page_title: Cobalt (CAD program)
hierarchical_section_title: Cobalt (CAD program)
caption_attribution_description: English: A CG image of a high-end espresso coffee tamper. Modeled and ray traced using Ashlar-Vellum’s Cobalt
context_page_description: Cobalt is a parametric-based computer-aided design and 3D modeling program that runs on both Macintosh and Microsoft Windows operating systems. The program combines the direct-modeling way to create and edit objects and the highly structured, history-driven parametric way exemplified by programs like Pro/ENGINEER. A product of Ashlar-Vellum, Cobalt is Wireframe-based and history-driven with associativity and 2D equation-driven parametrics and constraints. It offers surfacing tools, mold design tools, detailing, and engineering features. Cobalt includes a library of 149,000 mechanical parts.
  Cobalt's interface, which the company named the "Vellum interface" after its eponymous flagship product, was designed in 1988 by Dr. Martin Newell and Dan Fitzpatrick. The central feature of the Vellum interface is its "Drafting Assistant," which facilitates the creation and alignment of the new geometry.
  Cobalt has received praise for its free-form surfaces on solid modeled objects.
context_section_description: Cobalt is a parametric-based computer-aided design (CAD) and 3D modeling program that runs on both Macintosh and Microsoft Windows operating systems. The program combines the direct-modeling way to create and edit objects (exemplified by programs such as SpaceClaim) and the highly structured, history-driven parametric way exemplified by programs like Pro/ENGINEER. A product of Ashlar-Vellum, Cobalt is Wireframe-based and history-driven with associativity and 2D equation-driven parametrics and constraints. It offers surfacing tools, mold design tools, detailing, and engineering features. Cobalt includes a library of 149,000 mechanical parts.
  Cobalt's interface, which the company named the "Vellum interface" after its eponymous flagship product, was designed in 1988 by Dr. Martin Newell (who created the Utah teapot in 1975 and went on to work at Xerox PARC, where the WIMP paradigm for graphical user interfaces was invented) and Dan Fitzpatrick. The central feature of the Vellum interface is its "Drafting Assistant," which facilitates the creation and alignment of the new geometry.
  Cobalt has received praise for its free-form surfaces on solid modeled objects.
caption: Cobalt's integral ray-tracing capabilities afford the designer detailed control of a wide variety of surface properties, including the amount of dimpling in the polished sandstone table. Shown here is a high-end espresso tamper with an integrated bubble level
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