upFront.eZine News Archives

Varjo Targets Industry With its VR-1 Goggles

Issue #1,007 

 

by Ralph Grabowski For just over two years, Varjo ("shadow" in Finnish) worked on the world's highest-resolution headset for virtual reality. Last week, they released it: Originally named 'Bionic Display', it now has the more utilitarian VR-1 name Originally priced between e5,000 and e10,000 (US$5,500-$11,000), it starts at e5,995 (and US$5,995) with a mandatory e995 service agreement for the first year (optional thereafter) The services include 24-hour support, a full license to use the software in professional environments, and a replacement warranty Runs at "human-eye resolution" or about 60 pixels per degree (versus 18 for the HTC Vive) in the center, less around the edges Figure 1: Inside the Varjo VR-1 headset (image source Varjo) The company was founded by ex-Nokia employees who had found themselves part of Microsoft following the disastrous acquisition. There, they worked on HoloLens and then came back to Helsinki to design VR goggles for the high-end industrial market. The company raised $46 million from investors, including Siemens venture capital firm Next47.   Solving the Human Eye Resolution Problem I asked Varjo chief product officer Urho Konttori what resolution "human-eye resolution" equated to. He replied,  "60 pixels per degree" or "3000 pixels per inch," which he says is 20x higher than any other headset on the market, at time of writing (see figure 2). Figure 2: HTC Vive Pro resolution at left with screen door effect; Varjo VR-1 at right (image source Varjo) The headset that launched 2012's renaissance of VR, Occulus Rift, displayed 1080×1200 to each eyeball. HP earlier this month announced a new headset with 2160×2160 pixels per eye, while Pixma is taking pre-orders for their $900 3840x2160-resolution consumer-grade headset. So, what does "human-eye resolution" mean? The problem is that computer screens use uniform pixels, but our eyes use 130 million sensors, non-linearly -- unevenly. But if we were to assign a resolution, then we would get these numbers: When concentrating on something, we use the fovea's 2-degree field of view, which is about two megapixels Our peripheral vision goes up to 7 megapixels Overall, the eye's resolution might be equivalent to 576 megapixels, based on our entire field of view -- 120 degrees up and down, and 122 degrees side to side; see figure 3 Figure 3: The fields of view of typical human eyes (image source bistudio.com) But our brain interpolates the incoming images, filtering out our nose and eyeglass frames, filling in for the blind spot (where the nerves leave the eyeball), and interpolating the jitter from our head's movement (see figure 4). Figure 4: What the brain doesn't see:  Left to right: peripheral vision, blind spot, eyeglass frame, and nose (image source Vsauce) If you are deep into cameras, then you know that pixel resolution is irrelevant. The only thing that matters is distance: how small an item can we resolve at whatever distance. When we find we have a hard time resolving our sight, we get eye glasses. Here's a clear explanation of the problem of human eye resolution: forbes.com/sites/quora/2016/10/06/what-is-the-resolution-of-the-human-eye-in-megapixels/ -- or, if you prefer to watch a video, try this one youtu.be/4I5Q3UXkGd0   Solving the Tethering Problem, Partly One of the first VR setups I used was the Cardboard from Google, into which I stuck my Android phone, and downloaded some VR scenes. This is untethered viewing. But my very first VR experience was back in 1989, after Autodesk bought VPL Research. We got to see some primitive shapes (3D boxes, pyramids) while wearing a heavy, low-res headset connected by a massive collection of cables to a nearby a Compaq 386 computer running two Matrox graphics boards. Autodesk hoped to sell the kit for $15,000, but after a couple of years the advances just weren't forthcoming, and so Autodesk cut Jaron Lanier and his team loose. Today Mr Lanier warns about the abuses of technology. "The solution is to double down on being human," he now says. Thirty years later, high-end VR googles still need to be tethered. They do not work with smartphones, even if today's phones have more computing power than the mainframes that took man to the moon.  Varjo replaced the original 5m tether cable with one twice as long (30 feet) and made with optical fibre so that it is lightweight.   Solving the Data Reception Problem High-high VR needs very high-end GPUs to deliver high-resolution images at a higher-than-normal frame rate. When the resolution is low, the image looks poor; when the frame rate is too low, we get nausea when we look around. HP's solution is the backpack, a computer that resides comfortably (they say) on your back so that you are not limited by the tether. While you can use the VR-1 with a laptop, it needs at least a GPU like nVidia's NVA 280 ($200 or less) consumer GPU for office computers. High-end visualization software, like VRED ($2,800 a year), needs a high-end computer with nVidia's Quadro RTX 6000 ray-tracing board ($6,300 list price). Another way to reduce the data needed to transmit to the goggles is to mimic the eye: high resolution at the center, lower resolution around the sides, and so the VR-1 headset has two monitors for each eye: a 1920x1080 low-persistence micro-OLED and 1440x1600 low-persistence AMOLED. See figure 5. Varjo says they are the only ones to fuse two displays. (Low persistence means the image does not last very long on the screens, to reduce ghosting that occurs when you move your head and the image has to change quickly.)  Figure 5: How the VR-1's two screens simulate fovea and peripheral vision (image source UploadVR) But the eyes are constantly moving about, as we see things that interest us elsewhere. and so a sensor inside the helmet keeps track of what we are staring at. This lets us control the scene, like we are using a mouse, but with our eyes. A red bar replaces the mouse cursor. Eye tracking then can be used for other purposes, such as for consumer goods and AR. The consumer goods industry is obsessed with shelf space and where shoppers look as they browse stores and march down aisles. Entire industries are tasked with finding that out, so that you'll buy earth-tone Brand B one shelf down over the gaudy-red Brand A one shelf up -- or the other way around. In training, the trainer can see what the trainee is looking at, as does the computer. AR or XR or MR (all acronyms for VR that get's mixed in with reality) lets you see computer generated images displayed over top of your surroundings. The best example we have is Pokémon, but in the CAD world AR is seen as ideal for training and maintenance. Varjo say they want to release an add-on this year that adds AR capabilities to their headset. It will replace the front plate. Figure 6: What the VR-1 looks like right before you put it on (image source Varjo)   Solving the Who-Buys-It? Problem VR suffers from the same problem as 3D TV, but worse. 3D TV failed because it didn't make story lines any better, and because it meant we had to wear dorky-looking glasses that sometimes brought on nausea as the brain got confused as to what it was seeing -- or not seeing. VR replaces the geek eyeglasses with headsets that cover half the face, fully isolating family members and friends from each other. Pokémon works precisely because it does not require a headset. And so the key is to not sell to consumers, but high-end industries, like aircraft and automotive manufacturing, for these are the customers who can afford these kinds of high-end units -- just as in 3D printing. Varjo spent the beta period concentrating on these areas: Industrial designers at Audi, MBW, and VW Training and simulation departments at Airbus, Aaab, Bohemia, and other firms who cannot be named AEC design firms such as Foster + Partners, Siemens, Trimble, Mcneel & Associates, and Autodesk Siemens invested in Varjo possibly for using the VR-1 in factory design. Automotive firms tend to use Catia and NX for designing vehicles and VRED from Autodesk for viewing them right away (instead of taking a few weeks to build a clay model), and to examine effects, such as changing the paint color and what it looks like under a variety of weather conditions. And so Varjo made sure that VR-1 works with VRED. "If you can see things the same way as in real life, and if you can see the defects the same way, then you can use VR in design," Mr Konttori told me. "If not, then you need to validate your design the traditional way, such as through a clay model, which takes several weeks." After the units are manufactured (in China by Flex), they are calibrated for 20 minutes to ensure the color, resolution, and other aspects are accurate. As part of the Tuesday launch, Varjo has setup up VARs in 34 countries who already sell VR already, like cockpits and content creation companies. You can also buy it direct.  You can wear the VR-1 with glasses. It weighs 905g (2 lbs). An SDK is available. I did not have the opportunity to test a unit, but reviewers who have say this unit has a smaller field of view than other VR headsets,and that you have to move your head to maintain the fovea view. Some of the $41 million went into marketing videos whose tone isn't unfamiliar if you've ever watched a Finnish crime show, such as at https://vimeo.com/245052714 (see figure 7). As Varjo puts it, "Since we can't change reality, we change the eyes that see reality." Figure 7: Marketing the headset (image source Varjo) https://varjo.com   Sponsor: Okino Graphics == 3D CAD & DCC Conversion for MAXON's Cinema-4D Animation System == Okino (Toronto) and MAXON (Germany) celebrate 20 years of supporting MCAD data visualization through Okino's PolyTrans-for-Cinema-4D conversion software. MAXON's Cinema-4D is one of the world's most used and respected animation systems for MCAD data visualization. Okino's PolyTrans software transforms ultra-massive 3D datasets into highly-refined models for fast, efficient, and optimized animation creation. All conversions are 'Load & Go,' with no model rebuilding necessary. Popular CAD data sources include SolidWorks, ProE/Creo, Inventor, AutoCAD, Revit, Navisworks, DGN, IGES, STEP, Parasolid, and JT. DCC data sources are Cinema-4D, 3ds Max, Maya, FBX/Collada, and many more. Perfected over three decades, we know 3D data translation intimately, providing you with highly personalized solutions, education, and communication. Contact CTO Robert Lansdale at [email protected]  http://www.okino.com And In Other News Here are some of the most recent posts made to the WorldCAD Access blog: Archive: Visualizing Trans-humanism Differently Hardware Review: This is what it's like using a $30 smartwatch - - - Turkey's Mubitek licensed C3D Toolkit from C3D Labs for its Cizen die design software. Of significance, the C3D Modeler for geometric modeling replaces Open CASCADE and the C3D Solver constraint solver replaces D-Cubed from Siemens PLM Software. c3dlabs.com/en/ - - - Dassault Systems is expecting revenues of €3.81 - €3.84 for this year. Translated into US$, that's roughly $4.6 billion, using Dassault's own stated exchange rate of 1.2 during Q2-Q4. The volume of cloud business is below 10% of the revenue. Last year, it was two pillars; this year, it is three legs: Solidworks on the desktop Solidworks running native under the 3dexperience platform Solidworks xDesign -- CEO Bernard Charlès calls this a "new kind of entry point" but it's been re-announced now for several years. The company's CFO Pascal Daloz confirmed financial analyst Jay Vleeschhouwer's estimate that Dassault for the first time sold more than 80,000 licenses of Solidworks in 2018 -- "about double your next closest competitor." - - - CIMdata PLM published a new position paper on multiple-view bills of materials on behalf of the Aerospace & Defense PLM Action Group. Free download, after registration: cimdata.com/en/aerospace-and-defense - - - Develop 3D Live this year moves to Sheffield University in England, and the conference happens a few weeks later on 17 April. Taking part in the one-day CAD event is free, but you must have tickets from develop3dlive.com/register-now-2019/   Letters to the Editor May I ask if you have any news regarding the Hexagon-Bricsys acquisition? They are quiet.     - A. G. The editor replies: What I am hearing is that Hexagon is working on how best to integrate Bricsys, the company and its software. I think that Hexagon will leave Bricsys largely independent, but it is looking to see what products and processes can be useful. For example, Hexagon will try to get its customers to replace their copies of AutoCAD with BricsCAD. This will probably be quite an easy replacement, as Hexagon two years ago had worked for a year with Bricsys to make CADWorx work right with BricsCAD APIs. With the next release of CADWorx, BricsCAD will be included, although customers can keep using AutoCAD, if they prefer. Re: What 2019's looking like for Autodesk You wrote, "For instance, a future stadium could be moved to another location, with planners seeing in real-time the impact on cost, land, and any other data that's plugged in -- no need to estimate the impact, but actually simulate it." My daughters will be happy to hear about this. Their favorite game years ago was Roller Coaster Tycoon.  They will be glad that someone bought that software and is perpetuating it!     - Jess Davis     Davis Precision Design The editor replies: My kids loved that game, too. I think my key point was that the software isn't actually finished yet, so who knows if it can move stadiums in real-time. Mr Davis responds: I think that someone driven to innovation should work in an industry that demands innovation. That isn't the mechanical CAD industry.  Autodesk is taking three data points -- the drafting board, 2D CAD, and 3D CAD -- and extrapolating that line of innovation on the assumption that its slope will stay the same. They are flailing around up there on the graph where they assumed the line would be, while their customers are down here trying to explain to them that the line broke over years ago, and is running nearly flat. - - - Andrew Anognost thinks he can automate CAD. There’s no way that’s possible. They can’t even get Inventor to interchange data with Shovit yet. And they’re dropping Advance Steel, which never had any data interchange with Inventor. Even worse, Inventor can’t interchange data with Tekla. What are they thinking?     - Chris Cadman The editor replies: It took them many years to get AutoCAD and Inventor to exchange data. Other CAD vendors have integrated systems that don't suffer from data incompatibility.   Thank You, Readers Should you wish to support upFront.eZine through PayPal, then the suggested amounts are like these: $25 for individuals > paypal.me/upfrontezine/25 $175 for small companies > paypal.me/upfrontezine/175 $950 for for large companies > paypal.me/upfrontezine/950 Should Paypal.me not operate in your country, then please use www.paypal.com and the account of [email protected]. Or mail a cheque (US$ or CDN$ only, please) to upFront.eZine Publishing, Ltd., 34486 Donlyn Avenue, Abbotsford BC, V2S 4W7, Canada.   Notable Quotable "Every technological paradigm shift never leaves us exactly as we were but always leaves us lurching a little further into the unknown."     - Richard Fernandez, "Who or what can you trust?"     https://pjmedia.com/richardfernandez/who-or-what-can-you-trust/

*5511

What 2019's looking like for Autodesk

Issue #1,006

 

Opinion by Ralph Grabowski It seems Autodesk cannot decide if it wants to be a compact software company or a huge one. Last year, it laid off 23% of its employees; on the other hand, its roster of software programs now tops 175, the largest ever in its 30-year history, and I think more than any other software vendor in the history of the world. Many of the programs are more like applets (partial programs): if you want to do something, you'll probably need something else, too.  Here's a for-instance. To get Inventor involved in generative design, a very hot topic these days, you need to Install Autodesk's other MCAD program, Fusion 360 Get access to Fusion Team online Install Desktop Connector And then ??? The step-by-step instructions on the official Inventor Blog, written mid-November, halt there. The accompanying video notes that Inventor and Fusion 360 are incompatible, and so you'll need a fourth app, AnyCAD. When most other MCAD programs offer generative design, it's just another button on their ribbon. But, insists Autodesk, our Collections approach means you get all that extra software for free! Well, not all. Generative design is not included with your annual subscription payment; you also need to purchase "cloud credits" for generative design runs. A credit costs US$1 and "may be purchased [in lots of 100] via the Autodesk Account of a contract manager. If you are not a contract manager, then you will need to be given access to a credit pool by your contract manager." The complexity, I find, is eye-watering.   Automation, Automation, Automation I find that the second-best way to understand Autodesk's near and far-off plans is to take in the keynote speeches at its annual Autodesk Universityconference. (The best way to learn of its plans is to listen to its quarterly conference calls with financial analysts. Here, executives tend to be more candid about their intentions for software, customers, and dealers. Hint: it's all about increasing revenues from all three.) The future of Autodesk, according to CEO Andrew Anagnost's keynote at last fall's AU, is all about automation, automation, automation -- mostly enabled by its Forge API [applications programming interface]. Mr Anagonost describes a bright future in which architects, designers, and manufacturers work in tandem through automation, with on-demand products being manufactured just-in-time. (See figure 1.) He speculated that Los Angeles might feed the crowds at the 2028 olympics with roving food trucks, which would be manufactured on demand. Were the mechanical engineer to make a significant change, like specify a stronger engine for the truck, then... Well, he never did explain what would occur next.  Figure 1: Autodesk CEO Andrew Anagnost at Autodesk University 2018 Automation will make things better. We don't need to fear it, he asserts, as automation will create better jobs in the future and cheaper housing for all.  Here is one example of the automation possible with Autodesk software. Atkins, an engineering consulting firm, described a new app named Caterpillar that transforms (get it?) hand sketches in real-time to massing studies backed by analytics. (See figure 2.) "Anyone who knows how to handle a pen can use the app." The program is not yet finished, but when it is, Atkins says it will arbitrate decision-making between designers, contractors, and owners. It could replace the thousands of spreadsheets that were needed to plan the London Olympics. For instance, a future stadium could be moved to another location, with planners seeing in real-time the impact on cost, land, and any other data that's plugged in -- no need to estimate the impact, but actually simulate it. Figure 2: Atkins developed the Caterpillar app using Autodesk's Forge API The big news for manufacturing (the new name for 'mechanical') at AU 2018 was generative design, the same big news at the same conference a year earlier. During the manufacturing keynote, we learned that Inventor is getting 243 improvements, including doing complex tolerance analyses, performing NASTRAN runs, and generating G-code directly from inside Inventor. (See figure 3.) External to Inventor is a new sheet metal nesting routine and group viewing of Vault data. Autodesk vp of design and manufacturing business strategy Greg Fallon said that CAD, CAM, and CAE can no longer be separate functions, because when companies put data at the center of their processes, Autodesk figures automating the processes saves them 20% on semi-custom designs. Figure 3: Autodesk's Inventor getting 243 improvements   Fusion 360 C-c-changes Fusion 360 gets updated every 4-6 weeks. Some updates are bug fixes, other are minor enhancements, like adding some more keyboard shortcuts, but occasionally there is a big change. For instance, fillets can now be generated from a table of rules. If Fusion cannot connect to Autodesk's severs, then it goes into offline mode automatically. The bulk of the updates over the last half-year seem to involve machining, the way in which tools interact -- or fail to interact -- with materials.  How Fusion is licensed underwent a big change in October. Autodesk now offers just one "Fusion 360" by eliminating the low-cost version and renaming it Fusion 360 Ultimate. Autodesk is honoring the prices of the lower-cost versions as long as annual subscribers don't allow their plans to lapse. Those who paid more all along for Ultimate were in effect,overpaying and so Autodesk is giving them two years free; those on monthly plans now have to pay the full price. Using Fusion's generative design add-on requires payment by cloud credits and has a steep learning curve. A number of Fusion fixes involve reducing the accidental overspending of credits. So this last January Autodesk added controls on how cloud credits are spent, as well as previews of the outcome before the job is submitted. See figure 4.   Figure 4: Fusion 360's generative modeling add-on previewing the outcome   The Headwinds Autodesk Faces At AU, Autodesk puts on a strong show of force in what it offers and plans to offer, yet going into 2019 it faces headwinds arriving in many directions.  Cash-rich vs Cash-poor. The automation-automation-automation message is a high-level marketing statement directed at large corporations, to whom Autodesk would rather sell, than onsie, twosie copies of software to small shops. Large corporations love subscriptions, and that's the only way Autodesk licenses its software. Indeed, at the previous AU, Mr Anagnost bluntly told customers unhappy with subscriptions that he would rather not have them as customers. But the switch from making big bucks upfront with permanent licenses, to earning a smaller stream from subscription revenues has not been kind to Autodesk. True, the company is cash-rich (which it can touch only in small amounts, according to strict accounting rules), but the company has been operating in the red for an unprecedented three years in a row now -- hence last year's massive layoffs. The next financial results will be reported in late February, and they will tell us if the losses continue their marathon run. Construction, Construction, Construction. CAD vendors admit to financial analysts that the CAD market is stagnant, and so new customers come from competitors or from new realms. Many CAD vendors now depend on future profits from non-CAD areas, acquiring firms in areas like augmented reality and the Internet of things. For its part, Autodesk is taking a deep dive into construction software. In the last six months it spent US$1.25 billion -- half its annual revenues! -- acquiring several construction management software firms. It isn't, however, spending on acquisitions in any other areas of CAD, such as mechanical, except for subsidies it pays to third-parties to develop software with its Forge API. Which OS? In its early days, Autodesk rightfully boasted that AutoCAD ran on every viable engineering platform, even Macintoshes for a brief time. Then with AutoCAD 2000, it all collapsed into Windows-only, with the code written using libraries from Microsoft. This may  explain why, after nine years of development, the resurrected AutoCAD for MacOS has only about 80% (roughly) of the functions of the Windows version. Porting is hard, when a company like Autodesk can't work from a common code base. As Web browsers and mobile devices became viable engineering platforms, Autodesk took the lead (initially with AutoCAD WS), and then it faltered. It turns out that getting actual CAD to run on these CAD-unfriendly platforms is more difficult than it would seem. In the multi-OS, multi-platform world of 2019, Autodesk offers full CAD on Windows, partial CAD on MacOS, and elementary editing on Android, iOS, and Web browsers. Perhaps that's why at the start of the year Autodesk sent staff out to reassure customers it would "continue to design AutoCAD for leading hardware on the market across multiple platforms." The announcement was met almost immediately by skepticism, as Linux was left off the list.  Competition from Without. Historically, AutoCAD was the company's flagship software, but Autodesk lately seems to have lost interest. The last half-dozen annual releases have suffered from a dearth of new functions. The lethargy shows up elsewhere.  The company in November, 2017 announced that it would enable DWG viewing within Dropbox, but then took a year to deliver. Only this year is Autodesk getting around to porting the AutoCAD core engine to the iPad tablet. The promise to dramatically change the DWG format only once every three years has stretched to five, which actually is a good thing for users and competitors. The software-as-a-sloth development pace allows competitors to pull ahead, even if only in mindshare. OnShape is the star shining brightly in the MCAD-on-a-Web-browser firmament. German software developer Graebert beat (by several years) Autodesk in putting their core CAD engine onto iPads, as well as on Androids and in Web browsers. Graebert and Belgium-based developer Bricsys have their AutoCAD-compatible systems running on all desktop OSes -- Windows, macOS, and Linux -- and are feature-complete, because their developers a decade ago switched to a platform-neutral API. Elsewhere, the Open Design Alliance is pushing Autodesk's DWG format in directions Autodesk never dreamt of. (The ODA independently produces APIs for reading, editing, and writing DWG, Revit, PDF, and other formats.) As a result, DWG is getting functions as advanced as an OnShape-like change manager, entity-level backups, and neutral data exchange. Autodesk isn't a member and so can't access these functions; rumor has it that this is the year they sign up.   What Ralph Grabowski Thinks I'd met Mr Anognost while he was with Autodesk's Mechanical division, and know him to be a high-energy, highly-focused man. So, it comes as no surprise to see him directing all of Autodesk in the same way; another CEO might have taken on a caretaker role, given the maturity of the market. Insiders tell me he wants to hold his CEO position for five years; he has three left to implement his vision of automation, automation, automation, as well as overcome the headwinds the company faces. [This article first appeared in Design Engineering magazine and is reprinted with permission.] And In Other News Here are some of the most recent posts made to the WorldCAD Access blog: Alexander Yampolsky: A Third-generation 2D Editor Hardware Upgrade: Why my mother-in-law's new laptop is a desktop - - - Altium makes software for electrical and PCB (printed circuit board) design, and this year launched Altium Designer 19 with new 3D modeling features based on C3D Toolkit components from C3D Labs: C3D Modeler lets Designer design rigid-flex PCBs through a sheet metal modeling module; 3D Solver mates objects on surface locations; C3D Converter converts models to STEP and Parasolid X_T formats. www.altium.com and c3dlabs.com/en  - - - Roopinder Tara (@rtara): Bernard Charles, CEO of Dassault Systèmes, again takes the stage to explain the 3DEXPERIENCE to SOLIDWORKS users at #sww19 Ralph Grabowski (@upfrontezine): Not for the first time. I think that if Solidworks users wanted 3dexperience from Dassault, they would have bought into 3dexperience by now. Nine years after Solidworks "V6" was introduced, users still preferring Solidworks for the desktop by the boatload. In other news, Dassault is renaming Solidworks World as "3dexperience.World" for next year. I expect attendance to fall. - - - AMD releases update to its AMD Radeon Pro Software for Enterprise driver. Version 19.Q1 offers: Up to 33% faster than with the previous release Up to 46% faster than competitors  Up to 40% more certifications than competitors Ready for VR 6DoF headsets community.amd.com/community   Letters to the Editor Re: Epson SureColor T3170 Large-format Printer I operate a small land surveying firm, and for almost 30 years I've used HP printers. However, my old HP-450C is near death, and in looking at potential replacements, I came across your review of the Epson T3170. HP doesn't seem to offer anything very innovative for the low-volume/small-shop market these days, and reports from my colleagues on their current line of lower-end large-format printers aren't encouraging.  I'm wondering if the Epson T3170 might be a better option.  Do you know if it plays well with BricsCAD, and if it will print reliably on mylar film?  Any thoughts on reliability?     - J.F     USA The editor replies: Yes, it works with BricsCAD, as I used the CAD program for my test prints. I don't know about mylar film; I used heavyweight paper provided by Epson. As for reliability, I have no idea as this is a new printer line.  Mr J.F. responds:  I just got a response from Epson:  "The T3170 is not suggested for film, we would suggest the T3270 printer." I used to be a faithful reader of a couple of CAD-centric magazines back in the '90s and early '00s, and always appreciated your work.  At some point I guess the technology matured enough and/or I got my workflows stabilized enough not to feel the need to keep up with the bleeding edge, so it had been awhile since I'd run across your name. When I googled "Epson T3170" and saw your article come up, I was struck by the way I instantly accorded that link a high degree of trust. The editor replies: I know what you mean. While I kept up to date with CAD over the decades, I dropped out of technology for a few years, and so missed the transition from stereo to 5.1, and other tech we now take for granted.   Re: Highlights from PTC's Q4 Conference Call Nicely done Ralph. The ceo won't realize he's been skewered until he sneezes.     - Steve Wolfe, pioneer recruitment     GAIL Earth, USA - - - You wrote, "CAD vendors moved away from trying to lock in customers through proprietary formats to luck-ins through subscriptions and central file formats (like V6)." Well that has a certain amusing connotation.     - Lewis Balentine The editor replies: The type was due to as last-minute addition that our copy editor didn't get to see.   Re: History of CAD I am surprised at how many documents about the history of CAD are instead "history of Internet-published information about CAD," which, by the way, mostly comes from the USA. (It is our fault, we Europeans were reluctant to give away our "valuable" data.)   Years ago, you were so kind to publish the link to a Web page with paper-based historic documents about CAD from the old pre-Internet years, gathered by me and designed by a colleague, architect Alfredo Calosci. Perhaps now is a good moment to refresh: www.arcadecad.es/cad2/index.php The interface is Spanish, but the user will find easy the navigation through the documents. Best regards, thank you for your always useful information.     - Fernando G. Valderrama     RIB Spain = iTWO + Presto Thank You, Readers Should you wish to support upFront.eZine through PayPal, then the suggested amounts are like these: $25 for individuals > paypal.me/upfrontezine/25 $150 for small companies > paypal.me/upfrontezine/175 $950 for for large companies > paypal.me/upfrontezine/950 Should Paypal.me not operate in your country, then please use www.paypal.com and the account of [email protected]. Or mail a cheque (US$ or CDN$ only, please) to upFront.eZine Publishing, Ltd., 34486 Donlyn Avenue, Abbotsford BC, V2S 4W7, Canada.   Notable Quotable "Oh no… you got one of these annoying out-of-office auto responses, sorry about that. Or maybe not, you see I'm likely in Honolulu sipping on some fancy drinks on the beach and in no state of mind that's conducive to the response you deserve. If you can't wait until my return on 1/28, Please email Alex and she will track down someone way more suitable. She's fantastic at this sort of thing, and if you're really in a bind, she'll chase me down. Cheers."     - M.S.

*5526

 

Highlights from PTC's Q4 Conference Call

Issue #1,005

 

by Ralph Grabowski Once a quarter, corporations owned by shareholders must report their financial results and report on anything that might effect their share price significantly. The corporations hold conference calls with financial analysts, who want to learn more about what the results mean and how the corporation is doing in the marketplace.  These calls used to be held in secret, but then gross financial mismanagement caused governments to demand the calls be made public. You can listen in on them, but I find it easier to read the transcript provided by firms like Seeking Alpha. The transcript is, unfortunately, not always accurate, but good enough to hear executives sometimes telling the analysts things they would never tell customers. The calls are a tug-of-war between analysts and corporation executives. The analysts want more information, while the executives strive to minimize what they reveal. Often an analyst will ask executives for "a bit more color on this." Jay Vleeschhouwer is a financial analyst with Griffin Securities and has the rare ability to understand the CAD market; most financial analysts don't. And so his questions are more interesting than most. On January 23, 2019 PTC held their conference call to report on their Q1 (first quarter of fiscal year 2019) results. During the Q&A portion of the call, Mr Vleeschhouwer asks if PTC is seeing one package of its varied software -- in areas like IoT, AR, PLM, SLM, and CAD -- getting customers to purchase in the other areas.  His question is direct; the response from PTC ceo Jim Heppelmann is nuanced. As a word of explanation, PTC is very proud that BMW licensed some of their software for one specific aspect of automobile design, and so BMW gets mentioned frequently in PTC conference calls.  Read, and enjoy the dance. - - - Jay Vleeschhouwer: Are you able to discern any influence of the momentum you're seeing in IoT [Internet of things] on the CAD or Windchill [PLM]businesses? I recognize that CAD is doing well, but that could be specific to what's going on in that market.  Are you seeing any direct link to suggest that the lifecycle management strategy that you've articulated is in fact working and generating incremental business by pulling through more Creo [CAD software] or more Windchill or perhaps even more SLM [service lifecycle management software] -- that you're solving broken tool chains and driving business that way? Jim Heppelmann: I'd say definitely influence, maybe a little softer on cross-sell.  I think that companies, like say BMW, see PTC as the BMW of our marketplace, because we have great products, great technology, and they know they can turn to us for PLM, for IoT, for AR [augmented reality].  In the case of BMW, there is a Vuforia [augmented reality software] project. In parallel, the ThingWorx [IoT software] project is going on, and we're winning PLM deals. So I think that package has positioned us very nicely. Now, if I said they bought Windchill because of Vuforia or ThingWorx I'm not sure that's true. But I think that they see us as a provider of a very good package of technologies that make sense together. You know we have a sizable PLM implementation at Huawei and they have begun what fundamentally is an IoT project. Huawei did not really get the connection between PLM and IoT, and of course we went in and sold that hard, and then walked out with a very nice IoT deal with a re-commitment to PLM and to more CAD business. So certainly the package is starting to make a lot of sense to people. Another thing that's happening is that they're starting to say, "Hey, maybe what I use in the factory and what I use with my products ought to be the same platform. PTC, help me understand the advantages of moving data back and forth and so forth."  I don't think we're really cross-selling, but I think with our major accounts we're positioning ourselves as having a really important and powerful portfolio of technologies.  If you're an industrial company and you want to do digital transformation, we can help you change your products, we can help you change your production and service processes,. We can actually help you change the productivity of your workers in your factories and out on service calls and so forth. That whole digital transformation story I think is one that people are really starting to appreciate. Source: https://seekingalpha.com/article/4235155-ptcs-ptc-ceo-jim-heppelmann-q1-2019-results-earnings-call-transcript [Text edited for clarity.] Australasia BricsCAD Conference 2019  Discover the A-B-Cs of BricsCAD at the forthcoming one-day Australasia BricsCAD Conference, 19 March 2019 in Brisbane, Australia. Book your ticket now! bricsys.com/australasia-bricsys-conference-2019 Letters to the Editor It just occurred to me that there may be a need for a book on the history of CADD. You, perhaps in collaboration with your colleagues, might be the best position to preserve this bit of computer history before it slips away forever.     - Don Beaton The editor replies: One exists, written by old timer David Weisburg, and is free to read at http://www.cadhistory.net/. He starts in 1969 with M&S Computing but it was last updated in 2008. I could contribute to a version of the history, but I am w-a-y to busy! An entire book alone could be written on my five years at CADalyst magazine, the very first independent magazine in the CAD world. - - -   I recently started a small mechanical design company that develops upgrades and accessories for old woodworking machines. I am currently investigating what 3D CAD system to invest in. Do you mind sharing your opinion on BricsCAD Mechanical and how it stands compared to more established systems in the mechanical design segment such as Solidworks or Solid Edge? Do you consider it a viable option? Price wise it is roughly 50% compared to the aforementioned, which makes it very attractive for me. The fact that it is available for Linux is also a big plus for me.     -  Gustav Naslund     GNH Design, Sweden The editor replies: I know that it has CAM output, but I am a neophyte in that area. The best way to determine if BricsCAD is suitable for your very specific need is to download the 30-day demo from www.bricsys.com -- click on Download BricsCAD. Let me know if it works out - - - Re: What's the price of Catia, really? [Catia] V5 is excellent, but when Dassault went over to the cloud with Version 6 it became a major pain in terms of moving files out of the Catia system -- as some have noted here. I don't think there is any other software that does NURBS designing like Natural Sketch does.  I really wish I could buy Catia for just BREP modeling, assembly management, and NURBS with a later option for ICEM Surf. I could afford to blow up to $1,500 for just the first three. Alas.      - Fabrizio Imbeci (via WorldCAD Access) The editor replies: The current trend in CAD features-pricing is that vendors want you to pay a lot of money, for which they will throw in a lot of functions, kind of like buying all of the Full Meal Deals at the fastfood drive-through at once. You end up with a lot of functions you'll never use, unhappily. A la carte is seemingly dead.   Re: Three MCAD Programs You've Probably Never Heard Of Enjoyed reading your article “Three MCAD Programs You've Probably Never Heard Of”. It’s a good reminder of how far we have come.  After transitioning to construction from manufacturing over a decade ago, I haven’t kept tabs on MCAD as much as I had in the past. Do to some recent capital projects in our shop, I recently received a single X_T model exported from Solidworks. I figured I’d need to request a SAT/IGES/DXF tfile to make it usable in our Autodesk-based plant layout. Was pleasantly surprised to see Inventor opened it up, complete with 350 assembly files and 900 part files.  Somewhere we went from file conversion being a major issue to a trivial matter -- likely a result of Autodesk removing their legal team’s protectionist agenda. PS: Belated congratulations on your 1000th issue. Started in CAD/CAM back in the late 80s/early 90s and your newsletter has spanned most of my career. Your finger on the pulse of the industry has directly contributed to my professional success. Thank you!     - Darren Young, director of operating technology     Hermanson Company, USA The editor replies:  I think that "file conversion being a trivial matter" is due to several reasons: Non-Autodesk programmers have been working on the DWG translation problem since the early 1990s, so it's largely solved Autodesk no longer aggressively changes the DWG format, and so it gave the Open Design Alliance the chance to catch up. Most MCAD systems run on just major kernels, and so they tend to be compatible with each other at the file level There are numerous private firms working on the 3D file translation problem. CAD vendors moved away from trying to lock in customers through proprietary formats to luck-ins through subscriptions and central file formats (like V6) Several CAD vendors have file exchange agreements, perhaps to forestall government investigations Governments and very large manufacturers require specific data format, and so if CAD vendors want a piece of the action, they have to be file-compatible - - - A quick update on last year's developments: a lot has changed in the Shapr3D app's architecture. We are running on Parasolid and D-Cubed now, and licensing HOOPS for data translation.     - Daniel Rosner, Online Marketing     Shapr3D, Hungary   Thank You, Readers Should you wish to support upFront.eZine through PayPal, then the suggested amounts are like these: $25 for individuals > paypal.me/upfrontezine/25 $150 for small companies > paypal.me/upfrontezine/175 $950 for for large companies > paypal.me/upfrontezine/950 Should Paypal.me not operate in your country, then please use www.paypal.com and the account of [email protected]. Or mail a cheque (US$ or CDN$ only, please) to upFront.eZine Publishing, Ltd., 34486 Donlyn Avenue, Abbotsford BC, V2S 4W7, Canada.   Notable Quotable "I've been going to Apple events since 2001, and have gotten really good at interpreting their invitations. Based on history and the design here, this will be consumer electronics with computational stuff and things made available to the public for purchase at some point."     - Mat Honan / @mat on Twitter

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Three MCAD Programs You've Probably Never Heard Of

Issue #1,004 

 

This issue sponsored by

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by Ralph Grabowski We know a lot about the Big Four MCAD vendors (Dassault, Siemens PLM, Autodesk, and PTC), and you probably use programs made by them. So it may pique your interest to learn that smaller vendors popped up in the last several years to fill in gaps left by the big boys. And by 'new' I don't mean headline-grabbing software like Onshape, Fusion, or XDesign. Being new means the software company can start fresh. Starting fresh means not being burdened, like old CAD programs, in carrying a lot of baggage forward to maintain compatibility with function and interface peculiarities of 30 years ago, even as programmers cobble new functions on top of the old.  Back in the old days, CAD programs developed slowly because the underlaying technologies barely existed. I think back to the machinations Autodesk went through to get 3D solid modeling into AutoCAD: first, The Pioneer Program, followed by Engineer Works, then the AutoCAD Modeling Extension add-on, next ACIS was built in, and then the company got its own ShapeManager kernel. Being new means a software company can start with a sprint. Everything needed to build a new CAD system is readily available under surprisingly favorable licensing terms -- as is the funding to pay for the startup costs. You can get pre-built SDKs [software development kits] with APIs [application programming interfaces] for 3D solid and surface modeling 2D and 3D constraints Display and rendering Foreign file import/export Non-platform-specific user interfaces  And even the code to run the same program in Web browsers, on mobile platforms, and with desktop computers Heck, there's even companies that'll sell you the entire CAD system: all you need to do is re-brand the program with your logo. Funding seems surprisingly easy to obtain these days, with venture capital and angel investors desperate for the Next Big Facebook-like return -- unlike, say, Solidworks, which was launched on the back of winnings from card-counting at Las Vegas gambling tables. One thing that hasn't changed, though, is the question, "Which platform?" Thirty years ago, CAD vendors had to choose between dialects of Unix, CP/M, VMS, OS/2, Windows, MS- and PC/DOS, and two kinds of Apple operating systems -- running on 8-, 16-, or 32-bit little- or big-endian systems.  It was actually a bit of a relief when most of CAD coalesced onto a single platform, Intel-Windows, with a little bite of Apple on the side. Thanks to the Internet and Apple, however, the possibilities re-expanded to  Android or iOS Web, mobile, or desktop Linux, MacOS, or Windows Nascent developers have to decide whether to develop on one, some, or all of them. Let's take a look at just four niche MCAD programs that came out in the last couple of years. All are new, yet polished. Crudely-written CAD need no longer exist.   nTopology for Generative Design Due to its history, MCAD software is segmented by function: pre-design, sketching and parts, assemblies, simulation, optimization, and finally manufacturing through subtractive or additive operations. Some of these have merged in the last decade, but nTopology CEO Bradley Rothenberg feels that all design ought to be generative, and that all design functions -- from concept through to 3D printing -- ought to be found in a single software package; his is named Element Pro. "Generative" design optimizes designs through dozens or hundreds of variations to minimize the weight but maximize the strength. The result often is lattice work or an organic (curvy) looking part. Rothenberg thinks that 3D printing has the capability to make things of such great complexity that we humans will not be able to design them with traditional MCAD software. Instead, he sees routines that will do the design for us. We see this already happening with the Grasshopper programming environment hooked into 3D MCAD like Rhinoceros. Rothenberg's solution is Element Pro's interactive Lattice Rule Builder, where the software generates a lattice work of gyroids (self-supporting 3D lattices) to fill the volumes of parts with repeating patterns. The structures don't need to be lattices. Element Pro also generates ribs that are not round and other optimizations shown in figure 1. He plans to add a simulation tool that generates optimized structures, making them thicker where strength is needed, and thinner where it isn't.  Figure 1 (left to right): Structural ribs, a stochastic structure, and a conformal structure generated by nTopology's Element Pro Why shouldn't users just employ the generative software being developed by big CAD vendors, such as Siemens PLM Software and Autodesk? "These CAD programs are stuck using their own data types," Rothenberg tells me. "The lattice might not be trim-able or Boolean-able. For instance, you can design a lattice in NX, but it is difficult to use it elsewhere." Data interchange with Element Pro is accomplished through STL, IGES, STEP, Parasolid, and the company's own documented LTCX format. Right now the software runs as a stand-alone program for Windows and as a plug-in module in Solidworks, with support for other CAD programs to come. A reduced-function desktop version is available for free from https://www.ntopology.com.   Shapr3D for Constraints on iPads When it comes to the development of CAD for mobile devices, I describe it as going through three generations. The first generation software was view-only, the second generation added drawing and editing functions, and now the third consists of mobile apps that do feature-recognition and automatic constraints. Feature recognition makes sense on smartphones and tablets (when the primary interface is your finger), more so than on desktop computers. Feature recognition turns your finger-drawn loops and squiggles into round circles and arcs, straight lines, and smooth splines.  Automatic constraints assist the drawing process by setting those lines horizontally and vertically, and connecting endpoints. The first firm to do constraints and recognition on any mobile device was Arctuition with its ArcSite app, followed closely by Siemens PLM with its CatchBook app. But both do only 2D designs. To date, there is just one app that does 3D modeling, Shapr3D. The catch to Shapr3D is that it works with exactly one hardware combination: iPads that support Apple's Pencil stylus. (On iPads without a stylus, the app is only a 3D viewer.) Developer Istvan Csanady says he picked the iPad Pro initially because it is four times more powerful than regular iPads, and because Android "hardware is crappy." He has no immediate plan to support Windows laptops that work with touch screens and stylii. The reason Csanady requires users to employ the stylus is for its precision; the area under your finger is too large, and in any case it covers up exactly what you are interested in editing and drawing. Fingers in Shapr3D are used only to zoom, pan, and orbit in 3D space. The user interface of Shapr3D is designed so that the left hand selects commands from buttons that line the left edge of the screen, while the right hand controls the stylus. (See figure 2.) The Apple stylus lacks buttons but does sense pressure, so you can specify data like control points by pressing harder every so often. Figure 2: Shapr3D employing the Pencil to create 3D models on an iPad Some functions are determined by the direction by which you move the stylus. For example, dragging an edge away from you fillets it, while dragging it towards you creates a chamfer instead. As with desktop MCAD systems, you can enter precise radii and distances with the onscreen keyboard. Csanady is proud that the entire system runs on the iPad with no assistance from the cloud.  The kernel underlaying Shapr3D is the open source Open Cascade kernel, but he is thinking of substituting ParaSolid when the iOS version becomes available. You can try the app free from the Apple store through https://shapr3d.com.   Vention.io for Online Machine Design Vention is a Canadian industrial parts distributor. They provide the parts that support machines that work on parts, such as stands that hold robotic arms and welders.  Last year the company added a Web-based program called Machine Builder for designing stands for industrial equipment. (See figure 3.) It is a 3D modeling system that CEO Etienne Lacroix calls a powerful CAD configurator. It's not a CAD system, he insists: "We don’t intent to compete in the CAD space."  Figure 3: Working with a pre-designed stand in Vention's Machine Builder You design stands by selecting parts from Vention's library, such as extrusions, plates, and caster wheels. Extrusions can be dragged longer and shorter. All of these parts snap into place, as they know their connection points through a constraint solver that Vention programmed on its own. While you can import your own parts (from 20 file formats), you have to connect them manually to the rest of the design. In addition, Vention provides a library of finished designs made by its own staff and other users, which you can copy and modify. Models can be exported in STEP format. As you build the stand virtually, the BOM (bill of material) function reports the cost in real-time, as well as the estimated assembly time. Once the design is complete, you pay for the order and for shipping. Vention guarantees delivery in 48 hours from its warehouses in the USA and Canada. Mr Lacroix says he uses the data generated by customers running the configurator to determine the number of parts to stock. Once the box of parts arrives, you get to assemble it! You can try out the software free at https://www.vention.io.   What Ralph Grabowski Thinks Exciting work is being done by small, speedy software firms that operate largely under the radar. There are many more than the few I describe here in MCAD, architecture, and other disciplines. These firms have the advantage of working with modern APIs and choosing the best platform for their needs.  But in many cases they are also burdened by investors' money, millions of dollars that one day the firms need to repay, with a healthy return. That they can attract sufficient paying customers is not certain. Certainly one way out is for another, larger MCAD vendor to eventually buy the company, its intellectual property, and/or the staff. For now, all have free versions with which you can see if they fit into your design workflow. Australasia BricsCAD Conference 2019  Discover the A-B-Cs of BricsCAD at the forthcoming one-day Australasia BricsCAD Conference, 19 March 2019 in Brisbane, Australia. Book your tickets now through bricsys.com/australasia-bricsys-conference-2019 Sponsor: Okino Graphics == Converting 3D CAD & DCC to Virtual/ Augmented Reality ==   With the explosive growth of VR/AR, the ultra-massive 3D datasets produced by CAD and DCC programs need efficient conversion to the popular Unity and Unreal development platforms. Okino of Toronto is the long-time provider of the PolyTrans|CAD translator, which easily handles the interactive datasets required by VR and AR for Microsoft HoloLens, HTC VIVE, Oculus Rift, Meta, and other VR headsets.   PolyTrans provides you with Massive dataset handling Node compression Adaptive CAD tessellation Intelligent polygon reduction  Popular CAD data sources include SolidWorks, ProE/Creo, Inventor, AutoCAD, Revit, Navisworks, DGN, IGES, STEP, Parasolid, and JT. DCC data sources are Cinema-4D, 3ds Max, Maya, FBX/Collada, and many more. Perfected over three decades, we know 3D data translation intimately, providing you with highly personalized solutions, education, and communication. Contact CTO Robert Lansdale at [email protected]  http://www.okino.com Letters to the Editor Re: Q&A with Onshape CEO Jon Hirschtick Onshape also changed their terms of service unilaterally late last year. I'd just spent two months building a basic skills course using their platform and then with a stroke of the pen they prohibited anyone from making money from their free version.  Lucky for me their competitor [Autodesk] Fusion 360 is friendly to small fry. I still think Onshape is neat, but Autodesk is doing some good stuff with Fusion 360, particularly with the idea that if you're a small business grossing less than $100k per annum, the software is free. BOOM! The more I look at it the more I like it. Even Solidworks should be worried. Fusion can't do configurations, but it can do just about anything else.  Anyway, here's my Youtube video comparing Onshape and Fusion 360: https://youtu.be/WrOIUBzWgZI     - Arnold Rowntree       Australia Thank You, Readers Thank you to readers who donate towards the operation of upFront.eZine: Stanley Przybylinski Should you wish to support upFront.eZine through PayPal, then the suggested amounts are like these: $25 for individuals > paypal.me/upfrontezine/25 $150 for small companies > paypal.me/upfrontezine/150 $750 for for large companies > paypal.me/upfrontezine/750 Should Paypal.me not operate in your country, then please use www.paypal.com and the account of [email protected]. Or mail a cheque (US$ or CDN$ only, please) to upFront.eZine Publishing, Ltd., 34486 Donlyn Avenue, Abbotsford BC, V2S 4W7, Canada.   Notable Quotable "Their reality check bounced, and no one noticed. "     -  Sarah Hoyt

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