A rendering with callouts, created in 3DVIA Composer V6R2010.
Part of Dassault Systemes’ 3DVIA portfolio, 3DVIA Composer lets you reuse your CAD files to produce animations, technical illustrations, presentations, and interactive instructional manuals. In this exercise, the two-week trial software performs handsomely on an IGES file from 3D ContentCentral, only to fall flat when confronted with a SolidWorks file (of the same two-part assembly, downloaded from the same site).
Update: Garth from 3DVIA Composer team explained that the trial version I downloaded for this video was compiled without a SolidWorks translator because including it would make the download too big. If you happen to use the commercial version of 3DVIA Composer, please let me know how well it handles imported SolidWorks files.
For a review of 3DVIA Composer by Josh Mings (better known as SolidSmack), published January 1, 2009, please read the article here.
Two screen captures shown here are produced in NaviCAD, a new app for accessing and navigating 3D content from Google 3D Warehouse.
If you were interacting with CAD files on your iPhone, what would you like to be able to do?
The answer to that might unlock the gates to the mythical realm of hand-held CAD or CAD on the go.
Emerging Apps: One of the development teams exploring this territory is Dan Halabe and Chuck Han. Their brainchild, now available for purchase on iTunes App Store for a modest sum of $0.99, is called NaviCAD. Using the open-source COLLADA schema, Halabe and Han’s lightweight application lets iPhone users search, browse, download, and inspect the 3D content available in Google 3D Warehouse.
Taking advantage of the device’s touch sensitivity, Halabe and Han incorporated fingertip navigation methods: For instance, you can swipe on the screen with a single finger to rotate or spin a model, swipe it with double fingers to pand it, pinch it to zoom in, or double-tap on an area to focus on it. Just like 2D photos, models in NaviCAD reorient themselves when the device is repositioned.
Since iPhone and most hand-held computing devices now contain location awareness (via embedded GPS), Han and his colleagues added in NaviCAD the ability to automatically download and display 3D models of nearby surroundings. At the moment NaviCAD remains primarily a viewing platform, but its creators are open to the idea of adding new functions. They would welcome feedback on what functions they should add to the next release. (Send them to feedback@navicad.com.)
On iTunes App Store, NaviCAD competes with cadTouch, a floor-plan sketching program for iPhone, now in its second release. Selling for $9.99, cadTouch R2 is designed for on-site area calculation, for those who need to take measurements, record points, sketch, and store diagrams and floor plans while working in the field.
Reviews of the app by users on iTunes App Store suggest the program needs more refinement. “Needs the ability [to] draw a line using the Snap function instead of typing [in] the [line's] distance,” one pointed out. “Would love a finger-grid for angles,” another wrote. “It’s a good start but please [move] forward with updates,” another urged.
Old Names in the New Game: Big name CAD vendors are also eying the new frontier. Dassault Systemes tested the water by releasing an iPhone-friendly version of Drawings Now, its free online drawing viewer. The company envisions CAD users uploading design files to the Drawings Now portal, then allowing their partners and collaborators to view them remotely via a browser. In October 2007, the company updated the code so that the software could distinguish service calls made from an iPhone, thus allowing it to deliver the content in an interface customized for iPhone.
More recently, in June of this year, Dassault unveiled a new program in development: 3DVIA Mobile, an iPhone-compatible version of its 3D sketching application 3DVIA. One of the fun features included in 3DVIA Mobile is the option to insert a 3D model into a 2D backdrop (a photograph, for instance), then produce a composite image. (See “iPhone + Photos + 3D Objects = Yum!” at Dassault’s 3D Perspectives blog.)
Dassault Systemes' exploration of the hand-held market include the launches of an iPhone-friendly interface for Drawings Now (left) and 3DVIA Mobile (right). (Images courtesy of Dassault Systemes, originally from SolidWorks Labs Web site and 3D Perspectives blog.
In addition to developing 3D modeling and product lifecycle management (PLM) software, Dassault also operates two 3D content upload/download portals: 3DVIA.com and 3D ContentCentral. Both house user-created models and standard mechanical parts. Making objects on these sites accessible from iPhones would undoubtedly increase their appeal.
This week, another big name joined the race. Now available from iTunes App Store are Autodesk’s SketchBook Mobile ($2.99) and SketchBook Mobile Express (free). These hand-held versions are developed specifically for iPhone and iPod Touch’s fingertip computing. The paid version SketchBook Mobile offers, among others, a bigger canvass area than the one in the free version and a series of preset brushes not included in the free version.
Autodesk moves in on the hand-held platform with the launch of SketchBook Mobile this week.
Play Now or Play Later: Not everyone believes in the rewards and riches that await in CAD on iPhone. Running a full-blown CAD program on the device is impractical because of the device’s small screen size and memory. Some consider the Apple Tablet, scheduled to debut in early 2010, as a better alternative.
The iPhone offers several advantages over traditional computers: ubiquity, portability, and touch computing. Since its debut, the device has become almost an indispensable item among road warriors, those who must do some or most of their work on the go. Its touch sensitivity allows developers to bypass the mouse and keyboard, a computing method that has always struck me as a serious handicap in 3D navigation.
I can hardly imagine someone creating a detailed CAD model from scratch using an iPhone. On the other hand, using the device to sketch out some rough ideas or access a low polygonmodel for approval and feedback seems a perfectly logical approach.
To see how SketchBook Mobile works, watch the video clip below, provided by Autodesk:
Google's open-source API O3D promises to make developing Web-viewable 3D applications affordable.
In addition to being the leading search engine, Google wants to become a 3D engine for the Web. This week marks the premier of O3D, Google’s “open-source JavaScript API for creating interactive 3D graphics applications that run in a browser window.”
Google released the API through its Google Code Labs, a place where it shares works in progress and collects feedback from the developer community. (Similarly, Autodesk and SolidWorks also house their early codes at Autodesk Labs and SolidWorks Labs.) O3D is currently available for Windows, Mac, and Linux platforms.
In its present incarnation, the API works with COLLADA format to digest 3D geometry and scene building information from other software. Autodesk 3D Studio Max, Autodesk Maya, Google SketchUp, and some CAD packages offer this export option. SolidWorks users can employ the COLLADA Export plug-in, downloadable from SolidWorks Labs.
O3D’s software architecture schematics reveal the 3D scene is rendered in OpenGL and Direct3D, then funneled through the Graphics Processor Unit. To enable O3D viewing within your browser, you need to download and install the O3D plug-in.
Web-viewable 3D is a critical component of online collaboration, especially for engineers and industrial designers who wish to work with people who do not typically own and operate CAD software. Recently, AfterCAD Online, which supplies viewing and markup tools to subscribers, added 3D support, powered by open-source 3D game enigne OGRE.
Christopher Boothroyd, AfterCAD Online’s CEO, said, “Its great to have Google out there stirring it up and getting other vendors to step up to the game. It would be nice if there was one Open Standard 3D viewing technology out there that everyone agreed on, which I think COLLADA is coming close too. The problem is, this is just another 3D plug-in you have to download and install and if someone else doesn’t have the same plug-in, it falls apart. This has been the case with all 3D JAVA and ActiveX attempts. We decided to do it server side to get around this problem and deliver everyone the same experience by simply clicking on a link.”
Dassault Systemes, makers of CATIA, hopes to capture the same market with its 3DVIA Virtool. For more on 3D viewing on the Web, watch the video report below.
