Detect3D v3.4 Release Highlights

Summary

• Navisworks files (.nwd, .nwc) can now be imported directly. The file importer is included alongside many improvements to geometry import and triangle reduction, in terms of speed and memory overhead.
• The flame detector layout optimization is substantially faster on large geometries and uses far less memory, with unchanged coverage results.
• Additional security measures have been added to combat piracy. These include an invisible watermark that is added to exported images. The watermarks enable third parties to verify whether output in reports and presentations has been generated using a licensed version of the software.

Feature Improvements

Geometry Import & Navisworks Support

• Navisworks files (.nwd, .nwc) can now be imported directly. Hidden elements are skipped, and the colors are “by Entity”.
• Geometry simplification (triangle reduction) is several times faster, uses far less memory, and uses more processor cores on large models.
• The performance of the DWF importer has been greatly improved.
• All geometry importers require significantly less memory.
• Lines, polylines, circles, and arcs in DWF and NWD files, which were previously dropped, are now imported as display-only linework. The linework is drawn in the 3D view and saved with the project, but takes no part in meshing or obstruction.

Flame Detector Layout Optimization

• The flame detector layout optimization is substantially faster on large geometries and uses far less memory. Each run now builds one geometry structure that every detector shares instead of one per detector, which on a 7.3 million triangle model saved over 1 GB of memory and about 2 seconds for each detector evaluated. The detectors already calculated in a run are kept for the whole run while memory allows, instead of hundreds of them being recalculated in every generation.
• The ray casting of flame detectors, the zone visibility of each detector, and the area coverage evaluation of fire zones have been rewritten to avoid the memory churn that stalled large runs. Area coverage evaluation is about 15 times faster (144 ms to 10 ms per evaluation on the large test case). The coverage results are unchanged.

Security Features

• Exported images (Save Image as PNG, Copy to Clipboard, and batch image output) now carry an invisible origin mark that identifies the licensed installation and time of export. The image itself is never sent to Insight Numerics; the mark can be checked by dropping an image (PNG, JPG, GIF, or BMP) or a Word, PowerPoint, Excel, or PDF file that contains images onto verify.insightnumerics.com, where the check runs entirely in the browser and the file is never uploaded.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed crash “Object type does not match target type” on File > New after editing sub zones.
• Fixed crash “Control’s handle must be created first” when opening a project by double-clicking a file while the update notification or the license window was shown.
• Fixed issue where opening a project from a file association could fail while the startup tasks were still running.
• Fixed issue where some project files saved by earlier versions failed to open.
• Fixed error opening project files whose fire zones used the coverage settings of a much earlier version. The zones now load with the default settings.
• Fixed issue where project files saved with gas detector optimization settings from an earlier version failed to open, and a crash when loading a project containing optimal gas detector layouts.
• Fixed the Point Detector Locations, Open-Path Detector Locations, and Included Groups dropdowns of the gas detector optimization reverting every selection, and the All checkbox closing the dropdown.
• Fixed issue where hidden layers could not be shown again after using a surface pick tool.
• Fixed issue where the visibility checkbox of newly imported geometry started in an indeterminate state.
• Fixed issue where “Remove Selected” did nothing when the selection contained only layers.
• Fixed issue where removed construction geometry lines, surfaces, and images reappeared the next time the project was loaded, which in some cases caused a crash on load.
• Fixed error “No valid entities were found in the file” when importing STEP and IGES files.
• Fixed some DWF files importing rotated by 90 degrees. The model up direction is now read from the file descriptor instead of being inferred from the named views in the file.
• Fixed issue where zero probabilities were displayed as ”%” instead of “0 %” in the property grid.

Release Date:

October 14, 2026