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HOOPS Communicator 2021
Tech Soft 3D has spent a considerable amount of focus on the AEC and Plant markets. As we have seen with their updated Visualize and Exchange toolkits, Communicator also focuses on BIM models. Improvements in IFC models now allow 2D floorplan views in IFC views in a web viewer application.
Options include the customization of avatar scale, color, and outline color, along with other new capabilities that developers will find useful. A sample floorplan implementation is available in the Getting Started Web Viewer supplied with the Communicator 2021 toolkit.
The new Communicator now supports IFC floor plan views with an avatar icon (red arrow) that has various optionality for developers to choose from, such as center on window and scalability. This technology works through Web browser views of BIM or 3D models.
Again, support for larger models and very large translations has been improved in version 2021 toolkits. The new measurement operators discussed above are designed to work with tessellated data models (rather than BREP data). This change better aligns with the needs of BIM and Plant Management industries and will be more useable by partners in other markets.
MORE: Apple Introduces Revolutionary New Macs with M1 Chip
Finally, faster loading of SCS models (particularly large model files and large assemblies), faster loading of IFC models (the time to load an IFC model into the Web Viewer is dramatically reduced), and better UX round other new features, including beta support for Apple Silicon.
HOOPS Publish 2021
Publish enables developer applications to publish 3D data in multiple ways, including 3D PDF, HTML, and a variety of CAD standards. A big benefit of HOOPS Publish is the ability to create interactive 3D PDF documents from CAD industry solutions.
HOOPS Publish 2021 adds new UX features that enable automatic zoom-in to table-selected entities.
Version 2021 focuses on optimizing manufacturing processes leverage model-based design. Tech Soft 3D has introduced a means to customize the behavior of the selection from a scroll-table. A single selection from the table triggers the highlight of the selected entity in the 3D annotation as well as an automatic zoom to it, improving the user experience when consuming the document. In other words, when a user views a model they can select a model entity from a table, and automatically the model adjusts necessary views and zooms to that entity.
While Technical Data Package (TDP) is aimed at reducing traditional 2D drawings, Tech Soft 3D recognizes that customers still require printing documents. So they have introduced a new feature that enables richer TDPs and supported it in their printing workflow. A scroll-table now includes the ability to select rows using checkboxes and just that information is retrieved for printing.
To learn more about Tech Soft 3D and its CAD industry software development toolkits, visit them here online.
Architosh Analysis and Commentary
Tech Soft 3D’s early support for Apple’s chip transition to its own ARM-based processors—commonly referred to as Apple Silicon and specifically in their first Mac ship, the M1—bodes well for the CAD and 3D industry in the areas of AEC and MCAD markets. The large software firms in these markets, including Autodesk, Hexagon, and Siemens, all use various Tech Soft 3D toolkits for their applications.
In fact, as mentioned in this article on Autodesk’s AEC futures, we suspect Tech Soft 3D’s technologies may be critical to future cloud-based software solutions in AEC. Autodesk’s CEO has already said that all future solutions will be cross-platform for Windows and Mac and they are well-aware of Apple’s excellent performing chip designs.
Support for M1 means that as ARM-based processors take-over performance leadership from Intel X86, hundreds of CAD industry software developers will have the optionality they need to consider targeting their solutions at both macOS on Apple Silicon, and future ARM-based Windows and Linux on data-center servers and on personal computers.
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