A new common CAD data standard
19 May 2010
Process type: Collaborate
With 3D software advancing all the time, Rob Jamieson thinks the CAD industry seriously needs to start working on a new standard so we can access our all important legacy data well into the future
Often my topics are about how new technology can help drive the CAD world forward, but recently I’ve been thinking about all of my legacy data and wondering exactly how safe and secure it is. This is something that impacts all engineering and design companies, but is a particularly big issue for those in the aerospace, shipbuilding and plant industries where designs last for decades.
For data there are three big challenges: how to store it, in what format and how access to it? If we look back 100 years we have physical pictures and movie reels. Yes film deteriorates with time but it’s a physical object of the content that pretty much anyone can view.
The same can’t be said for CAD data as the programs that create our 3D programs are constantly evolving. Companies change focus, buy other companies, retire certain products, or change file formats.
One solution is to maintain a working copy of each version of software, but if you’re designing bridges, aircraft or ships, which might have a lifespan of 50 years, that’s an awful lot of legacy software and hardware. Naturally, there are companies who specialise in sorting and retrieving data long term, but this is never going to be cheap with recurring annual fees.
I’d hate to think the only way we will reach a common standard is through multiple acquisitions and the creation of one master CAD company
One of the big problems is that CAD software never stands still. File formats often change as features are added, but unfortunately it also happens to stop competitors accessing the data to make it harder for customers to switch to another package.
Now I’m not saying that we should stagnate development to allow a standardised format, but some of these big companies should be able to agree on
a standard that allows access to future generations. Dumbed down formats like STEP serve a purpose, but we lose all that rich information and intelligence that is built into modern 3D models.
With all CAD data created differently, defining a global standard is no trivial task, but I’m not so sure it’s simply technology that’s holding us back. I wonder if there’s a real desire by the CAD vendors to provide open access to their customers’ data. Unfortunately, not every company is interested in the “greater good” and more about how they can maintain their profit margin.
The world works on people making money to live and while I don’t object to that, at the same time I hate it when things are done where the greater good is not served. I’d hate to think the only way we will reach a common standard is through multiple acquisitions and the creation of one master CAD company.
The next challenge is how to store all of this data over an extended period of time. Yes storage is getting bigger but it’s so easy to lose stuff by moving to new hardware or just deleting stuff that’s old. It’s often stated in IT circles that unless data is stored in three locations it does not exist at all.
The backup for all this mass storage is often hard disks and over time, just like film, it deteriorates. But instead of colours fading on your holiday snaps, the data simply can’t be read. As a result, legacy data needs to be periodically transferred to new storage and maintained in a controlled environment.
Locking an old workstation away in a dusty room and hoping the data will be there in 10 or 20 years is not a particularly safe strategy.
Taking this responsibility out of your hands and moving data to the cloud is an increasingly popular option, but you need to choose your partner carefully. And if you’re thinking of using CAD on the Web you need to have a strategy for getting your data out without losing any of its intelligence.
A friend of mine was telling me she keeps all of her pictures on Facebook, but when she prints them out they are poor quality. I explained that the camera took higher resolution than the web needs so its quality was reduced. She thought by sharing her pictures she was telling people what she was doing but really she was destroying the detail she wanted.
All of this leads back to the need for universal standards. For 3D CAD it doesn’t even need to be parametric, direct edit would be fine. However, as most of the big players only want to transfer data between their own products, maybe we need government legislation or professional bodies to drive this forward.
In 100 years from now I sincerely hope people won’t be calling this the new Dark Age as they discover strange formats of files they can’t open, on old hard disks. If you thought finding a projector that could play old Super 8 films from the seventies was hard, imagine the challenge that legacy CAD formats might present.
.(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) is a marketing manager at AMD. He’d like to think all of his data is secure but ask him again in ten years. This article is his own opinion and may not represent AMD’s positions, strategies or opinions.
Comments on this article:
Martyn Day gets excited about the new breed of tablet PCs on offer
12 May 2010
Process type: Hardware
IT revolutions are few and far between but the new breed of tablet PCs offer a new form factor plus a new human/machine interface. Martyn Day gets more than a bit excited about his new Apple iPad as he waves goodbye to the keyboard
I am currently sat in Chicago waiting for a plane home after being stranded by an eruption of a volcano whose name nobody can pronounce. The resultant weeks of delay have helped me refine my road-warrior IT set-up and thoroughly test out the iPad that I bought on launch day in San Francisco. With a ten hour battery life, word processing, email, spreadsheets, photos, music and videos and more, it does about 80% of what I need from a laptop, but more elegantly and in a super-thin package. The iPad is indeed a beautiful thing, useful and actually cheap.
While there has been more than a bit of hype surrounding the iPad, I have to admit that the machine goes way beyond my expectations. At computer graphics and web browsing it’s quite simply the fastest machine I own, yet it only has a 1GHz processor. It’s a demonstration of what can be done with custom silicon optimised for a lightweight operating system and the engineering of this thing is exemplary. All of this power is literally at your fingertips and there is enough juice in the machine to last a transatlantic flight with two hours to spare. It’s a device you want to use and is instantly responsive. It also attracts people like a small fluffy puppy, so if your ideal speed date is with a geek, buy an iPad.
There are limitations, of course. It cannot multi-task, it doesn’t have a document filing system and there is no support for Flash. The most annoying thing however is the speed at which the screen looks like it has been smeared with goose fat.
The next OS update will fix multi-tasking and the file issue, but Flash isn’t going to happen anytime soon and you’ll need to develop borderline obsessive compulsive disorder when it comes to hand cleanliness.
For those of you who have always surfed the technology wave, I am sure you would remember the first attempt at the tablet market. These Windows-based machines ran a barely altered operating system on low power processors and totally failed to gain any traction in the mobile market.
I remember running Vectorworks on one machine and the battery was dead within the hour. Simply put, the hardware guys had developed the wrong solution for the right idea. Windows wasn’t designed to be used with a stylus and the whole combination crashed and burned never to realise the dreams of the developers.
We had to wait a decade before the industry could get it right, but Apple isn’t the only company to be hitting this market. At the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in January Hewlett-Packard and Microsoft demonstrated the HP Slate ahead of the iPad launch. The HP machine is rumoured to have a battery life of five hours but may also benefit from running a variant of Windows with the familiar Windows applications, which the iPad can’t. However, in development terms, this is early days and for Apple the Apps are in the works, especially considering the company has sold over one million iPads in the first month.
The only certainty in all this is that this time around the Tablet PC is here to stay and having used one for a month I am sure it will revolutionise both how we work with computers and where we use them.
Engineering tablets
So will tablets impact the engineering space? Most certainly. The first design-related application was Sketchbook Pro from Autodesk, which enhanced its iPhone conceptual design application for the iPad. It doesn’t take too great a leap to see how these devices will work well for view and markup of engineering drawings, or as an interface for project browsing. There are times when a laptop is too cumbersome or just not necessary. Here a graphics tablet with touch capability will be a better-suited technology solution.
Apple has the benefit that both Dassault Systèmes and Autodesk had already developed applications for the iPhone, for sketching and viewing 3D models. A port to the iPad is straightforward. It’s what happens next that will be interesting.
Carl Bass, CEO of Autodesk told me that the iPad opens all sorts of possibilities for development, for instance an application that can view DWF or DWG files, or further enhancements to its conceptual design tools.
If the CAD software is being run in the cloud, all you need is an Internet browser and a broadband connection and suddenly your tablet is running high-end 3D CAD over the Web
To help enhance the accuracy of drawing there are already styli available for the iPhone and iPad - fingers are great but with the size of my ‘porky pies’, they are no mouse replacements for CAD.
Another intriguing opportunity comes with SaaS, or Cloud-based CAD. If the CAD software is being run in the cloud, all you need is an Internet browser and a broadband connection and suddenly your tablet is running high-end 3D CAD over the Web. This is a very real opportunity, with the main downside being the size of the screen. The Apple iPad’s 9.1” screen is ideal for viewing content but it’s too small for everyday CAD work. So ideally I’d like a 19” iPad please! I admit it would lose some of its portability but it would be a worthwhile trade off.
Conclusion
After first faltering, it looks like the tablet is finally going to deliver the goods. The machines that will follow the initial iPad will drive this new market segment to dominate personal computing. With software developers excited about the new potential and currently evaluating how they can port their engineering tools, I’d predict that within the next two years tablet PCs will be commonplace in engineering firms and used for a diverse range of applications, from conference calls and field work to conceptual design. Get your fingers ready.
Martyn Day is consulting editor of DEVELOP3D.
.(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
