MW3D-Solutions has announced Cheetah3D 6.0, an update to its 3D modeling solution for Mac OS X 10.6 and higher. It costs US$99 for a single-user license. Customers may upgrade from Cheetah3D 1.x -5.x for $69.
The new version integrates the Bullet physics engine for the simulation of rigid-body and soft-body dynamics. Version 6.0 also adds support for Isosurfaces (Metaballs), the keying of mesh vertices and spline control points, improved iBooks Author compatibility, an upgraded FBX SDK, support for 16-bit textures and more.
Cheetah3D is designed for graphic designers, architects and casual users alike. It offers such tools as subdivision surface modeling, joint based character animation system, UV unwrapping, texture painting, rigid and soft body dynamics, PDF import, global illumination renderer, and more. The possibility to extend Cheetah3D with JavaScripts and support for many common file formats, like FBX, 3DS or Collada, rounds out its feature set.