3D software, which allows designers and engineers to create realistic imagery as well as animations that exist along this imagery, is used by a variety of industries. The ability to simulate the real world is so essential to many jobs that people would not be able to complete them without such software. Here are a few industries that 3D technologies has revolutionized. 

1. Architecture

In the days before computers and 3D software, architects were very limited when creating designs for clients. They had two choices: they could either draw a two-dimensional image of the project they envisioned or build a miniature model of the project using various crafts.

Both of these means had limitations. A two-dimensional drawing — no matter how talented an architect is at drawing — can never look completely realistic while a miniature model requires the viewer to imagine what they are seeing at full scale.

Then, came 3D. With 3D software, architects can create images and video of what their projects will look like. No longer do clients have to imagine what the final project will look like. They know exactly what it will look like. What’s more, architects can now, using 3D animation, let clients walk through the structures they hope to build, leaving nothing in doubt.

2. Manufacturing

Before the advent of 3D software, industrial designers had a similar problem to that of architects. They had to design machines and assemblies using two-dimensional drawings. This was not only hard work and tedious but also not exact, which often resulted in wasted time and money.

With 3D software, industrial designers can now model any machine (or part of it) exactly as it will be produced in the real world. The computer can also easily instantiate complex geometries, which would be very difficult for a human to do. Best of all, using 3D software allows manufacturers to design and produce new products quickly and inexpensively.

3. The Entertainment Industry

The advent of 3D software changed moviemaking forever. Before it, films that required complex scenery and special effects were extremely expensive. People had to build realistic sets and certain special effects were both time consuming and costly, and sometimes they were dangerous, too.

With 3D software, filmmakers can create any world they can imagine, and they can fill this world with lifelike moving objects, such as creatures and humans. They can also use the software to create realistic effects, such as fire and water and explosions.

Many animated films use 3D software, too. While before animators once had to painstakingly draw every image put on screen, today artists can use 3D software to build all the sets and the characters and then animate them. This has allowed animated filmmakers to create movies that would have been impossible to create before 3D software existed.

In the same vein, video game developers use 3D software to build their games. They use the software to model the characters and any objects that they use, and they use to software to animate these characters and to create all sorts of effects.

4. Advertising

Advertising companies use 3D software for a variety of purposes. In some ways, they use the software much like industrial designers and architects do, and in other ways, they use the software much like the entertainment industry does.

Often advertising companies have to create imagery that would be impossible to do with real products, or would not be easy to do in appealing way. With 3D software, they can recreate any product a client sells in a realistic manner and then place this object in any world a client desires.

Advertising clients also often want to create commercials that employ the same special effects that movies employ. Without 3D software, these types of commercials would be prohibitively expensive. But with the software, advertisers are able to create commercials that have similar production values as big-budget blockbusters.