Awards show local 3D graphics work world-class

Most people think of 3D computer graphics in terms of computer games and animated short films. But local software developer Right Hemisphere has been riding high after winning two awards in Sydney last month for graphics software that enables interactive viewing of 3D drawings within a PDF document.

The company has been recognised as one of Australasia's top 14 technology companies at the Consensus Software Awards. They also took the top prize, a Microsoft-sponsored Global Export Potential Award.

"The Export Potential Award is usually given to the single most promising company in terms of global expansion," says Mark Thomas, Right Hemisphere's founder and chief technology officer. "But the competition was so good this year they had to give out two awards."

Thomas jokes that they couldn't be seen giving away their top prize solely to "a bunch of Kiwis".

The judges' citation for the Consensus Software Award stated that Right Hemisphere's Product Graphics Management suite was "world-class software, as attested by its take-up by Adobe and US Fortune 100 manufacturing companies".

Formed in 1997, the privately owned, venture-funded company is based in Auckland and Silicon Valley. Its main focus is automotive, aerospace and heavy manufacturing, and the company's list of clients includes Nasa, Boeing, Lockheed Martin, DaimlerChrysler, Microsoft and the US Army and Navy.

At the other end of their user scale, Right Hemisphere developed software for computer game The Sims in 2002, allowing players to add faces of family and friends on to the bodies of 3D game characters.

Right Hemisphere's 3D graphics software, called Deep View, was a key component in Adobe Acrobat and Reader 7.0 software, released last year. More recently, the company's 3D authoring software Deep Exploration has been licensed to Adobe and embedded in the new Adobe Acrobat 3D software. "They now have a 3D authoring package so we're now embedded at the authoring end, as well as the reader end."

Delivering a ubiquitous 3D viewer solution to the world will make the need for proprietary computer-assisted design viewers something of the past. The software makes it possible to send fully interactive 3D PDF documents via email.

Whereas in the past, CAD diagrams would take up many pages of two-dimensional PDFs, this enables one drawing to be rotated and viewed from any angle, complete with the associated tolerances and dimensions for that view.

A single PDF view can replace up to 300 2D drawing sheets.

Although he declined to give out specific figures, Thomas says Right Hemisphere has seen 90 per cent growth over the past year and employs around 100 people, in Auckland and in the US.

The head count is still growing, especially in the US, across sales, marketing and support. Thomas now spends more than a third of his time in the US looking after customers and the company is expanding into Europe.

The 3D graphics card manufacturer Nvidia is an equity investor in Right Hemisphere. Nvidia's challenge, Thomas says, is that it wants to develop Right Hemisphere's market beyond just computer gamers and design professionals.

"They see Right Hemisphere as a way to reach out to the average computer-buying executive and make them care whether they have a 3D graphics card or not."

Thomas says New Zealand has the potential to become a 3D software development hothouse.

RIGHT HEMISPHERE

Who: Mark Thomas, chief technology officer.
Where: Auckland and Silicon Valley.
What: 3D graphics software development.
Why: "It's about managing the complexities of product data."