Mobile CAD
In the year since I last checked, there seem to have been a lot of new CAD apps showing up on the Google Market. The biggest of them is still obviously AutoCAD WS. Even with the size of phones and tablets starting to merge, with phones continuing to grow, and tablets starting to shrink, I don’t believe that we are going to see a lot of CAD authoring done on devices in the sub-12″ range. It’s possible, sure, but just not practical. Not that practicality means a whole lot when marketing gets hold of an idea. That doesn’t mean that these devices can’t be used as viewers. When faced with nothing at all, waiting until you can access “proper” CAD hardware, or using a 4.5″ phone to view data, the minimal capability starts to look pretty good.
Here is a sample file from AutoCAD WS. You can rotate the model, zoom and pan. It looks pretty faceted. Most of the viewers I’m running into on the Google Market boast loudly of being able to work with “standard CAD formats” such as “STL, DXF and JT”. Well, DXF is the closest thing to a “standard CAD format”, but it tends to be either 2D or related to AutoCAD. JT is a great format used by Siemens which can include a range of data, including viewer type data, but it can also be included in assemblies right along side “real” geometry. Other vendors aren’t anxious to see Siemens succeed, so adoption by other CAD vendors is low.
Some of the viewers (Glovius by Geometric) ask you to upload your CAD or mesh format files, and it will supply you with a “mobile” format viewable. This is I suppose like the old Instant 3D Website. Om3DCAD does support IGES files, although I didn’t test to see what it does with them.
As an aside, this is part of the reason why I think CAD of the not-too-distant-future has to be able to handle point cloud data better. Typically, these viewer formats are just tessellated point cloud data. I still want to have the ability to work with more precise data as well, but interoperability, the rise of 3D printing (and 3D scanning), and the ubiquity of data in mesh modeler formats are all conspiring to push engineering 3D CAD into working with point cloud data as a native or semi-native format.
But that’s a different blog post. Just thought I would add it here to emphasize that all of this stuff is connected – mobile compute devices, 3D CAD, viewing formats, and future CAD functionality.
There are several 2D CAD apps available, but there are more and more 3D sketchers, some with physics “sandboxes”. I think it’s great to be able to create simple animations on a mobile, hand-held device. Again, is it practical? Was Atari practical? I’m not sure this stuff has to have some work-related purpose at this point. The development of impractical games had led to a lot of highly practical stuff.
Spatial put out a $9.99 app called RedStick Site CAD, which uses the tools in the phone to take measurements on site, and builds a CAD model that can be shared with IFC compliant software. SolidWorks has recently added IFC file types for import.
Droid 2 Cad by Qubecad will capture GPS points, and number and export them to Google Earth, AutoCAD WS or one of several common file formats (csv, dxf, xls).
AndCAD is one that has been around for maybe the longest of them, and is pretty much a 2D drawing app.
TurboViewer from IMSI supports 2D and 3D DWG format files.
I see that Infinite Skills, the company that I do video tutorials for, sells an Android app for Learning AutoCAD 2012 and 2011 as well as a SolidWorks 2011 learning app. The stuff on Android for SolidWorks is very limited, compared to stuff for AutoCAD. It looks like there is nothing for Solid Edge.
One of the standard part catalog viewers that I had a look at was called 3D CAD Models Engineering from CADENAS GMBH. This app was very slow to load on my newer phone, and the first time didn’t load the interface properly, so I reloaded it. It was still slow, but I did get the Accept and Decline buttons for the Terms of Use. Gotta love those Germans for being so complete. Anyway, after filling out another very annoying form completely, it would email you a file in one of several dozen formats. The only SolidWorks format was 2001. Solid Edge had options for 2D and 3D. The SolidWorks file came as a macro, not as actual geometry, and since I don’t have SolidWorks 2001 installed, I tried it on 2013, where of course the macro wouldn’t run.
Honestly, it doesn’t look like product design industry is taking mobile CAD very seriously, even from a viewer point of view at this moment. AutoCAD is by far the most prevalent format, and within that, the AEC market looks like they have the most traction.
3D viewing on common mobile devices does work, but format translation must be too heavy to allow mobile processors to handle it, because every developer is having the user upload files to be translated on some server, and then handed back in a lighter viewable format.
And no eDrawings for Android. eDrawings for Android would link the desktop world to the mobile viewer world in a sufficient way. Last I heard was that SolidWorks was going as far as to say definitively that an Android version would not happen, which means to me that they are going to replace eDrawings with something else. Siemens should be making a huge market push with JT. JT is actually a nice improvement on the eDrawings format, if they could make a viewer with a better interface. With Dassault dropping the ball on the present while waiting for some starry-eyed insane vision of the future to materialize, Siemens should be jumping up and down making this stuff happen now. Autodesk is difficult to take seriously, but they are the ones way out front on mobile. The problem is that their follow through is lame. If Dassault wants to kill off SolidWorks, it is their right to do that, I suppose, although I think they will disappoint a lot of customers. PTC is somehow lost in the desert, and Siemens seems content to be where they are.
It’s still early to call anything based on the current state of the mobile market, but we need a believable viewer that can handle real CAD files, or an eDrawings-like program that allows desktop and mobile to talk. You hear a lot of yakyakyak from CAD vendors about collaboration, but when it comes right down to it, it’s not clear that any of them actually knows much about it at all.
Interesting… a RT hack…
http://www.cfoworld.com/technology/54659/update-hacker-finds-way-run-desktop-applications-windows-rt?page=0,0
@David Paulson
I remember VRML in the mid 90s as being huge unwieldy files that looked awful. And then there was VRML 2.0, like that made a difference. These days we have so many more formats that don’t have the historical baggage. OBJ for instance. Its everywhere.
Check out this site: http://www.x3daily.com/ It’s an annoying site, the annoyance probably varies according to your speaker levels and which browser you’re using. Lots of reading on that site on the topic.
Go here: http://html5test.com/ to test your browser for HTML5 compatibility.
And of course, you need to check this out: http://prod.to3dnow.com/DynLink/Open/r4HSn?dsp=001
It looks like HTML5 takes simple XYZ data for points and will triangulate between whatever points you give it, and can paint colors over it.
Anyway, a lot of these mesh formats are really just XYZ data, with some additional stuff in there. That’s why these viewers are so eager to take OBJ, STL, JT. They take the data in the same format that rendering software wants it, there isn’t any OpenGL interpreting NURBS to find points to display. If the hardware were good enough, we wouldn’t have to be afraid of this middle layer. Giving the viewer the OBJ, STL or whatever is just pre-digesting it for them. That’s why there are so many of these viewers for data formats CAD people don’t use – they are relatively easy to create.
@matt
A “long” time ago I ported some lage SW assembly models as VRML files so that I could do a “walk through” with my clients. Even at that time it was very cool, at least until you walked into a solid and became lost. I was not aware that it was possible to change the model in any fashion when it was just a VRML file, so I don’t understand your description of VRML as a failure. It would have been a very novel viewer if it would have had the ability to prevent your walk through from entering solid spaces. Seemingly this is commonly done in 3D games though.
I appreciate the insights Ryan had on the newer VRML It would be a logical extension of 3D CAD that assembly modeling could be done inside the assembly as a toggled alternative to the outside the box view that has been the only possibility with any 3D CAD system on the market. Probably even Catia and NX….. And this would be a very novel application of mobile CAD.
Anyone who has designed a large process plant, or used SW for AEC would find this to be a very valuable extension of the current state of the art. Even better if SW design in Assembly Mode could be accomplished within the model as well as without.
@matt
I’m not sure if there is one. Using Google search and the key words html5 3D graphic standard this link was number two after wikipedia.
http://www.web3d.org/realtime-3d/
@matt
Just a heads up on Cortona3D. It views CAD with PMI as well.
@Tony
ergonomics out will last until Apple patents something other than a rectangle, like possibly the English language or the concept of “concepts”.
@Ryan
What 3D data format is being used in HTML5?
I really should have spent some time researching and writing more about 3D in html5. I think that’s the standard everyone should be working to, whatever it is.
@matt
Yes, I know that this might hijack your thread a bit off of the CAD Viewer topic but it’s a natural transition for the business to leverage the data as much as possible. And believe it or not VRML is a format being looked, seriouosly, by donwstream customers. Keep in mind we are not talking about the VRML caves of mid-90’s!
Now these customers are your MRO (Maintenance, repair and operations), marketing- web-based product configurators and the more general product and process elearning customers. These are not small markets by any means and most are already looking at or using VRML.
A recent paper in the International Journal of Computer Science and Telecommunciations talks about VRML as the core to e-learning and simulation and just by chance I noticed in their screen shots that they are using the Cortona3D viewer. Another example is a study published by elearningeuropa.info on how students are taking and building their own worlds in VRML/X3D- quite amazing actually. We can also look at things like Matlab and Simulink that are using VRML for simulation.
I don’t think I would call that format dead by any means…maybe it was to early.
I’m also checking to see if Cortona3D uses JT ultra light weight format.
It’s funny but I haven’t seen the oldest application for viewers mentioned in this article. Could it be that the miltary and aerospace companies are trying to keep their viewer a secret? Probably not it’s just one of the quiet boys on the playground.
I’ve seen and used Cortona3D, a VRML based CAD viewer for several years now. I still haven’t seen anything come close to its ease of use in authoring.
Granted, it’s not a CAD authoring system but it is an authoring system targeted directly at mobile devices, non-CAD users and the extending of the 3D CAD ecosystem. If you are into MRO or technical documentation which includes 3D IETMs this is the tool. Heck this stuff is even used on the ISS!
There was also no mention of 3DVIA for you Dassault/SW folks.
I’ve never heard of Cortona3D. But seriously, VRML? I’m really looking for CAD format viewers. VRML was a failure 10 years ago as a real standard format. VRML has some advantages, like painting on the surface, but I’ve never used it in a real project. With all the other point cloud formats, it’s hardly necessary to resurrect VRML. Maybe it turns out that NURBS models really do need to be converted to tessellated format for viewing, and that mobile hardware isn’t capable of doing that yet, but I kind of doubt it.
Mobile CAD probably does make the most sense for the AEC market, not product development, because for doing design, construction, and modification it certainly can be useful to have a light weight device with all kind of sensors you can hold in your hand.
Besides the RedStick Site app Matt mentions, Ralph has discussed IMSI’s TurboSite and GeoWalk: http://www.upfrontezine.com/2012/upf-753.htm which do sound really cool – for the right application.
BTW, has anyone noticed that ergonomics is out? All the hype today is about convenience, not about comfort….
@matt
“Real computing” with a touch interface has been around for years. HP’s first ever PC in the late 1980s used a butterfly in its marketing, because the desktop computer had a touch interface (with DOS, naturally). And I had five years ago an HP notebook computer with touch screen.
The difference today is that the touch screens are much more sensitive (capacitive instead of resistive tech), and can handle up to ten fingers touching at a time. I am waiting for the first CAD vendor to come out with commands that require ten-finger movements.
For several releases now, AutoCAD had a pair of hidden system variables that (a) enabled touch and (b) specified the number of touch points supported by the screen. I wonder why Autodesk didn’t show a touch-enabled AutoCAD or Inventor running on Windows 8 at last week’s Autodesk U.
Well… i’ve been wanting a viewer for SW files on a mobile device for years now (apple devices don’t count for me… to limited) and it seems an android variant wont happen. Probably a good thing as i’ve hated…. HATED eDrawings with a passion even since the first moment
i used it. I couldn’t think of a more painful and annoying.. kludgey and backwards UI to go with a program that’s the complete opposite (sw itself in case that wasn’t obvious).
So for those that may not be in the know… this may help (albeit a slightly more expensive route). Microsoft’s Surface Pro (or another company’s spin off or similar compact touch screen device that will run Win 8 Pro, Samsung to name one). No more having to wait for someone to make another application that will Hopefully work well and HOPEFULLY have a great UI etc etc
i’m just going to buy a full blown PC in a slate/ultrabook style format and run full blown Windows applications on it that already exist. Screw you Developers for not listening to real users and only giving us your rosy eyed BS that is of no earthly use!
Yes I agree I’m getting a surface pro as soon as I can . I think I can fit it in the office budget. I’ve been waiting for real computing to get a touch interface.
Agreed Autodesk is leading the movement. eDrawings on iOS is great but being on iOS only is a huge misstep. Ignoring a platform that globally is 70+% is not a successful approach. I have a Nexus 7 and would love edrawings on it. Vendors have to understand that mobile viewers/markup tools are needed. Thanks for the write up Matty.
One CAD vendor told me there is no incentive to make a competitive DWG viewer, because Autodesk makes their ‘s free.
I’ve got an 8″ Win 7 tablet from a chinese company, uses a netbook N2600 Atom. It’ll run lightweight and consumer CAD apps (TurboCAD, PunchCAD, Alibre) well enough, and between those, it’ll display, edit and convert (within reason ie dumb solid status) models in most formats like IGES, STEP, ACIS, DXF/DWG, up to CATIA 5, ProE and SW ACIS locally. Battery life is three hours or less, so that doesn’t compare to ARM devices. There are new-gen Atom tablets just coming on stream now, and makers are claiming seven to ten hours battery life; Dell’s new one even has a swappable battery. There are a couple of youtube vids from a guy who’s fired up Win XP on ARM devices, and if you think netbooks are slow, you aren’t going to be patient enough for that. It’s going to take lots of ARM CPUs cooperating to get close to x86 performance expectations on a local machine, although they’re talking now about an ARM system called bL, which has a low-power processor doing everything it can (for comms, surfing and media playing), and a gruntier one (coprocessor-style, shades of old x86 16-bits) that’s called on when needed, for 3D games, for example. Maybe it’ll work.