Creo View Express
Creo View Express is a simple CAD tool to review a 3D design for a quick evaluation. It allows you to cycle through the views and zoom in on the 3D model by exploring the model at different angles. You can also take a closer look at a certain area by changing to section or detail view. Creo View Express has an intuitive user interface and a wide range of view modes. The view list displays all the available views and the contents of the current view. You can easily navigate through the available modes and modify them by changing their sizes and colors.
Change the views by using the zoom control or panning. The 3D view can be displayed on a side monitor while you are interacting with the model on another monitor. You can change the orientation of the model or move it. You can also build a custom view with a point, line, or surface entity type and save the model as a DWG/DXF/DWF file with a click of a button. All in all, Creo View Express is a great tool that you can consider among its alternatives.
Creo View Express Alternatives
#1 Autodesk DWG TrueView
Autodesk DWG TrueView is a multimedia software that lets you view 3D files from AutoCAD and other DWG files. The tool is primarily used to display and edit drawings in a web browser. Drawings can be uploaded to Autodesk DWG TrueView via FTP, WebDAV, F Drive, or by email. These drawings can then be viewed and edited in the browser or downloaded for use with AutoCAD or other CAD software. This tool can also be used as a stand-alone drawing viewer.
Simply point the browser to the TrueView application, and it will launch a free-drawing viewer. This is useful if you want to view drawings online without launching up the software. An editor is also provided to view and edit drawings, much like that of Microsoft Visio or SCALA Draw. With this editor, you can create drawings with text boxes, symbols, direct cursor movements, labeling, layers, etc. All in all, Autodesk DWG TrueView is a great tool that you can consider among its alternatives.
#2 Design Review
Design Review is a program that you can use to view, mark up, print, and track changes to 2D and 3D files. The tool is aimed at professionals as well as students and beginners who want to learn the basics of 3D design. The tool can view 2D and 3D technical drawings, track changes for better project management, generate 2D and 3D drawing files, perform pre-defined annotations on technical drawings, perform user-defined comments on textual documents, perform user-defined signatures on documents, and much more.
It supports the most widely used commercial and custom file types. Export drawings as PDF, DGN, DXF, DWG, DXF-ESI, XML, BMP, PostScript, or PCX format. Import 2D and 3D files either in EPS or PDF format. The viewer has quick tools to scale, rotate, mirror, flip, scale, translate & skew all documents. All in all, Design Review is a great tool that you can consider among its alternatives.
#3 Bentley View
Bentley View is a software that lets you view 3D models and designs from all angles and review how they will look once finished. Bentley View makes that process a lot easier and removes the hassle of getting your models ready to be seen. Creators can share their work and get the credit they deserve. Bentley View helps make the modeling process easier for everyone involved. The software is available for Mac, Windows, and Linux.
Bentley View has the capabilities to search for objects, measure distances and areas accurately, and print drawings to scale with full fidelity, on every desktop, for free. You can easily open DWG and open DXF designs with the same fidelity as the authoring software. Dynamically explore models with Clip Volume to slice through models. Moreover, touchscreen support is also there that greatly increases your productivity. All in all, Bentley View is a great tool that you can consider among its alternatives.
#4 ZWCAD Viewer
ZWCAD Viewer allows you to view and edit 3D CAD files. It is a Windows-based program for viewing and editing 3D CAD models and drawing 2D vector artwork. The tool is designed for professionals, offering features such as a drag-and-drop board and a built-in file manager. The user interface is nicely arranged, and the software is quite easy to start with. The software also includes two modes of operations; CAD drawing mode and view mode.
The CAD drawing mode is fully functional and allows you to create 3D CAD models. The view mode is intended for viewing only. In the Viewer mode, you can perform navigation in a 3D space by using a keyboard or a mouse, create different 3D views, rotate the view, zoom out or zoom in, etc. In the CAD Drawing mode, you can create a 3D model by using a mouse, a keyboard, or a touch screen.
ZWCAD Viewer comes with some advanced features, too, such as the ability to open multiple files in one window, more control over 3D visualization, and many more. This program is compatible with most 3D CAD files. Another notable feature is that it comes with pre-configured templates for many common cases, e.g., mechanical products, electrical components, or general products.
#5 ACTCAD Professional
ACTCAD Professional allows you to create professional drawings by using powerful 2D drafting and 3D modeling software. Whether you’re drawing plans, creating an illustration, or simply making a sketch for your home decor project, this software is perfect for you. The tool has a user-friendly environment in which you can easily use powerful tools to create your drawing in a short time.
ACTCAD Professional provides a variety of tools and shortcuts to speed up your modeling and drawing process. You can import and import DXF output from Autocad, MicroStation, AutoCAD LT, Pro/E, CATIA V5/V6, IG. Some highlighting features include drawing tools like lines, arcs, circles, polylines and text, vectors as drawing traces, formatting tools for drawing lines and polygons with style, printing tools, a library of icons with different sizes for your drawing views, utility tools to help you with editing, labeling, drawing and exporting, and measurement tools to correctly set scale and dimensions for your drawing.
#6 AIGraph CAD Viewer
AIGraph CAD Viewer is a 3D CAD file viewing and editing tool that allows you to view and design your 3D CAD files and also modify them to make them easier to use. Whether you’re a professional engineering company or an enthusiast 3D artist, this is a perfect tool for you. AIGraph CAD Viewer lets you export your designs as .dwg files .dxf files or as an object file so that you can edit them externally. Besides editing, you can also print 3D CAD files that are ideal for those who want to check their 3D designs on screen, modify them, or print them.
It includes some powerful tools like Ortho Line, Arc, Ellipse, Circle, Line Segment, Polygon and Rectangle, some rectangular tools with different sizes to create quick rectangular shapes, a 3D viewer with an interactive environment to view your drawing in the context of your work area, and a wireframe model for seeing your drawing without layers.
#7 LiteCAD
LiteCAD is one of the most portable and powerful software that allows you to view, edit and draft 3D CAD files. The application is designed for creating engineering drawings, especially to create schematics. A highlighting feature is that its 3D view has no limitation, so it can automatically scale the drawing without violating any design rules. It consists of a series of tools that can be used to create 3D drawings and allows you to give colors and shades to the drawings.
You can also switch between the 2D and 3D viewing modes with a hotkey. It allows you to create and add texts and labels to your drawings and has a powerful search system, which can be used to find drawings, 3D models, and dimensions at any time. The easy to control and the well-designed user interface is very flexible and saves a lot of time when creating 3D designs. It can support the import and export of other file formats from 3rd party CAD applications.
#8 Blender
Blender is a 3D and open-source application for design animations and graphs. It is best for scientists, students, experts, VFX experts, game artists, modders, and many others. Blender is a free and open-source application used for any purpose.
It is quite simple and easy to use and offers a massive range of new tools that helps users to create high-quality animations or graphics without any limitation. Whatever you create by using the Blender is your property, and Blender will never charge for it.
Blender lets users do any artwork, either it is images, movies, blend files, or any other type of data files; all can be controlled on the Blender. The stunning features of Blender are photorealistic rendering, fast modeling, fast rigging, animation toolset, fast UV unwrapping, full compositor, game creation, simulations, etc.
#9 Autodesk Mudbox
Autodesk Mudbox is a 3D sculpting and painting tool for Windows platforms designed by Autodesk. It is a computer-based high-resolution digital sculpting, texture, painting, and displacement platform for normal map creation and other designing purposes.
Integrated with the latest and advanced proven technologies, Autodesk Mudbox enables users to easily create high-resolution digital sculpting and texture maintenance. Moreover, Autodesk Mudbox can also be used as a design tool.
Most designers and developers like to use Autodesk Mudbox for their projects because of its intuitive 3D interface and environment that make them able to create movable cameras that can be bookmarked.
The other technical features of Autodesk Mudbox are the availability of 3D sculpting and painting tools, accessible workflow, best brush-based workflows, relax brush, sculpting falloff options, and professional & advanced digital sculpting toolset, etc.
#10 Sculptris
Sculptris is a virtual sculpting tool designed for beginners to experts. It comes for entering into the world of digital sculpting and involving yourself to create the best products. The two main functions are the availability of 3D sculpting and 3D painting in addition to others. Sculptris is developed on the concept of modeling clay, and its focus is entirely on the same idea.
Sculptris lets designers and artists pull, pinch, push, and twist the virtual clay to make what they want. The other best thing about Sculptris is its user-friendly relation external environment, and that is the import of 3D meshed (.obj) into the Sculptris for further detailing generation normal and displacement maps.
Sculpting, dynamic tessellation, UV texture painting, and cavity painting are its primary functions. The list of technical features includes easy-to-use, ZBrush navigation controls, free moving navigation, hotkeys toggled on/off the system, various plugins for advanced projects, immersive interface, optimizing brushes, etc.
#11 ShapeShop
ShapeShop is an advanced and professional 3D design and modeling application that comes with an easy-to-use and user-friendly interface. It enables users to create sketch-based shape creation and editing tools to translate the ideas into a 3D shape.
ShapeShop is a sketch-based shape creation and editing tool that lets designers and artists transform their virtual idea into a 3D form. The best about ShapeShop is that it has a drag and drop system that makes the texturing simpler as compared to other programs. The advanced technology used by ShapeShop is the state-of-the-art technology that enables the designers to drag-and-drop the 3D parts directly to assemble a seamless and smooth surface quickly.
The involvement of procedural modeling means that the user can easily create the meshes at any resolution they need, like NURBS or SubDs. The advanced decal texturing tools of ShapeShop also supports the simple drag-and-drop interaction as well.
#12 Misfit Model 3D
Misfit Model 3D is a 3D model editor that operates with triangle-based models. It can easily support the various multi-level undo, simple texturing, batch processing, skeletal animations, image filtering, and many more functions. Misfit Model 3D supports multiple file formats, including Misfit MM3D, Milkshape MS3D, Quake MD2, Quake MD3, COB, and some others.
The feature list of Misfit Model 3D includes multiplatform applications, availability of up to 9 Orthographic canvas & 3D perspective viewports, viewport zoom & pan, a comprehensive plugin system for adding more tools, commands, and models, etc.
It also allows to create rectangles, cubes, ellipsoids, cylinders, apply materials & skins to models, alpha blending system, native support for PCX & TGA files and texture-mapped element can clamp at the edges or wrap; skeletal animations, frame animations, multiple named animations of both kinds, a system for converting skeletal animations into frame animations, etc.
#13 Sketchfab
Sketchfab is a web-based platform for creating and sharing 3D content. It provides a 3D model viewer based on the technology of WebGL that ultimately enables users to display 3D models on a desktop or mobile web page. Sketchfab is a platform of over 400,000 models.
The list of available tens of thousands of 3D models includes 3D scans, 3D printable, animal, architecture, characters, objects, science, scenes, engineering & technology, vegetal, vehicles, and many more. Sketchfab is one of the best platforms where you can upload, publish, and share 3D models with others. Sketchfab also lets designers and artists embed the interactive 3D files.
Sketchfab is available in three plans, mainly free, pro, and business. The good news is that the basic plan of Sketchfab enables users to upload unlimited models. Email support is also available in the free model. The other two plans include more advanced features.
#14 MeshMixer
MeshMixer is a designing application for giving your virtual idea with solid shape. It lets designers transform their boring stuff into 3D stuff. MeshMixer is a multiplatform 3D designing application that is available for Mac OS X, Windows (32 & 64 bit), and Ubuntu Linux 64-bit.
Basic designing tools like selection, drag & drop, filling, smoothing, making parts, basic controls & hotkeys, volume brush tools, etc., are also part of the MeshMixer. The software comes with a simple editor full of new tools that help you efficiently design any design quickly and easily.
Its most prominent features include pivot system, 3D design option in file menu, texture support, vertex color painting, duplicating linked pivots, new create modes, incorporation of 3D hubs, and ability to add an alternate proxy server. The solution also offers texture maps, create pivot tools, transform tools, align tools, pivot-to-pivot snapping, adaptivity settings, anti-aliased rendering, support structure generation, multi-user installations, etc.
#15 SculptGL
SculptGL is a WebGL sculpting application that is powered by JavaScript. It is a web sculpting application for sculpting 3D models in browsers and publishing them as well. The dashboard of SculptGL includes files import & export system, scene, history, background, camera, language, extra UI, rendering, topology, sculpting & painting, and much more.
SculptGL made a fork of the old SculptGL version with a new design. Camera tools in SculptGL include projection, fov (for perspective), camera mode, and camera pivot on picking. The rendering tools include shader, flat shading, show wireframe, curvature, exposure environment, environment texture, and madcap texture.
The other miscellaneous tools are five international languages, show mesh online, outline color, show grid, scale and center mesh at import, show symmetry line, Wacom plugin, shortcuts, and much more.
#16 3D-Coat
3D-Coat is an application for PBR, voxel sculpting, retopology, and UV-mapping. It is used to render and enable texturing with smart and fully designed materials — 3d-coat for creating free-form organic and hard surfaced 3D models from rough ideas and scratches.
The tools let users sculpt, add polygonal topology, create UV maps, texture the resulting models with natural painting tools, and also render the static, animated, or images turntable movies. The best about 3D-Coat is that it can modify imported 3D models from various commercial 3D software products by using plugins titled App links.
Moreover, it can be converted into voxel objects or refinement and for adding more high-resolution details, UV mapping & wrapping, bump maps, specular color maps, diffuse color maps, adding textures for displacement, and much more.
#17 Curvy 3D
Curvy 3D is a dedicated 3D modeling application for artists and designers. It is such a 3D making platform that assists both beginners and professionals in drawing 3D models, maintaining, sculpts, and much more in real-time. Curvy 3D is one of the best and easy-to-use yet powerful sculpting application for Windows for rapidly sketching natural forms direct to 3D.
The non-technical interface of Curvy 3D makes sculpting fun with speedy model development. Curvy 3D lets artists sketch, paint, and even trace. The software is a straightforward route to 3D modeling for the 3D modelers. Curvy 3D is integrated with an advanced volumetric sculpting tool that makes base mesh creation incredibly easy and straightforward.
Curvy 3D lets designers quickly draw the shapes for their model and then merge the forms to create a seamless base mesh. This feature is best for instant content creation and creates an even mesh for detailing in other modeling programs as well.
#18 MARI
MARI is a 3D texturing and painting software integrated with the power performance tools that enable designers to handle even the most complex assets. Nowadays, challenging the world of VFX, animation, and game development, MARI is one of the best options to deal with complex projects in a high creativity environment.
The advantages of using MARI are to paint quickly & intuitively in 3D, keep the creativity flowing in a professional & creative environment, work in a user-friendly yet high-quality context, eliminate frustrating & time-consuming multiplication workflows, and enjoying seamless pipeline integration.
MARI features are painting, texture mapping, realistic interactive preview, sophisticated geometry handling, color management, and dozens of others. MARI is a multiplatform software that is available for Windows 7 or higher, Mac OS X 10.9.5 or higher, Linux 64-bit operating systems. However, MARI is also capable of working on many older and prior-generation systems, as well.
#19 ZBrush
ZBrush is a digital sculpting utility that mingles 3D/2.5D modeling, texturing, and painting. It utilizes a proprietary ‘Pixel’ technology, which stores lighting, color, stuff, depth information for all objects on the screen. It is employed for producing high-resolution models to be used in games, movies, and animations by companies ranging from ILM to Electronic Arts.
ZBrush is one of the best digital sculpting tools used for creating high-resolution and high-quality models that are then used in movies, games, and animations by movie makers. It used dynamic levels of resolution to enable sculptors and designers to make local or global changes to their models.
ZBrush’s other best function is being capable of sculpting medium to high-frequency details that were otherwise traditionally painted in bump maps. ZBrush’s available features are Zmodeler, instances, details, ZBrush to key shot, other external addition, sculpting, texturing, rendering, import & export, etc.
#20 Cheetah3D
Cheetah3D is a 3D software for modeling, rendering, and animation. It is designed initially for amateur artists, and so it focuses on offering features for originating simple 3D scenes. Its selection of attributes is narrow but aimed to add in its usefulness and simplicity. For instance, it supports a range of geometric primitives, including polygon meshes and Bezier curves.
Its aspects also offer box modeling with subdivision surfaces. Additionally, it comes with simple animation support, including spline-based camera paths and targeted objects. The utility makes use of modern rendering settings that allow for antialiasing, retraced shadows, depth of field, HDRI, ambient occlusion, caustics lighting, soft shadowing, and photon-mapped caustics.
The technical features of Cheetah3D are best modeling tools, animation system, integrated industrial strength bullet physic engine, dynamics, UV editing, rendering, global illumination, scripting, file exchange (import & export of 3D models and animations), sharing of content, easy-to-use & earn, and much more.