WorldCAD Access

Will wonders never cease: point cloud processing for Android OS

The Point Cloud Library is an open (BSD licence) project for processing 3D point cloud data. It's been compiled and deployed on Linux, OS X, Windows, and Android.

PCL consists of the following algorithms:

• Filtering
• Feature estimation
• Surface reconstruction
• Registration
• Model fitting
• Segmentation 

These algorithms can be used, for example, to filter outliers from noisy data, stitch 3D point clouds together, segment relevant parts of a scene, extract keypoints and compute descriptors to recognize objects in the world based on their geometric appearance, and create surfaces from point clouds and visualize them -- to name a few.

No suprise that Google supports this organization financially, although it seems their interest is in terms of using it for robotic vision; also nVidia. What I would like to see is a point cloud app running on an Android mobile device. Reading some of the forums tells me that people are still working on it, and so it's too early for an app.

Source:
dev.pointclouds.org/projects/pcl/wiki/How_to_compile_PCL_for_Android

Maide turns your iPhone into a (nearly) free 3Dconnexion-style controller

Smartphones and tablets have all kinds of sensors built in of which CAD vendors haven't really made too much use. I think one vendor lets you shake the phone to create an exploded view, and that's about it.

A bunch of grads from Canada's University of Waterloo have taken the sensors in iOS devices to create a 3dconnexion-like mouse.CADremote (99 cents) and CADcontrol ($5) from Maide orbits the 3D viewpoint as you move the iOS device around in the air.

Here's what else they do, a list of features that's expanded since first announced last fall:

• Pan, orbit, and zoom using multi-finger touch; use the iOS device's screen as a trackpad for mouse control.
  
  
• Connect several iOS devices the same software program for group viewing, although only on person has control at a time. 
  
  
• Take screen grabs of models, and then sketch on top of them.

For the extra $4, CADcontrol for iPad adds these items:

• Tap in specific areas to display standard views (left, top, etc).
  
  
• Use the iOS device's keyboard to enter text on the computer.
  
  
• Select commands and keyboard modifiers on the iOS device through the customizable menu.

A little bit curious is the list of CAD pkgs supported: 3ds Max, Maya 3D, Rhino 3D, SketchUp, and SolidWorks -- with the elephant, AutoCAD, missing from the list.

Using it requires installing two pieces of software: one on the iOS device, and another ( free) on your Windows or O X desktop computer. The iOS device communicates via a dedicated WiFi link, in a manner typical of WiFi file managers.

Users are already asking for more features, like orbiting around selected sub-objects.

Source:
www.maideinc.com

MobileCAD apps busting out all over, and now with a twist...

This week I received four announcements of new or updated software for mobile devices. At least two of them came with a twist: they are being released on Android first, with an iOS port to come later.

All of these products are developed in Europe. On to the announcements:

1. CadFaster updated their 3D CAD/BIM collaboration iPAD app with a better UI and a walk-through navigation mode. On the desktop, CadFaster|Collaborate is a plug-in for Revit, Microstation, SolidWorks, and so on. The plug-in lets you upload models in a compressed format for access by the mobile app. While the iOS app is free (see http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/cadfaster/id447057884?mt=8) , the desktop one is licensed by the month -- though there is a 14-day free trial available from http://www.cadfaster.com.

2. TFTLabs this week released TFTPad for Android to view 3D native MCAD files and JSON3D-format files. The Web site is, unfortunately, vague and has no download links.
http://www.tftlabs.com

3. SparePartsPlace of Switzerland this week told me about their SPP Viewer Android app that handles the viewing of  parts from Inventor.  The demo version has "three assemblies with up to 4300 parts and 350,000 triangles." See figure below. More info from http://www.sparepartsplace.com/mobile_devices.html

MechWorks of Italy is showing DBTablet for IPad and Android that shows the their database for managing drawings and documents used by Inventor and other MCAD systems. And that's all they're saying for now, other than a photograph of the software running on an Android tablet. http://www.tenlinks.com/news/PR/mechworks/020912_DBTablet.htm