ODA DevCon ’19—Coming Full Circle in The AEC Industry

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Modeling Developments — Points, Kernels, Facets, and Solids

Point cloud format support is a new part of the ODA. Based on the Autodesk ReCap (.rcs) format, this support creates smoother workflows with point cloud data between disciplines such as civil, architecture and construction and can be part of an as-built confirmation of the built condition. As 3D scanning technologies have become more capable, cheaper and more popular, this development will be very important as part of the ODA SDK offerings. At the conference, significant work in LOD (level of detail) methodologies was demonstrated for efficiency. This is quite important as the files can quickly be 100s of MBs and larger in size. One demonstration during the conference showed a 25 GB point cloud file opening in ODA’s Visualize viewer in an impressive 4 seconds.

Alexander Borovikov, ODA Development Team, presents ODA Point Cloud SDK advances.

Developments in BIM workflows with standardized translations and libraries require strong fundamentals in 3D modeling. While strong modelers have been available for decades, new modeling capabilities need to be built straight into BIM products for consistent, complex form generation, and documentation. ODA is building support for both faceted and solid modeling which it presented at the conference.

Alexander Borovikov, ODA Development Team, presenting ODA point cloud SDK advances.

One ODA member C3D (see: Architosh, “C3D Labs Unveils B-Shaper for AEC and BIM Developers,” 18 July 2019) is helping with the more complex solids and boundary representation (B-Rep) shapes. Basic modeling functionality, built on C3D’s own mathematical kernel, is also available to all ODA members. Interestingly, the C3D kernel also provides a new alternative for modeling that isn’t reliant on Spatial’s ACIS or Parasolid—two of the dominant existing modeling kernels—which require licensing from Dassault or Siemens, respectively, at this time.

ODA presents modeling advances for faceted and solid modeling.

ODA showing SubD as part of advancements in its modeling tech.

ODA presenting further modeling advances in its technology stack.

BimRv, the SDK workflow to read and write Autodesk’s Revit (.rvt) format is quickly moving forward as well. Several aspects are in beta but with multiple releases planned over the next calendar year for iterative production implementation.

A light-weight solid modeler for BIM as part of ODA technology stack.

Complementing the BIM workflow further, BimNv SDK adds Navisworks file capabilities. Already capable of reading NWD, NWC, NWF, and visualization, planned releases over the next year will include partial loading, multi-threading, geometry editing, and data streams.

ODA BimRv roadmap for Revit workflows.

ODA BimNv roadmap for Navisworks workflows.

It is interesting to point out what the specific components of Revit and Navisworks technology are that are being staged for incremental implementation. Be sure to click on the two thumbnail images above to see the timeline and the components of implementation, as it gives you a sense of direction and progress.

next page: ODA’s Exciting Open Cloud Technologies