4D Pipeline - Visualizing reality, trends and breaking news in 3D, CAD, and mobile.

We live in buildings.

Our homes, workplaces, universities, museums, hospitals, etc. 

Companies spend millions making their new building campuses and attracting talent to them (see Facebook, Apple, NVIDIA, ...)

In sci-fi's we see people using 3D maps all the time to pull up useful information but in 2013 we barely do this...

And the crazy thing is that we often have these 3D/BIM models from the building process, and if we simply used them downstream there is so much more we could do.

By having a 3D/BIM model in our pocket, on our mobile, we can see where our colleagues are (see WifiSlam), find where a room is, see which meeting rooms are free (and where they are), find faulty equipment, do inspections, navigation, visually see where team members are located, get help navigating a museum, hospital, or university campus, etc, etc. 

I really am looking forward to seeing more great Apps which utilize 3D/BIM for downstream use, be it field management, facility management, or occupant interactions. 

It's 2013 - let's live in the future!

Multi-CAD is a long way from ever being "solved". Traditionally CAD Vendors have done all that they can to lock companies into their world, and even when they've succumbed to moving to providing good interchange/neutral formats they've often done so in a proprietary way (think .JT, 3DXML, DWF, ...). 

PTC at least seems to be finally be coming around to the idea that it makes sense for them to intelligently import CAD data from other packages, and then even better, support change management processes (eg. if it changes in the other CAD package, refresh it in your CAD package). Let me just say "Finally!" :-) 

The truth is that essential no global manufacturer can solve multi-CAD, it's a fact of life. At some point one of your suppliers will be using a different CAD package, or someone will need it in a different format. So face this reality and find software and setups that support this.

You heard it hear first. Watch this space.

Newly incorporated Belmont Technlogy, made up of some heavy hitters from Solidworks and related, including John McEleney, former SW CEO and BM for Newforma. 

Very curious to what this team gets up to. Stay tuned for more info!

Ping me if you'd like to meetup at the event jed[at]4Dpipeline.com

Fantastic example of using Augmented Reality for a product launch. Nice job. Looking forward to seeing more examples like this at RTT Excite later this week! (Munich)

Too many products add AR as purely just a "feature" (what a waste)..

AR needs to enable something new, an improved use case or a new workflow. Know and understand your customer use cases. Ask the question, how can AR help? 

This is a great example of using AR to show where temporary works (eg: site hoardings, barriers, etc) would be located in a train station.

Don't add a feature, solve a need instead. Well done COMIT + Fiatech + NetworkRail

I've dealt with over 120 3D / 2D Vector formats in my time (the Right Hemisphere platform read about this many), you name it, I've had to deal with it. I know them all and hate them all ;-)  

For the last 15+ years people have talked about one 3D file format to rule them all. It hasn't happened in MCAD, it hasn't happened in DCC/3D, and it's not going to happen in AEC CAD.

That said, it's good to be aware of the main formats, those that are open and those that are proprietary. 

Whether you deal with DWG, DWF, DXF, SKP, IFC, OBJ, 3DM, i-models, or other; this article is useful to you. It's a good overview to the main format supported formats in architectural iOS Apps. It's also part of a good series on iPad Apps for architects

http://architosh.com/2013/03/ultimate-ipad-guide-apps-for-architects/

Let me know any questions you have.

Two in a row, thanks Oleg (if you are interested in PLM and dont follow beyonedplm.com you should!). Thanks also CLM Data.

Useful metrics on PLM market size:
- Comprehensive PLM up 11.3% to $33.3b

- Mainstream PLM grew 12.1% to $21b

and more 

I've been saying for a while that their is no actual Augmented Reality in the Google Glass, there is potential to be but not yet. Other Glass options like Vuzix do have AR abilities. 

Just in case you had any doubt. Great article and interview with real-world examples of how CAD + Mobile can save weeks "This is a huge cost saving when we look at how quickly the drawing is produced – using the “point-shoot-done” principle within a week the surveyor can be measuring 400-500 square metres, make that 750-1000 square metres in 3-4 weeks and as much as 1500 square metres for super users!"

Adobe goes all-in with Creative Cloud, the Next Web.

Do you have your cloud strategy in place? 

jed[at]4Dpipeline.com

Slides can also be found at:

http://on-demand.gputechconf.com/gtc/2013/presentations/S3102-Multi-Class-Object-Recognition-With-GPUs.pdf

I first saw these guys at the NVIDIA GPU Technology Conference, then again at Jen-Hsen's RTT Excite keynote. 

It's absolutely awesome and it's technology like this that will literally change everything (again) when it comes to 3D graphics. Having fast powerful computer vision and the ability to accurately recognize key objects, like houses, people, animals, seat, cars, enables a wealth of new App experiences, especially when it comes to Augmented Reality. 

This is awesome. Like your own mini LIDAR.

HP and other PCs to distribute.

http://www.pcworld.com/article/2034751/leap-motion-3d-controller-coming-to-hp-pcs-and-other-unnamed-devices.html

If you've been reading my blog for a while you will see that one of the things I'm very excited about are the changes and opportunities in the BIM and AEC/O (Architecture, Engineering, Construction, Owners) space.

With similarities to the manufacturing PLM space, the AEC BIM space is finally modernizing itself and starting to take advantage of all the tremendous advances in mobile, collaboration, cloud, access anywhere, etc.

It's awesome to see 3D Visual BIM data becoming more and more accessible to downstream people, i.e. not just Architect and Engineers but owners, facility managers, and building occupants.

This is a great article as it reminds us that there are still truckloads (pun) of opportunities in the construction and field BIM space. We've seen a few AEC ISV companies operating in this space namely Vela (bought up by Autodesk) and also Latista. However I am sure that in the coming months we'll see more. In particular, we'll see more easy to install Apps for the field (and FM) that work with existing BIM data (if you haven't already, take a look at the bim+ approach www.bimplus.net ).

Exciting times ahead in the for Owners and Consumers of BIM data and all those wanting to interact and access information from buildings and from the process of building buildings.

As always, another great article from Oleg.

I too am seeing the same thing. Finally even the "big" "slow" enterprise companies are demanding better software. Just because it's "made for enterprise" does not mean that it needs to be complicated. In fact, it's even more important that it works as simply as possible.

IT workers are demanding the simplicity and elegancy that they have come to expect in their consumer lives at work. We want software (Apps) that "just work", they should be easy and simple to use, they should not require training, we rightly so want the complex made simple. This is entirely fair and reasonable and is exactly what ISV in manufacturing and AEC need to be making.