Autodesk Alias

Autodesk Alias

Autodesk AliasStudio window
Developer(s)	Autodesk
Stable release	2015
Operating system	Windows, Mac OS X
Type	CAID software
License	Proprietary software
Website	http://usa.autodesk.com/alias/

Autodesk Alias (formerly known as Alias StudioTools) is a family of computer-aided industrial design (a.k.a. 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.

Alias software was developed by four Computer scientists Stephen Bingham, Nigel McGrath, Susan McKenna and David Springer to create an easy-to-use software realistic 3D package to produce realistic 3D graphic 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 were to be run only on SGIs super-microcomputer using 64-bit motorola processors and Irix OS, untill late 90's when Windows platform could use 64 bit chips. In 2011 Mac versions were launched.The company soon emerged as a premier software product company that produced high-end 3D graphics software.

In 1995, Alias Research was purchased by Silicon Graphics and merged Wavefront Technologies, another 3D software graphics company founded in 1984 at Santa Barbara, California, to form Alias/Wavefront which was later renamed as Alias Systems Corporation.