| by Ralph Grabowski with Dave Taylor |
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TuboCAD is one of those mainstays of the CAD world that like AutoCAD we tend to not notice areas in which it keeps improving. Now, to be fair, it's the programming folks at places like Spatial who make the nouveau magic possible, most recently the new ACIS R26 solid modeling kernel. Senior product manager Dave Taylor showed me what's new in TurboCAD 2016, asIMSI/Design's new CEO Bob Meyer listened along.
Advanced Blending gets two new ways to apply "variable fillets" to edges, which is what I would call them. With a Hold Line Blend, we select an edge, and then select a spline that determines the shape and curvature of the blend. When I asked Mr Taylor where the "hold line" name comes from, he revealed that they adopted the ACIS term for this function.
The other function they call the Variable Blend, which I would call describe as a "squiggle fillet." See figure 1. Mr Taylor placed several points along edge, with each one specifying a different radius factor. When he selected the edge to blend, the "fillet" varied its size by the various radii specified by the points. The radii are not static, and so can be changed any time later, parametrically and on-the-fly.
 Figure 1One of the new types of advanced blending, Variable Blend
Bend Path takes any 3D object and then bends it along a 2D or 3D path, such as along an arc or spline. The result looked to me like the two ends of the object ending up at either end of the path, with the rest of the object stretched along the path. Think of pulling taffy. When we specify a draft angle, the object is tilted along the path; no results that are self-intersecting are allowed, as per the usual ACIS rules. Again, the result is parametric and so can be changed interactively afterwards.
Revolve has a new option that left me impressed: the command now revolves an imprint on the faces of 3D objects. The result is a curved hole or a curved solid, as shown in figure 2.
Figure 2
Cutting and adding curved elements from and to 3D solids
Extract Entity derives 2D elements from 3D solids to arrive at sheet bodies, a solid with no thickness. It includes an option for removing gaps in sheet bodies.
Mirror Copy is enhanced to do 3D mirror-copy operations at a face, which gets highlighted to confirm which face is the mirror plane.
On the architectural side, roof slabs can be modified using ACIS 3D modeling tools, like trims to intersect walls and slabs; the results are some pretty fancy looking roofs that could never be modeling using traditional roof creation tools..
Parametric Formulas
There's much talk nowadays about regenerative design or algorithmic modeling, in which designers use and tweak formulas to generate complex shapes that would otherwise be practically un-designable by human manipulation. When you see a bizarrely-shaped building facade these days, a regenerative formula was probably involved.
Figure 3
Dialog box displaying formulae for constructing 3D solids from laws
With TurboCAD 2016, IMSI/Design added their version, calling it "Laws." These are formulas that define 3D parametric curves and surfaces. Mr Taylor selected a formula (law) from the dialog box (see figure 3), and then as he moved the cursor, a complex 3D shape developed in the drawing in real-time. He constructed shapes that to me looked like waves, pencil shavings, and ram's horns! (See figure 4.) "Almost like MathCAD," chuckled Mr Taylor.
 Figure 4Examples of 3D models created from laws, inside TurboCAD 2016's user interface
But wait, there's more! TurboCAD also offers Offset Laws, which generate offsets that go off at angles or along paths that look like sine waves and other shapes; we are no longer limited to merely parallel offsets. Another variation uses of laws to warp existing objects according to the formula: Tweak Facecreates complex shapes from laws, and then applies them to the sides of 3D boxes; the shape of the faces is not the result of addition or subtraction, but the result of deformations.
Laws work well for organic modeling,modeling, Mr Meyer pointed out, and are definitely not meant for beginners. He advises users to look at TurboCAD's documentation for examples of equations that can be used.
Other Improvements
Point clouds import is an example that not every new feature in TurboCAD depends on outside APIs. Written in-house, the function imports PCD point cloud data, and then displays it. See figure 5. This initial release is limited to saving subsets to smaller point cloud files, and turning the massive collection of points into triangles (surface mesh objects).
Figure 5Displaying 3D point cloud data of a cat apparently moving slowly enough to be captured by the laser scanner
What I saw was a first step, as IMSI/Design plans to expand capabilities with future releases, such as supporting DEM [digital elevation model] files. Colorization would be nice, too.
Rendering in TurboCAD is updated to RedSDK's v4 engine for better looking lighting and rendering, such as soft shadows. See figure 6. TurboCAD now imports SketchUp models and then add materials and lighting to take advantage of the stock found in Trimble's 3D Warehouse.
Figure 6TurboCAD drawing rendered using some SketchUp models and REDsdk by Marián Jurčák
Last but not least, Undo is now remembered across editing sessions by storing them in TurboCAD's TCD drawing file. Save and exit a drawing, and then after we open it again we can still undo operations from before the exit.
TurboCAD Pro 2016 ($1,495) and Platinum 2016 ($1,695) for Windows are shipping now. Download the demo versions from http://www.turbocad.com |
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This is not a first for Autodesk in making a data sharing agreements. There was that earlier one with Bentley Systems that allows AutoCAD to read DGN files; now Autodesk does the same with Siemens. The #2 and #3 CAD vendors say they want to share interoperability toolkits.
I have underlined a key phrase in the carefully-worded press release -- I wonder how many revisions it went through -- where it says, "Interoperability between the offerings from Siemens and Autodesk will significantly improve the many situations where a combination of their software currently exists." From this, I take it that scenarios could include those in which TeamCenter reads and writes AutoCAD, Inventor, and Fusion files, with PLM 360 doing the same for Solid Edge and NX.
Press release source: http://news.autodesk.com/press-release/manufacturing-automotive-and-transportation/autodesk-and-siemens-sign-agreement-increa |
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There is more at our WorldCAD Access blog about the CAD industry, tips on using hardware and software, and our popular travelogues. You can keep up with the blog through its RSS feed and email alert service. These are some of the articles that appeared on WorldCAD Access during the last week:
- ITC continues in pursuit of Gstarsoft
We're on Twitter at @upfrontezine with late-breaking CAD news and wry commentary throughout the day, such as....
Randall S. Newton (@RSNatWork) Mar 4: Oculus founder Palmer Luckey trash-talks Macs as VR platform. http://ow.ly/Z4Qr1
upFront.eZine (@upFronteZine) Mar 4: Apple has always been lame in supporting GPUs; maybe Facebook has the power to change Apple's mind. |
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Re: Vulkan 1.0 Launches
It's good to see at one dinosaur CAD company finally joining the Khronos Group, which is the obvious organization to be part of if you are serious about exploiting GPU technology.
You'll note that [my former employer] is not listed. A couple of years ago, I suggested they join Khronos. Something needed to be done about the company's risible lack of coordination in relation to this extremely challenging -- yet very promising -- computational technology that ought to be relevant to many of their products.
This suggestion (unlike the 150 or so others I posted on their ideas board) was spotted by middle managers and filtered up through the layers until it reached the monthly technical meeting, where it vanished after the CTO said he couldn't see the point.
I tried emailing the CTO directly, asking him exactly what kind of tech he had on his mind when he was going round the world making those speeches about the new era of computing, and got a rather testy reply. It appears that stuff developed after the 1990s makes the executive team feel uncomfortable.
So you can forget about programmers working on all those post-2000 developments like Linux, high performance scripting languages, infrastructure open source libraries, and browser-based applications, along with GPU computing -- until there is a new leadership team that is more up to date with the times.
Culture eats strategy for breakfast.
- Name withheld
- - -
Small correction: the D3D conference is on March 31, not 21.
- Thomas Teger, vp products & strategy
Luxion, Inc
The editor replies: Thank you for noticing. 'Twas a slip of the finger. Sign up for being at Develop3D Live live-in-person or for watching the video stream in the comfort of your home theatre through http://develop3dlive.com. |
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