Okino Computer Graphics Ships Third Generation of Affordable, Precise, Solids-Based CAD Import Converters based on PTC® Granite® 3.0 Interoperability Kernel

CIMdata PLM Industry Summary Online Archive

31 August 2004

Product News

Okino Computer Graphics Ships Third Generation of Affordable, Precise, Solids-Based CAD Import Converters based on PTC® Granite® 3.0 Interoperability Kernel

Okino Computer Graphics, a provider of 3D photo-realistic rendering, visualization and data translation solutions to the enterprise Fortune 1000 market for over a decade, announced that its third generation 'Granite/Pack' series of precise solids-based CAD importers are now shipping and available for US$395. The 'Granite/Pack' is a concise set of powerful CAD importers based on Granite interoperability technology from PTC. Most significantly, release 3.0 adds native import support for Pro/ENGINEER WildfireT 2.0 software and adds the ability to automatically fix gaps in data that often occur when importing models from neutral file formats like STEP, IGES, etc.

Please visit Okino's Pro/ENGINEER and PTC Granite solutions page at http://www.okino.com/proe.htm

PTC Granite is the interoperability kernel based on the geometry, feature and data exchange capabilities at the core of Pro/ENGINEER, PTC's mechanical computer-aided design software. One of the key advantages of solutions built on Granite is the ability to interoperate associatively, providing updates to downstream applications based on any changes in an original solid model.

The 'Granite/Pack V3' license includes file import support for ACIS SAT, IGES (from solids), Parasolids, Pro/ENGINEER, Pro/DESKTOP, STEP and VDA-FS for Okino's PolyTrans, NuGraf, PolyTrans-for-MAX, PolyTrans-for-Maya, PolyTrans-for-XSI and PolyTrans-for-Director products. Okino offers the most cost effective access to this PTC Granite technology in one low cost license. These formats play a pivotal role in bridging the CAD and industrial design markets with the non-CAD worlds of 3D multi-media animation packages, VisSim packages, WEB publishing and polygonal modelers via the tried-and-tested Okino data translation pipelines.

The importers also offer another means to transfer Pro/ENGINEER data into Okino's powerful NuGraf rendering package which Okino has optimized for Pro/ENGINEER users since 1996 ( http://www.okino.com/proe.htm ). When combined with Okino's CAD data optimization routines (for hierarchy & part count simplification), very complex assemblies can be imported, optimized, simplified, then re-exported to packages such as 3ds max, Maya, Lightwave, SoftImage|3D and |XSI, Cinema-4D, OpenFlight/Creator, Renderman RIB, trueSpace and many others.

"Okino is bringing rich CAD data to an extended marketplace which makes our users' investment in Pro/ENGINEER more valuable and ultimately helps companies enhance their product development process," said Carsten Hochmuth, director of Partner Programs, PTC . "Our partnership with Okino also validates how Granite advances product lifecycle management capabilities by removing historic barriers that have prevented even the highest fidelity CAD data from being truly universal and fully cross-functional."

"The V3 release of the PTC Granite CAD importers in our Granite/Pack license will become a welcome upgrade for our existing and new CAD, DCC and VisSim customers this summer," said Robert Lansdale, President & CEO of Okino Computer Graphics, Inc., "The breadth of advanced CAD converters available in our Granite/Pack and the functionality it offers cannot be beat at US$395 price. It has become our most popular suite of precise BREP-based (crack free) solids-based CAD importers since we initially released v1 in 2001.

The availability of the Granite 3.0 interoperability kernel from PTC, and their integration into Okino software, has closed the circle on our list of extensive file formats with the availability of native Pro/ENGINEER (up to WildFire v2), Pro/DESKTOP, ACIS SAT, IGES, Parasolids, STEP and VDA-FS. The use of Okino's PolyTrans or NuGraf plus the Granite/Pack allows all forms of 3D CAD geometry to be re-purposed for downstream applications and enterprise-wide uses, including product documentation and manual creation, animation and rendering software, visual communication and review of data, and for accessing simpler and easier to manipulate versions of the original CAD datasets."

Says Richard Papasin, Deputy Lead at NASA Ames Research Center's Smart Systems Research Lab, "We have utilized Okino's PolyTrans and their integrated Granite converters to develop a custom application which allows a large variety of 3D file formats to be imported and viewed for the Intelligent Virtual Station project (see http://ssrl.arc.nasa.gov/ivs.html ). We are using Okino's PolyTrans!ProServer COM interface to directly access their wide selection of converters inside our application. This method of direct integration is very unique and powerful to us, and at a low cost. The addition of the PTC Granite 3.0 interoperability kernel to PolyTrans is exactly what we have been looking forward to for some time. We will be able to seamlessly import from the additional file formats of Pro/ENGINEER, ACIS SAT, IGES solids, Pro/DESKTOP, Parasolids, STEP, VDA-FS and others, all in their native file formats with great fidelity."

Says Glen Pfeifer, R&D, Training Software Systems at Boeing Integrated Defense Systems, St. Louis, "We use Okino's Granite CAD importer solution to translate Unigraphics engineering CAD data into formats that we use in our virtual environments for training. I use a process that initially exports UG .prt files as STEP files, then I import them into Okino's NuGraf environment using Granite. The Granite importer solution enables me to efficiently build from engineering source data the 3D model content I need for my virtual environment prototypes."

Says Dirk Jan Kiljan, Civil Engineering Division, Ministry of Transport, Public Works and Water Management, The Netherlands, "We use Okino's PolyTrans and Granite to convert our models from Pro/Engineer Wildfire 2.0 to 3D Studio Max 6. We found PolyTrans to be the best solution, allowing very large and complex Pro/Engineer models to be meshed properly and imported into 3D Studio Max for immediate manipulation. Materials and colors are converted perfectly, as is the assembly hierarchy, accelerator files and geometry units matching. At our department we are responsible for the design of civil engineering projects like traffic tunnels and bridges. The imported models are used in many different ways: communication with project-partners, communication with civilians, visualizations and drawings for contractors, calculation of costs and so on. Before incorporating PolyTrans and Granite into our pipeline it was a big hassle to export our data for visualization purposes but now with the whole process is done with 3 mouse-clicks! This is a big improvement!"

Major Benefits of the PTC Granite Interoperability Kernel to Users of Okino's Software

• Adds a wealth of complementary 3D-solids-based file formats to the already extensive list of Okino supported CAD file formats. The V3 release allows the following file formats, in their raw native form to be imported into Okino software: ACIS SAT, IGES, Parasolids, Pro/DESKTOP, Pro/ENGINEER, STEP and VDA-FS.

• The "3D solids" support in the Granite IGES importer is a perfect complement to the "Trimmed Surfaces" based IGES importer developed by Okino over the last 16 years.

• Importing via a "solids-based" file format ensures that adjacent NURBS patches are "stitched" together via topology information (BREP data) and thus creates "crack free" tessellation when the NURBS or parametric solids are converted to a polygonal mesh.

• Yet another method to move data from Pro/ENGINEER into Okino software. Okino has long supported and sold to Pro/ENGINEER users ( http://www.okino.com/proe.htm ).

• Import all Granite-based CAD file formats directly into 3ds max and Maya via the native PolyTrans-for-MAX and PolyTrans-for-Maya plug-in systems. These are by far the most refined, developed and best methods to directly import solids-based CAD files into 3ds max and Maya.

• PolyTrans/NuGraf includes vital built-in hierarchy/part optimization tools to reduce the complexity of CAD files (namely those imported from BREP forms of IGES, Parasolids, Pro/E, STEP or VDA-FS) before re-exporting to other 3D animation packages which gain in performance with this pre-processing stage (for reference please see http://www.okino.com/proe_tut.htm ).

• Complete support for importing PTC WildFire part and assembly accelerator files (.xpr and .xas).

Applicable WEB pages

The following are pertinent pages on the Okino WEB site relating to this press release:

http://www.okino.com/proe.htm Pro/E solution page on the Okino WEB site.

http://www.okino.com/conv/imp_granite.htm Okino Granite importer module overview

http://www.okino.com/nrs/nrs.htm NuGraf home page

http://www.okino.com/conv/conv.htm PolyTrans home page

http://www.okino.com/conv/filefrmt.htm Supported file formats

http://www.okino.com/conv/users.htm List of notable users

http://www.okino.com/testimon.htm Customer testimonials and product reviews

http://www.okino.com/press/releases.htm Recent Okino press releases

NuGraf and PolyTrans are available directly from Okino Computer Graphics and through a growing number of Value Added Resellers (VARs) in the design, CAD and multimedia markets. Fully functional demonstration versions (with minor limitations) of the software are available through Okino's Internet WEB site at http://www.okino.com

Product Pricing

The "Granite/Pack" is an optional add-on component for Okino's NuGraf & PolyTrans base packages. It is priced at US$395 for all of the Granite import converters. A full technical description, as well as discounted pricing when purchased along with other Okino add-on converter licenses, can be read at http://www.okino.com/conv/order/order.htm To locate an authorized VAR or for customer inquiries, please email sales@okino.com or contact Okino Computer Graphics at (905) 672-9328 or toll free at (888) 3D-OKINO (1-888-336-5466).

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