The go-to VR CAD modeling app for a large chunk of the design industry, Gravity Sketch, has announced it is shifting from a paid application to a free app on the Oculus (Rift + Quest) stores and Steam. The decision comes as the company experienced healthy growth in the app’s usage over the pandemic. In July, Gravity Sketch debuted its collaborative feature codenamed Co-Creation that allowed multiple teams to remotely work on projects together, leaving feedback, making edits, and proposing new ideas within the same project, which would get synchronized with the new edits and changes in real-time. The Co-Creation feature was unveiled within Landing Pad, Gravity Sketch’s cloud-based product, in the hopes to make working from home easier during the pandemic.
In November, the company announced it had raised $3.7 million in seed funding, which would go a long way in helping the app achieve its “mission to help creatives work more effectively and expressively with digital media”. On January 25th, the app will become absolutely free on all platforms for individual users, while remaining paid for business and enterprise users. The app will even be able to support IGES and FBX model types (FBX was only supported on tethered PC headsets like the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive), helping further democratize digital 3D design by lifting any barriers for creatives to get involved. Gravity Sketch is even working on an iPad 3D modeling app which is currently in its beta stage. This expansion and the shift to the free business model will help bring more nascent designers and companies into the fold, allowing them to use the same 3D modeling and visualization software currently used by some of the world’s leading companies, such as Ford, Nissan and Reebok, alongside 60 universities and over 50,000 creative professionals worldwide.
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