--- description: Get detailed information about Lightwave3D usability, features, price, benefits and disadvantages from verified user experiences. Read reviews and discover similar tools on Capterra Israel. image: https://gdm-localsites-assets-gfprod.imgix.net/images/capterra/og_logo-e5a8c001ed0bd1bb922639230fcea71a.png?auto=format%2Cenhance%2Ccompress title: Lightwave3D Price, Reviews & Ratings - Capterra Israel 2026 --- Breadcrumb: [Home](/) > [3D CAD Software](/directory/31236/3d-cad/software) > [Lightwave3D](/software/201852/lightwave3d) # Lightwave3D Canonical: https://www.capterra.co.il/software/201852/lightwave3d > 3D CAD solution that offers visual effects, motion graphics, architectural visualizations, illumination render engines, and more. > > Verdict: Rated **3.8/5** by 4 users. Top-rated for **Likelihood to recommend**. ----- ## Overview ### Who Uses Lightwave3D? Designed for entertainment, mass media, mechanical, aerospace, and other industries, a 3D computer graphics solution that helps with tone mapping, environment lighting, subsurface scattering, etc. ## Quick Stats & Ratings | Metric | Rating | Detail | | **Overall** | **3.8/5** | 4 Reviews | | Ease of Use | 4.8/5 | Based on overall reviews | | Customer Support Software | 4.3/5 | Based on overall reviews | | Value for Money | 4.0/5 | Based on overall reviews | | Features | 3.8/5 | Based on overall reviews | | Recommendation percentage | 70% | (7/10 Likelihood to recommend) | ## About the vendor - **Company**: NewTek ## Commercial Context - **Starting Price**: A$995.00 - **Pricing model**: Per Feature (Free Trial) - **Deployment & Platforms**: Mac (Desktop), Windows (Desktop) - **Supported Languages**: English - **Available Countries**: Australia ## Features - Animation Software - Collaboration Tools - Component Library - Data Import/Export ## Category - [3D CAD Software](https://www.capterra.co.il/directory/31236/3d-cad/software) ## Alternatives 1. 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Because of its affordability, simplicity, and speed of production, it's suitable for any artist who wishes to produce commercial-grade 3d models and animation on the breeze. > > **Cons**: Lightwave3D has limited 3rd party rendering support, it does not support popular rendering engines such as vRay and Keyshot. Modeling and laying it out has to be done on separate windows making workflow slower. Not suitable for photorealistic rendering. > > Lightwave3D is among the leading modeling, animation, and rendering software with its own native experience. A must-try 3D software for any artist who wishes to deliver a different set of visual experience. ----- ### "Lagging in updates and community diminishing" — 4.0/5 > **Verified Reviewer** | *25 September 2022* | Information Technology & Services | Recommendation rating: 8.0/10 > > **Pros**: The best piece is the render and illumination pipeline that brings great visual results for NPR or PR. It is a great piece of software that has been in use for many years in several industries and is part of an essential toolset for many artists. It is worth its pricing if you are getting direct benefits from its use > > **Cons**: It has been lagging features and updates in comparison to others pieces of software. It has disappointed many of its users and some negative comments can be easily found on their forums. Its parent company seems to be more focused on video pipelines and it seems, for periods of time, as if they forget about this piece of software. It's latest update is tagged with 2020 on its name, for example. For personal use it could be quite expensive. > > What I most like of my experience is modeling in it. It's pretty fast for many classic workflows and for low-poly styles. You can create prototypes easily and generate imagery that will impress without much effort. For animation, the setups feel a little clunky in comparison to other pieces of software, but with a little more effort, you can obtain splendid results. It is a piece of software that has evolved since the last century, and it sometimes shows its old roots. ----- ### "Seems like the Lightwave is dimming." — 3.0/5 > **Nathan** | *4 November 2021* | Oil & Energy | Recommendation rating: 5.0/10 > > **Pros**: For years I was infatuated with the ease of use, and the work style of this program. It's easy to be modeler, texturer, rigger, animator and renderer all in one. > > **Cons**: After years of staying faithful to this once beloved program there suddenly were no jobs using it, the industry fell out of love with it, and moved to other programs like 3DS Max, and Cinema4D that have become the industry standard and honestly I have to admit the features offered in other programs have made Lightwave seem like more of a light splash. ----- ### "My First 3D App" — 4.0/5 > **Sascha** | *6 October 2022* | Design | Recommendation rating: 6.0/10 > > **Pros**: Lightwave was my first 3D software, in college I found it, though complex, to be easy to get into. Lightwave's modelling style and workflow are more similar to CAD in many ways, with precise tools requiring numerical input. This makes it a great choice for artists wanting to focus on things like architectural modelling and traditional hard surface modelling. > > **Cons**: Sometimes the UI can be a bit cumbersome, and Lightwave can be a bit slow to adopt common features present in other 3D applications. For example, there was a long stretch of time where lightwave had very limited simulation features and a rather dated renderer with limited support for render passes. > > Full Disclaimer, I haven't used Newtech Lightwave in several years. Lightwave was my first 3D software, and I originally learned to use Lightwave in highschool. The computer lab had a few old floating-licenses around back then. With no interest from students and having been proven too complex to teach as part of the class, the disks had just been gathering dust. The instructor let me borrow one of the dongles to work on a group project and that was my first foray into the world of 3D. Years Later I enrolled in the Digital Arts and New Media course at the local college, where I found they were also using Lightwave. Here I learned 3D skills in a more professional capacity and bought my own license to use at home. Eventually I ended up switching to Blender for a combination of financial reasons and it's better flexibility, but Lightwave still holds a special place in my heart. In terms of Lightwaves strengths, I remember it having a very precise modelling workflow, in retrospect similar to CAD in many ways. This more rigid modelling style isn't as good for freestyle organic modelling, but it was excellent for modelling architecture, robots, death-stars, and the like. I often missed having access to some of the precision tools after I switched to Blender, and It wasn't until I took up CAD modelling years later that I managed to fill that spot in my workflow again. ## Links - [View on Capterra](https://www.capterra.co.il/software/201852/lightwave3d) ## This page is available in the following languages | Locale | URL | | en | | | en-AE | | | en-AU | | | en-CA | | | en-GB | | | en-IE | | | en-IL | | | en-IN | | | en-NZ | | | en-SG | | | en-ZA | | ----- ## Structured Data