The Milan Conference: Open Design Alliance DevCon 2019

Issue #1,025 

 

by Ralph Grabowski There are a few conferences that deal with the future of CAD, and there is just one that describes the immediate future. The Open Design Alliance’s annual event tells us -- and its thousand member companies -- what is likely to be coming to dozens of CAD packages over the next year. These companies use APIs and SDKs from ODA in their software. For instance, if you find your CAD software suddenly supporting Revit or IFC files, thank the ODA. The theme for this year’s Milan conference was BIM and the cloud, but I rather fancy the theme instead was “technology suites.” Twenty-year-old ODA is known for being the guys who license a reverse-engineered version of Autodesk’s DWG format, for which there is tremendous, tremendous demand. Under former-CTO and now CEO Neil Peterson, it has, however, for the last half-decade been broadening its range to offer entire technology stacks in a half-dozen formats. “DWG is a well-architected technology that will carry itself into the future,” said Mr Peterson. So ODA is extending it with things like Web API BIM (as already proven by Bricsys) Version control The problems ODA is working to solve are multiple formats, various types of data, large data sets, and complex data. Customers want software that is high-performance, format-agnostic, cross-platform, and Web-enabled. The ODA’s framework meets these with interoperability SDKs[software development kits], technology stacks, and unified workflows. “We have manufacturing companies who pay us every year, who have been members for 20 years, and we don’t know what they are doing with it,” said Mr Peterson. [In this article, I intersperse conference reporting with some the questions the media asked of  Mr Peterson. Next week, we have the rest of the Q&A.]   Open Cloud The newest offering from ODA is Open Cloud. The need, said Mr Peterson, is the incompatibility of cloud-based CAD at several levels: cloud providers themselves are incompatible with one another, and CAD vendors use the cloud to lock in customers. The ODA’s own offerings until now worked only on Amazon AWS, but can now also run on Microsoft Azure. (Microsoft made a presentation on Azure at the conference.)  Vendors create complex proprietary systems, and so ODA is proposing Open Cloud API.  Q: Why would CAD vendors want an open cloud API? They want to lock customers in. A: The interest comes from users [not CAD vendors], like architectural firms, who don’t want to be locked into vendor cloud services, and so set up their own cloud server. Or else they want to move software from a CAD vendor to ODA-based software, such as a Web-based Revit viewer with markup and properties. These are firms that have the know-how to implement their own Web-based software (using REST to make it easier). ODA provides the tech support. - - -   The technology is not yet finished, but ODA hopes to have some customer stories for next year.   buildingSMART and IFC Out of what began as one of Autodesk’s patches to solve the compatibility problems created by the addition of custom objects to Release 13 DWG, IFC [industry foundation classes] has become the formal translation format for the architectural industry, much like IGES and STEP did for mechanical design. ODA Development Director Sergey Vishnevetsky reported that more than 60% of members surveyed are interested in an IFC solution from the ODA, a number that shocked me by its large size -- even though there are already three kinds of solutions on the market: open IFC (poorly supported), commercial IFC (expensive), private IFC (unavailable externally).  CAD vendors, who support IFC, support only a subset of IFC functions. At this point, ODA is no different, but they plan to support all of them with time. ODA offers its IFC SDK free to ODA members, because CAD vendors won’t pay for it as they already have their own. ODA is supporting geometry for all schema. It is current with v4.2 and is designed to be compatible with the future IFC 5, whatever it might be. Jeffrey Ouellette of buildingSmart International told us that his organization is using ODA to test its IFC in real software before it is welded shut as an ISO standard. Sometimes, it takes years for vendors to implement a standard, and then they find that the standard does not work well, but it can no longer be revised. So the ODA is letting its members to try it in production before it beomes ISO-certified. They are allowing one to two years to test it.  Q: How is this arrangement with buildingSmart any better than what has gone on before? A: We provide the toolkit with which to implement IFC, along with the tested version. Q: I can see vendors being hesitant to implement a new IFC version, because of the headaches it might incur. Q: I’ve always thought IFC to be like the BASIC programming language: it worked but was not very elegant and could be come very big. Is there a sense that we should have done something about IFC ten years ago? A: We don’t look at it like that. Since they have a spec, for us it is really nice to work with a specification. Even though the spec is large, it is not difficult to implement, because we know what it is, unlike a blackbox format. What was missing in IFC is a standard toolkit with higher-level access that everyone can use; now, everyone creates their own flavors of IFC. The higher-level API means you no longer need to worry about the lower-level details. - - - ODA is working on conversion between IFC to other formats. IFC to DWG is available now, with DWG -> IFC under development. For the future, ODA will offer... ifcXML more documentation mvdXML [model view definition] model validation High-level API (next year) to make it easier to make valid IFC files Runtime EXP [express schema] to support IFC file parsing No one is actually sure where IFC is headed, realistically, because the future is unknowable. It does not help that the building industry tends to be 10, 15, 20 years behind the rest of the CAD industry.    BIM Suite BIM Suite is an example of ODA providing a full technology stack, everything a programmer needs to implement functions that read, edit, and write BIM data -- or Revit, more specifically. The suite supports these data formats: Revit Navisworks DWG DGN ReCap (new this year, RCS format) IFC Custom data There is clash detection, sectioning, BIM model verification, and unified markup editing for the different kinds of data. It is compatible with ODA’s Open Cloud. During the conference, Graebert showed how their ARES software could load more than one IFC file at a time, for release in next version of the software. Q: Tell me more about BIM Suite. A: We are trying to get away from it being just a bag of SDKs. The other part is the tech built on top, like common data access through a common API. You can write a single viewer that can visualize all those formats in one application. Ours are being designed to work together, and are not just thrown into a bag -- visualization, markup, and so on. - - -   Mr Peterson said that the requirements of BIM have stretched ODA’s development priorities, but by stretching it is now better equipped to handle others aspects of CAD. There is more demand on the architectural side, with the big demand for IFC and Revit. On the mechanical side, there already are interoperability solutions out there, even if they are expensive; for Revit there was nothing. Mechanical has so many more formats, whereas on AEC there are a small number of key formats. STEP is in high demand on the mechanical side and has a structure similar to IFC.  Q: Why are you supporting STEP?  A: Lots of people have converters, but they are too expensive.  - - - New from the ODA this year is interoperability with Autodesk 3D point cloud reCap files through the new Point Cloud SDK. It reads and writes RCP files, visualizes point clouds, and incorporates performance enhancements, such as levels of detail. Point clouds can be embedded in DWG or else stored as separate files.  www.opendesign.com [Disclosure: ODA provided airfare, accommodation, and some meals.]   Sponsor: Okino Graphics == 3D Data Translation Software Tailored to Solve Your Problems ==   Education and awareness make for flawless, error-free, and numerically-correct MCAD conversions! 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Contact CTO Robert Lansdale at [email protected]  http://www.okino.com And In Other News Siemens PLM Software, which used to be called Siemens PLM Systems, and before that UGS and Unigraphics, now calls itself Siemens Digital Industries Software, and says it has revenues of just over $4 billion a year. That puts its revenue on par with Desault Systemes and Hexagon. The new URL is www.sw.siemens.com - - - Bentley Systems is 35 years old. - - - Cadline announced the LT (light) version of Archline XT software for BIM modelling at $600 instead of $2,650 for the full version. The price is reduced until end of September; it comes with a permanent license. The difference between the two versions are shown here -> archlinexp.com/products/archline-xp-lt-features. - - - Bricsys will be announcing the Bricsys BIM Alliance at its annual user conference in Stockholm next month. The alliance is made of Bricsys, the measurement and survey division of Hexagon Leica Geosystems, and design firm HOK. bricsys.com/en-intl/conference   Letters to the Editor This quote is from Ivan Sutherland, the father of computer graphics. He said it 44 years ago: "As soon as the process of Computer-Aided Design is considered as building a computerized description of the object being designed, rather than as the process of drawing the object being designed, horizons become tremendously expanded.  "In the architectural world, for example, one should think of Computer-Aided Design as producing not only graphical outputs but also material lists; labor estimates; floor area computations; heating, lighting, and ventilation simulations (to demonstrate the adequacy of the design); as well as many other auxiliary outputs.  "Only when the computerized version of the design is the master document from which all auxiliary information is derived, preferably with computer assistance, will a complete Computer-Aided Design system have been created." We've still got a ways to go.      - Evan Yares Citation: Sutherland, Ivan. "Structure in drawings and the hidden-surface problem." Reflections on computer aids to design and architecture (1975): 73-77. - - - Hanging on to perpetual licenses may be more problematic, unless you don’t mind software going stale. Some of my industry connections tell me Autodesk is considering eliminating the ability to upgrade perpetual licenses. Even if they don’t, there’s nothing stopping them from raising the maintenance subscription price equal or higher than annual subscription prices.  Even for those letting subscriptions expire and attempting to maintain their perpetual license may prove difficult. Starting in March 2021 they’ll no longer activate software that doesn’t meet their lifecycle policy. See knowledge.autodesk.com/support/autocad/learn-explore/caas/simplecontent/content/previous-version-support-change.html. In the end, there’s really two choices. Pay up, or find another vendor. I am curious as to why Autodesk would run promotional discounts on subscriptions. If there’s a need, you’d buy it anyway. But unlike the perpetual days (where there was an incentive to purchase in advance of an anticipated need to secure a discount), in a subscription model there’s zero benefit to buying before you need. The subscriptions will prorate to your contract date. A 25% discount is now only financially beneficial if you use it within the next 3 months. If you don’t need it for 4 months, simply wait and your prorated cost will be lower than the discounted price.     - Darren Young, director of operating technology     Hermanson Company   Re: CAD Can't Use Cores Regarding Mr. Cadman's comment ("Too bad CAD doesn't calculate..."), I know you addressed it in this issue, but it might be worth informing readers of this blog post, which also speaks about this topic: blog.bricsys.com/cpus-for-cad      - R.K. McSwain The editor replies: The link (starting halfway down) gives a better technical explanation than what I have been saying. As one tech person put it, when you start the Line command, the CPU has no clue what you will do next. Mr McSwain responds: Right, and the ‘STR rating’ to which he refers may be Passmark, which seems legit: cpubenchmark.net/singleThread.html   - - - Servers use virtualization technology to spawn multiple virtual CPUs (typically 2 to 6, max of 32) running on each physical core, which would mean that the new 56-core CPU could spawn over 300 vCPUs. I asked a question over at VM Ware some years ago: Does anyone make ‘reverse virtualization’ software? That is, the typical CPU has four or more physical cores, could they all be used to create a single virtual super CPU, to work on all the software that is still single-threaded? Instead of an actual, physical E3 Xeon quad-core using a virtual abstraction layer to create many more virtual CPUs, is there a product that goes in the opposite direction? That is, I want my physical quad-core Xeon to virtualize a SINGLE-core super CPU, so that all 2.2 billion transistors can run a single-threaded program. Currently, any single-threaded program can only use one core, or 1/4 of the transistors on a quad-core CPU. I want to find an abstraction layer that will focus all transistors, from all cores, onto a single program. This would actually be a ‘unifying’ virtualization, combining multiple physical cores to virtualize a single-core CPU: If such an abstraction layer were developed, it could also possibly virtualize a CPU that does not yet exist physically.  Intel could virtualize a future CPU that relies on manufacturing processes that haven’t yet been developed.  It could virtualize a CPU that is too expensive to build, with, for example, 2 GB of L1 cache.  Could a light-based photonic CPU be virtualized? It seems like something that Intel would have to initiate and allow, like hyperthreading, but I am not sure about that. I just wonder if someone has developed such a program. There are many single-threaded apps still in use, and it is frustrating to see all this Xeon horsepower unused. A ‘reverse virtualization’ abstraction layer could be invoked just for a selected single-threaded program. Once the program iss closed, the cores on the CPU would be again available individually. A relatively low-end Xeon could become much more powerful, depending on the CPU that is virtually created. Such ‘reverse virtualization’, or ‘unifying virtualization’, would be a win for Intel, it would be a win for users, and it would reduce the pressure on software vendors to re-write their programs for multi-threading.     - Peter Lawton   Re: Apex Unifies the Future of MSC Software You wrote "Today, MacNeal-Schwendler is called MSC Software and is owned by Hexagon." Do you think we can expect some kind of FEA [finite element analysis] in BricsCAD? The free version of Fusion 360 gives you stress analysis and natural frequencies. BricsCAD really needs something similar.     - Ragnar Thor Mikkelsen     Design Data, Norway The editor replies: I agree with you. Perhaps we will hear something at the Bricsys conference in October. - - -   Not sure about the NASTRAN reference. This from Wikipedia:  "A contract was awarded to Computer Sciences Corporation (CSC) to develop the software. The first name used for the program during its development in the 1960s was GPSA, an acronym for General Purpose Structural Analysis. The eventual formal name approved by NASA for the program, NASTRAN, is an acronym formed from NASA STRucture ANalysis. The NASTRAN system was released to NASA in 1968. In the late 1960s, the MacNeal-Schwendler Corporation (MSC) started to market and support its own version of NASTRAN, called MSC/NASTRAN (which eventually became MSC.Nastran). The original software architecture was developed by Joe Mule (NASA) and Gerald Sandler (NASA), and Stephen Burns (University of Rochester)."     - Stan Przybylinski     CIMdata The editor replies: My article was based on an presentation given by MSC; however, here is more info from a bio in Engineering.com: "During their time at NASA working on NASTRAN (NASA Structural Analysis), MacNeal and Schwendler began to develop MSC Nastran, a commercially available version of NASTRAN that became MSC Corporation’s flagship product."  See www.engineering.com/DesignSoftware/DesignSoftwareArticles/ArticleID/16413/Simulation-Pioneer-Richard-MacNeal-Passes-Leaving-Behind-Huge-CAE-Legacy.aspx - - - I see you quoted me ‘at length’ 2X! Does that make me famous? You’re always a pleasure to read!     - Chris Cadman   Thank You, Readers Thank you to readers who donate towards the operation of upFront.eZine: Frank Neumann  Stanley Przybylinski To support upFront.eZine through PayPal, the suggested amounts are 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 "Everyone who is a writer should get into running, because it's important to have at least one hobby you hate even more than writing."     - Delia Cai (@delia_cai on Twitter)

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