Xencelabs introduces the Pen Display 16 Lite, a 4K OLED mobile tablet positioned as a travel-ready counterpart to the company’s larger studio panels. The device arrives with a 12 mm chassis, a weight of 1.2 kg, and a panel that outputs 1.07 billion colors across Adobe RGB, sRGB, P3-D65, and Rec.709. Pricing starts at US$799, while the full Pen Display 16 Bundle with power hub and Mobile Easel comes in at US$1249.00. The optional Xencelabs Desktop Easel for Pen Display 16 is available separately for US$179.00.

The fanless display uses a 4K OLED 10-bit panel with 3840 × 2160 pixels at 60 Hz. Super AG Etching reduces reflections without introducing the usual crystalline artefacts common to aggressive matte coatings. According to Xencelabs, this allows long sessions under bright environments or ceiling lighting without visual noise on the panel surface. Brightness reaches 300 cd/m² when used with the hub included in the bundle.

The device integrates Kensington NanoSaver security, USB-C (DP alt mode) connectivity, and an EMR input stack shared with the company’s recent pens. Both the 3-Button Pen + Eraser v2 and Thin Pen + Eraser v2 are bundled, each offering 8192 pressure levels, ±60-degree tilt, and 5080 LPI resolution. The pens remain cordless and battery-free. The optional Quick Keys remote adds an OLED UI, up to 44 shortcuts per application, and up to 53 hours runtime.

For portability, the 410 × 259.4 mm chassis fits into typical backpacks or soft cases. The Mobile Easel included in the Pen Display 16 Bundle supports 18- and 32-degree working positions.

Specifications include a 344.2 × 193.6 mm active area, 13 kWh/1000 h power consumption, and compatibility with Windows, Windows ARM64, macOS, and Linux, with an internet connection required to install the Xencelabs driver.

Specs: Xencelabs Pen Display 16 Lite

Category	Specification
Product Name	Pen Display 16 Bundle / Pen Display 16 Lite
Color	Carbon Black
Warranty	2 years
Stand	Mobile Easel in Bundle (Desktop Easel sold separately)
Stand Angles	18° and 32°
System Requirements	Windows 7+, Windows 11 ARM64, macOS 10.13+, Linux; internet required for driver download
Model Number	LPH1612U-A
Dimensions	410 × 259.4 × 12 mm
Active Area	344.2 × 193.6 mm
Resolution	3840 × 2160 @ 60 Hz
Weight	1.2 kg
Security	Kensington NanoSaver Slot
Displayable Colors	1.07 billion
Gamut Coverage	98% Adobe RGB, 99% sRGB, 98% P3-D65, 99% Rec.709
Surface	Super AG Etching
Brightness	300 cd/m² (with hub, Bundle only)
Energy Class	F
Power Input	90–264 VAC, 50/60 Hz
Power Output	Hub: 12V/2.5A (Bundle only); USB-C DP alt: 5V/3A
Power Consumption	13 kWh / 1000 h
Pens	3-Button Pen v2 + Thin Pen v2
Pressure	8192 levels
Tilt	±60°
Resolution	5080 LPI
Type	EMR, battery-free
Quick Keys Model	K02-A
Quick Keys Display	3.12-inch OLED
Orientation	0° / 90° / 180° / 360°
Quick Keys Battery	Up to 53 hours
Buttons	Up to 44 shortcuts per app
Dial	Up to 4 modes

The post Xencelabs Pen Display 16 Lite: 4K OLED in a 12 mm Shell first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Bela Beier.

TL;DR: Trimble ships SketchUp 2026.0 with a new in-app Collaboration Bar that lets you share via private invites or a public link, collect 3D-anchored comments, and sync views in real time. Visualisation gets AO distance and colour, invert roughness, and user-selectable material thumbnails on Windows. Performance improves across memory, selections, scene transitions, zoom extents, and purging. Live Components gain scale-by-inference grips and saner painting. Modelling and UI see multiple quality-of-life upgrades. You can reset activations inside the app. DWG and IFC pipelines are tidier. Studio users get Texture Projection and Surface Mesh for point clouds. LayOut on Windows adopts a SketchUp-like UI, picks up Trim, Extend, Fillet, Chamfer, and improves DWG handling and Scrapbooks.

Collaboration in Desktop: invites, public links, live cursors, 3D comments

The new Collaboration Bar shares your model to Trimble Connect, then distributes either private invites with permissions (Owner, View Scenes, Comment) or a public link with adjustable access (No Access, View Scenes, View Model). Viewers open the model in a browser, see others’ cursors, navigate and measure when allowed, and leave threaded comments pinned with 3D markers that can be associated with scenes and camera states. You can pull everyone to your current view or jump to a viewer’s avatar to mirror their POV. Real-time updates are on by default.

Visualisation: AO distance & colour, invert roughness, pick your material thumbnail

Ambient Occlusion gets a Distance Multiplier so occlusion remains readable when zoomed out and a colour swatch to move AO away from neutral grey for clearer depth cues. Materials add an Invert Roughness toggle to flip PBR roughness maps quickly. On Windows you can choose Cube or Flat material thumbnails per asset, or let Auto decide.

Performance: lower memory, snappier selections, faster scenes and zoom

Model loading produces smaller memory spikes, component overhead is reduced, and graphics resource handling on Windows is more efficient. Day to day that means fewer freezes on large models and more fluid interactions. Internal benchmarks cite big gains for scene transitions, Zoom Extents, and Purge Unused, plus faster selections and inferences; exact results will vary by hardware and dataset.

Live Components: scale grips by inference; saner painting

The Scale tool now exposes inference-aware grips for Live Components, making placement and sizing more predictable than nudging bounding boxes. The Paint Bucket can apply custom materials outside a component’s predefined options, with better texture mapping and library compatibility. Not every existing Live Component has scale grips yet, but more are being added.

Modelling & UI QoL: rotate handle logic, see-through scale grips, profile-edge placement, scene undo/redo

Scale grips render through occluding geometry so you can grab the correct handle without enabling X-Ray. Rotation grips hide when you lock a rotation plane to prevent unintended moves. When placing groups or components, you can move from a profile edge so the object turns transparent and background targets remain visible. Scenes now support Undo/Redo, including create/rename/delete. Purge Unused defaults to off; it gains granular controls and a menu command you can bind to a shortcut. On Windows, panels and trays are easier to manage: right-click headers to toggle visibility, drag panels between trays, or tear them off into their own tray.

Activations: fix “too many devices” without leaving the app

If you exceed allowed activations, you can reset all activations and authorise the current device directly in SketchUp rather than detouring to account management.

Interoperability: DWG import options; real hatch import; 3D section export; cleaner polylines; unified IFC exporter

DWG import adds Import Layers as Groups to map DWG layers to grouped geometry with tags for visibility control, and Import Linework Flattened to force Z=0 for 2D CAD, minimising cleanup. Hatches import as faces or edges, depending on type. Export preserves section planes in 3D DWG for downstream section workflows. Other updates include welded polylines on import, better true-curve export, and fewer duplicate instance/definition name collisions. IFC export consolidates 2×3 and 4 into one file type with a new Export Options dialog and a Standard IFC Spatial Hierarchy toggle to scaffold IfcProject/IfcSite/IfcBuilding even if your Outliner is sparse.

Scan Essentials (Studio): Texture Projection, Surface Mesh, scene-aware visibility, reset to georeferenced origin

Studio subscribers get Texture Projection to bake imagery from scans onto SketchUp geometry as reusable materials and Surface Mesh to extract meshes from point clouds with guided parameters. Point-cloud visibility can be stored per scene in SketchUp and LayOut. You can also reset transformations to the original georeferenced coordinates on export.

LayOut (Windows): UI refresh, true drafting tools, stronger DWG pipeline, better Scrapbooks

LayOut on Windows adopts SketchUp-style trays and panels, plus more flexible toolbars. Vector and hybrid viewport generation is faster. Four drafting tools land—Trim, Extend, Fillet, and Chamfer—mapped to Shift+T/E/F/C, reducing selection overhead and cleanup clicks on typical 2D tasks. DWG export can split each page to its own DWG, preserves SketchUp Tag names as DWG layers, and correctly stacks coincident viewports in model space; text, hatches, and tables round-trip more faithfully. Default Scrapbooks gain an Architecture set—doors, windows, living, bedroom, kitchen, bath—as scalable groups.

Bug fixes (selected): stability, materials, components, graphics engine quirks

Expect fewer crashes when editing Live Components or importing large images under the new graphics engine, corrupt normal maps no longer block loads, and file associations prefer the latest version. Selection performance on complex models improves. Numerous Windows and macOS UI inconsistencies are resolved, including materials panel behaviour, tag colour previews, scene tab selection, file thumbnails, Environments downloads, and various DWG importer/exporter issues.

API & developer notes: scenes are now undoable; non-invertible transforms rejected; IFC exporter updated

Scene operations are now undoable. Extension authors must wrap scene edits in Model#start_operation and #commit_operation or risk flooding the undo stack and Extension Warehouse rejection. Non-invertible transforms—like scale-to-zero—are rejected for component instances, groups, and images in both Ruby and C APIs. The Ruby API moves to a unified IFC exporter with options for version and hierarchy; there are new accessors for active section planes, safer page naming, style add/remove returns, and assorted fixes. LayOut’s APIs add linear dimension alignment, leader-line visibility, text strikethrough, attribute dictionaries, and camera/viewport override control. Test any extension that touches scenes, transforms, or exporters.

Upgrade guidance

If your day involves DWG/IFC exchange, LayOut deliverables, or frequent client review, the upgrade pays off immediately. Extension authors should validate scene logic due to undo changes. On macOS, note that cube material thumbnails are Windows-only. Pilot on a single machine, test your critical extensions, then roll out.

The post SketchUp 2026.0 first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Jürgen Firsching.

Woods, but digital

Want to spend some time in the quiet woods and escape the bustle of the city? Epic Games now offers an alternative: 156 digital meshes for building a rural retreat in Unreal Engine. The Modular Rural Cabin pack by Dutch environment artist Maarten Hof is available on Fab for free until 7 October 2025.

What’s in the pack

The assets cover wooden cabins with corrugated iron roofing, furniture, clutter props such as oil drums and tyres, and vegetation including a conifer tree. Six demo scenes are included to show possible layouts. The meshes come with eight customisable master materials, and texture resolution goes up to 2,048 x 2,048 pixels. Lightmaps are baked in, but LODs are missing, which could be relevant for performance-sensitive projects.

From digital cabins to digital forests

The pack comes from Maarten Hof, whose ArtStation portfolio showcases atmospheric forests, modular buildings and moody woodland environments. The assets echo his trademark style: a carefully balanced mix of architectural detail and slightly eerie forest quiet, exactly the kind of place you might escape to if Slack notifications didn’t have a way of following you into the trees.

Technical notes for the cautious

According to the official Fab listing, the assets are designed for “realistic AAA quality visuals, style, and budget.” The kit is provided in Unreal Engine format, supports UE4.22+ and UE5.0+, and stated explicitly was not generated with AI. The package currently holds a 4.8-star rating from 28 reviews on Fab. Distribution follows the Fab Standard Licence, which permits commercial use across engines and tools, subject to the Fab EULA.

Test before production

As with all free marketplace downloads, artists should test the pack in their own pipelines before adopting it for actual production work.

The post Unreal Cabin Fever: 156 Free Assets for UE Users first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Bela Beier.

The new Clothy3D tool promises to make character pipelines more flexible, at no cost, at least for now. The software is designed to auto-fit and rig clothing models across a wide range of 3D characters and platforms, offering a set of converters that could connect otherwise separate workflows.

What It Does

Clothy3D can auto-fit and rig clothes from sources like Marvelous Designer, Daz3D, or iClone Character Creator, and also supports 18 body types of Metahuman. It transfers skeletons and skin weights between characters, rigs static meshes with existing skeletons, and even wraps mesh topology and textures from one character to another. Input and output are handled in FBX, and the devs mention support for OBJ and DXF in converters.

Why It’s Interesting

The tool effectively acts as a universal adapter: skeleton transfers, mesh wrapping, and skin-weight conversions could be used to move assets across different ecosystems without tedious manual setup. For pipelines that juggle assets between Unreal Engine, Daz, or Marvelous Designer, that flexibility might save hours.

On top of that, there’s a marketplace attached, where assets can be discovered, bought, and sold. Right now, content is sparse, but the structure is in place and depending on adoption, this could grow into a useful exchange hub.

Caveats

All of this comes with a big asterisk: Clothy3D is brand new and still in a beta-like state. It’s free to use at the moment, but untested in production environments. While the promise of “fit anything to anything” is tempting, reliability across real-world projects remains to be seen. If you’re looking for a weekend experiment or if your pipeline involves a lot of cross-platform character work, Clothy3D might be worth a spin. Just don’t expect the stability of a battle-tested DCC plugin yet.

Interface, Scenes & Exports

Clothy3D’s UI is built around a three-scene viewport layout: left, middle, and right scenes all sharing a synchronized camera view so you always see from the same angle. The left scene acts as a composite view, reflecting the combination of whatever is imported in the middle and right scenes; the right and middle scenes remain independent and each can host its own models or assets. Depending on which tool you’re using (Cloth Convertor, Character Convertor, etc.), the roles of these scenes adapt accordingly. For example, the middle may show cloth, the right the base character, and the left their merged result.

In terms of the UI controls: it features a layered tool-button system, so choosing a top-level action shows context-sensitive button sets beneath it. Hovering on a tool button triggers a tooltip after a moment, helping with discoverability. You can also control viewing options such as whether faces are rendered front/back, or switch the “Color Mode” (normal color, black, or white) to enforce consistent visibility, especially useful for transparent meshes or to show stitching faces.

Mouse navigation is standard: left-drag orbits, middle-drag pans, mouse wheel zooms; the right button largely is reserved for editing mesh elements (faces, vertices, edges) in the middle and right scenes, or for panning in the left view.

Regarding import/export: the middle and right scenes can each independently import and export their own models or assets. The left scene doesn’t allow direct imports (it’s purely an aggregation), but whenever something is loaded into middle or right, it also appears in left. In the “Account & Import/Export” section, you can also see your user account info (e-mail, remaining monthly exports). Export is capped, users get a limited number of exports per month.

Thus the interface is designed to provide parallel views (source / target / result) in lockstep, while keeping editing tools, visibility toggles, and import/export flows relatively consistent across the different modules.

Character Convertor

The Character Convertor tool lets you ingest an arbitrary rigged tetrapod base character (in FBX or DAE format) and produce a standardized interchangeable base character asset. First, you import your rigged base character into the middle scene. Optionally, you can clean up or edit that character, for example, delete unused meshes like clothes or weapons, duplicate or align meshes, hide faces, adjust vertex positions, or even tweak skeletons and skin weights.

Then you wrap a target interchangeable base character (in the right scene) to match the imported rig. Two wrapping approaches exist: applying an existing deformer template (faster, if one matches the character topology) or manually deforming via point/face matching (with a Character Builder or import of partial shapes, then matching points/faces). As you wrap, you can iteratively adjust both source and target geometry to improve the match. After wrapping, you configure parameters in the processing flow, run automatic steps, and finally export your new interchangeable base character to disk.

In effect, the Character Convertor acts as a bridge: you bring in a rig you want to preserve or reuse, deform a canonical interchangeable skeleton mesh to match it, and output a version you can reliably use in downstream tools like cloth fitting, skeleton transfers, or asset marketplaces.

Tutorials

Clothy3D already comes with a sizeable set of tutorials to help users ramp up. There’s a Studio Quickstart that introduces the core UI and navigation, along with dedicated quickstarts for Character Convertor, Cloth Convertor, Dress3D, Skeleton Transfer, and Deform3D. Beyond the basics, workflow guides walk through Unreal Engine integration (UE5.4), building characters via the Character Builder, wrapping and matching meshes, and using deformer templates for quicker results.

The clothing workflow is covered extensively: tutorials explain converting standard garments, preparing clothes for Metahuman, simulating and rendering cloth, working with Marvelous Designer assets, managing double-sided or layered clothing, and fine-tuning shape control points. Other deep dives address transfer points for skin weights, keeping selected parts rigid, smoothing weights, or adding auxiliary bones. There are also lessons on editing and converting skeletons, rigging static characters, handling complex footwear like high-heel shoes, and preparing/publishing assets to the marketplace.

The post Clothy3D: New Tool for Clothing Auto-Fit, Rigging & Mesh Transfers first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Bela Beier.

Cargo 2.0: new importer, larger free library

KitBash3D has released Cargo 2.0, the rebuilt version of its asset manager for browsing and importing KitBash3D’s architectural and environment kits. The update arrives with a redesigned Houdini importer, co-developed with SideFX, that integrates natively into Solaris and exports all content in USD.

Alongside the importer, Cargo 2.0 expands its free offering. Users of the free Cargo Basic account now receive access to 364 free assets:

• 215 modular 3D models
• 141 materials
• 8 vehicles

All assets include textures up to 4K resolution in PNG or JPG. These files can be used in personal projects such as portfolios, student reels, or tests. Commercial use requires either purchasing the individual kit or upgrading to a paid Cargo subscription.

Houdini Solaris integration

The most significant change in Cargo 2.0 is the Houdini importer. KitBash3D rebuilt the plugin in collaboration with SideFX, ensuring that it works natively with Solaris. Assets imported through Cargo appear directly in Houdini’s Asset Catalog as USD files, complete with automatically generated thumbnails. Once imported, they remain in the catalogue across sessions, avoiding the need to reimport them for every new project.

Materials integrate through Solaris’ MaterialX system, making them usable within the Stage environment without additional setup. For larger projects, the Stage Manager node ties into the Cargo Asset Catalog, letting technical directors place and manage hundreds of assets procedurally inside the scene graph. For artists working in layout, the workflow is as simple as dragging and dropping assets into Solaris.

The importer works on both Windows and macOS. This marks the first time that Houdini users on macOS have had access to Cargo integration.

Other DCC integrations

Cargo 2.0 does not limit itself to Houdini. The application connects to a broad set of DCC hosts, including Autodesk 3ds Max, Blender, Maxon Cinema 4D, Autodesk Maya, Unity, and Unreal Engine. Version support starts with 3ds Max 2021, Blender 3.0, Cinema 4D 2023, Maya 2020, Unity 2021.3, and Unreal Engine 5.2. By centring its pipeline on USD, Cargo ensures a consistent workflow across platforms, while each DCC importer follows the conventions of its host application.

Free versus paid: what you actually get

Cargo remains free to download. With a Basic account, users can access all of the kits they have previously purchased as well as the newly expanded library of 364 sample assets. This is the only no-cost option, and it is explicitly limited to personal use.

Professional users face two subscription tiers. An individual licence costs $995 per year and grants access to the complete KitBash3D library of over 20,000 assets. A business licence costs $3,995 annually and is intended for studios requiring full access along with extended commercial rights. Both tiers include ongoing updates to the asset library as new kits are released.

Asset formats and pipeline alignment

All content in Cargo 2.0 is distributed in USD, accompanied by textures in either PNG or JPG format at resolutions of up to 4K. This decision to standardise around USD is consistent with how the industry is moving and directly benefits Houdini’s Solaris integration. By aligning its pipeline with USD, KitBash3D ensures that its content behaves predictably in other USD-based contexts such as Unreal Engine.

The generation of persistent thumbnails on import is a practical detail that benefits daily use. Assets can be previewed inside Houdini’s catalogues without the need to reload them. For larger studios, this feature saves significant time during layout when hundreds of assets may be in use simultaneously.

Workflow demonstration

KitBash3D has released a video walkthrough showing Cargo 2.0 in action with Houdini 21. The demonstration begins with importing a model, which automatically generates a thumbnail for Solaris’ Asset Catalog. Materials are imported in the same way, appearing within a persistent catalogue that remains available for future sessions.

Within Solaris, artists can either drag and drop assets into the Stage or make use of the Stage Manager node for larger setups. The video also shows how materials can be accessed through Solaris’ Material Linker, enabling them to be applied quickly to geometry in the scene. The goal of the redesign is clear: provide a simple workflow for generalists while supporting technical directors with procedural control at scale.

System requirements

Cargo 2.0 runs on Windows 10 or newer and on macOS 11.0 or newer. Plugins are available for all supported DCC hosts mentioned earlier. KitBash3D does not provide specific hardware requirements, but real-world performance will depend heavily on the host DCC and the size of the assets being loaded, particularly when working with USD datasets at scale.

What it means in practice

For independent artists and students, Cargo 2.0’s primary draw is the free library. The 364 included assets provide enough variety to build test scenes, practice workflows, and assemble portfolios. The new Solaris importer is especially relevant to Houdini users, since it finally closes the gap between KitBash3D’s content and a USD-native pipeline.

For studios, the decision is more financial. The $3,995 business licence gives access to the full catalogue, but the value depends on how heavily a team relies on KitBash3D assets in production. For layout-heavy pipelines, or for studios that regularly need large-scale architectural assets, the cost is justifiable. For occasional use, it may not be.

Test before production

KitBash3D claims that Cargo 2.0 improves both stability and pipeline alignment. These claims have not been independently verified at press time. As with any new tool, teams should test Cargo 2.0 carefully in their own production conditions before relying on it. This includes validating asset import behaviour, thumbnail persistence, and compatibility with existing USD workflows.

The post KitBash3D Cargo 2.0 lands with Houdini Solaris importer and 350 free assets first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Bela Beier.