CAD, BIM & 3D

In a surprising but understandable move, you can temporarily register for a free (basic) license for Unity3D and add the iOS and Android Basic licenses without cost. While the Pro version of Unity3D and the additional licenses of the mobile addons are still about $1500 each, the creation of smartphone and tablet apps has finally been more accessible than ever. For Android apps you need only the additional Java and Android SDK, but it runs on Windows and OSX. Linux is supported for these SDKs but not Unity3D (yet?). For iOS apps (iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch), you need a Mac with OSX and an Intel CPU. While you can prototype a full app and remote control it using your iDevice, you need a non-free iOS developer license, which is $99/year for individual developers. What's the catch? This offer is only till 8th of April and the basic versions lack some of the features of the pro versions, but they are very complete and can be used commercially! Choose your license (and cur...

MoI ( Moment of Inspiration ) has been around for quite some time, as a standalone modeler for Windows. It is developed by the former creator of Rhinoceros 3D and focuses on freeform geometry primarily. The phrase "SketchUp for MCAD" is sometimes heard to describe this software. This is a NURBS modeling application, with a particular attention to user interaction and a minimal interface. You can use it mostly using a mouse or even a pen (e.g. from Wacom) and I assume that it would work mostly fine even on a touch screen. Could the OSX version be a hint of a possible future iOS version for iPad? I don't know, but it makes sense and would be really welcomed. The interface is mostly icon-based and is not crowded at all (unlike many other CAD applications). The tools are easy to understand (especially when you have been using a program like Rhino before) and there are no commands to type or menu's to step through. There are shortcuts you can use, however, to get more...

Disclaimer : I was asked by Packt publishing if I was interested in reviewing this book. I immediately accepted, as such a book would fit within some of the themes we handle in our classroom and many students and architects are interested in discovering the world of realtime interactive architecture. The coupling of SketchUp and Unity3D is quite accessible and can be completely free, if you use the basic licenses. Packt provided a free review copy of the book and if you buy it through the provided link, there is a small commission. But the review is my personal opinion only. Book info on the Packt-Publishing website Google SketchUp for Game Design is a quite recent book, focusing on delivering a reasonable low-entry into the world of Game Design. When you think about presenting architecture to others, an interactive game-like environment is very compelling. Tied to the ubiquity of SketchUp for quick modeling and the Unity3D Game Engine , you can publish interactive models as s...

In an unusual (or panic?) move, 3D software developer DAZ 3D gives away its three major content creation and rendering software for free for a limited time (29th of February 2012) . These are unlimited and complete software applications, which used to be commercial before. All software is available for Windows and OSX. Check  http://www.daz3d.com Which programs are available? DAZ Studio Pro 4 (used to be $430) This is a program to load, pose, animate and render 3D characters. You can load models (free and non-free content is available). One of the novel features is the "Genesis" character model, which can be adapted parametrically, so a single basic model can be tweaked and reshaped in different variations. Character modeling is beyond the reach of the average 3D modeler, so being able to use a dedicated software might make it more feasible. What's the catch? Well, most models, accessories, poses and bundles will not be free. E.g. the Victoria 5 bundle is ...

Yesterday, I installed a new (and currently free) app from Autodesk onto my iPhone, called Autodesk ForceEffect ( check it out in the App Store ). With this app, you can draw a 2D schematic of beams, nodes and forces. It will allow you to quickly assess the reacting forces into a structure. The examples included with the app also show you that a photograph can be used as an underlay, to sketch on top of them, e.g. to check a structure in the field. Gallery showing diagram over photo background While the iPhone screen is quite small for my not-too-small fingers, it works quite handy: there are automatic guidelines that constrain the direction and alignment of nodes you draw. You can switch units between metric and imperial and use gestures for scaling (pinch), panning (two finger swipe) and editing (single touch). Moreover, while it is hard to sketch an exact size for a truss, you can fix the length be entering the exact value on the dimension line and this will be enforces, even...

While most BIM applications present the user with a fairly large collection of objects (furniture, building elements, drawing details), they don't have everything. Although you can create your own symbols, library objects or families in the software, this is beyond the reach of the average user. This is where content libraries step in. While there have been CAD-drawings available for many manufacturers since quite some time, they are usually DWG or DXF drawings in 2D and do not integrate as well in a BIM software as actual library content. BIMstop is an example of a recent content library, that provides objects in multiple formats. BIMstop   presents the users with freely downloadable objects in ArchiCAD, Revit, SketchUp and VectorWorks formats http://www.bimstop.com The following links are some of the pages of the software manufacturers for content libraries. Not all of it is free and the quality may vary, but it can be cheaper to buy a library than to develop objects ...

This is a short post talking about mobile CAD. Posted from my new phone. This year I want to take a look at BIM, model viewing and sharing on mobile devices, hopefully on different platforms. So far I'm impressed by BIMx and Magicplan, but there is much more.