As the Open Design Alliance gets busier and busier, I thought I'd get an update from CEO Neil Peterson. We talk about LOT Network, proxy objects, the latest APIs, and open cloud.
LOT Network
The Open Design Alliance announced last month that it had become a member of LOT Network, which holds 2.3 million patents. It protects firms when patents are sold, which is why LOT is short for “license on transfer.”
Sometimes, patents are acquired by patent assertion entities, also known as patent trolls, who use the patents to sue companies who might (or might not -- it doesn't matter) be using the technology described by the patents. Defense is expensive, costing as much as several million dollars, and so companies sometimes fold, paying the trolls what they want. An alternative is to join LOT Network. https://lotnet.com/
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Ralph Grabowski: I've read the material on LOT, but it is not clear to me how LOT protects members when patents are sold to a troll.
Neil Peterson: When a company joins LOT, it agrees that if -- and only if -- a member’s patent falls into the hands of a troll, a signed agreement goes into effect that grants all members of the community a license to the patent. With the license, member companies cannot be sued by trolls. All traditional uses of patents are not affected by LOT membership. This includes a company’s ability to enforce patents by suing other companies (including network members), asking for royalties, and selling them.
Grabowski: Was there an incident that caused the ODA to consider membership in LOT Network?
Peterson: We were doing our annual insurance renewals last year, and LOT membership came up as a checkbox on one of the renewal forms. We reviewed the organization and its mission, and found it was all upside: low membership fees, clear mission, and obvious benefits to member companies.
The terms of the LOT agreement only take effect when a patent falls into the hands of a troll. There are no restrictions placed on a company’s efforts to legitimately protect its IP [intellectual property] rights.
Grabowski: I looked through the list of LOT members and noticed no CAD vendors. How does LOT help ODA's member companies, all of whom are involved with CAD?
Peterson: To benefit from the protection offered by LOT, ODA members need to join on their own. Actually, the member list on the LOT Web site is out of date; I know of one ODA member who joined already based on our referral.
LOT has successfully penetrated a number of industries, including automotive, financial, many retail sectors, entertainment, and a number of IT-related areas. With of the convergence of technology, software infiltrates nearly all industries nowadays, and so the fact that the membership is cross-industry means that it provides some significant protections. I believe CAD vendors will join once they understand the benefits of LOT.
The more members there are in the network, the greater the protection. Some of the world’s largest patent holders, like IBM and Canon, are members, which means that any company that joins gets a lot of protection. It’s important that the CAD community be aware of LOT Network as a resource.
Proxy Objects
One of the benefits of the ODA is to document the DWG file format so that drawings are interchangeable between competitors. Some vendors, however, extend their CAD programs in a proprietary manner. Specific examples that I'm thinking of include solid modeling, constraints, and BIM.
When Autodesk rewrote AutoCAD with Release 13, it added the ability to create custom objects. To display custom objects in incompatible systems, it defined proxy objects (uneditable visual replacements). To edit them, Autodesk provided plug-ins called "object enablers."
When I open a drawing of a "N"-CAD solid model in "O"-CAD, I see the model as a proxy representation, and so I cannot edit it. (See figure 1.)
 Figure 1: Proxy image in O-CAD of a complex 3D model made by N-CAD- - -
Grabowski: Will ODA member companies be able to handle proxy objects with object enablers?
Peterson: Our Drawings SDK allows members to create object enablers to handle custom DWG objects. This functionality has been available for years. The problem here is not with the technology, but rather with the demand for this technology. AutoCAD is still the leading application in this space, so people are primarily interested in accessing custom objects from AutoCAD-based verticals.
There isn’t much incentive for a vendor to create enablers that would allow third parties to access their custom objects, and there isn’t enough demand currently for ODA to take on this work either.
We are working with members to develop a set of best practices for when they create custom objects in DWG files. It will help members understand how to create such objects in a way that enables as much functionality as possible, without the use of enablers.
Updates on APIs and SDKs
The Open Design Alliance releases updates to its software roughly twice a year. In the last month, we've seen updated APIs and SDKs for reading RVT/IFC files, constructing 3D meshes, working with ReCap point clouds, and so on.
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Grabowski: The ODA is working towards a definite goal in expanding access to DWG-related file formats. With the updates released since the start of the year, how far along is the ODA towards that goal?
Peterson: We’re making good progress with this:
- We have a complete solution for architecture, which a number of ODA members are using for visualization, data access, and even full editing of architectural DWG files.
- Our Civil SDK is a mature solution that supports full data access, and visualization for civil custom objects, with creation support under development.
- Our Mechanical SDK supports data access, visualization, and limited creation of mechanical custom objects.
- Last year we started work on Map3D at the request of members, and work in that area is ongoing.
We haven’t received many requests for MEP, Plant, or Electrical, but certainly if there is interest from our members, we are ready to implement solutions for these.
Grabowski: I spoke last week with a woodworking subcontractor, who expressed his frustration at working with Revit models he receives from architects. He uses Revit, but finds it too ungainly. He would like to extract the parts of the model he needs, and then design cabinets, trims, and paneled ceilings in an AutoCAD-like program.
Lastly, he needs to send the files to a CNC machine to cut the wood. Do you foresee this workflow possible in the near future using ODA SDK/APIs?
Peterson: Our BimRv SDK provides full access to the data in Revit family and project files. A number of ODA members, for example Bricsys and Graebert GmbH, are using this technology to import Revit models into DWG-based editing applications. From there they can be edited and sent on to CNC.
There may be other solutions coming on the market, as we have fifty member companies currently licensing our BimRv SDK. New applications of this technology are appearing all the time.
Open Cloud
The ODA is making a platform available to handle CAD work on the cloud, first on Amazon AWS and now Microsoft Azure.
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Grabowski: You are expanding access to your Open Cloud initiative by making it available on another service provider. Tell me about that.
Peterson: Open Cloud is a Web technology platform that allows users to host their own cloud services for CAD and BIM. This includes visualization, markup editing, data access, and automation services for a range of CAD and BIM file formats. It is self-hosted technology, and so Open Cloud allows users to maintain control of their own cloud services and their own IP, something that is lacking in SaaS-based systems.
Last year at our Milan conference, we previewed our new Open Cloud product for Microsoft Azure, because it is a popular platform for corporate users. Open Cloud for Azure allows Web-based CAD and BIM services to be tightly integrated into a company’s existing Azure infrastructure.
In addition, Azure provides options for local hosting of sensitive IP, which is a requirement of many government and corporate users. You can find more details by going to Azure Marketplace and searching for "open cloud."
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The 7th annual ODA DevCon 2020 conference is being held this year September 8 - 9 at BMW Welt, Munich, Germany. More info from conference.opendesign.com.
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| Dynamic Infrastructure's learning system creates "medical files" of bridges, tunnels, and elevated highways from existing photos, annual inspections, and day-to-day operations.
The software compares existing images to new ones to detect maintenance issues. diglobal.tech
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After Palo Alto Networks tested 1.2 million IoT devices, they found 98% sent data unencrypted, exposing networks from both ends:
- Vulnerable IoT devices infect PCs
- Unpatched PCs give attackers access to IoT devices and their data
theregister.co.uk/2020/03/11/the_internet_of_things
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Datakit Software released its new glTF writer (GL Transmission Format from Kronos). Developers can convert their CAD files to the self-style "JPEG of 3D".gltf and .glb files. http://datakit.com
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Graebert ships ARES Commander 2020 for the desktop, and previews its plans for BIM at last month's Japan conference. graebert.com/cad-software/download/ares-commander/
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"Augmented reality headset maker Magic Leap has struggled with the laws of physics and failed to get to market. 'Magic Leap could fetch more than $10 billion'... is the number a prideful company strategically leaks in hopes of drumming up acquisition interest, even at a lower price. The whole economy is hurting due to coronavirus. AR seems less interesting than virtual reality with people avoiding public places. Getting people to strap used AR hardware to their face for demos seems like a tough sell for the foreseeable future." techcrunch.com/2020/03/11/magic-steep/
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Epic Games released Twinmotion 2020 architectural visualization software with...
- Enhanced vegetation
- Rhino link plug-in
- Import videos as materials
See more in this video: youtube.com/watch?v=2qtVcZgbrl4
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Dropping a (lightened) car on a tough (Kevlar) trampoline. CAD is mentioned. The super slo-mo sequences are especially interesting, particularly the distortions of the water-filled yoga ball undergoes. youtu.be/tMKXbLBgkEc
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ABIresearch says, "By 2035, 83 million 5G connected cars will be on the road, making them safer and greener." This is unknowable.
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Startup Monograph, whose cloud-based software handles project and cost management for architects, raises $1.9 million in seed funding. monograph.io/
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How to install the Linux version of Blender on ChromeOS devices: chromeunboxed.com/three-ways-to-install-blender-3d-software-on-your-chromebook/
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"Cutting Rates Is Now About As Relevant As Painting A Sinking Ship." That's because people are putting their health ahead of their wealth. As Seth Fiegerman put it, "Purell is the new bitcoin."
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BetaCAE Systems released v19.1.6 and v20.1.1 updates to its KOMVOS/ANSA/EPILYSIS/META software. http://beta-cae.com
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The Khronos Group formed a new working group to create a free, open standard analytic rendering interface API for data visualization called "ANARI." www.khronos.org/
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Re: The Test that Failed
Thank you so much for the story about your father in the newsletter. The photo (below) shows my father. He was involved in the microelectronics industry.
The photo was taken in the early 1960s, when he was studying in Lviv Politechnik University, now Ukraine.
- Olga Kalyagina
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My thoughts on BIM vs 2D drawings, etc, etc. Back in the last millennium, when I was going through university, I worked one summer for the local electric company. At one point I was working on a project that involved updating an existing facility. The project engineer sent me down to the vault to dig out the old drawings. I was more than a little puzzled by how they looked to me, so when I returned I asked him for the story and here it is:
In the days of paper and pencil, copies of drawings were made using blueprint machines. The original would be placed on top of a light-sensitive sheet of paper and the pair would be exposed to a strong ultraviolet light. Finally, the copy would be exposed to ammonia fumes which would develop the image.
So far so good, but the blueprint paper was opaque so that a copy could not be made from a copy. Solution: Sepia or brownline paper. The process was exactly the same as making a blueprint but sepia paper was transparent enough that a normal blueprint could be made from it. The only issue was that as the sepia was made from the pencil-and-paper drawing, and then as a blueprint was made from it, the light would have to pass through and be diffused by an additional layer of paper and so that copies from the sepia would get a little fuzzy.
Solution: the sepia would be made by turning the original upside-down so that the penciled side was adjacent to the emulsion side of the sepia. Similarly, in the field, the sepia would be turned upside down so that its image side was adjacent to the blueprint paper’s emulsion side.
Now to the case in point. It turns out that someone in the field forgot to invert the sepia, and so the “as-built” drawings and the actual construction were mirror images of the original design.
- Bill Fane
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