''AutoShade'' was an early 3D rendering package for use with

AutoCAD AutoCAD is a commercial computer-aided design (CAD) and drafting software application. Developed and marketed by Autodesk, AutoCAD was first released in December 1982 as a desktop app running on microcomputers with internal graphics controllers. ...

Autodesk Autodesk, Inc. is an American multinational software corporation that makes software products and services for the architecture, engineering, construction, manufacturing, media, education, and entertainment industries. Autodesk is headquartered ...

developed Autoshade in 1987. It became obsolete after the release of Autodesk's

3D Studio Autodesk 3ds Max, formerly 3D Studio and 3D Studio Max, is a professional 3D computer graphics program for making 3D animations, models, games and images. It is developed and produced by Autodesk Media and Entertainment. It has modeling capabil ...

Description

AutoShade was a

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application. Autodesk developed it to produce realistic shaded renderings of 3D face objects made by their

CAD Computer-aided design (CAD) is the use of computers (or ) to aid in the creation, modification, analysis, or optimization of a design. This software is used to increase the productivity of the designer, improve the quality of design, improve co ...

program, AutoCAD. It simulated various types of lights—spot, point, and infinite directional. To create a rendering, a person: * Made an AutoCAD Drawing file containing 3D faces * Placed AutoShade light and camera blocks * Used an AutoShade-provided

AutoLISP AutoLISP is a Dialect (computing), dialect of the programming language Lisp (programming language), Lisp built specifically for use with the full version of AutoCAD and its derivatives, which include ''AutoCAD Map 3D'', ''AutoCAD Architecture'' and ...

application to export 3D faces, camera blocks, and lighting blocks to a ''scene'' file * Opened the scene file in AutoShade and rendered the image

Files

AutoShade wrote the rendering to an .RND file. In the first version, the .RND file was a 2D

vector Vector most often refers to: *Euclidean vector, a quantity with a magnitude and a direction *Vector (epidemiology), an agent that carries and transmits an infectious pathogen into another living organism Vector may also refer to: Mathematic ...

file, importable into applications such as Adobe Illustrator version 4. Later, when Autodesk added

Gouraud shading Gouraud shading, named after Henri Gouraud, is an interpolation method used in computer graphics to produce continuous shading of surfaces represented by polygon meshes. In practice, Gouraud shading is most often used to achieve continuous l ...

, the .RND could also be a

raster Raster may refer to: * Raster graphics, graphical techniques using arrays of pixel values * Raster graphics editor, a computer program * Raster scan, the pattern of image readout, transmission, storage, and reconstruction in television and compu ...

file. Autodesk developed an application called Flimaker for MS-DOS, which converted .RND files into a format usable in

Autodesk Animator Autodesk Animator is a 2D computer animation and painting program published in 1989 for MS-DOS. It was considered groundbreaking when initially released.

. This could be used, in conjunction with AutoFlix, to create rudimentary 3D animations from AutoCAD source material.

Demise

Though the final version of AutoShade supported

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extensions, Autodesk never developed it into a full rendering application. Even with AutoFlix, it did not support keyframing or hierarchical kinematics. When

released

, the need for AutoShade ended, since 3D Studio was far superior in technology and in ease of use.

External links

Fourmilab Autofile
3D graphics software Computer-aided design software {{CAD-software-stub Autodesk discontinued products