Gent (Belgium) -- Strata, the company adding the power of 3D to the designer's toolset, and EskoArtwork, world leader in professional solutions for print and packaging, announce today that they have initiated a partnership that brings the best of 3D design technology to creative professionals worldwide.

Under the agreement, Strata will market a new product-Strata Enfold 3D CX-which is based on EskoArtwork technology. EskoArtwork will include the ability to import Strata Foto 3D CX data files into EskoArtwork's ArtiosCAD.

EskoArtwork technology in Strata Enfold 3D CX

"I'm very excited about this new partnership," says Ken Bringhurst, President of Strata. "Enfold 3D CX is a revolutionary product. The addition of this product to the Strata lineup, along with other development and marketing activities, is a big step forward for the design workflow of graphic designers, package designers and commercial space designers – among others."

EskoArtwork recently licensed a portion of its software technology for use within Strata's new Enfold 3D CX. The Strata Enfold 3D CX plug-in allows users to create professional folded 3D designs directly in Adobe Illustrator. Users can link Photoshop graphics to 2D Illustrator artwork, define die-cut lines and folding scores, and then see it in 3D directly in Illustrator. Enfold 3D adds two new tools to the tool palette, offers sophisticated distribution technology to deal with graphics crossing folded edges, includes two palettes for 3D and fold control, and several commands streamlining the 3D design process.

Importing product structure for packaging

"EskoArtwork understands that the best packaging comes from cooperation with product designers, allowing them to seamlessly import product structure into EskoArtwork ArtiosCAD," explains Arjen Maarleveld, EskoArtwork Senior Vice President Packaging Solutions. "The popular Strata portfolio of products is used by a large base of designers, and as we continue to expand our impact in structural packaging design, we provide a new open interface to the Strata structural format-making our technology accessible to many more designers who work with Strata tools. This also allows us to bolster our product offering by helping existing customers improve their design efficiencies."

EskoArtwork's ArtiosCAD is now capable of importing Strata Foto 3D CX data files, delivering a seamless workflow between Strata and ArtiosCAD. Powered by patented technology, Strata Foto 3D CX utilizes images from a standard digital camera to capture real-world objects to make fully textured 3D models. Organic shapes and even objects with holes can be captured. Foto 3D's new "Send to ArtiosCAD" command makes it easy to create complex packaging around products in a virtual environment.

EskoArtwork's ArtiosCAD is the world's market leading structural design software for packaging. With dedicated tools specifically targeted at packaging professionals for structural design, product development, virtual prototyping, and manufacturing, ArtiosCAD increases productivity throughout a company's packaging workflow. Complete 3D integration allows for quick prototyping of designs and presentations, eliminating communication errors and reducing design review cycles.

Strata Foto 3D CX technology is used by ArtiosCAD to automatically create box shapes around products. For example, consider a consumer product, like a figurine, that is captured by Strata's imaging technology. The Strata model of the figurine can be imported directly into ArtiosCAD's 3D environment. In ArtiosCAD, users can use a variety of tools to automatically create packaging that uniquely fits the product. The entire assembly can be directly inserted into a folding carton that is automatically sized to fit. The completed design files can be exported into the EskoArtwork workflow to proceed to packaging production. Operating directly with the 3D model not only dramatically speeds up packaging development; it also removes much of the manual trial-and-error process to get packaging to fit correctly.

The companies have commenced co-marketing activities to help bring these products to the attention of designers worldwide. To that end, Strata will attend the 2009 EskoArtwork Worldwide user conference, being held May 17-19 in Orlando, Florida, to demonstrate Strata Enfold 3D CX and show how STRATA Foto 3D CX data files can be useful in package design.