There are CAD vendors, and then there are the vendors that undergird the CAD vendors. These somewhat invisible software developers are the reason CAD exists today in abundance. Or to put it another way, CAD software from ArchiCAD to ZwCAD would have a much harder time progressing without the silent ones -- or perhaps not even exist.
A company like Datakit provides the translation commands; Spatial the solid modeling commands; RedSDK the rendering commands; D-cubed the 2D and 3D constraints commands; Visual Integrity the PDF commands; Qt the user interface; and Microsoft the programming language.
Many of these undergirders are narrow specialists, while others, like C3D Labs, try to broadly provide nearly everything you need to build an MCAD system. Heck, the Open Design Alliance, all on its own, provides the foundation for nearly every AutoCAD workalike out there, while the IntelliCAD Technical Consortium provides a complete CAD system. (My apologies to the many companies whose names I didn't list!)
When CAD vendors tout new features in their latest releases, very often they simply implement functions provided by the undergirding software. The marketing department of an MCAD program suddenly touts its ability to place partial fillets? Thank the provider of the modeling kernel. CAD vendors use APIs [application programming interfaces] to implement the functions in their CAD programs' code, exposing the functions through command names and options.
These undergirding companies, so crucial to our livelihood, are largely invisible, because they do not sell to us, the millions of CAD users. Their customers are other corporations, who number in the hundreds. The small size of the customer base is compensated for by the stream of ongoing royalties on sales of the software to end users. You're going to fail by trying to sell your software to end users for $5, but you can do quite well receiving $5 from every CAD vendor's thousands or millions of customers.
One of these near-invisible companies is Tech Soft 3D. It has perhaps the broadest portfolio of technology licensable to CAD developers. It too is the basis of CAD and support programs, such as eDrawings for Solidworks users.
Tech Soft 3D is HOOPS
Tech Soft 3D got its start in 1996 as a provider of software developer tools. Today it has over 100 employees who work with hundreds of software developers, including Adobe, Siemens, Dassault Systems, Autodesk, 3D Systems, Hexagon, and Trimble. Its technology powers over 500 applications. Tech Soft 3D specializes in acquiring software, the two best known ones being HOOPS (more than 20 years ago) and 3D PDF.
The company calls its approach 'strategic technology partnerships'. “We’re not ‘graphics guys’ or ‘translation guys’ or ‘3d PDF guys’,” explained Tech Soft 3D to me. “We’re the ‘help you build innovative and successful applications’ guys. We’re only successful when our partners are successful, so we’re careful about who we partner with and we do everything possible to help them.”
HOOPS Visualize displays 2D and 3D CAD graphics. It was developed originally at Cornell University in Ithaca, NY, and then commercialized by Ithaca Software. (You might recognize one name from those times, Carl Bass.) Autodesk implemented HOOPS under the name of Heidi, now shortened to HDI. I love that HDI is the longest -- and least memorable -- acronym in all of CAD: Heidi (HOOPS [hierarchal object-oriented picture system] extensible immediate drawing interface) device interface.
Figure 1: HOOPS Publish workflow (image source Tech Soft 3D)
HOOPS has become so synonymous with Tech Soft 3D that its primary software offerings are licensed under the HOOPS brand:
- HOOPS Visualize – graphics engine for developing native desktop and mobile applications
- HOOPS Communicator -- 3D Web visualization
- HOOPS Exchange -- CAD data translation and access
- HOOPS Publish -- publishing to 3D PDF, HTML, and standard CAD formats (see figure 1)
Tech Soft 3D acquired 3D PDF technology when Adobe realized it was not really cut out for the CAD world. (That's a whole long story in CAD history by itself.) Regular PDF documents can embed 3D models, which you can then pan, zoom, or orbit. For an example, try out [PDF, 16MB] https://downloads.contentful.com/ (see figure 2).
Figure 2: Interactive 3D model opened in Acrobat Pro
The Tetra4D division of Tech Soft 3D sells these end-user applications:
- Tetra4D Converter -- converting 3D CAD to 3D PDF
- Tetra4D Enrich – creates custom, interactive 3D PDFs inside of Acrobat Pro without programming; you can add bills of materials and view carousels
- Tetra4D Automate – simple server solution that generates 3D PDFs automatically
- Tetra4D Reader -- mobile app for viewing 3D PDFs on Android devices
In addition, Tech Soft 3D is an OEM'er for CAD vendors:
- Selling Parasolid modeling kernel, which has a strong integration with HOOPS graphics and data reuse (in turn, Parasolid resells HOOPS Exchange)
- Reselling Polygonica from Machineworks for cleaning up polygonal data
- Exclusively reselling AutoCAD OEM, Inventor OEM, and RealDWG.
The big push today is Web and mobile applications. C++ was popular as a programming language, but was limited by being desktop-oriented. Web development is cheaper and faster.
Three-D was not really viable before WebGL (based on Open GL graphics language) came out from Chronos Group in 2010, and was supported by Google. Tech Soft 3D put together graphics and translation technology for Web developers, which is used by Solidworks, GrabCAD, Aras, and others for their browser-based apps.
Technology for mobile tends to put everything on the cloud, but mobile devices can have difficulties with latency, browser problems, and a lack of backend sophistication and scalability. So Tech Soft 3D worked hard to push work down to local devices, which now can open files like STEP and JT files, so that no backend is needed. HOOPS Exchange for iOS, for example, is used by Shapr3D to run Parasolid and HOOPS Exchange natively on iPad Pros, so that users can do real design on a tablet.
People were first most interested in b-rep [boundary representation], then PMI [product manufacturing information], and now downstream apps, such as measurements and CAM. Users want more information from what's stored in files, like features information providing thread information. MBE [model-based engineering] is making progress; whereas Tech Soft 3D used to see it mainly in certain large industries, it’s now available in mid-market MCAD programs.
https://www.techsoft3d.com and https://tetra4d.com
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| Some of the most recent posts on my WorldCAD Access blog:
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nanoCAD 3DScan is new software from NanoSoft for processing and analyzing laser scanning data. It handles point clouds up to 2.5 billion points and processes raw source data; slices, filters, and segments the cloud. Available on subscription or permanent license. nanocad.com/products/nanoCAD-3DScan
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Cadline released ARCHline.XP Architect 2018 last week with the following new features:
- Subdivide projects for teams
- Bind walls to stories
- Rules for intersections
- Point clouds (see figure)
- Drawing comparison
- Parameters for stories
- Add insulation to existing walls
...and more. https://www.archlinexp.com/archline-xp/new-in-archline-xp-2018
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What Autodesk told financial analysts during its quarterly conference call for Q4: "Subscription additions fell below expectations." seekingalpha.com/article/4153997
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Datakit updates its translators for the new Rhino 6:
- Import ACIS, CATIA V4/V5/V6, CGR, Inventor, JT, Parasolid, PLMXML, ProE/Creo Parametric, Solid Edge, NX
- Export to CATIA V4/V5, CGR, JT, Parasolid, 3DPDF, SOLIDWORKS, NX
http://www.datakit.com/en/conversion-plug-ins/rhino-25.html
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I thought CAD/CAM/PLM had solved this problem, no?
"F-35 Joint Program Office slammed Lockheed for... errors made by Lockheed’s workforce that could include drilling holes that are too big or installing a dinged part" -- or is the reporter speculating? www.defensenews.com/air/2018/03/06/
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The Russian translation of my review of Siemens PLM Software's update to Solid Edge ST10 is available through LEDAS: isicad.ru/ru/articles.php
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Commenters on The Register noted that if Occulus Rift needs to renew a certificate, that means it needs an Internet connection, which means Facebook is probably collecting your VR activities, Onavo-style: https://forums.theregister.co.uk/forum
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My latest ebook is on how to customize most aspects of BricsCAD V18. The 530-page book is available as a free download (PDF, 16MB) from www.bricsys.com/bricscad/docs.
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For late-breaking CAD news, follow upFront.eZine on Twitter at @upfrontezine. |
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Your newsletter mainly addresses topics of interest to commercial enterprises, however there is a thread on the Endless Sphere e-Bike forum that discuses CAD/CAM software you might find interesting: endless-sphere.com/forums/viewtopic.php
- Lewis Balentine
Re: Unreal Engine Comes to CAD
Wot, no .dwg (respectable 3D) support in Unreal Studio? Not even .rvt [REvit]? Or many of the usual CAD (solids) formats? Don’t say it only recognizes surface/mesh models! If so, what can BIMmotion be, and surely ‘70% of small-firm/individual Architects’ can’t be big in surfaces?
- Tom Foster
Tom Foster Architecture, United Kingrom
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How can you put effort into a new product aimed at CAD-to-VR workflows and completely ignore the world's primary CAD format? Seriously? What an own-goal! Go home Epic Games.
-Steve Johnson on Twitter (@SteveJohnsonCAD)
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Maybe it has to do with the widespread belief that .dwg files are 2D. The only saving grace (if you want to call it that) is that from AutoCAD you can save to other formats for import.
-Patrick Hughes on Twitter (@Time_Trvlr)
The editor replies: Keep in mind that Unreal Studio is in beta until November. Nevertheless, it has no import from architectural CAD, either, except through 3dStudio and the like. FBX is one format that is in common with AutoCAD and Unreal. We gave Epic Games the opportunity to respond to the .dwg issue, but they chose not to.
Mr Johnson responds: Having had some experience exporting FBX from AutoCAD to Unity 3D, to create VR environments, I assure you that there are significant workflow problems in doing so. If Epic Games is about improving CAD-to-VR workflows, it not only missed the boat, it didn't even get to the port.
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One huge limitation with supporting DWG is that it is not open and thus relies on either licensing Autodesk libraries or licensing eg Teigha libraries. Others have more open libraries.
Moreover, FBX and Collada have been developed for game model sharing, with special attention to animation shaders and texture mapping. DWG is hardly fit for that purpose. (FBX is an Autodesk format.) But texture mapping is not AutoCAD’s forte. Game engines rely on meshes, not solids.
- Stefan Boeykens on Twitter (@stefkeB)
Re: Autodesk Subscriptions
Keep up the good work @SteveJohnsonCAD. Autodesk is only in business for the shareholders. Not the customers. #IamGONE. Bricsys, here I come!
- cw on Twitter (@cwgMTK) |
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"If Facebook, Google, and Twitter represent state-of-the-art AI, I don't think we have to fret the whole self-awareness thing any time soon."
- David Burge on Twitter (@iowahawkblog) |
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