Live Referencing

You can create a Live Reference to share Alias data with VRED. A Live Reference makes visualization accessible for designers and surface modelers enabling faster iteration for design reviews, XR collaboration, or creating high-end visuals. With a Live Reference, updates in Alias, such as camera position, object and component-level transformations, material assignments, and more, display in VRED.

Live Referencing starts in Alias with your currently loaded .wire file. Using this feature generates a Live Reference version of the data, which can then be shared with VRED. In VRED, you create a connection to the Live Reference data. The data now appears the same in both applications without additional modifications. This allows Alias modelers to send their data to VRED visualization experts in near real-time.

Live Reference Example Workflows

Here are some example workflows that show how Live Referencing can be used in different scenarios.

Single User

Alias modeler working on conceptual designs, CAS designs or Class-A surfacing Uses VRED to generate advanced rendering, including raytracing, of their Alias models One system with Alias and VRED installed Enable Live Referencing to see changes appear in VRED right away.

Multiple Users

Alias modeler working on conceptual designs, CAS designs or Class-A surfacing VRED visualization expert generates advanced rendering, including raytracing, of Alias models Two Systems/Users: Alias and VRED Enable on Save allows the Alias modeler to periodically save changes to the Live Reference Data. VRED visualization expert picks up updates to the Live Reference data on demand using Update from Alias or right away with Auto Update turned on(latency of updates dependant on network speed).

Alias .wire with Imported Data

Alias modeler working on conceptual designs, CAS designs or Class-A surfacing. VRED visualization expert generates advanced rendering, including raytracing, of Alias models. Two Systems/Users: Alias and VRED. Enable on Save allows the Alias modeler to periodically save changes to the Live Reference Data. VRED visualization expert picks up updates to the Live Reference data on demand using Update from Alias or right away with Auto Update turned on(latency of updates dependant on network speed).

Assembling Models in Alias

Sculpting lead imports multiple Alias references into a single .wire file. VRED Visualization expert generates final renders. Multiple Systems: Alias and VRED. Live Reference data is created from the source .wire file. Alias references are imported as VRED references. If you have previously live-referenced a file and imported the file into the Reference Manager, VRED will find the data associated with the referenced files. If not desired, right-click on the file in VRED to replace with the appropriate file. See Include Alias References in a Live Reference for more details.

Alias Models Assembled in VRED

VRED visualization expert generates advanced rendering. Multiple Systems: Alias and VRED. Multiple Live References are created from individual .wire files. Modelers use Enable on Save. In VRED, a master file is built using multiple Live Reference files. Engineering files in third-party supported files are imported directly into VRED (See Adding Files to Scenes, Using the Reference Editor). VRED visualization expert picks up updates to the Live Reference data on demand using Update from Alias.