CAD, BIM & 3D

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.

Autodesk is hard at work trying to stimulate the creator in all of us. They are re-branding some of their previous applications into a suite of tools aimed at the creator and maker. 123D Catch : turn images into 3D objects Previously known as "Project Photofly" on the Autodesk Labs and discussed in  http://cad-3d.blogspot.com/2011/06/project-photofly-20-available-from.html  this is a Windows application to turn a series of photographs, taken with a regular digital camera, into a 3D model, automatically. It requires an online connection, as the processing of the images happens on the Autodesk servers. Beware: I have installed it in a virtual Windows XP on Parallels, but I had to take care to use a local path (e.g. C:\Temp) to ensure proper uploading. The My Documents folder which was linked to my actual Documents folder in OSX was not usable as such. You can export the 3D model in e.g. FBX format for use in other applications. 123D Make : turn 3D objects into...

What is PythonOCC? PythonOCC is an Open Source (LGPL) Python-wrapper for OpenCASCADE. So what is OpenCASCADE (OCC)? This is an advanced Open Source (custom license) modeling kernel, comparable to commercial engines, such as ACIS or Parasolid, which are used in quite some commercial CAD programs. When you want to develop CAD software, you could use OCC and write programs in C++. And why using Python? With this wrapper, you can create CAD and geometry scripts in Python, which is an interpreted Object-oriented scripting language. You can write almost "on-the-fly" and seriously reduce the implementation effort, by skipping the compiling-phase. You can even interact with a running program in the Python interpreter. Want to read more about this? The OpenCASCADE official website  (currently Linux and Windows are officially supported) The PythonOCC website/blog  (beware that the core of the actions happen in the development repositories). So far so good. Now the nasty, techn...

Revit: Project Spark – quick overview : So what is Project Spark? Essentially Spark, is a cut down version of Revit, a sort of Revit LT or beginner’s version. Some probably though... I was hoping to talk a bit about Project Spark , but found the review in the autodesk-revit blog to be complete and quite detailed, so I advice to read it there first (and then come back to comment if you want). Autodesk is quite active in providing new Lab projects and also launched several new products recently in the Mac App Store and in the iTunes App Store (for iOS devices). This product is a free, limited version, based on Revit 2012. It provides a subset of what you can do inside Revit, while having enough limitations that it won't interfere with license sales of Revit. You can use it for modeling, but not for rendering or analysis. FBX export does allow you to link it to external rendering software DWG import/export is also good to have. Could it replace AutoCAD in some offices? No ma...

This post comments briefly on some of the "cloud"-enabled software utilities that I have started to use more and more. Short definition: these apps will allow you to work from different computers or devices on your data, yet are more optimized and user-friendly than a web page, despite the javascript goodness that seems to flood many new "organizer" and "authoring" and "managing" projects. I'll discuss Dropbox , Evernote , Skitch and Mendeley Desktop . Not CAD this time, but usable and free utilities that I have start to rely on, almost every day. Dropbox ( register using this link to give you and me some more space ) This one is quite popular. You want to access your files from different places and possibly share them with others. Dropbox provides a free 2GB (with some more to obtain when referring others) to host your files. Files are synced, you can work offline, you can have a local folder on your computer (Windows, OSX, Linux) ...

Open IFC Tools ( http://www.openifctools.org ) This is a set of Open Source (for non-commercial use) libraries written in Java. It should work on Windows, Linux and OSX. They follow a modular approach, where different packages are being released in order: Open IFC Java Toolbox Boolean Modeller IFC-loader for Java3D 4D Scheduling Assistant Currently, only the Toolbox is available, together with a Java Webstart demonstration to launch the software directly from a browser. This automatically installs the necessary extensions for Java3D, OpenGL, GlueGen. I tried the web-demo but first had to update Java3D on my Mac (as mentioned on  http://www.openifctools.org/Open_IFC_Tools/mac_java3d.html ). This viewer loaded the ArchiCAD file without problems and displayed it adequately. You get a view on the actual IFC code, a 3D visualization, the hierarchic object tree of the Spatial structure and the particular attributes of selected entities, which is exactly what you need fr...

IFC-SDK Formerly: http://www.osor.eu/projects/ifc-sdk Moved in Dec 2011 to https://joinup.ec.europa.eu/software/ifc-sdk/home This is an Open Source C++ library for reading and writing IFC files. It does not depend on any external libraries and can be compiled on most modern compilers. It was tested on Windows (g++ and VC++ 2003+2005) and on Linux (g++ 3 and 4). I had no problem compiling it on OSX Snow Leopard, using XCode 3.2.5. It contains a STEP library and an IFC library, alongside a quite large list of example programs, including tests, to explain the features of the library. Using CMake it could compile the full library without problems and the example programs seem to work fine. They are all command-line, so no GUI problems, but nothing fancy to see either. However, there are some caveats... I see very little actual information (project homepage, author and licensing details). however, inside the source code, it is " copyrighted 2009 CSTB " and releas...