www.techsoft3d.com
Open in
urlscan Pro
104.198.14.52
Public Scan
Submitted URL: https://pages.techsoft3d.com/e3t/Ctc/Q9+113/bNrM04/VWbSMb49SwRTW16wd8p3Qz0WcW8SvcRS4Sb_fJN1xVm-13lLCfV1-WJV7CgHwrW6lyc_33c9g4...
Effective URL: https://www.techsoft3d.com/resources/blog/leveraging-sdks-for-metrology-software-development/?utm_medium=email&_hsmi=233087...
Submission: On November 10 via api from DE — Scanned from DE
Effective URL: https://www.techsoft3d.com/resources/blog/leveraging-sdks-for-metrology-software-development/?utm_medium=email&_hsmi=233087...
Submission: On November 10 via api from DE — Scanned from DE
Form analysis 1 forms found in the DOM
<form><span class="fieldset">
<p><input type="checkbox" value="check" id="chkMain" checked="" class="legacy-group-status optanon-status-checkbox"><label for="chkMain">Active</label></p>
</span></form>Text Content
Cookie Notice
This site uses cookies and other tracking technologies to assist with navigation
and your ability to provide feedback, analyse your use of our products and
services, assist with our promotional and marketing efforts, and provide content
from third parties. Privacy Policy
Close
Accept Cookies
* Your Privacy
* Strictly Necessary Cookies
* Performance Cookies
* Functional Cookies
* Targeting Cookies
* More Information
Privacy Preference Centre
Active
Always Active
Save Settings
Allow All
* Products
HOOPS SDKs
* HOOPS Exchange
CAD Data Translation
* HOOPS Communicator
3D Web Visualization
* HOOPS Visualize
Graphics Engine
* HOOPS Publish
3D PDF Documents
HOOPS Platforms
* HOOPS Web Platform
SDK Toolkit for the Web
* HOOPS Native Platform
SDK Toolkit for Native
CEETRON SDKs
* CEETRON Access
Read & Write CAE Data
* CEETRON Mesh
2D & 3D Meshing for CAE
* CEETRON Solve
CAE Simulation SDK
* CEETRON Envision
CAE Data Platform
Autodesk OEM Products
* AutoCAD OEM
CAD Software
* Inventor OEM
Mechanical CAD
* RealDWG
2D + 3D Data
Modelers
* Siemens Parasolid
Solid-Based Modeling
* Polygonica
Mesh-Based Modeling
* Solutions
Solutions
* CAD Data Translation
* 3D CAD Visualization
* 3D PDF Reporting
* Autodesk OEM Platforms
* 3D Modeling
* Markets
Markets
* Additive Manufacturing
* AR/VR
* Digital Construction
* Computer-Aided Engineering (CAE)
* Computer-Aided Manufacturing (CAM)
* Digital Factory
* Electronic Design Automation (EDA)
* Metrology
* Mining & Geosciences
* Product Lifecycle Management (PLM)
* Shipbuilding
* Resources
Resources
* Case Studies
* Blog
* Product Updates
* News & Events
* Developers
Developers
* Documentation
* Forum
* Integrations
* VIP Program
* Developer Zone
* Company
Company
* About
* Careers
* Contact
* Labs
* Forum
* Sign In
* Home
* Products
* HOOPS Web Platform
* HOOPS Native Platform
* HOOPS Exchange
* HOOPS Communicator
* HOOPS Visualize
* HOOPS Publish
* CEETRON Access
* CEETRON Mesh
* CEETRON Solve
* CEETRON Envision
* AutoCAD OEM
* Inventor OEM
* RealDWG
* Siemens Parasolid
* Polygonica
* Solutions
* CAD Data Translation
* 3D CAD Visualization
* 3D PDF Reporting
* Autodesk OEM Platforms
* 3D Modeling
* HOOPS Platforms
* Markets
* Additive Manufacturing
* AR/VR
* Digital Construction
* Computer-Aided Engineering (CAE)
* Computer-Aided Manufacturing (CAM)
* Digital Factory
* Electronic Design Automation (EDA)
* Metrology
* Mining & Geosciences
* Product Lifecycle Management (PLM)
* Shipbuilding
* Resources
* Case Studies
* Blog
* Product Updates
* News & Events
* Developers
* Documentation
* Tutorials
* Forum
* Integrations
* VIP Program
* Developer Zone
* Company
* About
* Careers
* Contact
* Labs
* Forum
* Sign In
LEVERAGING SDKS FOR METROLOGY SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT – A CONVERSATION WITH TECH
SOFT 3D’S VP OF ENGINEERING, ANTONIO CARVALHO
By Robert Beyer •
September 6th, 2022
Antonio Carvalho has been involved with metrology software development for over
22 years, working with some of the industry’s leading applications. Now the VP
of Engineering here at Tech Soft 3D he offers a unique perspective on how
development teams in the metrology market can leverage SDKs to build competitive
applications. Below we’ll cover how developers can benefit from utilizing
existing technology, specific functionality within the HOOPS toolkits for
metrology workflows, and how being a one-time Tech Soft 3D partner has impacted
his current role and perspective at the company.
Q: How did you get started in the world of metrology software?
A: in 1997 I started as a developer working for a German company called CATS,
that developed metrology software which was later acquired by FARO in 1998.
Those early days allowed me to learn what metrology was really all about as we
would spend a lot of time working closely with our customers, in this case the
big automobile manufacturers. In 2008 I moved away from the Engineering side of
the business and transitioned into Product Management but still connected to
FARO’s CAM2 product line. In total, my metrology software life spanned a total
of 22 years both from the Engineering and Product Management.
Q: During your time at FARO, you became familiar with the HOOPS toolkits having
used them in your application. Can you talk about the role you see SDKs playing
in measurement software development?
A: Let's start with the visualization technology where the big decision is build
versus buy. Every metrology software out there needs a 3D viewer embedded in
their application, and they will likely be developers who could build their own
3D viewer; in fact, that is the kind of project that those developers would love
to work on because it's exciting! But there are a lot of challenges that come
with building your own 3D viewer, like compatibility with different types of
graphics cards, which makes metrology software companies, like FARO, to ask
themselves how many people they would need to throw at this need to have
acceptable quality and performance and whether that is a good investment on
their end.
In the earlier days, the graphics needs of metrology software were quite basic:
CAD files were either non-existent or very basic and the information drawn in
the 3D viewer was rather elementary. Over time, the adoption of CAD became
broader, the CAD files started getting larger and more complex. We also saw the
transition from using discrete points, in the thousands that were used to
calculate prismatic features, to the collection of large amounts of point cloud
data (in the billions). These trends brought new 3D graphics challenges which
made us realize that, okay, maintaining a competitive graphics engine has become
much more challenging and this is not really our core business. It made much
more sense to buy something off the shelf and leverage it instead. That’s what
originally got us to HOOPS Visualize for 3D visualization.
The second need that you have in metrology applications is accessing CAD data. A
common customer of metrology software, tier one, tier two,or tier three
suppliers to automotive and aerospace industries, will get CAD files for the
components they need to manufacture so it becomes vital that they be able to
extract the data they need from those files in a reliable way. In earlier days,
our customers were provided VDA, IGES or STEP files that are open formats for
which it is quite easy to develop a reader. Over time, as the content of the CAD
files became richer, the files provided were coming directly from CAD modeling
software, like CATIA and Solidworks. We are now talking about binary files with
proprietary formats which require significant expertise and development effort
that is way beyond what is reasonable for a metrology software company. There
were workarounds, like exporting the data from the CAD modelers to these open
formats, but there was a significant loss in both quality and the information
contained in the original file. It became mandatory for metrology software to be
able to read these files directly.
We were using a competitor solution at FARO for the longest time. We had been
evaluating HOOPS Exchange off and on for seven or eight years, and even though
it looked like it was able to satisfy our needs and performance-wise looked
good, it was never really the right time to pull the trigger, so we delayed the
decision to adopt it. Eventually, it got to a point where the level of support
that we were getting from our supplier was not great, and having seen the better
performance of the HOOPS Exchange readers, we made the decision to switch over
to HOOPS Exchange. Commercially, it also worked out nicely for FARO to leverage
the HOOPS Native Platform providing functionality vital to metrology
applications, HOOPS Visualize which is the viewer, Parasolid as the CAD kernel,
and HOOPS Exchange for 3D CAD data access.
Q: In your opinion what are some key features of the HOOPS Toolkits that enable
Metrology workflows?
A: The importance of accessing accurate PMI data through different native file
formats is critical. When it comes to metrology, having access to that
information is extremely helpful because when you have a CAD file, even a very
basic one, there are innumerous details in it that you could potentially measure
but not all of them are relevant from a metrology standpoint. The PMI
information helps narrow down the scope of what is really relevant and that
simplifies the life of the metrologist.
Another key feature is visualizing point clouds and the capability to project
point clouds to CAD surfaces to show part quality by using coloring directly on
the CAD. In the early days, Metrology was based on a simple principle of
calculating a geometry, for example a circle, from a small number of points and
then comparing that circle center, diameter, etc to what was defined in a CAD
file or a print. This is how it was done for decades and is probably still so in
many places. Now with these scanning devices that can capture millions of points
per second, with amazing accuracy, why do I want to take a couple of sets of
points? Operators can just cover their parts with point cloud data and then
extract all the information they need from the point cloud. So having the
ability to store those point clouds, capture them at a fast rate, render them
real-time while computing the deviations to CAD to display the color information
is a key capability that the HOOPS SDKs provide. When it comes to Metrology,
this is a capability that all our partners can certainly benefit from.
PMI accessed from a native CAD file via HOOPS Exchange
Q: You touched on this earlier but what do development teams stand to gain by
leveraging SDKs versus building in-house?
A: I mentioned this earlier regarding 3D visualization, that clearly it could be
built, so it's a matter of cost and enabling the engineering teams to focus
their development time on what's core to the business, rather than focusing on
functionality that somebody else specializes in. So clearly on the visualization
side, I think that's where the biggest benefit comes from using an SDK. When it
comes to CAD data access and building a reader for proprietary native formats
there isn't even a chance. You can't develop that expertise because it's so
specific and it requires so much time to develop it correctly, so there's no
alternative option in that case.
The solution for somebody developing a metrology application and not leveraging
an SDK for CAD data access would be to require their customers to go ask their
suppliers to export an IGES file or export a STEP file. Eventually, you would be
putting your customers in a non-ideal workflow, and you'd lose competitiveness
right away as a product. So, it's a requirement in today’s metrology world, to
be able to read those proprietary file formats directly, natively and that
technology you cannot reasonably develop on your own.
Q: How has being a previous partner and user of the HOOPS SDKs impacted your
current position as VP of Engineering?
A: I would say the biggest thing, at least the thing that I’m most conscious of
in my day-to-day, is being aware of how important it is that the products we
release are easy to integrate.
I am mostly talking about verifying that the behavior and performance do not
change from one version to the next. As a partner, it is a struggle when you
take on a new version of a toolkit and you spot a behavior change. As a result,
you drop the newer version, go back to the previous one, report the issue and
then wait for the newer version to confirm that you can upgrade to it. What
happens when you don’t get your fix in the next version? You fall off the
upgrade cycle which makes each upgrade more challenging because you are taking
in more changes at once. This awareness has driven me to push internally to
release something that our partners can integrate easily and quickly, trying to
reduce the changes in behavior to a minimum. And when changes are inevitable, we
strive to provide our partners an earlier heads up to allow them to adapt their
products accordingly. This is what a successful partnership looks like and it is
these successful partnerships that help us justify our value to our partners,
including those in metrology.
Return to Blog ⇾
*
*
*
*
*
*
* Products
* HOOPS Web Platform
* HOOPS Native Platform
* HOOPS Platform
* HOOPS Visualize
* HOOPS Exchange
* HOOPS Communicator
* HOOPS Publish
* CEETRON Access
* CEETRON Mesh
* CEETRON Solve
* CEETRON Envision
* Autodesk AutoCAD OEM
* Autodesk Inventor OEM
* Autodesk RealDWG
* Siemens Parasolid
* Polygonica
* Solutions
* CAD Data Translation
* Visualization
* 3D PDF
* OEM CAD Platforms
* Modeling
* Markets
* Additive Manufacturing
* Augmented and Virtual Reality
* Digital Construction
* Computer-Aided Engineering (CAE)
* Computer-Aided Manufacturing (CAM)
* Digital Construction
* Electronic Design Automation (EDA)
* Metrology
* Mining and Geosciences
* Product Lifecycle Management (PLM)
* Developers
* The Developer Zone
* Technical Documentation
* Support
* Company
* Blog
* News
* Podcast
* About
* Contact
* Careers
日本語 Deutsch 中文 Français 한국어
Copyright © 2022 Tech Soft 3D all rights reserved.
Privacy Policy | Credits