Origami 1.5 with Illustrator CC 2015 support
22 Jun 2015
The main thing about this update is that it adds the support of the new released Illustrator CC 2015. However, it also brings some improvements that you will love to see. Read on for more details…
Illustrator CC 2015
This update supports the new Illustrator CC 2015, as well as all the others back to CS6. Tested on both Mac and Windows, 32 and 64 bit environments - everything works fine. Let us know if you encounter any issues with the new Illustrator.
3D PDF Export Improvements
Adobe Acrobat doesn’t really like high-resolution textures in 3D PDF files. Everything that is higher that 1024x1024 has a good chance of being downscaled and will most likely look blurry. When Origami exports models with high-res artwork, the textures are about 6-8K pixels and it is really difficult to read the small details of the artwork after the downscaling.
The update takes care about this. Check the new, updated application Preferences window. You’ll find a new U3D/3D PDF section there with some parameters. One of them is called Tile high resolution textures. When enabled (it is by default), Origami will cut the shape into pieces and cover each piece with a small piece of the original texture which is not bigger than 1024x1024 pixels. A pretty tricky algorithm, but you get a nice sharp artwork in Acrobat even for high-resolution textures.
Unchecking the option switches Origami back to the old mode, when it simply exports the texture “as is” and lets Acrobat to handle it.
More 3D PDF Improvements
In addition to that Origami now exports scene background color to 3D PDF. It also allows you to select the lighting mode (see the application preferences window) and switch between JPEG and PNG textures for saving to 3D PDF and U3D formats.
Preview and Production Resolutions
The previous update of Origami dropped the resolution selection option and set low-resolution preview and high-resolution output as the one and only behaviour. According to your feedback, it was not what you really wanted, so we’ve made some changes.
Again, see the application preferences window. You’ll find Preview artwork resolution combo-box there with options Low, Normal and High. By selecting Low you tell Origami to scale the artwork down in preview to the maximum of 1024x1024 pixels. This is helpful when your graphics adapter fails to display a shape (this sometimes happens on old Macs). This option replaces the old Reduce textures resolution in preview checkbox. In Normal mode the preview artwork is about 2048 pixels and the last High option tells Origami to request high-resolution artwork for preview. You’ll get the same high-res textures as you get when exporting models or images. This mode is quite slow, though.
The other checkbox is called High resolution artwork in production and checked by default. It does the same for the production mode (when you save 3D models or images using the toolbar buttons). If you want a more lightweight 3D PDF, you can uncheck this box before exporting.
Minor Improvements
This update also fixes some minor issues, such as:
- Paper menu sometimes doesn’t change the shape;
- Exporting 3D shape after clicking “Fit to view” ends up with a wrong camera position;
- Project file name is not used when saving 3D models or images (works on Windows only);
- Stability issues with 32-bit plugins.
Overall, this update is worth installing even if you still use the older version of Illustrator.
Cheers!