A more detailed overview of the PolyTrans feature set can be found in the online PDF PolyTrans brochure. See also the version comparisons WEB page for a detailed break down of recent additions.

PolyTrans is an extensive and accurate 3D scene, CAD, DCC, VisSim, animation, skeleton + skinned mesh, and trimmed NURBS translation system used throughout the 3D industry. PolyTrans has set the standard for conversion technology over the last decade, being used as the tool of choice for all well known 3d game developmers, Fortune 100 corporations, engineering and manufacturing companies, defence agencies, industrial design studios and movie/film/production/digital-effect studios. Using PolyTrans you'll never again have to spend hours hand-tweaking a translated model since PolyTrans converts every aspect of a 3d model, including all shading parameters, texture mapping coordinates, texture map information and (for selective converters) animation data. Just load the translated model into your favorite 3d program and press the render button - nothing could be simpler! PolyTrans also provides the most cost effective and highest quality selection of native CAD importers, with no need for a native CAD program license.

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PolyTrans is unique as a scene translation tool since it utilizes an advanced photo-realistic 3d rendering engine, a 3d geometry toolkit, a trimmed NURBS toolkit and an animation conversion engine to perform complex translations between the most popular 3d file format standards. The geometry engine allows PolyTrans to translate between a wide variety of geometry types including optimized meshed polygons with recursive holes, random collections of polygons, trimmed NURBS patches, bicubic patches and quadric surfaces (super-ellipsoids, sphere, toroids, etc). The animation conversion engine allows PolyTrans to link together animation programs or file format which use completely different animation mathematics, such as 3ds Max, Maya, Lightwave, Softimage-XSI, Cinema-4D, Collada, DirectX, FBX, U3D, XAML, X3D/VRML2; and others.

As for the internal rendering engine, it is utilized to preserve all rendering-related information during file translation, including geometry smoothing (normals), bump mapping (U/V tangents), (u,v) texture coordinates, vertex colors and vertex opacity/transparency data, where applicable. The rendering engine is also used internally to perform exact translation of all texture mapping information, including bitmap filenames, scaling, offsetting and all texture projection methods. When combined with its ability to convert all material information, lights, cameras and geometry hierarchy, PolyTrans is truly the most unique 3d data translation program currently available.

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One of the key uses of PolyTrans is to act as a "neutral bridge" between all the major software applications used in the various 3D software industries. As the radial diagram on the left exemplifies (click for larger image), previously disjoint applications can now be easily connected, such as any major 3D CAD package or VisSim program (Creator, Vega) with more common and widely used multi-media authorizing packages (Maya, 3ds Max, Lightwave, Softimage XSI, Cinema-4D, etc).

A most important aspect for those who are new to PolyTrans, and its capabilities, is to understand that this software is used daily by a huge user base of 3ds professionals, covering such varied groups as engineering, manufacturing, government, defense related, production studios, digital effects houses, animation studios, 3D content developers and most major 3D game development companies. As such, it is heavily tested by our established user base. In addition it is well supported and maintained by the developers of PolyTrans at Okino.

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Click to show CDRS car before and after 80% polygon reduction

The open plug-in architecture of PolyTrans and NuGraf provide for a number of add-in modules, including a robust polygon reduction system (which is best suited for reducing large CAD models to more sane data sizes), a multi-media image editor & viewer, a full featured lens flare system and editor, a perspective matching system, and sunlight studies plug-in system. Some modules are specific to NuGraf only.

PolyTrans-for-3ds-Max and PolyTrans-for-Maya are specialized plug-in versions of the PolyTrans converter technology that run natively and directly inside the 3ds Max and Maya user interfaces. These are highly developed and refined versions of PolyTrans favored and used all throughout the 3D industry. They allow all of the supported PolyTrans DCC, CAD and VisSim file formats to be imported/exported from within 3ds Max or Maya. Over the last decade-and-a-half they have been refined as mirror twins of each other so that complete scene data, animation data and skeleton/skinning data can also be bidirectionally converted between 3ds Max and Maya using the Okino .bdf file format (click on the image to the right to view a flow chart diagram outlining this conversion process).

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PolyTrans is built upon an open architecture plug-in platform that has been stable, rock-solid and mature for well over a decade and a half. Third party developers are welcome to develop new 3D import/export converter modules or system plug-in modules for Okino software at no charge. As a software developer you will find the SDK and example source code to be top notch and well supported. The Okino converter SDK encapsulates a plethora of "conversion engines" that you enable through toggle switches in a custom export converter; this allows any form of source data (from meshes, NURBS surfaces and curves, skinned meshes, etc) to be handled by a custom exporter with no extra code required. A high level user interface SDK (part of the system plug-in interface) allows Windows components and modules to be easily and seamlessly incorporated into the main user interface.