upFront.eZine NEWS #563

upFront.eZine t h e b u s i n e s s o f c a d , e n l i g h t e n e d
a publication from upFront.eZine Publishing
issue #563 : : june 10, 2008
In this issue: Wildcad, Open Source CAD - Long-term Goals - Initial Capabilities - Screen Images - Availability Out of the Inbox, and the other regular columns.	Write the editor. Make him smile! Through Paypal, consider donating $25 in support of upFront.eZine. Or else... eam Vera Serif">Not Just Acrobat; Corel, Too We're trendy. We have a Weblog. WorldCAD Access. Previous Issue < > Next Issue

Wildcat, Open Source CAD by Graham Hemingway Nearly a decade ago, I began to seriously look into buying a CAD package. I was amazed to learn that the good ones were massively expensive: $6,000 for a "cheap" one, and $20k+ for top-of-the-line. Plus, they all seemed very difficult to use, placing too much emphasis on buying education from a reseller, but too little on just helping the user. As a recreational CAD user I simply could not afford the products that seemed to fit my requirements. In parallel, over the last decade I watched the open source software movement gained traction as it spread throughout nearly all categories of commercial software. Often, a "free" product could match or exceed the commercial offerings. I hoped that a good quality, open source CAD package would make its way onto the scene. But after all these years, none have evolved to meet my needs. There are some open source 3D CAD packages available -- OpenCascade, BRL, and AvoCADo just to name a few -- but I felt that they all missed the mark. The most powerful of the current open source kernels is OpenCascade. Its code base dates back to the beginnings of solid modeling and could be considered an early relative of CATIA. From my perspective, its biggest shortcoming is its lack of any type of user interface; it is just a programming toolkit. Its code base has been significantly expanded over the years, but it maintains many outdated vestiges from its birth in the 1980s. I wanted a robust 3D solid modeler that leveraged modern technologies to deliver an intuitive design experience. With all this in mind, about a year ago I made the decision to try developing a new 3D solid modeling application. I spent a great deal of the last year working through the fundamentals of the kernel. I am now ready to let others take a look at Wildcat, open source CAD. I cannot stress enough that Wildcat is just at the beginning of its journey, and over the next few years I hope to bring it to where I need it to be. This initial release of source code should not even be considered a point-release, as there are still many aspects to address before version 1.0 is ready. Long-Term Goals Listed below are some of the long-term goals for Wildcat: Completely open source and free for users and developers. Cross-platform: OS X, Windows, and Linux. Intuitive platform native GUI. B-rep based 3D solid modeling kernel and non-manifold topology support. 64-bit precision NURBS-based curves and surfaces. File system persistence using XML-based structure. Robust integration with multiple type of analysis: CFD, FEA, etc. File translation for popular formats. Modern C/C++ based code base. Able to take advantage of multi-core CPUs and leverage GPUs. Limited external development dependencies. Initial Capabilities Within Wildcat, an effort has been made to maintain common CAD terminology and motifs. For example, "workbenches" are the primary means of breaking down large collections of modeling tools into related categories. Each workbench fully encapsulates its own tools, user-interface elements, documentation, and modeling functionality. The initial set of Wildcat workbenches consists of Part Design and Sketcher, which correspond to the 3D kernel and 2D sketching. The workbenches slated next for development are Assembly and Drafting. I feel that these four workbenches are required before version 1.0 of this application can be released. Most of the development effort thus far has concentrated on the solid modeling kernel and 2D sketching. These two components comprise the heart of Wildcat and garner the majority of my attention for the time being. For 2D sketching, primitives such as conics, arcs, circles, axis of revolution, points, and lines have been implemented. With these primitives a wide variety of 2D sketches can be drafted. Upon exiting back to 3D mode, the sketch is automatically analyzed and sketch profiles are generated. In addition to 2D primitives, geometric and dimensional constraints can be attached to a sketch. As with all other sketch features, constraints created in a sketch are show in the specification tree when in 3D mode. Currently the constraints do not alter the sketch as you might expect. This requires a geometric constraint management system, something that is being worked on and will hopefully be included in the next few months. To create 3D parts, Wildcat currently supports extrusions and revolutions of 2D sketch profiles. With these two operations many simple parts can be realized. Complex parts require the ability to add, subtract, and union multiple operations into one solid body; this functionality is the current focus of development. In the future Wildcat will support the full range of modeling tools expected in CAD systems. All sketches and 3D parts created in Wildcat are saved in an XML-based file format, and so should easily accommodate all planned functionality. Being XML-based also means that developing tools to translate to and from the native Wildcat format into other CAD formats should be straightforward. Incorporating STEP and IGES support is one of the highest priority development goals. Screen Images 2D constraints 3D part Another 3D part Availability All of the code for Wildcat is publicly available via anonymous Subversion server at wildcat-cad.googlecode.com . Pre-compiled binary versions of the application are being developed and will be posted to the downloads section of the Website. I regularly post blog updates about my progress at wildcat-cad.blogspot.com . The OS X and Windows versions are up and running, though they do require moderately powerful hardware. The Linux version is being worked on but is not currently running. Documentation for Wildcat is being created and will be available at code.google.com/p/wildcat-cad/w/list . I welcome anyone interested in joining the development effort or wanting to provide user feedback to contact me via the Web sites listed above. Not Just Acrobat 3D; Corel, Too Adobe made its one-day news splash last week by announcing -- or, more accurately, allowing the media to announce -- its to-be-released-next-month Acrobat 9 Pro Extended. They're spending the resources to become the CAD model viewer (and sometimes, translator) of choice. "Not so fast," shouts Corel from Canada. They've licensed parts of Right Hemisphere's Deep Exploration software for use in the next release of Corel's Designer Technical Suite. Like Acrobat 3D (and its renamed Pro Extended update), Designer will read 3D CAD models and then output them as 2D graphics and 3D PDFs. Support is for 80+ file formats, including CATIA, Inventor, Pro/E, SolidWorks, and NX. No-charge pre-release technology preview available for download from www.designer.com/preview Out of the Inbox PanzerCAD's Camera Match 2008 ($100) is a VectorWorks 2008 plug-in that aligns 3D views to photographs. www.panzercad.com Avatech Solutions updates its Revit Utilities software ($0) at www.avatech.com/web/revitutilities : Room Renumber Door Mark Update Change Case Revit City Browser Earth Connector. Intergraph releases SmartPlant Foundation 2008 with new "Domain" technology lets multiple disciplines to work together on shared engineering projects. www.intergraph.com Graphisoft is offering discounts until the end of the month at www.graphisoftus.com : $500 off next ArchiCAD license. $200 off next ArchiCAD Start Edition license. 1 year of ArchiPLUS Free with 3 year contract. kubit GmbH ships PointCloud v4.0 for processing point clouds of laser scanners in AutoCAD. Multiple point clouds can be loaded, and a new osnap (pointcloud) allows snapping to individual points. No-charge trial version from www.kubit.de - - - These news items were posted during the last week at the WorldCAD Access blog < worldcadaccess.typepad.com>: Who Needs MicroStation? TIP: Open "Any" File with Acrobat Pro Ext 9 Flomerics to Autodesk: Save Us from Mentor Constraint System for AutoCAD Seminars & Conferences LMS Engineering Simulation Conference 2008 is Oct 8-9 in Paris France. www.lmsintl.com/lmsconferences/europe Magazine/eZine/Weblog Updates www.shadowpush.com has put together a bunch of open source stuff that allows huge 3D CAD models to be transmitted to end-users. People/Companies on the Move Evolve Consultancy is pleased to appoint Karen Fugle as a third director. www.evolve-consultancy.com Avatech Solutions launche its new Avatech Consulting Services Group for the manufacturing sector. www.avatech.com Market News Hexagon Metrology acquires product distributor Advanced Metrology Solutions of Dayton OH. Bentley Systems acquires Common Point of Mountain View CA, makers of construction and operations simulation software. New Books/eBooks "Revit Architecture 2009: A Comprehensive Guide" by H. Edward Goldberg Published by Pearson Education 444 pages; $80.00 "What's Inside? AutoCAD 2009 - Third Edition" by Ralph Grabowski Published by upFront.eZine Publishing 98 pages, full color; PDF $13.20 www.upfrontezine.com/wia9 Letters to the Editor Re: Acrobat 9 "Even I understand what Adobe does/did with Acrobat (i am only using some simple functions in vers. 7) and I did send your address to many of my freelancers in order to learn stuff. Keep up the good work, we need people like you." - Florian, editor CAD&rit-nytt, Sweden Re: AutoCAD 2009 "I read in WorldCAD Access about a gentleman who had reverted back to the screen menu [and turned off the ribbon in AutoCAD 2009]. I have never stopped using the screen menu and it beats toolbars, tool palettes, and definitely beats the ribbon. "I am sending you screen captures showing a comparison of the toolbars with the screen menu. The toolbars shown give 36 commands; the screen menu shows 56 available commands in the same space. Tool palettes eat up a lot more space and not nearly as convenient. "This beats anything that AutoCAD has ever come up with. The only way you might beat this is by writing a bunch of custom programs and assorted other tasks. Just put it in the screen menu and you are good to go. "This just shows that sometimes what passes for progress is not really progress. When progress makes work harder and it takes longer then that is not good unless you are getting paid OT [overtime]. As always thanks for the newsletter. I ALWAYS READ ALL OF IT." - Jack Foster Spin Doctor of the Moment "Number one, there will be no media consumption left in 10 years that is not delivered over an IP [internet protocol] network. There will be no newspapers, no magazines that are delivered in paper form. Everything gets delivered in an electronic form. Yeah. If it's 14 or if it's 8, it's immaterial to my fundamental point." - Steve Ballmer, CEO, Microsoft www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/06/04/AR2008060403770.html Notable Quotable "They have a fantastic cash cow. They need a goat and a chicken." - Marc Benioff, CEO Salesforce.com, describing Google. money.cnn.com/2008/05/09/technology/where_does_google_go.fortune Thank You to Our Subscribers & Donators These great people support upFront.eZine through their contributions of $25 (or more). Thank you, guys! Abbott Wood Consulting Alan Walford, EOS Systems Andrew Manington Copyright 2008 by upFront.eZine Publishing, Ltd. All rights reserved worldwide Article reprint fee US$250.0 and up. All trademarks belong to their respective holders. "upFront.eZine," "Talking About CAD," and "the business of CADg" are trademarks of upFront.eZinePublishing, Ltd. Letters to the editor may be reproduced in an edited form for clarity and brevity. Opinions expressed in letters are not necessarily shared by upFront.eZine Publishing, Ltd.