Release date: February 25, 2025

Plasticity 25.1 Release Notes

Plasticity 25.1 introduces a wide array of enhancements and new features aimed at improving surface modeling workflows, enhancing usability, and streamlining the user experience. Below is a detailed overview of the updates:

1. New Commands

New Slide Command

• CV Sliding on Curves and Solids
  Users can slide control vertices (CVs) on spline curves and surface hulls, guided by the direction of the CVs, allowing for precise adjustments during modeling.

Learn more

New Section Analysis Command

• Section Analysis
  Section Analysis is a feature that allows users to slice through their 3D model to reveal its interior structure. This helps identify whether internal components are properly aligned or interfering with each other. It is especially useful for architectural, engineering, and design visualization.

Learn more

2. Modeling Enhancements

Square Command Updates

• New "Free" Option
  Introducing a new continuity option that trades G0 precision for higher surface quality.
• "Adjacent" Boundary Option
  Introducing a new boundary condition that uses adjacent trimmed edges for creating smoother transitions.
• "Tension" Feature
  Introducing a new feature that allows users to adjust surface curvature tension, similar to tools in Lofting and Bridging workflows. This provides greater control over surface shaping.
• Refit Trimmed Surfaces
  The Square command can rebuild any four-sided trimmed surface with user-specified Degree, Span, and Continuity settings. Acting as a refit tool, it naturally aligns the splines of the trimmed surface to match its internal shape.

Learn more

Xnurbs Enhancements

• "Adjacent" Boundary Option
  Introducing a new boundary condition that uses adjacent trimmed edges for creating smoother transitions.
• "Tension" Feature
  Introducing a new feature that allows users to adjust surface curvature tension, similar to tools in Lofting and Bridging workflows. This provides greater control over surface shaping.

Learn more

CV Move Editing

• Proportional and Mirrored Transformations
  The Move command allows proportional editing of surface CVs and supports mirrored transformations.

Learn more

Raise Degree Command Enhancement

• The Raise Degree command can now be executed when a surface CV is selected.

Toggle Points Command Enhancement

• The Toggle Points command can now be executed when a curve CV is selected.

3. Sketching and Curve Tools

Curve Rebuild Enhancement

• Weight Option
  The Rebuild command now includes a new option "Weight" when using explicit control to rebuild a curve.

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Snapping Enhancements

• New Tangent Snapping
  Introducing Tan/Tan snapping for ellipses and general splines.
• New "Control Point" Snap Option
  A new "Control point" snap is now available in the "Object Snaps" subpanel.

Learn more

Sketching Enhancement

• Region Deletion Behavior
  Deleting regions now automatically removes the curves that bound them.

Trimming Optimization

Trimming operations for densely packed 2D sketches, such as hexagonal grids, have been optimized.

4. Transformation Tools

Transform Command Enhancements

• Stored Transform Pivots
  Transformation pivots are now saved with objects when using Move, Rotate and Scale commands.
• Customizable Transform Options
  Users can specify the transform orientation (Local, CPlane, World) and pivot point (Bounding Box, Median, Last Selected), offering greater flexibility in transformations.

Learn More: Move, Rotate, Scale

5. Surface Tools

Sheet Extension Enhancements

• New "Natural" Mode
  Introducing a new "Natural" mode for extending sheets.
• Surface Extension
  Surface extension modes can now be toggled using the Tab key.

Learn more

Construction Plane Enhancement

Users can now create a construction plane that passes through two selected points and aligns with the camera view. Ideal for planarizing a hull while maintaining alignment with the view direction.

Learn more

Bridge Surface

• New "Tension" Option
  New "Tension" option now available for Bridge Surface command.

Learn more

6. Selection Conversion

Selection Conversion Enhancement

• New Conversion Options
  Selecting a wire body now allows conversion to points (Vertex and Control-Vertex) and vice versa, while regions can be converted into their bounding curves.

Learn more

7. User Interface and Usability Enhancements

New User Interface Design

Plasticity has been updated with a modern, streamlined UI while retaining key functional elements from previous versions. Features are now better positioned and equipped with intuitive new icons to enhance usability and workflow efficiency. This update also lays the foundation for future UI improvements.

Learn more

Navigation and Interaction Enhancements

• Recent Files - Drag and drop files/items from the Recent Files list into the viewport for quick import.
• Sidebar - Panels on the right side now function as menus.
• Sidebar - A toggle button has been introduced to show or hide the left and right sidebar.
• Viewport Cube - Repeatedly clicking on a face of the viewport cube will toggle between opposite views.
• Suggested Commands Menu - Now accessible using Shift + F.
• Quick Access to Documentation - Each command dialog now includes an icon that links directly to its dedicated page on the Plasticity documentation website.

Visual and Feedback Enhancements

• Focus Point Orbiting - A visual dot now indicates the focus point when orbiting in the viewport.
• Progress Indicator - Opening large files will now show a progress indicator.
• Tooltips - Added tooltip images to multiple tools for better feature understanding.

Commands with Tooltips:

Preferences and Customization

• P-Menu - Now displays a notification when a new version is available for download. This feature can be disabled in Preferences.
• Thumbnails - Thumbnails can now be saved with files.
• Grid Color - Customizable in Preferences.
• Start-up - Added a preference to disable loading the previous session on start-up.

8. Assets Menu

• Context Menu
  A right-click context menu has been added to the Assets Menu, allowing users to quickly select all objects that share the same material using the "Select All With This Material" option.

Learn more.

9. Spacemouse Support

• Spacemouse - Spacemouse buttons can now be bound by editing the keymap.json file. To find the JSON file, locate the .plasticity directory on your operating system.

Past Update Information

• September 5, 2024 Version 2024.2