  Purchasing Autodesk Subscription is the most cost effective way to stay current and competitive in today’s market. We continue to provide enhanced value and experiences to Subscription customers, such as flexible licensing rights, and access to select additional Autodesk^® 360 cloud services, among others.
   
• Does this mean that Autodesk is completely changing its licensing model to subscription-based offerings only?
  No. At this time, Autodesk has no plans to change the licensing model across the board for all products. Desktop Subscription, perpetual licenses, and perpetual licenses with Maintenance Subscription will all continue to be a very important part of our portfolio.
   
• What does this mean for customers who previously purchased perpetual licenses?
  Customers who have purchased a perpetual license will be able to continue using that version of software indefinitely. New versions will be available through purchase of a new perpetual license for the current version or as a Subscription benefit.
   
• When will the new upgrade policy be effective?
  This new upgrade policy will be effective on February 1, 2015. At that time, Autodesk will no longer offer the option to purchase an upgrade from a previous version when a new software version is released. New versions will be available through purchase of a new perpetual license for the current version or as a Subscription benefit.
   
• What upgrades will be eliminated?
  An upgrade version will no longer be offered for customers with a perpetual license to a previous version. This will apply across all product lines. Customers who own a perpetual software license with Subscription will continue to receive access to the latest version of their software as part of their Subscription benefits.
   
• What products are covered by this policy change? 
  All products sold with perpetual licensing are covered by this policy change except for Creative Finishing products.

Let me know if you need more information, or if you'd like me to get you the download link!  sberge@greateasterntech.com or 800-875-0025.

A new update to V-Ray 2.0 for Rhino is now available. In addition to other refinements, we’ve made code optimizations to improve the general performance of V-Ray for Rhino.

Refinements include:

• Performance improvements that speed up DR renders
• Relative paths are now supported for bitmap textures
• Improved batch render tool for easier use
• Sun Modify Light button uses the dialog’s last used settings if the light direction remains the same

Let me know if you need more information, or if you'd like me to get you the download link!  sberge@greateasterntech.com or 800-875-0025.

NUKE 9 is coming and we want to tell you all about it!

Join our live digital event on Tuesday 21st October 2.30pm - 4.00pm EST.

NUKE 9 is the result of two years and countless man hours of development reworking NUKE from its very core to build a faster, more powerful, broader range of unique tools to help you get the job done.

Guest speakers

We'll be joined by Ingenuity Engine's Grant Miller and VFX Supervisor Alex Fry who will be sharing their impressions of working with our latest additions across both commercials and film.

If that isn't enough, we also have a panel of industry experts including Digital Domain's Shervin Shoghian, Mikros Image' Stéphane Pivron, Nineteen Twenty's Ludo Fealey and Realise's Paul Simpson on hand to answer any of your questions and discuss what this means for them and the industry.

Register now

It's easy to register for the NUKE 9 event :)

If you already have an account on The Foundry website simply sign in as usual and complete the registration form.

If you don't currently have an account, just follow the steps to create one.

Just wanted to let all of our customers know - especially our Autodesk subscription customers - that Autodesk has made a change to their physical shipment policy - subscription customers no longer get a free physical software shipment...  Below is the explanation and what went out in an email to subscription customers:

"Software Download was introduced to Autodesk customers in 2010 and has become the most effective and environmentally-friendly way to access Autodesk software. As a result of the decline in requests for physical shipments, Autodesk will no longer ship physical software—free of charge—to Maintenance Subscription customers in US and Canada.

Effective September 29, 2014, physical shipments will be available for purchase for $30 US each (costs include standard shipping)."

Interactive Geometry Translator Plug-ins for MODO 801

The Power Translators for MODO are ideal for designers, engineers, product visualization specialists and 3D generalists who need to bring specific industry-standard CAD data formats into MODO for visualization or design. As you import these formats, the Power Translators give you interactive control in MODO over how geometry is tessellated and provides efficient methods for accommodating incoming CAD files with many repetitive elements.

Key Features and Benefits

The Power Translators for MODO, in addition to loading the specified CAD formats, also provides control over how geometry is imported and gives you options for handling large files with repetitive elements:

Interactive surface tessellation

You can opt to load in a lighter Open GL representation of your incoming CAD data, which can can then be tessellated interactively by adjusting settings on a per-item or group basis after loading them into the scene. Once the desired tessellation parameters are determined you can save the item to a mesh. This ability to apply different tessellation during a session is possible because the incoming surfaces are maintained as parametric surfaces by the IntegrityWare kernel during import.

Optimized mesh results

For your resulting mesh, you can choose between Convex (mixed quads and triangles) and Quad NGon (mixed quads and ngons). Since not all CAD files are alike, you can set parameters like Distance Tolerance, Angle, Minimum and Maximum Edge length to optimally tessellate the data coming into MODO. This lets you import files that might have been unreadable/unusable before, and lets you quickly arrive at the best settings for the particular dataset and use you have in mind.

Instance handling

Many CAD models have repetitive geometry elements. If your imported file contains instances, they can be loaded as copies, instances or replicators in MODO. This can greatly reduce memory use and boost interactivity.

Static mesh option

Normally, you will use the Power Translators to save to a mesh representation but an additional option is to save it as a static mesh. Static meshes in MODO are specially constructed lightweight representations of polygonal data which cannot be edited but can be rendered.

Translate NURBS Not Polygons

Power Translators are built from the ground up to solve today’s difficult problems of importing quality CAD data into MODO. The Plug-in has been battle hardened in the most demanding productions at some of the best 3D visualization rendering facilities in the world. The professionals spoke and we listened and together we developed the most advanced, best integrated, highest quality MODO CAD translator on the market today. 

Power Translators could easily pay for itself on a single project in time savings alone!

Power Translators for Modo - now available for $495 - call me at 800-875-0025 or email me for more info or to buy!

A new update to V-Ray 3.0 for Maya Beta is now available. If you’re participating in the public beta, be sure to download this latest version. 

Some of the new features and updates include:

•  Support for Maya 2015 (Windows and Linux)
•  Support for direct rendering of XGen splines and archives in Maya 2015
•  Support for Open Shading Language - VRayOSLMtl and VRayOSLTex
•  VRayMesh: Added VRayPointParticleMtl material for shading point particles from .vrmesh/Alembic files
•  Support for rendering Bifrost meshes and materials
•  Deep output from the VRayEnvironmentFog and Maya fluids
•  Intel Embree now supports proxies and instances
•  Simplified render settings user interface (Alpha)

For more information, check out the the full feature list for this update.

For those of you that still haven’t registered for the Beta program, there’s still time to join.