mental images Adds PTC as an OEM Partner

By DE Editors

mental images, a provider of rendering software and visualization tools, has announced that Parametric Technologies Corporation (PTC) has selected mental images’ mental ray 3.7+ to bring rendering features to its integrated 3D CAD/CAM/CAE solution, Pro/ENGINEER. With the inclusion of mental ray 3.7+ in the Pro/ENGINEER Advanced Rendering Extension (ARX), Pro/ENGINEER Wildfire 5.0 users can seamlessly use its rendering capabilities for product design and development.

mental ray 3.7+ allows users to render a variety of real-world materials and environments. It leverages mental ray’s capabilities, such as:

• Achieving glossy reflections and optical correct refraction. Direct illumination with ray tracing makes computing realistic effects for reflections and refractions fast to render.
• Ensuring best performance for established lighting workflows. Common light source types can be easily added to a scene. Pro/ENGINEER ARX now provides optimized support for traditional lighting models that are based on idealized light sources, whether it be for distant, point, or spot lights.
• Producing convincing illumination of a scene based on real-world environments. High dynamic range images (HDRI) can easily be used in Pro/ENGINEER to generate lighting, reflections and backgrounds.
• Furthering realism with see-through surfaces and soft shadows. mental ray generates lighting effects beyond traditional rendering such as patterns or beams of light when casting through transparent objects like glass or water. The final gathering feature in mental ray generates subtle effects like contact soft shadows and color bleeding.

For more information, visit mental images.

Sources: Press materials received from the company and additional information gleaned from the company’s website.