Take that last swig of cold coffee and check this out. Vectary, the online 3D modeling platform, is now out of beta. We took an early look at Vectary in September. Right after that, in October, they surprised us announcing a Seed round of $2.5 million, led by BlueYard Capital (here’s why), and a move of their HQ to Brooklyn, New York. To catch you up on the platform.
Vectary aims to combine mesh modeling, subdivision modeling and parametric design–all apparent from the interface layout and initial features and toolset. The Vectary UI is a beautiful, wide open environment with your modeling Tools to the left, your model Objects to the right, Snap and View setting at the bottom and Selection options up top.
Founder and CEO, Michael Koor, started as an industrial designer, eventually turning to develop his own software for faster design iteration. He and Pavol Sovis brought that to the web, growing a team focused on the same and developing it into what it is today with the goal of building a community for other designers to have the same access to creating and iterating 3D models quickly.
New and updated features alongside the public release of Vectary include:
- New parametric plugins (Mirroring, Array and Revolve)
- Help Center accessible directly from the editor
- Step-by-Step tutorials
- New Hand Draw tool
- Upgraded Cut tool
- Upgraded Weld tool (collapse/weld multiple connected selections separately)
- Newly designed Jog and new Jog for selections
The ‘parametric plugins’ sparks our interest the most. These are features under development that include some of the basic tools that are a must in any modeling tool and absolutely needed to make this app even better. Currently, they’re added as layers in your object tree on the right. Along with features like Revolve, Mirror, and Array (Pattern) there are also features for Wheels, Boolean Operations, 3D Printer Export and an interesting ‘Joints and Wires’ feature that will map what look like pipes and fittings along the segments of the geometry you’ve created in your scene.
During the closed beta, only the first 10,000 beta testers had access, but now with the VECTARY platform open, beta testers can share their public models online. You can see the most popular models here. If you didn’t get on during the beta, now’s your chance to try it out. Very interested to know what you think.
Some needed features we’re thinking of off the top of our head are:
- Layer grouping
- Unmerge Layers
- Deeper undo stack
- Direct dimensioning
- More sketch tool types
- Movable/dockable toolbars
- Smoothing of selective faces
- Simultaneous viewing/editing
Any others?
