Power ScanToNURBS imports scanned meshes into 3ds Max, and converts them into a NURBS format that can be exported to various CAD systems or rapid prototyping machines. As a plug-in for Autodesk® 3ds max®, it is the powerful enabling tool that allows you to transfer mesh models to Autodesk® Inventor® and other CAD systems. Power ScanToNURBS is a unique and powerful hybrid modeling system that supports Solids, Surface and Polygonal modeling. nPower modeling tools bring the highest order of surfacing, solids modeling, analysis, and tessellation technologies to the popular Autodesk® 3ds max® and Viz™ 3D design products. 

Shaderlight is an interactive rendering plug-in to Google SketchUp that lets you create high quality images quickly and simply.  The release of v2.1 now even gives you even more control over how you render your SketchUp models with the ability to animate your SketchUp scenes. Joining forces with Visa lighting, ArtVPS is offering Shaderlight users a readily available library of lighting fixtures as SketchUp 3D models, incorporating IES lighting files that are ready to render. These 3D models contain the correct lighting information so that, when rendered with Shaderlight Pro, the scenes are lit as you’d expect in the real world.

XMesh is a set of tools for caching animated scene geometry to an external file sequence and for loading this data later for rendering. Xmesh MX is the 3ds Max-specific portion of the XMesh Geometry Caching toolset. It consists of the commercial XMesh Saver MX which is used to save geometry data to the hard disk, and the FREE XMesh Loader MX which is a scene object for loading, displaying, retiming and modifying the XMesh file sequence. XMesh Saver MX costs $495 for a single licence. XMesh Loader MX is free. Versions of the plugins for Maya and Softimage are currently in development.

Exocortex Technologies has released Species, a new character - creation and rigging plugin for Softimage. Exocortex Species simplifies the process of human character creation from designing your character’s unique attributes, integrating sculpting results, to rig creation, even animation. With Species, you will create higher quality animated characters faster and at a lower cost, while avoiding the generic look that often come when purchasing off-the-shelf models.