DESIGN SOFTWARE | TECHNICAL ILLUSTRATION
BLANKS CFIALNLSV AINS T HE Technical illustration software is moving with the
times, as one company’s expanding portfolio proves.
Technical illustration
invariably summons up
images of huge and highly
complex documents
painstakingly produced and treasured
and guarded as a the source of all
wisdom on a particular design.
The digital revolution has changed
all that, of course and Canvas GFX
is a key player in that transformation.
Canvas GFX provides the technical
illustration software of choice at
leading brands from verticals
including aerospace, automotive,
energy, and education. Designed
speci cally for technical users,
Canvas software enables the creation
of rich visual assets that express
complex ideas with clarity, powering
effective visual communication across
organisations and ecosystems.
Canvas already has 3,300
customers, including names like
Boeing, Raytheon, Caterpillar. Say
Canvas’s CEO Pat Hume: “I mean
big, big names. These are groups of
users in the technical engineering
community within these companies
who decided to purchase Canvas to
use as their tool of choice to do their
work. The product has great market
t right with 3,300 loyal customers
that continue to purchase the product
under the auspices of a perpetual
licence model. Every year people
would come back in and purchase an
upgrade, purchase the new features
and functionality.”
Canvas has four main products
in its portfolio. Three of these run on
Windows, while the other – Canvas
Draw – runs on Mac OS. The best
established of these products is called
Canvas X, and is a product that makes
it possible to handle both vector
graphics and raster images with the
same powerful enhancement tools.
It also allows users to apply a host of
effects to both images and graphics in
a single document.
As well as delivering 0.035 micron
accuracy for an engineering and
scienti c user base, Canvas X offers
complete control over vector object
coordinates. This means users can
create illustrations from geometric
data, use grids and guides to position
objects, and adjust objects’ numerical
position for absolute precision.
The outputs can be anything from
technical documentation, how-to
guides or technical white papers
that need graphic illustration to
accompany the communication of
visually communicate the message.
The newest addition to the Canvas
GFX portfolio is a development of
Canvas X called X3. Says Pat Hume:
“So many of our customers came
to us and said, you know, we need
we would like you to be
able to add the ability to
manipulate 3-D les
as well as 2D les. So
we took what is the
Canvas X code base
and we added the
capability to import
3-D les. So Catia,
SolidWorks,
AutoCAD –
we cover
approximately
40 different
3-D le
types. It’s
being tested by some of our largest
customers today. The goal right now
is to be able to drive awareness
and to grow the adoption of X3.
The product came to market in late
January.”
Canvas X3 combines a rich
graphic toolset with the ability to
import and handle 3D CAD models,
making it easy to create powerfully
precise visual documentation. It offers
control over 3D model visualisation,
allowing users to rotate and explode
3D models; ghost, hide and highlight
parts and apply numerous graphic
effects to models for technical
illustrations.
In Canvas X3, visualisations of
3D CAD objects can be edited and
re-edited as many times as you
need, without you having to request
new source les. X3 imports all the
data you need to create compelling,
custom illustrations of models for a
raft of 2D assets.
16 WWW.EUREKAMAGAZINE.CO.UK
UK | JUNE 2020
/WWW.EUREKAMAGAZINE.CO.UK