Alias 2019.3 Release Notes - January 13, 2019:

What's New in Alias 2019.3

New Curve Offset and Surface Offset tools
- Alias has two new offset tools; the Curves & COS Offset tool for creating curve offsets and the Surface Offset tool for creating surface offsets. With these tools you can quickly create offsets and easily specify the distance of the offset and the deviation tolerance, maintain continuity, and more. To learn more about these new offset tools, see Create an offset copy.
General options
- You can delete unused items in your current scene using the Delete > Clean Up option. This allows you to specify unused items that you want to quickly delete like unused null nodes, empty layers and folders, shaders, curves on surface, and locators based on your specifications.
- You can now specify the Turntable animation option to Rotate Camera or Rotate Object. The Rotate Object option allows you to rotate the object on screen while the background and scene remain static. The new Rotate Camera option (default) allows you to rotate the camera group around the center of the object.
Tool Option Windows
- Alias now allows you to set your preference for remembering any tool option window's open/close state. This means that you can now disable the option to remember the current state, options, and on-screen position of a tool option window when you exit and reopen a tool. When this option is disabled, tool option windows will only open when you double-click the tool icon. The option to remember tool option window states is enabled by default, and can be set in General Preferences > Interface.
Custom Shader Library
- You can now quickly switch between the Default Shader Library and your own custom User Shader Library from the Visualize drop down menu in the Control Panel. You can specify the path to the User Library location in General Preferences > Visualization.
Color Themes
- You can quickly change the Alias color theme in Preferences > Color Themes. The Dark Color and Light Color options set the user colors to the default dark and light color themes respectively. You can also quickly access the Color Theme Editor from this menu by clicking Customize.
Checkpoints options
- You now have the option to set a Reminder for when the next auto-save checkpoint will happen. In the Checkpoints options, you can choose to set a reminder for the number of command selections before the next checkpoint (Frequency) or the number of minutes before the next checkpoint (Time). At any time, you can click the reminder button to save a checkpoint and the counter/timer is reset. You can also click the pause icon to pause auto-save checkpoints.
Importing and Exporting options
- NX import options now support NX file version 12.
- NX export options now supports NX file version 10.
- Camera properties defined in FBX files are now recognized and imported into Alias.
- Annotations defined in CATIA V5 files are now imported into Alias.
- CATIA V5 import and export options have been updated in Alias for clarity as follows:
. The Convert Meshes import option is now called "Convert CGR Data to Meshes".
. The Convert Cloud Data import option is now called "Convert Cloud Meshes to Meshes".
. The Convert Points import option is now called "Convert Cloud Points to Point Clouds".
. The Export Meshes export option is now called "Export Meshes to Cloud Meshes".
Dynamo enhancements
- Links to the Alias Dynamo resources have been added to the Help and Start Page in Dynamo.
- 2D navigation has been improved in Dynamo for consistency with Alias navigation settings. You can now use Shift + Alt + Middle click to pan the scene, and Shift + Alt + right click to zoom the scene in both Alias and Dynamo. You can change from the default Dynamo navigation settings to the Alias navigation settings from the Settings > Navigation Settings menu in Dynamo.
Alias VR
- We improved Anti-Aliasing (curves and surface boundaries) for Alias VR.
- VRED Assets (materials) are now displayed properly in Alias VR when they are assigned to a surface in Alias.
- You can define the path of the VRED Asset Library in the User Preferences. If you do not define a path, the default install path is used.
- We added the ability to twist or rotate your controller to change the view direction when you teleport. This greatly improves navigation through the VR environment as you no longer need to change directions after you teleport.
- When you change the environment in Alias, the new environment is changed during runtime for your Alias VR session.
- You can now use the Use Environment option in the View in VR Options window to use or hide the environment dome and ground plane in Alias VR.
- The Samsung Odyssee (WinMR) controller is now supported for Alias VR.