By Randall S. Newton
Editor-in-Chief
CAD software is expensive; CAD and BIM files are becoming huge. For every architect and engineer who must share the use of an original CAD file, there are on average 10 other people to need to view design data, not help to create it. In response, there are several new and competing 3D publishing formats for design data. They seek to replace the use of plot files, FedEx, “J-pegs,” and DXF for communicating design data. Think of this as the “beyond the firewall” level of sharing design information.
At the same time CAD vendors are looking to improve end-user productivity by moving as much information use and management as possible into the digital realm. These same 3D formats are being positioned by technology vendors as a painless way to move existing design data business processes into an all-digital workflow.
One common feature of these new 3D publishing formats is their shared claim of being “open.” I put the term in quotations because there is no agreement among vendors about what being open means. (More on that below.) The CAD industry has a long history of talking common standards but providing proprietary data solutions. Millions of dollars are still spent every year translating from one format to the next. The lack of standards and the problems that erupt during native file translation often means firms run multiple CAD systems just so they can work with one another. Much of that cost can be avoided by using 3D publishing formats to share design data instead of native file formats.
Each of the vendors mentioned below has the same goal for their product, to have it become accepted as a de facto standard for 3D publishing. The jockeying for such status causes these vendors to protect their intellectual property as much as possible, while still exposing enough to users to provide utility. It is a tricky tightrope they are walking.
Most of the tools and viewers described in this article are free, making it easy to test a specific format. To stay compatible with other formats, generally the vendors outsource the work of creating plug-in tools for other vendors’ CAD systems to produce their particular ‘open’ format.
Because the competition is so fierce, we are in the middle of a great era for innovation in the development of web-based 3D publishing formats for design data. There’s money to be made by the vendor who gains recognition as the de facto standard. Much of the action is coming from CAD vendors who focus on mechanical/industrial CAD, but their 3D publishing tools are also valuable in AEC, plant and (to a lesser extent) GIS. For now, DWF and PDF are alone among formats profiled here for their stated interest in GIS.
SolidWorks was early to market with its eDrawings format; UGS acquired a company called EAI to power its JT format and JT Open program; Autodesk has been promoting its DWF standard aggressively, launching a powerful update for Inventor customers; and Dassault Systems has been increasingly vocal about its 3DXML format which is developed by Lattice. Then there’s Adobe and its Acrobat/PDF line, which stands out because Adobe is not a CAD vendor, and is already making money by having an open-format document business. All the others appear to be investing without clearly defined business strategies beyond keeping their CAD users away from a competitor’s 3D publishing platform.
These are the main players but there are many other formats out there, some doing specialist jobs. Adobe is in the best position due to the widespread acceptance of PDF for text documents, but Adobe’s 3D publishing capabilities have yet to reach the same lofty status. If Adobe wins hearts and minds in 3D the way it has for other business documents, it could be game over. The release of the next version of Adobe Acrobat Professional, expected later this year, will be telling.
Some of the vendors described below, like UGS, have strong market and mind share in vertical markets such as automotive, where EAI had some success in selling digital mock up tools before UGS acquired them. So the battle for the 3D design data web format is definitely company by company, vertical by vertical. There is no clear leader in AEC at this time, despite what Autodesk and Adobe say about DWF and PDF respectively. Both are casting a wary eye not only at each other, but also at Google with its three-piece toolset for creating and viewing 3D design data (Google SketchUp, Google Earth, Google 3D Warehouse). For example, one of the new items today in the Google 3D Warehouse is called "first model of power plant reactor."
As I have covered the Google offerings in detail previously, the rest of this article is devoted to the other 3D publishing tools in the market. I also skip coverage of JetStream from NavisWorks, the subject of an article in AECnews last week. As an AEC-specific tool, it merits your special attention.
Regarding the idea of openness, you should read that term with skepticism when evaluating each vendor’s 3D publishing solution. Some vendors use the word ‘open’ to reassure the potential user that there is no chance of data lock-in; others say it is because their file format is published and documented and open for public viewing (not at all the same as saying a file format is in “the public domain,” a claim nobody makes). The thing to remember is that there are different degrees of openness. When looking to standardize on one particular 3D publishing format look closely at what it can do, how it will integrate and what the costs will be. Even though creation and viewing may come for free, there are always associated costs.
What follows, in alphabetical order, is an overview of the main players in the emerging 3D publishing market.
Adobe
Adobe is aggressively expanding the capabilities of PDF beyond business documents and 2D drawings. Adobe’s first attempt at 3D publishing was to try and rally the industry around the U3D format favored by Intel. But, one by one, CAD vendors either quietly or loudly went their own way, leaving only Bentley in strong support of Adobe 3D PDF via U3D. The current version of Acrobat 3D (required to create 3D PDF files unless you use MicroStation) uses U3D but also captures 3D data from the graphics stream, a clever way to bypass vendor-specific issues. Adobe has also gone on a buying spree, acquiring first OKYZ then TTF, both specialists in design data translation and display technologies. The purchase of TTF in April was specifically applauded by analysts who cover manufacturing.
One can view 3D PDF files for free, but to create them requires the purchase of Acrobat Professional or Acrobat 3D. Using these tools to create a PDF allows the creator to ‘switch on’ additional functionality in the free viewer (allowing mark-up). Adobe also has a set of powerful access rights management tools called LifeCycle, which provide ways to control access and use of PDF files beyond the firewall or as part of a larger document management system.
www.adobe.com/acrobat3d
Autodesk DWF
Autodesk started what it now calls DWF in the early days of Internet-based development. The letters originally stood for “Design Web Format” although Autodesk no longer uses that phrase. At first DWF was 2D-only, but it has grown to be a robust 3D application in tandem with the growth of Autodesk Revit, Inventor and even AutoCAD as 3D design tools. Most Autodesk products can produce a DWF file for free, and there is a free viewer for download, becoming popular with Autodesk users. Doing markup with DWF requires the purchase of Autodesk Design Review, equivalent to acquiring Adobe Acrobat Professional or Acrobat 3D in order to do round-trip review cycles in PDF.
Autodesk is committed to expanding the capabilities of DWF. It offers an Application Programming Interface (API), and actively seeks to work with developers who want to create applications based on DWF. It is starting to look like DWF is becoming a replacement for DWG. The file contains much of the intelligence from the original DWG file, but is much smaller in size and can be examined in full fidelity without AutoCAD. DWF is capable of publishing not just geometry but also metadata, making it useful for a wider variety of applications. Earlier this year Autodesk bought the small developer of a facilities management product based on DWF.
Autodesk has its sights set on Adobe PDF as Public Enemy Number One. It lured home former Adobe technical evangelist Jonathan Knowles, who worked on DWF for Autodesk in the early days. He now leads an aggressive team with a goal of eliminating the need for PDF in the workflow of any Autodesk user. There’s a handy DWF creation utility that also allows the inclusion of documents from almost any Windows application that uses the print driver. The new version does a pretty good job of collating documents. In my experience, when saving the exact same set of documents to both DWF and PDF, the DWF version will be MUCH smaller; the difference becomes more noticeable as the percentage of graphics in the document set grows.
www.autodesk.com/dwf
Dassault/Lattice 3DXML
Dassault Systèmes is best known for CATIA, the 3D CAD product made famous by Boeing. Gehry Technologies is trying to bring CATIA into AEC, but has met with strong resistance due to price and complexity. As for 3D publishing, Dassault’s chosen format is 3DXML, based on work from Japanese-based developer Lattice and its format XVL. 3DXML uses eXtensible Markup Language (XML); the format holds geometry, product structure and graphics. The initial release had limited support for 2D.
3DXML is slick. The compaction algorithms and mathematics used to break down the 3D geometry do their job well. Using something similar to NURBS, 3DXML can produce any range of resolution model, from basic tessellations to something that could be used for manufacturing, while keeping the file small.
Dassault is creating waves in the plant design marketplace with its PLM technology, and will use 3DXML there to good advantage. This is one to watch closely for future capabilities of specific value to AEC.
www.3ds.com www.lattice3d.com
SolidWorks eDrawings
SolidWorks, a Dassault subsidiary that acts pretty much as a stand-alone company, offers a technology called eDrawings for 3D publishing. The work is done on contract by a firm in India. eDrawings does a great job of mixing 2D and 3D together with point and click animations. The files can be sent as executables, eliminating the need to download a viewer. Plug-ins have been developed for the largest MCAD products, and (as AECnews first reported recently) there’s a new eDrawings plug-in for Google SketchUp.
You need the professional version of eDrawings to get mark-up and measure capabilities, which also includes the ability to publish eDrawings files as ‘review-enabled’ so others using only the free viewer or free executable can edit and send back the eDrawing.
eDrawings doesn’t have a lot of hard marketing behind it when compared to the other formats, but the technology is user-friendly and inviting. When you remember that SolidWorks has 15,000 AEC user sites, it bears watching.
www.solidworks.com/edrawings
UGS JT
Of the 3D publishing formats listed her, JT from UGS has the least traction in AEC, but it is a sleeper worth watching. UGS also is the vendor for the Parasolid 3D modeling kernel used by Bentley, and Bentley is a vendor member of the JT Open developers group.
After buying EAI, UGS set about moving this thin and fast geometry technology to establish and promote the JT format to its installed base. Automotive and aerospace latched on quickly and there are many companies that now base their model distribution internally and through supply chains on JT.
One of the key selling points of JT is its capability to hold multiple representations of a model in a number of different resolutions, not just one tessellated model. This means it can be quick and fast or contain the precise model definition for analysis. The file can contain links directly back to the actual file or retain elements of intelligence like annotations, tolerance info. As AEC moves in the direction of manufacturing building components direct from design files, JT could see increased use. UGS is also courting the plant design marketplace.
With UGS’ focus on large firms there is a comprehensive toolkit for integrators by joining the JT Open program. A cut down version, the JT Open Edition, is aimed at smaller users but can be expanded, at cost, after a 90-day trial period to get more features.
www.jtopen.com