upFront.eZine Issue #805
by Ralph Grabowski
Autodesk is quiet about its other solid modeling kernel, Core, perhaps because Core is directed at powering consumer-oriented software that runs in Web browsers -- unlike the fuss the company made over the introductions of ACIS and ShapeManager.
Less than a year ago (May 5, 2013, exactly) Autodesk bought TinkerCAD, one of several browser-based CAD packages that suddenly became common through the combination of HTML5 and browsers that could run Javascript fast. Two months earlier, the owners of TinkerCAD had stopped development, planning to shut it down entirely by this June. They wanted to concentrate on Airstone, "supercomputing as a service." But then Autodesk snapped up TinkerCAD and saved the day for its upset user base.
Co-founder (and ex-Googler) Kai Backman called TinkerCAD the first ever cloud-based 3D CAD program, while Wired magazine called it "3D design for idiots." Backman said he wrote the software to make it easier for his kids to design 3D models for the family's newly-acquired 3D printer.
Autodesk already had one Web-based CAD program (AutoCAD 360), so why would it buy another? I think the company was more interested in the 3D modeling kernel, Gen6, and its scripting extension, the JavaScript-based Shape language (which generates solids programmatically), than TinkerCAD itself. (Kean Walmsley has written about his experiences programming with Shape in his Through the Interface blog, such as "Community Shape Scripts in Tinkercad" at http://through-the-interface.typepad.com/through_the_interface/2013/09/community-shape-scripts-in-tinkercad.html)
Gen6 got its name from being the sixth (and final) generation of the kernel. It reads b-rep or mesh data, and then outputs meshes and solids, as well as files suitable for 3D printing. An oddity is that its resolution is quite coarse at 1mm -- perhaps because the target was 3D printers, not precision design. But here's the part I think would interest Autodesk: it was meant to run on thousands of CPU cores through server clusters. In theory, this lets it complete solid modeling computations a few thousand times faster than a desktop computer.
Autodesk renamed Gen6 as Core. It was written in Go and C. Shape scripts are generated by the user's interactions with TinkerCAD, and then transmitted from the Web browser to Core running on servers. The servers run the scripts (it can run multiple scripts in parallel), and then returns the results to the browser as a resulting solid or mesh. Both the browser and the server use caches to speed operations further.
But being designed to work with thousands of cores is no guarantee of performances, as Autodesk found out last month when the number of users overwhelmed TinkerCAD, forcing a five-day shutdown.
Since its launch, the browser-based CAD package has become popular with educators, because it allows free access to 3D modeling through (suitable) Web browsers (such as recent releases of FireFox and Chrome, but not Opera or Internet Explorer) running on school computers, even Chromebooks. Or, if you prefer, you can pay $19, $99, or $499 a month at http://www.tinkercad.com.
Autodesk says Core is not limited to TinkerCAD. Core is documented at https://api.tinkercad.com/libraries/1vxKXGNaLtr/0/docs/index.html
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Introducing Core, Autodesk's Other Solid Modeling Kernel, continued...
A Brief History of Solid Modeling at Autodesk
1987 was the year Autodesk made its first foray into solid modeling when it spent $6 million on Cadetron and its software, which went by the odd name of The Engineer Works. Its 3D modeller was based on PADL-2 (Part and Assembly Description Language), a protokernel unveiled a decade earlier. And so PADL-2 became Autodesk's first solid modeling kernel.
Under Autodesk, the The Engineer Works name stuck around during the beta program, which did not prove popular, because of its $10,000 price tag (for beta!) and it required SCO Xenix, Microsoft's variant of the Unix operating system for PCs. Coming out of beta in 1988, it was ported to DOS, renamed AutoSolid, and sold as a standalone package for $5,000. Two years later, the 3D solid modeler was integrated into AutoCAD Release 11 as a $500 add-on called AME (AutoCAD modeling extension), and then later fully integrated with no special name and no extra cost.
In 1990, Autodesk switched kernels from PADL-2 to ACIS, licensing it from Spatial. And then in 2001 Autodesk forked ACIS v7.0 to produce ShapeManger, its own kernel that to this day powers 3D modeling in AutoCAD and Inventor.
The reason for the forking was Dassault Systemes' purchase of Spatial; the permission for the forking was through Autodesk's joint-developer status in the licensing agreement with Spatial; the effect of the forking was a pair of law suits brought on by Dassault.
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Heard In Twitter and On the Blog
upFront.eZine (@upFronteZine): Lawyers Brodsky & Smith sue over Accelrys selling itself to Dassault, claiming the price tag not expensive enough. Moral: don't buy American
upFront.eZine (@upFronteZine): Lawyers says price per share should've been $13.00, not a mesely $12.50 (already a 29% bonus). Deets here -> http://finance.yahoo.com/news/shareholder-alert-law-office-brodsky-024500428.html
Alex Bausk (@bauskas): I swear I'll call them tommorrow and ask why not $13.50 in the thickest Russian accent possible.
- - -
Here are items that appeared recently on the WorldCAD Access blog at http://worldcadaccess.typepad.com:
- Graphisoft to highlight BIMcloud -- in Tokyo, in March
- Dwg Compatibility of ProgeCAD and AutoCAD
- What the media tweeted about Solidworks Mechanical Conceptual
- Why LEDAS Labs is choosing C3D -- and other updates on LEDAS
Letters to the Editor
Re: Dassault Moves to the Internal Cloud
"What is the Giza project? Couldn't find anything online about this. Also, what's the next big event to attend to learn more about Dassault's vision, plans, products, etc?"
- M. A.
The editor replies: "Dassault did some work with the pyramids in Egypt. Here is their Web page on the project: http://giza3d.3ds.com.
"3DExperience Customer Forum is the name of their primary conference, which they hold at different locations around the world throughout the year. They also hold conferences for specific products, like SolidWorks or Catia. Here is their Web page for all conferences:http://www.3ds.com/events.
"Note that their Web address is 3ds.com and not dassault.com."
Notable Quotable
"So, one thing I'm not going to do though, Paul, is I'm not going to pull myself in anymore of a corner than I've already done already, right because essentially -- I mean that's self exceeding prophecy."
- Matthew Vella
http://seekingalpha.com/article/1752852-acacias-ceo-discusses-q3-2013-results-earnings-call-transcript
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