The Open Design Alliance surveys its 1,270 members each year to learn which services they are using, and what new services they'd like the organization to provide. The ODA generously provided me access to the results of the Teigha Usage Survey for 2014 and 2015, and gave me permission to write about them. Teigha is the name of the ODA's APIs [application programming interface].
The survey results give us a glimpse into what third-party developers want, albeit specific to the ODA services. The industries in which members work are pretty evenly distributed between AEC, MCAD, Civil, GIS, and PPP (process and power plants); civil had a slight edge. About a quarter of members complete the survey.
The question I found most interesting asked what they used Teigha for. Only about 1/6th of members use it for a CAD system; most use it for translation. Here are the results, in order of popularity:
- Import/export of DWG/DGN data from another CAD application
- (tied) Access the DWG/DGN database for title block searches, extents queries, and so on
- (tied) File conversion
- Rendering or simple GUI-style editing
- Programmatic editing of DWG/DGN files, such as fixing x-ref paths
- Full Teigha-based CAD system
- Web-based applications
- Teigha Xtensions (TX) development
For development, nearly all members use recent releases of Windows-based Visual Studio. For other desktop operating systems, Linux (14%) is somewhat more popular than Mac (11%), which matches numbers I've seen elsewhere; ie, Linux a bit more popular than Mac for CAD. A few are using Android and iOS (3.5% each), and a very few holdouts employ Solaris/Sparc and HP. I assume the reference to HP means HP-UX, Unix.
To display drawings, ODA members mostly use GDI and OpenGL. About a third use Microsoft's proprietary DirectX, a sixth use OpenGL ES2 (meant for mobile apps), and a few just use plain old bitmapping.
DWG and DGN
Some results are unsurprising. Slightly over half primarily use DWG 2013, and just under half DWG 2010. Since many use more than one version of DWG, the overlap means the results exceed 100%. A sixth still use DWG 2000 and earlier, although this could be simply for a CAD system that allows users to save in earlier formats.
The ODA also supports the DGN format created by Bentley Systems for its Microstation CAD system. A combined 21% use Teigha for accessing DGN V7 and V8 files.
Teigha Components
Teigha is the name of the ODA's API, of which they provide quite a few varients. Here is they are in order of popularity:
- Teigha Core (DWG/DXF read/write)
- Teigha DGN (Microstation)
- Teigha.NET (SWIG generated; Simplified Wrapper and Interface Generator that wraps C/C++ functions for Python, Perl, and Tcl scripting languages)
- Teigha.NET Classic (for all .net systems)
- TeighaX (ActiveX)
- Teigha Architecture (supports ADT custom objects)
- Teigha Classic (legacy C libraries)
- Teigha for Java
- Teigha Civil (supports custom objects)
- Teigha Cloud
- Teigha PRC (Product Representation Compact: 3D models stored in PDF files)
- Teigha Xtensions SDK (software development kit)
When asked if Teigha contains everything they needed, just over half of developers said Yes, and just under half said they would like to see more features.
Future Plans
The ODA is working on a server-browser API, a.k.a. cloud. When members were asked if they were interested in Web-based rendering, most said they have little or no interest (65%). Just over 30% have moderate or strong interest in it.
Of those interested in server-browser APIs, most wanted it for rendering (viewing drawings). Smaller numbers wanted it for limited editing, such as marking up drawings. Only 20% expressed an interest in a full CAD app or a multi-user collaborative editor, of which OnShape is a current example.
The ODA is also working on PRC [Product Representation Compact], which stores 3D models in PDF files. Members were asked what aspects they considered important. Most want export (write 3D PDFs), and nearly as many want import (bring PDFs into CAD systems or for translation). Only half as many wanted rendering (display 3D PDFs).
There were a few other questions asked about future development possibilities, which I won't report on until they get officially announced.
http://www.opendesign.com |
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ASCON Group keeps updating its Renga architectural design software, with update 2.2 coming out sooner than the promised three-month update schedule. The main new feature is applying textures to single objects and groups prior to exporting 3D models to renderers like 3D Max, Blender, Lumion, and KeyShot.
Renga normally requires graphics with DirectX hardware acceleration, but for computers without it, v2.2 adds GPU emulation mode so that the software can display models with nearly any graphics board. You can try out the 60-day demo of Renga Architecture from http://rengacad.com/en/. |
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Read the blog at WorldCAD Access as I write more about the CAD industry, and give tips on using hardware and software. You can also keep up with the blog through RSS feeds and email alerts. These are some of the articles that appeared on WorldCAD Access during the last week:
- foto of the sunday: Vancouver Harbourfront
- It's 2016, and AutoCAD Still Can't Do This One Thing
- The 2016 edition of "BricsCAD for AutoCAD Users" now shipping
- Our 10-second STEM [science, technology, engineering, mathematics] test
- Why I no longer wear a smartwatch
- Recent patents applied for by Autodesk
- Why I'll never buy another Lenovo , part ii
- Why I'll never buy another Lenovo
- Getting more disk space for free
- Neolant Says InterBridge Far Better than Navisworks, et al
- Live Blog: Onshape's Two Announcements
- Who Could Buy Onshape?
I'm also on Twitter at @upfrontezine throughout the day with late-breaking CAD news and wry commentary, such as....
upFront.eZine (@upFronteZine) Dec 28: "Universal Windows Platform is Microsoft's renewed attempt to lock in 3rd-party devs, who found they can write for Mac-Win-Lin quite nicely." |
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Or you can mail a cheque (US$ or CDN$ only, please) to upFront.eZine Publishing, Ltd., 34486 Donlyn Avenue, Abbotsford BC, V2S 4W7, Canada |
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Andrew McAfee @amcafee: "40% of students starting STEM degrees switch majors or drop out entirely: http://nyti.ms/v6zLAg"
Marc Andreessen @pmarca: "Something everyone knows but nobody wants to talk about: Some majors are simply much harder than others." |
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