Autodesk Alias (formerly known as Alias StudioTools) is a family of Computer-aided industrial design (CAID) software predominantly used in Automotive Design and Industrial Design for generating Class A surfaces using Bézier surface and NURBS modeling method.
The product is sold specifically as CAID rather than CAD, and its tools and abilities are oriented more towards the "styling" aspect of design - that is to say, the product's housing and outer appearance. It does not go into mechanical detail like other CAD programs such as Siemens NX, Inventor, CATIA, Pro/ENGINEER and SolidWorks, but has a much more powerful set of tools for the creation of precisely sculpted curves and surfaces and all 'touch and feel' surfaces of any part that demands aesthetic finish.[promotional language]
Alias software was developed by four computer scientists: Stephen Bingham, Nigel McGrath, Susan McKenna and David Springer to create an easy-to-use software package to produce realistic 3D models.
In 1983, Alias Research was founded at Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Alias unveiled its first product Alias/1 in 1985 at SIGGRAPH '85 in San Francisco.
Initial versions ran only on Silicon Graphics computers and the Irix operating system, until late in the 1990s when the software was ported to Microsoft Windows. In 2011 Mac versions were launched, which were discontinued in 2019.[6] The company was a leader in high-end 3D graphics software.
On October 4, 2005 Alias was acquired by Autodesk, StudioTools changed its name to Autodesk AliasStudio. It became part of Autodesk in 2006.
We are pleased to provide you with the latest version of Autodesk® Alias™ software. Highlights to this release include a node-based display of construction history in your scene with the new History Visualizer, an enhanced Object Lister that now lets you create and manage selections sets, as well as continued refinement of the Reference Manager to improve your reference data workflow. In this release, we’ve continued to add tools to the subdivision modeling toolkit with a new Retopology tool that is based on the Quad Draw tool in Autodesk Maya as well as provided a Subdivision Modeling workflow that optimizes the Alias UI for subdivision modeling. Numerous improvements have also been made to NURBS modeling tools, such as the Surface Fillet, Freeform Blend, and Skin tools expand their functionality.
At LearningAlias we specialize in helping students (of all levels), post grads and Automotive Alias Modelers in their first two years in Industry, to rapidly improve their Alias Modelling, Reverse Engineering and CAS Modelling skills. Students can build a complete Audi A5 Sportback by following our massive step-by-step video library. In addition to this we offer private students tuition on a one to one basis. This is a more expensive option, but any investment is quickly recouped as soon as the student lands their first Alias job.