Poser developer Curious Labs has released a preview version of its 3D graphics toolkit Shade 7. The full version of the software is expected to be released by the end of the month, according to a recent statement from the company. Shade 7 incorporates Bezier curve and surface modeling for 3D design, a global illumination renderer and more.
Shade 7 can import 2D designs from Adobe Illustrator, features boolean and polygon mesh modeling, auto-smoothing of curves, PoserFusion support to integrate Poser scenes, IGES 5.3 format support and much more. It’ll be available in an “LE” version for user just learning about 3D, for US$99, a “standard” edition for $199 at launch, $249 thereafter, and an “advanced” edition with additional modeling, lighting and rendering capabilities for $999. System requirements call for Mac OS X v10.2, G3, 256MB RAM, 250MB hard disk space and 800×600 resolution.