Autodesk Alias Surface 2018

Create different types of CAD projects
Projects put together in the professional interface of Autodesk Alias Surface 2018 can be exported as rapid prototypes, animations, Illustrator files, or mask layers, and even translated into VRML 2.0 format.

The palette put at your disposal enables you to pick, transform, and paint objects, edit their properties, add and edit curves, modify surfaces, and mesh items, explore several viewing modes, perform analysis (e.g. horizon, mass), as well as use construction tools (like points, vectors and planes) and locators (e.g. annotation, distance).

Design, edit, manipulate, and view objects
From the control panel, it’s possible to create and manage different shelves, keep track on the objects you’re currently manipulating, tinker with helpful display tools (e.g. blend points, transparency), access reference files, or apply diagnostic shades and adjust settings (e.g. tessellation, layer).

There are numerous angle points for viewing the project, such as perspective, front, back or bottom. Plus, you can view all windows with the different angles side by side, enter full screen mode, as well as save the current layout to retrieve it later.

Make adjustments and toggle visibility
It’s possible to resize the canvas, crop to the marquee, toggle the visibility of layers, select wireframe or shaded anti-alias mode, and toggle the model, pivots, grid, guidelines, locators, construction objects, canvas planes, lights, textures, cameras, image planes, and clouds. These are just part of the features available in Autodesk Alias Design.

Evaluation and conclusion
The app is rather demanding when it comes to CPU and RAM, which is normal when taking into account its complexity. We haven’t come across any issues in our tests, since it didn’t freeze, crash, or display error messages.

To sum it up, Autodesk Alias Design supplies professionals with a strong set of tools oriented toward CAD sketching, modeling, and visualization.