Hi-Res 3D Screen Shots

 From:  Shaun (MOISHAUN)
4777.1 
I used to work at a company that had its own 3D program to assemble CAD parts. It was able to make very hi-res screen shots. The way this was explained to me is that it grabbed the image directly from the graphics card, not the screen. So the image could be sized to any resolution by the program. It wasn’t a render or ray tracer or anything.

Have any of you heard of this? Is there any kind of software that could take a scene in MoI or Sculptris and make a hi-res image from the graphics card without actually rendering it?

I realize as I type this that I sound like a moron. I know that what I’m looking for is possible, but I don’t have enough technology knowledge or terminology to explain it properly.