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Social Media: Maverick 2026.1 slices CAD without slicing the source, then turns the result into a web spinner. At last, a cutaway with undo.
For those who don’t know the tool: Maverick Studio and Maverick Indie are standalone Windows GPU renderers from RandomControl, positioned for product, CAD, jewellery and general CG visualisation. Studio accepts CAD data and connects to Rhino through a bridge, while the wider suite supports exchange and asset workflows involving OpenUSD, glTF, FBX, Substance materials, ZBrush and Sketchfab content.
The 2026 cycle begins
RandomControl has released Maverick Render 2026.1, build 660.830. The release introduces a non-destructive Cutaway system, an image-based Spinner mode for interactive web presentations, native fSpy project import and new Python facilities for building interfaces and utilities. It also updates the rendering and CAD foundations to CUDA 13.0, OptiX 9.1 and OpenCASCADE 8.0.0.
Cutaway without damaged geometry
The new Cutaway workflow reveals the interior of a model without applying a permanent Boolean operation or modifying the imported engineering geometry. An artist assigns a specialised Cutaway Material to a Maverick primitive or to custom cutter geometry imported from another application. Translating, rotating or scaling that cutter updates the intersection in the interactive render.
That rocks CAD-driven production. Destructive sectioning usually creates another geometry variant that must be named, stored and regenerated when the source design changes. Maverick’s implementation keeps the cutter as a scene-level control, so the original model remains intact and the section can be repositioned during look development or animation.
The cut surface can use supplied solid colours and hatching materials. Trace Sets provide inclusion and exclusion control, allowing artists to slice an outer housing while preserving internal components, fasteners or moving parts. RandomControl’s examples combine Cutaway with Transform Motion Controllers to rotate mechanisms while a section plane moves through the assembly. Custom cutter meshes can also be imported when a box, plane or wedge cannot describe the required reveal.
The controls are therefore closer to a procedural intersection rig than a one-click cross-section effect. Cutter geometry is the input, the Cutaway Material determines the intersection behaviour, Trace Sets determine participation, and the established rendering and animation systems produce the stills or sequences. The artist still has to light newly exposed cavities. Even a mathematically impeccable section looks rather unhelpful when the interior receives no light. Especially when it is something that should never see the light of day, like machines, humans or certain culinary visualisations.
The general 2026.1 changelog lists Cutaway without an edition qualifier. RandomControl continues to describe Studio as the complete edition and Indie as a streamlined subset, but the publicly parsed comparison chart isn’t say if it is available in both. Hmpf.
Spinner renders interaction into images
Spinner is a new render mode for product pages, online catalogues and review systems. Maverick renders a matrix of views around the subject, then supplies JavaScript that displays the appropriate prerendered frame as the visitor drags horizontally or vertically. The browser is selecting images, not shading the original model in real time.
This creates a useful separation between rendering and presentation. Maverick can resolve global illumination, polished metals, refraction, coatings and detailed textures offline, after which the browser only needs to display the resulting frames. No production geometry, shader graph or GPU renderer has to be delivered to the visitor.
For controlled e-commerce inspection, however, a fixed frame matrix can be more predictable than deploying a real-time asset and recreating its material response for the web. It also prevents the browser version from becoming a separate look-development project whose principal artistic direction is “close enough”.
RandomControl says the exported viewer uses a lightweight generated JavaScript component. The supplied report states that HTML is generated as part of the package as well. The production team should still inspect the output structure, hosting requirements, caching behaviour and accessibility before committing hundreds of product variants to the workflow.
fSpy arrives as an importer
The release adds built-in import for fSpy, the free, open-source application for matching a three-dimensional camera to the perspective of a still photograph. Maverick creates a camera from the imported fSpy project and automatically generates a floor plane.
This is integration rather than a new camera-matching algorithm. Perspective analysis and vanishing-point work still take place in fSpy. Maverick’s contribution is the native importer and the resulting artist-facing camera setup, removing the need to copy field of view, orientation, position and principal-point information manually.
Python gains an interface layer
Maverick already has a Python API, but 2026.1 adds facilities for building user interfaces and packaging utilities. The application now has a Python plug-in toolbar and a plug-in system in Preferences. New API classes include ae_template_c and xml_dialog_c, while the image class gains methods for creating, cloning, cropping, resizing, filling and inserting image data.
MK_api.reload_all() now reloads the full scene and resynchronises the Attribute Editor and Scene Explorer with changes made through Python. RandomControl notes that this complete reload is slower, which is the sort of qualification release notes should contain more often.
The practical consequence is that pipeline developers can expose tools directly inside Maverick rather than limiting scripts to invisible batch operations. A facility in an API is not automatically an artist control; the new interface classes provide the missing layer for teams prepared to build one.
The documentation has also been revised for use by human and LLM-assisted coders. That does not make generated pipeline code production-ready by proclamation. It does make the API surface easier to search, describe and wrap in internal tools. OR, you can try to get your LLM to guess what you want to do and bork it preemptivly.
Updated rendering foundations
Maverick 2026.1 moves to CUDA 13.0 and OptiX 9.1, and RandomControl says the build was validated against the latest Nvidia drivers available during development. Validation should not be confused with certification for every workstation, board, driver branch and scene configuration.
The application remains Windows-only and requires an RTX-capable Nvidia GPU according to the vendor’s benchmark page. Multi-GPU rendering is supported, but VRAM is not pooled because each GPU holds its own scene copy. Adding a second card can increase processing capacity, but it does not allow a scene larger than the memory capacity of the smallest participating card.
OpenCASCADE 8.0.0 underpins the updated CAD processing. This is especially relevant to Studio, whose ats STEP, IGES and 3DM alongside general formats including USD, glTF and FBX. Also SBSAR support, multi-layer OpenEXR, layered PSD output and a human-readable .mks scene format.
Maverick is still a standalone application rather than a renderer embedded across a family of DCC hosts. Studio’s Rhino bridge can send and update models while preserving Maverick-side materials, lights and cameras. Indie instead emphasises one-click workflows from Substance 3D Painter, Substance 3D Designer, ZBrush and Sketchfab.
Studio and Indie remain distinct
Studio is the full product for jewellers, industrial designers and engineers, while Indie trades some higher-end productivity and CAD facilities for a lower price and targets CG artists and generalists. The official comparison says common standard-geometry and PBR workflows, then separates Studio-oriented connectivity such as Rhino and CAD import.
Teams should treat compatibility and certification separately. Reading an FBX or USD file does not certify that every upstream exporter, animation feature, material convention or metadata field will survive a round trip. Likewise, a Rhino bridge is a direct connection, while support for another DCC through an exchange format is file compatibility rather than a live integration.
Before deploying Maverick Render 2026.1, test the release on representative production assets, including the intended import formats, GPU configuration, layered outputs, automation scripts and final web-spinner delivery.
https://maverickrender.com/studio/
https://maverickrender.com/wp-content/builds/maverick_changelog.html
https://maverickrender.com/studio-vs-indie/
| Product | Maverick Studio and Maverick Indie |
| Developer | RandomControl SL |
| Version | 2026.1, build 660.830 |
| Release status | Released 16 July 2026 |
| Editions | Studio is the complete edition; Indie is a streamlined subset |
| Availability | Available through the vendor account and download system |
| Host compatibility | Standalone application; Studio comparison lists a Rhino 5, 6, 7 and 8 bridge |
| Operating systems | Windows only; the vendor benchmark page lists Windows 8.x, 10 and 11 |
| Hardware | At least one Nvidia RTX-capable GPU; multi-GPU rendering supported, without pooled VRAM |
| Processing backend | CUDA 13.0, OptiX 9.1 and OpenCASCADE 8.0.0 |
| Formats | Studio lists STEP, IGES, 3DM, USD, glTF and FBX import, SBSAR materials, layered OpenEXR and PSD output, and editable .mks scenes |
| Licence models | Monthly and yearly subscriptions, perpetual licence and one-year update term; transferable single-workstation activation, not simultaneous multi-machine use |
| Trial | Free 30-day trial, having no functional limitation |
| Update entitlement | A perpetual purchase includes one year of upgrade eligibility; the covered build remains usable after entitlement expires |
| Documentation | Official documentation |
| Download | Account registration and download |
| Website | Maverick Render |
| Pricing | Official pricing: Studio €39.99/month; €33.99/month paid yearly; €795.99 perpetual; €495.99 one-year updates term |
