I have been looking for ways to get mesh geometry from design models into Revit as NURBS for quite some time now . Then I remembered when I was in school I was told about Geomagic by Roland Snooks. So, I called them up and requested a demo to see if it would work as a tool for architects. It turns out this program has some amazing functionality when it comes to converting mesh objects to NURBS. It’s not like Rhino’s MeshToNurbs command where each mesh face is turned into a NURBS surface, that is way too heavy. What Geomagic allows you to do is essentially paint seams into your mesh (from an .stl or many other 3d formats) which become the seams for your NURBS surfaces. My original interest came from converting a sub division surface I made in 3ds Max to Revit. I made a pretty simple form for a project I’m working on at SHoP (can’t post images, sorry…) to check it out and it works very well. It would have worked better had I known what I was doing with the program (I watched a couple of videos on their site and that was about all the training I had). I’m in the process of getting more information from then directly and I’ll post more as soon as I know more but in the spirit of this post series I just want to expose people to application that they might not have seen before.

These images are from a white paper on the Geomagic site explaining how geomagic was used to scan a motorcycle part and make a physical copy.

Software :Geomagic Studio
URL: www.geomagic.com/en/
Industries : Aerospace, Art & Science, Automotive, Consumer Products, Dental Reconstruction, Medical, MRO, Turbine
Primary use : Mesh Repair, Mesh Conversion, 3d Scan rationalization
Product Description: With Geomagic Studio, you can digitally reconstruct an infinite variety of complex real world shapes more quickly and easily than ever before. Using 3D scan data of these objects, you’ll be able to create accurate models that capture either the design intent or the as-built part. From product design, re-engineering of parts and mass customization to engineering analysis, rapid prototyping and digital archiving, Geomagic Studio opens up a new world of possibilities by bringing your physical parts into the digital realm.

Certified by the PTB (Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt), Geomagic Studio is powered by patented technology and algorithms that produce high quality surfaces, accurate geometry, color and textures.

ShareThis

This is a program i used quite a bit while i was in school. I threw some crazy .stl files and it always fixed them. It’s a bit pricey so i haven’t been able to get a copy at work but we’re working on it. Many of the rapid prototyping machines require “water tight” models. Even though i can clean my models up bunch by modeling cleanly there are times when you are going to need this program. if your spending $3000 on a model you don’t want to run the risk of it coming back all messed up. (i don’t get paid to say this stuff, just sharing a resources) If you can try to down the trial version and give if a shot. Magics can pretty much boolean anything you throw at it. When i download the demo I’ll make a video tutorial showing how to use the fix wizard.

Software :Magics
Manufacturer : Materialise

URL : http://www.materialise.com/materialise/view/en/92074-Magics.html
Trial Version : http://www.materialise.com/materialise/view/en/277522-Download.html
Industries : Medical, Automotive, Product design, 3d Scanning
Primary use : Mesh Repair for Rapid prototyping
Product Description : Magics software enables you to import a wide variety of CAD formats and to export files ready for rapid prototyping, tooling and manufacturing. Its applications include repairing and optimising 3D models; analyzing parts; making process-related design changes on your STL files; designing fixtures; documenting your projects; production planning and much more.

ShareThis

For anyone that has not used this plugin before you HAVE to check this out. I tend to abuse 3ds Max pretty well but this plugin really advances the modeling capabilities of 3ds Max. Also if you find your self saying “i wish max could do this” PolyBoost probably has it.

This Relax Loop feature alone makes it worth buying (it’s not very expensive)

RelaxLoop

I posted images of a few more of the features but you’re better off checking out the site (i don’t get paid by them it’s just an awesome plugin that everyone should know about!)

	InsertLoop	RemoveLoop (For all SO levels)
	FlowConnect		FlowAdjust
	Loop Tools
	CreatePolygon		InsertVerts
	BuildCorner		BuildEnd
	CornerLoop		EndedLoops
	DistanceConnect		RandomConnect
	PaintConnect		SpinEdge
	GeoPoly		Quadrify
	CurveLoop		SpaceLoop
	StraightenLoop		CircleLoop

ShareThis

Software :VRMesh
URL:www.VRMesh.com
Industries : Medical, 3d Scanning, Civil
Primary use : Mesh Repair
Product Description: VRMesh is an advanced free-form 3d mesh modeling software for arbitrary triangle mesh creation and processing. Our innovative technologies are aimed to provide powerful, easy, and affordable solutions for engineering industries. The entire family of VRMesh consists of three packages targeted to different customers.

VRMesh is a program i found while i was in school, I was looking for a way to re-triangulate a mesh that i had produced in Maya. The software is pretty light weight and inexpensive. It also has some interesting modeling features similar to Zbrush or Silo. here are some of the features:

Global Registration:
Automatically register multiple objects.Automatically simplify and merge multiple objects (point clouds / meshes).
Point Cloud to Mesh:
Create meshes from point clouds accurately and efficiently.
Fill by Curvature:
Fill a hole or a part of the hole smoothly using the curvature-based method.
Smoothing / Decimation:
Smooth / Decimate the meshes with preserving the marked region.
Smooth Brush - Remesh , Sharp
Smooth a brushed surface region with remeshing or sharpening.
Sharpen Edge:
Restore sharp edges along feature curves.
Glue Two Objects:
Automatically combine multiple objects into one watertight object.
Sketch and Solid Cut:
It’s a composite command, including sketch a shape curve, extrude the shape curve, clip the mesh, and take a difference operation of the Boolean.
Soft Brush:
Push, pull, and crease a brushed surface region to create complex organic shapes.
Stamp Texture:
Map the texture on the surface, and emboss the region under the widget.
Simple Form:
Create an editable free-form object from a shape curve without analysis of the shape curve topology.
Lift Form:
Create an editable object by sweeping the original shape curve and its lifted shape curve.

ShareThis

This is the first post of many where i will be finding softwares that other industries use for design, fabrication and management. The first software I am writing about is shipconstructor. Being in the AEC industry it’s amazing how far behind we are, or at least that we are not further. This programs seems to do all things BIM is promising, and it’s all in one package. Im not sure when they say “AutoCAD-based 3D product” if it is built on top of Autocad (like a plugin) or if it behaves like autocad in that it is drafting based. For this write up i did not get a chance to Demo the software but in the further i will be writing about either program i use or i will request demo versions.



Software :ShipConstructor
URL:www.shipconstructor.com
Industry : Ship building
Primary use : 3d modeling for fabrication and assembly
Product Description: ShipConstructor is the dominant AutoCAD-based 3D product modeling and production planning software for the marine industry. ShipConstructor 2006 marries AutoCAD’s ease-of-drafting with the logical powers of a sleek SQL Server database design. This will bring you unprecedented savings, and opportunities to improve your design process. It also gives you the tools to streamline your entire production process.

Here are a few images from the website:

ShareThis