Cowboy Hats and Other Misconceptions

I was watching the NFL championship games this weekend and was reminded of a past SolidWorks World. In 2004, SolidWorks World was held in Boston during the NFL championship games. After flying in from Dallas, we sat down to watch the championship game with a bunch of raving Patriot fans. Unlike this year, in 2004 the Pats beat the Colts. Immediately after the Patriots won, a lady sitting next to us belted out in the most Boston of Boston accents: "We're going to have to get a caawboy het and some chewing tobaaacco and go to Hugh-ston for the Superbowl."

The irony of this situation makes me laugh everytime I think about it. Here is a nice lady with a strong stereotypical Boston accent joking about a stereotypical Texas scenario. Now, QuadriSpace is based just outside of Dallas, I am University of Texas alum and I don't know anyone who wears a cowboy hat. But that doesn't matter... the perception of Texas is big hats, big boots, big hair and big attitude. Sometimes you just can't get past the misconceptions (In this case that's ok...)

Anyway, I wanted to address a misconception that many people have about 3D Publishing. In talking with customers, invariably we are asked "how is 3D Publishing software different from my 3D CAD tools or this simple 3D viewer?". On the surface there are similarities, i.e they all interactively rotate, pan and zoom 3D models. But the difference between these various types of products lies in the answer to the following questions:

• What is the software designed to accomplish? What features support this goal?
  
• What is the end result of using the software (i.e. what is the user creating)?
  
• Is it easy for the user of the software to accomplish his or her goals?

Myth #1: My 3D CAD tool does it all
Let's start with 3D CAD tools. Here is part of the definition of CAD from Wikipedia:

"CAD is used to design, develop and optimize products, which can be goods used by end consumers or intermediate goods used in other products."

In other words, 3D CAD tools create 3D models of products. That's the goal, that's the purpose. The creation of 3D models is an art of it's own and requires users to learn and master various tools and techniques. Also, the user interface for 3D CAD is designed to support engineers and their 3D creation needs. In general, this UI is absolutely the wrong interface for 3D publishing.

I have seen publishing departments that purchase seats of 3D CAD software solely for the purpose of creating images for use in manuals. This is equivalent to using a shovel to chop down a tree. Why not use an axe? An axe is designed to chop down trees, it does a better job and is much easier for the user to get the job done. Using the right tool for the job is what I am talking about and this is where 3D Publishing software shines.

Myth #2: 3D Viewers are "good enough"
3D Viewers are designed to simply view 3D models. Most viewers do not have a saved output because they are designed to only "view" the 3D model, not much more.

Very few viewers support any of the features needed to effectively publish 3D. Consider this... does your 3D viewer allow you to publish PDF documents with interactive 3D views? Does the 3D viewer allow you to capture and manage illustrations and then update these seamlessly as the original CAD design changes? Does the viewer allow you to create step-by-step procedures? How about rendering high-resolution images or storyboard out an animation? Does the viewer let you use a BOM to assign callout numbers for illustrations? Does the viewer publish to multiple output formats? Does it publish at all? I am certain you have never seen a viewer that supports document authoring or page design using 3D.

Myth #3: Peyton Manning can't win big games
Ummm... anyone watch the AFC championship game yesterday...

Solution: 3D Publishing Software
In order to qualify as 3D Publishing software an application should reuse 3D models to create graphics, or animations or documents for public or internal distribution. 3D Publishing software does not create models and does much more than simply view the 3D model.

Overall, 3D Publishing supports import of existing 3D (in various formats), manipulation of the 3D and meta-data to easily create things like exploded views, bill-of-materials, illustrations, etc. The end result of using 3D Publishing software is a deliverable in a format that is easily shared. The more publishable formats the better... interactive, web, printed, animated, etc.

And maybe the most important aspect is that 3D Publishing software is designed to be used by people comfortable with programs like Microsoft Office. Including 3D in a document should be easy and natural and the best 3D Publishing software provides complete page design tools with integrated 3D support (only QuadriSpace products accomplish this!).

So what can you do with 3D publishing that you can't do with other software?

• Layout and create multiple page documents
• Publish graphics, animations and documents from a single source
• Directly include meta-data from the 3D CAD file in a document or table
• Reuse 3D directly without the overhead of "3D creation" tools
• Update entire documents as your 3D design changes
• Publish to print, web, Flash, movies, 3D PDF, Exe's, CDs, etc

Read this post in Italian.