Tech Soft 3D this week announced their 2021 HOOPS software development toolkits (SDKs), including increased BIM support and beta support for the new Apple M1 (Apple Silicon) chip in next-generation Mac computers.
HOOPS Exchange 2021
New in HOOPS Exchange 2021 is support for 3MF and other new formats aimed at better Building Information Modeling (BIM) support for the AEC industry. Tech Soft 3D says the company has placed an emphasis on this version such that both native CAD and standard formats when they are updated can be pushed and supported for development partners more quickly.
3MF stands for “3D modeling format” and is a format defined by an industry consortium; the format enables applications to send 3D models to full-color 3D printers and is different from the old STL format by its ability to hold more than one object in the scene, with advanced materials, colors, and texture information. 3MF format is accelerating within the additive manufacturing industry and its new support will benefit many.
Exchange 2021 now supports the evolving 3MF file format which supports full-color 3D printers.
Another major improvement in HOOPS Exchange 2021 is continued BIM support, with both DWG, IFC, and Autodesk Revit readers. There is better meta-data support for Revit files and improvements to IFC classes including IFCSwpetAreaSolids and other classes where entities in BIM models are generated by extruded contours like pipes.
Apple Silicon
Tech Soft 3D is supporting Apple’s transition away from Intel chips to its own ARM-based architecture processors like its new M1 SoC chip. The company is providing a beta build of their toolkits to help developers make the transition. The new platform will be fully supported, it says when the company has adequate hardware available to ensure quality control during testing processes. You can read about other HOOPS Exchange features here.
HOOPS Visualize 2021
The new Visualize (HPS) helps support larger models for BIM workflows and better cross-platform support. The BIM model size improvements deal with the complexity of very large translations relative to their size and specifically two types of conditions. One condition is a large translation that places it far from the origin, and the other condition is models containing geometry which is defined very far from the origin. Both complexities lead to rendering problems due to converting data down to single-precision values for HPS. The problems include triangle z-fighting and jittery camera movement.
Using the new HOOPS Communicator Sprocket you can load models from HOOPS Communicator into native HOOPS Visualize applications using new streaming technologies. This is useful for partners who have built their main applications on Communicator but want to build partner applications on Visualize that consume very large models whilst being connected to a Communicator server.
HOOPS Visualize 2021 has added new measurement operators that do not require the HOOPS Exchange product mentioned above. Previously, measurement operators were limited to just models imported via Exchange, preventing the measurement of many forms of data.
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HOOPS Visualize gains performance and scalability improvements in version 2021. And support for headless and virtual environments via the addition of a software-only version of the OpenGL 2 driver. Again, a beta build of Tech Soft 3D’s toolkits allows for developers to port their applications to Apple Silicon hardware in the next-generation Macs. And to better serve new cross-platform application development, Tech Soft 3D has added support for QT Quick.
next page: HOOPS Communicator 2021 and HOOPS Publish 2021
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.
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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.