Friday October 18, 2013 at 12:59pm
In recent years
SOLIDWORKS have released their
eDrawings viewer product on Apple iOS Devices and this year at SOLIDWORKS World 2013 they unveiled not only that
eDrawings would also be released for Andriod but that a new enhancement was to be added for iOS versions, that being the introduction of Augmented Reality.
There are two products avalible:
(The Pro version allows markups on your drawings such as annotations/ camera snapshots and cross-sections)
AR allows the user to view their CAD models in 1:1 Scale and visualise them within your environment in real 3D context. You are able to walk around the area of focus as if it was physically sat on your desk. Taking advantage of various igestures such as two finger movement to pan, one finger to rotate the model. Of course some models may physically be larger than the scope of your iPad/iPhone so below the AR button you’ll find a scale tool.
The way this is facilitated if you have not already heard about this product, is within eDrawings there is an AR button which will allow you to generate an AR code to act as a reference for viewing. Now typically you are advised to print this off however for the extreme geeks one of my tips is that you can actually open the PDF on your iphone and use that as your marker – it actually works!
1) Open your model within the eDrawings App
2) Request AR Code: If this is the first time you'll be using AR, by tapping the button to the left hand side of the screen and selecting the 'Get Marker' option
3) E-mail the Global Marker to Print or view
4) Place the PDF on a Flat surface which will locate the marker ready for use - You could even use iPhone
5) However at Solid Solutions we have removed the need for this procedure and at this year's 2014 Launch Events you will find a special Beer Mat which will facilitate Augmented Realtity with eDrawings.
Simon Beamish
Elite Applications Engineer