3D Graphics Performance Improvement In ZW3D 2012

About a year and a half ago I did a series of 3D graphics performance tests on my Dell Precision M6400 and compared various CAD systems. Today as I was playing around with ZW3D 2012 (previously known as VX before VX Corp was acquired by Chinese CAD software developer ZWCAD), I came across a claim from the company that they had significantly improved the 3D graphics performance of ZW3D. So I decided to figure out exactly by how much, if at all.

Here is how I navigated around my test engine model in VX 14.3

At that time I commented:

“As you can see, VX has some serious issues with regard to large models. Parts of the model go missing completely. No shaded representation, no bounding box, no nothing.”

And this is how the same engine model behaved in ZW3D 2012 on the same hardware.

Significant improvement indeed.

Another thing. ZW3D 2012 now sports what they call a “native” STEP importer and exporter. Previous versions used software from TransMagic, which were actually repackaged libraries from Spatial’s 3D InterOp. After looking at the DLL’s in the ZW3D 2012 installation folder I get the impression that ZWCAD went ahead and licensed the libraries directly from Spatial. The fact that ZW3D 2012 can now export a ACIS SAT without the need for a TransMagic license is another indicator.

Also ZW3D 2012 has been ribbonized.

Click to enlarge

But the rest of the UI has remained pretty much the same.