Live blog: Australasia BricsCAD Conference 2019
Live from Brisbane, Australia
Alright, here we are, waiting for the conference to start. A bit of background while we are waiting. This the first Bricsys event officially promoted by BricsCAD, and so is the inaugural one.
The agenda is to introduce BricsCAD to executives looking for an alternative to AutoCAD, as well as highlight the add-ons with which it works. The biggie is CADWorx, of course, the full-fledged plant design and analysis program -- primarily oil and gas facilities -- but also inside buildings (known as pharmaceuticals). Hexagon has already announced that the next release of CADWorx will include BricsCAD Platinum free, so that'll drop some of the AutoCAD license numbers.
We are getting the welcome from Damien Harkin, the BricsCAD dealer in this part of Australia, and a bit of history. BricsCAD is short for "building-related interactive computer systems), and the first software was called BricsWork running on an BIM RISC workstation (1990), then ported to working with MicrosStation on PCs., which lead to TriForma 3D solid modeler, which Bentley Systems purchased.
Brics|Net Architecturals in 1998 ran on AutoCAD and IntelliCAD was a 2.5D modeler, but then the dot.com bubble crashed things. (Brics.net had gone public earlier.)
So then came the new plan became BricsCAD IntelliCAD (2002) but then in 2010 left ITC with 100% new code -- code-named DDCAD, named after DwgDirect libraries from the Open Design Alliance.
In fall of 2018, Hexagon PPM acquired Bricsys.
The base of BricsCAD is the ODA Drawings SDL. WxWidgets is the GUI so that it works the same on Linux, MacOS, and Windows. Next comes the ACIS solid modeler, followed by LEDAS geometric, parameters, and solver. On top of this are the APIs, with wrappers to make TRX the same as ARX -- all 26,000 calls.
Bricsys uses extreme programming, where two programmers work on the same code. Write the tests first, then write the code.
Jason Bourhill is a BricsCAD dealer and programmer in New Zealand with a background in mechanical engineering. He's talking to us about the pain from (unnamed Autodesk) CAD system with high cost, little development, restrictive licensing (only subscription licenses that phone home every 30 days, and licenses prevent you from using the software outside the country of purchase), running old software if you don't want to for forced on subscriptions, and so on.
BricsCAD is kind of the anti-Aut0CAD, where licenses are permanent, and you can even use old versions of BricsCAD in case that is needed for third-party applications. The cost is lower, and third-party apps and your customizations migrate over. And it gets a ton (tonne) of new features every few months.
Whereas Autodesk's BIM and mechanical software is not particularly compatible with AutoCAD, BricsCAD uses the DWG format for the base program and its BIM and mechanical extensions. Jason has created a spreadsheet into which you can plug in your own numbers to determine the savings. With one user, the payback period is 0.46 years and the ROI (return on investment) is 400% over five years, and a savings of $10,000 per seat.
What to do with the savings: buy more seats, new hardware, training, pay for customization, get third-party applications, and/or throw a party.
Heidi Hewett formerly with Autodesk is now with BricsCAD as user success manager. As the case history, we are going to hear about KCL Engineering, who specializes in making buildings safe against earthquakes. They use Revit, Tekla, and AutoCAD. But engineers use a PDF editor to mark up drawings, but needed something more. Instead of AutoCAD LT (due to inability to customize), they went with BricsCAD.
Here is the aspects they looked at to do the migrations from AutoCAD to BricsCAD:
And here is what happened:
While much of AutoCAD and BricsCAD is the same, there are improvements in how BricsCAD handles things:
Quad cursor (context-sensitive commands at the cursor)
Drawing Explorer (single dialog box that handles all named entities, such as text styles and section styles)
Settings (single dialog box that handles all variables, with an interactive search)
CUI (streamlined customization)
BricsCAD Platinum
We've finished our morning tea break, and hearing from Damien about how the new style of MCAD software is better than the old-style that needs a history to understand the 3D model -- still used by Pro/Engineer, Solidworks, and Inventor. It gets worse when trying to move a model from one system to another, in that all intelligence is lost.
New MCAD systems, like BricsCAD Platinum and Onshape, don't use a history tree, and so an add intelligence to imported models using the variational solver.
One of the hidden features in BricsCAD Platinum is the animate function that moves a constraint through a range of values, so that you can see how changing the radius of a cylinder head or an angle changes things.
Platinum is a bit of an unfortunate name, as it used to refer to the fullest-feature version of BricsCAD. But with V19 (released last fall) Platinum is the version that has all the MCAD functions, such as 3D parameters, and is necessary for the add-ons, such BIM and Mechanical. (The BIM add-on uses 3D solid modeling.)
Tip: Enter the inspector function to get a dialog box that lists the DXF data, COM properties, and LISP details of the selected entity. The Show Modification option alerts you when an entity is changed, and then shows the changes.
: (inspector)
Select entity:
h/t Steve Johnson
We're ending the day with Michael Smith from Hexagon, the new parent of Bricsys. Intergraph is now 50 years old, albeit under the name of Hexagon PPM. "Little did I know as a small boy enchanted by the [NASA] rocket program, that one day I would be working for a company involved in it [guidance software]." They figured out how to send the telemetry (the rocket's position) data to screens in realtime -- instead of plotting on paper.
Intergraph introduced its first plant design software in 1978, and so is mostly known for this software. Their first 3D software was InterAct and InterPro in 1983. Even though Intergraph retired PDS (Plant Design System) 10 years ago, many firms continue to use it today -- but the software today is database-based and is known as SmartPlant 3D for mega projects ($20 billion). Most projects, however, are between $5 million and $20 million, so Intergraph acquired CADworx from Coade, which ran on AutoCAD and now on BricsCAD. Simulate the plant before constructing.
What was exciting for Hexagon is that there was a better platform out there than AutoCAD. Twenty products were evaluated, and then it turned out -- "undeniable" -- that Bricsys would be the choice.
Output (point clouds) from Leica laser scanning can be opened in BricsCAD, and then processed by CADworx.
The next generation of DWG is AI (artificial intelligence) and ML (machine learning), says Mr Smith. "We see Bricsys as the innovator of DWG products," especially in BIM. Bricsys has its own head of R&D and AI. But AI must be reliable.
Growth of Hexagon is driven by population growth, whether desalination plants or semi-conductor manufacturing. "Using all-in-one DWG to get our work done, instead of a mishmash of products. We don't leave the DWG workflow."
Hexagon thinks subscriptions are bad business, because it alienates customers; it's only there to satisfy shareholders in the short term. Hexagon offers subscriptions, but considers permanent licenses the way to go.
"You can rest assured we [Hexagon] are backing Bricsys all the way."
http://www.bricsys.com
(Disclaimer: ABC provided me with airfare and some nights hotel)
Posted at 11:42 PM in Travelogues | Permalink | Comments (1)
Archive: My tweets from the Berlin 2019 Graebert Annual Meeting
Getting ready for the Berlin Graebert Annual Meeting here in the Humbolt Box, a temporary structure in former East Berlin overlooking the reconstruction of the Berliner Palast (Berlin Palace) torn down by communists. The view outside the Humbolt Box reminds us we are in former East Berlin, with the modern tv tower next to centuries-old buildings -- and construction cranes as Berlin continues to rebuild itself.
The Berliner Palast at night
At #Graebert18 we'll be hearing about what's new in ARES, Touch, Kudo, Dassault Systemes DraftSight, Corel Software CorelCAD, Onshape, and third-party add-ons. As a reminder Graebert is the CAD vendor with:
Desktop CAD (called ARES Commander)
Mobile CAD (Touch for Android and iOS)
Browser CAD (Kudo)
OEM versions of all of them
APIs for all of them
The Keynotes
The opening keynote from Graebert ceo Wilfried Graebert gives us the history of this area of Berlin. The Palace was where the Prussian empire was centered. He notes that Graebert Gmbh has 160 employees, with 85 in R&D. Business is strong in Japan, so Graebert Japan Ltd. was created this year.
Mr Graebert says that his company is one of the last independent developers of DWG editing technology, and so he wants to help third-party developers secure their future. He adds that a growing number of developers looking for AutoCAD alternatives due to Autodesk's moves. Developers may also be concerned about Hexagon's acquisition of Bricsys.
Two corporations in Japan have more than 500 licenses of ARES Touch for mobile devices, using MDM.
Head of Greabert sales and marketing Cedric Desbordes is now giving us the rundown of software moving to the cloud. His argument is that CAD is becoming a utility like word processing, and that accessing drawings by cloud-mobile is the way to universalize access.
Mr Desbordes says Graebert's competitors are using a 'Winter is Coming' approach, where they think they have to move the whole desktop CAD package to the cloud. The other mistake is that releasing mobile or cloud CAD viewer is a sufficient strategy. Instead, the Graebert solution is both:
Both desktop CAD and mobile/browser CAD
Both view-only and editing on all platforms
Both permanent licensing and subscriptions
Both locations for files, local and cloud
One license for all products.
In general, subscription licenses outsell permanent ones 10 to 1, Mr Desbordes says, but some countries are still hardcore permanent licensees (other CAD vendors report that tends to be Japan).
Naturally, there are restrictions beyond the 30-day free use and if you are not on subscription or maintenance. If you are not paying the subscription for Kudo browserCAD, it reverts to viewing, sharing, and measuring -- no editing and no view-only links. Available as of January, stand-alone licenses of Kudo are $199/year.
OTOH, one license gives you access to ARES Touch mobile on both Android and iOS, and as many devices as you are signed into (phones and tablets). It is possible to get ARES Touch outside of the Graebert's all-in-one license by buying it through the Android and iOS online app stores. Corel Software's CorelCAD Mobile offers the same thing.
Graebert has integrated the browser-based Kudo program into the desktop ARES Commander program, so that the two work together, such as:
Accessing the latest versions of DWG files
Sharing DWG files with URLs
Accessing DWG and other files on the cloud in desktop CAD and online
Kudo supports the following cloud-based storage sites:
Microsoft Onedrive and Onedrive for Business
(Apple iDrive is not supported, except on Apple devices, as Apple has no external API for iDrive.)
"We have really worked on this synergy," summarizes Mr Desbordes. "Also, we don't force you to use one particular cloud service."
What's New in ARES 2019
Graebert's ARES Command 2019 gets a new block editor that creates and edit parametric blocks, tables to define states, complex and simplified states, such as hiding dashed line. These new customizable blocks with parameters and grips are not, however, compatible with AutoCAD's dynamic blocks, probably because Autodesk holds a patent on their version of variable blocks.
Also new in 2019:
3D modeling with push-pull
New rendering facility
Layers palette lets you rename layer names directly
Polysolids for wall-like entities
Area highlighting
4K support with larger icons
Chamfer edges of 3D solids
STL output for 3D printing
Layer merge with options
Digital signatures (only for Windows)
DWG recovery
The old system for plug-ins would not move to a new computer, and so Graebert wrote a new one with Graebert's account now bound to users, not the device. New plug-ins to be introduced today using new SDK include the following:
Render plug-in
UNDET point cloud plug-in
Maps plug-in (this plug-in is free to subscribers only)
The challenge is to handle very large point clouds, where AutoCAD is limited to about 10 million points, says Graebert. The plug-in from UNDET (named after leaf cutter ant, the most powerful animal in the world) supports 100 million points. It accepts data from many scanner brands.
We are seeing it rotate point cloud of 86 million colored points, nearly 2TB (not 2GB) on disk, loads in seconds. (See image above.) It changes colors, both real and fake, like by elevation, clips the points, and has a manager for scan positions. However, it is for ARES Commander desktop Windows 64-bit only.
ARES Commander 2019 will be released by Grabert in the second half of January 2019. You can try the new features in this pre-release version downloadable from:
For Windows 32-bit: https://www.graebert.com/getares2019PRforwin32
Graebert supports more operating systems than Autodesk for desktop CAD.
Graebert is speeding up development through the use of their new plug-in architecture, allowing them to leap-frog some competitors in areas of point clouds, rendering, and mapping. You will find in ARES 2019 many more new features than in earlier years, because for the last five years they spent much energy on getting browserCAD (Kudo) right, in conjunction with Onshape. With the browserCAD problem solved, they can now accelerate base CAD development.
More updates to ARES Commander will arrive via service packs during 2019, including the following:
Revit underlay with entity snaps, etc
Revit export
IFC underlays to come later
More functions for customizable blocks
In fact, Graebert says that more features will come out in service packs than in the main release.
FxARX is the name of the new API, short for "effects." It is compatible with ARx from Autodesk, handles UI, custom entities, hidden line API, and jigs. It is due out with ARES 2019. Also new is the Commenting API, which consists of non-DWG data.
Graebert now offers an Enterprise version of all ARES software, for firms of 100+ employees:
Controls permitted cloud services
Disable unwanted functions
Kudo on private server
Pay only for actual users
Can disable things like sharing of links and PDF export; can lock user profiles; allow only commenting.
There is a minimum spend of US$25,000 a year, and carries a 25% premium on the cost. For example, 200 users of ARES Touch only or 100 of ARES Commander.
DraftSight 2019
Coming up next is what's going to be new in DraftSight from Dassault Systemes, who's been working with Graebert for ten years now. The two just signed a new agreement to continue the contract where Graebert works on DraftSight for Dassault. No wonder, as Dassault projects two million users of DraftSight by the end of 2018.
DraftSight 2019 will work with Dassault programs, such as:
Solidworks for FEA
Marketplace for finding manufacturers
Homebyme for populating floor plans
DraftSight 2019 will have many of the new functions in ARES 2019, plus a new API for third-party development. (Dassault had written its own API for DraftSight, but that's been waylaid now.)
Bigger news is that Dassault will start selling Kudo under their DraftSight brand name. It might be called DraftSight Cloud, but the name is not final. It will be released in beta at Solidworks World in early February. After it is out, Dassault will see how the mobile Touch app fits into their ecosystem.
It's a pretty interesting that Onshape is working deeply with Graebert, as is Dassault.
Kudo Updates
Coming to Kudo is "CAD Processing as a Service":
Thumbnails of dwg, rvt, and dgn at specified resolution & background color with specific layouts and zooms
Extract info from DWGs, such as all text, layers, styles, layout names, layer extents
https://www.graebert.com
Posted at 01:11 AM in Travelogues | Permalink | Comments (0)
Archive: What I tweeted about Bricsys 2018 London
Theme music for the London conference of Bricsys 2018 is "London Calling" by The Clash. "Who's that?" asks the young-ish 61-year-old CAD journalist sitting next to me. "I bought the [double] album when it first came out," I replied, smugly.
BricsCAD Beyond V19
Learning about the future plans of Bricsys at BRICSYS 2018. It involves practical jobs performed by the CAD system on behalf of the human designers. Computer are best at repetitive, boring work; humans best at the creative side. Bricsys sees one assisting the other.
Bricsys sees the problem with Autodesk's dynamic blocks are being too manual, and so too difficult, and limited to 2D. BricsCAD V20 will instead have a 3D version that generates flexible blocks semi-automatically. Even add BIM data automatically using BIM styles.
Future versions of Blockify will do more than just finding simple entities. Future versions will handle assemblies and imports of tessellated data and point clouds -- replacing them with more appropriate entities.
Other things Bricsys is planning for future releases of BricsCAD:
Use AI to automate processes in BIM, 2D, 3D, mechanical, civil, more
Aim to add XR (VR, AR, mixed-R)
Adding Navisworks next
More commercial file formats, thanks to ODA
DWG is now 36 years old, no limit to it
Hexagon Acquires Bricsys
By being acquired by Hexagon of Sweden (which has a major presence in Huntsville Alabama through Intergraph), it makes it easier for Bricsys to take on the American market. If you are asking who is bigger, Autodesk has about $2.5 billion in sales while Hexagon/Intergraph/Bricsys is at about $3.5 billion in sales.
So, this is Hexagon's Trimble moment, when Trimble bought SketchUp from Google to get further into AEC, except that SketchUp isn't useful for real 3D modeling. Official reason given by Hexagon on acquiring Bricsys:
"We can now provide the AEC market with an end-to-end platform – with conceptual design, CAD design, BIM software and collaboration tools, project and cost controls, in-field construction execution tools (work packages), and progress documentation (reality capture) – to connect, automate, and ultimately 'autonomise' the entire building and construction ecosystem through our HxGN SMART Build solution."
The big sales pitch is that you don't need to leave DWG or translate to/from DWG. "The flow stays in one format as you move from application to application -- at a fraction of the price. We will win one customer at a time," says Hexagon exec vp.
After Autodesk canceled his ADN agreement (he was the 2nd oldest ADN member) with no reason, Hexagon PPM exec vp Rick Allen got nervous about the future of CADWorx. Now, he says, Autodesk should be nervous, because he feels Revit penetration is not very deep, users dissatisfied.
The acquisition is closed, which means it is final. Here is a picture of Erik de Keyser's new boss, Hexagon executive vp Rick Allen.
(Hexagon PPM is short for "plant power marine," which is what Intergraph became specialized at. "Became" because the company got its start as M&S Computing doing work on the Apollo moon shot of 1969. Which is why the Intergraph [Hexagon PPM] head office is in Huntsville, AL, the home to NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center.)
Future of BIM in BricsCAD V19
Bricsys estimates the BIM penetration is only 16%, split between Revit, Vectorworks, GRAPHISOFT, and others. This, ceo de Keyser feels, gives Bricsys and Hexagon a big chance. He hopes 20-25% market share in a few years time.
The aim, says Bricsys ceo Erik de Keyser, is to virtualize the to-be-built structure eventually to LOD [level of detail] 450 in 3D. BricsCAD V19 imports RFA (Revit family files, which are parametric blocks). When the RFA lacks parameters, then BricsCAD can add them with a single click inside the new Block Editor environment.
Doing semantic searches in BricsCAD BIM available now.
Site modeling with new commands in BricsCAD BIM V19: import TIN and then cut/fill the site to match the building's needs.
Here's the new UI for the BIM module of BricsCAD V19:
Future of Mech in BricsCAD V19
The new Animate option in the Parametric panel animates parametrics: BricsCAD briefly moves the entities related to the parameter, such as a shaft moving inside a cylinder.
Applause at BRICSYS 2018 for the real-time exploded view in BricsCAD V19. Dragging the cursor back and forth pulls the assembly apart and together.
New in sheet metal: Associative unfolding and curved junctions. Creating sheet metal parts from scratch right in the assembly view of BricsCAD V19. BricsCAD also displays both the original sheet metal and the unfolded version in the same window. One sheet metal design took three minutes, partly thanks to the semi-automation BricsCAD provides the designer. It can also design in conjunction with imported models, such as from STEP and Solidworks. Also seeing how sheet metal is created automatically from imported solids, such as corner reliefs -- and then unfold. "It takes two seconds!... Maybe 3."
New in BricsCAD V19 is a parametric hole library, with drag and drop insertion into parts. A future release will allow holes in blocks and assemblies. All this is done with DWG. Also new with assemblies in BricsCAD V19: arrays of parametric components and automatic exploded views.
All this is the new BricsCAD Mechanical, the new name for the old Sheet Metal add-on.
Initial BricsCAD User Group Meeting
Steve Johnson lead the initial BricsCAD User Group in London, at which it was agreed that the group should be formed.
If you have a bad DWG, the BLADE LISP editor from Bricsys lets you examine it.
https://www.bricsys.com
Bricsys 2018 London: Day 2
#bricsys2018
OK, here we are on day 2 of the Bricsys 2018 London conference and we are just waiting for the BLADE session to begin,
BLADE is the BricsCAD LISP advanced development environment for interactively programming with the LISP programming language. BLADE was introduced last year with BricsCAD V18.
While we wait, here is an overview that I gleaned from yesterday's session for third-party developers:
BricsCAD V19 is is compiled with Visual Studio 2017 and uses Teigha 19.5
A public API is now available for sheet metal. It uses ARx syntax in BRx (API previously worked through LISP).
BIM API is u pdated in V19 with IFC export classifications, all BIM properties, spatial id, such as buildings and stories, associative and non-associative rooms, compositions, linear elements like beams and columns, and BIM dialogs.
BricsCAD App Store has been reworked to make it easier to find the specific add-ons.
BricsCAD Solution Build V19 will be released end of 2018. It is not AutoCAD OEM, but the end result is the same.
Why still use LISP? It has low to zero maintenance, is compatible between releases (unlike C++), no compiler requires (faster development), lots of libraries available, and it good enough probably for 99% of users programming needs.
Steve Johnson speaking on LISP in BricsCAD
Here is a picture of the BLADE user interface.
It offers parentheses highlighting, pretty printing, collapsing sections, automatic code indenting, and tooltips that show function syntax.
One project can be open at a time, where a project consists of two or more files. A preferences dialog box lets you set up colors and other settings as you wish. You can add your own keywords, and can be highlighted in a different color from regular keywords. Define constants, text scaling factor, and save multiple configurations.
A very nice feature is the side panel that lists the functions used in the current code. Click on a function name, and it is highlighted in the code -- and vice versa. The function names can be sorted in a variety of ways, such as actual order and alphabetical.
BLADE is being updated with each new release of BricsCAD, such as the new syntax and variables check. More on BLADE from https://blog.bricsys.com/inside-bricsys-blade/
Future of Drawing
On to the next session, "The Future of Drawing," where we are getting some more previews of the next release of BricsCAD V19. First up, linking Excel spreadsheets to tables through data linking. It works only with Excel, alas.
The Dim command has been reworked to do semi-automatic dimensioning. As the cursor passes over geometry, BricsCAD selects the correct style of dimensioning, such as linear for lines and radial for circles.
A formal block editor is added to V19, which is accessed through the BEdit command or by double-clicking a blck.
Tangent and Perpendicular entity snaps controls geometry being stretched, such as resizeing an arc attached to lines.
NearestDimension shows you the distance between two objects: just select two of them. See my tutorial on using it at https://www.worldcadaccess.com/blog/2018/10/bricscad-v19-best-1-nearest-distance-editing.html
Nudge lets you move entities with the arrow keys. The distance moved depends on the zoom level.
Blockify converts individual entities to identical-looking blocks, which helps reduce file size. See my tutorial at https://www.worldcadaccess.com/blog/2018/10/bricscad-v19-2-blockify-conversion.html . It is useful for cleaning up imported STEP files. In one example, the filesize went from 33MB to 3.5MB.
PDF files can be imported as drawing entities.
The manipulator gets a ruler and a protractor, and recognizes snapping. The Repeat option makes multiple copies, while the Copy option makes copies at any angle or distance.
Point clouds can be imported, and entity snaps used with them. A future release will add object recognition.
After the break, the future of mechanical...
The Future of Mechanical
And we're back.
A new module is called BricsCAD Mechanical, which combines BricsCAD Platinum with the old Sheet Metal module. The tease question is "What's wrong with mechanical design?"
AutoCAD Mechanical is not a choice because it is just a toolset to create 2D drawings -- not 3D. No collision checks, no mass properties, because it is not 3D.
Autodesk Inventor is not a choice because it loses the ability to edit 3D DWG files. "It forces you to be a programmers not a designer," because it uses history.
Fusion is not a choice because it requires a stable Internet connection, and uses the same engine as Inventor.
The right MCAD software is
Compatible with AutoCAD (like Bricsys), even at the API level
Full-blown 3D with parts and assemblies, sheet metal, and drawing views
Able to edit any DWG and imported 3D geometry from other MCAD programs
able to do parametric modeling without getting into the history trap
Also: be affordable, work without an Internet connection, and have a permanent license.
The backhoe was modeled from scratch in BricsCAD, and moves using parameters.
See my Twitter stream at upfrontezine for more on mechanical and sheetmetal.
https://twitter.com/upFronteZine
London skyline from near my hotel
Alright, here we are waiting for the official start of Bricsys 2018 conference here in sunny London. We've already had a developer session, where we learned of some of the nuts and bolts about developing add-ons for BricsCAD.
The big news, of course, is that Hexagon of Sweden has bought Bricsys, making it part of its PPM devision that also houses Intergraph, famous for being one of the oldest CAD programs ever. To challenge the "A" company (Autodesk) is going to take more resources. By being acquired by Hexagon (which has a major presence in Huntsville Alabama through Intergraph), makes it easier to take on the American market,
CEO Erik de Keyser is on the stage saying "We are going to rock the industry. Again."
Attendees in The Brewery conference hall
He is reminiscing about the start of BricsCAD, which goes back to TriForma, which he sold to Bentley -- BIM before it was called BIM. And then they went to write BricsCAD, first based on IntelliCAD, and then rewritten independently of ITC. "Best decision we ever made" was buying the solid modeling from LEDAS.
Now hearing from Rick Allen, executive of Hexagon PPM, also president of CADWorx and Analysis Solutions. CADWorkx link is important, because all this began a few years ago when Intergraph ported CADWorx from AutoCAD to BricsCAD. In the slide below, the extra 180 employees come from Bricsys.
Why did Hexagon buy Bricsys?
They wanted customers to have a complete solutions. The most complex engineering problem today is the offshore platform, with issues like tight spaces and centers of gravity. Intergraph specializes in software that designs them, as well as oil processing plants, water treatment plants, and so on.
Intergraph/Hexagon is excited by the one-DWG platform provided by Bricsys, for CAD, BIM, and MCAD design in a single file format -- no translation. As opposed to Autodesk, who suffers from CAD (DWG), BIM (RVT), and MCAD (IPT), and the conversion headaches that result.
Bricsys ceo Erik de Keyser (see photo below) takes his inspiration from German architect Mies (full name Ludwig Mies van der Rohe):
God is in the details, as amplified by Jim Eyre
So the aim these days is to simplify the use of BricsCAD, and yet represent the details with BricsCAD.
Bricsys ceo Erik de Keyser
User Group Meeting
The brief lunch is over, and now it is time for the inaugural BricsCAD user group meeting. First question on the boar, "Should there be a BricsCAD User Group?" Led by Steve Johnson, who says Bricsys asked him to tackle this.
User group leader Steve Johnson
Should there be a BricsCAD user group? Yes, we'll give it a try.
What should its goals be? Have Bricsys promote it; membership is free; hope Bricsys might fund direct expenses; exchange information about pain points
What should it do? Maybe discounts for members, reduced ticket prices for the annual conference, wish list, access to beta, exclusive training info, meet with developers; existing forum does a good job, so maybe a member-only section
Should it be primarily online? Meet once a year at the annual Bricsys conference, but then meet virtually
How independent should it be? Maintaining the independence of the user group is important to attendees.
Steven Johnson offers to lead the group initially, with a few others helping. The problem being we don't know what BricsCAD might be called in the future under Hexagon (Intergraph was renamed Hexagon PPM).
VP of communications Don Strimbu is asking, Who thinks BIM is awesome? Who thinks BIM is too hard?
Four top BIM myths
BIM is just hype
BIM is just for the big buys
BIM will just cost more
BIM is just too much work
Bricsys vp of communications Don Strimbu
Now we are getting a demo of what's new in BIM for BricsCAD V19. The BIM module has a new UI that borrows from the free Sketch program, such as a toolbar-like ribbon and video-based help in a panel.
New user interface for BricsCAD BIM V19
BIMify is already two years old, the "AI" command that turns CAD elements into BIM elements. It recognizes beam, columns, components, rooms, internal and external walls, and so on.
Compositions is the most among the most BIM part of BIM, where the details of walls and floors/roofs are defined. A typical residential wall is gyproc on the interior, then 2x4" framing, insulation, plastic vapour barrier, exterior wall of plaster or brick or wood -- and the software needs to know which walls are exterior and which are interior. BricsCAD handles this.
Using BIMify to convert a generic 3D model into a BIM model
BIM V19 now imports @AutodeskRevit RFA family (component) files for use in architectural designs. This means that BricsCAD can now make use of the huge catalogs of Revit parts on third-party sites. Parameters and constraints associated with the RFA are imported. But when the RFA file lacks parameters, then BricsCAD can add them with a single click inside the new Block Editor environment.
Revit door component inserted in BricsCAD BIM model
BricsCAD BIM V19 improves drawing generation (design documentation) with
labeled grids
a Project Browser to track levels (floors) and content on each level
schedules and quantity take-offs
Drawings generated from BIM model showing grid
Hearing how to design a skyscraper with BricsCAD:
Draw the basic shape with 3D solids, then use the new multi-slicing command to create the floors. Shell the model to create walls and ceilings, and then BIMify to identify them. Add glazing. New grid is either rectangular or radial; any curve can be the grid axis, then use standard tools to modify the grid's look.
The new Propagate command quickly adds elements to a drawing, such as columns in a room.
New Curtain Wall tool adds curtain walls, after you specify the material (such as glass), repeating patterns, and thickness.
Twisted skyscraper with curtain walls
BricsCAD BIM V19 imports TIN files to display the terrain, and has site modeling tools for flattening areas for buildings and roads. Use the outline of the building's base to define the cut/fill volume. When volumes are removed, BricsCAD reports the volume.
Editing an imported terrain file
The afternoon break is over, and now we hear about CDE -- common data environment -- which Bricsys deploys through 24/7, the new name for their online file sharing site that used to be known as Chapoo. 24/7 also handles project planning, editable work flows, multi-file viewing, and so on with unlimited users, each with different access rights. Cost is $200 per month but will be free for subscribers as of V19.
The example given is a 2.5-mile-long tunnel under Brussels being updated over a period of years.
Managing data with 24/7
For the future, notifications from BricsCAD, BIM collaboration format, and VR in 24/7.
And that's it for today!
[Disclosure: Bricsys paid part of my airfare, my hotel stay, and some meals]
How to send email from overseas when your ISP blocks you
VPN to the rescue
When I want to send email from outside of Canada, the outgoing email is filed to Outgoing, the purgatory mailbox. It is never sent. The problem occurs whether I want to send email from my Android phone or my Windows laptop, using a desktop client like Eudora or eM Client, or mobile app, like AquaMail. Who blocks the email, and why, I don't know.
I asked my ISP's tech support. They had no clue, suggesting that I instead use their Webmail client, which is only slightly worse than Gmail's Web client. (The Webmail client is, admittedly, effective in overcoming geographic boundaries, but awkward to use.)
Fool 'em with VPNs
The solution is to use a VPN, a virtual private network, which fools everybody on the Internet and all software on your computer that you are in a different country. There are numerous VPNs that provide a basic service for free. I use TunnelBear, which offers 500MB a month of data transfer at no cost; paying for TunnelBear gets me unlimited data and use on up to five computers at once. (I use it at home on all our computers as a extra layer of protection.)
So, download and install a VPN like TunnelBear (https://www.tunnelbear.com/download), and then specify your home country, the one where your ISP is located. In my case, Canada. Problem solved.
If you have emails stuck in the Outgoing box, then you'll need to resend them. In some cases, the email client is smart enough to send them once it senses that you are "back in Canada." In other cases, you need to manually resend them, which might involve moving them to the Inbox, forwarding them as an original, or some other tactic.
I use TunnelBear to watch videos, such as live news events, that are geographically locked. Some jurisdictions, however, like China, and some software giants, like Netflix, block VPNs. So, there is an alternative.
The Alternative to VPNs
There is an alternative solution, involving a "visual" VPN like TeamViewer (https://www.teamviewer.com/en/download/windows). It displays on your local screen (laptop or Android device) what is displayed on the distant computer to which you connect. I primarily use this software to support the computers used by elderly relatives. It lets me see what is happening on their computer screens, operate the software, and even reboot their computers.
When I am abroad, I use TeamViewer to access my desktop computer back home. I've used it sometimes to transfer files that I forgot to take along, but mostly I use it to access my Eudora email client running on my primary desktop computer. I go through the incoming emails, answering them, and filing them into mailboxes.
It is possible to watch geographically-locked and VPN-blocked video with TeamViewer, but the frame rate is slow. It works, because as far as Netflix is concerned, the video is being watched on a geographically-correct computer. I don't know if TeamViewer is effective at evading the Great Red Firewall imposed by China.
Posted at 12:57 AM in Tips, Travelogues | Permalink | Comments (1)
New MCAD features in BricsCAD V18
BricsCAD Platinum is the top end version of BricsCAD, and as such offers 3D constraints, design intent, and other high end functions. Naturally, it costs more than basic BricsCAD, but still far less than AutoCAD that doesn't have them. For V18 (to be released in November), BricsCAD Platinum get the following new functions:
...and:
Communicator is the extra-cost translation add-on for Bricsys Pro and Platinum for translating drawings.
MCAD and BIM Editing in One
At this conference, Bricsys is making the remarkable claim that BricsCAD is the only CAD system in the world that can do MCAD and BIM design in the same model (and the same file format, DWG). The demo they are showing is of changing the design of a parametric elevator inside a building model. In this tutorial, they replace the elevator's motor by importing a new one from Solidworks, and then making changes to the elevator to adapt the new motor.
Other new features:
Linked balloons to auto-generated BOM table in generated views.
Creating ribs along polylines; edit the polyline's path to edit the rib's path
Determines which are sheet metal parts, and which are not
Adding a sheet metal part intelligently to an existing assembly with no collisions
Draw freehand along an assembly, extrude to create shell for assembly.
Why Hexagon PPM Chose BricsCAD
So many reasons
Hexagon PPM (ex-Intergraph) ported seven million lines of its CADworx code from AutoCAD to BricsCAD. Here are the initial reasons why they decided to make the effort (image credit Rakesh Rao‏ @rakesh_rao):
But from the porting process and afterwards, Hexagon found so many more reasons to like BricsCAD as the platform for CADWorx:
https://hexagonppm.com/products/3d-product-family/cadworx
Bricsys Developer Conference 2017
Bricsys likes holding its annual user conference in a different city every year. In the past we've been to places like Brussels, Barcelona, and Munich. This year, the event is being held near the center of Paris. I know, because the price of a Caesar salad at the adorable, tiny French restaurant is $22 or so.
Day 1 is the developer conference, and so we are hearing about items of interest for third-party developers, less so for users. (Tomorrow is the user conference.) Here are some of my notes of what is being said:
Bricsys CEO Eric de Keyser held the keynote and emphasized the Bricsys eco-system. He noted that it went well to be an Autodesk third-party developer for two decades. But Bricsys offered insurance, in case something would happen to Autodesk. People thought Bricsys was too small to survive, but it is still here, today a credible platform after 15 years.
He first thought that offering a good API was sufficient. But then Autodesk became a competitor to their own partners by buying up the best several, becoming a competitor to the others. "Are you ever invited to be a developer on Autodesk's cloud? I don't think so," Mr de Keyser asked rhetorically.
De Keyser argued that Bricsys offers a community that competes on all levels with the big giant.
He said that Autodesk has an old interface as a result of 30 years of development, and so there are hundreds of settings, some of which are set just once. Bricsys says it can replace many settings and dialog boxes through its smart Quad interface (their unique at-cursor control). He hinted at a new software program, to be introduced tomorrow, that would eliminate the need for many settings through AI.
"BIM is there is stay," he declared. The $100-million question is, however, how to get everyone using BIM. IFC is not the best technology but it is a standard, and so it has to be used for model and data transfer. The good news is that BricsCAD BIM is certified for IFC imports and exports; as well, the new Civil program supports IFCs.
Bricsys 24/7 is the new name for Chapoo, and can be a model server. You can use Dropbox but it is just for storage; compare with what we do with collaboration.
Marketing for Developers
The App store on the Bricsys Web site is free for third-party developers. Tip: resellers can find add-ons here that might be useful for customers. Views have more than doubled over last year.
OEM for BricsCAD (BSB)
BricsCAD Solution Build is the full version of BricsCAD for OEMS. It features a customizable installer, silent activation, new versions of BricsCAD do not affect the add-on. Windows only for now but will be available for MacOS and Linux. Can choose when to upgrade, no forced upgrades. All languages keys. Pricing same as native BricsCAD for end users, but developer gets 20% discount.
Titanium Partner
Bricsys is introducing a new level of third-party developers: Titanium. At this level, you get mentions on the Bricsys corporate blog, mentions in Bricsys marketing, VIP access to conference such as application booths, get boosted in the Bricsys App store, and be part of in-product promotion inside Bricsys.
To become a Titanium developer, see the list in the slide in the figure above. As always, membership in the Bricsys partner program is free, even at the Titanium level.
[Disclosure: Bricsys contributed towards my transportation, accommodation, and some meals.]
New from Graebert: ARES Sketch
This new software was requested by an OEM partner, who did not want to develop it himself. ARES Sketch is floor plan sketching for tax assessment, especially in the USA where property tax is based on square footage and what each square foot is used for: patios, fireplaces, offices, etc.
It uses Graebert's CAD experience from SiteMaster, GIS from ESRI. It is meant to be integrated into CAMA, computer-assisted mass appraisal systems. It will be released by the end of the year.
It is not a sketching program like SketchUp, but does offer a simplified user interface. As a rectangle is drawn (which snaps automatically), it represents a floor area, like a room and a dialog box pops up for you to select the use. The goal is to add room areas quickly, including rooms within rooms. It can access online geographic images, on which you can sketch the rooms. It outputs in DWG.
Vectoflow, a user of Onshape
The drawings tab of Onshape uses technology from Graebert that then formed the basis of Kudo. Both Onshape and Kudo work inside Web browsers.
Here at the conference, Onshape listed the top improvements made to Onshape Drawings in 2017:
Unified dimensioning
Dual dimensions
Surface finish symbols
Weld symbols
New view types: broken views, partial sections, and shaded views
Now we are hearing from an Onshape customer from Munich that designs flow meters, Vectoflow. They redesigned them to make them more robust, make a wide variety of shapes, and so on. They use powder 3D printing to make the flow probe any shape that a customer wants. The tip is 0.9mm in diameter, with five channels of information, such as flow speed and directions. A ceramic prove can handle 1800C, hotter than a volcano.
They designed a wind tunnel that fits inside a standard 40' container, and can generate wind speeds faster than the speed of sound. When they 3D print the probe, there are just two steps to the finished part. Lots of proprietary methods. For them, it is important that two or more people can work on a single model at the same time -- hence Onshape. It can be confusing when two edit at the same time, so the more common use is one person to edit, the others view and comment. The main reason they went with Onshape primarily, because there is one version of the drawing for everyone. Customized problems are branches from the main geometry.
https://www.vectoflow.de/en/
The Strategy of Corel
Corel is best known for CorelDraw, but it also rebrands ARES as CorelCAD. The primary user of CorelCAD is a CorelDraw or CorelDraw Technical Suite illustration users, who need access to DWG files. Corel adds a converter to bridge the two sets of programs.
Apparently CorelCAD has brought hundreds of thousands of new users to Corel. The company also licenses ARES Touch as CorelCAD Mobile.
There will be a CorelCAD 2018, although it is not being announced today. It will have all the functions announced for ARES 2018, including 3D editing, something CorelCAD users have been wanting. CorelCAD Mobile currently only works on Android, but an iOS version is scheduled for next week. The licensing from Corel will be different from Graebert, one that is "better suited to Corel users."
The Strategy of DraftSight
Dassault Systemes licenses ARES from Graebert, changes some of its functions, and renames it DraftSight. It has worked with Graebert since 2010, and is finding that the 2D side is exploding. Dassault itself is focusing on cloud-based CAD but also desktop-based CAD. And so products by Graebert fit into this.
DraftSight has a G-code module, which is needed to communicate with computer-controlled machines.
DraftSight Floorplanning works with smartphones that have 3D scanners to scan the world, turn it into a point cloud, and then into DWG. Import that into DraftSight as planes and surfaces.
Geovia is integrated with DraftSight to record mining. Delmia is integrated with DraftSight to document yacht design and manufacturing.
DraftSight 2018 is available today for download with the enhancements from ARES 2018, but also adds smart dimensioning that adjusts dimension placement, plus additional DraftSight-only functions.
Naturally, DraftSight's purpose is also to tempt users to Solidworks.
Dassault is assessing Kudo and Touch, and at some point in the future will offer tablet and browser-based CAD, along with verticals.
Real-time rendering from Graebert
Graebert has licensed the real-time physics-based renderer from Unicorn, for only its 64-bit Windows version of ARES desktop. Price is 149 pounds or Euros. Until now, Graebert had been using the render engine from Artisan.
"Real-time" means that we can make adjustments to the scene before the rendering is finished.
"Physics-based" means that materials are stored in layers, entities, or colors. The light calculations take them into account.
Now, there are two versions of the rendered available, quick and full. Graebert licensed the quick one so that customers get a rendering fairly quickly. We were shown the full render, which took about 30 minutes to fully render the bathroom scene.
Recommended are 8GB RAM and an nVidia graphics board, but it can also work with 4GB RAM and CPU-based rendering.
The Graebert CAD Software Collection
More than just desktop CAD
I've mentioned earlier that Graebert OEMs their software to several other software companies. It is rebranded as CorelCAD by Corel, DraftSight by Dassault Systems, and so on. The OEM versions can have different functions; as chief technical officer Robert Graebert told me, generating a custom version of ARES for an OEM customer involves pushing a few buttons and it is generated in five minutes -- that's how finely tuned they made their OEM business,
I'll talk more about OEM customers later, but for now I want to list all of the software Graebert offers:
ARES for desktop computers
ARES XXXXXXXX -- to be announced later today
ARES Map accesses ESRI map data
ARES Mechanical semi-automates 2D mechanical design
ARES Render plug-in (see figure above)
ARES Touch for mobile devices
ARES Kudo for Web browsers
ARES XXX -- to be announced later today
ARES Sketch -- new -- for sketching on a mobile device like a pen on paper
SiteMaster
SiteMaster Kitchen
SiteMaster BIM
ODA Teigha Conference, Day 2
Vendor Presentations
Day 2 of the Teigha conference traditionally has been for 1-on-1 meetings, where members can meet with ODA programmers. This year, we have a spillover, however. Several vendors are holding side conferences to talk technically about their software: C3D Labs, LEDAS, and Visual Solutions.
C3D Labs
C3D Labs offers a 3D modeling kernel to ODA members at a reduced price. This is, in fact, the third solid modeling kernel available to ODA members. The ODA has one it developed on its own, a free stop-gap that is good enough for simple 3D modeling, but not good enough for real 3D. Second option is to license ACIS from Dassault Spatial, but it is rumoured to be expensive, partly because the license involves royalties. I don't know.
The third option arrived recently is from C3D Labs of Russia. Their license involves no royalties, and is free for evaluation and educational use. A one-time fee costs $1,000 for non-profits, $5000 for commercial use, and a few other price levels. See figure below. If the price seems high, but apparently is low compared to competitors and considering that updates are delivered every four weeks.
C3D Labs touts how easy it is to get the license: go to the ODA Web site and add it to your shopping basket. Pay, then download.
Note that the ODA version is different from the standard C3D modeler, which we will hear about later this morning. The company also has a converter (translator) and a solver (constraints) which are not available through Teigha, but could be, if customers demand.
As a reminder, 3D solids are mathematically represented by b-rep, short for boundary representation. This represents 3D solids by their surfaces (the part we see), also known as the boundary -- and their insides, which we don't see. The C3D modeler sees the boundary as a series of faces, as illustrated below.
Nikolay Golovanov was instrumental in writing the C3D kernel for KOMPAS-3D some 20 years ago. More recently, the kernel was spun off as a subsidiary company, C3D Labs, whose job is to market and commercialize the software. His thinking on 3D kernels was collected in the book, Geometric Modeling.
One of C3D Labs' customers is here at the ODA conference. MKA Software and Engineering Solutions is from Turkey, and their software generates drawings for steel, one-story buildings. I say "generate" because the user enters parameters, such as area and roof style, and the software generates all of the drawings. The crucial part in steel design are the details of the connections between beams and columns.
This firm used the Open Cascade kernel, but found it was not very fast. They tried a number of other options, but then as new members of the ODA, they decided to switch to C3D Labs. It is so new, it is still under development, and so we didn't get to see a demo.
Difference Between Two C3D Versions
C3D Modeler for Teigha consists only of the modeler and some of the translator. Missing are constraints, rendering, and the full translation unit. See the figure below for the full list of differences:
Nevertheless, C3D modeler handles:
Solid and surface modeling
Direct modeling
Collision detection, planar projections, and geometric calculations
It runs on all operating systems, including Android and iOS. The API is open for customers to build on top of C3D.
LEDAS
Another software firm using C3D is LEDAS of Russia. They are a developer, so use C3D to develop software for other CAD firms. Their most prominent customer is Dassault Systemes, for whom they worked 12 years.
Today, we are hearing from Nikolay Syntnikov, coo of Ledas. He is describing some of the projects that they are currently involved in. One is for a new CAD program meant for use in Asia, backed by a large investor. He could not name it, as the software is still under development. But the slide below shows some of the parameters of the project.
Also big announcement here is the new LEDAS Cloud Platform, still being developed. It is meant for customers who are loathe to store their drawings on servers hosted by the likes of Autodesk or Onshape. They hope to ship LCP in a couple of months.
[Press F5 to refresh this page.]
[Disclosure: ODA paid for my airfare, hotel, and some meals.]
Teigha Cloud SDK
(For coverage of Teigha Publish SDK for 3D PDF output, see my twitter stream at @upfrontezine .)
Switching over to the Teigha Cloud presentation, this is for viewing and editing drawings in a Web browser, where the code is stored on a remote server computer. It uses Web Assembly format, which reduces the size of files needed: Library size is half the size, initializes 10x faster, and parses data, such as a 5MB drawing, 30% faster.
The Update Manager opens large drawings on any client device, meaning PC, tablet, or phone. As the user zooms and pan, the Update Manager shows more or fewer entities on the screen -- as shown by the trucks below.
When bandwidth is limited, smaller objects are removed from the screen. This improves the performance. To see the missing details, zoom into an area, and Update Manager sends along the small, missing entities to the screen. To know when to do this, the Web browser code needs to keep sending the server "camera" updates, the camera being the 3D viewpoint.
Teigha Cloud supports the revision manager, as shown below. It can compare different revisions. Revision data is stored on the back end; the front end only sees the revision list. Also supported: grips, markups, works with Teigha Visualize, and support for ACIS, Parasolid, and Revit files.
Coming soon: multi-threaded analysis and combined metafiles for optimized GPU rendering.
Teigha Cloud is offered by the ODA under a fixed fee license, meaning no royalties. Some functions cost extra, such as Revit support.
Teigha Revision control for DWG
Sergy Stepantso, cloud team
The Open Design Alliance has been leading Autodesk. The CAD vendor initially refused to release a DWG read/write API, saying DXF was sufficient; but when it saw that ODA was doing well, it countered with its RealDWG API. There is no stand-alone API for dealing with Revit data, until the ODA began developing it; Autodesk has not (yet) responded to it.
Now the ODA is extending DWG's capabilities with revision control. This is essentially an unlimited undo-redo system but with a few more functions -- such as check-out, submit, merge, and update to revision.
The idea is to be able to save progress of your work, restart from any state, develop two or more versions of drawings in parallel, work collaboratively. See the image for an example.
Version keeping data is stored in the DWG file, but the version history and .dwg data is kept in a repository file. The oldest version is at the bottom, the newest at the top.
This allows multi-user editing, because an unlimited number of branches are permitted. Going a step further, it allows distributed working, where engineers are working in two different locations, with the database being in a remote location. It also handles conflict resolution, such as the same circle is changed by one user to 30mm and a second user to 15mm: the conflict is displayed for users to chose one.
Branches are shown in different colors, along with a description of what changed and a time stamp. If this seems to be similar to Onshape, that is no coincidence. ODA has worked with Onshape to figure out how to apply revision control to DWG.
Each branch has a name: there is a master drawing to which branches can be merged. You can compare what was done between revisions, like drawing compare in other software. During collaboration, both users see the same branch pattern.
Teigha Visualize general purpose graphics engine
Alexander Federov, senior software engineer
Prague art for sale in Prague
So now we get into the nitty-gritty details of new APIs from ODA. The first is the new Visualize API. It is a file-independent module meant for handling display duties. It is not tied to DWG or any other file format.
It handles the following tasks:
overlays, such as cursors, traciers, snap points
partial graphics cache regeneration (for faster display of large drawings)
metafiles for hatches, text, and block references
spatial filters to cull entities not on the screen
multi-threaded metafile preprocessing
The Visualize API is implemented in object-oriented C++ and works with all common compilers found in Linux, MacOS, and Windows.
It does the following renderings:
wireframe, hidden lines removed, shaded, and other render modes
visual styles such as silhouettes, hidden edges, and transparency
lineweights and line styles
zoom, pan, orbit, and other view changes
Visualize can output to 2D and 3D PDF files.
In summary, Visualize is meant to speed the development of software that might or might not work with DWG files, such as markup software and file viewers -- as well as CAD systems. We are seeing examples of how it can be used as an ACIS SAT viewer, a point cloud viewer, and a DWG viewer.
Live blog: Open Design Alliance's 2017 Conference
Keynote: The Evolving Mandate
ODA began in 1998 with a crystal-clear mission to work with .dwg files, to keep pace with new releases of .dwg, and set up as a non-profit. "We take care of member needs, and respond to their needs," says ODA ceo Neil Peterson. The first release was R2000 .dwg in 1999 based on Marcomp code, but the quickly began a rewrite. By 2003 it was no longer just .dwg but now had complimentary functions like importing other file formats and displaying drawings.
TIP: ODA uses the word "rendering" to refer to displaying drawings in wireframe on the screen. It does not mean photorealistic rendering. As you will see later, ODA is starting to use the word "visualize" instead.
By 2011 most bugs were erased, and now there is a proliferation of Teigha-based CAD programs, with millions of users. There are 1,200 members. To create ancillary products, members need to fund it themselves, such as Civil, BIM, and Mechanical specialties. Some new members have joined only because of the Revit work, and have no interest in Teigha.
"There was some strong talk a few years ago, with the cloud replacing the desktop. We don't see that happening. There is a healthy market for cloud applications, and a healthy market for the desktop market. Interest in the cloud is fluctuating." The ODA is not replacing the desktop with the cloud; they are porting the features to the cloud so that it is easier to develop for both. For the ODA, the cloud is a technology, not a service. They aim to provide visualization (display), markup and full editing, and a client-server setup for other applications.
The ODA sees development in AutoCAD slowing, with the last change in .dwg taking five years. As well, the feature list for recent releases of AutoCAD is getting smaller and smaller.
"We have been here for 19 years, and we want to keep this data accessible for another 50 or more years. We don't know what will happen in 50 years -- operating systems might go away, programming languages might go away -- but we want to keep up with it." The ODA is working on making the code base more modular to make it easier to maintain.
DWG is fundamentally good technology, says Mr Peterson, with few limitations. ODA is working to overcome the limitations, such as version control, multi-user editing (two users can make changes to the same drawing at the same time), and so on. ODA is planning new technology with no extra fees for the cloud, visualization, and publishing.
https://www.opendesign.com
Preview: Teigha Developer Conference 2017
Back in Prague
Alright, here we are in Prague, just waiting for the annual Open Design Alliance conference to begin. This is my fourth time in the city, and I am starting to feel like a local. Even the occasional tourist mistakes me for a local, asking for directions to such and such.
TIP: When visiting Prague, the best thing to do is wander down side alleys to avoid the hordes of tourist groups that now plug up the pedestrian-only streets of the old city. Admire the beautiful buildings and scenes on the nearly-empty back streets, get yourself lost by taking random turns, and then use Google Maps to find your way back again.
About 130 are expected at the 1.5-day conference this year. ODA president Neil Peterson tells me there was a flurry of additional attendees in the last few weeks, forcing him to find a larger meeting room at the hotel.
The Rise of the Clones
This comes as no surprise to me. As some people worry about Autodesk losing its way, customers are looking for alternatives to being locked into subscription-only, (eventually) cloud-only environment that's indifferent to their actual, real-world needs. Competitors to Autodesk large and small depend on the ODA to provide the transition away from Autodesk software -- whether with DWG and RVT files, or with APIs and proxies.
The ODA has become the Microsoft of the CAD world. Most software relies on APIs provided by Microsoft and Apple to make new software development easier. Using these APIs means programmers have a lot less work to do. They don't need to write the code that draws a dialog box or saves data to a file; Microsoft and Apple have already done that for them.
In the same way, the ODA provides APIs to CAD vendors, and the programmers have less work to do. If you CAD software exports models to 3D PDF, opens point clouds, or edits proxy objects, then you probably have the ODA to thank.
Pilgrimage to Prague
And so it is that the competitors to Autodesk come each year to Prague to find out what the ODA has developed this year, for them to add to their CAD programs next year.
An aspect to this conference that I have not seen at any other is that attendees can talk one-on-one with the ODA's programming team -- solve programming problems, work through a bug, or suggest a new feature. All of day 2 is devoted to this one-on-one time.
As the ODA grows in importance, the groups that want to represent their services grows. And so this one-day conference has become a 1.5-day, with a couple sessions for the second day from third-parties who license their code to ODA members at a reduced price.
The conference begins at 9:30am European Central Time (12:30 midnight Pacific time), and I look forward to reporting on it for you.
How I access the Internet internationally
Global data roaming
One of the headaches of traveling internationally is how to communicate using our cell phones in country to country. Roaming access (as it is known) can be expensive, whether to make phone calls, send text messages, or connect to the Internet.
In the early days of the Internet, we would visit Internet cafes, or borrow the use of an Internet-connected computer from family and friends. With the advent of WiFi, we could tap our laptops into their home or office network systems, assuming they knew the password (some did not!). Today with our phones, we can access the Internet just about anywhere, even on trains and airplanes.
But connecting with WiFi is uncertain. Systems may be very slow (too many people accessing it at the same time), the login procedure onerous (at Beijing airport, you first need to scan in your passport), the terms too much of a fail (around here Telus offers a mere 10 minutes free after handing over your email address, waiting for an email from them from them, clicking on the link they provide...), or the system is tied into the country's spying bureaucracy (as was revealed to occur at Vancouver International Airport).
As a result, I prefer to access the Internet using my phone's cellular data connection when I travel outside Canada. One login for the entire trip, no matter where I am. Here's what I've done about it.
Roam With Your Home Phone
You can use your cell phone in any country it works in, but the charge for roaming is horrendous, as in the old days of long distance phone calls. Hence the horror stories of $1000 phone bills upon arriving back home. Most cell phone services now send warning texts when usage exceeds your normal limits.
You can pay your cell provider an extra amount to use your phone out of country, at a lower cost, but this still is not cheap. Here in Canada, cell providers charge you typically $5/day for USA and $10 a day for international -- but with severe limits. You can do this only if you are on their most expensive monthly plans, and the amount of data is limited to the regular limits of your local plan.
Europe, as of mid-June, banned roaming charges among EU-member counties, although there is a long list of bureaucratic conditions to be met. It is of no benefit to tourists, as the most restrictive restriction is that you have to live in a country for at least six months a year to use that country's SIM card cheaply in other countries.
The advantage to roaming is that you can keep your phone number, and so people reach you easily. If none of the solutions I've listed so far work for you, then read on.
Roam with a Foreign SIM
I live in Canada and travel mostly in the the foreign areas of USA and Europe, and so I have SIM cards with USA and German phone numbers. The US one I got through Canadian firm Roam Mobility, which uses T-Mobile's network in the USA.
Once you get the new SIM card, through the mail or from a retailer, you register its ID number at Roam's Web site, which then assigns you the new phone number. In some cases, you can choose the number. Then you need to set up the access point name (aka APN) on your phone. The APN tells the phone how to connect to the service provider. The provider's Web site will give you instructions for different phone models, as at this page: https://support.alwaysonlinewireless.com/hc/en-us/articles/115001590323-Mobile-data-APN-settings-for-AOW-Data-SIM
To top up the card before a trip, I go to their Web site, select a plan, specify the start date and time, and then pay. Once a plan is set up, I can extend it by a text message, if need be. For Roam Mobility, unlimited talk, text, and data is CDN$5 a day.
Once you arrive in the country, it can take up to half an hour for the phone to connect with the local service provider. This is the only headache I have experienced with data plans. In some cases, you can get help by texting the service provider, such as getting help in setting up the APN, extending the plan, or wondering why there is no connection (yet).
One limitation is that Roam Mobility is meant primarily for calling in the USA and back to Canada. Other countries, not so much. The other is that your phone has to be compatible with the foreign service provider; these days, most are. To check ahead of time, look up your phone's capabilities at this site: http://willmyphonework.net/ . Here are the results for one of my phones:
The German SIM card I got online through Holiday Phone of Sweden. Allow a few weeks for the SIM card to arrive by mail. For Germany, they provide the SIM card from the discount brand Blau.de. Topping it up through Holiday Phone's Web site is, however, cumbersome, as it does not cater to data users. I have to submit sufficient payment, and then contact them by email to specify data use. As they are Swedish, sometimes misunderstandings arise.
As Holiday Phone provides a service, it is more expensive than buying the SIM card and top-up time in Germany directly. The problem with buying the SIM card in Germany is that German law requires you to provide a local address when registering the SIM card. One workaround is to use the address of a friend or relative who lives in Germany. Holiday Phone provides their own address, and so amusingly I receive emails from Blau.de addressed to "Mr Holiday."
To save money, I now buy e15 topup cards from retailers in Germany, and then through Blau.de's Web site specify I also want data (e10 for 1GB for a month). Blau.de's Web site is, unfortunately, only in German and so can be difficult to navigate; Google Translate is helpful here. As a daughter lives in Germany now, I get her to buy me top-up cards before I leave home; she sends me a photo of the topup coupon (often spat out by the local drug store's cash register), and then I have cell service as I step off the airplane.
In both cases, the problem is that I am assigned American and German phone numbers, so now I have three mobile numbers to give people. The advantage is that the talk, text, and data terms are much more generous than what you get through a roaming plan from your local provider.
Roam with a Data SIM
Before I traveled to Japan, I looked at getting a SIM card with data before I left, but what I found would cost me around $100 for a week. Too much! I needn't have worried, as there was plenty of free WiFi where I was in Kyoto. In addition, Kensai airport bristles with booths offering WiFi tethering rentals.
I no sooner arrived back home from that trip when I received an offer from Roam Mobility: their parent company was offering SIM cards for data-only plans in 90 countries (including Japan, ironically) for 75% off, so I ordered two. AlwaysOnline Wireless offers data by the hour (useful for airport layovers), the day, or by the week. Prices vary, depending on the country. For the USA, prices are as follows:
$1/hour for 100MB
$3/day for 500MB
$8 for 15 days for 1GB (plus other plans are available)
For me, these amounts are generous, as I find I go through 100MB-200MB a week when traveling, primarily checking email, using Google Maps, and sometimes visiting Web sites. No Netflix movie watching!
I have a dual-SIM cell phone, so I can put in, say, the Blue.de card for talk and text in Germany, and then use the global roaming card for data. The phone lets me specify which SIM card to use with which service. The data plan can also be used with programs like Skype and WhatsApp to make phone calls and send texts. When I put $5 on my Skype account, I can call regular phone numbers. (Some service providers block use of "free" services like Skype, but AOW does not.)
For my upcoming trip to Prague, I have set up a five-location plan with AOW:
One day of data for when I switch planes in San Francisco. (For the USA, a day is as cheap as 3 hours; I picked a full-day's coverage, so if there are flight delays, I am covered).
Two hours data for when I change planes in Frankfurt.
One week of data in Prague.
Two hours of data again in Frankfurt.
On day of data for changing planes in Chicago. (ORD has free WiFi, finally, but it is impossible to stay connected to it.)
The total came to US31, which I consider cheap for peace-of-mind. For each location, I set the date and time when I want the service to begin. I can top up, when when the plan is empty, using the SIM card to access AlwaysOnline's Web site.
It will be interesting to see if it works out.
Posted at 01:09 AM in Android & iOS, Travelogues | Permalink | Comments (1)
What's New and What's Planned for BIMx
Live from Graphisoft Key Customer Conference 2017 in Kyoto, Japan
[Our coverage of this event earlier in the day was curtailed due to the WiFi failing to connect to the rest of the Internet.]
BIMx is the name of Graphisoft's mobile app for viewing 3D models. It has probably the nicest user interface of all the ones on the market. It uses what Graphisoft calls a "hypermodel," which contains the 3D model, 2D drawings, viewpoints, and so on.
Hypermodels can, of course, be brought over from the desktop to the mobile device using a cloud storage service (like Dropbox) or a direct connection. But to share models with others, such as the on-site construction manager, BIMx now supports NFC [near field communications] and so will send the model to nearby devices (like sending a file via Bluetooth).
But this is practical only for a one-time transfer. What about when the model is updated the very next day? The new BIMx Model Transfer service now solves this problem: upload file to Graphisoft site, and then after this Graphisoft's patented technology uploads only changes.
Everyone gets access to public storage; subscription users get private storage. Push notifications are generated when changes are made to the model. With the notification, you can optionally download the updated model.
BIMx and ArchiCAD can send each other messages. On mobile devices, push notifications alert users to incoming messages, sorted by model (project).
3D models now get a kind of watermark in form of architectural credit. It displays full screen as the model is being opened, and then glides to the corner of the screen.
BIMx now supports split screens on iOS and Android devices running the newest version of the OS. For instance, in a Web browser select a model and it is opened in BIMx.
Future Release of BIMx
Graphisoft recognizes that mobile devices are limited in the amount of RAM, and so are limited in the size of 3D model BIMx can display. This is particularly true with iOS devices, which typically sport a mere 2GB RAM, although iPad Pro has 4GB. The latest high-end Android devices offer 6GB RAM. So, how do mobile apps display very large models?
Graphisoft is working on the next version of BIMx to handle all buildings in a complex or a city -- instead of, say, just one building. This will be done with streaming, where it displays only the portion you are looking at, such as looking westward, or inside a building, or under water. All other polygons are discarded.
http://www.graphisoft.com/bimx/
[Disclosure: Graphisoft provided me airfare, hotel accommodation, some meals, and a corporate gift -- a bottle of sake.]
As Bricsys Expands, Autodesk Retrenches
The symbolism of Pixlr
The same week that Bricsys held its press-only Insights conference, Autodesk announced that it was selling off one of its software packages, Pixlr acquired during the Carl Bass era. This otherwise innocuous announcement made a startling admission: "As part of our ongoing business model transition, Autodesk has decided to focus development resources on our core product portfolio." Autodesk is retrenching.
I'll have more about what this means in a future edition of upFront.eZine.
By coincidence in the same week, Bricsys is holding its first-ever conference for members of the CAD press, a two-day event. They are showing off their confidence as a suitor suitable for the affections of disaffected Autodesk customers (and other CAD users, of course). The conference is taking place at the headquarters of Bricsys in Gent, Belgium, housed in the office tower shown in the figure below at the right (image source xavier-donck).
Bricsys designed BricsCAD with the following attributes:
Only one product, albeit available in three price levels and several add-ons
File format based on DWG
Imports and exports files in several MCAD formats (optional extra-cost add-on)
User interface that looks like AutoCAD, but can be customized
Command set that is similar to AutoCAD, plus unique commands not found in AutoCAD
2D constraints, plus 3D constraints (not in AutoCAD)
Direct editing and modeling, design intent
Add-ons for doing BIM or sheet metal design
Programming interfaces mimic those of AutoCAD to attract third-party developers, and include ARx, LISP, VBA, DCL, Diesel, macros, and more.
Permanent license, with optional subscription plans
Priced at 1/4 of AutoCAD.
Bricsys designed themselves to run lean, with just 135 employees, 90% of which are programmers. By contrast, Autodesk has about 9,500. Running lean also means a mammoth CRM [customer relationship management] system that automatically handles many processes, such as assigning downloaded software to the nearest dealer or tracking bug reports submitted by users. Things are handled through the Web, as much as possible.
Bricsys operates on the franchise model, so it owns no dealer network. Nevertheless, it supports hundreds of dealers in nearly 80 countries.
Bricsys Insights: How BricsCAD implements 3D differently
Bricsys Technical Russia
"Our philosophy is dramatically different from other CAD vendors, and so we decided to spend some time on the details of this," we are now hearing at the @Bricsys Insights conference, which is running 30 minutes ahead of schedule -- Randall Newton wants you to know.
Bricsys had the chance to start something new as it began seven years ago to add 3D, etc to BricsCAD, so that the mistakes of other CAD firms would not be repeated. The CAD world is different from 30 years ago when parametrics were first introduced [by PTC]. So they implemented new approaches for...
When I say "they," I mean the programmers at LEDAS, who were more recently acquired by Bricsys. When writing a new 3D CAD system, vendors like SpaceClaim, Onshape, and Bricsys are not tied to the way things were done decades ago, such as in Pro/E, Solidworks, and Inventor. The list of modern needs include:
Multi-CAD environment
Rapid design changes
Transitions between 2D and 3D
Integration between design and manufacturing
(The needs of designers is not the same as CAM users, but most MCAD vendors don't know that.)
BricsCAD does not do history, as this information is lost anyhow during translation to other MCAD systems. Instead, it infers design intent, which is important when importing 3D models from MCAD systems.
Bricsys Insights: About the Intergraph Port
CADWorx
Bricsys had contacted Intergraph ten years ago about porting some of its software to BricsCAD, but frankly BricsCAD could not do it at that time. Once it matured, Bricsys contacted Intergraph again (now owned by Hexagon).
This time Intergraph agreed, but did not want to port just some of their software: they wanted all their software running on BricsCAD at once:
4 modules for doing plant design, structural design, equipment, and P&ID
400 commands
3.5 million lines of code
Intergraph wanted a single codestream for BricsCAD and AutoCAD (on which it was running already), the same user interface and workflow, and the same degree of performance.
There were 60 developers working on the porting project, which began in May 2016. There were requests from Intergraph to addition and changes to BricsCAD -- useful for Bricsys filling in holes of the APIs. Examples include overrules, b-rep API, new AcGsGraphicsKernel and AcGsView for 2D and 3D graphics.
CADWorks for BricsCAD was announced 6 April, 2017.
foto of the sunday: Where Nature Enhances Love
Kennedy River Rapids
Who's Attending COFES (and how many)?
200+ attendees
COFES publishes the attendee list for its annual conference. They sort the list by attendee first name, so I resorted it by vendor name to see who is showing up, and the size of each contingent.
The strongest showing is from the two top dogs in the CAD world, Dassault of France and Siemens PLM of Germany. Smaller firms showing in force include ZWCAD Software from China (including its CEO) and ASCON-C3D Labs from St Petersburg. Autodesk and Bentley Systems are sending just one employee each. The most significant no-show is PTC.
Four or More
Here are the firms sending at least four employees:
Attendees Company Name
---------- --------------------
10 Dassault Systemes
8 Siemens PLM
5 Tech Soft 3D
5 Coventry Computer
4 Aras Corporation
4 ASCON - C3D Labs
And here are the other firms that are sending at least two employees to COFES:
3 Sandia National Laboratories
3 Top Systems
3 Trimble Navigation
3 ZWCAD Software
2 3Dconnexion
2 AMC Bridge
2 CIMdata
2 Data on ACiD
2 Engineering.com
2 Evolution Computing
2 HBM Prenscia
2 IntrinSIM
2 Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
2 Materialise
2 Noesis Solutions
2 Onshape
2 OnTrack Engineering
2 Open Design Alliance
2 ParaMatters
2 Plethora
2 ProtoTech Solutions and Services
2 Smart2Market Inc.
2 Stratasys
2 Tech-Clarity
2 TransMagic
Finally, here are some of the firms sending one employee, with a few notables at the top of the list:
CADENAS PARTsolutions
DPT/think3
Flux.io
iCAD LTD
Kenesto
Kubotek USA
nTopology
openBoM
Synergis Technologies
The Congress on the Future of Engineering Software begins Thursday in Scottsdale AZ. http://cofes.com/Events/COFES-2017.aspx
How long does it take to put on a CAD conference?
I came across one of my older posts, in which ZWCAD Software Company thanked its staff for the hard work they put in to a ZWCAD conference. Up to 100 employees worked for three months to plan the conference, according to the press release.
Think of the myriad of details involved, such as sourcing name tag holders, choosing menus for meals, booking venue(s), and deciding what to talk about. All along hoping enough people show up to cover the cost, or if the conference is free, to justify the effort.
Photo showing four of the things things that need to be arranged: contracting the video production company, arranging the food for the breaks, collecting material for the hand-out bags, and inviting users and media to attend
Users show up, us media sidle in, and after a day or three, it's over. Look closely and you see the staff trying not to look exhausted by the end. There is not just the looking after of details during the conference, but also a lot of cheerfulness that needs to exuded for that half-week.
With this post, I want to acknowledge the effort event planners put in, with some conference planning beginning six months out. These people work hard on a big project each year, every year!
The main thing about conferences, just about everyone agrees, is the socializing (others call it networking). Meeting old friends, some of who live a continent away, and making new ones -- some fleeting, others permanent.
Photo showing five programmers, writers, friends (left to right, from Germany, Australia, USA, Canada, and USA) at a pub during a recent conference, who between them have 132 years of CAD experience
Dietmar Rudolph, Steve Johnson, Owen Wengerd, Ralph Grabowski, Randal Newton
What's New in BricsCAD V17 Communicator
Translation from MCAD files
In addition to the new Communicator features described earlier, the V17 release adds these functions.
ALTERNATE PATH
You can now specify alternate paths for all supported CAD formats. This lets Communicator find standard parts that might be associated with assemblies being imported.
HIDDEN PARTS
When parts are designated as "hidden" in the original CAD files, you can now decide whether to import them or ignore them, depending on your preference. Not importing hidden parts makes the resulting file smaller.
PRODUCT STRUCTURE
When an assembly has components that are nested (both locally and externally), the entire structure is now exported to STEP files. This allows other CAD systems to display the BricsCAD product structure of imported models.
Posted at 08:30 AM in Computer-aided Design: NEWS, Travelogues | Permalink | Comments (0)
What's New in BIM for BricsCAD V17
This partial list of new BIM features in BricsCAD V17 is provided by Bricsys. They are in alphabetical order, followed by improved functions. For the full list, look at https://www.bricsys.com/common/releasenotes.jsp?i=4471
A SITE WITH MANY BUILDINGS AND STORIES
To give you greater flexibility in developing BIM designs, a single drawing file now contains a "site," which can have multiple "buildings," with each building holding one or more "stories." The default drawing holds one building with three stories. You specify properties for the new site, building, and story elements.
BIMPATCH
The new bimPatch command allows you to specify a rectangular area on a block that you previously generated with the bimSectionUpdate command. When you use bimSectionUpdate to regenerate the section, BricsCAD checks if the geometry bounded by the patch has changed. If it is unchanged, then the patch is preserved; if changes occurred, then BricsCAD outlines the patch boundary in red.
The new bimRoom command offers you two ways to specify rooms. One is to click a point in the drawing, from which BricsCAD finds the area enclosed by walls and then places a room marker; the dynamic UCS defines the bottom plane of the room. The room marker is a block consisting of a hatch pattern and data attributes that specify the name, number and area. In the second method, you select a 3D solid, which defines the room in 3D with area and height.
STRUCTURE PANEL
The new Structure panel allows you to examine BIM models organized by spatial containment: it lists building elements by Building, Story, BIM type, and then by composition. You can easily modify the organization as any property, including IFC properties, can be used as to group and sort the elements.
IMPROVED: DRAWING GENERATION
The types of section views are expanded to generate full, half, offset, and aligned sections. When placing a section view, you can specify the depth of the section to limit how much detail is shown, as well as use leaders and rectangular frames to label and highlight detail views. When you dimension generated drawings, they are updated automatically after you change the source 3D model.
The bimSection command has a new option named Detail that creates volume sections. To define the volume box, it prompts you for three corner points and uses the dynamic UCS as the base of the box; the base plane is also the section plane. When you hover the cursor over a bimSection element, you select bimSection from the Quad to create a detail section box that's based in the same plane as the hovered bimSection.
What's New in Sheet Metal for BricsCAD V17
Optional add-on
This partial list of new sheet metal functions in BricsCAD V17 is provided by Bricsys. The new commands are in alphabetical order, followed by improved functions. For the full list, look at https://www.bricsys.com/common/releasenotes.jsp?i=4471
FORM FEATURES
BricsCAD V17 adds parametric form features to the sheet metal module. "Form features" mimic the process when a forming tool deforms a piece of sheet metal. After the form is applied (using the new Form Features tab of the Tool Palettes panel), you can edit it directly and parametrically through the Properties bar.
The library contains most commonly used form features, such as bridge, louver, and emboss. You can import form features from other systems, and define your own custom forms. When you import geometry from other CAD systems, you can search for similar form features, and then replaced them with ones from your libraries.
FLANGE BENDS
The smFlangeBend command lets you bend an existing flange along a line, obeying the k-factor for given bend radius. The "k-factor" determines how much of the material's thickness compresses and how much stretches during the bending process. When you import geometry, BricsCAD recognizes incorrectly-made bends and automatically repairs them.
IMPROVED: LOFTED BENDS
Lofted bends gain a feature validation function, which lets you ensure that the bend will work correctly.
What's New in BricsCAD V17
New and Improved for 2D drawing and 3D modeling
This is a partial list of the new features in BricsCAD V17 provided by Bricsys. It lists new features in alphabetical order, followed by improved functions. For the full list, look at https://www.bricsys.com/common/releasenotes.jsp?i=4471
3D DRAWING COMPARE
The new 3dCompare command opens two drawing files and then reports the differences in 3D solids and 3D surfaces using color coding. This lets you quickly see the changes made to otherwise identical-looking drawings. The differences are represented as separate entities displayed in two viewports – red entities for additions, green for subtractions.
3DCompare dialog box
Simultaneous 3D navigation in both viewports lets you get a closer look at what has changed. You have the option of leaving blocks and frozen layers out of the checking process. When you have the Communicator add-on, you can check differences in 3D models from other CAD systems, making BricsCAD a universal CAD model checker.
Two drawings being compared
The new AniPath command creates movies by rendering views from a point or along a path. This lets you create movies to show collaborators and clients your building designs and other 3D projects. In creating the movie, you have options like specifying the frame rate and resolution, the overall duration, the visual style, and the movie's file format.
Dialog box for Anipath settings
COMPONENT MATERIALS
Materials in BricsCAD now support physical properties. This means that when you analyze 3D models with commands such as bmMassProp and bmBom, the correct mass is returned no matter how many different materials make up the models. You can use materials provided with BricsCAD, or else define your own. Component materials correctly generate their hatch patterns when shown in section views.
The optional Communicator add-on imports materials with physical properties, should they be assigned to the parts in imported products. When you export sheet metal models, materials are included in DXF and OSM files.
DIMENSION STYLE FAMILIES
The new dimension-style families feature consists of a parent style with one or more child styles. This is a handy way for you to make subtle modifications to just parts of dimension styles. For instance, child styles let you make linear and angular dimensions look different from one another. To create a child style, right-click a parent style in the Dimension Styles explorer, and then select the New Child Style option from the context menu.
Starting a new child style
DOCKABLE PANELS
When you have more than one panel docked to the side of the screen, you can have them share the same space, with each panel getting its own tab. This increases the drawing area, yet gives you all the information you need with a single click.
The Layers and Content Browser are new dockable panels. Whereas before the Layer explorer had to be dismissed, now layer names and their settings are always available to you through the Layer panel while drawing and editing. The Content Browser dockable panel displays DWG and DXF content in a tree-like view from folders that you specify.
Layers in a dockable panel
PLACEVIEW
The new PlaceView command is for when you work with sheet sets. It places named views in layouts.
The new dmTwist command lets you twist 3D solids, surfaces, and regions around an axis by an angle that you specify. This makes it easy to create spiral objects, such as drills and augers in MCAD and cockscrews shapes in BIM.
IMPROVED: 3D CONSTRAINTS
BricsCAD V17 introduces the cone half-angle constraint, which constrains the size and angle of cone shapes. You can now apply 3D constraints to 2D entities, such as lines, xlines, rays, circles, and arcs. New measuring modes are available for circles, cylinders and spheres. The arguments of 3D constraints are now displayed and selected through the Mechanical Browser.
IMPROVED: GETTING STARTED
When you start BricsCAD V17, the redesigned Getting Started dialog lets you easily select from user profiles and work spaces, open existing drawings, start new drawings, and access educational resources, like video tutorials.
New interface for the Getting Started dialog box
IMPROVED: MOVE
When you use the dmMove command on edges, BricsCAD now forces adjacent faces to rotate, instead of moving them along with the edges. This lets you create, with a single click, complex roof-like forms from imprinted edges.
IMPROVED: PARAMETRIC COMPONENTS
Parametric components now define 3D solid features to be created on insertion. This lets you place user-defined features, such as parametric holes, form features, and ribs. BricsCAD does this by applying Boolean operations to the target 3D solid. You can change the visibility each component through the new Exposed property for parameters. Parameters take units, which lets you insert metric components into imperial documents and vice versa.
IMPROVED: THICKENING
The dmThicken command now works with more than just surfaces. You can use it to create tube-shaped objects from 2D curves like lines and circles, with just a couple of clicks.
Exclusive! Open Design Alliance opens up the Revit file format
Teigha BIM
For the first time, CAD users will be able to access Revit model files independently from Revit. This was the motivation to open up Revit with the new API from Open Design Alliance:
Competitors want to interoperate with Revit files in a standalone solution through an independent organization. The only API currently available is based on dot.Net and requires a seat of Revit. Reads, displays, and writes RVT and RFA files, and works on Windows, Mac, Linux, and mobile.
As of January, there will be new license options: binary or source-code; fees to be determined. Get updates through the new Revit page on teigha.com.
Native Support for RVT and RFA Files
(RFA files are used for large models, while RVT is the native format of models.)
Reads 2011 through 2017 formats, and writes back to 2017 format; for saving, older files must be converted to 2017
General TfObject interface for all classes, custom read interface for 1600 classes, with work continuing on more classes
Renders (in the sense of displaying in 3D) Revit geometry; for 2D data ODA uses its own format
Revit has over 3800 classes (some of which have no data, 2700 have data) but all must be read
ODA's API does full and partial loads of RFA and RVT files; Teigha Kernel is used to parse the database
Converts Revit's 2D and 3D primitives: line, arc, ellipse, hermite spine, NURB spine, and cylindrical helix; polycurve and polymesh; plane, cone surface, cylinder surface, revolved surface, ruled surface, hermite surface, and shared surface; b-reps.
Many Revit entities need to handled differently from DWG, and so the ODA had to adapt its API in those cases
3D displays include wireframe, hidden-line, shaded; line weights, line styles, materials,
Teigha BIM displays 3D models in orthogonal and shaded, and does multi-view sheets; see figure below
Also handles connectors, dimensions, rectangular clipping, and so on.
The ODA has the following plans for immediately improving its Teigha BIM:
Custom read interfaces for all interfaces
Improvements to rendering (display), such as support for all elements
Converting 2011+ files to the latest version of RVT
Initial version for creating elements
Q: What do you mean by "custom" read interface?
A: We have our own interface.
Q: One of the complaints I have from third-party developers is that Autodesk has not provided API access to all aspects of Revit, and some of it is poorly documented. Do you have as many API calls as Autodesk, or is your implementation complete?
A: We are reading all data in the files.
Q: Will it read IFC [industry foundation classes, used as the interchange format between BIM programs] files?
A: We concentrate on RVT files, which is huge. IFCs will have to wait. [Update:] No IFCs are used for reading or writing.
Q: How does the file open speed compare with Revit?
A: We are slower, but for complex drawings is quite good. The difference is about 2x slower.
Q: When will the binaries be available?
A: All binaries are available to BIM SIG members, and all members in January.
Q: Do you expect 100% write compatibility with Revit?
A: It reads all geometry and other data, rendering is not 100%. The writing function is still be implemented, as is the ability to save in earlier releases. The RVT format is quite complex, and so there is no byte-by-byte write interface. But customers can write their model data.
Multi-user editing for DWG files
Also, persistent transactions
(Check out the Twitter stream on @upfrontezine for additional coverage of the ODA 2016 conference, as well as Randall Newton's coverage at @RSNatWork .)
The ODA has figured out how to make DWG files suitable for client-server computing, where it is important to know who made which changes. Every entity in the DWG file is history-aware. History also makes it practical for multi-user editing.
To reduce collisions when more than one person edits the same drawing, ODA is figured out a way to integrate collision checking. This alerts users to the conflict, but it is up to the users to resolve the collision. Remember that only changes are saved, such as a transformation or a color.
Now we are getting a demo of multi-user DWG editing. One user makes a change, and then clicks Commit to save the change back to the server. Now it is possible to have changes committed automatically, but this is left to the developer.
Q: Did you get help from Onshape on creating these systems?
A: We received inspiration from Onshape. {Chuckles in the audience.]
Q: Can areas of the drawing being locked out so that other users cannot edit them?
A: This is not implemented by ODA; but developers are free to implement it on their own.
Q: How does Commit work?
A: It merges all of the history files.
Q: Is a network connection needed?
A: You don't need a persistent network connection. Changes can be made offline, and then changes are committed when you are back online. But editing offline can lead to more conflicts, and you might be surprised at what the DWG file looks like when you are back online.
Q: Is it possible to turn on revision control on drawings that are already underway?
A: Yes, it can be turned on at any point.
Q: Do you plan to implement it for Microstation DGN files?
A: I would say no, we have no such plan.
Q: What happens when two changes are committed at the same time?
A: It is not possible, as to the server there is no such thing as simultaneous commits.
Large Data Sets in Teigha Cloud
Multiple formats, too
Coffee is over (or, in my case, break for tea), and now Ilya Zavyalov is telling us about large data and multiple format for Teigha Cloud.
To handle large drawings on the cloud, some rendering is done on the server side and some on the client side (ie, in the Web browser). The server must, however, must have access to view accelerators, which is not common and so expensive. For rendering to happen on the client, however, it must be powerful enough, especially for large drawings.
There are, fortunately, techniques to make this easier:
Graphic format -- it is a database, and can be compressed
Data streaming -- used by all cloud applications; allows us to start viewing and editing the file before it is fully loaded
Partial loading -- load only part of the drawing, such as a zoomed in area, or area being edited; takes up less memory
Level of Detail -- not sending all geometric information about each element, which reduces the number of MB that need to be transmitted
Here is a view of the format used by Teigha for cloud graphics:
Teigha Cloud supports the following formats (plus one more to be announced later today):
Mark Up Editing
To add mark up editing to the cloud, they added polylines, circles, text, undo, and erase. From these basics, other markup tools can be added, such as leaders.
Q: Where is the markup data stored?
A: In the DWG database.
Q: Which libraries are used for the cloud?
A: It is all our own libraries.
ODA 2016: Graphics Engine Improvements
Teigha Kernel
Here are a set of slides shows how the Teigha graphics engine works:
ODA chose OpenGL ES2 because it is cross-platform, supports mobile devices, is a strong standard, and is compatible with WebGL. This last item is important, because WebGL is used for cloud-based apps. The adoption of OpenGL allows for an immediate improvement in rendering quality of visual styles, like realistic, hidden, and so on. ODA has several dozen predefined visual styles employing 60 properties - including obscure ones like Jitter effect, opacity override, and shadows type.
It also allows per-face, per-vertex, and per-pixel lighting.
Visual style effects to be added soon:
Intersection edges
Overhang and jitter
Order-dependent effects
Q: Are these rendering capabilities included in the CAD system when the developer implements the latest version of Teigha?
A: Yes, they are supported by the latest release of Teigha -- as well as more capabilities in upcoming releases.
Q: Are these visual styles demanding on hardware?
A: Visual styles can be turned off, if they are.
[Disclosure: ODA paid my airfare, hotel, and some meals]
Live blog: Open Design Alliance 2016 in Prague
Neil Peterson heads up the Open Design Alliance, and started off the two-day conference here in Prague with several assertive statements: "We have been known as 'the DWG guys', but today we support seven file formats. We promote open standards, and not just for DWG. We don't set standards, we are active developers; we are not a legacy organization, we are not a maintenance organization."
With Autodesk not updating the DWG format for several years, ODA has been able to redirect resources to other areas. Members get access to
Teigha Kernel (new term)
Teigha Drawings (DWG, DXF, DGN)
Teigha PRC (3D PDF)
Teigha Architecture (ADT)
Additional licensing fees needed to access the following, because they are developed separately from ODA:
Teigha Mechanical
Teigha Civil
Teigha BIM (new)
The latest version of DWG is still based on the version rewritten back for Release 13 in the mid-1990s, and so it is not efficient for network use, such as server-client computing (aka "the cloud"). It does have incremental saves, but this does not show you what changed; it has no history. ODA is working on saving revision history through the Undo mechanism. This is an efficient way to send modification transactions as small amounts of information.
Teigha supports all operating systems, desktop and mobile, including some that don't appear in market share pie charts.
Teigha for the Cloud
Teigha Cloud is not specific to DWG, but handles many file formats. It does data streaming, spatial filtering, and levels of detail to help speed the delivery of vector data over the Intertubes:
Data streaming breaks the file into small chunks
Spatial filtering hides entities that do not appear in the viewport
Levels of detail displays entities with less detail when zoomed out
ODA is first to add history of drawing modifications to DWG, not even Autodesk has this function. We will hear later today how it works. History is saved in a separate file, to ensure the Teigha version is compatible with Autodesk's DWG.
Multi-user editing is currently at alpha level as a technology preview. I think the speaker said it would ship in December.
Eva Franch keynote at Vectorworks Design Summit
OK, here we are back in the Imperial ballroom of the Fairmont hotel, downtown Chicago, for day 2 of the Vectorworks user conference. The keynote speaker is Eva Franch, who, it appears to me, combines art and architecture. In a few minutes we will find out...
Her's is to question: how do we build, how do we construct. She sees three types of architects. Those who just repeat what has been done before (not ones she would approve of), those who try to destroy what was done before (avant gardes, also disapproved of), and those who who have do what is new yet matches the needs of clients. "Sometimes we are driven by profits, sometimes we are driven by principles, sometimes by other things."
She worked on a project trying to understand successful architecture, producing a 1,200-page book describing 1000 projects by 200 firms. Architecture is not done by the star architects whose names we know, but by the staff in the offices. To document this, she had a film maker put a camera on truck that moved horizontally through many architectural offices, showing the staff at work.
But more than architecture, the organization has a storefront in New York City that never got a building permit and has so far survived 25 years in a narrow triangular shape. It has been rebuilt over the years in a variety of experiments. They have wondered about the problems raised by the Occupy movement, rape on campus, sustainability -- yet she admits they have no solutions to the problems, just questions. I am guessing she might vote for Sanders; I am wondering where the group gets their funding, as she says they are a non-profit.
What we saw at the Vectorworks night in Chicago
Destination Chicago Museum of Art
Chicago skyline at night, looking across Millennium Park
Inside the art museum, admiring the work of the Impressionists
Inside the hall, inside the museum, in which the party was held, with a live jazz band, featuring the new Vectorworks logo, painted with light
Second night in a row on which pizza was served and it wasn't Chicago Deep Dish pizza
(Photos by Ralph Grabowski, taken with the Samsung K Zoom camera)
Live blogging: Vectorworks Design Summit Keynote
Alight, here we are, awaiting the start of the keynote address by new CEO Biplab Sarkar. He was the previous CTO, being at Vectorworks for 16 years, taking on work like integrating Parasolid into the software. Before this, he worked at PTC and Intergraph. He replaces Sean Flaherty, who is now cso (chief strategy officer) for Nemetschek Group, the Germany company that owns Vectworks, Bluebeam, Graphisoft, allPlan, and other CAD-related software.
Left: new ceo Biplab Sarkar; right: former ceo Sean Flaherty
(In addition, Darick DeHart is new vp of product management, and Steve Johnson is new vp of product development.)
Starting late, Sean Flaherty explains the delay: he arrived and there was no badge for him. Then he had to make sure that they spelled Nemetschek correctly. So, what does a ceo do, he deadpans. Well, not a lot. Sit in meetings, talk some, make a few jokes. He is the first native-English speaker in Nemetschek's executive, and so he gets sent press releases for checking -- a good match for his computer science degree, he jokes. Really, though, he says being ceo is an HR job: hiring the right people to run the company. "We are going to double [the number of emplyees] again over the next four years."
Vectorworks is growing having doubled its staff in the last three years, offices in more cities. Problem was, he explains, he was a part-time ceo, being also on the Nemetschek Advisory Panel.
He admits that Nemetschek products are not well known outside of Germany, and so his job now is to change this. It is true. One of the problems is that the many products are not well integrated with each other. For example, it acquired Bluebeam 1.5 years ago, yet none of its Postscript technology is in Vectorworks or Graphisoft or allPlan...
As Mr Sarkar speaks, we are learning about his plans for the company. Lighting design will be integrated into Vectorworks. He is emphasizing OpenBIM so that models can talk between different programs. Vectorworks is the only product to combine BIM with SIM (site information modeling); their Landmark software supports IFC. Increasing use of Parasolid features in Vectorworks, such as extrude with join adjacent and convert to subdivisions. One new feature that garnered applause is the connection to Dropbox and Google Drive. A simple slider changes the amount of point cloud data displayed.
What's a Vectorworks User Conference?
Live from Chicago
This being my first time at a Vectorworks user conference, what's it like? (Previously I was at press-specific events hosted by Vectorworks.) Well, we have about 600 users here from a lot of countries. At yesterday evening's social event I heard a lot of German -- and so I could practice my German. Six hundred seems to be number common to several user events I attend, such as from Bricsys and Siemens PLM. The number seems rather tiny compared to the eight or ten thousand that show up at Solidworks World and Autodesk University. But 600 is a number that does not overwhelm. In addition, I've been told there are 15 media here.
Mind you, the name is not "user conference." This is the Vectorworks Design Summit. Nevertheless, the format is the same as at most other such conferences: keynotes in the morning, educational sessions in the afternoon, and a social event in the evening. Last night, for example, we walked over to SPiN, a bar that features dozens of ping pong tables. Tonight I look forward to seeing the Impressionist paintings at the Art Institute of Chicago.
See you soon, with coverage of the keynote address by the company's new CEO.
[Disclosure: Vectorworks provided me with airfare, hotel, and meals.]
Blogging Live from CanBIM Conference in Vancouver Canada
Alight, here we are in what is normally beautiful downtown Vancouver, but the low cloud and light rain is hiding the snow-covered mountains and making the harbour front generally gloomy. No matter, we are warm and dry inside the Pinnacle Hotel's three ballrooms, a hotel that's old and therefore has character missing from shiny new ones. Here's the view from the conference area after lunch...
The theme of this conference is Beyond BIM, looking beyond just design. So we have topics like Augmented Reality, Mobile, and Computational Design.
Beyond BIM
The first suspension bridge was designed in 1570 in Italy, but the first one was not built until 1820 in USA. Problem was the first ones spent their time collapsing, and so the design was abandoned for a 100 years. "Things that don't first go smoothly out of the gates will eventually catch on, if they are a good idea," says the keynote speaker, Jeff McLellan of BFL Insurance.
Being from an insurance company, Mr McLellan is describing how slowly the insurance industry is slowly becoming aware of the role of BIM, some 15 years after the software launched. Even the use of CAD was seen as a extra, not integral to engineering firms. So leaping forward, he is pretty sure that AR (augmented reality) will make a big shift in BIM as the project can be viewed on-site before it is built: "Maybe it would look better if the stair is moved over 25 feet."
What will not change is that designs are still done by design professionals, and things constructed by contractors. The biggest benefit from BIM, he says, is clash detection and how much it money it saves. Another big advantage is pre-fabrication so that buildings go up faster. In England, he has seen bathroom modules that drop into place, ceiling racks for hospitals, and in Norway apartment modules.
One of his concerns is the long-term availability of models; models have to be around for 15 years (I think he said), but the question is when that 15 years starts.
BIM and Prefabrication of Timber Structures
Lucs Epp of Structure Craft now is telling is that BIM is about comminication. He likes the idea of using sketching to think about designs, but today we tend to go directly to 3D modeling. (See figure below.)
The first 3D model he worked on was ten years ago the Richmond Olympic Oval (see figure below) using Inventor. More recently he worked with Grasshoper to create a exhibition building in Cairo that could not be designed with Revit.
Creating undulating or warped shapes is easier and cheaper with wood than using steel, because wood can be stacked effectively in an offset manner.
He is showing us how his firm used Grasshoper inside Rhino to simulate the construction of a building, even down to how much material each truck load can handle. The installation of each wood panel is sequenced. Important, he says, when Minneapolis union labour rates are US$80 an hour. Most of it was installed in one week. "The power of prefabrication is immense," he concludes.
BIM Institute for Africa
We're back froom the break, and Vaughn Harris is telling us about the Internet in Africa. As you might expect, there isn't much. The highest number is 48% for South Africa, compared to closer to 90% for Europe and North America -- percent of the population using the Internet. For mobile use, the numbers are reversed. All of Africa averages 148 cell phones per 100 population, but only 48 in Canada. (Well, Canada was late coming to cell phones, given the sparse, thin band of population along the northern US border.)
OK, now he's jumped to to the topic of Information vs BIM -- I'm not sure what he is relating this to Aftica. OK, with a bit of a detour, I see where he is goingL he says they are using Twitter hashtags to connect data in projects.
Augumented and Virtual Reality
And now we are into the future prospects for BIM. Ailyn Mendoza of IrisVR is using her laser pointer to show the most important part: a wineglass. They've been working on Prospect for two years, using standard VR equipment like Oculus Rift and HTC Vivie, reading files from 3D systems like Revit, SketchUp, and Rhino.
The software converts 3D models to the VR device. You use an XBox controller or keyboard to control the view. Layers can be toggled, height can be adjusted to your own height. They are working on annoations, take snapshots, a dollhouses view, and so on.
They have 5,000 beta testers, of which 2,000 own a Rift.
Challenges in BIM Production
It's panel time! We have five panelists talking about how they use technology, how they are managing BIM.
The speaker from Lecor says that the word for him is "blur" -- the bluring between design and construction. The speaker from Kasian says the biggest problem is acting like we are working together, but people don't actually want to share drawings. The architect from Dialog says the biggest worry about sharing is liability, but BIM increasing acuracy, there is less liability to worry about. He thinks that if we share more, we are more willing to forgive inconsistancies in models.
Not everyone benefits, and so people have to be incentivized to share models, says the panelist from the University of British Columbia. "We have to think about BIM in procurement mode," she says. "And we need more resources -- like standards -- tailored for Canada." We are in a transition period, a transition period that seems to be taking a very, very long, she concludes. Canadians are far behind the USA, where government departments and states are already mandating BIM. In Europe, many software packages are being used, and so IFC will be the platform, not BIM; it's not the software, it's the process.
Back from Lunch!
We're back from lunch. One thing I gotta say about CanBIM is that they really fed us. I am stuffed. I had lunch with CanBIM president Allan Partridge, where we spoke for over an hour about the role of CanBIM and his vision for the future of BIM. This interview will appear in next Monday's upFront.eZine newsleter. Subscribe by sending me a email at grabowski@telus.net
The Tao of BIM is CAM
We are all familiar with the frustratrion BIM proponents have over getting BIM throughout the construction process, with silos keepsing 3D models and data migrating from building designer to construction contractor to facility operator. Of all the BIM conferences I've been to, the theme is always the same: BIM is wonderful, but why isn't it pervasive yet. At today's confernce, too.
But at today's conference, I detect a role for BIM that goes beyond the architect's office: CAM. Who'd have thought that the enclave of MCAD is the vehicle for spreading BIM. We are seeing lots of presentation today that talk about using BIM for generating the data for fabrication, whether wood, steel, or piping. CanBIM's president also emphasized to me the importance of data over drawings.
MobileBIM
Carl Storms from Imaginit Technology is asking the question, "Why don't we [use a mobile workflow]?" Audience replies, "Too slow." "Fear of technology." "Too expensive." Mr Storms counters that the cost is coming down, although he admits that the time is missing to implement. One of the problems of not changing is that you get left behind.
Benefits from mobile workflows:
Better communication through smartphones, tablets, and laptops, espcially using cell acces
Actual data from on-site punch lists input onto smart devices that upload the data to the cloud, no more reading someone elses handwriting
More accurate information by recording it directly at the site
Save and transfer information, like take pictures, record coordinates, and so on
Beyond BIM Panel
Getting towards the end of the day, we are back to panel mode. This time the topics is what is the future of BIM.
The panelist from HDR is looking at graphics technology outside of CAD and BIM that can handle huge models, such as in gaming -- as well as the use of sensors. Clark Builders wants to see the model go into the field, to be directly used by contractors. StructureCraft feels that construction is really lagging when it comes to software; his firm is increasingly linking parametric models to the Web.
http://www.canbim.com/
foto of the sunday: frozen leaves
Frozen leaves covering the ground of Canada's Bateman Park. The photo is unretouched.
Posted at 01:41 PM in Linux & Mac CAD, Travelogues | Permalink | Comments (0)
Live blogging Solid Edge University 2015
#SEU15 on Twitter
Alright, here we are in Cincinnati for the annual Solid Edge University event. Usually, it's in June to coincide with the annual release of the namesake software, but this year it's in October, and maybe later we'll be able to find out why.
We're starting this morning with the keynote by John Miller, he the senior vice president of mainstream engineering software -- which is the way Siemens says that he is in charge of Solid Edge and FeMap. The theme this year is "Design without Boundaries." Better yet, this is the 20th anniversary of Solid Edge, which originated with Intergraph's Project Jupiter initiative, old timers will recall. This is why Solid Edge is headquartered in Alabama instead of Munich.
The key differentiator of Solid Edge with its similarly-priced competitors (Solidworks, Inventor, Creo, and so on) is Synchronous Technology, which is best described as super-charged constraints. But it is not easy for users to get into it, and so a theme of every Solid Edge University is encouragement to get into SE.
In the photos of John Miller (above and at right) you can see part of a giant statistic, "61% happier." According to a survey (I don't know the source, sorry), people who use SynchTech are 61% happier with Solid Edge than those who don't.
Many Solid Edge users simply employ the software like a Solidworks or Pro/E: a history-based parametric modeler. Switching to SynchTech is a bit of brain tease. And so Siemens PLM is always promoting the great differentiator. At breakfast, I met the designer of cattle feed lots. He is the opposite, he told me. He always works with SynchTech but now needs to learn "ordered" modeling, Siemens' name for non-SynchTech modeling.
Other tidbits from Mr Miller: Microsoft Surface is the sole Platinum sponsor of this event, and there are a number of demo stations where attendees can try out the latest Surface Pro 4 and Surface Book. It always has been Microsoft's desire to drive up the price of Windows-based computers, and so the most expensive SurfaceBook positively beams at $3,200; stylus included. I'll never be able to afford that.
There are now over 200 third-party developers with add-ons for Solid Edge, some of which are showing their products here. And then there is the online Solid Edge App Marketplace where "We have a nice selection, with more to come." Not sure of the official tally of attendees, and so I am guestimating 400-500.
Ross Robotics
Fascinating talk by Phillip Norman of Ross Robotics, an artist who became an engineer using Solid Edge to invent a universal connector. Think of Lego having only one brick that can handle any type of connection, including circular ones. Anyhow, this led to him forming a company that builds simplified non-metallic robots for dangerous locations like CERN's high magnetic fields.
One thing that potential customers wanted was a low slung robot (low slung so that it would not tip over) that could travel through unexpected terrains and yet not get caught up on its underbelly. Take a look a the wheel at left: those rubbery legs open up to grab edges; a secondary tread is operated by the wheels ensure that when the bottom drags, it becomes like a tank tread, and so cannot get hung up.
Speaking with Mr Norman during the break, he admitted he forgot to mention during his speech that he uses SynchTech extensively. "Once you figure it out, you'd be crazy to go back. It does so many things for me automatically, so fast." He also mentioned that his robots have a lot of artificial intelligence to self-configure, to understand their environment.
The first time he tried out his tank tread idea, it was sending the robot over some local train tracks. He was video taping the robot's movement, but the resulting movie jumped around so much, because he was giggling with joy that his idea worked!
http://www.robosynthesis.com/
Catchbook
Siemens isn't just all gray and blue engineering software. It's also trying new software, like Catchbook -- simplified parametric software that converts hand sketches on tablets into straight lines and proper curves. It's not yet released, "coming in Fall 2015."
Ken Hosch is director of innovation, research, and strategy, and he is on stage to show off this tablet-based software to let more people be involved in design: helping people draw freehand accurately: it uses D-Cubed's DCM constraint manager to covert freehand ink into curves; edit curves; write notes; place dimensions; creates PDFs, use a stylus to draw and erase; and so on.
Basic entities are lines, circles, arcs, ellipses, and splines. To select, draw around the entities, and then choose an action. Scribble action erases, making breaks in curves, removing entire curves, or the entire drawing. When the software notices a thing is drawn a second time very similarly, Catchbook makes it the same size as the first, and aligns it.
Being parametric, entities are moved intelligently and are snapped to geometric features. Most commands are not executed consciously: nearly every action is done with the stylus or by touch.
Commands appear in a toolbar-like control near the pen. Multiple drawings are stored in binders to create collections.
About to go into public beta. Runs on Android, iOS, and oh, also Windows (heh) https://www.plm.automation.siemens.com/en_us/products/catchbook/
Solid Edge ST8
During the break, I learned why Solid Edge University is in October, instead of June with the software release. Siemens felt that its customers should have experience with the new release before coming to the University to take a deeper look at the new functions.
Applications engineer Craig Ruchuti is demoing to us what's new in the latest release-- wait, he just insulted us in the media as being not bright enough to figure out math. (See figure at right.) I guess he doesn't realize that some of us have our engineering degrees, even a PhD, but we love to write.
Well, now I have to stop writing, because there are no electrical outlets provided for the media to keeping powering our laptop computers.
[Disclosure: Siemens PLM paid for my airfare, hotel, and some meals.]
foto of the sunday: German rail worker
Munchen Hbh
I snapped this photo using my Galaxy K Zoom smartphone, which welds a 10x zoom lens onto an Android phone.
In this case, I used a 4.9x zoom to foreshorten the trains, making them seem more massive. The zoom brings closer the lone Deutsche Bahn worker between the tracks at Munich's main train station. Before posting here, I modified the image using Picasa's Cinemascope filter that emphasizes the red color through saturation, and brightens the scene.
3D IE Forum: Tips and tricks for 3D InterOp
The next session at the 3D Insiders European Forum is a tips and tricks session for 3D InterOp. This is Spatial's translator, translating between various 3D CAD and standard formats. For this session, I think I'll post some of the slides, as the topic is a bit beyond me.
3D IE Forum: What's Next in 3D Modeling
#3dief on Twitter
As I mentioned in the previous blog posting from 3D Insiders European Forum, new features that appear each year in CAD programs are first often times developed by technology providers like Spatial. For
While 3D modeling currently uses precise modeling (b-rep) successfully, it is not so good for organic models, like bones, point clouds, voxels (volume pixels), additive manufacturing (ie, 3D printing), and geology.
What's next for 3D from Spatial is polyhedra: polygonal modeling.CGM Polyhedral is an add-on to the ACIS modeler, and so is licensed separately.
Today, however, working on both precise (traditional 3D solids) and polyhedra data results in polyhedral objects. By V2017, however, Spatial hopes that such operations result in the precise data also being retained.
Hybrid modeling is where the CAD system works with exact (b-rep) and non-exact (polyhedral) geometry at the same time. One interface for both kinds of data.Data comes from raw triangular mesh data, or an ACIS body, or STL data through 3D Interop. Data is stored in the usual SAT/SAB file.
Operators that work with polyhedral data include offset, planar slice, healing, Booleans, visualization, queries, and checking. Certain some downstream operations may not be supported, because precise geometry is lost, such as blending. To get around this, entities like regions not involved in p-operations are not converted to polyhedral. Spatial plans in the future to remove this limitation.
Whether or not CAD vendors implement it depends on their target market. I asked one CAD vendor if he would implement it, and he said, "Maybe. It depends on what our customers want."
As the polyhedral modeler is license separately, customers of CAD vendors without the license will only be able to view the data. There were many questions from the floor on this issue. One asks, "Will we be able to touch the data without a license?" No. Inside the ACIS file, polyhedral data is just one more data type.
3D Insiders European Forum: Live Blog
Dassault Systemes Spatial
Here we are at conference #4 in Europe, this time at the European Forum for 3D users of Spatial's toolkits. This division of Dassault Systemes is best known for the ACIS modeling kernel, but also is the "retail" source for the modeling kernel used by Dassault's software, CGM, the 3D Interop collection of translators, and additional software.
I miss Day 1, because I was on the other side of Munich taking in the Bricsys International Conference. Imagine my surprise, walking into the meeting room on Day 2 and seeing the ceo of Bricsys (from the conference earlier this week), the cto of Grabert (from the conference last week), the president of the ODA (from the conference last month) -- like a reunion. .
Day 2 User Experiences
Spatial is kind of like the ODA, so that they don't sell to end users, but provide technology used by CAD software companies. Often, Spatial and ODA implement new functions, which their CAD customers adopt, and then tout that they did it themselves.
And so it is a bit odd to hear them talking about user experiences, when the "users" are CAD vendors.
Robert Graebert is chief technology officer of Graebert Gmbh and is at the 3D Forum to describe his company's use of CDS (constraint system) and ACIS for solid modeling. More than 7 million users since 1994, with Graebert CAD software used by Dassault Systemes (heh, the loop), Corel, Onshape, ProgeCAD, CADopia, MC4, and SKA.
"Ideally you want to take your technology to all platforms," he said. And so Graebert has done this with its core software being written to be independent of the operating system. As for ACIS, Mr Graebert gives credit to the ODA for working with Spatial to integrate ACIS into Teigha; all Graebert needs to do is add the user interface to implement the solid modeling functions. Graebert actually provides its OEM customers two versions: ACIS view-only and ACIS editing.
Graebert had more work in integrating CDS constraint system, and was only the second CAD company to do so, according to Spatial. Now Mr Graebert is describing how they did the process. "Some things you might want to consider," he notes, because there isn't a one-to-one correspondence in entities types.
Next up is Extend3D with Werklicht Pro [German for worklight], a Munich company that does augmented reality for manufacturing. You really have to see the video to see how it works, but I'll try here. Targets on the piece being manufactured, like a transmission, position a camera that also uses two rotatable mirrors to accurately locate a green laser. The laser tells the worker where to place his tool, such as a drill.
The video showed how as the transmission was jostled back and forth, the camera-laser was able to follow along, albeit with a bit of a delay, say a second or so. Now, how does this connect to the CAD system?
Werklicht uses SpaceClaim to position the markers on the 3D model. When physical markers are put on the same spots on the transmission, the software is able to know where to position the laser.
One problem, the speaker noted, that bolt positions currently have to be imported into SpaceClaim as CSV files! In the future, they hope to add automatic target placements.
http://www.extend3d.de/en/werklichtpro.php
Now we hear from Erik de Keyser, ceo of Bricsys. He notes that they have 250,000 paying
customers, the first time I have heard a customer number from the company. He emphasizes that these are paying customers, perhaps a reference to Graebert having 7 million non-paying customers!
He reminds the audience that even though Autodesk is pushing 3D, their two primary products -- Inventor and Revit -- have file formats different from each other and from AutoCAD.
In contrast, BricsCAD does MCAD and BIM using DWG. While AutoCAD has only 2D constraints, BricsCAD also has 3D constraints. This is the result of four years of effort in implementing their own constraint (not the one from Spatial, ahem), direct modeling, surface modeling, deformable modeling, and a multi-CAD translator.
He gets into a discussion of just how unsuitable Revit is to users, who typically start concepts in SketchUp, switch to modeling in Revit, and then do detailing and plans in AutoCAD -- and each one with a different file format.
Gotta say one thing: Bricsys has the nicest slide set of the presenters this morning! (We also heard from a 4th company, but I had difficult following what they were offering.)
Stay tuned for the next session, What's next for 3D modeling?
[Disclosure: Spatial provided me with one night's hotel stay.]
Live from the annual Bricsys CAD conference
Bricsys International Conference 2015
The conference facilities here are the best I've even sat it, which is a relief to us in the CAD media who have had to deal with no tables; tight seating; bad sight lines at some conferences of other CAD vendors.
CEO Keynote
With my rant out of the way, we are hearing the keynote from the ceo of Bricsys, Erik de Keyser. Both he and the ceo of Graebert Gmbh represent the most under-rated software systems in the CAD world. Well, maybe one day the rest of the CAD world will clue in.
Whereas Graebert is emphasizing OEM'ing on many kinds of platforms (desktop, mobile, Web), Bricsys is concentrating on many kinds of CAD activities based on the DWG format. So, for example, where Autodesk screwed itself by having a different file format for its AEC software, and a different file format for its MCAD software, so translation has been a nightmare for customers using more than one type of CAD design in their offices. By contrast, Bricsys was smarter than Autodesk, because their AEC software uses DWG, their MCAD software uses DWG.
The most startling announcement so far this morning is how much Bricsys spends on R&D. Most firms spend 5% to 20%; Bricsys spends more than 40% of its revenues on research and development. (See figure above.) That explains the volume of enhancements that it adds to BricsCAD each year, along with mid-year updates.
The company's ambition is collectively be better than the original. By collectively, Mr de Keyser means his company and its partners. By original, he means Autodesk and its AutoCAD.
He points out that the combination of DWG and his Communicator software (data exchange with most standard and MCAD programs) means BricsCAD can play with the big boys, like PTC and Catia. (See figure at left.)
ODA and Bricsys
Neil Peterson, president of ODA, seems to on the same road tour as me, earlier being in Prague and Berlin for other conferences. The Open Design Alliance is the technical organization developing full access to the DWG file format for its 1,250 members, and so keeps Autodesk honest. Here in Munich, he notes that Bricsys is the ODA's strongest members, providing the most amount of code to improve DWG access and peripheral software the ODA provides members.
[Disclosure: Bricsys paid for part of my airfare, two nights hotel accommodation, and some meals.]
There are a lot more people at this year's conference than previous years. (See figure above.) I am guesstimating 350-400, consisting of third-party developers, users, Bricsys staff, and of course those of us in the CAD media.
BricsCAD V16
One highlight of this annual event is learning what's going to be new in the next release of BricsCAD. I say "one highlight" because those of us who are beta testers already know all about it. Here is a list of new functions in V16:
DATAEXTRACTION: wizard that exports almost any property; export configuration saved in Data Extraction file (DXE). Exported file format is .csv
EXPORTLAYOUT exports visible objects from the current layout to the model space of a new drawing.
DRAWING LOCK FILE SYSTEM creates temporary .dwl and .dwl2 files to inform other users who has the drawing open through the new WHOHAS command.
COMMUNICATOR (optional, extra-cost oadd-on) now improts product (assembly) structure from ACIS, CATIA V4/V5/V6, IGES, Inventor, NX, Parasolid, Pro/E/Creo, Solid Edge, SolidWorks, STEP, VDA-FS, and XCGM. PRODUCTSTRUCTURE system variable controls whether the structure is imported as regular blocks or as local mechanical components.
TRANSPARENCY can be set for selected entities, or for all entities on a layer. CETRANSPARENCY controls the transparency value; HPTRANSPARENCY sets transparency for new hatch entities separately.
GDIPLUS is now the default graphics device on the Windows platform, replaceing the GDI device (which does not support transparency). Transparency supported for plotting, but is disabled by default for performance.
BMOPENCOPY creates new document containing a copy of component definition for the selected instance. BMREPLACE change definition file for single or several mechanical component.
ASSOCIATIVE ARRAYS allows changes to propagate throughout the array by maintaining relationships between the items. Properties of each item can be individually overridden and the content of an item can be modified. ARRAYPATH distribute entities along a (portion of) a path (line, polyline, arc, circle, ellipse, spline, helix or 3D polyline). ARRAYPOLAR arrays in a circular pattern; ARRAYRECT arrays any number of rows, columns, and levels. ARRAYASSOCIATIVITY toggles associativity for new arrays. ARRAYEDIT edits associative arrays and their source objects. ARRAYCLOSE saves or discards changes made by the ARRAYEDIT command. ARRAYEDITSTATE indicates whether or not the drawing is in the array editing state.
BIMINSERT now accept CTRL to switch dynamically between entering width and height of the door, and distance to neighbor-entities. Hovering on an existing door or window and choose BIMINSERT in the quad to place the same window or door, with the same parameter values. BIMREPOSITION repositions an existing door or window using the same dynamic dimensions as in BIMINSERT. BIMFLIP mirrors a window or door left/right or in/out with one click in the quad. Assign a different definition file to an inserted window or door using the 'File' property in the properties panel. Parameter values are copied to the new insert if applicable. BIMDRAG allows pressing CTRL to dynamically place a parallel copy. BIMSECTION: work in progress. Drawing generation for BIM projects is being reworked and will switch from using Drawing Views to using enhanced SectionPlane definitions.
DEFORMABLE MODELING does freeform modifications of 3D solids and surfaces and imported geometry by deforming their faces and edges. DMDEFORMPOINT transforms a point lying on the specified face. DMDEFORMMOVE moves or rotates edges. DMDEFORMCURVE moves a set of its edges to the specified set of target curves. See figure at left for before (imported model) and after (after V16 is done editing the imported modelling using deformation tools).
DMREPAIR fixes errors in 3D solids. DMSELECT automatically selects specific 3D sub-entities and combinations:
edges of the same (less, less or equal, greater, greater or equal) length
faces of the same area
protrusions/depressions of the same radius
blends fillets (fillets) of the same radius
blends and blend networks with an option to ignore short blends
The figure below shows a Solidworks model imported into BricsCAD with assembly information intact.
GCE (Geometric CEnter) snaps to centroid of any closed polyline or spline, planar 3D polylines, regions and planar faces of 3d solids.
GEOGRAPHIC COORDINATE REFERENCE SYSTEMS add support for projections and coordinate reference systems for New Zealand, North America, Canada, Russia and the Russian Commonwealth of Independent States.
MTEXT now creates and edits multiple columns.
SURFACEs are now fully supported in 3D modeling. Direct modeling commands and 3D constraints can now be applied to surface entities and regions. Applying direct modeling commands to procedural surfaces leads to converting them to a basic surface entity. DMEXTRUDE/DMREVOLVE extrudes and revolve curves, edges, planar entities and faces into 3D surfaces. DMDELETE removes holes (open loops) and faces from surfaces. DMSTITCH stitches a set of surfaces into a single entity of the specified type (3D solid or surface) or determines type automatically. DMTHICKEN converts a surface to a 3D solid with a specified thickness.
SHEET METAL is now an optional, extra-cost add-on module. Two new types of corner reliefs are
supported: Circular and V-type. Feature Coloring assigns specific colors to faces of Sheet Metal features; controlled with the FEATURECOLORS system variable. Lofted Bend is a new kind of sheet metal feature that can be unfolded into a sequence of bends with parameters to control the number of bends and their configuration (quadrangular or triangular). SMLOFT constructs a sheet metal body with Lofted Bend Features and Flanges. SMCONVERT recognizesLofted Bend Features. SMBENDSWITCH converts a Bend Feature to a Lofted Bend Feature. SMREPAIR joins connected lofted bends which are surrounded by flanges and rebuilds them to be tangent to adjacent flanges (if any). SMRETHICKEN supports lofted surfaces. SMRELIEFSWITCH changes Corner Relief Features between Rectangular, V-type and Circular. SMSELECTHARDEDGES selects all hard edges in all models.