HOOPS 2022 Toolkits Enhance Manufacturing and BIM Workflows

This month Tech Soft 3D of Bend, Oregon, the leading provider of engineering software development toolkits (SDKs), has announced the release of HOOPS 2022 SDKs.

HOOPS Technology

HOOPS technology is a proven tech stack that powers world-class engineering and design software applications across multiple industries, from manufacturing to architecture and engineering.

The new HOOPS 2022 technology enhances animation, data access and exchange, simulation, and rendering capabilities. This will help Tech Soft 3D partners and their software solutions to remain competitive in their industrial sectors, by delivering provided leading-edge 3D technologies.

HOOPS Visualize 2022 now supports Physically Based Rendering (PBR) on mobile platforms to generate photorealistic graphics by modeling the behavior of light in the real world.

HOOPS 2022 will help reduce product development time and costs for both desktop, web, mobile, and AR/VR application solutions.

“Technology continues to advance at a rapid pace, and our team is laser-focused on making sure that our partners have the most sophisticated, robust, and high-performing component technologies that will enable them to create the applications they need quickly and easily,” said Eric Vinchon, Vice President of Partner Success at Tech Soft 3D. “Staying ahead of trends and getting to market faster than competitors is the main priority of our partners, and Tech Soft 3D is the best-in-class engine for 3D graphics, CAD data translation, and 3D data publishing that will enable our partners to deliver those applications.”

Apple Silicon Support and Other New Features

New key features in HOOPS 2022 include:

• Apple Silicon Support — Apple’s recent shift from Intel-based chips to their new ARM-based architecture requires partners to port their applications to provide the best experience for their users. We are now providing an official build of our HOOPS toolkits to enable this process.
• Animation Manager — New animation capabilities, including a new animation manager, are designed to meet various engineering animation needs, ranging from BIM 5D simulations, through Digital Factory animations, and Work Instruction authoring.
• Physically Based Rendering (PBR) — PBR has been added to HOOPS Communicator to provide higher quality rendering for web applications and is now also available in HOOPS Visualize for mobile platforms.
• Spatial Relationships — Support for “Spatial Relationships” that are part of the Industry Foundation Class (IFC) model definition enables the ability to navigate in the model, query the model in the context of Quantity Takeoff (QTO) and more.

Additional enhancements SKDs include:

• HOOPS Exchange — Native CAD and standard format support for Inventor 2022, ACIS 2021 1.0, and Parasolid 34.0, plus accessing mates for CATIA V5 files to help optimize workflows for applications in manufacturing simulation, robotics, kinematics analysis, and more..
• HOOPS Visualize — New culling mechanism where front faces can be culled, allowing the user to see inside objects easier, and this is valuable to visualize results from analysis. Android AR Sandbox applications refresh and more…
• HOOPS Communicator — supports assembly level features across different shattered workflows, allows users to view all the parts or a building or mechanical assembly at once, and easily switch versions/revisions of individual parts or sub-assemblies without having to reconvert or process the entire set of 3D objects. There are new rendering modes (sketch mode and conceptual mode) based on standard AEC application interfaces, enabling users to replicate the environment they are used to in AEC workflows.
• HOOPS Publish —  Improvements to HTML export regarding quality and fidelity with 3D PDFs

HOOPS toolkits are also available through the HOOPS Native and HOOPS Web Platforms. HOOPS Platforms combine market-leading 3D technologies for CAD data exchange, visualization, and data publishing, along with tight connections to popular modeling kernels. With a single licensing fee, these offerings are the most cost-effective way to leverage the full spectrum of HOOPS functionality for both existing applications and future development projects. 

Developers interested in evaluating HOOPS SDKs can sign up for a free 60-day evaluation. Users can now interact with demos, videos, download a free evaluation, walkthrough tutorials, read partner success stories, and browse the updated documentation. Learn more by clicking on the links below and begin a free trial today:

• HOOPS Exchange (CAD Data Import)
• HOOPS Visualize (Graphics Engine for Desktop, Mobile & AR/VR)
• HOOPS Communicator (Graphics Engine for Web)
• HOOPS Publish (Export 3D PDFs, HTML, and Standard CAD)

To learn more visit them online here.

Architosh Analysis and Commentary

Tech Soft 3D’s technology isn’t particularly well-known in the CAD/BIM world because it lives under the hood of many apps. Software developers don’t tend to tout the HOOPS technology by name like they do modeling kernels like Parasolid. Perhaps that will change at some time in the future. Nevertheless, HOOPS SDKs are used by MCAD industry and AEC software giants alike, including companies like Trimble and Bentley.

The support for Apple Silicon this quickly is a nice surprise for sure. While this support initially is aimed at supporting applications on Apple Mac computers running on Apple’s own M-series SoC semiconductors, it lays the groundwork for future professional engineering software on Windows on ARM architecture chips in the not-to-distant future. We agree with some analysts that NVIDIA’s failed bid to obtain ARM due to regulatory issues and ARM’s path towards a second IPO will light a fire under ARM to innovate more aggressively if it wishes to target the data center and unseat Intel X86 architecture chips. NVIDIA’s “grace” chips, announced earlier this year, are ARM CPUs for mega-scale AI and HPC. The short of it is, we expect aggressive innovation in the ARM space and we also understand that Microsoft’s push with ARM for Windows will expand, even possibly enabling Windows 11 for ARM on Apple Silicon Macs. And MediaTek, a chip company few in the West really know, wants to apparently get in on the action for Windows on ARM. Where this really matters is on laptops and tablet devices that are carried into the field for manufacturing and AEC workflows. 

HOOPS technology already shines on Apple iOS. So now that some of Apple’s own iPad Pros are using M-chips (Apple Silicon), it makes perfect sense that HOOPS 2022 supports Apple Silicon.

On some of the technology in HOOPS 2022. We think the culling features could be really interesting in the AEC context, and not just MCAD apps. And the new rendering modes are also a great addition to this 2022 version of HOOPS technology.