View22′s Web-based CAD
http://www.view22.com/
Can CAD software run in a Web browser? At last year’s Autodesk University, the company’s now-ceo Carl Bass thought not, because it’s too “heavy” — too much data. He thought there was a place for BOMs and markups, which don’t transmit nearly as much information. If AutoCAD 2007 places a burden on 2GHz desktop computers, how could Web browsers cope?
View22 of Ontario, Canada, thinks they have the makings of just such a product, now three years in the making. Their approach was to work the problem backwards: instead of positing themselves at the CAD end (seen by all other CAD vendors at the starting point), they began at the customer end — the final resting point seen by “normal” CAD companies. In this case, the customer is either B2C business-to-consumers or B2B business-to-business entities.
Think FloorPlan 3D running in a Web browser. Consumers dragging and dropping 3D symbols into floorplans. See HGTV’s version of View22′s software at
http://onlinedesigner.hgtv.com/visualizer/GettingStarted.do
Companies like General Electric and Playworld Systems have replaced hundreds of seats of AutoCAD with View22.
The company’s little known secret is DynaCADD. Or, as View22′s Mark Zohar put it, DynaCADD’s DNA runs through them. What this means is that these people have CAD experience from the past, and their product includes CAD concepts like object snaps.
TTF SA, is a leading company in CAD data interoperability and Digital Mock up solutions. Back in November 2005 they announced a new version of PRC II – their Data Compression technology.
“The quality and power of PRCII is not only its compression technology. It is also because it is based on our geometrical kernel that takes into account all the mathematical definitions we have seen since 15 years in the different cad packages we use. When making a PRC file only the tools provided by TTF are used, unlike other
solutions which need products that are coming from different companies and have different quality and releases over time.” said Didier Guillaud, VP applications.
“We now have many customers that use our PRC format to exchange files on the web. As PRC is a geometrical format, they translate the PRC into their own software and then manufacture the part, keeping the necessary accuracy” said Jean-Luc Brocard, President, Support and Quality team.
PRCII like PRC will keep the history tree alive and of course will retain the feature based definition. We can easily imagine that in the next future, we will rebuild the PRC tree and feature into a target cad package in order to make featured based translators from the PRC format. This will be interesting when dealing with very big assemblies that you want to send live through the internet for collaboration or project review. PRCII format could also be crypted to ensure the privacy of the data over the web.
Still digging …
Adobe has recently acquired Trade and Technologies France (TTF).
TTF develops CAD file viewers, CAD software interoperability translators and libraries for converting between different CAD formats.
You can read the Press Release
http://www.adobe.com/…/pressreleases/200604/042106TTF.html
And a little information about TTF can be found at
http://www.ttf-group.com/US/indexus.htm
UPDATE 20 September 2010
Note the acquisition by TechSoft:
Associated Links (September 2010):
http://www.techsoft3d.com/
http://www.techsoft3d.com/products/HOOPS-3D-exchange
Hardly a month has passed since the purchase of SketchUp by Google and now a copy is available FREE for personal use.
Google SketchUp (free)
Google SketchUp (free) is an easy-to-learn 3D modeling program whose few simple tools enable you to create 3D models of houses, sheds, decks, home additions, woodworking projects – even space ships. You can add details, textures and glass to your models, design with dimensional accuracy, and place your finished models in Google Earth, share them with others by posting them to the 3D Warehouse, or print hard copies. Google SketchUp (free) is a great way to discover if 3D modeling is right for you.
Google SketchUp is free for personal use. No registration is required.
Details at
http://sketchup.google.com/product_suf.html
AECbytes has a review of AutoCAD 2007. Actually, this one makes quite good reading, although it is biased towards Architectural – it does after all come from a site dedicated to the Analysis, Research and Reviews of AEC Technology. Of further interest is the glimpse of how mental ray has been integrated into the AutoCAD environment.
Read the article at
http://www.aecbytes.com/review/2006/AutoCAD2007.html
CT CoreTechnologie GmbH provides a product called 3D_Evolution which enables data conversion between CAD systems complete with history and parametrics (if required).
http://www.coretechnologie.de/p_enh.htm
Models are converted into a 3D_Evolution native format (which enables the representation of all feature types in use today). This data is optimized and information added to enable the automatic (re-)generation of the model in the target-system. Finally, the model is assembled feature by feature using the target-system API. Both individual parts and complete assembly structures can be converted.
Another interesting part of the system is the “Simplifier” module. This module can be used to simplify parts and assemblies to reduce the overall model size for Digital MockUp (DMU) purposes. The result is the bounding geometry of the original model or entire assembly (with interior geometry removed). A useful feature of the system enables a user to specify those details which should be preserved following the automatic conversion process.
Winners of the CoCreate 2006 co-design competition are announced.
See further details of the winning entries and runners up at
http://apps.cocreate.com/Co-DesComp/en/
CADFind release a new version of their Graphical 2D & 3D Design Retrieval product addin for SolidWorks.
Priced from $59 for the basic version to $249 for the “Pro” version.
http://www.sketchandsearch.com/index.htm
Essentially, the product will allow you to find both 2D drawings and 3D models from a sketch drawn in SolidWorks. Once a part, or similar part, has been found it can then be loaded directly into SolidWorks.
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