Articles and Press Releases

One of the most powerful features of the IntelliCAD development platform is the ability to create custom entities (also known as custom objects). Developers can define the behavior of custom entities which can greatly improve the user’s experience, enhancing productivity.

How can custom entities improve your user’s CAD experience? Let’s use the example of drawing a floor plan to explain. When drafting a floor plan using primitives (lines, arcs, circles) a user will combine these primitives to make a door shape or block that can be used throughout the drawing. If a new door size is required then the shapes have to be redrawn from scratch. Lines are used to draw walls and must be manually trimmed; if a wall’s angle is changed all the door shapes have to be manually realigned with the wall lines.

However, an application developer can define custom entities for walls, doors and windows. Since you define the behavior of these entity types you can define their name, how they are inserted, how they scale, are mirrored, their properties and how they interact with other entities — either primitives or additional custom entities. You can create the door object with properties such as width and height (common terminology for doors), and define the behavior of how doors will work when those properties change and how they relate to the environment.

For example, doors need to be not only inserted into a wall but also need to create break lines on the wall itself. Then when the door is moved, the wall needs to rebuild and create a new hole in the new position. The custom door entity can be defined to allow the swing to flip, not to mention changing the width or height of the door itself. When the door is copied and pasted does it stick within the wall or is a freestanding door allowed within the drawing? Is it possible to allow regular CAD editing commands (move, copy, trim, extend, stretch) to interact with the custom door entity? Also the developer can define what the custom entity will look like in different views: 2D plan, elevation and 3D view.

What is important to note here is that custom objects allow the programmer to not only define the appearance, properties and associated data of the object but also to define its behavior in relation to its environment and likewise the environment in relation to the object. This ability to create behavior and use terminology that is familiar to the target user greatly improves user productivity. The complexity of a custom object really is up to the programmer but they should consider:
• How the entity is saved in the .dwg file
• How the graphics and geometry are displayed in both the viewports and 2D/3D world environments
• The names of properties and the behavior when those properties change
• How the entity works with various snap modes
• How many grip points will be available and how they behave
• How the entity intersects with the other entities in the drawing
• What happens when the entity is exploded or viewed in other programs
• What relationships the entity may have with other entities in the drawing
• How the entity displays and behaves when your application is not present

Developers define the behavior of their custom entities in application extension DLLs, but you can also define some basic behavior for your entities when your application DLL is not present. Developers can define proxy graphics and determine if some basic editing (like copy or move) can be done without their application. However, in the case of a door entity it would be impossible for it to resize properly when the properties where changed or to automatically update walls if the underlying application was missing. The proxy functionality only allows your .dwg files that contain custom entities to have some basic behavior when loaded in other CAD applications. Then again, if you choose to force the user to purchase your application you can disable all proxy functionality so the custom entities are useless without your underlying application.

To get the full behavior of a custom entity, the underlying application DLL needs to be loaded within IntelliCAD prior to opening a drawing that contains custom entities. This can be done either manually [via the APPLOAD command] or automatically when the IntelliCAD program starts [by dropping the IRX file into the IntelliCAD program folder].

The IntelliCAD API provides a simple sample application that demonstrates the power of custom entities. The API installation files are usually shipped with the IntelliCAD program but can also be found on the IntelliCAD beta forum. The following movie shows how to load, install, and experiment with the sample custom entity application included within the IntelliCAD API:

The sample discussed here is included in the API samples and documentation. Although the source code is available to build the application from scratch, the IRX DLL release version is also prebuilt and waiting for you to load it.

If you are a developer interested in using the IntelliCAD platform please contact Robert Berry via Skype at Robert.Berry.ITC and apply for access to our beta forum so that you can test the software for yourself.

The concept of BIM technology has been around since the 1960s. Over the past 20 years 3-D modeling has been actively used in the automotive and aviation industries to model cars, ships and airplanes. However it has been only relatively recently that the AEC building industry has been "revolutionized" by information modeling technology.

Previously, architects and engineers used CAD as an electronic drafting board to create their plans, but these drawings were essentially "non-intelligent" containing only the geometry of lines, arcs and text. Over the past several years there have been many new software offerings that have attempted to change the fundamental methodology of how architectural drawings are created by trying to build intelligence into a model which is then used to generate construction documents. Some of this software is intriguing but actually many architects and engineers still need, and often prefer, the traditional 2D lines and arcs to complete certain custom areas of the drawing.

CAD Projekt is a leading Interior Design company based in Poland that delivers a joint solution in their IntelliCAD offering. Their users experience the best of both worlds in that they can use all of the traditional 2D and 3D CAD tools but still benefit from integrated BIM technology that can be imported via the IFC file format.

CAD Projekt chose IntelliCAD over other CAD platforms its open source, reliability, familiar user-friendly interface and its full compatibility with the .dwg file format. As a Commercial member of the ITC, CAD Projekt has unlimited distribution rights for an extremely low royalty rate, allowing them to supply their worldwide customer base with the full IntelliCAD program alongside their own software at no additional charge. Furthermore, access to the IntelliCAD source code accelerates development and allows them to tightly integrate their own software to ensure better performance and reliability.

CAD Projekt says their success would have been impossible to achieve without their partnership with the ITC. They say the knowledge and experience of the ITC’s international development team ensures the highest quality solutions and allows them to direct all their efforts towards their own vertical applications.

“Becoming a part of ITC was not only a great economical and programming solution, but also an important turn in our understanding of globalization. We feel that together we can create much better solutions to serve our customers,” says Mr. Adam Sterczala, Economical Director and co-founder of CAD Projekt K&A.

If you are interested in using IntelliCAD as your CAD development platform then please contact me via Skype at Robert.Berry.ITC and I will do my best to work with you to establish if IntelliCAD does in fact meet your development requirements.

This movie gives a presentation specifically about the CAD Decor Pro product...

September 01, 2009 - Auburn, Maine - 4M's new major release IDEA Architectural v.10 has just been launched in the US market and redefines the IntelliCAD software based BIM industry standards.

Jason Costa, Sales Manager of the 4M BIM Suite in the USA market commented: "IDEA is a powerful BIM Architectural application that combines the most popular icad-like interface and functionalities with a sophisticated BIM technology on top of IntelliCAD. There is no question, IDEA 10 is a must for every Architect because it is an inexpensive solution with almost negligible costs regarding training, support and maintenance".

Some new features of IDEA10 include:

• Advanced BIM structure to continuously update the project drawings (sections, views, perspectives, etc) while keeping anyinterventions made by the user (insertion of library items, text, annotation, etc).
• Project drawings smart explorer (tree-view browser of the drawings).
• Faster rendering performances based on OpenGL, as well as real time virtual walk through of the rendered model.
• Enhanced roof modeler with unlimited options to design any type of roof structure and add components such as attics, lofts, skylights, inclined openings and many others.
• Intelligent design to create even more building entities (i.e. chimneys, pergolas and others).
• Significant improvements regarding architectural design refinements (i.e. smart automatic unions between building objects only if necessary, optional hiding of the wall/slab lines on the views or sections, object definition through polylines in every dialog, etc), as well as the topographical design (fully automatic creation of triangles to create the ground model).
• Unrivaled performance due to the brand new high speed IntelliCAD v.6.6 engine.
• Other new enhancements include: new interface, properties panel, polar tracking, and many others.

IDEA belongs to the 4M CAD building design Suite, which also contains FINE MEP (Mechanical, Electrical and Plumbing) and STRAD (Structural Design) BIM applications, integrated on top of IntelliCAD. For more information please see:

www.intellicad.org/BIM-Case-Study---4M/

www.generalcom-usa.com/IDEA_SPEC.php

http://www.4msa.com/.