A lightweight, standalone software tool for reviewing 3D assets and animations

May 14, 2014 19:47 GMT  ·  By

3D animation expert Autodesk has released FBX Review 1.2.1, an updated version of the company’s lightweight software application for reviewing 3D assets and animations quickly and efficiently. This is the first version to ship with OS X and iOS support.

According to its creators, “FBX Review enables users to view 3D content without using a 3D authoring tool, to help speed up asset sharing and iteration.”

Now available not only on Windows but also OS X and iOS as a free download, FBX Review 1.2.1 comes with better camera control, enabling users to re-focus the perspective camera on a selected part of the 3D model they’re working with.

This re-orients the regular camera controls and permits focusing on just one part of the asset at a time, helping artists review detailed assets much easier.

The updated tool further includes support for ZIP Files, allowing for models and textures saved as ZIP archives to be opened correctly without needing to assign textures by hand.

Geometry Cache Support is also new in this version. Thanks to this ability, FBX Review now supports Maya cache, 3ds Max cache, and the Alembic cache format. Users of the mobile version will not gain this new ability, however desktop users will.

For those who are new to the software, the basic perk is the ability to review 3D models quickly and easily – with options to import a slew of 3D file formats – without using full commercial 3D animation programs. Supported formats include .fbx, .zip, .abcˆ, .3ds, .obj, .dxf, .dae, .bvh, .htr, .trc, .asf, .amc, .c3d, .aoa, and .mcd.

Users can play around with shading modes like wireframe, faceted, shaded, textured, and wireframe overlay, as well as toggle scene lights, shadows, and tessellation.

“A high-fidelity viewport supporting DirectX 11 helps users review assets and scenes with a wide range of visual effects,” says Autodesk.

“Examine animations and scenes using familiar and intuitive play, pause, and scrub-through controls,” the company adds.

“For files containing user-created cameras, FBX Review allows the user to toggle between them. If no cameras are saved, FBX Review provides default orthogonal and perspective cameras. If multiple animation takes are saved within a file, a simple drop down enables rapid switching between the takes.”

Readers can download FBX Review for their preferred platform from the links below. iDevice owners require iOS 7, Mac users need OS X 10.8, while PC users need Windows 7 or Windows 8.

Download FBX Review 1.2.1 for Mac OS X

Download FBX Review 1.2.1 for iOS

Download FBX Review 1.2.1 for Windows