Lightwork Design Ltd.

Lightwork Design Ltd. is a computer software company specialising in 3D Rendering software. Its headquarters are in Sheffield, United Kingdom.

Lightwork Design Ltd.
Industry3D rendering software
Founded1989 (1989)
Headquarters
Sheffield
,
United Kingdom
Key people
David Forrester, CEO
ProductsLightworks author, lightworks iray+
Websitewww.lightworkdesign.com

Early history

Lightworks was founded in Sheffield in 1989, with the goal to create a software toolkit for producing photorealistic renders from 3D geometry. While originally based in the Sheffield Science Park,[1] Lightworks is now based in Rutledge House, a building situated next to the Sheffield Botanical Gardens and originally built in the 1850s as the Victoria Park Hotel.[2] The first Lightworks product was demonstrated at the 1990 Autofact exhibition in Detroit, USA. Sales of the initial Lightworks product commenced in early 1991, and the company signed their first major CAD developer, Unigraphics (now Siemens) in 1993.[3] The company signed their first international customer, CPU of Japan, in 1994.[4] In 1995 Lightworks began to develop the MachineWorks toolkit. This led to the foundation of MachineWorks, which is now a separate company.[5] In 1997, Lightworks launched a large model navigation system called Navisworks, which was sold in 2007 to Autodesk for $26 million.[6][7] In 1999, Lightworks and Intel formed a partnership,[8] and the company started to develop their products for the Linux platform.

Recent developments

Partnership with NVIDIA

At SIGGRAPH 2013, Lightworks announced a new partnership with NVIDIA to develop an SDK to provide access to NVIDIA's Iray technology.[9][10] This SDK, called Iray+, is intended to provide physically accurate ray-tracing to clients who need to present their products to customers, and will have the ability to use cloud- and network-based rendering.[11][12]

Products

Lightworks' current products are Lightworks Author and Iray+.

Lightworks Author

Lightworks Author was the first product launched by Lightwork Design.[13] The main use of the product is in architectural design, interior design, engineering, and automotive design. The software works across Mac OS X, Windows, and Linux, in 32- and 64-bit binaries.[14]

Lightworks Iray+

Lightworks Iray+ was introduced at SIGGRAPH 2013. It uses the GPU-accelerated ray tracing engine developed by the NVIDIA Advanced Rendering Center to provide interactive product visualisations. Lightworks are also developing an Iray plugin for 3DS Max.

Previous Products

Artisan

In its 20th year,[15] Lightworks announced a new product called Lightworks Artisan at SIGGRAPH 2009.[16] Also known as Renditioner for Trimble's SketchUp, this is a ready-to-deliver rendering product that is used alongside CAD/CAM programmes such as GstarCAD, ZWCAD,[17][18] BricsCAD,[19] Kubotek's KeyCreator,[20] and several others. In 2010, Artisan was integrated with Ascon's Kompas 3D and BeLight Software.[21] The product introduced a number of new technologies including SnapShot capabilities and pre-loaded content libraries.[22] It is aimed towards 3D designers who want to create realistic images using a CAD programme. "SnapShot technology" refers to the ability to record the state of storage at any given moment.[23] In Artisan, this allows users to save their renders at different stages, so that they may return to those stages and alter selected elements, such as textures, colour, or background images.[24] Since 2014, Artisan has been marketed and sold by Pictorex Ltd.[25]

Customers and Partners

Partners include Siemens,[26] NVIDIA,[27] and Spatial,[28] while customers include PTC,[29] Graphisoft,[30] ACA,[31] and Ascon.[32]

Other information

Every year, Lightworks selects a local charity to support through fundraising events. In 2013, Lightworks raised money for Bluebell Wood Children's Hospice, while in 2014 the company is sponsoring a week of breakfasts[33] at the Cathedral Archer project, a homelessness charity.[34] A team from Lightworks is undertaking the "Ben Nevis Challenge" in June 2014, while the Lightworks running team, "Runworks", competes in the yearly Sheffield Half Marathon corporate charity running challenge, most recently running the "cancelled" 2014 race.[35][36]

References
  1. Sheffield Star. Retrieved 28 February 2014
  2. Rutledge House. Retrieved 11 September 2013
  3. H.R, Britney. "LightWorks Hits the Big 2-0!". Architosh.
  4. "Software Introduction". CPU.
  5. "Company: About Us". MachineWorks. Archived from the original on 11 June 2012. Retrieved 22 August 2012.
  6. "Autodesk Navisworks Products". Autodesk.
  7. Autodesk press release. Retrieved 10 April 2014
  8. "Company Overview: Inspired Innovation that's Changing the World". Intel. Retrieved 21 August 2012.
  9. nvidia-arc.com. Retrieved 2 September 2013
  10. architosh.com. Retrieved 2 September 2013
  11. www.cgchannel.com – Iray running on 260 Nvidia GPUs. Retrieved 19 September 2013
  12. Renderosity – Nvidia transforms product design with iray VCA. Retrieved 2 April 2014
  13. Gurber, Elizabeth (October 2001). "3D Design Applications". Modern Machine Shop. 74 (5): 212. ProQuest 213702503.
  14. "Lightworks Author". Lightwork Design. Retrieved 21 August 2012.
  15. "LightWork Design Releases LightWorks 8.1". Virtual World Nets. Retrieved 21 August 2012.
  16. Hand, Randall. "LightWorks Artisan and Author 8.2 at SIGGRAPH Asia". Viz World. Retrieved 21 August 2012.
  17. "ZWCAD partners with Lightworks" – Ottawa Citizen. Retrieved 4 October 2013
  18. Artisan for ZW3D 2012 Launched retrieved 11 September 2013
  19. Lightwork Design launches Artisan for BricsCAD. Retrieved 11 September 2013
  20. KeyCreator Artisan Archived 19 February 2014 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 20 September 2013
  21. "BeLight Software Company News Archive". BeLight. Retrieved 21 August 2012.
  22. "Software". Computer Graphics World. 32 (10): 47–48. 2009.
  23. Garimella, Neeta. "Understanding and Exploiting Snapshot Technology for Data Protection". IBM. DeveloperWorks. Retrieved 21 August 2012.
  24. Frausto-Robledo, Anthony. "SIG: Lightwork Design Intros Lightworks Artisan". Architosh. Retrieved 21 August 2012.
  25. Pictorex Ltd. Retrieved 11 March 2015
  26. Siemens PLM. Retrieved 28 February 2014
  27. Lightwork Design Ltd. and NVIDIA strategic partnership. Retrieved 3 April 2014
  28. Spatial.com – Integrated Partners. Retrieved 3 April 2014
  29. PTC.com Archived 10 May 2014 at archive.today. Retrieved 28 February 2014
  30. Graphisoft Developer Website. Retrieved 28 February 2014
  31. "Spanish praise Sheffield computer graphics designers" – Sheffield Star. Retrieved 4 October 2013
  32. Clive Davies: ASCON is proving to be the ideal partner for Lightwork Design. Retrieved 11 September 2013
  33. Yorkshire Business Desk. Retrieved 28 February 2014
  34. Lightworks website. Retrieved 28 February 2014
  35. Sheffield Telegraph. Retrieved 28 February 2014
  36. Sheffield Half Marathon 2014 News. Retrieved 3 April 2014
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